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Cheap luxury,...??? ( + LPG)BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Aug 18, 2004 10:56:13 GMT
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I stand corrected - Maxima's are breakable! ;D I've always found J cars to be really robust, especially big Toyotas. Then again I've never owned one my self (only know ppl who do) so perhaps they keep it quiet!
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Aug 18, 2004 15:11:39 GMT
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I don't know, my dad used to kick f*ck out of his custom Mazda B1800 when it was working, like you woudn't believe, (it was famous for towing a loaded broken down 3.5 ton payload Leyland lorry up a very steep hill one winter to get it back to the yard, and made it quite admirably, not overheating or straining under the load, and it was regularly overloaded and damaged in the scrap yard, but it never missed a beat as far as I remember, and it was so easy to fix up, body repairs were done with a mallet, not an approved dealer like nowadays!
So old J cars can't be that fragile if they're anything like the J pickups.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 18, 2004 15:26:13 GMT
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So old J cars can't be that fragile if they're anything like the J pickups. Like that Toyota pickup on Top Gear ;D
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SkoCan
Posted a lot
Quando omni flunkus, mortati
Posts: 1,916
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Aug 18, 2004 15:32:11 GMT
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So old J cars can't be that fragile if they're anything like the J pickups. "Overall" not as fragile certainly. Brings up the other side of the coin. My Corolla just eventually wore out. Took longer than most other makes. By then superceded at least twice by newer models and incompatible parts. (At least for Joe Public like myself, not you lot. I wonder what the average IQ is with this group of gearheads ;D ;D Can't be low!)
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Aug 18, 2004 21:53:34 GMT
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I don't thinkn ANY nissan is unbreakable is it? or any J car for that matter? I can see you haven't had them then ;D I had lots of British cars before I had Datsuns. What sold me on Datsuns was their reliability. The first one I bought was a rusty old 160J SSS coupe, which I bought purely because it looked cool. It never once failed to start and it never broke down. 70's Datsuns are incredibly rugged and will put up with all kind of abuse. That's why there was such a huge market in the in the export of old Datsuns and other RWD japanese cars to Africa from here over the last ten years. They know what will last on their unmade roads. This was also part of the reason why they did well in Australia. Remember that in the 70's it was unusual for a car to last 100K without a major overhaul. Most Japanese cars could do that and more. What sold Nissan in thee 80's was their enviable reliability (it certainly wasn't their good looks) That's why the Bluebird became the cabbies favourite ;D We had an '86 Mazda 323 once which went over 35,000 miles with not so much as an oil change. Bearing in mind it had 70K on it to start with!. It got used every day and the only things I ever did to it was fix a puncture and put some rad weld in when it started leaking. It fixed it and was still fine when we sold the car. Not once did it ever fail to start or give any trouble. I finally changed the oil when we sold it! These days the riggedness of J cars is not what it once was and the reliability of European cars has matched them I think. But then most modern cars are the same anyway!
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1962 Datsun Bluebird Estate - 1971 Datsun 510 SSS - 1976 Datsun 710 SSS - 1981 Dodge van - 1985 Nissan Cherry Europe GTi - 1988 Nissan Prairie - 1990 Hyundai Pony Pickup - 1992 Mazda MX5
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Cheap luxury,...??? ( + LPG)BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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That's true - the Japanese matched the Germans for quality in the '80s but now there's not much between them. I think the bean-counters decided there isn't much point in making a 100% unbreakable car as they make more from aftersales parts etc! That's why Mercedes build third rate cars these days. Let's face it if you crash a modern car at 20mph it's a write-off, and they expect it to be thrown away. Cars twenty years ago were built to last 25 years or more cos people kept them longer.
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Aug 19, 2004 16:39:14 GMT
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And Volvos stopped being rear wheel drive, square and invincible because Ford's Premier Auto Group bean counters decided that it's cheaper to build front wheel drive characterless jellymoulds.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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And Volvos stopped being rear wheel drive, square and invincible because Ford's Premier Auto Group bean counters decided that it's cheaper to build front wheel drive characterless jellymoulds. Volvos were all front wheel drive (with 4wd variants) before the car division was sold to Ford. It is also the only division of PAG that is listed as making any money!
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Aug 20, 2004 15:04:19 GMT
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Not exactly true. The last rear wheel drive hanger on, the 940 series, lasted well into the mid nineties. THe ol' man's 940 2.3 is a 1996 car, and has a Ford Group plate in the engine bay along with it's Volvo chassis plate. This car had to go because it was cheaper to build front wheel drives with 4x4 variants. And that's why their profits are so high, but they never were in financial trouble with rear wheel drives, despite what you may have heard. In fact the Volvo Truck and Bus division has been one of the leading manufacturers since the 1980s. They owned Mack Trucks, White Trucks, and a 30% percent share in Renault Trucks at one point.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 20, 2004 15:53:52 GMT
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Not exactly true. The last rear wheel drive hanger on, the 940 series, lasted well into the mid nineties. THe ol' man's 940 2.3 is a 1996 car, and has a Ford Group plate in the engine bay along with it's Volvo chassis plate. I'm afraid that it is true - the Volvo Car Corporation wasn't sold to FoMoCo until 8th March 1999, and the last of the rear wheel drive models were made in 1998. As for the additional chassis plate on your father's car, I can only assume for some reason that it was added either by a previous owner, or by a Volvo dealer.
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Aug 20, 2004 16:02:26 GMT
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Then make that Vovlo bean counters, bean counters are much alike, regardless of the name on their headed notepaper!
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 20, 2004 16:11:58 GMT
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Last Edit: Aug 20, 2004 16:12:16 GMT by Paul H
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Aug 20, 2004 17:13:45 GMT
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Good ol Fords....Live rear axles are the reason why loads of people are into classic Fords in the first place!
also...id like to add that not wearing out quickly is not the same as being unbreakable....I like some J cars.. etc but some things on them are flimsy...eg bodywork...interior etc...surely everyone has seen how scoobies crumple?
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Last Edit: Aug 20, 2004 17:14:20 GMT by PonchoJ
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Owning a trans am is a sin, according to the pope.
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Aug 20, 2004 20:51:14 GMT
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Fair point. Scoobs are by no means unsafe, but they're not totally invincible. I was in a Vovlo 740gl saloon that was hit from behind by a headcase in a modern Rover once with the ol' man, and looking in the mirror at the steaming, crumpled mess of the Rover I was expecting even a Volvo to be twisted and smashed up a little. We got out to see what the damage was, and found that even though the Rover was totally destroyed and would need hauled away on a trailer, the Volvo had a dent in the black plastic section of the back bumper, and some of the little square sections of the tailight clusters had been thrown out of place, and there was a little kink in the exhaust where it had been hit. And I'm not exaggerating either. That is invincible, although I have no doubt that the older J and German cars are similarly over-engineered to the old Swedish cars.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 20, 2004 22:56:28 GMT
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For the last seven years I've been working on VW/Audis at a main dealer and can defianatly say that the Germans have lost their way big style when it comes to reliability! the main problem stems from cost cutting on componants and the subsequent failure, this is caused by the manufactures dictating the purchase price of a componant to the supplier and then the supplier has to go away and work out how they can make the part for that price and still pull a profit out of it. unlike the japanese who will negotiate a fair price for a quality part that will normaly last a lot longer. I think Honda and some of the other big japanese companys will even employ their own staff to oversee the quality contol at the suppliers, that might explain why when I worked for mazda the only breakdowns we ever had were RX-7s needing engines at 80,000 miles (we were the only licenced RX-7 dealer in the area) but now we must get at least 8 or 9 breakdowns a week for mostly stupid things that you really wouldn't expect from a brand new car.
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Aug 21, 2004 11:02:11 GMT
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Fair point. Scoobs are by no means unsafe, but they're not totally invincible. I was in a Vovlo 740gl saloon that was hit from behind by a headcase in a modern Rover once with the ol' man, and looking in the mirror at the steaming, crumpled mess of the Rover I was expecting even a Volvo to be twisted and smashed up a little. We got out to see what the damage was, and found that even though the Rover was totally destroyed and would need hauled away on a trailer, the Volvo had a dent in the black plastic section of the back bumper, and some of the little square sections of the tailight clusters had been thrown out of place, and there was a little kink in the exhaust where it had been hit. And I'm not exaggerating either. That is invincible, although I have no doubt that the older J and German cars are similarly over-engineered to the old Swedish cars. Funny you should say that, my dad was sandwiched between two cars....wrote the BOTH off completely....and the volvo had no damage at the front and a small dent and cracked tail light....I'm not exagerating either...short of yanky/aussie cars, they must be some of the toughest in the world.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------- Owning a trans am is a sin, according to the pope.
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Aug 21, 2004 19:05:12 GMT
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How about a Lancia Thema Turbo, Cheap, comfy ,the Fiat twin cam engine and galvanised bodywork and in their day quicker than the Sierra Sapphire cossie, but FWD only Or a 86-95 Merc E class, saw one yesterdsy which had been rear ended by a Micra, no damage bar paintwork on the bumper and the Micra was totalled
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Aug 21, 2004 19:07:59 GMT
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Lancia Thema and Volvo are pretty high on the list now,..
I've got another one to throw into the mix,.. which I may well get shot for ,... Ford Granada Scorpia (Cosworth),.. Leather, heated seats, air con, electric everything, made for motorway cruising.....
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Aug 21, 2004 19:10:31 GMT
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Forget the ugly Scorpio . get the original hatchback model , mighty car, all autos though
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Aug 21, 2004 20:17:57 GMT
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or try and find one of these
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