I grew up as a Chevy man. I loved my 74 Nova, my 72 Chevelle, my 73 Nova . .
.
My first NEW car, however, was a 1987 Plymouth Duster 2.2. I ran that car
for 8 years, put 235,000 miles on it and finally retired it when the
original clutch started to go because it was rusting out, needed a new
exhaust, new shocks and struts, and the engine was tired -- ready for
retirement.
My second new car wanted to be a Mopar, too, but the Neon simply was not
what I wanted at all. I was killing time when I stopped at a Ford dealer,
but I found that the 1995 Escort Wagon LX was just about what I wanted. My
commute shrank a bit, so I only put 180,000 miles onto it in 8 years and
then gave it to my daughter who promptly finished off the original clutch.
The only real complaint that I had was the lack of torque. It had a really
nice powerband that kicked in at 4100rpm or so, but that is useless in an
Escort wagon on the street. But, hp is the number that sells cars, so hp is
the number that the engineers try to optimize at the cost of low-end torque
(which is the number that makes you want to go out and buy another one).
Computer-aided engineering just allows them to emphasize it even more.
Neither car cost me over $1000 in parts and tires over the 8 years I owned
it, not counting gas and oil. Unfortunately, after 8 years, you can't buy
another one. The Focus left me cold. I wanted a MINI this time, but there
was no way my 6' kids would fit in the back seat (I tried), so I got the
GTi. It is a fun car, but I doubt that I will drive it for eight years. How
much were you asking for that A40, Frank?
David Lieb
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