Re: [AMC-list] mythbusters eagle vs snowplow

[tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 6:46 AM, Peter Marano <pmarano@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


> Japanese cars of the 70's and 80's sucked as well.  People were drawn to
> them by the price, and the fact that you got less car which resulted in more
> miles to the gallon.

What, you didn't like Honda's special 3-barrel carb that required a
special propane enrichment device to tune it?!


> There are those of us that don't mind the Hotchkiss rear design, and I dare
> say we are in the majority.  Sure I give up some ride and handling, but what
> I give up I probably never used.
> I don't mind simple.

Oh it's a fine thing -- and since they were all so grossly overbuilt
they last forever, interchange is a snap, the gear set is not trivial
to set up but rarely needs any attention at all.

But it was a poor DESIGN choice to stick with. It utterly limited the
body style, assembly techniques, the interior shape capacity and mass
of the rear half of the car. Half laziness and half HP -- I'm
guessing, but for large V8 cars it's probably cheaper to make one
handle high power -- fewest torque-handling rotary joints.

By designing V8 cars and sticking sixes in them they invited the world
in to walk all over them -- for the vast majority of people not
interested in V8s. Like it or not, non-8's have been the bread and
butter of the auto world market. Most people most of the time don't
care that much what's under the hood and operating cost really does
matter.

I realize that's not where us car nuts interests lie though! I'm not
criticizing anyone here, 'cept maybe Detroit (and Kenosha) lack of
foresight. The old rear axle design we have makes keeping an old car
running that much easier!

It's kinda funny of you think about just how GROSSLY overbuilt they
are -- assuming stock power levels, the only thing that ever wears out
is outer axle bearings and grease seals. I'm not complaining about
that!!! But for manu's that's wasted money in a product with a limited
life.
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