Chris Thompson's comments re. his family's Japanese Junk problems reminded
me of mine.
During the time I was driving the 1980 MGB as my daily driver, my wife was
driving an '87 Toyota Camry that we had bought new. (One of only 4 cars I
bought new since 1954.) But, the story is not that we bought a new car.
The story is that the MGB WAS FAR MORE RELIABLE THAN WAS THE CAMRY. In
fact, THE CAMRY WAS THE WORST CAR WE EVER OWNED! At one point, it spent 5
weeks out of 2 months in the shop while the idiot dealer staff refused to
acknowledge that my original diagnosis was correct. I said it was fuel
injector problems. They insisted it was electric problems. And, what did I
know? Was I a factory trained technician? After replacing all kinds of
things (fortunately under warrantee) I was forced to get the Zone Service
Manager involved. After he & I spent 4 hours driving, testing, driving,
testing, he confirmed that indeed it was fuel injector problems. After
installing new injectors, it was better. But, never as reliable as my MGB's
have been.
During the time we owned that dog of car with no personality, it left my
wife stranded 3 times & me once. (And, that is another story. After a
Connecticut State cop passed us twice while refusing to look at us as we
blocked one lane of a 2-lane road, a guy in a BMW 2002 stopped & gave us a
lift to where we were heading. Moral: people who drive old cars are "the
best.") And, once it was out of warrantee, every time something went wrong,
it was "$650 to fix it." We sure don't miss it. And, from that bomb, we
went to a Saab. We are now on our second Saab - the tow car for my MGB when
I get serious about prepping it for racing. Happy as a clam with both of
them. And, while neither had/has the personality of my MGB, each has/had a
distinct & enjoyable personality.
Norm Sippel
'66 MGB, et al
never again a Japanese car after that experience.
///
/// mgs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
|