Text 26726, 71 rader
Skriven 2012-03-14 10:28:16 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
  Kommentar till text 26603 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: question after reading conf for several days
====================================================
10 Mar 12 09:35, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RB> [Cars]

 NB>>> Guess that's why I never buy new. :)

 RW>> I've done that twice in my lifetime.

 RB> And I've also done it twice. The first one was a Renault Dauphine, a
 RB> lemon if there ever was one.

OMG! I feel sorry for you.

 RB> The second was a VW 1300 Beetle, and it lasted me many years of
 RB> reliable driving.

That they were noted for. Underpowered is also in the vocabulary of the
Beetle. A gal I once knew lived in the L.A. area and had to climb the
mountains out of town and up the I-5 'Grapevine' leading to the Los Padres
National Forrest area on her way to her parents home in San Jose'. It
couldn't do the grade in 4th, you always had to shift into 3rd before you
got to the top of a 7% grade. On the otherside was fine, as it was also a
7% slope and you got to use the brakes a lot. In those days I-5 stopped at
Wheeler Ridge and it became CA-99, which went through Bakersfield and up
the central valley. I drove it a couple of times and ran into a fog bank
thicker than pea soup. I finally latched onto an 18 wheeler headed south
at 70mph, a speed I couldn't have done sitting so low to the ground. I
guess his view was over the fog because I couldn't understand why a truck
traveling at that speed would have any better view. I latched onto his
tailgate and followed him for 60 or so miles until we were left behind as
we approached the 'Grapevine' again. Another 10 miles and we were out of
the soup...

 RB> Since then I've bought 1-2 year-old cars with low mileage (mostly
 RB> Japanese), but haven't bought a car at all for many years (since my
 RB> wife retired and no longer has to drive 50-60 miles a day to work).

My last 1-2yo car was my 2002 Silverado in March of 2005...Can't complain
a bit, as it's now ten years old, has less than 72k miles on it and has
never let me down or dead on the road. The same with my Z28, bought it in
2001 (3yo) and it's garage kept with less than 92k...then there's the 56
Chevy and the 79 Malbu that are projects. Nancy no longer has to drive her
M3 30 miles/day, merely across town for her job.

 RB> I _love_ my old 1992 Mazda station wagon - reliable as hell and
 RB> plenty of room, plus practically no electronics. I may have it buried
 RB> along with me when I finally kick the bucket ;-)

LOL! That'll cost you more than a casket burial. I like electronics in
motor vehicles. They're easily fixed merely by scanning for ECM codes,
which leads you to the area that is causing a problem. In the OBD II
models (95 & newer), the ECM is a learner, which means it will adapt to
your driving style and give you the best fuel milage along with the best
performance if you drive it like you stole it. Even better is a laptop
computer will plug into the ECM port and you can re-program the look-up
charts the ECM uses to determine what to do when certain things are
detected. Instead of smooth transmission shifts that can't be felt in an
'old man's car', my truck is re-programmed to use 98% of the available
hydraulic pressure applied to the internal clutch servo. It came with the
ECM programmed to use 90%...


                R\%/itt


  ... Only those who will risk going too far can possibly
  ... find out how far one can go ~ TS Eliot


--- Twit(t) Filter v2.1 (C) 2000-10
 * Origin: SATX Alamo Area Net * South * Texas, USA * (1:387/22)