Hilarious

john smith wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
AJ wrote in news:615a2c9c-fa6c-4339-a9a2-
\ Old Dodge Darts were OK actually. Or was that your point?
I had a 62 Plymouth Valiant and it was damn near bulletproof.
Relatively cheap to run too.

Nothing could top the 170-"slant six"!


Yeah, just about the most buletproof engine ever. Very popular in
Australia, apparently, which says a lot for it.


Bertie

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
.. .
AJ wrote in news:615a2c9c-fa6c-4339-a9a2-
:

2 decades ago, alot of American car factories were shut down due to
the surge of Japanese cars and because of that alot of American
factories workers held resentment against Japanese cars, and the
situation only got better when Japanese automakers decide to open many
factories in America.

2 decades ago the Japanese got a strong foothold here because
Americans saw that the imports were well-made, tough and economical,
while the American product was mostly crap. Remember the Dodge Dart
and the K Car? The Japanese imports were a wake-up call to the Big
Three that our Detroit brothers were slow to respond to.




Old Dodge Darts were OK actually. Or was that your point?
I had a 62 Plymouth Valiant and it was damn near bulletproof. Relatively
cheap to run too.

Bertie

Yep, the Dart with a slant-six was probably one of the best old-lady cars of
the era. :-) My brother's 1st car was a 72 or 73 Swinger (the one with the
little flower graphic on the side). He couldn't wait to get rid of it and
get something..., anything, else so his friends would quit ragging him.
Prolly wishes he had that one back today in the condition it was then. A lot
of these old Darts grew up to be pretty "bad" with a little help from their
owners. But usually all a high school kid could afford was a set of
"shackles" and some hood pins... The mags and big tires had to wait until
summer when they had a job.

Now the K-cars were a different story. Our local Sheriff's Dept. used them
for a couple of years and all I heard from the deputy friends I had was
constant complaining about how #$@*& they were!

Tony P.

Recently, AJ posted:

2 decades ago, alot of American car factories were shut down due to
the surge of Japanese cars and because of that alot of American
factories workers held resentment against Japanese cars, and the
situation only got better when Japanese automakers decide to open
many factories in America.

2 decades ago the Japanese got a strong foothold here because
Americans saw that the imports were well-made, tough and economical,
while the American product was mostly crap. Remember the Dodge Dart
and the K Car? The Japanese imports were a wake-up call to the Big
Three that our Detroit brothers were slow to respond to.

The big three have yet to respond to that wake-up call. There is not one
vehicle from any of them that can match the quality, economy and
reliability of most Japanese-made cars. As an example, I sold my last
Japanese car to a friend (last time I'll make *that* mistake), it is now
17 years old and still running strong with no major repairs and
less-than-minimal maintenance. Because of the significant increase in
purchase price, I don't think I'll get the same cost of ownership out of
my current model, but it is now 7 years old and runs like new, only
requiring recommended maintenance and one change of tires.

Neil

In article ,
john smith wrote:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
AJ wrote in news:615a2c9c-fa6c-4339-a9a2-
\ Old Dodge Darts were OK actually. Or was that your point?
I had a 62 Plymouth Valiant and it was damn near bulletproof. Relatively
cheap to run too.

Nothing could top the 170-"slant six"!

My father had a Dodge Dart, with the slant six. I don't remember the exact
model year, but it must have been sometime in the early 70's.

I remember it had a bizarre engine problem (which was eventually fixed by a
recall). Once the engine warmed up, it would stall when (here's the
bizarre part) you made a left turn. Didn't happen when it was cold.
Didn't happen when going straight or making a right turn. Bizarre.

I vaguely remember it having to do with some rubber gasket or seal not
being happy with the then-new unleaded gas. Why it only happened on left
turns, I have no clue.

"muff528" wrote in
news:Cn7ej.6191$4m5.4730@trnddc02:


"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
.. .
AJ wrote in news:615a2c9c-fa6c-4339-a9a2-
:

2 decades ago, alot of American car factories were shut down due to
the surge of Japanese cars and because of that alot of American
factories workers held resentment against Japanese cars, and the
situation only got better when Japanese automakers decide to open
many factories in America.

2 decades ago the Japanese got a strong foothold here because
Americans saw that the imports were well-made, tough and economical,
while the American product was mostly crap. Remember the Dodge Dart
and the K Car? The Japanese imports were a wake-up call to the Big
Three that our Detroit brothers were slow to respond to.




Old Dodge Darts were OK actually. Or was that your point?
I had a 62 Plymouth Valiant and it was damn near bulletproof.
Relatively cheap to run too.

Bertie

Yep, the Dart with a slant-six was probably one of the best old-lady
cars of the era. :-) My brother's 1st car was a 72 or 73 Swinger (the
one with the little flower graphic on the side). He couldn't wait to
get rid of it and get something..., anything, else so his friends
would quit ragging him. Prolly wishes he had that one back today in
the condition it was then. A lot of these old Darts grew up to be
pretty "bad" with a little help from their owners. But usually all a
high school kid could afford was a set of "shackles" and some hood
pins... The mags and big tires had to wait until summer when they had
a job.

I remember them like that! A Duster with shackles, an 18 YO in primer
was about the closest you could get to a clown car on the road!

Now the K-cars were a different story. Our local Sheriff's Dept. used
them for a couple of years and all I heard from the deputy friends I
had was constant complaining about how #$@*& they were!


Never had th epleasure, thank god!

Bertie

On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:07:33 -0800 (PST),
wrote:


sometimes it makes me laugh to think what would happen to boeing if
japan was to make passenger planes. lol

God bless america !

Actually, US manufacturing workers are every bit as productive as
Japanese and Koreans. Our decline in the manufacturing sector is a
function of our tax system, not our businesses.

30 years ago, Europe and Asia switched to border adjustable VAT taxes
as their primary source of government revenue, but the US has
persisted as the only developed country relying entirely on income and
payroll taxes, which by international law, are not border adjustable,
for Federal revenue.

All we need do is enact a consumption tax as a complete replacement
for taxation of income (www.FairTax.org ) and the US will dominate
manufacturing of automobiles, heavy equipment and tooling just as we
already dominate airliner production.

Of course, when we do so, Europe will fall into chaos and we'll have
to go over there and get your countries back for you again.

Don


Virginia - the only State with a flag rated
"R" for partial nudity and graphic violence.

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
.. .
john smith wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
AJ wrote in news:615a2c9c-fa6c-4339-a9a2-
\ Old Dodge Darts were OK actually. Or was that your point?
I had a 62 Plymouth Valiant and it was damn near bulletproof.
Relatively cheap to run too.

Nothing could top the 170-"slant six"!


Yeah, just about the most buletproof engine ever. Very popular in
Australia, apparently, which says a lot for it.



The engines and transmissions were not the problem. The slant 6s, the 273 &
318LAs, the Torque-Flight transmissions and Dana rear ends of that era were
almost unstoppable. The Dana rear end of that era was the predecessor for
zillions of 3/4 and 1 ton trucks to follow for many years to come.

The problem was everything else. The transition to plastics was in full
swing, the unibody eliminated the full frames, everything was lighted as
much as possible for fuel savings. I remember all kinds of problems with
everything from door and window operators, to heater controls, instruments,
front suspension issues and alike. What the japs were good at was building
small, lightweight and reliable cars, due to their complete attention to
every detail. I think failure of those small details sent a lot of US made
cars to the crusher while the engines and drive trains were still in pretty
good condition.

"Maxwell" wrote in
:


"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
.. .
john smith wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
AJ wrote in news:615a2c9c-fa6c-4339-a9a2-
\ Old Dodge Darts were OK actually. Or was that your point?
I had a 62 Plymouth Valiant and it was damn near bulletproof.
Relatively cheap to run too.

Nothing could top the 170-"slant six"!


Yeah, just about the most buletproof engine ever. Very popular in
Australia, apparently, which says a lot for it.



The engines and transmissions were not the problem. The slant 6s, the
273 & 318LAs, the Torque-Flight transmissions and Dana rear ends of
that era were almost unstoppable. The Dana rear end of that era was
the predecessor for zillions of 3/4 and 1 ton trucks to follow for
many years to come.

The problem was everything else. The transition to plastics was in
full swing, the unibody eliminated the full frames, everything was
lighted as much as possible for fuel savings. I remember all kinds of
problems with everything from door and window operators, to heater
controls, instruments, front suspension issues and alike. What the
japs were good at was building small, lightweight and reliable cars,
due to their complete attention to every detail. I think failure of
those small details sent a lot of US made cars to the crusher while
the engines and drive trains were still in pretty good condition.


Yeah, 'd go along with that. The fit and finish on a lot of cars was
just diabolical in the seventies. there was noting wrong with relatively
small US engines. Not much in the way of performance, but they got you
there.
Still, when you look at something like th eBMW M10 engine. Almost as
equally agricultural but wow..


Bertie

Some have learned..

My 1990 Town Car is still going, reliabily and lookin good, with
owner #3....

And Toyota just got a downgrade from Consumer Reports..

Times/things constantly change..

Dave

On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:11:08 GMT, "Neil Gould"
wrote:

Recently, AJ posted:

2 decades ago, alot of American car factories were shut down due to
the surge of Japanese cars and because of that alot of American
factories workers held resentment against Japanese cars, and the
situation only got better when Japanese automakers decide to open
many factories in America.

2 decades ago the Japanese got a strong foothold here because
Americans saw that the imports were well-made, tough and economical,
while the American product was mostly crap. Remember the Dodge Dart
and the K Car? The Japanese imports were a wake-up call to the Big
Three that our Detroit brothers were slow to respond to.

The big three have yet to respond to that wake-up call. There is not one
vehicle from any of them that can match the quality, economy and
reliability of most Japanese-made cars. As an example, I sold my last
Japanese car to a friend (last time I'll make *that* mistake), it is now
17 years old and still running strong with no major repairs and
less-than-minimal maintenance. Because of the significant increase in
purchase price, I don't think I'll get the same cost of ownership out of
my current model, but it is now 7 years old and runs like new, only
requiring recommended maintenance and one change of tires.

Neil

On Dec 31, 11:01*am, "Maxwell" wrote:
"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in 6.130...

The problem was everything else. The transition to plastics was in full
swing, the unibody eliminated the full frames, everything was lighted as
much as possible for fuel savings. I remember all kinds of problems with
everything from door and window operators, to heater controls, instruments,
front suspension issues and alike. What the japs were good at was building
small, lightweight and reliable cars, due to their complete attention to
every detail. I think failure of those small details sent a lot of US made
cars to the crusher while the engines and drive trains were still in pretty
good condition.

My first car was a brand new white '68 Mercury Cougar, made in the
USA. I drove home and parked in the driveway to show it off.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get out because the inside door handle had
fallen off.

It was a very nice car in many respects, but I could never drive at
the speed limit - there was a nasty vibration between 63 and 67 mph
that they were never able to fix. The engine lasted 45,0000 miles
before a valve job, and the body was rusted out in five years.

It could have been worse. My neighbour bought a brand new Chev at the
same time, and after three days her window fell out. Every car I
bought since has been made in Japan.

John Halpenny