I have new-found respect for American cars

[lightwave1209]

This is the 1992 Buick Skylark that I bought 6 months ago to hold me over until I decided on a new car. It has a 3.3 liter V6. I did not expect it to last even this long, as I paid only $850 for it.

It has not given me any trouble over the last six months, save for the requisite brake work, and minor radiator repair. It just keeps on going and is even a pleasure to drive.

I'm usually an import car driver, but this car is really changing my opinion about a) American cars and b) old cars (the early 90's was supposed to be a bad era for American - GM - cars).

Granted I take good care of it. But every time I think I'll commit to a new car costing tens of thousands of dollars, I think of this little vehicle, and say, not yet.

 

[WNG]

Wow, good deal. Car looks like it's still in great shape too.
Reminds me of the time I picked up a 91 Pontiac 6000 LE from a desperate grad student for only $500 with 99k miles. It drove remarkably well, and was reasonably reliable for a used car. Replacement parts are cheap.
I drove the hell out of it. 44k miles in one year. I planned to buy a new car like most recent college grads. But didn't, and this car allowed to build up my savings quickly. Paid off all school loans, and amounted a sizable nest egg. That car was pretty good to me, so I invested some time and money to fix it up and it was more pleasurable to drive. Only let me down once with a failed ignition module that took me a while to diagnose. Sadly, my stupid ex-wife totaled it after my 2nd year of ownership, by hitting a tree a block from our home. It was a good soldier.

 

[tebore]

That 3.3V6 is a derivative of the venerable GM 3800. That's why you didn't have much trouble. It's an engine that's been refined over a 50 year period.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I bought a '94 Jeep Grand Cherokee for $999 with 85K two years ago. For the most part it's been nails and I couldn't be happier, but Chrysler seems incapable of making electronic sensors. Several electronic parts have failed, twice leaving me stranded. Actually just last night it took a dump 50 miles away from home on the interstate. Haven't checked out what failed yet.

At least the ancient inline-6 should be good for 300,000 miles.

 

[9volt]

This is the 1992 Buick Skylark

I'm glad it's working out for you, but I gotta say i drove one of those once and it was the most horrible vehicle I've ever been in.

 

[nerdgineer]

I got a 96 Olds Cutlass Ciera (3.4 L V6 I think) from the estate of the previous owner (a literal little old lady) for $2200. It had 29K verified miles on it. It had been garaged, looked new, tested like new, has driven like new for over a year now. Toyotas are fine cars but - for me - they're often not fine enough to warrant the price difference asked for them as used cars. It doesn't have to be a Toyota to be a good deal...

 

[ABTOMAT]

I guess I can add fuel pumps to the list of things Chrysler does poorly. Checked out the ZJ this morning, looks like it went bad.

 

[RCatR]

1993 Ranger; 186,000miles and counting

 

[nikon]

1990 Mazda B2200 pickup. Other than normal maintenance the only repairs it ever needed were a driveshaft bearing at 120,000 miles and a headgasket at 200,000 miles.

 

[scott.cr]

Odd... some models of American cars are known for their durability and reliability, and some are just plain headaches.

When I was in college I drove a 1985 Dodge Omni GLH. The GLH was the "Goes Like Hell" version, which was supposedly named by Carrol Shelby. By the time I bought the car, I paid $350 for it and it was WELL beaten on. The engine made crazy noises too.

I replaced the rod bearings (a simple job with the engine still in the car), changed the belts and hoses, cranked the turbo boost up to 14 psi and proceeded to beat on the car for another three years. It NEVER failed to start, and never hiccuped. It was once impounded for 30 days, and even after sitting in a city garage for a month, it fired right up and I drove it out. The impound operator was all surprised; he said every car he's had in there required a jump to start.

After I got a real job I gave the car to a coworker, and he beat on it for two more years. At least when I beat on it, I gave it regular maintenance. He just beat on it. But it lasted the two years and he gave it back to me. I cleaned it up, put in a new windshield and sold it for $1,500!!

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Probably the fact that that Buick has the v-6 rather than the 4 bangers of the '95 models I drove makes it nice to drive.

The 4 banger is a NASTY piece of metal....

edit> OH YEAH...

Back in the day my sister drove a Chrysler product that gave nothing but holy HE77 with the ignition. It was stranded all over Houston.

I found a points type distributer in the junk yard and never had another ignition gremlin while she had the car.

That's something to consider on that Jeep....

 

[WNG]

Yes, the 4-cyl was either a Chevy that's been around for ages, or the Quad-4 and its varients, which vibrated like crazy and blew head gaskets consistently.

The Buick V6 (3800) was one very reliable engine.

 

[Eugene]

I bought a '94 Jeep Grand Cherokee for $999 with 85K two years ago. For the most part it's been nails and I couldn't be happier, but Chrysler seems incapable of making electronic sensors. Several electronic parts have failed, twice leaving me stranded. Actually just last night it took a dump 50 miles away from home on the interstate. Haven't checked out what failed yet.

At least the ancient inline-6 should be good for 300,000 miles.

Thats because Chrysler sub contracts out a lot of electrical parts to Mitsubishi. When our sensors would die and they weren't in stock at the Chrysler dealer they would give me a part number that I could get at the mitsu dealer. Even if it was Chrysler engine you could still get the parts elsewhere. So much for Japanese parts being better.

Dad bought a 1988 S10 in 1990 for a drive beck and forth to work beater then I was accepted in a college out of state to he let me take it. He got it from someone in MD who bought it from a repo auction and didn't want to install a catalytic converter to pass MD state inspection so he sold it to us. It had 70k on it at the time and a body lift and the inside was full of mud. I took out the seat and we cleaned the inside with a hose and put the seat back in. I drove that truck through college and my first couple jobs, one where I drove all over the place installing and servicing specialized equipment for 911 systems. It was stolen once and I had to get it from the police impound yard, totaled two other cars that hit me and replaced the parts that got bent up and kept on driving it. It was a regular cab short bed 4x4 with a 2.5L TBI engine and 5 speed manual transmission. I could hit 30mpg on the highway which is pretty good for a boxy 4x4. I put over 100k on it myself and finally sold it because I needed a bigger cab to hold baby seats otherwise I would still be driving it. The "superior Japanese" Toyota trucks of that era had weak frames which would bend in the middle and people that still have some of them complain that they can barely break 20mpg.

 

[carbine15]

Yes, the 4-cyl was either a Chevy that's been around for ages, or the Quad-4 and its varients, which vibrated like crazy and blew head gaskets consistently.

The Buick V6 (3800) was one very reliable engine.

I miss my Quad-4 on my oldsmobile cutlas calais. What a cool engine. Best throttle response of any car I've ever driven. Better even than my dad's Porche or my brothers mustang. 26Mpg 4-door boxy thing. Too bad it didnt' have anti-lock breaks or I'd still have it today. :candle:

 

[WNG]

I miss my Quad-4 on my oldsmobile cutlas calais. What a cool engine. Best throttle response of any car I've ever driven. Better even than my dad's Porche or my brothers mustang. 26Mpg 4-door boxy thing. Too bad it didnt' have anti-lock breaks or I'd still have it today. :candle:

If my memory serves me, although the Quad 4 had high output and response, GM thought they could get away with not using counter balance shafts. Used to reduce harmonic vibrations of large displacement I-4's. Although less parasitic losses, it resulted in one buzzy engine.
The high HP output, hence added thermal stresses, caused blown head gaskets.
Later versions had cams made more mild to try to address matters.

There was such high hopes and excitement. With F-I, it was such a powerful I-4. Back then, I was hoping a turbo Quad-4 would go into the Fiero GT.

 

[TOOCOOL]

How many miles on that car lightwave

 

[lightwave1209]

How many miles on that car lightwave

Currently, 156K approx

 

[MikeSalt]

Old Cars

Have you actually noticed that new cars are getting worse and worse? My Fiat Punto mk 1 celebrated its 10th birthday last year, and I think it is brilliant. Weighing only 760kgs, its 1.1 litre engine is perfectly potent. The low weight also means that it corners and brakes more sharply than its heavier successors. The new Punto weighs in at over 1200kgs!!! My Punto has fully independant suspension, the new one only has torsion beam rear suspension. Mine has the best steering feedback possible (i.e. NO power steering), the new one gets accused of having too little feedback (due to the power steering). Mine only has the one computer, the ECU, so it does not suffer all the electrical problems of the newer cars.

And don't get me started on ABS and traction control, of which, my Punto has neither. I like to drive my car, without some damn computer interfering. If I want to make the tyres squeal, I shall bloody well please myself. Today's drivers are more dangerous BECAUSE they rely on all these 'safety' features. In my car, I know that if I crash, I will probably die, and so it is my driver skill, coupled to superior handling that provides the safety. The safest car is not the car with the most Euro NCAP crash safety stars, but the one that was quick and agile enough to avoid the accident in the first place.

Ok, rant over...

as far as I can see, there are only three cars I would contemplate buying to supercede the Punto
Caterham CSR 260
http://www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/showroom/csr.html#

Ariel Atom 300
http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/04/frames.htm

Lotus Exige S
http://www.grouplotus.com/car/car_product.php?id=2&mid=22

All minimalist, and brilliant. However, the Atom would be a little too impractical, so would require a 'compromise' car as well.

Out of my near-future price league, but the Dodge Viper SRT10 looks fun too. No silly electronics, just a huge engine, with wheels (rear driven), and me at the controls. Perfect!

 

[Robocop]

My personal vehicles are a Toyota Tacoma 4x4 and my newly purchased Nissan Frontier 4X4 however prior to that I had a Mustang.

My old 92 GT took daily beatings and I never babied it anywhere I drove. I sold it with 120k on the original motor and never had an oil leak with the only maintenance being brakes and a battery over an 8 year period.....It ran fine until I decided to take it apart and never put it back together again...haha sold it in several boxes parted out.

Daily I drive a Ford Crown Vic on duty and work an 8 hour shift. After my shift I give the keys to the morning shift guy and he later passes it on to day shift. The cars we drive run 24 hours a day and as you can imagine as officers we drive the fool out of these cars. Yes I moan and gripe about small things going wrong however honestly these cars hold up very well. I have driven police cars made by Ford with 130k very hard miles on them. Yes they do not look that pretty after all that but no real mechanical problems to speak of.

I like Ford for this reason and would not hesitate to buy many American made vehicles for my personal usage. If I had to guess I would say my personal duty car sees about 160 miles per day with 3 persons driving it on 3 shifts.....pretty amazing if you think about it.

As far as the Buick goes I remember way back when I bought my 92 Mustang Buick was going strong with their 3.8 Liter Grand National. This was an awesome vehicle as it had plain old good style and plenty of boost to back it up. I always did like those Buicks with the turbo 3.8s as they gave us Mustang guys a new found respect for the lowly V6 and often beat many V8s with ease.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

We were never sure if my 1990 F350 had been once, twice or even three times around the odometer. It was pretty darn clean for more than twice.

Anyhow I put about 150K on it before it just became too much trouble, with tranny, injector pump, rear end howling and other assorted ills.

As far as just running and driving, my sisters 1995 Town Car is fine. Many of it's fancy geegaws are dead, but don't cause any real trouble. It has around 195K on it.