Brother Don is foreman of the Lake County Dept of Transportation's car &
light truck shop... where he manages service on a fleet of 700+ cars. The
inventory is rotated out of service every few years, with much of the new
stock going out to bid.
Its interesting to see the trends of common problems in some of the various
models... for instance, the 4.6 Ford squad cars are having motors replaced
under warranty (quietly by Ford) at around 60k miles, due to head and
manifold gaskets. It's apparently easier (and cheaper) to R&R a new motor,
than to fix the old ones. Also, there's been factory recalls on adding a
shield to the fuel tank that helps prevent them from bursting into flames
upon rear end collisions (they did not recall the non-police cars...
apparently the general public is expendable...). Also, their "hydro-formed"
frames on Crown Vics (and Expeditions, etc.) have had serious rust issues.
Parts for cars made in North America don't appear to be any cheaper to
repair or replace in out global economy now. Just go price a headlight
assembly on any of the new odd shaped deals now Detroit or foregin, and
you'll see what I mean.
Any car ownership experience , no matter it's origin, is greatly affected by
the quality of the dealer. Back in the days when I covered a 20 state
territory by automobile (a 240 series Volvo, and an FJ62 Toyota
LandCruiser), I went out of my way (sometimes way out of my way... like 3
hours) for service at dealerships I trusted. Not a convenient plan for the
average driver.
I've owned literally hundreds of cars in my life, and to this day, despite a
6 figure income for many many years, have never bought a new one. I favor
cars with long production lifespans, as they seem to have the greatest
availability of parts, and have many of the bugs worked out. Since Volvo's
gone to front wheel drive... (or anything after the 240 or 740-760 series) I
wouldn't own one. I favor rear wheel drive BMW's, and go the 4 snow tire
route here in the midwest for winter. You put 4 Nokia Hakkapelita snow tires
on a BMW, it will go anywhere my LandCruiser will... the only issue is
ground clearance in very heavy snow.
You mileage may vary... just my .02
WST
----- Original Message -----
From <Ajhsys at aol.com>
To: <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: Re-Ugh
> In a message dated 1/6/03 9:29:59 PM Pacific Standard Time,
higgs6@cogeco.ca
> writes:
>
>
> > I'll never buy another car that isn't made in north America.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Hmmmmm...I'm curious as to why you are on the Spridgets list!!! :-)
>
> Allen Hefner
> Phila. Region SCCA Rally Steward
> '77 MG Midget (#51 FSP)
> '75 MG Midget (The Project)
> '92 Mitsubishi Expo LRV Sport
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/spridgets
|