Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Newport, Vermont

The white car is not a Newport, roof's different. But what it is, I don't know. Looks kind of European... Edit - how the white car being about another Rambler, this time a '62:

The car the man with the guitar is sitting on is a 1969 Chevrolet Impala. The white car in front of it may be a 1963 Chrysler Newport, the convertible in front of the white car might be a 1965 Rambler American. I see a few VW Beetles and possibly a Dodge van in the background.

I negotiated prices online / by phone with multiple dealers. Established a breaking point where the dealers stopped responding to my offers. Walked into Newport Beach Lexus on 12/24/10 and drove off in a 2011 ES350. Obsidian with parchment leather with Navigation System. Pretty much had everything - heated seats, sunroof, full size spare, etc. MSRP was $40,095. Paid $39,500 OTD (tax, license, fees all included). Best buying experience ever! Although I am pretty sure that I could have knocked 1 or 2 hundred off the price. I hate haggling at the dealership. Internet is a wonderful thing. The key is getting the online dealers to quote a price in email print so you can play them off one another. Also you can cast a wider net to get the best deal.

Here's the Michigan State Police test results of the Malibu, from my copcar book... 1979: First year for the copcar package on the downsized Malibu. In '78, they used Novas. MSP didn't test a Malibu, but a tester called Police Product News (PPN) ran one at International Raceway in CA. With the 350-4bbl, they got 0-60 in 8.9 seconds, and 0-100 in 28.5. In comparison, the Volare copcar with a 360-4bbl did 0-60 in 8.7, and 0-100 in 22.8. 1980: 305-4bbl, 0-60 in 12.8, 1/4 mile in 19.2@73.5 mph 1980: 350-4bbl, 0-60 in 12.3, 1/4 mile in 19.0@74.5 mph 1981: 350-4bbl, 0-60 in 11.42, 1/4 mile in 18.15@74.75 mph 1982: 229-2bbl, 0-60 in 17.99, 1/4 mile in 21.85@65.25 mph 1982: 350-4bbl, 0-60 in 13.29, 1/4 mile in 19.53@72.5 mph 1983: 305-4bbl, 0-60 in 11.71, 1/4 mile in 18.78@75.0 mph. Oh yeah, almost forgot, the other day Lemko asked how a '79 LTD with a 351-2bbl stacked up. Here's the big-car results from '79: St. Regis, 360-4bbl, 0-60 in 10.1 seconds, 0-100 in 30.2 seconds, 122.9 mph top speed Newport, 360-4bbl, 0-60 in 10.2 seconds, 0-100 in 31.5 seconds, 121.3 mph top speed Impala 350-4bbl, 0-60 in 11.1 seconds, 0-100 in 35.3 seconds, 112.5 mph top speed LTD, 351-2bbl, 0-60 in 12.3 seconds, 0-100 in 63.3 seconds, 105.4 mph top speed LTD-II, 351-2bbl, 0-60 in 14.8 seconds, 0-600 in 66.7 seconds, 111.1 mph top speed

I had a 1979 Ford LTD taxicab with a 351 V-8 in it, (I know, odd for a cab to have the bigger engine). How did it do 0-60? I doubt that CR ever tested that configuration, as they rarely ordered their cars with the biggest optional engines. I have a Mopar police car book that shows the Michigan State Police tests, and it should have the results for a '79 LTD with the 351. I'll look it up when I get a chance. My guess would be 0-60 in around 11-11.5 seconds? All I can remember, off the top of my head, from 1979 was that they tested a St. Regis and Newport, and one did 0-60 in around 10.1 seconds, while the other was around 10.4. That was with the 195 hp 360-4bbl, Torqueflite 727, and 2.94:1 axle ratio. I also remember that 1978 was the last year a full-sized police car would hit 0-60 in under 10 seconds in those MSP tests, until the Caprice did it in 1989, with a 0-60 of 9.9 seconds. In '78, a midsized Fury with a 440 managed 0-60 in 9.2 seconds, and a Catalina with a 400 did it in something like 9.9. MT or C&D would have gotten a quicker 0-60 time, as they'd use some tricks to get them to go faster, like manually holding first gear, revving the engine with the foot on the brake and then letting off the brake, etc. The MSP would basically just put two cops in the car and take off, and I think their time were actually a two-way average, coming and going, to account for wind and such. I've also been a little suspect of that 1979 CR test, as I had a '79 Newport with the same driveline as that St. Regis...318-2bbl with 135 hp, Torqueflite 904 (actually it was the lockup torque converter version, which they might have called 998), and 2.45:1 axle. Just taking a stopwatch to it, I'd get 0-60 in around 12.5-13 seconds. And that was when it was around 18 years old, in excess of 230,000 miles, etc! I did have the distributor advanced a little, to the point that it needed high octane and would ping on 87, so that might have helped a little bit. But I suspect that there was just something going on that day CR did their acceleration testing. Maybe it was a hot, muggy day or something? Weather was blamed when the Michigan State police did their 1985 testing, as it was hot and humid. IIRC, every single car in their test did worse in 1985 than its 1984 counterpart.