🚀 go-pugleaf

Joel Garry wrote in message ...
>On Sat, 20 Feb 1999 00:12:31 GMT, Woody <Woody93LX@yahoonospam.com> wrote:
>>'87 GT midly modified   145k and still runs strong
>>'87 LX 5.0L   stock    136k and still runs strong

I'm truly impressed, but I think Joel hit the nail on the head here with the
following:

>>'93 LX 5.0L  heavily modified   46k, 6k on engine (im breaking alot of
>>
>>      shit on this one so it doesn't count)
>>
>>the dinosaur pushrod V8s in the Caprice that Taxi companies use are
>>one of the most reliable engines (even a crappy magazine like Consumer
>>Reports says so). So are the Ford 302s and GM 350s
>
>There are dinosaurs and there are dinosaurs (and dyno-soars).  The big
>improvement in manufacturing that the Japanese learned from Deming was
>to try to get everything exactly to spec, rather than within tolerances.


>Note that even Lotus went to a V8.

They had to.  US safety regs. and all of the 'nicey-nice' stuff that the
consumers with the money were demanding added so much weight to the cars
that it just wasn't practical to use a 4 cylinder anymore, but they still
had to slap a couple of compressors on . .

Now when somebody stuffs one into the Elise we'll have something!


>It's certainly fair to say that modern inducted engines are more reliable
>than older normally aspirated engines.  It may not be fair to compare
>modern V8s to older V8s in reliability.  I find that Saturn commercial
>about the 300K car that only had the drivers seat go bad... suitable for
>tabloid TV.

These ads mostly appeal to the people who think of the automobile as a
utility, unlike most of the rest of us who also consider it a source of
entertainment and a hobby.

Sorry, I'd never buy a Saturn because of ads like that among other reasons.
I suppose I hardly qualify as part of their target market though . . .


--
Kip C. Anderson
kca at rio dot com
91 Impulse RS AWD Turbo @ 17 psi

P.S.  'How do you get the smell of fear out of the passenger seat?'