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1989 XR4Ti... 41K miles, showroom condition.
I believe this is a picture of it taken by a previous owner. If not, it looks exactly the same.
As for whether it is quality or reliable... the quality is quite good for its day and it is definitely not reliable.
My wife says it has a "weak constitution".
We had a Cadillac Catera for a while; that's actually a rebadged Opel Omega. Lot of people didn't know that.
Man, that car was a rocket! Held the road like a slot car, I'm telling you. And quiet!
The water leak required the intake manifold to be removed - $1100.
It burned oil! Lots of it. How many of today's cars burn oil?!
The radiator went out - labor was 5 hours.
Sensor in the gas tank went out and leaked gas if we filled it up - $1100 to replace tank.
We kept it a couple of years, but breathed a sigh of relief when it was gone. Wife drives Japanese cars, now.
A friend of mine has a VW Touregue (sp?) and the battery died, he took it to the dealer, $800 to replace it. Why? It's under the drivers seat, the power seat has to be removed to replace the battery. If that's German engineering at it's finest............
We own current cars.
We own vintage cars.
We own vintage race cars.
We own motorcycles...
Our newest is a 2015 BMW.
Our oldest is a 1952 MG.
Our fastest is a 2010 Mercedes E550 Coupe.
Our slowest is a 1966 Triumph Spitfire.
I write an automotive column for a couple newspapers & a very popular blog on cars & car related life.
Whenever I read threads such as this one, I realize how little most folks really know about cars. If you really cannot tell the difference in driving dynamic between say, a Hyundai, Lexus & a Mercedes Benz, then you might as well simply buy the cheapest one (assuming that cheap is the most important factor for most folks on this thread).
There really are very few bad cars currently made. We're on our fourth Mercedes Benz, and very happy with it both in terms of reliability, quality, and primarily the actual driving experience. If you honestly can't tell the difference, don't pay the premium.
We recently replaced my wife's Cadillac SRX. It was a superb car, but sadly,at around 65,000 miles started experiencing difficult to trace electrical problems. She does the typical errand running, etc. She is also a licensed competition race driver, and has little interest in cars with mediocre performance. We drove all the vehicles that seemed like they might work for her: Subaru Outback, VW Jetta wagon, Volvo wagon, Mercedes ML, Audi Allroad, and more. By far, her favorite was the BMW 328i wagon & X3.
I really wanted her to like the Subaru or VW, because they're the cheapos. Alas, after she drove those, she immediately dismissed them as having significantly inferior interior, performance & handling.
So, she chose the BMW 328ix wagon. All-wheel drive, decent turbo engine, typically superior BMW driving dynamics. Great seats, nice leather, and wood trim.
Did we care a bit about future service costs? No. It came with free service for three years, no cost for anything except tires basically. Now here's a little secret about older (as in out of warranty) cars, especially high performance ones: How the car was treated, maintained, serviced, repaired, and driven by the original owner is an exceedingly important factor. sure, there can be the rare "Lemon", but those are very few, in reality. German cars (real ones, not made in Mexico ones) are typically very well built. As they age, they generally will require more costly repairs than Japanese, and increasingly, Korean cars. Swedish, meaning just Volvo these days currently lack the refinement and quality of Germans. They also utilize some very difficult to diagnose electrical systems; think CAN-bus...
If driving dynamics are not a primary factor in your car, then you're better off buying virtually any of the Japanese brands, or a Hyundai. Hyundai's sister company: KIA seems to be having a bit more difficulty in producing the high quality that Hyundai is building.
Currently, I think Mazda has the best driving Asian cars made.
If quiet & comfy are the most important factors; Lexus is a good choice. Especially if great handling isn't important to you...
Some luxury brands offer free scheduled maintenance. Can't beat free!
Mercedes is not one of them. Other than warranty, I would stay far, far away from the Mercedes dealership.
It's not free, it was built into the cost of the car.
I found an expensive watch one day. And thought it was pretty cool and set the time. The next day it had lost almost 5 minutes. Then I learned expensive watches need regular maintenance. Go figure.
Same thing with expensive cars. $60000 cars have big money bills.
We own current cars.
We own vintage cars.
We own vintage race cars.
We own motorcycles...
Our newest is a 2015 BMW.
Our oldest is a 1952 MG.
Our fastest is a 2010 Mercedes E550 Coupe.
Our slowest is a 1966 Triumph Spitfire.
I write an automotive column for a couple newspapers & a very popular blog on cars & car related life.
Whenever I read threads such as this one, I realize how little most folks really know about cars. If you really cannot tell the difference in driving dynamic between say, a Hyundai, Lexus & a Mercedes Benz, then you might as well simply buy the cheapest one (assuming that cheap is the most important factor for most folks on this thread).
There really are very few bad cars currently made. We're on our fourth Mercedes Benz, and very happy with it both in terms of reliability, quality, and primarily the actual driving experience. If you honestly can't tell the difference, don't pay the premium.
We recently replaced my wife's Cadillac SRX. It was a superb car, but sadly,at around 65,000 miles started experiencing difficult to trace electrical problems. She does the typical errand running, etc. She is also a licensed competition race driver, and has little interest in cars with mediocre performance. We drove all the vehicles that seemed like they might work for her: Subaru Outback, VW Jetta wagon, Volvo wagon, Mercedes ML, Audi Allroad, and more. By far, her favorite was the BMW 328i wagon & X3.
I really wanted her to like the Subaru or VW, because they're the cheapos. Alas, after she drove those, she immediately dismissed them as having significantly inferior interior, performance & handling.
So, she chose the BMW 328ix wagon. All-wheel drive, decent turbo engine, typically superior BMW driving dynamics. Great seats, nice leather, and wood trim.
Did we care a bit about future service costs? No. It came with free service for three years, no cost for anything except tires basically. Now here's a little secret about older (as in out of warranty) cars, especially high performance ones: How the car was treated, maintained, serviced, repaired, and driven by the original owner is an exceedingly important factor. sure, there can be the rare "Lemon", but those are very few, in reality. German cars (real ones, not made in Mexico ones) are typically very well built. As they age, they generally will require more costly repairs than Japanese, and increasingly, Korean cars. Swedish, meaning just Volvo these days currently lack the refinement and quality of Germans. They also utilize some very difficult to diagnose electrical systems; think CAN-bus...
If driving dynamics are not a primary factor in your car, then you're better off buying virtually any of the Japanese brands, or a Hyundai. Hyundai's sister company: KIA seems to be having a bit more difficulty in producing the high quality that Hyundai is building.
Currently, I think Mazda has the best driving Asian cars made.
If quiet & comfy are the most important factors; Lexus is a good choice. Especially if great handling isn't important to you...
A friend of mine has a VW Touregue (sp?) and the battery died, he took it to the dealer, $800 to replace it. Why? It's under the drivers seat, the power seat has to be removed to replace the battery. If that's German engineering at it's finest............
It isn't rocket science to remove the seat. Honesty that is a failure of researching a car before you buy it. Not too hard to notice the battery isn't under the Hood.
I found an expensive watch one day. And thought it was pretty cool and set the time. The next day it had lost almost 5 minutes. Then I learned expensive watches need regular maintenance. Go figure.
Same thing with expensive cars. $60000 cars have big money bills.
There is no better example of the difference between quality and reliability than a watch.
IMO, there is no higher quality product than a Patek Phillippe watch. A dollar store watch will keep better time.
Rolexes are popular because they're less finicky than most other luxury watches.
Rolex movements are more pedestrian, but also quite robust. I've had 'em and mine always worked.
Very expensive watches often have very thin and complicated movements.
If you want a luxury watch and can't handle the servicing, stick to quartz.
Even Patek make them, mainly for older customers who don't move around enough to keep an automatic running.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wankel7
It isn't rocket science to remove the seat. Honesty that is a failure of researching a car before you buy it. Not too hard to notice the battery isn't under the Hood.
That is definitely something I'd have at myself before paying a stealership stupid money to do it.
Buy a tool, undo two bolts and tilt the seat back sounds like a simple job to me.
Last edited by eaton53; 08-16-2015 at 09:11 AM..
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