Why is it I owned most of the cars on this list at one time or another. The
only one I'd argue with is the VW Bus. Owned 4 of the bus's and took them
everywhere. The only places they wouldn't go, took tricked out 4wd to get
there. Once you got there, you didn't have to worry about a place to sleep.
Even lived in my '69 camper for 6 months long before being homeless was
Chic. Of course they were a little slow but not slower than a series truck.
Remember what a hot rod I thought the '73 bus was with the pancake engine
and something like 75hp. Drove that truck coast to coast twice. Towed a
trailer loaded with most of the parts for our Westsail from Va. to Ca.
Trailer weighed as much as the bus which was loaded to the roof rack, as
well. Finally sold it after 13 years and 140,000 miles having done nothing
but one brake job, swapped the dual carbs for an American 4 barrel, and
replaced the Michelin X's twice. Now that was a reliable car and it
delivered 21mpg.
The Dauphin was another story. Something like 5,000 miles between valve
jobs. I must be somewhat deranged as I liked the Chevette and even thought
about trading mine in on a diesel Chevette. The AMC Gremlin was given to me
and you shouldn't look a gift Gremlin in the radiator. It should have been
enough to convince me I didn't want another AMC product but made the mistake
of buying A Cherokee when they first came out. BIG mistake.
One car that should have been on the list is the VW Rabbit. Owned two of
them. The first, a gas one, burned a quart of oil every 500 miles. The
dealer told me, with a straight face, that the warranty only kicked in when
consumption exceded a quart every 200 miles. Traded that in for a diesel
which blew up with less than 40,000 miles after eating up just about
everything else mechanical along the way. Car was so low to the ground and
suspension so poor that we kept holing the oil pan. We ditched it right
after the warranty ran out as it spent most of its early life at the dealer
for such minor problems as an engine rebuild at 2,000 miles. This was a
made in Germany Rabbit, too. Heard the American made ones were even worse.
VW has never been the same since they started cooling them with water.
Aloha
Peter
>From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
>Reply-To: lro@works.team.net
>To: Ivan Van Laningham <ivanlan@pauahtun.org>
>CC: lro@Works.Team.Net
>Subject: Re: LRO: Newswire headline
>Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 00:38:09 -0500 (CDT)
>
>On Thu, 10 May 2001, Ivan Van Laningham wrote:
>
>:A couple of months ago, my brother sent me the URL (since lost) of the
>:ten worst cars ever made. I'm sure you can find it if you try hard. We
>:figured out that, between the two of us, we had owned so many of the
>:cars on that list that we did not wish to add up the exact numbers.
>:There are some things humans aren't meant to know.
>
>Cartalk did a list like this, which includes nothing British. The vega and
>gremlin are both on it.
>http://cartalk.cars.com/About/Worst-Cars/results1.html
>
>
>David:
>
>--
>dscheidt@tumbolia.com
>Bipedalism is only a fad.
>
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