John Nelson wrote:
<snip>
> --
> John Nelson
> 1964 A-H Sprite MK III
> http://members.aol.com/psychodad7/
> http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6457/
> "The nice thing about a British car is,
> you don't need them, they need YOU."
I get a little chuckle out of the sig above. Way back in the mid-60's, I
ran a "foreign car" repair shop, and those British cars that you guys
enjoy "restoring" were my bread and butter. Here is a hint: They weren't
much better when they were new. As a rule, the Triumphs (pre-TR4,) and
early Austin Healeys and Morris Minors were pretty solid, but ALL of the
MGs and ALL of the Jaguars, ALL of the Lotus, many of the Sunbeams,
Rovers, Land Rovers, were rolling cash registers as far as we were
concerned. And what the manufacturers didn't create, the poor dealer
service and equally unskilled owners finished off. I enjoyed driving my
several TR3's, Morris Minor, Austin America, Jag 150S, AC Bristol, AC
Aceca, MG 1000, and others I have forgotten, but I really enjoyed the
good living the customers' cars provided (until the Japanese came along
and spoiled my fun with cars that were dependable, if boring). I should
note that except for the early Pugeots and later Mercedes, most of the
rest of the European cars were equally self-destructing - the Brits had
no monopoly on poor quality control and strange engineering (including
Porsche and VW).
Mike Sloane
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