In a previous Piston Slap, David Holzman and I discussed:
DH: Are old car reviews doomed to vastly underrate the cars relative to how they drove when new—unless they’ve recently been overhauled?
SM: Yes. I talked to the owner of the 1996 Explorer I reviewed, mentioning the correlation between a terrible ride and 13-year-old shocks. He’s less than thrilled with the idea, even though he hates the ride. So who in their right mind proactively replaces shocks on an old car?
And now, an update:
This Explorer got an upgrade from original Motorcraft shocks to a set of five (yes, five) new dampers from Bilstein. So what changed since the original review?
Sajeev, My oldest son has been bitten by automotive wanderlust. He is about to go off to college this fall and has decided that his grandfathers’ hand-me-down 4 cylinder 2000 Accord with only 30,000-ish miles is just not cool enough. Also, it needs new tires and a battery.
So he has cast his wondering eyes on a 5-speed 2000 VW Golf GLS 2.0L hatch listed in AutoTrader. It looks like a nice enough car but then I start thinking about VW’s reputation for reliability vs Honda, not to mention the size of the potential repair bills and I start to do what any normal parent would do—worry. Should I be worried? If the B&B here can’t convince him to stay with Honda is there anything I should have him be on the look out for trouble-wise on the Golf?
Per AutoTrader Ad, here are some noteworthy facts on the Golf:
Hello Sajeev, I’d like to ping your automotive wisdom with the following question. Soon I’ll be looking for a new car to replace my leased Corolla. I love power moonroofs (which my Corolla also has). My next car will be a long-term keeper, and even though I’d love to equip it with a roof orifice, I’m not sure about the longer-term reliability of power moonroofs. Are they known to start leaking, to require expensive repairs? Or is it better to buy a car without a moonroof and then have a manual sunroof installed; and would it void the car’s warranty?
I’d like to keep my next car until it falls apart — 10 years or longer. Thanks muchly for your time.
Recently we took our 2005 Murano with 75,000 miles on it into the mechanic for the 70k maintenance. It was making a bit more noise than we thought it should and the mechanic says from a cold start this morning it sound even worse. He says the oil stick did not register and he believes it is 2 qts down. We put in synthetic about 7k miles ago. He suggests while it is in ‘decent’ shape (after an oil change and oil treatment/flush) we should consider trading it in.
The feedback on Murano repair history that I’ve seen says they have the ability to drive for quite a few more miles than 75k. We had planned to keep it for at least a few more years but the mechanic says he believes we may be at risk of losing an engine in a few thousand miles.
This issue has boggled me from Day 1. I own a 2007 Honda Civic EX Sedan, with the 1.8 litre 4-cylinder, and the oh-so-wonderful Drive-By-Wire throttle system.
My issue is that it is LAZY. Lazy to rev that is. Also, at some points it appears to lose power for just a split second in the middle of a gear. Now at first I thought this was the result of an A/C compressor kicking on (I picked the car up in June 2007). But it has demonstrated this year round.
It doesn’t happen every time though. But it’s enough of an annoyance for me to bring it to the dealership. So my lovely Civic has been there a few times. They can’t figure it out. They’ve reflashed, and cleared the ECU, so that it will learn my driving habits all over again, etc however, it still happens. Can you, or anyone else explain to me how Honda can get this so wrong (And by comparison, a VW GTI with a DBW system can get it oh-so-right)? Can anyone suggest how I can get this remedied? It’s getting more and more of an annoyance. Especially since it IS (was) a new car. I’m not looking to replace the car, since I do plan on keeping it, so that is out of the question.
TTAC Spammer, goodluck.victorian, spams my inbox with:
Hello My name is miss Victoria. I saw your profile today on www.thetruthaboutcars.com and became interested in you.
I will also like to know more about you, and I want you to send a mail to my email address so that i can give you my picture for you to know whom l am. I believe we can move from here. Remember the distance or colour does not matter but love matters allot in life.
My beloved 2005 CL65 AMG (https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/mercedes-cl65-amg/) is about to meet its maker after the lease ends next month. As a soon-to-be-displaced torque junkie coming off a 36-month fix, I must have another AMG-tuned twin turbo V12. Because that’s how I roll: completely high on big-block turbo boost and grinning like an idiot. Never thought MB could outdo themselves after they introduced the 604 HP twin turbo V12 in 2005, but with the new SL65 AMG Black Series, they have seemingly done exactly that.
As much as I have tried to resist that muscular flared carbon fiber intense bodywork that conceals the most powerful engine ever installed by those nutjobs at AMG….after seeing an especially stunning one locally, it has become difficult to justify waiting for prices to drop.
But obviously there are concerns about an expenditure this large, so I wanted your opinion . . .
Sajeev, I drive a 2004 Mazda RX-8 that I bought new. It currently has around 48k miles. As of late the seating has become uncomfortable and I seem to get strange cramps in my hamstrings from how the seat is pushing into my leg.
I’ve looked at some possible cars to replace it with such as the Evo X, etc. Love the Recaros on there and that alone would make me want to switch. However, I still love the RX8 and short of buying another one in R3 guise is there anything I can do to upgrade my seats?
As has become the custom these days, the seats have the side airbags built-in. So I’m not sure what options I have in the aftermarket for this. I know Recaro has the Sportster CS with airbags though I’m not sure how ‘universal’ they truly are. Mazda wants like 4k per seats for the R3 Recaros, so that’s not really an option either.
Also, I’d be ok with going for a seat without airbags, but I don’t know what effect that has on the rest of the SRS system.
I have an S2000 with just over 50,000 miles on the clock. The first thing I did when I bought it three years ago was to change the oil to Mobil 1 10w30 and install the OEM filter. I’ve put about 4,000 highway miles and a few autocrosses on the oil since then, with two or three minor top-offs. I’m planning on changing the brake fluid and coolant this summer (did the transmission and differential last summer). Should I change the oil too, even though it’s still that happy golden color? How about the filter?
My dad’s Ford Thunderbird 30th Anniversary Edition (i.e., 1955-1985) hasn’t been started in about two years. It has 140,000km, never been winter driven and its original save for the radio (I still have the non-functioning original one though). I want to start cleaning it up and fixing a few little things, but to do that I have to get it started and run it.
It has been stored outside, under a cover, in my driveway. I know the oil was replaced and the tank filled up just prior to being put in storage. Prior to storage the battery was removed, the oil and coolant changed and the tank filled with gas.
After prolonged storage, is there any special I should do other than dropping a new battery in it? Are the tires likely to be flat spotted? I also need to fix the antenna, which got bent; any tips on finding a replacement for that would be helpful too!
So the other day I tested a Pontiac G8 GXP, just because I could. I ease away from a traffic light and as I go for the 1-2 shift, it gets hung up. Wouldn’t go into gear. I realize now that what I was experiencing was GM’s dreaded 1-4 skip-shift, except that of course I was trying to go into second, it wanted fourth, and, well, we just weren’t [synchro]meshing. Short of flooring it everywhere (not that I’d mind, just that you can’t always), what’s the best way to deal with – or outright eliminate – the skip-shift? And do any other cars besides GM’s family of V-8 six-speeds have this “feature?”
You mentioned using GM syncromesh in your recent Piston Slap article. I have a 91300zx (NA) that has a very typical problem for the model. The syncro for the 5th to 4th gear change is worn (they were made out of too soft a metal until the 95 transmission). I use the recommended Red Line MT-90 transmission oil, which helped quite a bit. But I still get a bit of a grind unless I double clutch the downshift. I’m wondering if I could use this synchromesh safely. I’ve read that you can use a more slippery oil to cure the problem in the short term, but it increases wear and in a short time the syncro will be gone completely (great for a sleazy salesman I suppose). How does synchromesh work and would it speed damage to an already worn syncro?
I have a 1998 Isuzu Rodeo 4×4 with the ABS light starting to come on intermittently. The first time it happened I thought I heard a clicking noise under the dash like a bad solenoid. I had to replace the solenoid for my turn signals once and it made a similar noise when they would go haywire. A lot of forums on the Rodeos point to bad speed sensor on the rear axle, but if it’s just a bad solenoid that would be easier. The truck has 214,786 miles as of this email and I am wondering if I should also worry about rubber brake lines deteriorating. I can’t find any leaks but I don’t want to blow a brake line in Houston traffic.
When I was a kid I wondered what it was like growing up in GM’s heyday of brilliant designs and well-defined brand delineations. I was a product of the 1980s, a time when emissions-choked Disco Iron and OPEC-induced minimalist boxes overshadowed yesteryear’s works of art. And what I learned from this generation is that General Motors is no stranger to progress, yet they never got over themselves to do the right thing.
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