Re: "Integrated" radios in some cars prohibit upgrades

What kind of junk are you driving? Power windows have been around for

50 years. Do you still start your car with a hand crank?

Reply to
Threeducks
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are you referring to american built foreign cars, or foreign built american cars?

-a|ex

Reply to
127.0.0.1

I'll second that. I've never bought a new car in over 45 years of driving. Currently, I only buy domestic luxury cars that are 5-7 years old and usually keep them for another 10-12 years. I try to stay with proven, trailing edge technology, like V8 powered, rear wheel drive, body on frame vehicles, like Town Cars. These cars suffer an exaggerated reputation for poor reliability and low panache, and thus, are under priced in the used market. I can get these cars, sometimes in pristine condition and loaded with extras, for 15-20 cents on the dollar and then put another 150k miles on them with a modest investment in parts and service time. I especially avoid European and all front wheel drive cars due to serviceability issues and/or very expensive parts cost. Japanese cars are particularly poor choices as used cars. They enjoy a favorable reputation for initial reliability and thus have higher than normal used prices. When they age, they can be expensive and difficult to live with. I do ALL the maintenance on my cars (except mounting tires). Stan K.

Reply to
Stan Kasperski

Neither BMW nor Merc have FWD.

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

My experience with Japanese cars was a 1984 Honda Accord that I drove for 19 years. All I ever bought was brakes, tires, muffler and one fuel pump. I junked it because of rust. It still had original starter, alternator, radiator, struts, CV joints and boots. It was a truly amazing little car.

My 97 Cavalier so far has been very good. After four years I've only fixed brakes and control arm bushing. My 95 Windstar needed lots of little electrical repairs. I traded it on a Chev Venture because the Windstar had a history of head gasket failures. The Venture immediately needed an intake manifold gasket. Since then its been ok but everything in it seems so darned fragile. It seems to strain to pull the same 2500 pound boat that the Windstar towed with ease.

Both the Windstar and Venture vans are a sheer pleasure to drive and and I can't imagine life without the versatility.

Reply to
Denis Roy

In North America.. Yet..........

In Europe Try looking at the Mercedes A series if you want a FWD Mercedes. (looks like a 4 door SMART car).

Can't recall a BMW that is FWD off the top of my head but perhaps someone else here knows of one.

Reply to
Full_Name

They're European... enough to nix that... prices are too high and prices for parts are even worse. I drove my daughter's '04 Mercedes E320 and thought that it was merely OK but too small, too much road noise and waaaaayyyyyy too expensive. Over $50K and didn't even have a built in compass or HID headlamps standard. Also, I couldn't find an aftermarket trailer hitch for a Mercedes. Not sure it could handle a modest boat trailer anyway with the tiny engine. Stan K.

Reply to
Stan Kasperski

And ride their bicycles over dirt roads and horse manure?

Reply to
Neill Massello

Worse than that - gravel roads. One of the biggest bicycle roads in the area is a twisty road built back in the early 60's called Leif Erickson Drive, that was constructed right before a huge section of the west hills was blocked out into Forest Park (which is one of the largest parks in the city limits of any city in the US, by the way) It doesen't even show on modern maps anymore. I have friends that remember as teenagers driving at high speeds down that road in the middle of the night, racing each other. Of course, as soon as Forest Park was created they blocked off both ends of it and prohibited vehicular traffic.

Anyway in the last 40 years it has disintegrated (roads in a forest without much bedding that aren't maintained tend to be rapidly destroyed by tree roots) but is still kept regularly graveled by the park service for use as a fire lane.

I rather uncomfortably discovered the current state of the road surface and it's infestation of bicycles after taking a Kawasaki 650 street bike down it one fine Sunday about 10 years ago. (I figured if the road was there I was going to ride it, rules or not) I barely stayed upright and was hissed and booed for mile after mile by bicyclists out for their Sunday ride, or whatever it is they do on gravel roads in the middle of the forest.

I do think that they avoid the cowpies, though, but you never know.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

Cassette players are easy to get. My '86 VW Cabriolet, '89 Dodge Caravan, '00 Mercury Grand Marquis, and '04 VW Jetta Wagon all have cassette players in their OEM radios. The '04 VW also has an in-dash single CD player and the '00 Mercury has a trunk mounted CD changer.

To be slightly more serious, it appears that European car companies are more inclined to still install cassette players in new cars, as my '04 VW has one as do some (or most) BMW's and MB's.

Reply to
kokomoNOSPAMkid

No, and those nifty eight tracks are getting hard to find too...With CD blanks as cheap as they are who wants cassettes?

Reply to
Ted Azito

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