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  #61  
Old 01-25-2014, 07:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Tom Joad View Post
I can remember back in the day, if you got 85K out of a car that was damned good. Usually you needed a complete engine and transmission rebuild before that.

Nowadays, for a car like a Toyota or my Honda, 85K is just getting broken in.

I switched to Japanese in 1990.

When I did I noticed a huge improvement in durability and workmanship.

Next to them the American vehicles that I had had for the previous 26 years were crap.

I have heard that since 1990 the American vehicles have caught up in quality.

Well, maybe they have, and maybe they haven't, but I have no intention of finding out.
I pretty much agree based upon my own experience. My wife's 2003 Toyota Sienna with 140K miles still runs like it's brand new. Doesn't consume a drop of oil. The only non-maintenance repair was the replacement of a catalytic converter at about 120K. Other than that, just fluids, brakes and tires.

OTOH, her 1995 Ford Windstar was the single most gawd-awful POS I have ever owned. We had 3 rebuilt engines put in this thing under warranty within 1 tank of gas. No shit. Ford has screwed up the head design so badly that engines were overheating and destroying themselves within 60K miles. They had so much rebuild work that they were forced to subcontract out rebuilds to non-union shops.

The union mechanics deliberately sabotaged a number of replacement engines, as they did with one of mine. The local Ford mechanic who replaced the engine noticed that a head bolt was missing, so he had to remove the head totally to retorque all bolts. A head bolt was down inside one of the cylinders. He said this had been happening with some frequency across the country.

Her Windstar seemed to be of similar quality to a Trabant or a Wartburg (from the former East Germany).
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  #62  
Old 01-27-2014, 10:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Tom Joad View Post
I can remember back in the day, if you got 85K out of a car that was damned good. Usually you needed a complete engine and transmission rebuild before that.
....
Yeah 100k was a LOT. Now even my decrepit terrible American cars routinely do over 200k

My dad rebuilt engines when he was in HS for extra money, they needed it every 20-30k miles back then according to him.

Pete
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  #63  
Old 01-27-2014, 12:21 PM
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Originally Posted by piece-itpete View Post
Yeah 100k was a LOT. Now even my decrepit terrible American cars routinely do over 200k

My dad rebuilt engines when he was in HS for extra money, they needed it every 20-30k miles back then according to him.

Pete
I think a great deal of this has to do with fuel injection systems rather than carburetors. There is much less fuel blow-by in modern fuel injected engines than there was with carburetors. This blow-by resulted in fuel dilution of the oil and greatly enhanced wear on the main bearings. It wasn't uncommon to start hearing bearing chatter at 80-90K miles, whereas nowadays with fuel injection and improved engine oils, the bearings seem to last far longer.
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  #64  
Old 01-27-2014, 03:41 PM
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Then against all odds we got lucky when we first bought Florence's Impala LS and them I bought mine almost a year later and we woumd up with the only two 100% reliable autos?

Neither one was recalled for ruaway acceleratio, or failing brakes. Now there is a number to look at, recalls on the Chev Impala LS. So far mine was reclled for seat belts. Oh and both had a recall because some guy at NTHSB thought that a plastic guide on the front of the engine block "might" catch fire.
I have to tell ya, the 350 Vortec on my 99' Tahoe has about 193,000 miles on it and the oil still runs clear. I find that kind of impressive.
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  #65  
Old 01-27-2014, 06:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete View Post
Yeah 100k was a LOT. Now even my decrepit terrible American cars routinely do over 200k

My dad rebuilt engines when he was in HS for extra money, they needed it every 20-30k miles back then according to him.

Pete
My first car in HS was a 52 Dodge.

I think it had about 80K on it when I bought it for $60.

Everytime I filled up with gas I would put a quart of oil in it. That first quart was a given, done deal, no question about it.

Then, I would check the oil to see if it needed a second one. About half the time it did.

On the other hand the body was as solid as a tank.

One time I was tooling down a sand road in the woods and I spun out of control and slammed into a pine tree. It put a little ding in the fender about the size of a tea cup saucer. If that happened to my Honda it would probably be totaled.

Last edited by Tom Joad; 01-27-2014 at 06:26 PM.
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  #66  
Old 01-28-2014, 01:56 PM
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Originally Posted by MrPots View Post
I have to tell ya, the 350 Vortec on my 99' Tahoe has about 193,000 miles on it and the oil still runs clear. I find that kind of impressive.
2015 Tahoe looks so impressive. I think there is one in the Mrs future. Big enough to carry 4-5 people comfortably and tow a trailer. The 5.3 Vortec by now is such a proven engine.
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  #67  
Old 01-28-2014, 04:49 PM
MrPots MrPots is offline
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The Tahoe's are pretty nice, but the should be. 11 MPG though.
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