Re: The price of Modern Auto Repairs

["amc74hornet" <AMC74HORNET@xxxx>]

--- In BaadAssGremlins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Onree <onree@xxxx> wrote:
> 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 timing
> belt (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, $236. Stuff wearing out, not
> breaking. Other than that, gas, oil changes, anti-freeze flush, brake pads,
> tires, couple of batteries, headlight bulbs--the stuff any car needs. All
> the while utterly reliable at thirty five below in Minnesota or 130 degrees
> in Death Valley. The cloth interior has worn like iron, the Bose stereo
> still sounds great, and it still has the original exhaust system. I bet this
> car hasn't spent ten days in the shop in the last ten years, and my 1997
> Dodge Caravan minivan is nearly as good.
> 
> The cars I drove in the fifties-sixties-seventies----sure they were a lot
> easier for me to work on. But they better be---they constantly needed
> SOMETHING worked on. Tune-ups, carburetors adjusted, chokes, valves
> adjusted, drum brakes adjusted, plugs, points, vacuum windshield wipers,
> front ends, mufflers and batteries that just lasted a couple of years,
> bias-ply tires, 2-speed Powerglides and 3-speed manuals.
> I love my old cars (I have ten--five AMC) but for comfort and reliability
> I'll take a newer car every time. They don't make 'em like the used to--and
> I'm glad they don't.
> Onree
> 
> on 4/15/04 6:44 AM, amc74hornet at AMC74HORNET@xxxx did write:
> 
> I don't think I could afford to drive one of these modern cars with the cost
> of repairs to them. By the time I junk my Malibu in 1-2 years I will have
> the new Hornet in perfect mechanical shape to become my daily driver. I
> almost have the manual choke bracket finished and I think I will get me a
> carb kit while I am out today and rebuild the carb Lu sent me and install it
> when I put the manual choke in it this weekend. Rebuilt carbs go for from
> 129$ + 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 if your core is
> exceptable. 
> "Doc" 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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I guess my friends are all right about me by saying I am lost in the 50's. They mean it as I am not up on modern things. I take it as a compliment. I am a charter member of the KISS way of thinking. "Keep It Simple Stupid" I'll keep my old cars that need a little tinkering now and then. In 25 years I have had 4 beaters a 71 Chevy wagon a 72 Skylark wagon a 71 Impala and my current 77 Malibu. Total cost of buying them and repairing and maintaning them around 4,500$. My yellow 74 Hornet has always been the good car and has been in the same gargage it's whole life 30 years. It still is the good car. I am on line only because I lost out on a 65 American exactly like my first new car because I wasent, and am now with a simple WEB TV for the last 4 1/2 years. I just recently got a cell phone and when the guy tried to show me all the features I was not interested, all I wanted was a phone not a callender a clock a phone book and all that other mumbo jubo. My oldest son said to me your on line and have a cell phone? What happened you going high tech on us now Pop? I'll keep my points, the guy I bought the new Hornet from offered me an electronic ignition dist. I passed on it. The carb will be rebuilt this weekend and the manual choke will be installed and I will be happy. 
"Doc" Lost In The 50"s