Monday we traded in the Oldsmobile Achieva (transportation-as-appliance rating = 4 refrigerators. Ugly ones). In the driveway is the first full-sized vehicle I have ever owned, a 1993 Chrysler Concorde.
Mind you, it isn't the sportiest thing on the road, but it accelerates quite well, has acceptable economy (especially for a vehicle this size), and I've always liked the LH cars from Chrysler. It looks kind of like the Dodge Intrepid with a different grille. Here's a picture:
My car is white with dark gray lower body cladding. It's sprung a bit softer than I like, but has a fully independent suspension, with torsion bars front and rear. When it's time to replace the shocks (it has gas-pressurized shocks. A rarity nowadays) I will dump the grandpa-likes-a-smooth-ride OEM units for something more to my taste. I can't afford Konis, but there are other options.
One advantage to this vehicle is that Son will have to be 4-5 feet tall before he can kick my seatback.
That feature alone will be worth the change.
It's not quite new, which means I've already been to the "Automotive Recycler's" (Newspeak for junkyard) and replaced the glove box. Next I'll replace the cupholder (a vital component for a caffiene addict such as myself) and massage the seatbelt latch on the driver's side (it doesn't like me to leave).
I never really liked the Olds. It wasn't the car's fault, but I never liked the 3-box design theme. Wife loves that look, so that was her car until we got the truck (1996 GMC Sonoma). The boxier and more upright it is, the more she likes it, so I wound up in the Achieva.
It was good, solid, practical, if somewhat cramped transportation. It was also dull. It was so thoroughly dull that I never could find it in the parking lot on the first try. My gaze just slid right off, like an icecube on a hot tin roof. Acceleration was tepid, but not so thoroughly slow that small children on tricycles could whip me in the quarter mile. On the other hand, I was never tempted to participate in the "stoplight Grand Prix" either.
It's gone, the Chrysler's here, and that's O.K. with me.
--Goodnight, folks.
------------------ How do I do it? I have an advantage. I remember how to open a dictionary.
posted
American cars suck. (and Japanese cars suck. Russian cars, those are great :P)
Registered: Mar 1999
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The First One
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
Member # 35
posted
Unfortunately, Baloo, the sheer amount of aggravation that a child can cause is a constant: solve one problem, another arises. He'll get you another way. . . 8)
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The First One: You are essentially correct, but I find there is a lag between circumventing one form of mischief on my part, and the discovery of new mischief on his part. The respite, however brief, is worth the effort.
RW: Never tell anyone his car sucks.
Question (Mainly for RW): Do the Dutch still manufacture cars? I recall there used to be a very interesting compact with a continuously variable transmission manufactured there. It was quite ahead of its time, but I have heard nothing about it for years.
--Baloo
------------------ How do I do it? I have an advantage. I remember how to open a dictionary.
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Sorry I just don't like American cars (my European brain pattern probably) (though I like those overblown concept cars on the detroit motor show)
No, we don't make our own cars anymore, there was an attempt in 1989 to revive the auto industry here with a really stupid looking..thing..but it failed miserably. There's only a plant (Nedcar) that makes license-built mitsubishis and volvos. Of course, there's DAF, which still makes trucks and military vehicles. Grmbl, even Fokker closed down.
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I am quite happy with my 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier. She runs really smooth (after I fixed all those pesky engine problems that come from two years of no use).
------------------ "Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Yeah! Some call me the Gangster of Love. Some people call me Maurice. Whoo hoo! 'Cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love!" - Steve Miller Band's The Joker
posted
Altair, whoa, easy on the exclamation marks fella. It's not like anyone's said that the US is the most hypochriphal country in the world with its head stuck up its own arse, he just said he didn't like American cars.
I'd like to drive around Chicargo in my 1982 Vauxhall Nova. That's get the babes checking me out. *ahem*
Okay, so my sister wouldn't really say that. Who cares, she'll never find me here!
------------------ "Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Yeah! Some call me the Gangster of Love. Some people call me Maurice. Whoo hoo! 'Cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love!" - Steve Miller Band's The Joker
I just don't like American cars (my European brain pattern probably) (though I like those overblown concept cars on the detroit motor show)
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