Back in the early 1990s, my mother purchased a Chrysler Le Baron. She drove
it off the lot with 6 miles on it. On the way home the car suddenly lit up
some dash lights, started to slow down and then ground to a halt. Somebody
at the dealership or factory had forgotten to put oil in the engine! The
dealer had to put a new motor into a car with 10 miles on the clock.
Mark Hooper
1972 TR6
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Newell [mailto:steven@newellboys.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 12:53 PM
To: Tom Di Iulio
Cc: Triumph
Subject: Re: Oh what a night! (Long)
On Tue, 7 Jan 2003 08:12:21 -0700, Tom Di Iulio <diiulio@ix.netcom.com>
wrote:
> you should know we ALL feel your pain. everytime i leave the house with
> one of my 2 "money pits", i make sure i've got my cell phone and AAA
> card.
> and yes, i've had to use both.
> <snip>
> remind me how far cars have come as far as reliability. jump in a modern
> era
> car, turn the key and go.....no warming up, no choke for the carb, just
> go.
> i must confess though that the un-reliability of our classic cars makes
> every trip an adventure!
You guys and your "unreliability" hangup! Maybe my new-car-driving
friends are just unlucky, but since I live a mile or two from several
dealerships I've picked up numerous friends and family after their newer
cars were towed in for 1. check engine light, 2. not starting, 3. running
poorly.... Take dozens of sensors and highly tuned engines and add an
expensive computer w/ buggy software and a few hightech spy gadgets and I
think auto manufactures are rolling back reliability.
I went with a friend to test drive his dream car, a new Passat wagon. He
says "I can't have an unreliable car like yours, Steven. My only requirement
is that I can jump in and turn the key and it starts." The
salesperson sits in the new Jetta, turns the key... it doesn't start. Dead
battery, some gadget ran the battery down. Same thing happened to
my boss's girlfriends new Volvo wagon, first week it ran it's battery down
twice. I loaned her my jumper cables from the TR4. ;-)
PS yes, having claimed reliability so publicly, I expect to break down
in the next few days. Tom, could you send me your cell number for
when I need a ride? I may need to borrow your AAA card too, I let
mine lapse.
--
Steven Newell
Littleton, CO
'62 TR4, 23,000 miles in three years, one tow
/// triumphs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|