In 1976 I bought a 1973 Porsche 914 2.0 with Appearance and
Performance packages and 32,000 miles on it for $3750. I drove it to
work daily, raced it in autocrosses and on the track over 5 seasons
from 1977 to 1982, while the only major work needed was installing new
slider cogs and a new first gear in 1984. That and ALL other work on
the car I did myself, using several Clymers and other books. In 83 I
tore it down to the unibody shell and cleaned it up and painted it
with Porsche products, replacing the needed rubber seals and other
little parts, and put it back on the road after showing it (once) at a
concours.
Never had to take the heads off, but I did replace the pushrod tube
seals twice. Compression over time went down from 145 psi to 125. When
the #3 cylinder psi dropped to 90 at 368,000 miles, I sold it for
$1700 in 1995. I've seen it several times since, still running around
the Seattle area.
Replaced it with the 1990 Dodge Grand Caravan SE I drive now,
purchased for $5000 in 1995, with 113,000 on it. It has the
Mitsubishi built 3.3 ltr V-6 in it, which I've been told will last
forever if I take good care of it. Did have to have the transmission
re-built in 2000 (I don't 'do' automatic rebuilds) and it now has
209,000 on it. Recently got 24 mpg mixed driving, 27 mpg highway.
Needed the vehicle to carry my dogs around in, so the interior looks
like shit. The paint is that famous Chrysler paint from that era, so
the roof is brown from rust, the hood white primer and brown rust, and
the sides original blue.
Until 2007, I always had a VW Westfalia as a second car. First a 72,
then an 80. Always rebuilding those engines, but usually to up the
cc's or put bigger heads on them. Converted the 72 to Fuel Injection
from a Porsche 914 1.8 Ltr., with 1.8 L heads as well.
So I can't complain about either German OR Chrysler engineering and
longevity.
Never looked at Consumer Reports after I turned 30. I'd figured them
out by then.
On Jun 4, 2009, at 18:44 , Bob Sullivan wrote:
I bought a Toyota Corrola in 1980(?) to replace our '71 Olds Cutlass.
It was the middle of the gas crisis and more fuel efficient made a lot
of sense. The dealer in Racine, Wisconsin gouged us on price, but the
car ran well for many miles. It was generally superior to the GM
products we purchased afterwards. After a while, the US auto makers
caught up in terms of my experiences with quality. The last two Ford
vans have had some problems (engine & brakes), but been pretty good
otherwise. My wife loves her Accura TL and I thought it was
relatively cheap. I blame the United Auto Workers for all the
industry problems. They became too powerful.
Regards, Bob S.
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 8:14 PM, paul
stenquist<[email protected]> wrote:
J.D. Power does a variety of research studies. They measure initial
satisfaction three year satisfaction and long term durability among
other
things. Initial Satisfaction tends to be a measure of dealership
schmoozing
more than anything else. The U.S. guys used to get killed on that,
but they
learned from the Japanese, and now many excel-- GM dealers in
particular.
American carmakers always did fairly well in long term durability,
in spite
of what you might hear. These days they do even better. I believe
that three
of the top six brands in durability were American in the last
surveys.
In terms of people defending their brand, other studies show that
import
buyers are much more likely to do that than are American car
buyers. It's PC
to drive an import. It's uncool to drive an American car. I used to
write a
column for the service industry. It appeared in Hearst's Motor
magazine, and
it was called "Troubleshooter." The idea was to help service people
with
problems they couldn't solve. I had access to all the engineers and
factory
bulletins and tried to sort things out for the guys in the field. Our
audience was largely domestic service people, but I got plenty of
letters
from import mechanics as ell. I rarely got letters from consumers
-- with
two notable exceptions. Honda and Peugeot. Honda owners were very
distraught
about recurring head gasket problems on Civics. But they always
prefaced
their complaint with praise for their car and a profession of deep
love.
They were all sure that they're car was an exception and all the
other
Hondas were problem free. Peugeot owners had myriad problems, and
once in a
while one of them would search out my phone number and call me.
They were
begging for help. Everything went wrong with those cars. But,
still, they
loved them. Go figure.
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.
Paul
On Jun 4, 2009, at 9:00 PM, William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "paul stenquist"
Subject: Re: Consumer Reports on "cool cameras"
He had it completely wrong. Consumer Reports recommends all
Toyotas and
no GM cars. For the most part, they're apologists for any car
made outside
the U.S. In my opinion J.D. Power is much more accurate. I
worked with them
over they years, and they were untouchable at any price. They
gave very
high grades to GM cars.
I guess the questions are:
What are their criteria? Is it initial owner impression or is it
long term
reliability?
Are they testing the vehicles to failure or depending on consumer
feedback?
If it's consumer feedback, there is still a large contingent of
people
with the "my great grand daddy drove a Ford, my grand daddy drove
a Ford, my
daddy drove a Ford, and by gumm, I'm not about to plunk my ass
into the
drivers seat of a Sake burner" attitude around my neck of the
woods, though
it seems to be more of a half ton truck driver's mental illness.
I had an uncle in Montana who wouldn't have a Japanese car on his
driveway. He'd fought them as a marine in WWII, and as far as he was
concerned, the war wasn't over, it's just the shooting that had
ended.
He was pretty uncomfortable when I showed up on his doorstep
driving a
BMW.
Probably if he hadn't been standing on his doorstep at the time it
would
have been better for him.
Around here, there are a lot more old Toyotas still on the road
than old
GMs Fords or Chryslers, so I'm not sure what they would be
apologizing for
on Toyota's behalf. They seem to make a pretty long lived
automobile.
William Robb
If it doesn’t excite you,
This thing that you see,
Why in the world,
Would it excite me?
—Jay Maisel
Joseph McAllister
[email protected]
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