Posted on 12/26/2004 4:36:26 PM PST by Brilliant
Avoid cars made in socialist countries such as Germany. Also avoid Nissan, which is controlled by the French Renault. Avoid Michelin.
Not I. When I was in the Army at Ft. Bliss, TX in the 70's, I would moonlight as a mechanic at one of the the few sports car shops in town. Mostly MG's and Jags, but the occasional Ferrari or Maserati on a foolish road trip from L.A. to somewhere in Texas. No Merc's. Made me appreciate Chevy's until the '80's.
The great thing is it's got the luxury too, in addition to the great quality!
Cut the cheese on the French?
If she didn't have to have want a full-sized rig, she would be in a rice-burner also...prolly a Maxima.
Michelin makes a lot of fine tires in South Carolina. I don't give a damn that they're French-owned. The Pilot Sport All-Season is just a superior tire, especially in the wet, and my family rides on them.
There's a lot of truth to that. They had superior, higher performance, but less reliable and less numerous, tanks, as compared to the U.S. and Soviet models.
The Mercedes I owned was the biggest POS ever.
It'd've been cheaper to have had a mistress.
Now the happy owner of an affordable, reliable Toyota (but no mistress).
So do I..A perfectly good, disposable 99 Taurus..I have a long commute. It is an unremarkable, solid, reliable car that I can park anywhere, with decent economy (~30mpg), and reasonable acceleration.
It's my WIFE who has the Jaguar Problem. In fairness, I spend about the same amount of time working on each. (The Ford gets a LOT more miles on it, and the language is MUCH worse under the hood of the Jag.)
Time for the "Lucas, Prince of Darkness" jokes. Nothing ever serious, just "Being pecked to death by ducks"..loose connectors and onboard computers that really NEED to talk to each other.
Never had a Mercedes. I like things that were put together by people who speak some approximation of my language. It makes reading the manuals easier.
.
I test drove used BMW's (700 series), Mercedes-benz (500 series) and Mercury Grand Marquis.
They were all between 5-10 years old. The 95 Grand Marquis was the superior car.
It was solid, quiet ( no rattling, no loose switches etc) and handled beautifully. Lots of power.
It was definitely better, and far simpler.
Keep It Simple.
Maintainability and Reliability go hand-in-hand with availability.
But today was different: I must have seen at least 20 Ferraris (the new ones), a handful of the super-charged convertible Bentleys and a smattering of Lambos and other exoctics. (Porsches don't even seem to rate anymore.) Maybe it's the economy or maybe it's getting near the end of the year for tax write-off purposes, but it was interesting seeing so many on parade.
And oh, by the way, Newport Beach is probably 75%+ Bush country. The Hollywood libs hate it.
High-volume production is conducive to quality. The more expense the car, the lower the volume and, statistically perhaps, the lower the quality.
Yeah, that's what I've got too. '99 Taurus. They say that the foreign nameplates have less trouble. Since I've always bought American, I can't say for myself. I've never had any really serious trouble, though, despite 30 years of experience with the American vehicles. I always get the extended warranty. I feel like the manufacturer ought to have an incentive to build a more reliable car. I give it to them. I can't work on the cars they make nowadays. Too complicated.
our department went through a "DELL" phase and has a half dozen broken laptops just out of warranty for its effort -- cheap from keyboard feel to LCD screen to battery charger to ergonometrics. what junk!
we went to refurbished IBM laptops and not one has failed in three years...
Everybody is strugling with quality problems
They all think Computer Aided Design and computer controls are are wonderful
Cars were easier to fix and more reliable pre computer anything
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.