Gone to the dark side

[Seabee]

Ok, since I've been here in H town my old Frankentruck has turned a lot of heads. But, you must understand, I do need something with a little better gas mileage.
And, my dear sweetie's ride is a 94 Z-71... also not reeeeeal friendly at the pump. Soooooooooo I've been lookin on Carmax... etc.. and not finding anything that really tripped my trigger.
Friday night after a nice dinner we're on the way home and cruising by a couple of dealerships. She says "we should go see what they have". I say, nahhh, not tonight. BUT then the spirit strikes me to exit and drop into a CHEVY dealership.... where I find this on the 'pre-owned' lot:






2007 accord coupe, local one owner car, 24k miles. I bought it right there.

[nfury8]

As long as the Frankentruck wasn't a trade in!!

[Cageman]

I used to drive my 70 power wagon as a daily driver. I couldnt afford to go anywhere.
Then I bought a 11,000 dollar 95 ram that got 17mpg. Now I could all of a sudden afford to go places.
Then I bought a 96 neon a couple years ago that gets 40 mpg, now I really can afford to go anywhere, I also have put a cummins engine in my 71, and it gets good mileage too, so now I drive across country at the slightest of whims, cuz it gets good mileage.

My conclusion, I wish I would have just kept driving the 70 power wagon and never bought all the other ones. Life would be so much more simpler and I never saved any money, I spend more on gas now, as I think I can drive anywhere cheap, and I do. I dont think if I drove the 70 all this time I would have spent the purchase price of the 95 in gas, no way. Ialso wouldnt have driven all across the country buying things that are good deals either, so oh well.

We owned a 05 honda civic SI, I never really liked that car. It only got 26 mpg, if you drove it nice, and it didnt like to drive nice. Highway mpg sucked and we had a few problems with it. Sold it outright and she drives a Jeep patriot now, and it gets 28 to 30 mpg, and it has way more room and is way comfier. We had a two door 97 accord before that and it was an alright car for her, but my 6 foot two frame didnt fit in it at all. She was hit in a head on and it totoalled it out. That too barely got 25 mpg, and it was a 4 banger too. That was when I drove it, she had a car starter and abused it in the winter and it maybe got 15 mpg with her driving.
My buddy lives in Spokane and drives a tow truck, he says hondas are the most stolen vehicles there, they recover two a week, Thieves like em for some reason

Her car after the wreck, the lady that hit her head on had no insurance, boy that put a hurtin on our check book that whole year, hospital bills and such. I had to quit racing for one year because of that untill it all got settled out. She thankfully didnt die though.



Looks like a nice car, if its a v6 it wont get that uch mpg though. I wonder if the oil filter is in as dumb a spot as our old si, I hated changing oil on that thing.

[BrowneBlue]

This reminds me of when a friend of mine told me about a $100 Pontiac Grand Am Coupe. It needed some work, but could get 30mpg all day. A very nice thing when gas was $4 a gallon. I soon realized that the extra car expense was not making financial sense (for us) and my wife hated that little car. We sold it to buy a dishwasher. If I lived in the same town where I worked I'd drive my Dodge about every day because fuel mileage wouldn't matter across town.
Looks like a great car, seabee, should be a lot of fun and better on gas! If we were in the market for a car to replace my 200,000 mile Suburban I think we'd go with Hyundia or Kia.

[wideblock]

i think it needs a mock sweptline pinstripe down the side...LOL i was looking at the reflections in the second pic, it would look sweet

who did you buy it from??

[soopernaut]

I'm surprised the sales people didn't tell you that many of the Chevrolets they sell get better fuel mileage than any of those foreign cars.

[Seabee]

I was actually looking pretty seriously at chevy cobalts, but I got the accord for what they were selling for
And it gets better gas mileage. So far getting 31mpg with about even mix of freeway and in town driving.
It was on Mac Haiks chevy lot here in Houston.

[wideblock]

i have bought 4 vehicles from mack haik chevy, good people to work with. if you want to get mileage man, you should have gone waaaaay to the dark side like i just did...lol

[Seabee]

Ooooooooo very VERY nice. But I've already got a sweet black bike.
(it's a Trek 4300 LOL)

[BigAL]

LOL at the trek ... right on though.

[Grodr625]

IMO Hondas to Chevys are apples to oranges. How many chevies can boast well over 200,000 miles without any major work? American cars seem to be getting better, but compare the number of mid 90s cavaliers and escorts still on the road vs. their japanese counterparts. The proof is in the numbers. Hate these foreign cars all you want, but if you don't have the luxury of buying a new car every 5 years, Japanese is the way to go! Excellent buy with the accord

[soopernaut]

IMO Hondas to Chevys are apples to oranges. How many chevies can boast well over 200,000 miles without any major work? American cars seem to be getting better, but compare the number of mid 90s cavaliers and escorts still on the road vs. their japanese counterparts. The proof is in the numbers. Hate these foreign cars all you want, but if you don't have the luxury of buying a new car every 5 years, Japanese is the way to go! Excellent buy with the accord

I have to disagree with this. In the area I live things may be different than other areas but this is what I've observed.

75% of all the vehicles on craigslist are American vehicles built by the big three. Most of the older ones are American. Most people in this area who drive foreign vehicles have newer vehicles.

I walked roughly a mile today and saw 5 Escorts and 5 Cavaliers but I have no idea how many miles are on them. I saw many foreign cars but they were pretty much all newer. I'm not going to say that Escorts and Cavaliers are good cars either as I would never own one.

I haven't owned a car in over 10 years and wouldn't own a front wheel drive vehicle but if I wanted a newer car with good fuel mileage I would get the last generation of Camaro or Mustang with a V6. Any of the 3.8 liter GM cars can pull mid to high 30s on the freeway. I would probably find a small older car and build it the way I wanted it.

[Hobcobble]

I have to disagree with this. In the area I live things may be different than other areas but this is what I've observed.

75% of all the vehicles on craigslist are American vehicles built by the big three. Most of the older ones are American. Most people in this area who drive foreign vehicles have newer vehicles.

I wonder why the imports have been "eating the Big Three's lunch" for the past several
years? I wonder how many of the 75% of Craig's List ads you read are people ditching
their Big Three car for an import? Number of units sold, their quality, the customer's
level of satisfaction, etc. have bore this out. Both GM & Chrysler have undergone
recent "steps" to improve the quality of their autos [poor quality auto interiors have
been a recent hot topic]. I have never owned an import. In all likelihood, I will never
have the need or desire to. I'm not even disagreeing with you.... just pointing out
some personal observations and asking some questions....
John

[soopernaut]

I wonder why the imports have been "eating the Big Three's lunch" for the past several
years?

Brainwashing

I wonder how many of the 75% of Craig's List ads you read are people ditching
their Big Three car for an import?

I wondered the same thing, perhaps people are getting rid of them to buy new imports however there isn't really any evidence that can lead to a conclusion.

Number of units sold, their quality, the customer's
level of satisfaction, etc. have bore this out.

True but this is based on a simple observation.

Both GM & Chrysler have undergone
recent "steps" to improve the quality of their autos [poor quality auto interiors have
been a recent hot topic].

Foreign cars have problems too but are under-reported and hidden by the import loving media.

[Hobcobble]

Soopernaut,
At the end of the day..... you look at the number of units sold [talking small/mid-size
cars and not mid to full size pickups]. If its brainwashing, as you say, then its
happened on a grand scale. I think JD Powers gives more of an accurate
assessment than does Consumer Reports. Their July '09 data had imports at
the top of most categories.... FWIW.....
John

[Grodr625]

I remember 5 years ago when I owned a 1995 Nissan pathfinder, I went to the junkyard looking for a tire carrier. I was overwhelemed with chevy blazers and broncos and found one pathfinder that had been rolled. This was at Harry´s U pull it in Hazleton PA which boast the title of the largest junkyard in the world. Granted, this may be a bad example as many of these 2nd generation pathfinders are now found on ebay and craigslist due to poor steel causing frame rot, but I sold mine with 270,000 miles and never did anything more involved then a new timing belt to the thing. Sold it to a guy who loaded it into a container and sent her to Bolivia. On the other hand, my folks purchased a 1993 Chevy Blazer new and drove it until 2005 after having the crankshaft replaced under warranty, the fuel injectors replaced three times and more front end rebuilds then I can keep track of. It finally left us stranded on route 78 when it blew a rod through the oil pan at 160,000. My old man´s 1998 Ranger needed a trans rebuild at 100,000 miles. Both these vehicles underwent regular maintainance. Based on horrific personal experiences with my 1988 Monte Carlo (My first Car) and a 1987 Chrysler Lebaron (2nd Car) I only believe in classic American iron.

Have any of you seen the Toyota commercial with the son and dad at the car wash? The ad states "80% of all Toyotas sold in the last 20 years are still on the road." Let´s here the big three say that. Enough said.

[soopernaut]

Soopernaut,
At the end of the day..... you look at the number of units sold [talking small/mid-size
cars and not mid to full size pickups]. If its brainwashing, as you say, then its
happened on a grand scale. I think JD Powers gives more of an accurate
assessment than does Consumer Reports. Their July '09 data had imports at
the top of most categories.... FWIW.....
John

More examples of brainwashing on a grand scale.

Global Warming: 57% of the population believes in global warming. There is evidence to prove it exists and there is evidence that it doesn't exist. This argument will go on for a long time.

Politics: many of those opposed to the current president think that the American public can't think for themselves. I've heard this on another Sweptline forum.

Religion: some people may think that all forms of religion are brainwashing. I'm sure most, if not everyone, on this forum thinks that suicide bombers and Jihadists have been brainwashed to believe they are doing good. The people doing it sure don't think so.

Since Grodr625 made his original statement based on his observations, my disagreement was made based on my own observations. There will always be a debate on who builds the best cars.

Iowa is GM land. The larger cities probably have more foreign cars than the rural areas but there are more GM vehicles here than anything else. Based on some counting I did roughly 1/4 to 1/5 of the cars I saw Today were foreign. That is a very small amount. The majority of the 90s vehicles on the road are Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Saturns and Chevy trucks. There are a lot of Chrysler mini vans too.

[Trailmaster]

Hate these foreign cars all you want, but if you don't have the luxury of buying a new car every 5 years, Japanese is the way to go!

I have to disagree. I don't have the luxery of replacing a vehicle every year, that's why I drive Mopars from the 70s. The family cruiser is the 75 Duster, and looking at comparable vehicles that seat 6 my old slant six gets pretty close to the same fuel economy as anything available foriegn or domestic.

I found a calculator online that compared fuel costs with the purchase price to see if it was worth trading in your vehicle on a new one. Using the calculator showed that for comparable vehicle, it would take me 58 years to recover the cost of the purchase if I traded in my Duster. I have no idea how to compare maintenence costs, but I'm guessing that they aren't going to be as much, especially since I can fix everything on the Duster myself, only computer required might be to get on one of the Mopar forums to ask questions.

[Hobcobble]

Iowa is GM land. The larger cities probably have more foreign cars than the rural areas but there are more GM vehicles here than anything else. Based on some counting I did roughly 1/4 to 1/5 of the cars I saw Today were foreign. That is a very small amount. The majority of the 90s vehicles on the road are Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Saturns and Chevy trucks. There are a lot of Chrysler mini vans too.

My relatives settled Hamilton County in Iowa. They've been farming there since the mid 1800's.
In all the years [decades] of pictures I've seen and during all the years I worked Summers on
the family farm, I would say that chevy & gmc were most prevalent. There was a time back in
the '30s & again in the early '50's that Dodges & Studebakers were used. In the late '70's there
were a couple of fords but that was about it. There was always a good general motors dealership
right in town that had a good reputation. Other dealerships weren't as friendly. My relatives
liked Dodges but didn't care for the nearest dealership.
John