OK, before I go fooling around with my cooling system, only to find out everything is OK, tell me;

Since the weather has started to cool off here (NY), I took the queen out of the garage and drove it to work for the first time in awhile. First thing I noticed was that it seemed to take forever to warm up and get heat. I know the stock gauges in any car are notoriously inaccurate, but mine won't go above halfway between 100 and 220 while I'm moving. If I stop and let it idle for a minute or two, it goes up to around 200-210 pretty quickly.

This is with an ambient temp of around 50-55 deg F. The temp gauges on our other cars go to one spot and pretty much stay there no matter what. Older small block Chevys I've had used to get up to temp in 2 miles or so....

Is this normal for our cars? ...And if not, what do ya think---thermostat stuck open, or maybe former owner took it out?
What to try first? A real thermometer stuck in the radiator to compare the gauge readings to?

Thanks!!

 

that is about right, as far as i can tell(on mine at least) is that that mark between 100 and 220 is near 190, i have a 180 stat and when moving, the guage stays just under the mark, if i stop, it goes up near 220

 

mine does ditto if i hit the 2nd fan though itll stay at alittle past 1/4 temp (whatever the hell that is) but at a light itll go to like 200 without the 2nd fan that is.