Re: [BaadAssGremlins] The price of Modern Auto Repairs

[Onree <onree@xxxx>]

Title: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] The price of Modern Auto Repairs

I have to stand up for the reliability of modern cars. My very first new car was a 1970 Gremlin, purchased on April Fool's Day 1970. It cost $2143, white with red stripe and interior. Traded it three years later for a used 240Z. I have 2 Gremlins now, including a bone-stock, plain Jane, bench seat, rubber floormat 1973, 304 automatic on the column, that I got last year from the original (little old lady--really) owner. I love my Gremlins, and my Eagles too. But........

My second new car was a 1995 Nissan Maxima SE, 3.0 v6, 5-speed. (There weren't ANY  American made V6 four doors with manual transmission--I looked hard.) The 4th generation Maximas came out in the spring of 1994 as 1995 models. I bought mine on May 16, 1995 (cost just under $22,000--about ten times what the Gremlin cost) and keep complete records on all my cars. Now, a month shy of ten years old, the car has 123,00 miles. Replaced the timingbelt (late) at 77,000 miles for $443, original clutch started to slip at almost exactly 100,000 miles, $618, and just last month, the little hoses that go to each of the fuel injectors, $236. Stuff wearing out, not breaking.Other than that, gas, oil changes, anti-freeze flush, brake pads, tires, couple of batteries, headlight bulbs--the stuff any car needs. All the whileutterly reliable at thirty five below in Minnesota or 130 degrees in DeathValley. The cloth interior has worn like iron, the Bose stereo still sounds great, and it still has the original exhaust system. I bet this car hasn't spent ten days in the shop in the last ten years, and my 1997 Dodge Caravan minivan is nearly as good.

The cars I drove in the fifties-sixties-seventies----sure they were a lot easier for me to work on. But they better be---they constantly needed SOMETHING worked on. Tune-ups, carburetors adjusted, chokes, valves adjusted, drum brakes adjusted, plugs, points,  vacuum windshield wipers, front ends, mufflers and batteries that just lasted a couple of years, bias-ply tires, 2-speed Powerglides and 3-speed manuals.
I love my old cars (I have ten--five AMC) but for comfort and reliability I'll take a newer car every time. They don't make 'em like the used to--and I'm glad they don't.
Onree

on 4/15/04 6:44 AM, amc74hornet at AMC74HORNET@xxxx did write:

I don't think I could afford to drive one of these modern cars with the cost of repairs to them. By the time I junk my Malibu in 1-2 years I will have the new Hornet in perfect mechanical shape to become my daily driver. I almost have the manual choke bracket finished and I think I will get me a carb kit while I am out today and rebuild the carb Lu sent me and install it when I put the manual choke in it this weekend. Rebuilt carbs go for from 129$ + shipping and core charges mail order to 179$ locally +tax and a core charge. The mail order may seem cheaper but with shipping there is not much difference than getting it locally and also they decide ifyour core is exceptable.
"Doc"    

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