All Fords, all applications? Mindless brand loyalty is fucking retarded. There are vehicles out there carrying a Jeep logo that I wouldn't piss on to extinguish if they were on fire.
It really depends on the company. I honestly love all VWs, Audi's, and Porsche's. Except for the SUVs, because, it's the stupid soccer moms that drive those damn things, and I can't even count how many times they've almost caused an accident. Also, IMHO, it goes: German>American>Japanese>Ford(except the early stangs. Those can be included in the American category.) When I was looking at buying a new car, I also looked at Pontiac's, Chevy's, Toyota, and Dodge. And then when I sat in my VW Rabbit, the quality was night and day between the rest of the cars. Even with 10,000 miles on the car, it still has absolutely no rattles and runs just as well as when I bought it. Where some of those cars(especially the Dodge and the Scion(Toyota))had rattles when they were brand new. And there were a lot of gaps in the interior of the car of all the cars I test drove. Besides that, I feel safer in my car than I did in any of the other cars.
I don't care about rattles. Get back to me when you've got 150k miles on that Vee Dub. Does it still run? Does it require an increasing amount of expensive maintenence involving obscure replacement parts and specialized mechanics to install them? That is the true test of a vehicle.
If you want a fast, practical, cheap car, look no further... A mate of mine has his doing 0-60 in less than 4 seconds, and did the 1/4 in under 12 seconds with a bike still in the bike rack.
Wifey and I have actually talked about getting her one of those zippy little Subarus. Probably good in the snow, but I dunno. She's a terror in something as gutless as a Neon.
I know this is all about the super V8s (which my grandfather used to make in Chevy form down the street from here), but I'm still sad they're canceling the 3800. I wish we were getting something to replace her, but no. That things' got alot of pep for a V6, and she's given a few V8s run for their money. *misses his Supercharged Riveria*
You talking about the Buick engine? I've seen 3800s and 3300s make it to 200,000 miles without a rebuild.
I was working in a small town home-owned auto parts store back in the early '90's. We had a guy in a Mercedes go through ten plastic after market distributor caps before he eventually gave up and bought the OEM ceramic one that had to be imported from Germany. Set him back a cool $700 back then. Oh, and our plastic caps weren't "cheap" parts. They were Borg Warner, one of the most popular and trusted names in OEM and after market ignition parts. Oh yeah, one more thing. He dropped the ceramic cap while walking away from the dealership's parts counter. Had to buy another one and wait a month for it to ship over.
I once drove a Grand National. I loved it. It sucked major ass red light to red light, but it'd haul ass on the highway.
Fourteen or fifteen years ago my dad had an Audi (why, I don't know--I think he took it in trade for a job he'd done) and it was a cast iron bitch to get parts for the thing.
Well, I tried to rep Spider's Subaru, but this slack-jawed whoremongering website wouldn't let me. So I'll just say my big problem with Subaru? They don't make a coupe.
Yeah, what's the deal with all the four doors? When did that become cool? I can see buying a four door 'cause you need it for family reasons, or if you're just buying cheap basic transportation on the used market, but there's very few coupes out there compared to days gone by.
I have an '89 with 160,000 miles. And it still runs strong, I just have to replace the clutch. And check this out.
No... the true test of a vehicle ('cause, you know, there are soooo many false tests...) is this: Does it have 150k miles on it, still run, not require a crapload of pay-someone-else-to-do-it maintenance, and... can you take it out on a winding dirt road, push it up to 70, then go airborne off a 1'6"-incline/3'6" decline, come down practically slap-bang on the thing's nose and, after the engine dies, start it right the fuck back up and drive it for another 3 years with nary a hiccup? In a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle after trading out the original engine for a same-year Porsche 911 engine, yes you fuckin' can. Of course, that should surprise no one, because: The Volkswagen Beetle was the fuckin' HMMWV of its day.
Yeah, that's a practical, everyday-use assessment. You're not putting 150k on anything if you treat it like like that.
Well, you wanted to talk about true tests, and there's no truer test of a vehicle than whether you can pound the living shit out of it like that and have it still run, and run well. All of this namby-pamby "Myeehhhh, will it haul groceries for a thousand yeeaaarrs?" stuff, forget it.
Why stop there? Make it drag a mining truck over a cliff, then burry it in thirty tons of boulders, excavate it with dynamite, then judge it by how well it starts and drives.
If you find a vehicle that can pass that test, why not? The difference with the one I related is that a vehicle actually passed that test. But I mean, if you absolutely have to go all batshit crazy over it, go right ahead.
