OK - I'll chime in with my car history. My first car was a mid '60s Morris Minor 1000(sic) Estate with the 1100cc engine, which my mother gave to me. While not an exciting car to drive, it served me well for a few years with very few problems (until the frame rusted out), and was an easy car to work on (I even reground valves).
After that I got my first convertible - a 1970s Triumph Vitesse (which I bought from my younger brother). That was a great car, and I was sorry to part with it when we left the UK. In the US we've owned: A 1980 Fiat 132. Far better than its reputation suggests. A 1983 Datsun(sic) Maxima wagon. A lot better that the US competition in that market segment - a Buick Century. We got a really good one, but manufacturing quality was quite variable - we knew of others which were less reliable. When we sold it (because of rust-through problems; in NH even pinhole rusting in the wheel arches fails inspection) the purchaser ruined the car in twelve months :-( A 1986 Ford Mustang GT convertible. Drove that car for 20 years and 120,000 miles. There were some initial clutch seal problems which took two complete clutch replacements to fix, but apart from that it was what you would expect from an American pony car - fast in a straight line, but not as tight as a European car when it came to cornering. A 1990 Ford Aerostar 4WDXL. A very versatile performer. It did need serious transmission work after five years. Sold it when we moved cross-country from NH to CA in 95. A (used) 1990 Range Rover. Expensive, unreliable. Over six or seven years we had multiple four-figure repair bills. Eventually it lunched the engine, and when the estimate for repairs (maybe 8-10K) exceeded the probable value of the car after the repairs we replaced it with ... A 2003 Mini Cooper. My wife loves this car. A (used) 2004 BMW Z4. My replacement for the Mustang. I hope it lasts me as long as the Mustang did. I don't use it enough to see many problems - maybe 5K miles/year. -- 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.
