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| Thread ID: 105978 | 2009-12-21 01:14:00 | What to test drive? | beetle (243) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 841723 | 2009-12-22 09:39:00 | My 1300 was always good for 40 mpg + although I stellited up the exhaust valves and leaned the mixture out on SU. It also had extractors Iskey cam and k and n air filter.. What a crap excuse saying you need 1 1/2 tons of steel and 7 litre engines to move it to do a trip across the usa. |
prefect (6291) | ||
| 841724 | 2009-12-22 10:00:00 | Aww cmon, they aren't that bad are they? :dogeye: Joe, I don't believe for a minute that a 4L V8 will get 22MPG around town. Jeeps are straight sixes'' good torque, but 4.0L 6 is thirty! |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 841725 | 2009-12-22 19:32:00 | My 1300 was always good for 40 mpg + although I stellited up the exhaust valves and leaned the mixture out on SU. It also had extractors Iskey cam and k and n air filter.. What a crap excuse saying you need 1 1/2 tons of steel and 7 litre engines to move it to do a trip across the usa. I had a 850cc Morris Mini years ago put a twin throat Nikki Carb on it and a Cooper S Exhaust got more power out of it and better mpgs. :) |
Trev (427) | ||
| 841726 | 2009-12-22 22:05:00 | Average English Rep drives 300 to 500 miles every week in a bog standard Holden Vectra 2L for 50 weeks of the year go do the math big engines are not the answer reliability is Like I said - flyweight engines do not make good freeway fliers . Driving from house to house or business to business as a salesperson is not the criteria that works here . Let's run that Holden with the Opel-derived 2 . 0 engine or even the more modern 2 . 0 Ecotec at 80 MPH for 10 hours at a time through Death Valley (120F) and then the Continental Divide at 10,000 feet and back down to sea level and see how long it lasts . Any engine that has to scream its guts out to make horsepower to get even a flyweight car up a hill won't last long enough to make it off the warranty . They have them here in small Chevy and other GM-badged cars, and they are not that dependable . Given a head wind, uphill and heat they croak . For that reason alone I do not like an iron-powder block that is pressed together, consolidated iron dust . They leak oil, have water pump troubles and generally are nasty to service and or repair . Motor mounts are very expensive - especially the silicon-filled "front" mount which is really on the right side of the engine as it's a transverse installation . Their THM125-A transmission and later on the THM44T4 are decent enough units, but the drive chains or the TCC fails at about 100,000 miles and then it's so expensive to repair that most people drop them off in the recycle bin and buy another car . The GM 2 . 0L is a pretty good hockey-mom engine and around town they are pretty good, although sluggish . Gas mileage, however - has never been a 2 . 0 shining point - and since most people buy them thinking they will save lots of money with the fuel savings, the reality sets in pretty fast . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 841727 | 2009-12-22 23:00:00 | Except speeds in excess of 100km/h in NZ, while eminently achieveable by most vehicles (probably even by prefect's buses!! :)), are frowned on by the local constabulary . If you want to do 130km/h (80mph) in NZ - assuming you can find a nice stretch of road with an adequate surface - you risk loss of licence and/or large fines . So it's horses for courses really . . . Large fours or sixes are perfectly adequate for NZ conditions, especially since it has been common for the car body to rust out well before the engine needs attention (we have a large proportion of the population living on or near the coast, so the salt-laden air gets everywhere) . The need for eights (and above) is more about driving pleasure . . . |
johcar (6283) | ||
| 841728 | 2009-12-22 23:03:00 | Like I said - flyweight engines do not make good freeway fliers . Driving from house to house or business to business as a salesperson is not the criteria that works here . Let's run that Holden with the Opel-derived 2 . 0 engine or even the more modern 2 . 0 Ecotec at 80 MPH for 10 hours at a time through Death Valley (120F) and then the Continental Divide at 10,000 feet and back down to sea level and see how long it lasts . Any engine that has to scream its guts out to make horsepower to get even a flyweight car up a hill won't last long enough to make it off the warranty . They have them here in small Chevy and other GM-badged cars, and they are not that dependable . Given a head wind, uphill and heat they croak . For that reason alone I do not like an iron-powder block that is pressed together, consolidated iron dust . They leak oil, have water pump troubles and generally are nasty to service and or repair . Motor mounts are very expensive - especially the silicon-filled "front" mount which is really on the right side of the engine as it's a transverse installation . Their THM125-A transmission and later on the THM44T4 are decent enough units, but the drive chains or the TCC fails at about 100,000 miles and then it's so expensive to repair that most people drop them off in the recycle bin and buy another car . The GM 2 . 0L is a pretty good hockey-mom engine and around town they are pretty good, although sluggish . Gas mileage, however - has never been a 2 . 0 shining point - and since most people buy them thinking they will save lots of money with the fuel savings, the reality sets in pretty fast . Although I am a Holden hater what you say about the H engine crapping out is absolute bullshit . |
prefect (6291) | ||
| 841729 | 2009-12-23 00:04:00 | Let me see if you want to corner the market on an underwhelming accelerating, zero road feeling, a spongy on-road riding, bloated and bulbous exterior styled and thoroughly gutless mundane road mannered vehicle . I can have several ships loaded with them on the way to Upsidedown Land in a fortnight - at least the ones that haven't been crushed yet and turned into floor lamps and rebar . Even more awesomely, the General somehow decided to spread this mediocrity across its product line via a series of transparent and uninspired rebadgings - sending most of them to lands that had no freeways and could get along well on cow paths, bicycle trails and driveway-to-post office type yeoman duties . Many were converted to implements of animal husbandry, hauling bales of hay, used as barter for wives and cows and hauling the occasional pig or goat to market or pagan rituals . It was exactly the kind of crude and unsophisticated vehicle that GM had been cranking out for years (i . e . , fleet and rental fodder), and it came at a time when other manufacturers were stepping up their games by grafting sophisticated innovations into their US designs (multi-displacement, VVT, traction control, adjustable suspensions , etc . ) . It (the GM econobox vehicles) was heralded as the most inexpensive cross-platforming un-event ever, and as such has found sworn and rabid consumers in lands where highway performance and even arriving at the final destination of ones' travels isn't all that important . If the heater and the radio worked and the wipers would "flip" - it kept the third world island nation natives happy no matter what the performance values - or lack of them - could create, inspire or impress . Stale and outdated almost as soon as it rolled off the assembly line - It only took GM years to kill that engine/transmission combo off or sell them all to island nations with circuitous roads, roundabouts and shore-to-shore rides under 200 miles . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 841730 | 2009-12-23 01:29:00 | Not sure if its been suggested but a Commodore wagon, lots of room, will pull anything and not as bad as you might think on gas, go as modern as you can afford | hueybot3000 (3646) | ||
| 841731 | 2009-12-23 02:11:00 | Never seen such a litany of bullshit. Australia is big country much same as usa and people there have driven holdens across Aussie towing things behind their FJs up to commodores since the early fifties. Real stinking hot place as well. You yanks dont much about holden cars, sure they are from the general but they were based on English Vauxhalls to start with. I personally hate holdens I am a Ford man but what you are saying is wrong dont apply your yankee ideas to aussie cars. |
prefect (6291) | ||
| 841732 | 2009-12-23 02:14:00 | But isnt that what yanks do? Its there way or no way | hueybot3000 (3646) | ||
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