What Car Did You See Today?

[Revelations]

Lol, they should've mothballed or kept some Crown Vics in rotation rather than that FWD Impala!

[Blizzard]

So cool! The police force in my area still has a late 2000s Impala (the generation after the one you saw) which seems to be used mostly the community awareness team - the team that visits schools, controls traffic during school events, etc.. Not sure why they still have it seeing as they otherwise run current-gen cars, but it's cool to see because in like 2010 80% of the police force was made up of those Impalas (plus a few Ford Freestars, lol).

[Blueprint]

Back in my consultant days, I would rent these when we did surveys on roads that were tricky for the crew's safety. Beige Impala parked at an angle, ready to pounce. Worked. Every. Time. Everybody slowed!

[Johnnymac]

That's pretty cool Firm.  Here in Fredericton we have a big RCMP hub and I know the commissioner used to pull out an old late 80's crown Vic cop car for special events or parades.  Always cool seeing it out and about.  He used to drive a Toyota Camry Hybrid as his vehicle and had the siren and removable police lift for the roof installed.  He one time pulled over a guy when driving on the highway from meetings between cities.

[Blizzard]

Checked out my parents' neighbours' brand-new Genesis G80. They're your typical elderly (80+) upper-middle class couple living in the suburbs who buy a new car every few years out of desire rather than any actual need. For my entire life, they've had one "land yacht" car after another. Their last car was a Cadillac CT6, and before that they had an XTS.

I was talking with them about their surprising departure from GM, and they explained that they were very discouraged while shopping, everything was either too sporty, too flashy, or a "truck". Made me realize that Genesis is one of the only brands nowadays that builds actual large cars that don't try to be sporty or flashy. The Germans are too flashy, Buick and Lincoln only build SUVs now, and Cadillacs have gone heavily to the futuristic and sporty side.

I guess Genesis is the new Buick or Cadillac. It's basically out of a bygone era and kind of sad if you think about all the large comfortable cars that used to exist. It would be wildly cool to have a last-generation LeSabre or Park Avenue or Town Car.

[Blueprint]

Checked out my parents' neighbours' brand-new Genesis G80. They're your typical elderly (80+) upper-middle class couple living in the suburbs who buy a new car every few years out of desire rather than any actual need. For my entire life, they've had one "land yacht" car after another. Their last car was a Cadillac CT6, and before that they had an XTS.

I was talking with them about their surprising departure from GM, and they explained that they were very discouraged while shopping, everything was either too sporty, too flashy, or a "truck". Made me realize that Genesis is one of the only brands nowadays that builds actual large cars that don't try to be sporty or flashy. The Germans are too flashy, Buick and Lincoln only build SUVs now, and Cadillacs have gone heavily to the futuristic and sporty side.

I guess Genesis is the new Buick or Cadillac. It's basically out of a bygone era and kind of sad if you think about all the large comfortable cars that used to exist. It would be wildly cool to have a last-generation LeSabre or Park Avenue or Town Car.

Makes sense. I always thought Caddy & Co were turning their backs on their traditional clientele. Heck, even the Lexus ES is too sporty nowadays. There's room for a plush cruiser, and the G80 nails it.

[Blizzard]

Finally wrapped up a weeks-long saga with my Bolt's driver-side turn signal light.

Three weeks ago, the turn signal started blinking very quickly and I was receiving an error message indicating a turn signal failure. Kind of annoying, since it's an LED assembly that's not serviceable and therefore requires the whole part to be replaced. But not a problem, since it's a lifetime LED light assembly, it should be covered under the 3 year bumper-to-bumper warranty. The warranty documentation says incandescent lights are covered for only 12 months, but since my Bolt doesn't have any incandescent exterior lights, not applicable.

I go to the dealer and the service advisor tells me that the LED light assembly is NOT covered under warranty, and points to the line about incandescent lights being covered for only 12 months. I pointed out that my turn signal is not incandescent and therefore should be covered, and he told me this line means ALL lights are covered for only 12 months, not just incandescent lights. No amount of reasoning or explanations on my end convinced him to research further. I specifically asked for documentation indicating that LED lights are excluded, but didn't get anywhere other than the "friendly", "we're trying our best for you" speech. So I would have to pay for this part, which was $314 plus tax plus installation (1-1.5 hours). At this point there was no point in arguing more, so I had them order the part (which was out of stock).

When I get home, I take the following steps to figure out how to avoid paying $500 for something so small and silly:

1) Bolt owners Facebook group - nobody else seemed to have the same problem as me.
2) Researched the part number to buy it myself - $250 CAD delivered, not including possible duties or tariffs, and then I'd have to muster the confidence to drop the bumper myself to install it and risk breaking some clips or similar.
3) Called GM Canada to get more details about the warrany - the person on the line knew very little and their response was to speak to the dealer for warranty information.

A week after my initial dealer visit, the part arrived and when they called to let me know, they told me they would "try" to put it through warranty. On Friday, I went to the dealer to have it installed, and when I was done they gave me my keys and told me I didn't have to pay anything. I got out of there before they could change their minds

The dealer called me yesterday and again this morning, and I didn't answer. Not sure if it's one of those survey things, or if they're calling to tell me the warranty claim was rejected and I have to pay. I will not be answering their calls.

Unbelievable. This is the exact reason so many people hate GM - sometimes questionable build quality with a dose of terrible customer service and a lousy dealership experience. It sucks because the Bolt is/was without a doubt the best small electric car at its price point, and the powertrain/battery is excellent and blows past most of the competition (Leaf, Mini, Fiat, etc...) I wish I could have the car without having to deal with the typical GM experience.

[Johnnymac]

In GMs defence, I would expect similar experiences at most mainstream dealer and some even worse.  At least they ended up doing the right thing, so often they do not.

[Revelations]

Spotted a late 80's Renault Alpine on a car carrier. First one I've ever seen, sadly no pic.

[Blueprint]

2nd gen Ford Explorer 4-door in survivor state (good shape, but years showing). These were basically a refreshed gen1. I never see these anymore, but the location made the sighting even more special: Budapest, Hungary!

[Firm]

Dang, that is a pretty odd citing. Those 2nd gen Explorers are still somewhat common around here in the US South...See at least one or two a day, most of them beaters, but there are exceptions. Someone in the office has a nice 98-ish Eddie Bauer edition in dark metallic green with beige cladding, it's in mint shape and is still a really handsome SUV IMO.

[Revelations]

My wife had no idea why I was so excited for this car. It was mint. AWD Turbo Celica!

[Oliver]

Awesome. That's a very rare sight.

[Blueprint]

Sweeeeet!

[TheHire]

Checked out my parents' neighbours' brand-new Genesis G80. They're your typical elderly (80+) upper-middle class couple living in the suburbs who buy a new car every few years out of desire rather than any actual need. For my entire life, they've had one "land yacht" car after another. Their last car was a Cadillac CT6, and before that they had an XTS.

I was talking with them about their surprising departure from GM, and they explained that they were very discouraged while shopping, everything was either too sporty, too flashy, or a "truck". Made me realize that Genesis is one of the only brands nowadays that builds actual large cars that don't try to be sporty or flashy. The Germans are too flashy, Buick and Lincoln only build SUVs now, and Cadillacs have gone heavily to the futuristic and sporty side.

I guess Genesis is the new Buick or Cadillac. It's basically out of a bygone era and kind of sad if you think about all the large comfortable cars that used to exist. It would be wildly cool to have a last-generation LeSabre or Park Avenue or Town Car.

My dad briefly had a '24 G80 3.5T Prestige, fully jammed out. They're a fantastic luxury product, really giving buyers what they want. Unfortunately, the man was coming out of a '22 S-Class, and the G80 just "wasn't good enough", so I got him out of it, he broke even, and he's back in an identical new S 580 again.