Detroit Vs Japan

nah, the Alfa Sud beat both of them easily.

i was actually trying to help the guy with a bit of friendly reality. hopefully he'll figure it out eventually.

Actually, I'm a strawberry-blonde English/Irish/German/Cherokee decent red blooded American born/raised/living in Cincinnati - 225 lbs, athletic built, and probably nothing like you pictured of me. :o)

No, you're being an idiot. Next you'll tell me that I don't know any plumbers that make 80 grand a year, but I do...I'm a union plumber myself, though still an apprentice.

coming from someone claiming dealership mechanics make $83,000 a year ill consider the source and smile. :-)

i never said anything about plumbers so stop with the red herrings. we're talking about dealership mechanics, most of whom are complete dumb asses who couldnt fix anything that isnt clearly outlined in their book.

however, the licensed plumber earns a really good living. the unlicensed plumber working under his license certainly isnt making $80k per year either.

that explains a lot, but since this isnt about the absurdity of unions and those who need the protection of a union because they cannot succeed on their own work ethic and capabilities i wont get into it. :-)

Every time someone provides examples of so-called poor reliability of American autos, they bring these 20-30-year old designs up. How about lately? As I said before, reliability level was raised by domestic automakes because it had to, and there is very little difference in reliability now compared to imports. The car I ever owned (OK, leased) was a Honda that got bought back under lemon law, but not until after a legal fight. Basically Honda's response was "Our cars don't break like that."

There are some well-respected auto journalists who claim that since Ford bought Jaguar/Aston Martin, the darned things don't self destruct and puke oil all over your driveway any more. However I still don't know of any auto journalist who rates any American brand at the reliability levels of the Japanese. The Americans on the way up appear to have met the Germans on the way down, with the Koreans almost up to Japanese levels. All referring to passenger cars of course, doubt if any of them will outlast a Peterbilt.

Matt Macchiarolo proclaimed:

That would be the NIV, I believe... Bill's Bible says:

"Do not allow a sorceress to live"

.... funny how the Bible changes, and all.... makes you wonder who all's gotten involved with it.

So Bill, killed any Sorceresses lately? __ Steve .

Now we see why 'nobody can give an example'... you won't accept it! The f*ing parrot's dead, Bill, Norwegian Blue or not... and what about the 'soft camshafts'? Ignoring that one, eh? Think you can spin like Rove? __ Steve .

You are extremely incorrect, and unfortunately so.

The Vega had an aluminum engine cast from a silicon bearing aluminum alloy with etched walls-a process invented to build race engines-and an iron plated aluminum piston. It worked great until the silicon layer wore off and the compression vanished. There was a fix-you could sleeve the engine-but no one did. They put in a different engine-if the car hadn't rotted out by then, which happened within nine months to a year in some cases. The drag racers ironically saved many by making drag cars out of them because they don't put salt on dragstrips. The drag cars are the only Vegas that have survived in any numbers.

The Buick and Olds 215 V8 engines had sleeves. The Rover is a much improved outgrowth of these engines-there is limited interchangeability. Some people put these in Vegas, some people put in V-6s, some people put in Mazda rotaries, some people put in Chevy II or Iron Duke 4's. But the most common swap was the smallblock Chevy, which made the car worthless for anything but drag racing. Since that was the only way it wouldn't disintegrate, most surviving Vegas have SB Chev power.

Mostly, they were just geeky and unpopular. Usually they ran a long time, but little things like interior and trim would give trouble, being-like Mopar's-inferior to GM.

Notice these are all drag cars. You see NO surviving Vegas in road, or circle track or autocross, racing. Because their suspension systems and brakes were as shitty as everything else. Actually the engine was _not_ the worst thing about the Vega, because if you had them sleeved and put on free flowing induction and exhaust they would wind tight and made very weight-effective power.

I saw a MBZ sedan old enough to have vestigal tailfins at the truck stop yesterday-at the diesel pump. it was like a 190D with a 240 engine. Sixties chassis, seventies engine. And there are still a LOT of Hobart welders and Thermo Kings with Benz diesels out there.

It's in your Bible, Bill! __ Steve .

Well, you've just about finished screwing it up completely... does that count? America, of course, is my country... __ Steve .