Yes, the ONLY good things about my Volvo were the incredibly-comfortable seats, and the excellent brakes.
That would mean that it was driven less than 400 miles per year, and–depending on exactly how it was driven and how carefully the previous owner read the maintenance schedule–that could be a car with a sludge-clogged engine. Some people look at an oil change schedule that states–let’s say–every 12 months or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first, but they focus solely on the odometer mileage, while ignoring the very vital elapsed time factor. Seriously–if that car was owned by a truly brain-dead person, it’s possible that the oil had never been changed.
No, there aren’t. Years ago, a UK car company (possibly Rover ???) assembled Honda Civics, and they placed their own badge on those Civics. In the US, it was possible to buy Toyota Corollas that were rebadged as Chevy Novas, but Toyota never did that in The UK.
I’m not as interested in helping you find a faster car as I was before you said this.
If drivers are angry because a 12 second 0-60 car is too slow then there are bigger issues going on. What about a 20 second 0-60 truck / lorry? Complying with road bullys doesn’t make things better.
Constantly using near full throttle when pulling away from a light is going to cut the life of an automatic transmission in half.
Actually traffic lights are not too bad because all cars go from 0 but there is one particular high speed road that I have to use daily where I enter on the “left lane” so to say if you are from US and most of time time I get cars getting very close to me or flash at me sometimes because that lane is being used for overtaking and I don’t reach the speed limit quick enough. Or they undertake me which is a bad practice (from me to be in that lane) based on what the instructor was saying to be when I was doing driving hours. But of course I did come to realize that most people don’t fully apply what they learned during driving hours and most people are *not" driving as they have nornally been taught.
Is a bit annoying to deal with such daily but obviously this is not the main reason I am looking for another car but there are multiple reasons. I am going to see a diesel Honda Accord that is much more economic fuel-wise, it is a little bit more powerful, I hope is cheaper to maintain and has a proper handbrake instead of that horrible electronic brake that costed me over $400 in repairs and it it’s still not fixed yet.
By the way I’ve only been driving manual transmission cars, I am not sure if what you mentionned about the damage caused to automatic transmissions by using full throttle applies to manual transmissions, although I never go full throttle on the acceleration, I know I may not be fast enough sometimes but I don’t “care” to that extent about the drivers behind as to cause damage to my own car.
Not sure where you got that theory from…
My 2006 Corolla had over 175,000 miles on it when it got rear ended and totaled and never had a transmission issue and I promise you, I drove it hard, never serviced the transmission, I would race a Lambo if I could (I would loose bad lol, but not the point) and I know plenty of other drivers that drove their vehicles like they stole them also with no issues… I have always driven my cars hard, except the Chevy truck due to the type of transmission in it, no issues with over 180,000 miles, just not going to push it… The 1999 was always driven hard as well and the transmission finally gave up around 180,000 miles, so you are saying that it would have made it to almost 400,000 miles?? doubt it, it was also used to haul a lot of weight, probably double what it was designed for the last few years of it’s life… I almost always if traffic permits accelerate off the line as fast as I can without spinning the tires, lets just say I get to the speed limit just as fast as I can…
A soft shifting transmission is a slipping transmission, and a slipping transmission builds up heat and wears out the friction material faster… A Ford C6 in a smooth shifting Tow Car would not hold up in a Tow truck, but a tow truck C6 would last a really long time in the Town Car, but the customer would complain about the harsh (firm) shift…
It all depends on how well built the trans is from the OE’s… A trans is either built strong or it is not…
Me too. Never had a transmission fail, auto or stick. I did snap an axle once, but could see it had a manufacturing flaw.
Back in the skinny, bias ply tire, open differential days, would smoke the tires for a 100 feet at the drag strip until I learned better.
Even now I will sometimes unintentionally chirp the tires.
Makes me wonder about an Eldorado I owned once. That had the smoothest shifting transmission I have ever owned. However, it was pretty robust and was still going strong when I got rid of it north of 275k on the odo. I think they took a lot of care in designing the entire car for comfort and that included smooth running engine and virtually transparent transmission operation. No doubt most slushy systems out there are a combination of underpowered cars and slipping converters/clutches.
In my experience, working vehicles hard doesn’t harm them and may in fact do them some good. The damage comes from shock loads. One contribution to that learning was from being a repeat member of the broken hub club. It’s only metal…
Yes! Along with frequent fluid changes to protect the valve body.
If the fluid is never changed it’ll probably stop working somewhere in the 200-300k mile range no matter how it is driven because the valve body is worn out even though the clutches are still good.
When you over build, you have more room to be forgiven, if you are talking about the old 3 speed 425 trany that was hooked to the 500ci caddy engine, then it was basically a Turbo 400 internals and the T-400 is a very strong and forgiven transmission…
Remember these? Chaparrals, run with Chevy small blocks and Chevy automatic transmissions. First ones were very competitive.
When they switched to 427 big blocks, the transmissions failed.
For a while, again in the 60s, Clutch-Flites were used in some dragsters. Torque converter replaced with a clutch, after launch the (Torque) Flite took over shifting duties.
I used to get 25 mpg tops with my four cyl, 36 hp vw with manual trans. I currently get 28-30 plus with either of my auto v6 s. When I step on the gas, they go fast. I don’t remember what I got with all my v8 s but it was less. Just get a plain ole v6 without turbo and it’ll do fine.
+1
A lot of younger folks seem to think that the old VW bugs were very economical. While they were economical in comparison with the American cars of yesteryear, the old VW bugs would be considered to be gas hogs in comparison with the most popular cars of the modern era.
The '30s era technology of those bugs yielded too little power for driving conditions even in the '50s, coupled with so-so brakes, handling that could be dangerous for those who were unfamiliar with rear-engine car driving dynamics, passenger protection that was essentially missing, and in exchange, the driver got fuel economy that was just… okay.
My 72 Datsun 510 1.6 liter 80 hp 4 got 25mpg highway. My 205 hp '84 Corvette could easily get 26 mpg. My current 220 hp direct injection turbo 4 Audi gets 32 mpg highway and is the highest horsepower and the heaviest of the 3 cars.
+1
Two relevant quotations about the so-called Good Old Days:
“Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.”
“In every age ‘the good old days’ were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.”
Give me modern technology any day, and spare me from misremembered “Good Old Days”.
Yes professor Gallagher, the civil war expert talks about the difference between actual history and the memory of history. Many historians simply write on the memory and not actual facts of the time. Of course the fact is my vw got 25 when most cars got 17 or 18. The sunroof and gas heater were pleasant memories.
I had to do some head scratching to recall but I think this was the THM325-4L so not as robust as the TH400 descendants but certainly seemed to be up to the task.
If they want to be able to keep pace with traffic, the tepid performance on that Volkswagen presents a choice. Go slow and get the good mileage but hold everybody up in the process or at least feel like you are. Or try to keep pace with everyone else, and feel like you’re really pushing the engine and pay dearly for it at the pump.
This is why I prefer a car with a little bit more power perhaps a turbo or a V6. Enough power, that it will easily keep pace with everyone else without straining to do so. It’s the easiest to get the best mpg in that situation without having to compromise.
I think a lot of people are surprised to learn that vehicle weight has no bearing on your mpg on hwy.
It’s only an issue when you’re overcoming your rest inertia, but once the vehicle is in motion, objects in motion tend to want to remain in motion. And the only thing preventing you from coasting in perpetuity is air resistance, tire and drive train friction.
Those three things they’ve gotten pretty good with dealing on modern cars and we’re at a point where the minimum amount of power needed to move it along at a steady state, is just 15 -25 hp from that engine.
And that really doesn’t change whether that’s a Honda Civic or a fully loaded S class Mercedes.
Which is why latest S class Mercedes with its 9 speed automatic can loaf along at the posted speed limit and is nearly a match for that civic in mpg.
