Detroit Vs Japan

They had a reputation as being inferior to the Big 3. Were you not around then?

A much shorter essay would be the list of what was right with the Vega.

The car was a disaster from every dimension a car can be graded.

In addition to the badly engineered aluminum engine, the Vega was the worst rust bucket I ever saw.

Second worst, by the way, was the full size Chevy Blazer.

i never said anything about them being "poor". i stated that they were lower middle class incomes. get it right.

coming from someone who claims dealership mechanics earn $83,000 a year ill just consider the source and smile. :-)

They are in rust buckets.

Oh, now you're admitting a mistake by GM! I've helped you eliminate another 'never' from your vocabulary! You're welcome... you remember your assertion, right? It went like:

I'm helping you learn! __ Steve .

You are a complete idiot.

Man... Those Japanese cars from that same era, especially the Datsuns, rusted pretty easily and pretty badly.

All cars then were rusted hulks compared to today's production. But the Vega and Blazer were some of the worst.

You are an optimist.

coming from someone who claims dealership mechanics earn $83,000 a year ill just consider the source and smile. another career you may consider is driving a cab. i hear they earn even more. :-)

Actually much of what was wrong with the Vega had more to do with excessive cost cutting, not the concept. The problems with stuff falling off [e.g. carbs] were caused by intentionally leaving off washers to save a few bucks. The concept of the aluminum engine wasn't what was wrong, as Porsche used it very successfully on the 928, it was the crappily cheap cooling system that did much of the damage. The Cosworth Vega was a good idea and a great car until the damn GM bean counters turned it into a piece of overpriced junk on wheels.

RJ proclaimed:

The champions of that era were the Jaguar XKE with a body structure perfectly designed to catch moisture...and the 911 Porsche which on a quiet night you could actually hear corrode.

Ruel Smith proclaimed:

Yup. The big difference was the steel. You could cut an american steel body with just an ordinary hardened steel bit in a Dremel. The darned Datsun steel was so hard you needed carbide bits. That hardness was not a good thing...made them very brittle and a true bitch to undent.

Well, the 8-4-2 wasn't the best engine ever put into production. As for the diesel, simply not strong enough bottom end for the crap most drivers tried to do to them. Still not as dumb an idea as the early 911T that had an external oil filler...about where you'd expect to find the gas tank filler.

L.W.(ßill) Hughes III proclaimed: