> > The best car I've ever owned made the "ten worst" list in CR ...
> > 250,000 miles
> > and never had the heads off.
> Well, what kind of car was it?
1980 Chevy Citation hatchback with a 2.8 V6 & 4-speed OD. Definitely not a
great car in any respect, but it did a lot of things well, including taking it
easy on my pocketbook. Good power, 30 mpg on the highway (for the first 100,000
anyway, it went down a little after that), would hold 4 adults & a kid
comfortably with the rear seat up or a whole bunch of junk with the seat down
(including a 10' stick of pipe by laying it between the seats and on the dash).
Towed a trailer over the Rockies that probably weighed more than it did ... not
too fast going uphill, but it made it. Had no trouble at all towing a TR3A over
the Rockies. Handled pretty good too, ISTR R&T measured .82 on the skidpad,
which was comparable to a 1980 Vette. Went offroading in it a few times too ...
did reasonably well for a stock 'cheap' car. Not a lot of clearance, but the
underside was fairly slick and with all the weight over the drive wheels, it
would still move with the rear wheels in the air.
Darn thing just refused to die ... until I made the mistake of trying a quart of
Rislone in the crankcase. Crankshaft snapped about 2 weeks later (which was a
known weakness with that engine, GM later enlarged the journals).
But for under $8k even with all the options I loaded it up with, it was a great
car for me. I liked it so well I bought a second one (used) for my wife (but my
stepdaughter totaled it about 4 years later).
Randall
=== This list supported in part by The Vintage Triumph Register
=== http://www.vtr.org
|