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18869. Macnas - 3/14/2006 10:31:44 AM 
My little car, which, I am told, I am far too big for.
18870. Macnas - 3/14/2006 10:34:26 AM 
The Missus's car.
18871. Macnas - 3/14/2006 10:44:31 AM 
What I should buy next time.
18872. Macnas - 3/14/2006 10:48:05 AM 
What I'd really like to buy next time.
18873. PelleNilsson - 3/14/2006 11:26:11 AM My car, a Volvo V40, is getting on in years too. I'm thinking French for the next one. 18874. Macnas - 3/14/2006 11:38:50 AM I love the comfort of French cars, hate the trouble they cause.
I used to drive a peugeot, it was great when it decided to work. 18875. Neato - 3/14/2006 1:10:10 PM I love my citroen xsara - three years old. Only had it a month. 18876. Macnas - 3/14/2006 1:46:52 PM Good car, maybe the best of the French makes. 18877. PelleNilsson - 3/14/2006 2:17:43 PM This is the most exciting car we ever had - a BMW 2800.
We bought it from another Swede in Beirut 1975 and drove it home through Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Arriving in Austria was like entering Paradise.
The next year we drove it to Algeria. It suffered there because the car mechanics' experience was with French cars. Two years later it made it home, though, but only just. We crossed the Pyrenées with a leaky main brake cylinder - an interesting experience. We sold it for a pittance and bought a Peugot 405 from a guy who had been with us in Algeria and was packing his bags for a stint in Malaysia. It served us well. We had it for several years and never had any trouble.
18878. Macnas - 3/14/2006 2:38:58 PM The main problem with French cars is the electrics, especially Renault.
That and trying to get parts. One model could go through several different design chains in it's market-span, meaning you had to know the year and month it was made, and then you would wait. 18879. thoughtful - 3/14/2006 2:55:42 PM I had an opel for my first car...thing was a wreck but ran like a top and managed to get me where i needed to go.
We had a datsun too. Thing also ran like a top but the body disintegrated...we used to call it the rotson.
We tried a renault one time and tried getting it up a hill in the area...the thing was so weak on power that it decelerated all the way to the top. I wasn't sure it was ever going to get me to the crest of the hill.
Wonks, I've heard rumors that gm has improved quality but I a) don't believe it and b) don't care. They've lost me as a customer forever. And I certainly don't want to buy a car from a company that's going through mass layoffs. Even if their mfg design and processes are improved, there's always p/o'd workers and sabotage. No thanks.
And don't go by the jd power survey for judging car quality. It's a very short-term look and doesn't pick up on quality problems that emerge down the road, like the tranny in my acura. Those are easiest to see when you look at the consumer reports on used cars....no other car maker is so in the red (good) like toyota. 18880. Macnas - 3/14/2006 3:11:07 PM The early Nissans, or Datsuns, rotted in front of your eyes.
I remember the first Datsun Sunny, and another model called the Cherry (who the hell makes up these model names, Barney the dinosaur?). They were alright to look at but after a few months in Irish weather, it was like driving a colander. 18881. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 3/14/2006 3:13:40 PM I'm with thoughtful. GM has produced crap for decades and they're undeserving of any loyalty. My first car was a '53 Chevy, then a '63 Chevy and a '68 Pontiac Tempest--all great cars. How sad it was to see GM products turn into junk over the years. I know you're a Detroit boy Wonk, but GM died long ago, IMO. 18882. arkymalarky - 3/14/2006 4:45:28 PM I had a Datsun for my second car, which I bought my first year of teaching. Last I kept up, Bob's nephew had it, and it had to have well over 300,000 miles on it, though the odometer had broken years ago. It had the same problem you all describe. By the time we got rid of it you could see the road through the floorboard. 18883. thoughtful - 3/14/2006 4:51:51 PM Hahahah! Ah yes. With our datsun, anyone in the passenger seat rode with an umbrella.
No, not overhead but upside down in the floor area to keep the splashing to a minimum when the car went through a puddle.
It also had this broken speedometer. The needle would spin as you drove along...the faster you drove, the faster it would spin. When you stopped, it would stop somewhere on the dial at random. Kind of a hoot to be at a stoplight and the speedometer reading 60! 18884. Jenerator - 3/14/2006 5:34:54 PM Thoughtful,
I had an Opel GT! 18885. Jenerator - 3/14/2006 5:35:22 PM I think the French drive the world's smallest cars. 18886. Macnas - 3/14/2006 5:48:24 PM Well, the Smart car is pretty small. 18887. thoughtful - 3/14/2006 6:11:03 PM opel gt's were cute.
the mini cooper is about as small as we have them here now, but i remember the very early honda civics that were really wee...one I saw had stenciled in the back window "Tonka"
but for size, you couldn't get much smaller than the mg midget:
 18888. PelleNilsson - 3/14/2006 6:42:13 PM 
The Mini was our second car. What I remember most about it was the long, angled gearstick like in a truck and the imprecise gear positions.
This was our first car (my car actually, we weren't married then).
Colin Powell has a fine collection of them. Ours was memorable for the amount of engine oil it consumed while approching its unglorious end.
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