Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

It's okay, between an antiquated Ford barge with leaf springs and what the Cap'n considers more refined, I know what I would want.

Dolomite! :D
 
Oi! I said the Galaxie was refined! Still generates tyre squeal on every junction taken at more than walking speed and drinks fuel like Apollo 11 though.
 
I've never driven anything that old, but I've driven a number of old school body on frame American cars, and that seems to be more of a tire selection thing than an a design thing.
 
Oi! I said the Galaxie was refined! Still generates tyre squeal on every junction taken at more than walking speed and drinks fuel like Apollo 11 though.

Really?

I drove a '66 Galaxie a while ago and despite it being utterly fucked it was a different class of car entirely in terms of comfort and refinement. Of course it also handled like garbage, didn't fit in a McDonald's parking space and was getting a giddy 18mpg.

Well, sort of, ish.
 
I drove a '66 Galaxie a while ago and despite it being utterly fucked it was a different class of car entirely in terms of comfort and refinement. Of course it also handled like garbage, didn't fit in a McDonald's parking space and was getting a giddy 18mpg...

Oi! I said the Galaxie was refined! Still generates tyre squeal on every junction taken at more than walking speed and drinks fuel like Apollo 11 though.

Sounds like that galaxie has a terrible alignment and awful tires.

Also, 18 mpg in the UK is equivalent to 15mpg US. That sounds about right to me for an engine that can get a barge that's at least twice the weight of a BL product up to speed about 4 times quicker than the same BL product, while lasting easily twice as long.

Seems like a good deal to me :p

I'll agree that it's probably too big though. Galaxies are huge after all. :drums:
 
 
This might actually be cool, I mean, GM has got a great reputation at resurrecting their 4x4 nameplates.

Oh. Wait.

View attachment 3556903

Shit.
Eh, it's not really much of an indicator, after all the Explorer and the Pathfinder also ditched body on frame and became just large cross overs.
 
This might actually be cool, I mean, GM has got a great reputation at resurrecting their 4x4 nameplates.

Oh. Wait.

View attachment 3556903

Shit.


Shut your dirty, wait, GM did fuck up the blazer. The good thing here, at least in my opinion, is that they are making an interesting EV instead of a Bolt.
 
Eh, it's not really much of an indicator, after all the Explorer and the Pathfinder also ditched body on frame and became just large cross overs.

Correct, I'm just butt hurt as a longtime square body Blazer fanboy.

I agree with @GRtak though, should at least be interesting. I hope that it still has some 4x4 cred at least.
 
Eh, it's not really much of an indicator, after all the Explorer and the Pathfinder also ditched body on frame and became just large cross overs.

Construction of the car doesn’t matter much, the Jeep Cherokee before crossover-izing was not body on frame. Aren’t Range Rovers also unibody?
 
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Construction of the car doesn’t matter much, the Jeep Cherokee before crossover-izing was body on frame. Aren’t Range Rovers also unibody?

Wait, are we calling the XJ Cherokee a crossover now? It may seem crossover sized compared to modern ones, but at the time it was widely considered a compact SUV. Not many crossovers out there with F+R stick axles.
 
Wait, are we calling the XJ Cherokee a crossover now? It may seem crossover sized compared to modern ones, but at the time it was widely considered a compact SUV. Not many crossovers out there with F+R stick axles.

No, but it was unibody.
 
Construction of the car doesn’t matter much, the Jeep Cherokee before crossover-izing was not body on frame. Aren’t Range Rovers also unibody?
It matters for how it drives and road manners. Not sure about Rovers but they are definitely more road tuned than off road despite having some good off-roading capabilities.
 
Today I went to look at a 1990 Audi 100 2.3 e with my dad. He's a taxi driver, and he likes to chat with his customers. The other day he drove an elderly couple that went as Gasterbeiter to Vienna some 50 years ago and returned only recently to Croatia. As he chatted with them, they told him they have an old Audi that they want to scrap. Of course, my dad being my dad, he couldn't resist himself talking the elderly couple out of the scrapyard idea, offering to put the car in online classifieds, and to take a look of the said car.

A few days ago, he showed me the pictures of the Audi and from the pics and some googling I found out it's a C3 Audi 100 with a pretty decent engine option (5-cylinder, fuel-injected 2,3 litre petrol engine). He also told me that he'd go to see the car one more time when he has more free time. Ever since, I was bugging him about going with him to see the car, and today we went to see it.

IMG_20200202_165137.jpg


Seeing the car in person, I can say it looks decent. No, it's not perfect, as you can't except from a 30-year-old car that was bought new and spent some 20-25 years of its life in the capital of Austria, but the body seems straight, the interior looks good (no cracks on the dash, no rips on the seat bolsters), and there doesn't seem to be any major rust. The car did about 230k kilometres, and the owner is an elderly man who seems like he took decent care of the car.

IMG_20200202_165754.jpg


IMG_20200202_165500.jpg


IMG_20200202_165816.jpg


Again, it's not perfect, I found some rust on two spots and a dent (as in the pictures above, the colour shift in the last picture is not a bad paint fix as far as I remember, it just turned out so in the picture), there is something that looks like a cigarette burn on the passenger seat (the owner and his wife don't smoke, so it must've been some passenger they had), and the car could do with polishing. But generally, as far as 30-year-old Audis go, this one seems to be in decent condition. Just look at the interior:

IMG_20200202_165856.jpg


It shows the general condition of the car quite well. It's not perfect, but it has been decently maintained.

Unfortunately, we didn't have too much time to look at the car this time either as my dad worked until 4 o'clock, then it took as some half an hour to get to the car, and one hour after that it was already dark, but if we didn't have a Citroën BX that just needs one part to be road-worthy, I'd nag my dad to buy the car as we really do have a need for a car larger than our Saxo. Heck, I even want it for myself, but I should really focus on my studies instead of buying a potential old money pit. Besides, I don't have a need for a car anyway, yet alone a 4,8 metre long 5-cylinder future classic (if this car ever reaches that status).

The catch why they're selling it? The hydraulic clutch cable is gone. Kaput. Probably the clutch flywheel as well. But hey, the price they mentioned is 200€, so I guess it can't be that bad.

Why am I posting this? Well, my dad wants to help those people sell this car and I bet at some point he's going to buy it off of them to put it in the classifieds and possibly keep it. Not that I'd have anything against such a scenario, but I know for sure that shall such thing occur, my mum's gonna kill my dad for buying yet another old car, as well as me for being involved in it. I had a friend who's really into VAG products, but then, I haven't seen him in a few years.

The real reason I'm posting this is because it's going into classifieds, but I don't know what'd be the price for such a car once the clutch's fixed. There is only one other complete Audi 100 of this generation for sale in Croatia ATM, and the guy wants 3,000€ for it, but it's a Quattro, in really good condition, with some dubious extras such a DVB-t and DVD multimedia system and tinted windows. He's also giving away another one if the buyer doesn't want to haggle the price down, but there seem to be no pictures of the other Audi. So, does anyone (perhaps some Euro FG-er) have a clue about how much should I put it in the classifieds for, once the clutch problem's rectified?
 
GEEZ
For 200 bucks, I would buy it even if only to make a coffee table out of the 5-cylinder.
 
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