About MrKnowItAll

MrKnowItAll

Forgot to mention: they resolved the engine wire problem after '88 or so.

MrKnowItAll

Had an 86 Wagon... sold it in '04 because of engine wire issue, and Volvos weak a/c units... another trouble spot, as with most European cars at the time. I would own another. Easy to work on, very practical. They are transitioning from used cars to vintage. I'm my opinion, the last good Volvo made. Gas economy in the 20's. The "chopped top" coupes were rare when new. The diesel was not a good motor, there's a reason it was dropped.

MrKnowItAll

That's your privilege. I still maintain that this is a front wheel drive sedan with an open, near useless trunk.

MrKnowItAll

A car with an open trunk, not a truck. Hybrid? Eco-boost? I see no long term truck usefulness or reliability. I'd rather buy an older 4 cylinder stick Toyota or Ranger with a useable bed.

MrKnowItAll

There are only two cars that stand out in my youthful memory of the 1966 Los Angeles Auto Show at the old Pan Pacific Auditorium: the new Toronado and the turquoise Rambler Marlin "Tahitian" show car. I thought the Toronado was strikingly beautiful, and even then saw the Cord styling cues. I mused, at the time, that it would be better 3/4 scale... it was big! The 66-67 were gorgeous, but GM completely botched the Toronado from 68 on... that horrible grille and raised quarter panels. It only got worse from there.

MrKnowItAll

That green paint makes the body fade into the shrubbery behind.

MrKnowItAll

240 Volvos: Another "best cheap used car" that are morphing into collectability and rising values. Easy to work on, durable (except earlier wire harness disintegration & A/C) and utile in wagon form. My newborn daughter came home from the hospital in our 240 wagon. Today's best bet "cheap used car": late model Crown Victoria, especially a low idle hour P71 Interceptor.

MrKnowItAll · ‎20-05-2021

Imagine if Toyota built an automobile that was attractively styled.... they would knock it out of the park. The old saying that "styling sells" is rendered moot with Toyota's insect- inspired "designs".

MrKnowItAll · ‎20-05-2021

Sometimes, a youngster, still wet behind the ears, shames another... who may have age-acquired "horse sense"; a skill not apparent to the arrogance of youth. Don't you just adore virtue signalling?

MrKnowItAll · ‎13-05-2021

As an AMC owner, I understand...BUT- Buy any old Chevy or GMC pickup and virtually everything is available. I’ve got a 70’s GMC longbed and parts are no problem. It’s a truck, used as a truck.

MrKnowItAll · ‎12-05-2021

Pre-WW II, known as “Gow Jobs”. Hot Rod is a post war term.

MrKnowItAll · ‎10-05-2021

Handsome Cads that didn’t become “used cars” here in SoCal for a long time.... in a culture of European auto snobbery among the movers and shakers. Put a ‘76 Mercedes next to the Seville, and it looks like a ham-fisted truck. Mitchell had superb taste, something Mercedes buyers perhaps lacked. The Germans could engineer a good car, but sure didn’t understand styling. Just my opinion!

MrKnowItAll · ‎05-05-2021

The ad campaign “you meet the nicest people on a Honda” was brilliant. At the time, motorcycles were perceived by the public as synonymous with motorcycle gangs- as first exploited in the 1954 movie “The Wild One”. Honda successfully sold their “groovy little motorbike” to the mainstream.

MrKnowItAll · ‎29-04-2021

😴

MrKnowItAll · ‎28-04-2021

Why does this deserve a $7500 credit, paid for by taxpayers? More virtue signalling, please....at taxpayers expense. A toy for the well heeled doesn’t need nor deserve a tax break. Especially for a “hybrid”.

MrKnowItAll · ‎25-04-2021

Most people suffer from confirmation bias and are afraid to be judged out of the mainstream. Being a GM “fan” was (is) like only rooting for the current winning team.

MrKnowItAll · ‎20-04-2021

We shall see. California years back passed a mandate that 10% (iirc) of new vehicles be electric by a certain date, long passed. The Ford Think automobile.....er, golf cart was offered, among others, and not surprisingly, they couldn’t give them away. The mandate quietly went away, Virtue Signalling politicians- a variety which does no actual work, but dreams up laws with utopia as the benchmark, are responsible for this. I predict the date will come and go. The ICE vehicle will be with us for a long time.

MrKnowItAll · ‎15-04-2021

Sales techniques at dealerships are designed to evoke emotions to a buyer and “guide” them into a sale. Gullible rubes and poor credit prospects are the gravy- and more is extracted by the “finance” guy foisting paint protection and extended warranties. I would expect the enthusiast buyer would be an easy mark- if the car is ordered right. A smart person knows that new cars are a complete waste of money.

MrKnowItAll · ‎13-04-2021

Could be a Kia or Toyota and I wouldn’t know the difference. The law of diminishing returns is painfully evident here.

MrKnowItAll · ‎30-03-2021

Ah! A latter day Brock Yates, though I’m on the other side of life now, and nod knowingly instead of ‘gee whiz!’. Funny you targeted the 1976 Eldorado, but forgot to mention that these were “the last convertibles”, and were squirreled away by “collectors”. There’s tons (literally) of them out there. To me, ‘76 and newer means bi-annual smog checks in California. I regularly scan Craigslist with the caveat “1975 and earlier”.

MrKnowItAll · ‎11-03-2021

Much ado about nothing

MrKnowItAll · ‎10-03-2021

VW is still petrified from the diesel “scandal” and lurched to the golf cart.... er, EV market. Radical design? Ask Chrysler when they introduced the Airflow.... or Tesla, that used a Mallard duck as a design inspiration. Cars (practically all station wagons today, no matter what they’re called) will become boring self driving appliances.

MrKnowItAll · ‎04-03-2021

“Funky” is probably not the best word, if you know slang lexicon; “Iconically strange French designs” is longer, perhaps better... but may be a redundancy. 😉

MrKnowItAll · ‎02-03-2021

I found a 1960 Ford Sunliner driving by a North Hollywood wrecking yard, $195 on the windshield. Called the yard up, said I would be there after work. When I got there, two young guys were looking it over, and said “we’ll take it”. I said “how much?” ”$195” I replied “I’ll give you $225”. They left. That was 1978. I still have the car, insured by Hagerty.

MrKnowItAll · ‎02-03-2021

Clever guy. My 2001 MT Insight has averaged 54.9 mpg over 241k, and isn’t really that slow.... and pretty fun to drive! Jue Motors in Covina, Ca. is the Mecca of First Gen Insights; They know these winsome delights inside and out. They have many YouTube vids about keeping these on the road.

MrKnowItAll · ‎20-02-2021

That’s because Ford marketing studies had those 4 names at the top of the list to name the new car. Instead, they chose Edsel, and put them on the different models.

MrKnowItAll · ‎18-02-2021

All way too new. Chevrolet Six- Frank Hutchinson The Hot Rod Race- Arkie Shibly, 1951. Charlie Ryan’s 1955 “Hot Rod Lincoln” is an answer song to this.

MrKnowItAll · ‎09-02-2021

Not always. Fastback early Mustangs and Ford Starliners seem to go for more than converts

MrKnowItAll · ‎03-02-2021

My sentiments exactly. I worked in restaurants, factories for $1.30 an hour, drove a $25 car that I could barely afford to keep gas in. Lived in my car a few times; worked and went to Jr. College, living on my own at 18. I never experienced the college social life - I worked and went to school. I scrimped and saved for everything and didn’t complain that the bosses son drove a new Chevelle. Pretty much the “rich” kids were the snobs. They never had to struggle, just looked their nose down at kids like me. Dad was paying their way thru college. Those same guys are the snobs at car shows with the uber expensive Porsche’s etc. Human nature never changes, life has never been easy.

MrKnowItAll · ‎29-01-2021

As a fairly well-read young car “enthusiast”, to put it mildly, I always figured the Dale was pure hokum from day one... just another in a line of “revolutionary” three wheeled vehicles. The 1948 Davis was made just a few miles away, at Van Nuys Airport. At least it was a serious try, unlike the Dale. The media circus that fawned over the story, and subsequent letdown was an early learning experience to me that the “news” was, pretty much, BS. Still is. I knew where the shop in Canoga Park was that the Dale was “created”. One of the three prototypes (this one was just a buck, not even a roller) sat in that parking lot for a long time, well after the media flurry has died down. I thought, at the time, that the prototype should be saved as a historical curiosity. I’m happy it did.

MrKnowItAll · ‎07-01-2021

None. For much less money, you could buy a new Mustang, Camaro, or Barracu.... uh, Challenger that would drive the socks off these pigs. Including the Shelby, the only really interesting piece. Like I’ve stated before, these high buck “investments are now static museum pieces.

MrKnowItAll · ‎05-01-2021

That’s the first I thought of too.. Petty’s lady

MrKnowItAll · ‎04-01-2021

Priceless fragile museum, ego, or speculative “investments”. I’ve got a better chance of sprouting delicate lacy wings and flying to the moon than own one of these- now- static displays. And I care just as much. When cars become too valuable to drive, they bore me. I’ve graduated from the “oh gosh oh golly” infantile preoccupation with “dream” cars. Give me a solid grade 3 driver that I can enjoy.

MrKnowItAll · ‎26-12-2020

My new “American made” 78 El Camino, much to my post-sale surprise, was built in Mexico. So much for the “made in USA” mantra. Outdated plants and expensive labor costs, along with a smug Detroit upper management that couldn’t see beyond Woodward Avenue killed the golden goose.

MrKnowItAll · ‎15-12-2020

Needed to read my copy before posting... appalling grammar!

MrKnowItAll · ‎15-12-2020

The original Semi-Automatic, Borg-Warner Overdrive not even got an honorable mention. How about Hudson Super-Matic Drive? VW Automatic Stick Shift?

MrKnowItAll · ‎03-12-2020

All that work, and he neglects to paint the radiator support black.

MrKnowItAll · ‎02-12-2020

If I recall, Bob Bourke and Virgil Exner did the initial sketches for the ‘49 on Bourke’s kitchen table.

MrKnowItAll · ‎27-11-2020

Anything built in the later production of 1942 cars

MrKnowItAll · ‎25-11-2020

What I noticed in the film was the British production sound editor used a British six cylinder sound loop in the edit when the Cougar was driving. Always bugged me.

MrKnowItAll · ‎16-11-2020

In 1963, Ford offered blue with a red interior with the caveat “available but not recommended”. As much as I admire Ella’s singing, I can’t help but compare this car to a, say, Chrysler 300 convertible of the same vintage. As a kid, when these were new, I always thought they looked laughably old fashioned and boxy.

MrKnowItAll · ‎09-11-2020

Frankly, none. These are all museum or tycoon garage fodder and are impractical immobile displays or ego mobiles.

MrKnowItAll · ‎31-10-2020

The Challenger was a badge-engineered Plymouth Barracuda. How short sighted “history” can be.

MrKnowItAll · ‎24-10-2020

😴 When does the story starts about great engine designers? We’ve read the side blurb about Eurocentric go-fast.

MrKnowItAll · ‎21-10-2020

My take: GM understands that the status value of higher price will possibly take some virtue-signaling status thunder from Tesla, whose cars are now getting “long in the tooth”. The Tesla “truck” is no competition. Jeep, years ago, wondered why Land Rover was taking sales from the Grand Cherokee, and their finding was that the Land Rover cost more money. Period. GM missed the mark by selling the Volt as a Chevrolet.... it should have been a Cadillac. This time, they might have it right... if it delivers.

MrKnowItAll · ‎08-10-2020

The ‘74 Hornet hatchback & flying Matador coupe

MrKnowItAll · ‎07-10-2020

I’ll bet Honda pondered over an early Saab when they designed the first generation 2 seat Insight- the first modern hybrid sold in the US. A car that Hagerty dismissed as “not collectible” when I inquired about insurance. Quirky, unusual, fun to drive with the five speed manual.

MrKnowItAll · ‎03-10-2020

Vintage DDB Volkswagen ads are the gold standard of advertising. Misses: How about the “Youngmobiles” campaign, or the “It’s not your fathers Oldsmobile”. ‘67 Mercury was “The Man’s Car!” Zebra Corner “Real People” parodies are hilariously funny.

MrKnowItAll · ‎02-09-2020

Place a ‘57 Traction Avant next to a ‘57 Chrysler 300.... how “fresh” is it’s styling? As fresh as a ‘34 Ford.

MrKnowItAll · ‎02-09-2020

Uh, why?