Chrysler may be sold

yeah or toyota

If you are willing to talk price/quality optimization, I submit that Hondas are the best engineered car in the world.

Saludos,

Earle

Only 'cause the Yugo isn't around anymore. Especially the turbo models.

Spdloader

...well, what about the Sprinter, the 5-speed automatics, and (unless I'm mistaken) the basis for the 4.7 & up engines?

It would appear you just crawled out from under a rock or something...

That is pretty old news there Bret...

Full moon or something?

Oh eclipse, right....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: N> The word now is that DCX may split Chrysler (and certainly Jeep will

What's more news is the concrete fact that DCX management is sitting down with private capital firms to actually do a deal.

We leased a brand-new Honda Odessey a few years back. Imagine our suprise when we found a ten-inch-wide puddle of oil under the engine when we pulled out of the garage on the second day. It was in the shop a total of 4 weeks in our first two months of ownership. Eventually they had to buy it back under Michigan's lemon law because the dealership could never fix it.

And the DVD player screen was all screwed up, too.

Better engineered, maybe, maybe not. The arrogance of "This never happens with Hondas" we encountered at every turn has put me off the brand for good.

I hear you, Sure gets old hearing that you can't do any wrong with a Toyota or Honda. Tell that guy in the Toyota camary I was following last week on the highway when his hood decided to open up. Picture driving down the highway I96 in Detroit doing 55 and not seeing anything. The hood was shaped like a "C" folded on the roof. Dam! Yimes like that I wish I had a camera. Better yet picturing the guy dancing on the hood trying to close it after that. LOL

That experience is unusual, but it does happen with any make, even Mercedes. Odyssey is a minivan, isn't it? I've got like 90,000 on my Civic, and I never did anything except for maintenance items and tires for it. I believe I have the original tires on the back. I still haven't figured out where the transmission level check is at.

That arrogant attitude is bad. I've seen it too, in places where you would never expect it, like Dodge dealerships. ;^)

Earle

I always carry a camera.

Earle

Mechanically, the Japanese car manufacturers figured out that what is important is the length of time that 80% of the fleet goes before major repairs are needed such that the car is junked. Rebuildability beyond that is secondary.

That said the Japanese build some exemplary mechanicals that run astonishingly long times and will take much more than you'd expect. The Toyota pushrod fours were fantastically long lived engines as are the Toyota Supra five and six speed transmissions the Australians put behind A series mopar engines all the time (and the six speed behind

383s.) The inline four and six OHC Nissans were tough engines too. The SD and RD Nissan Diesels and the flat four Subarus are also astonishingly tough. People bet their lives on the Subaru when they put them in aircraft: somethhing like 2500 are flying, which is a lot. How many people fly a small block Chevy? Two I have heard of.

A lot of the old Japanese accessories were no good, but now the ND alternators and Sanden compressors are good enough you see them on a lot of hot rods. Their carburetors were poor, but who runs a carb anymore?

Most Hondas are long lived if not abused but one really good overheat is all she wrote. Still, usually they go to the crusher under their own power.

Hmm... my Studebaker has a Sanden compressor

Jeff DeWitt

RapidR>

It was a great vehicle otherwise, the service just sucked. After they couldn't fix it the for the second time (within one month of taking posession) we asked for a new car. The dealer refused and after the third time we filed suit. The lemon law attorney had never had a car in for service three times in the first 800 miles. Several months into the suit they offered a new car, we declined. They ended up paying back all of our payments plus the attorney.

My wife just picked up a Saturn Aura last night. Let's see how this one goes!

Wow, Matt. From a Honda to a GM, you really are a glutton for punishment. I do hope you have better luck with it though.

Spdloader

You never get back the PITA factor though. Sounds like Lady Luck had it out for you that time. I worked on Honda automobiles back when they were two cylinder air cooled and it was amazing the abuse they would take. The first Civics were pretty tough too. I would like to get one but I doubt there is a complete body to be found in the entire continent.

Earle

manufacturing

Well, we can bring it back in 30 days at least. So far so good, no oil on the garage floor... :-)

The Honda epsidode was a few years ago, we replaced it with a Ford Freestar whose lease ran out last year, replaced that with an Excursion, which also replaced my F250. The Excursion is the best family hauler we've ever had. I don't feel shoehorned into it (6'4" 255 lb) and it carries the family and tows the Jeep like it's not there.

This is the first time in 10 years we didn't get a Ford product for a new car, (excluding Jeeps) but the Ford Edge was just too darned expensive and we wanted something for the wife with decent mileage and a decent lease payment. A friend/client of ours was on the Edge development team and she was really trying to sell it to us, unfortunately she doesn't set the prices.

Yep, they are so good that they just increased the warrenty milage by 5% on certain 2001-2006 models sold.

I got ya, I still have my '99 F350 to haul my Jeep projects around. ....which it still does, very well, like your Excursion.

Spdloader