On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:54:48 -0700, DeserTBoB graced this newsgroup with:
gee..a newspaper that's got their facts *wrong*? Whoda thunk? Having lived in Japan, that pure and utter BS. There's no limit in the miles you can have on your car. It just has to pass their safety inspection like any other car.
Right - but I can read between the lines on this one, and no matter the country Bureaucrats is Bureaucrats...
What the Government wants, the Government gets. QED.
The DIY car owner doesn't have to pay a mechanic and shop to do the pre-inspection work and take the car in for them - but s/he is still going to have to buy the parts and supplies needed to tear down the brakes, axles, trans, suspension, and other items that the inspection calls for ahead of time, to make sure he passes on the first try.
Or the owner can do the obvious items and take the car through cold, and get Failed several times as they pick up on other "worn items" that he has to repair or tear down for a closer inspection and bring the car back later - only to fail the test again for something else...
Or you "scrap" the car (to be shipped overseas either as parts or whole and sold as used) and buy a new one from a domestic Japanese manufacturer, which supports the Home Country economy.
Again, QED. You can easily adjust the inspection rules and criteria to get the desired results. You want to up the percentage failed, you tighten the regs a bit.
Go ask Marv Specter where he gets a lot of his used FJ and truck parts. Same thing for the engines at K. Watanabe Co., Et Al.
They come in from Japanese breakers by the container load, most of them surprisingly grease free with lots of yellow paint dots on every bolt head, nut and thread from the inspection process - and when the owner decides to stop paying for the inspections, it's scrap to them.
Can't argue with that one as I don't know the culture in such minutiae. But as an external observer it makes sense.
Show me any Chrysler that has made it to 480,000 miles. 1-2, that maybe you've heard of? I know of 30 or 40 Toyotas in my small little neighbourhood on Vancouver Island alone. My '89 Camry LE, 5sp. with the 3.0L has 347,000Kms on it and the air still blows cold. Hasn't needed a quart of oil between changes ever. Drives like a new car! How many Lebarons are out there with that kind of mileage?
Japanese women spend money on designer clothing and purses, and men spend their money on new cars and golf while their family of 4 live in a 500 SF condo called "mansions."
How many engines in those? That Chevy "Blue Flame" knockoff of Toyota's was VERY famous for frying exhaust valves, as were all mid '70s Toyotas. I know one guy who bought a new '74, forced to since Japan Inc. had dictated that Nissan would stop selling their competing model in the US, while Toyota would stop selling the Crown. First fried exhaust valve was covered under warranty, but not the rest. I used to joke with him that he needed Dzus clips instead of head bolts, that thing was apart so much for valves. It would even fry induction hardened valves on unleaded! Anyone familiar with the Chevy 216/235 knew that Toyota simply stuck drawings of the old "Blue Flame" into a copier to produce that engine...and then they screwed up the head castings! Almost as bad were their OHC straight 6s..the 2M and the
4M...complete dogs in performance AND economy. They were found in the Toyota Crowns, the last one of which ('71) was bought by my grandmother who nursed it along for a number of years. A "luxury" car the size of a Ford Falcon that got 10 MPG...what a friggin' concept! After giving that thing away, she went back to Pontiacs, where she'd been since 1946.
False claim. My sister had a Maxima with the first year of the V6. What a piece of crap that thing was! Cheesy interior material that would disintigrate, electric heater and AC controls that would fail regularly, fuel injection system hassles galore, dash electrics (guages, lights, tell-tales) that would fail regularly, steering rack that would develop play due to soft steel, lousy braking system...the list went on and on. I got tired of fixing it for her again and again...I'd seen people do less work keeping a friggin' Fiat running! After 140K, it went to the crusher, as she finally gave up on sinking money into basically a disintegrating car. The previous year used the
2.8L straight 6 right out of the Z car, and would run forever...with the car falling apart around it. The V6, at least in its first year, was a piece of garbage, almost as bad as anything from "It's-A-Shitty." Worn OHCs were a specialty on that engine, even with regular oil service.
Sorry, I have personal experience with both the Land Cruisers and the Maximas. Your story doesn't hold water, at least with certain years. Modern Maxima buyers don't appear to be the kinds that maintain cars...they drive them until they quit, and never talk about them again..
I'm sure my Concord would do that mileage easily and based on 11 yrs and about 100K of 70% city driving the 3.3L engine would do it without major repair. It's still performs as new, including the pollution test results. Very high mileage is usually from highway driving, much easier on a vehicle than city driving.
My 11 yr old Concord's interior has surprised me as well. Usually the drivers side is worn from getting in and out, but it looks as new, particularly after a recent professional cleaning.
If it's an M-body Le Baron, probably quite a few. If it's an EEK Le Baron, probably none, but I do know one chap out here with an EEK Le Baron who has 245K on the original everything. Blistered clear coat on the paint was his only real gripe, and after a repaint, it is resplendant as new.
This was true when Japan, Inc, was crushing the US economy, but it ain't so anymore. Japan's mired in a prolonged recession, and housing prices continued to climb, thus cutting disposable income even more. Most Japanese in urban areas live in VERY tiny accommodations, true, but that's necessity driven by real estate prices that still make US prices in major metropolitain areas look dirt cheap in comparison. When the disposable income starts to dry up, the first thing that the Japanese salesman will do is drive his Lexus another year longer.
Schmetterling has outed himself as someone who posts about things he knows nothing about.
"Safety equipment" had progressively been mandated on US cars since
1966.
The '78 Newport has:
1.) Front disc brakes
2.) 6 passenger lap belts, front 2 passenger shoulder belts.
3.) Far beefier construction than the later M-body version that came shortly thereafter. The Ms had one safety flaw that was serious: lack of side impact protection. Earlier C-bodies didn't have a problem with that.
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