{"id":537,"date":"2006-08-08T10:44:34","date_gmt":"2006-08-08T10:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/observed.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:45:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:45:37","slug":"observed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/observed.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Observed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a car guy, I get a lot of folks coming to me for car advice.  I like being asked and I give out advice.  This past weekend, however, it was pointed out how ironic it was that I seem to have cars with issues.  I got to thinking about this, and it is disturbing.  Consider:<br \/>\n<strong>Cars that were completely my choice:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1980 Chevy Monza<\/strong>  It was related to the Vega, what more needs to be said?  I will add, however, the driver&#8217;s door that tended to want to fall off, the heat that failed to work when my wife (then girlfriend) was in the car and the starter that tended to keep running even after the key was completely removed from the ignition.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1988 Nissan Pulsar SE<\/strong>  Next car after the Monza, it was a money pit.  Tended to eat tires and exhaust systems.  Spent $5,000 (plus the payments) over 3 years to keep it running and needed struts, tires, exhaust and a steering rack when we traded it in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1992 Saturn SL2<\/strong>  Didn&#8217;t have it very long, but found out right after we bought it (warranty had just expired) that it was going through a quart of oil every 1,500 miles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1999 Honda Odyssey<\/strong>Two new transmissions in 5 years and 90,000 miles.  Currently have a sliding door needing repair.<br \/>\n$0.360 per mile so far (plus insurance) over 5 years and 90,000 miles.  (That&#8217;s dropping now that it&#8217;s paid off.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>2005 Mazda3<\/strong>  So far so good mechanically, but it did just spend a week in the shop to correct some defects in the body work, mostly in the area that was repaired by the dealer before I bought it.<br \/>\n$0.425 per mile so far after 6 months and 8,000 miles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Cars that were not <em>completely<\/em> my choice:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1988 Chevy Nova<\/strong>  I helped my wife pick this one before we were married.  If it were me, I would have picked something else, something more fun.  It was generally a very good car.  Over 3-4 years it needed only a clutch master cylinder until the head gasket went at about 130,000 miles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1988 Dodge Caravan<\/strong>  A gift from Dad.  It was not reliable, but given the price we paid I can&#8217;t complain.  We did put in a rebuilt engine and transmission, fuel pump, AC compressor and radiator.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1988 Chevy Celebrity<\/strong>  A beater for a time of financial challenges, it came with a loan payoff as a trade for the Saturn.  It too blew a head gasket in the short time we had it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1988 Subaru Wagon<\/strong>  Lot of 88&#8217;s, eh?  A freebie beater for my paper route, a woman in church was going to junk it.  Broken timing belt and regular infusions of anti-freeze was all it needed while in my possession.  Donated to charity when it died of what I think was another broken timing belt.<\/li>\n<li><strong>1993 Ford Escort<\/strong>  Boring but bulletproof, it was the lesser of available evils (Escort or Tempo?  Ugh, Escort I guess.) when we went to trade that lemon Nissan.  10 years and 160,000 miles with only a bad intake manifold gasket as far repairs go.<br \/>\n$0.185 per mile  to drive for 10 years &#038; 160,000 miles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I wish I had costs per mile on the other cars, but I don&#8217;t.<br \/>\nI did the research, the Pulsar was supposed to be a good car, according to Consumer Reports, the only real source available at the time.  Ditto on the Odyssey, although I honestly relied a lot on Honda&#8217;s reputation.  I had low expectations for the Escort, but was real desperate to get out of that Pulsar.  Only the Nova (and the Celebrity and Subaru beaters) really lived up to my expectations, except for the head gasket.  I seem to remember that blown head gaskets on high mileage 4 cylinder cars were more common 10 &#8211; 12 years ago, but maybe that&#8217;s just <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cognitive_dissonance\">cognitive dissonance<\/a>.<br \/>\nSo, what do you think, am I car choice challenged?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a car guy, I get a lot of folks coming to me for car advice. I like being asked and I give out advice. This past weekend, however, it<a href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/observed.shtml\" class=\"more-link\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Observed<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Observed - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/observed.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Observed - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a car guy, I get a lot of folks coming to me for car advice. 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Normally don't go for most of these memes, but this one I couldn't resist. Thought I'd do it here instead, but I might post it there too. Want to play along? Answer for yourself on your blog or Facebook or here in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars and Driving&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Driving","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/cars-and-driving"},"img":{"alt_text":"autobog-audi_r8-v10.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/autobog-audi_r8-v10-thumb-500x332-1382.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":495,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/05\/mazda3_review.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":1},"title":"Mazda3 Review","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Virusdoc asked what I thought about my new Mazda3 after nearly 3 months of ownership. Rather than replying in the comments there, I thought I'd write a little 'review'. First things first, I absolutely love the car. It's a joy to look at, inside and out, and to drive. I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars and Driving&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Driving","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/cars-and-driving"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":494,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/05\/stupid_car_repa.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":2},"title":"Stupid Car Repair Tricks","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"For the gearhead readers. Have you done any bonehead things while workign on your car (or tractor or??)? Autoblog is looking for submissions here, inspired by Car Craft magazine's Stupid Gearhead Stories. Here's my submission:Oh boy. Let's see. 1 - Dad's '80 Citation had a bad clutch safety switch, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars and Driving&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Driving","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/cars-and-driving"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":690,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/06\/miss_belvedere.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":3},"title":"Miss Belvedere","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"June 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week my work time distraction was the unearthing of the 1957 Plymouth Belvedere from a time capsule in Tulsa OK. Back in 1957, to celebrate the state of Oklahoma's 50 year anniversary, they buried a time capsule in Tulsa to be opened 50 years later. In addition to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cars and Driving&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Driving","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/cars-and-driving"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/images\/miss_belvedere_vault_salguod_net_image_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":369,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/before_and_afte.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":4},"title":"Before and After","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"August 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"They're he-ere! After 11 weeks of waiting (6-8, eh Boyd?) my wheels finally arrived on Thursday. The tires came in yesterday afternoon and I had them put on this morning. They really transform the look of the car. I've long felt, like many car guys, that the wheels make the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Thunderbird&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Thunderbird","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/thunderbird"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":451,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/02\/ive_succomed.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":5},"title":"I&#8217;ve Succumbed","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite all the good, sound financial advice to the contrary, I bought a new car. I admit that this was at least 90% emotional and maybe 10% practical, but I now have a new 2005 Mazda3 5 Door. 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