Cars I have owned: 1961 Sunbeam Alpine: more often dead than alive as a used car. I learned to repair it. Rusted away by '73 1971 Olds Cutlass: Drove thru 110K miles. Good performer, simple repairs. 1973 Olds Cutlass: Again, a good performer - sold after wife was rear ended in '78 (trunk leak) 1980 Toyota Corrola: Reliable, quality car if a bit spartan. 1982 Chevy Caprice: Comfortable car with minor problems. Drove the Wife & Kiddies some 600 miles per weekend for family visits while Grandpa died of panceatic cancer. (Big car for the road) 1984(?) Pontiac Parisian (=Chevy Caprice): Big comfortable car with few problems. Had to get out of the Toyota for the daily commute on Chicago's Tri-state tollway & 18 wheelers. 1988 Olds 88 Royal: Another fine performer, reliable, comfortable, mid-sized. 1991 Olds Station Wagon: Comfortable touring on multiple family vacations, very good 1993 Buick Regal: Pretty car, but not very reliable. Dealership couldn't fix it's problems. 1995 Mercury Marque (used in '97): Big iron for the kids to drive, worked fine. 1997 Cadillac (used in '99): Neighbor insisted we buy his low milage car - trouble always, dead by '03 1998 Ford Explorer (used in '00): Son drove thru 100K miles without major problems. 1998 Mercury Nautica Van: 18 inches too short, but best van we've had - shared platform with Nissan Quest. 2002 Ford Windstar Van: OK performer, but major engine issues at 60K miles 2003 Olds Aurora (used in '05): Another problem car 2005 Accura TL: very nice car! 2006 Ford Freestar: OK, but mysterious brake problems - chatter 2003 Corvette (used in '08): Only 7K miles and a pleasure to drive!
Overall, the recent experiences with the 1st year Mercury van built in conjunction with Nissan and the Accura TL have made a very favorable impression for the foreign engineering. Ford has been OK by me, but nothing outstanding. Meanwhile, the recent GM experiences with Buick, Cadillac, and Oldsmobile have been problematic. I won't go there again. Regards, Bob S. On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:00 PM, Scott Loveless<[email protected]> wrote: > On 6/4/09, paul stenquist <[email protected]> wrote: >> Car research can be very misleading, because there's a lot going on. But in >> the states, the intelligentsia drive imports. It's part of their calling >> card. They won't be caught dead in an American made car. Their prejudices >> are based on bullshit, but they're powerful. > > You can call it what you want, and claim one set of research backs > this and another backs that, and it very well may be that some people > are looking for a status symbol in their import, but I think for a lot > of people, including myself, it comes down to personal experience. > > Mom and Dad bought one Ford after another from the mid-70s through the > early 2000s. Dad believes they could have bought a couple more cars > with the money they spent on repairs. So their latest vehicle was a > Chrysler Town and Country. It spent most of last summer at three > different dealerships because the first two couldn't figure out how to > fix the AC that wouldn't stop blowing hot air. > > I've owned 2 Fords and 2 Dodge pickups. I've also had a VW, 2 Mazdas > and 2 Nissans. Pick one of the American cars. Any of them, doesn't > matter which. It needed more repairs than the 5 imports combined. > > Either I've had probability-defying bad luck or someone's lying about > the quality of American cars. Couple that with the fact that they > can't figure out ergonomics for anyone shorter than average and it > adds up to I ain't giving them any more of my money. Period. And I > don't give a damn what the magazines say. > > Bill nailed it with the bit about grand daddy's and daddy's and > whatnot. They're the opposite of Paul's intelligentsia. > > -- > Scott Loveless > Cigarette-free since December 14th, 2008 > http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
