Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Plus those Opel V6s used timing belts and IIRC they needed changing every 30k. Might as well get yourself a Lincoln LS aka Jaguar S-Type in a Lincoln costume..
 
Redliner said:
But but but...buy American?
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Rüsselsheim doesn’t sound that American.

I think made a kid like old wagons tonight. I went for a drive with Hank, my dog for those that don’t know. As I was rolling up, somebody in their newer grand Cherokee had their kid in the front passenger seat, I look over and see this kid with black square rimmed glasses and spikey hair with his faces pressed against the glass. Once we stop his mouth is open as he looks up and down at the size of the Mercury. :)

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Crazyjeeper said:
Buy American...pickup trucks. Or V8 shouty things. For a practical sedan, buy anything else.
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The Taurus has been a great vehicle for us. It's comfortable, has tons of features, handles well (especially for a full size FWD), and it's a great care for pulling the miles under it as you cross a continent. To be honest, I also like the looks of it.

True, non-trucks are more hit-and-miss from US brands, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good vehicles in there.
 
The rule of thumb is "Never buy an American car smaller than Mid-size. When possible, avoid anything smaller than Full-size"
 
No, the neon is a terrible car plagued with reliability issues. You don’t see them on the roads anymore for good reason. If taken care of and all the known issues corrected, yeah, it’ll be a fine car, but most people don’t want to repair so many things.
 
prizrak said:
Fiesta/Focus esp ST/RS models, though one could argue they are more european than american.
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They absolutely are, their seating positions reflect where the front of seat tilts upward where most American cars keep it flat.
 
@Neon: Durability is still an issue with those. Chrysler was smart and didn't really pitch it as a competitor for anything and sold it as different and fun transportation.

@Focus/Fiesta: DCT. They just settled the lawsuit
 
The most severe Neon issues can be avoided by avoiding the automatic transmission, but I can see how that is not always an option. The rest of its terribleness is mostly related to being engineered to sell at 10k when a Civic cost 15k. Still, it's funky for a time when not a lot of its equivalents were.

I don't think anyone considers Neons for daily driver duty anymore, other than with a bangernomics plan, and in that price range all bets are off.
 
gaasc said:
So my Corolla popped a hose and vomited all its ATF. And the mitsubishi has an electricity leak of biblical proportions.

Apparently the most reliable vehicle on my roster (ie. the only one that works right now), is the 7MPG-getting lump of pig iron carelessly built by drunken UAW builders in Winsconsin in the 70s and then improved by a bunch of hondurans through the 80s and 90s.
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Update on this. I went to move it to go out and the brake pedal went to the floor.

So if you're keeping score, that's 0 out of four cars spanning 30 years, 3 brands, and 3 countries of manufacture.
 
Isn't the 1st gen Neon AT the nigh indestructible 3 speed auto?

Fiat: Sucks but yeah, they're toast here. For many reasons - failure to market properly, failure to update the products, failure to fully understand the US market, plus releasing tertiary vehicles (think 500L) that weren't fully baked and have uh...challenging styling. I predict that unless a miracle happens, the brand will be taken out back and shot here - Peugeot can sell their shit as rebadged Chryslers anyway.

Carlos Tavaras is from the Carlos Ghosn era of Nissan - he's not gonna keep deadweight money losing brands around at all.

The Focus is legitimately nice but they bungled it by pushing ahead with that terrible DCT thinking they were past the point of no return - the badge is completely trashed here but on the plus side you can get stick ones for a song and if you really need a AT, there's some of the 3 bangers with a regular slushbox.

Catera: The seats look ugly as sin, I hate the huge cut with a knife slit look
 
The Catera seems to have suffered a different fate than the Omega. Probably because it was marketed as a Cadillac with only the MV6 engine available. Over here it was available with a range of different engines including a very slow 8 valve 2.0 that made 115hp, but was indestructable.

A friend had the cavernous estate version with the 8 valve and you had to file a written application to Opel in Rüsselshelm every time you wanted to overtake in it, but it was a nice motorway barge and the trunk was easily twice the size of my Insignia, its modern-day cousin. A car from at time where you didn’t need to be spordy.

The big sedans from the basic brands (Opel Omega, Ford Scorpio, Peugeot 607, Citroën C6) kind of died a while back. I’m guessing they lost sales to the three germans. People would rather buy an E200 with cloth seats than a well equipped Omega. Obviously the Insignia and Mondeo that used to be a size smaller are now as big and plush as the Omega and Scorpio were back in the day.
 
gaasc said:
Update on this. I went to move it to go out and the brake pedal went to the floor.

So if you're keeping score, that's 0 out of four cars spanning 30 years, 3 brands, and 3 countries of manufacture.
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Grim.

I'm still at 1/3, but I did press my thumb through the Doloshite's chassis today, so I think that now counts as being EXTRA BROKEN.
 
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