I have made all the points and if you can only read between the lines I suggest you go back to school and stop playing with toy cars.
Hugh
BTW At least I use my real name and you have a god idea where I come from. I am very experienced in dealing with tossers as I do it all day at a school so I know school boy dreams when I hear them.
Intelligence is not knowing the answer but knowing where and how to find it!
No documented evidence. Reality speaks for itself. As a lifelong mechanic, I've seen the evidence first hand.
Granted, Toyota makes very reliable powerplant/drivetrains. This is because Toyota tends toward beefy, understressed, designs. Their perfomance offerings, OTOH, are junk. Sure, a Toyota will run forever, but it'll be a dilapidated heap going down the road. Overall, Hondas are much more reliable. Just yesterday, I was commenting to the parts man how the air conditioning on my '87 Honda still works, good as new. Never been worked on. He said the same thing about his '82!!
Very true. I don't try and define myself by the car I drive. To me, a car is just a tool. Those who do are not likely to keep a car for any length of time, so, to them, longevity is not usually a criteria.
And it was the Japanese who forced this. Until the Japanese car industry came of age, many other car makers where turning out crap. The US industry was in serious trouble in the face of Japanese competition, and were forced to improve reliability or perish. Some car makers did. The entire British motor industry almost died forever in the face of the Japanese onslaught. Granted, the German stuff didn't flag. In fact, I think that was the height of German quality, the 60's and 70's. But, then the Japanese car industry targeted the luxury market and German stuff cheapened, in order to compete. Now, with all this world trade stuff, the whole industry has homoginized, somewhat, into a pretty level playing field, with improved overall reliability of all car makers being one of the great benefits.
The *MacPherson* strut is a uniquely front suspension assembly... since it incorporatetes the upper steering pivot into the top of the damper and the damper turns with the steering. The damper is also a structural, stressed part of the suspension - IOW there is no upper control arm for longitudinal and lateral location. While there are good and bad implementations, it's a shitty system which is inflexible in choice of performance design parameters, with many inherent in-built flaws which have to be worked around with compromises. Because of the wear patterns in many implementations, it tends to degrade quickly, often becoming intolerable quite early in the life of the car. It also tends to be expensive to repair. It should have stayed in the Popular, Prefect... where it belongs, as a cheap solution.
When you take just the suspension part, without the steering aspects and implement a rear suspension with basically no upper control arm, there
*are* car mfrs who call it a MacPherson strut rear but that's wrong for obvous reasons. Chapman was the first to use such a system in one of his racing cars and it's more properly known as a Chapman strut. The story about Enzo Ferrari shaking his head in disbelief when he first saw the Chapman design is well known.
Rgds, George Macdonald
"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??
No; *you* do. The very *last* car badged 'Chevrolet Nova' was a rebadged 4- and 5-door Toyota Corolla (lagging by one model year when the cycle changed) and built in California in the Toyota-GM joint venture NUMMI plant. Same place as where my old FX-16 (and other Corolla FXs) was built. They also did, for one or two years, a hotted-up version that was, originally at least, painted black with a red beltline stripe all the way around the car and the same 4A-GE 16V engine and drivetrain as the FX-16 and the MR-2. Don't go showing your ignorance.
you work for 8 hours, but they don't count lunch as work, so it's really 35 hours they pay you for. Which means you are THERE full-time, but get paid as a part-time employee.
No benefits, to health care, nothing.
Or, they use the new laws pushed through by Bush to count you as a salaried "management" employee and work you for 60+ hours a week and only pay you for 40. No overtime.
That's the harsh reality. Employers will screw with you as an employee if it saves them $5 a day.
in article lFH9b.473652$YN5.321502@sccrnsc01, notbob at snipped-for-privacy@nothome.com wrote on 9/16/03 12:22 PM:
Sorry, without hard facts, it's still just your opinion.
Yet, my 2000 Odyssey needed a new transmission less than a month after I bought it, and I've received 2 recall notices so far on my CRV. Hondas aren't infallible. I had plenty of problems with the various ones I owned (6 and counting). My 78 and 79 Accords rusted before my eyes. My friend's 86 Accord was better, but pretty shot by '97. He bought a 98 323i and shows no sign of getting rid of it anytime soon. I don't think you'd want to ask him which company he thinks makes a better car. My wife's '89 Accord needed a water pump, a radiator, and a new distributor cap right after the warranty. The cap cost $100 plus labor. Etc., etc. Different cars, different experiences. Still, I think Honda makes a darn good car with perhaps the best value for money in the industry.
That's not what I said. It isn't a question of defining yourself. It's a question of whether you consider driving a pleasure or a chore. I like to drive, and it's much harder for me to get pleasure out of driving a refrigerator. I can appreciate that my BMW is a beautifully balanced fun to drive machine, just as much as I can appreciate the utility of my CRV. But there's absolutely no question about which one is a better vehicle for the sheer pleasure of driving. BTW, I kept my last BMW (87 325is) for 13 years and then gave it to my nephew who drives it every day.
But the end result is just what I said. All cars-for whatever reason, be it competition or technology-are getting better and better.
Move to Cuba. The government guarantees you a job, food and medical care. Trading freedom for security sure was a great bargain. Sorry, the Soviet Union is no longer an option. Americans are such scaredy cat security loving snots. Everything has to be guaranteed and insured. The only guarantee you have in life is to starve and be too hot or too cold. Life's a bitch, so you should have a little compassion for your fellow man. If you want better than that you have to get off your butt and work for it. You may lose. That's the way it goes.
That would be to their benefit, wouldn't it?
Apparently these illegal aliens have no trouble doing the jobs.
Again, that would be in their benefit, wouldn't it? Human beings are tragically flawed and always look out for their own self interest. Even if they are in government or labor unions.
True, see, we agree on lot's of stuff like your keen analysis of politicians.
YOUR statement
I didn't say they wouldn't. I specifically mentioned their greed. When you needed a roof put on, did your hire a 62 year old who can't climb a ladder, get him full medical insurance and promise him lifetime employment and retirement benefits? I'm sure you did, not being a low life hypocrite and all.
The industrial age is over. Industrial age people will die off and new people will take their place. Maybe they will be information workers, but I am sure it will be more complicated than that. Industrial workers kicked the crap out of agricultural workers (did you just work sun up to sun down hand hoeing a wheat field?). Agricultural workers kicked the crap out of hunter gatherers. Automation means we really don't need everyone to be employed. We can hand out 39 weeks unemployment to anyone and there is no lack of goods and services. Society is gonna have to adjust. You can spend you life being hostile and unhappy because the world doesn't match your expectations or you can deal with reality and be happy. I hope you choose happy.
We now have the leisure time to do the only important thing in life: Sliding tires on dry pavement in a Honda :) Cheers, Roadie Roger
in article XGR9b.6782$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net, Philip® at snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net wrote on 9/16/03 11:46 PM:
Well, some websites do have statistics on reliability-JD Power for one, and CR for another. I can't see how one person's biased experience can be universally applied to all Honda models from all years in all parts of the country. My experience with Hondas is mixed, yet I don't conclude anything about Hondas in total from this, because my data is insufficient to do so.
I thought so. Hard Facts® come from empirical experience. Vehicles actually have to be run into concrete barriers, other vehicles, at different angles, spun around on a skid pad .... to get real life data because computer models do miss mitigating factors, especially where operator input occurs. The people who do the "mop up" repairs are the ones who know what's worth knowing.
To me, they came very close to the way the 3 series drives with the IS. I drove both 3's and IS's before buying my IS, and the handling seemed about equal. The 325 is a little slower and the 330 is a little faster than the IS300 camparing auto/auto or manual/manual. Both the BMW and IS engines are very smooth and nice sounding. The IS seems to have a little more road and/or wind noise than the BMW, though.
I bought my SportCross mainly because it should be more reliable than a BMW, and it has been totally trouble-free so far (~20 miles). Also, I found a very low mileage, mint condition used one and saved quite a bit of money over buying a Bimmer or IS new.
Probably tire noise. The IS shipps with 45-series 17" tires, with
55-series 16" a no-cost option. The 3-series ships with (I think)
50-series 16" tires, with 40 or 45-series 18" tires an > To me, they came very close to the way the 3 series drives with the IS.
And stir the pot it has. I believe that most toyota power trains need little or no maintenance
I've had two Toyotas a 81 Celica and 88 Camry plus 3 cars out of the joint venture with GM and Toyota in Calif. 86 Chevy Nova, 96 Geo Prizm and a 04 vibe
And to use your stereo type, I just get in and drive. The dealers never see me again. I change the synthetic oil twice a year whether the engine needs it or not. and I have no doubt that any of these vehicles will go 200,000 miles with no problems. And I find that the Calif. toyotas are just as study as their Japanesse, Kentucky and Canadian counterparts.
It won't sell too many if they make one just like BMW, like BMW will never as many as Honda in the US,because BMW's supension is too stiff some people like that but many other don't.
I lived in Japan a couple of years, and you just have to look at the people, and the answer to this question is apparent. Japanese tend to be conservative people, very patient. They will stand in lines very patiently for hours. They do not like risk very much. They think about getting form point A to point B without incident.
I am also married to a German wife, and her family, most of whom are still > I mean what's stopping them from making an exact mechanical copy of a lets
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