The Driveway: COBbies talk cars

Pretty much, yeah. Performance doesn't usually come cheap, unless you want it done badly.

Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick any two. Sinc'e I've already picked Fast, that narrows it down a bit.

And "cheap" isn't generally as cheap as you think it'll be, either.

Yeah, given that it's from the 80's (unless I'm wrong), and given that it's a GM product, the prices for maintenance and such are gonna be through the roof.

Actually, 80s Detroit iron is fairly cheap to do work on, just it breaks down more than it should and starts showing all the cheaping-out shortcuts that GM took.

And the 'Cash for Clunkers' program a couple of years ago put a lot of what could be viable parts cars into the crusher instead.

Yep. The "Make vehicles more expensive for poor people" program.

That was one of the most ill-thought-out things the government has done in a long time.

I don't know about "most", but a) it's up toward the top, and b) the rest of the stuff is off-topic for this thread, so I'm just going to shut up now.

Since my ride is a late-eighties piece of detroit iron, a lot of stuff is cheap to get. Coolant pump? Twenty bucks. And since it's mounted on front of hte engine and not associated with the timing set at all, all you need to do is refill the radiator and maybe change the serpentine belt.

And you can do it yourself in a few hours, taking your time. Brakes aren't too bad, but I never get them bled right and then the pedal is really mushy and crap until I get it flushed properly.

Some TTA-unique items are spendy, but since the vast majority of the car is bog-standard third-gen F-Body, there's a huge aftermarket to support it, and GM still has some new old-stock parts on the shelves.

The downside to all of this is dubious build quality. Yeah, repairs are cheap, but you'll be doing them more often...

Cash for Clunkers was a rather stupid idea. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had mandated that the cars would've been given to a pull-apart yard intact, but NO, they had to trash the engines, too.

Not just the engines. Seats? Windows? Dashboards and instruments? Mirrors? Wheels and hubcaps? all those parts that have nothing to do with mileage or emissions, but that fed the restoration market.

It would have made so much more sense to have mandated that they go to pull-apart yards or the crusher.

Yes, pull-it yards get mad when they don't make at least 500 bucks off of a junk car (co-worker knew a guy who ran a yard). Glass, wiring, switches, sensors, interior parts, trim panel bits, all that crap can be pulled off and resold as used parts. Finally, there's the scrap metal value of the stripped shell after all the other stuff is gone.

Granted, "Cash For Clunkers" was something our government came up with to try and help fix our Recession-era economy.

By encouraging banks to lend out money to people so they could rack up more credit by buying a car they wouldn't normally buy. During a Recession, mind you, when people were losing jobs all over the place. Who directly benefits from this? Car manufacturers and banks, mostly...

Four grand off of the price of a new car isn't all that, if you've just saddled yourself with about twenty grand worth of debt. Possibly more. I'm curious how many people did the swap and ended up not being able to afford the car payment when all was said and done.

My bad, serious discussion is on the other side of the board...

edited 1st Dec '11 4:38:19 PM by pvtnum11

Well I don't have to worry about maintaining and fixing my cars problems. A drunk driver smashed the back end of the car. Warped the frame, back door and trunk would not open on the driver side. Muffler broke off the frame and was cracked open. At some point while our car was set in drive we ended up going backwards. I am sure that wasn't any good for the gears of the car.

After we get done tangling iwth insurance companies and likely lawyers after the fact we have to try and find another car. Cash for clunkers pulled a lot of the really cheap cars off the market making it hard for poor folks to pick up a ride just to get to work. Like Pvt noted cars are not cheap.

jeez Tuefel, that both sucks and blows. Everyone came through the accident all right I hope.

Yeah everyone is ok. I have to worry about something I hate worrying about. Money for a car.

Then I have to try and find a decent replacement. I really want to get another older ford. They are pretty good cars and reasonably durable.

Found out our Taurus engine was made with high grade cast iron. My car had a hateful heart of iron.

I'd check craigslist, Tuef. You might get lucky...

I can find a '99 Taurus on island for 1700 bucks. You might fare better.

Or you could get this and make me green with envy...

edited 6th Dec '11 3:49:10 PM by pvtnum11

I'll second Craiglist if there's one for your area, Teuf. That's where I found the Explorer, which incidentally, I love driving. It's so frakin' nimble compared to what I was used to with the Suburban. And the heater works a charm and doesn't take fifteen minutes to start blowing warm air.

Good lord, how many luxury car brands are having Holiday Sales?

All of them.

Last time I checked, I could count them all on one hand, but it required all five fingers.

EDIT: I almost forgot, I read in Motor Trend this week that Saab gets to live! Sweet!

edited 14th Dec '11 12:43:11 PM by RocketDude

But is any of Saab left but a namebadge anyway? GM destroyed anything worthwhile about Saab.

As far as I can tell, they're sort of starting over now. Some of the current or upcoming lineup is based on the GM designs, but some of it is new. Whether there's any relation to the old character of what made Saab great is unclear, though...

GM fired pretty much all the design and development staff when it took over, to make Saab into yet another clone brand in the corporate machine ...

SAAB needs to bring back two-strokes and cars that weigh less than a ton. I had a lot of fun learning how to drive on a Model 96 (although it was a V4 model).