My grandson has a fairly good 1985 Honda Accord Hatchback... We got al lights working fine... except the dash Lights... any suggestions/advice most appreciated. Thanks in advance... RG
When my parents were looking for a new car back in 2000 they were unable to find a small 4 door station wagon. I mentioned that they were available from Japanese manufacturers and my dad said "It has only been 55 years and he hadn't gotten over the second war yet."
I worked for VW of America back in those days, Honda kicked our collective asses so badly with the 80's Accord that VW wet its pants and ran home screaming to Mama.
If it wasn't for the Japanese kicling Detroit's ass in the 70s and 80s what well built and engineered American cars we have had would never have been made. I am old enough to remember such piece of shit cars Chevy, Ford, Mopar and AMC were turning out in the seventies and early eighties. There was the Vega, which was a four wheeled female sanitary pad as far as resale value and longevity went. The Pinto, it actually had good German Ford-derived OHC fours and a good third member...only it blew up when rear-ended. The early FWD Mopars. The last RWD Mopars. As ugly as they were the AMC Gremlin and Pacer were among the BETTER cars. Remember the Chevy Citation and the other GM X-cars? The Shove-It? F-bodies with four cylinder engines?
Where do I stop?
The Toyota, the Subaru, the Nissan, the Mitsubishi (which were sold as Dodges mostly), they ran and ran and ran. When my sister went to college in the early nineties my parents bought her a new Toyota. They weren't taking a chance after the American shitboxes I brought home. Can you blame them?
The Vega's aluminum engine was GM technology. It used iron plated pistons on a silicon-bearing aluminum bore, pioneered on Mark IV big block Chevies and the opposed air cooled APU for the Firebird III or IV turbine showcar.
The Corvair's engine was American technology. Ever hear of Lycoming?
The Pontiac GTO was a laughingstock when GI's took them to the Autobahn. The properly prepared Corvair (a/k/a Yenko Stinger) gave the
911s fits though.
And five grand in 1966 was like forty or fifty today.
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