If you dont do your own work there is no such thing as a cheap old car.
If you dont do your own work there is no such thing as a cheap old car.
chaparral wrote:unevolved wrote:Legal lane-splitting. Texas quality pavement without Texan heat. 1000s of miles of mountain roads which make 3090, 166, and 337 look like turnpikes. You'll have less fun in the shop but more fun on the roads provided you aren't spending two hours a day in L.A. or Bay Area traffic!desperately wanted to leave Texas for goodClearly this guy's not in his right state of mind. An automotive "enthusiast" that INTENTIONALLY moved to the Republic of California?
I know, I was mostly being facetious. I could never stomach the prices and taxes to live out there, especially since I enjoy firearms as well. I can see why people find it appealing, but it's not for me.
chaparral wrote:unevolved wrote:Legal lane-splitting. Texas quality pavement without Texan heat. 1000s of miles of mountain roads which make 3090, 166, and 337 look like turnpikes. You'll have less fun in the shop but more fun on the roads provided you aren't spending two hours a day in L.A. or Bay Area traffic!desperately wanted to leave Texas for goodClearly this guy's not in his right state of mind. An automotive "enthusiast" that INTENTIONALLY moved to the Republic of California?
Living close to work in LA has been an essential component of a high quality of life. 15 minutes to work, 30 minutes back home. There are some amazing roads with low traffic within an hour's reach of the city. Get this--If you are driving faster than people in front of you, they get out of the way! Blows my mind every time.
I saw one of these signs yesterday with "next 52 miles" posted underneath:
Nope, not in Florida anymore.
$6795? Divide by 6 years?
New clutch, brakes, top, fuel filter? That could be any car. Fuel filter? Come on.
Sagging stock springs? Isn't that what car guys WANT to hear?
I'm not sure that "Texas quality pavement" is a good thing. Maybe I was spoiled by Tennessee quality pavement but the roads here in central Texas are far from good.
Datsun310Guy wrote: Sagging stock springs? Isn't that what car guys WANT to hear?
This guy is NOT a car guy. He responded to a comment saying that he would absolutely love to have an Accord.
TeamEvil wrote: I'm hoping to pick up a good later model Miata this Spring, but I can still sympathize with the "writer" on one point. Electronics . . . I drive an '07 Mustang which starts every time I get in and I have no clue why it does. When the time comes when it doesn't start, I won't know why either. It's may as well be a magic trick. An inter-dimensional fluke. A combination of chicken blood and cat bones in a bowl. It starts. It's a wonder. It doesn't. It'll still be a wonder. I severely HATE this fact. I can open the hood at any time and look anywhere and still only see the radiator cap and windshield wiper fluid fill. Everything else may as well be an illusion . . . I HATE that! About old Miatas or almost old Mustangs.
What's there to hate? If it won't start, you plug a scanner into the car and ask it.
TeamEvil wrote: I'm hoping to pick up a good later model Miata this Spring, but I can still sympathize with the "writer" on one point. Electronics . . . I drive an '07 Mustang which starts every time I get in and I have no clue why it does. When the time comes when it doesn't start, I won't know why either. It's may as well be a magic trick. An inter-dimensional fluke. A combination of chicken blood and cat bones in a bowl. It starts. It's a wonder. It doesn't. It'll still be a wonder.
I have an NA Miata sitting in my backyard for a project someday. The Miata in question was rolled, crashed into several trees, and drove over what appears to be a field full of concrete parking stops. It has no top, no doors, and no trunklid. The hood is barely fastened down, and there's no interior, at all. To drive it around the yard, I hook a battery up to some frayed cables and stick a cinder block in the driver's floor.
But here's the thing, it always starts. Always. The last time I started it, a few weeks ago, it had been sitting about a year and had 2" of water in the floors, stewing with mulberries that had dropped off a nearby tree. I drilled a couple of 1/2" holes in the floor to let it drain, hooded up the battery, and damned if the thing didn't start. It's a freaking miracle.
" It's a freaking miracle."
Exactly, like magic.
If it didn't start for you, what then. If you're like most guys around here, you fix it. If you're like me, you look at the engine for a while, check the water in the radiator, close the hood and go back inside.
I don't have a code reader, it would cost a tow to get the car somewhere that a code reader resides. Then it would cost additional money to repair the problem. A ride with a carb and points-style distributor, fine. Anything else, not worth the trouble for me. I don't drive anywhere, in any fashion, that I need anything extra that a fuel injected computerized engine might offer. Just an around town kinda guy.
A reformed Ludite perhaps, but I like it super simple and fuel injection and computers don't come with that word attached, especially with older cars. I have friends who swear by their newer cars, they start every time, first tic of the key . . . right up until they don't.
HATE that ! ! !
I feel the same way about points and condensers. And, BTW, a code reader that talks to a computer costs about the same as a spare set of points. I guess it depends on if you'd rather be constantly fixing things using the knowledge you have, or very rarely having to fix things and possibly learning something in the process.
TeamEvil wrote: " It's a freaking miracle." Exactly, like magic. If it didn't start for you, what then. If you're like most guys around here, you fix it. If you're like me, you look at the engine for a while, check the water in the radiator, close the hood and go back inside. I don't have a code reader, it would cost a tow to get the car somewhere that a code reader resides. Then it would cost additional money to repair the problem. A ride with a carb and points-style distributor, fine. Anything else, not worth the trouble for me. I don't drive anywhere, in any fashion, that I need anything extra that a fuel injected computerized engine might offer. Just an around town kinda guy. A reformed Ludite perhaps, but I like it super simple and fuel injection and computers don't come with that word attached, especially with older cars. I have friends who swear by their newer cars, they start every time, first tic of the key . . . right up until they don't. HATE that ! ! !
the trick to diagnosing and working on modern cars is to realize that under all those wires there is still a standard 4 stroke engine that needs to suck, squish, bang, and blow.. all the electrical stuff is just there to make sure it happens.. spark plugs still spark, even if they don't get that spark from a single coil and a distributor.. fuel still needs to get to the cylinders in the proper ratio, but it doesn't come from a carburetor.. and if things look like they are hard to work on, just remember that the primary design objective of everything under the hood is to be able to be installed by bored assembly line workers on vehicle after vehicle a few thousand times a day...
My dad also takes his older car to a shop to have it worked on. It's a 1988 Range Rover. And I'll throw out a number of what it took to limp that thing across a similar number of miles as Mr. Whiny's Miata: $37,650. Yep, Miatas sure are expensive to fix!
That's the most facepalm-inducing article I've read in quite a while. I have considered replacing my '91 Miata, but I am concerned that any of the brand-new vehicles that are interesting and affordable will be less reliable than the Miata.
As I noted on their FB post for this literary gem, perhaps he should've gone the Demuro route, and bought the significantly more reliable Ferrari with a CarMax warranty...
TeamEvil wrote: " It's a freaking miracle." Exactly, like magic. If it didn't start for you, what then. If you're like most guys around here, you fix it. If you're like me, you look at the engine for a while, check the water in the radiator, close the hood and go back inside. I don't have a code reader, it would cost a tow to get the car somewhere that a code reader resides. Then it would cost additional money to repair the problem. A ride with a carb and points-style distributor, fine. Anything else, not worth the trouble for me. I don't drive anywhere, in any fashion, that I need anything extra that a fuel injected computerized engine might offer. Just an around town kinda guy. A reformed Ludite perhaps, but I like it super simple and fuel injection and computers don't come with that word attached, especially with older cars. I have friends who swear by their newer cars, they start every time, first tic of the key . . . right up until they don't. HATE that ! ! !
All those guys who know how to fix things at one point didn't. The only excuse to not learning is that you are either dumb or lazy. Code readers can be rented or you can even get one for your phone.
This quote:
Jalopnik said: You have to drop the entire rear subframe to do the job, and that’s not something most people want to tackle in a driveway.
Made me realize that his point of view is completely alien to me. I've dropped subframes on a public road while laying in 4 inches of snow that quickly packed down to ice. That made it REALLY easy to slide in and out from under the car on the cardboard I was using as a creeper.
Brett_Murphy wrote: This quote:Jalopnik said: You have to drop the entire rear subframe to do the job, and that’s not something most people want to tackle in a driveway.Made me realize that his point of view is completely alien to me. I've dropped subframes on a public road while laying in 4 inches of snow that quickly packed down to ice. That made it REALLY easy to slide in and out from under the car on the cardboard I was using as a creeper.
This just goes to show how lazy the average person really is, and how much they don't care about how ignorant they are about something. I'm like you, this thought process is completely alien to me. If I don't know how to do something, my first thought isn't "well I guess I better take it to an expert", nope, my first thought is, "well I've never done this before, but let's see if there's a youtube video on how to do this".
On the points and carbs vs FI and sensors. I would much rather have a computer telling me what exactly is wrong with my car, over trying to "guess" which of the three things my engine is not getting, fuel, air or spark. I didn't know anything about points (or 2 stroke outboards) when I got my boat, but I muddled through and read enough on boating sites to get through adjusting them and getting my boat running, but I can say that I would have much preferred an electronic ignition that needed no adjustment and simply worked or didn't over those fiddly things.
I guess all I'm saying is, don't be afraid of technology, or of getting your hands dirty. Don't revel in ignorance though. FI and Carbs both have pros and cons, but the pros of FI far outweigh the cons, IMHO.
unevolved wrote: Clearly this guy's not in his right state of mind. An automotive "enthusiast" that INTENTIONALLY moved to the Republic of California?
People say that until they find out that it's harder to register a custom car in just any other state outside CA. Pick on CA, okay, but pick your battles.
am I the only one who likes Jalopnik? I guess so...
wlkelley3 wrote: Have to take it as a satire/comedy piece. His list of repairs are pretty common for any car of that age.
Ya I made a post there to that effect, that or in the response thread. It was silly.
I'm ok with this. More Miatas for me to buy before the prices get jacked up more!
There's nothing wrong with going to an "expert" to fix your car. Some of us don't have as much time as we'd like to tinker on our vehicles. I do almost all my own work on my Mustang, because it can sit in the garage. But my daily driver goes to the dealer. I don't have time for it to be "down."
But if your daily driver is 25+ years old and you don't have the time, desire, or gumption to do that work yourself, you need a newer vehicle.
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