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US vs. German engineering
deep breath... counting to 5... and here I go..
Amrican cars, I have owned a
1976 Pontiac ventura hatch back with a inline 6 cylinder thing kept on
running to the ground, body panel rust was a major issue on this model,
My maverick 71 was a project and a monster with a 340 chrysler engine 9s
speedter and that engine never let me down once...
79 Buick Regal, comfy ride, great for highways, engine sort fo reliable,
trannies where an issue on these model (nothing like a fly wheel cutting
through the inside of cockpit cutting teh gaz pedal that sends shivers to a
person sitting in teh said cockpit.)
Mustang 67 GT350 convertible, was a great car drove it to the ground, and
still sold it in its decrepid state in 78 for 7K, and paid for 2/3 of teh
price of my next car
a new 78 Mustang 302 ghia II, which was horrible to drive, overpower, lousy
steering and weight transfer rate in turns (can you spell spin-outs).
an 89 4 door civic, which was my first ever experience of driving front
wheel drive after so many years of RWD cars, and well. in 6 months of time,
I trashed teh car 4 times, twice it was totaled and replaced by a new car,
on the 4th time I drove it from new lot to used lot and told the dealer to
sell it and I cut my losse on that puppy.
a 1978 mercedes 280CE, A Tank, powerful twin overcam 24v 6 cylinder...
wonderfull car... mechanically or body wise.
a 1998 Jeep Cherokee (swapped by wife for her Scirocco) Using it to pull a
two horse trailer.
I entered teh scirocco world in 1999 with a beaten down, un-maintained in 7
years (not even an oil change...gawd!) 1985 Scirocco. To be honest though
there has been up and down throughtout the years. I think that the german's
(to quote my brother) built their cars like messerchidts (war plane) good
mechanic, takes a beating, keeps on ticking and erven with only basic
matainance they will fly once again.
___ ___________
/ |/_ __/ ___/ A Texan's Scirocco 1985 8v
/ /| | / / \__ \ http://www.longcoeur.com/scirocco
/ ___ |/ / ___/ / (AIM) patricdlc, (ICQ) 32918816
/_/ |_/_/ /____/
----Original Message Follows----
From: Cheapass Ron <rapieper@yahoo.com>
To: Chris DeLong <green536@hotmail.com>, LEF@chem-tronics.com,
rabbit16v@prodigy.net, scirocco-l@scirocco.org
Subject: Was lug bolts, now US vs. German engineering
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 07:36:08 -0800 (PST)
(big breath)
Wow, that's a loaded statement. But this is a discussion group and
this *is* discussion, after all...
I both agree and disagree. Certainly your statement holds true for
BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes vs. The Big Three. No argument there
whatsoever.
But we deal with Volkswagens. These are mass-market, economy cars.
Cheap cars, even. Much as we love them, including me, let us recall
what we deal with.
We complain about shaky transmissions, A/C that never works, bad
electrical systems, rattles, shakes, crappy shift linkages, cracking
unibodies (front engine/tranny mount, a-arms, strut towers). Failed
heater motor resistors. Cracked exhaust manifolds. Horribly
underdesigned engine mounts (on the A1's...but has this truly been
fixed yet?). Odometers that often don't work after maybe 100,000
miles. Face it: these are NOT cars for those who aren't mechanically
inclined, 13+ years old or not. You want to do nothing to your car but
change oil and tires and add gas? Get a Toyota (yawwwnn). Yes, the
bottom ends of our engines are fantastic. As are the FI systems, if
you don't fuck with them. But what about the incredible Chevy small
block? Their straight six? The Turbohydramatic 350, or god forbid,
the TH400? Supremely good stuff.
I've owned several American cars. They have their pluses and minuses.
My little '92 Saturn SL2 was the best car amongst the lot, hands down.
In may ways it reminded me of a VW in its simplicity of design. My
S10, well, I bitched about it, but it ran and ran and ran. As did our
Explorer (yes, an SUV, we can argue that in a different thread). Our
Chylsler T&C minivan, well, sucks.
My final analysis: German engineering can be superb. It can also be
merely adequate, as is the case with our VW's. Frankly, the same goes
for American auto engineering. Both examples aim at a broad-market,
"value" offering...neither is going to give you an overdesigned system.
I'm sure we'll discuss this more...
Ron
--- Chris DeLong <green536@hotmail.com> wrote:
> No offense Ron but comparing American car engineering to German
> engineering
> is like comparing steaming pile of shit to a freshly mowed lawn
> (minus the
> shit part) ;-)
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