Rethinking "Made in China"

Nope. Gear reduction starters came on the scene in the late sixties - the "high park hummingbird"

You wanted something REALLY awfull sounding at startup, you wanted a

37 or 38 Terraplane.

Open bell housing, hunting gear set, and hydraulic lifters on a flathead six. The starter howled like a banshee - you could hear it a mile away on a cold still morning, and the lifters clattered for about

15 seconds on just about every start.
Reply to
clare
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Toyota and Honda are about tie at the top of the Japanese list, with Mazda a distant but rizing third - Subaru holding onto 4th and Nissan a more distant 5th, and Mitsushitty digging themselves out of last place. Somewhere down close to the bottom you have Suzuki bouncing around too.

On the world market Daihatsu holds a pretty good position too.

Then there's the Koreans - Definitely coming up fast after Toyota and Honda's lunch!!!!!

Reply to
clare

With a broom and a dustpan???

Reply to
clare

Heh, my Studebaker has a full stainless exhaust from Silvertone and the distributor has been retrofitted with a Chrysler ignition pickup (used a '63-64 style Prestolite) also just picked up a freshly rebuilt steering box (the big, ugly Saginaw power thing - have pretty much given up trying to find a good manual box) for $300 a couple weeks ago :)

Now I just need to finish the darn thing, but I'm guessing that 245/60s and 12" of snow (and falling) don't mix well :(

If you're gonna get a t-bird, get a '57 with the whirly thing, and the

3-speed stick. I'm definitely a Paxton fan :)

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

I've had vehicles where I could climb right into the engine compartment to work on them.

These people talking about old cars being more durable must be youngsters. In the 1950's and 1960's, a car that lasted 100k and remained in pretty good shape was a bit rare and worth mentioning. Nowadays, you can buy a bottom of the line Toyota Corolla and expect that if you keep up with oil changes, it will go 200K without major trouble - and the body will still be intact.

Reply to
salty

GM has announced the demise of Saab. The last possible deal to save it failed. Saab long enjoyed a hardcore following of fanatics. They took a seriously wrong turn and lost them all. The car lost it's cachet.

Reply to
salty

Oh, I dunno. I think the 56 T-Bird was the best looking of the lot. They weren't really performance cars, so looks trump everythng else for them.

Reply to
salty

Varied does not mean pleasing to my eyes in any variation. The Stratus was not so bad and I even drove a rental on a trip, but I never cared for anything else and did not like the Stratus enough to by one. Never cared for the Dodge Charger that so many guys fawned over. The group they have now is just plain ugly, IMO. Obviously, others like them or they never would have made it out of the factory.

I like GM style, but that is about all they offer these days. I have a deteriorating Buick in my driveway that I liked for the first 30,000 miles, but things started going wrong. Best quality and most trouble free car I've ever owned was my '07 Hyundai Sonata with 67,000 trouble free miles. Only maintenance was 2 tires and oil changes. I just bought a '10 last week. It will the last of the V-6 on Sonata.

Cheapest car I've ever bought was a '64 Karman Ghia convertible in 1975. Paid $15 for it. Worth every penny too.

Best resale value was a '64 Pontiac Tempest. Paid $100 for it, drove it for a year, sold it back to the original owner for $100.

Most fun car was a '62 Corvair

Most expensive to both buy and maintain was '83 a Mercedes 300D

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

My dad's '67 Cutlass had about 300K miles on it when he scrapped it - and it still drove OK, but the frame was rusted above the rear axle. Probably due to having been used in western PA its entire life.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Exactly. Just another car. Used to be, you could differentiate car brands from 5 miles by seeing a tiny speck of the body outline. Or a glimpse of a taillight. Today, you have to walk up to them and read the nameplate to tell a Camry from a Caterra. Saab stood out. No longer though. It would take quite an investment and major style change to bring back a low volume brand.

Maybe they could bring back the 3 cylinder 2 cycle engine though.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Tidy Bowl.

Reply to
krw

The only thing the car couldn't pass was a gas station.

Reply to
krw

I loved the practicality of their minivans and the styling of the original Intrepid class. All were junk. Never again. We both drive Fords now (Mercury Sable and a Ranger) and I've been told our next car is going to be a Mustang convertible, so...

Reply to
krw

Leece-Neville and Delco alternators in that size for an automobile engine resemble each other if you don't look closely. Back in the

70's GM, Ford and Mopar alternators and AC compressors were quite distinctive. I hardly recognize them these days without a hard look. I think Chrysler started putting Asian alternators and compressors on its vehicles some years ago.

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Weirdest deal was my '91 Ford Econoline 150 van with 4.9L straight 6 w/ fuel injection and overdrive. When I lived in CA, near sea level, the best I could avg was 18-19mpg babying the go pedal to keep it below 62mph. Moved to CO (where the van was originally sold) and I could get 23-24mpg running at 70-75mph. Go figure. Too bad I put it into a tree on the outside of an icy turn. :(

nb

Reply to
notbob

The Mopar gear reduction starters drew a lot less current from the battery if I remember correctly. A low battery would start a Dart with a slant six but wouldn't start a Falcon with a six.

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

We've seen most every brand represented but American Motors. In '73 I bought a '60 Rambler American 2-dr with a brand new rebuilt flathead straight six (1-barrel!) for $25. It was one of the most enjoyable cars I've ever owned. Drove it for 5 yrs without a single problem. Cruised effortlessly at 75mph and got 23mpg. When I bought it, it had no driver's side window, yet the snowy OR Winters were no match for the heater which would keep the interior at bread baking temps at

65mph in 20 deg F weather. It was 2 yrs before I got around to replacing the window. If I could find a '60 station wagon version in good shape, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. ;)

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nb

Reply to
notbob

DOH!

I should have caught that, having once owned a Chrysler 5th Ave (for as it took me to sell it!). ;)

nb

Reply to
notbob

-snip-

And it needed points & condenser every 2500 miles, distributor cap every 10k, plugs 5-10K?, plug wires in 20k, oil & filter change every

3K, tires that lasted 20K were a miracle. . . . and it cost more to buy one in real money.

My daughter's 98 Grand Am just cracked the 200K mark-- and that little

4banger sounds and acts like a new one. And the body-- well, we have replaced a fender that taught her not to drive too fast in the snow- but other than that the body has been fine. Pretty good for a car that spent its life in New York.

I remember having to have my 63 Impala painted in 1970 because the body was covered in rust holes. And I was impressed that the 283 was still good at 90k when the transmission died.

Yeah- they don't make 'em like they used to . . . and it is a good thing they don't.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Did Saab really fall THAT FAR!?

My parents owned (later passed dwn to me) a '68 Saab Monte Carlo w/ the Ford designed V-4 engine. I've owned and driven a lot of GM iron and have never seen anything even in the same parallel universe as good as that old Saab. A brilliant car.

nb

Reply to
notbob

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