Your first sentence shows how the second sentence works. As soon as there is a problem, well then it must be the lack of maintenance or owner abuse. GM owners are super religous about their maintenance??LOL I don't think so.... :laugh: You are 100% correct of course, the perception propagated by Honda Trend magazine and by people who have never even driven the vehicles in question is what keeps the ball rolling. And Matt, probably my first choice of cars right now is the G35 coupe, bad reliability and all (have you seen the revised one coming in a year or so....sweet!). I priced one out and to make 450 reliable HP out of that car so it could "possibly" compete with the lowly corvette will run some 15,000.00 at least and kill the warranty of course. Go to the boards and check it out. Thats pretty silly....even a camshaft kit was like 1800.00US (there are four of course). There are bone stock Z06s running 11's already, guys are already modding them none of the cars you listed will even come close for that price. I don't think Z06 vettes will ever be "run of the mill". We could debate any car to death (for ex yas WRX is quick but its fugly-sorry). It doesn't matter. But I watch what REAL owners go through at work and amongst friends and there certainly aren't any trends there to say that GM quality sucks. Hell you can't buy a really nice GSX for what the Z06 cost and there is no doubt there whose ass will get kicked....and I for one am glad they are in trouble because they are putting that extra effort into everything now that they can and in the end consumers will benefit. later Tim
The Honda is an automatic. When I drained the oil, I only got 2 quarts out of it. He evidently spun a bearing and drove it until the rod broke because he said it was making a funny noise for a few days!! Yes, you could say it was poor maintenance but still the car shouldn't have been low on oil -unless- he possibly overheated it and cooked the oil and then neglected to check the level. Incidentally, the engine I picked up for it looked identical but there was a slight difference in the intake manifold so I removed them to swap and the intakes aren't interchangeable/heads are slightly different. Why Me!! ou: Now I'm stumped. As far as my daughters Eclipse goes. She goes away to college and everytime she comes home, there's an issue with it. Last year it developed an oil leak so I figure no big deal. I'll look for the leak and fix it. It was a blown head gasket (74,000 miles) and the engine was never abused or overheated. What a job!! I spent an entire weekend and about $400 in parts. I have to admit though, the car is tight and handles well. I agree with you on the Camaro grille. Flatten it out just a bit and I think it would look fine.
".....the general perception is that they suck." General public perception is not necessarily reality. People are like sheep and want to "fit in". That's why they buy Camrys or SUVs. Currently show that you are "in" and "smart" and that you read Consumer Reports. And that you don't give a damn about this country just your own ass. It's not really the cars that I dislike as much as it is the arrogant people who drive them. :laugh: Sorry, just spent 2+ hrs in traffic trying to get to work......
Speaking of Eclipses I pain in a shop that used to do warranty work for a Mitsu. dealer.I've worked on more than 100 of these toilets.Beyond any shadow of a doubt the BIGGEST piece of f*#k ever sold in the good old USA.And they only get worse with each bodystyle change.Guess thats why the dealer went out of business. Tim
TimR, I know Hondas a little and if you throw a rod it's usually by abuse or neglect. I wasn't trying to say they never break down or have problems. A friend had one (96 Civic) that the A/C went out on 3 times in 1.5 years. I'm talking multiple compressor failures etc. MikeL, I've tried to keep all the Honda engine/head combos straight and it just makes my head spin. From playing on the Eclipse BBs I've seen the same thing said about the car. It handles and rides good, but reliability isn't what they'd hoped for. I like the looks of them and performance potential, but don't want one. I hope these people appreciate what you do for them. While I love cars, it's not enough to make a career out of working on them. BQuick, I agree with your opinion on perception. I like Camrys because they are great cars. Do I want one? Nope. As it is, I'm trying to get rid of my Nissan Sentra so I can turn my non-GS into a daily driver. While there are those that have had good experiences with Domestics, I'm not one of them.
Here is another pic, from a better angle. I don't know, it certianly has hints of retro but its not really drawing straight across from 69. Unlike the challenger concept which could be mistaken for a chip foose smoothed and big wheel 70 challenger (I mean its almost identical!). I think because we are mostly old car guys the old style stuff works on us. Lots of people at work don't like the 70 challenger (I do), lots like the camaro but many don't too. Styling is always subjective. From this angle I don't see much that resembles the slab sided mustang except for the arches over the wheels... If they build this car i would seriously consider buying one. Price will be (lutz quote) "2-300.00 dollars more than the mustang to cover extra content" and if ford bumps the mustang power up "we got it covered". Things are getting interesting... Later Tim
I like it. The grille still bugs me, but what a sweet looking car. Less slab sided than the new Challenger.
May be so, but it looks a lot better than the bean cars they were producing beforehand.(except the regal, it's about the only "bean" car that I like) And, this car actually has some lines(notice I said some, no new car will ever again have as good of lines to it like any classic has) to it, unlike any saab. That saab looks like a box.
Who knows, if they were to create something like that, it might be a step forward if the price was right. :TU: Look at the positive side of things, at least it's a two door. Buick just needs to start turning their attention to younger buyers and not just the 65+ crowd.(they can keep selling cars to those people as well, but they need some diversity in the lineup) They definetly have the attention of a 16 year old w/ that convertible. :bglasses: At least it don't look like a pontyICK for a change. :boring:
Bill Mitchell and Harley Earl where are you? We need you now!!!These kids that grew up playing with transformers don't have aclue how to draw a car that looks remotely pretty.Bill and Harley would have shot a designer for darwing anything as ugly as any car made from 1987 to now.Except the Mustang. Tim
