On Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:27:25 -0800, Eric O. fired up the etcha-a-sketch and scratched out:
IIRC, the point wasn't that Honda cars in particular were unsafe, just that the older cars did not have modern safety features, which the new cars have and cause weight gain.
So even a compact like a Malibu or a sub-compact like a Civic or Cobolt or Aveo will be safer than the 80's era cars.
(My '87 Nissan pickup didn't have airbags either.)
Easily fixed by a competent mechanic perhaps but I was dealing with Mr. Goodwrench. Another problem tells the story ...
When stopped at a red light in the rain, the car would stall and the inside windshield would suddenly fog over. This happened every time the car was stopped in the rain for more than a minute or so. I brought the car back to the dealership, Bezema Buick Norwood MA, at least three times and each time Mr. Goodwrench could find nothing wrong. Finally, in desperation, I brought the car to a local gas station and the problem was easily diagnosed and fixed. It seems when the car was stopped in the rain, water would well up in a trough under the cowl at the base of the windshield. Eventually the water would overflow into the A/C intake ducts also mounted in the trough. That would stall the engine (just how I'm not sure) and the A/C would them blow the moist mist onto the inside windshield. This only happened when the car was stopped because when in motion any accumulating water would slosh out of the trough. The solution was to open up a blocked hose that would normally allow excess water to drain from the trough.
The dealership was given multiple opportunities but was unable or unwilling to fix the many problems with this dangerous GM POS.
Canadian it's not.
Showing your ignorance? Not in Canada and a bunch of other countries. It was spelled cheque long before illiterate Americans changed it.
I am not one big on english as a point to hirp, but when your own house isn't clean...
Yep, "me and you" (American), sorry, you and I are on the same page.
Yeah, I don't think it makes sense to specifically name the 80s Honda Civic as being unsafe when its safety was probably comparable to other cars of the time.
Eric
That's interesting - I've always heard that Japanese import cars from Honda and Toyota were booming in popularity in the US in the late 70s and the 80s for their relatively high reliability compared to American cars (and their fuel economy, too). That one must have been unusually bad for some reason, or perhaps not well taken care of by its previous owner.
Eric
Are you aware that English is spoken in other countries, and different countries have different official spellings of certain words?
Okay, well, that page says this: "A cheque, also spelled check"
Different countries have different official spellings of certain words. Who cares?
You heard wrong, they all where POS crap. Rust dissolved them faster than US cars. Plastic parts? Crap wasn't even plastic, it was compressed rice the way it held up, same as Chinese crap today. Only reason they sold was good gas mileage for commuters / cheapskates in that fuel fiasco at the time. The one I had averaged 3300 miles / yr when I got it, WTF a old lady beat it, bullshit, It was typical import crap that fell apart when it was parked.
Hmm, you're the only person I've ever heard say that. I actually saw a lot of older Honda and Toyota cars on the road for quite a while, which wouldn't make sense if most of them fell apart as bad as you say.
lol, compressed rice? lol..
lol, cheapskates? I've heard that it was actually the government that came up with a schedule for certain people to buy gas on certain days.
She probably didn't beat it up, but sometimes it's hard to know if the previous owner took it in for its routine/regular maintenance, etc. or just let things fall apart.
Besides, you said that was a 1980 model car and you bought it in 1994? It was already 14 years old, so it was bound to have some things go wrong sooner or later. Time ages things too, not just mileage.
I know of a couple of 1980 Toyotas that ran very well at over 250,000 miles on them, but hte bodies were full of holes. I'm talking front fenders with
6" dia holes in them. An early 1990 Toyota has 385,000 miles, same thing. Look like crap, but still runs. These are in New England climates.MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.