Cars
This weekend while Andy, Nicole, Jon and i were at Starbucks sipping our drinks and shooting the breeze, my car advice was brought up since Jeremy had been asking me a little about cars (though he asked all the wrong questions and his remarks weren't justified or even justifiable in some cases). I had no problem with all this, as I know I have my biases and gaps in knowledge, and I am not the car expert people make me out to be. I feel the more you learn the more you realize you don't know. A few years back, I thought I knew it all (or close to it), but by the time I had a car I knew enough and had enough experiences with cars to know I know very little compared to what's out there to be learned. there is also a lot of subjectivity in the auto world, and this applies not only to beliefs about reliability, best attributes of a car, best type of car, practicality, et cetera, but also to mechanical knowledge (i.e. how to work on cars, why certain type of parts are chosen, etc.). it's endless, and it's pretty much impossible not to end up with biases about which cars are good, which are okay and which suck. I try hard to keep up with consumer reviews, editorial reviews, pricing, features, specifications (engine config and size, weight, gas tank size, gas mileage, et cetera), and future models. Some people think I hate American cars just because my parents went through hell with most of theirs. It's true these cars from the 70's and 80's were royal pieces of trash that were in the shop way too much, but I cannot base my thoughts of the car companies on how their cars were in the 80's, even though it is significant in understanding how they run business and understanding trends in parts that fail...the early 90's brought some more pleasing designs from the big three, but the reliability would not rise to acceptable levels (in general) until the late 90's for Chrysler, GM and Ford. I do like many American cars, but i can't say i like almost any of them for any practical reasons. I loved my dad's 86 olds 98 for its comfort, solid build, quietness, smooth and fast power and beautiful looks in and out. too bad it was a lemon plagued with constant electrical problems (like most gm cars from the 80's and 90's). i can say the engine held up well and wasn't burning any oil even at 160k miles, though the electrical problems were getting pretty bad, setting the engine on fire and blowing alternator after alternator. my mom had a worse experience with her 87 cadillac cimarron (cavalier in disguise). of course, she was hit in the front and back within 6 months, so i don't think it was totally the car's fault. the computer went crazy after the accidents, causing the car to buck and jump and go crazy. my mom had a 91 toyota corolla while the cimarron was in the shop, and she liked how it was simple and efficient yet felt solid and comfortable. she was surprised nothing went wrong on the corolla during the month she was renting it; she was way too used to owning gm cars. her previous car had been a 79 buick regal which was nothing but trouble. so, mom ended up buying a 91 corolla on new year's eve 1991 and had very few problems in the 4 years she owned it. my sister did start to have to get things fixed while she owned it, which, coupled with the problems i had with that car goes against the legendary japanese reliability of toyotas. of course, there was some neglect on behalf of both my mom and sister, as they did not have most of the scheduled maintenance done on this car. if my research can teach anything of real significance, it is that an owner cannot expect his car to hold up if he does not maintain it properly. the manual says to change the oil at a certain interval (oil change intervals and oil types is a very controversial topic indeed), to change the transmission fluid every 26k miles, to change the belts once a year, to bleed the brake lines every two years and to flush the coolant every 2 years, but i highly doubt most people actually follow even half the items on this sample schedule (every make and model can vary). by the time i had the corolla with 112000 miles on the clock, the engine was leaking oil out of the valve cover gasket, the brakes were bad, the tires were bad, the coolant was never even checked and i have the feeling the transmission fluid had never been changed. my sister had used all cheap parts on the car, mainly since she was in college most of the time she had the corolla. the cheap brake pads never lasted more than a year and a half, the cheap general tires were bald after 2 years, the cheap battery was corroding the terminals constantly (sign of bad battery) and the transmission was starting to slip. since i had no money to work on the car and feared a failing transmission (auto), i sold it and bought my sister's accord. that car was pretty much a junkyard car, meaning it was a car with 200k miles that had most everything replaced with parts from other accords from the junkyard. the engine and tranny came out of an older accord, the brakes were 'new', along with the suspension, tires and paintjob. i don't think that car would have had as many problems as it did (they were mainly radiator, heating and cooling problems (all related), along with the starter, battery and master cylinder). this wasn't that bad, especially compared to a brand new 80's-90's american car, which tended to lose a bunch of parts once one fouled up. this accord had over 200k miles, albeit with newer parts, but still it remained solid and was not as expensive to repair as many honda owners claim (morons who go to the dealer after the warranty expires). There always tend to be certain models on the gm and ford lines which are more reliable than the others. for gm, the cavalier comes to mind. i have seen these cars last a long time, though not as reliable as hondas and toyotas of the 90's and before (newer jap cars are not as reliable according to reviews and people i've spoken to). overall, in general, it seems that the big three are getting more reliable while the japs are getting less reliable. so, now they are on the same level in some cases. i always think of nissan, which struggled in the mid to late 90's and resorted to churning out cheap garbage to keep the prices low...toyota got sorta americanized in the late 90's, cutting corners, but they seem to be on the rebound with their new line. honda is a mixed bag from what i'm seeing; their quality control is not what it used to be, and i think that is all that is keeping them from being perfect. as for the other japanese companies, mazda i cannot trust yet. they screwed a lot of people in the 90's with bad electricals, brakes, engines and trannies; it was just a mess, even though they did make some pretty solid models that held up well and had some personality to them. since ford runs the shop and has since the 90's (when they went sour) i will need to wait a few years before i can seriously consider them. there is a cheapness to them, which is one of my turn-offs (subjective one at that). that is why i haven't been able to take american cars seriously through the 80's and 90's. gm is still making ugly cheap looking cars and wondering why we pick foreign cars, fords and chryslers over them. ford and chrysler have caught on and they have been using more durable and solid parts for a few years now. gm needs to see the light, and their reliability is not up to par. i sure have fun riding in them, but i don't care to own one. oh, nikki, i looked at a bunch of kia reviews and yeah they suck. don't buy. hyundai seems to be okay now though. these korean cars don't hold their resale even as well as the big three, but they can be a good value depending on the model. hyundais that is. kia is their cheap division... as for the germans (not gonna go into french and italian cars as we don't have many over here), they tend to be very well engineered, with a nice ergonomic layout, solid build (besides rattles in some vw models) and nice looks and features...vw's reliability has been shitty since 1990 when they moved operations of some models to brazil and mexico. the german-built models had shown to hold up while the mexican and brazilian ones fell apart since they were never put together right (as my mom learned with her 95 jetta...). vw is banking on their past reputation to keep people coming back to them. they can be reliable, it's just VERY hard to know if you're gonna get a good one or a lemon; too bad since the engineering is amazing. audi is pretty much a luxo vw (though vw now has luxury cars, going against their roots...) and they are not much more reliable than vw's in general (unless u buy the really expensive ones-that goes for vw too). bmw's reliability seems to be no better than it ever really was. they hold up better than vw's and audis in many respects, but it is hard to depend on them as much as some people think they can based on their reputation. lexus is a luxo toyota which has proven to be probaly the most relaible car out there with acura (honda's luxo division) trailing. infiniti is up there too, but since it's made by nissan, it's inherently not built with the most durable parts, and parts are expensive...depends on the year and model of course...honda accord it is!_! gotta go to bed or else i'd keep talking...