I do believe the Fairmonts were on a Fox body chassis; so named because it was derived from the Audi 80 chassis or Fox as it was called in the U.S.
I know the Audi 80 from europe and I know the Fox as it was called here . . . and the Ford Fox-body cars don’t seem very similar in my opinion
I’m not disputing what you said, they just seem very different
If I’m not mistaken, the Audi 80/Fox was always front-wheel drive, but had a longitudinally mounted engine, whereas as Ford fox-body cars were always rear-wheel drive
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I test drove a 1979 Ford Fairmont when I was ready to replace my Ford Maverick. It had the Ford 200 cu in 6 cylinder engine, a four speed manual floor shift transmission and rear wheel drive. It was certainly.more fun to drive than the Maverick, handled much better, and had better visibility from the driver’s seat. It was really a step.up.from the Maverick. I don’t know why the Fairmont didn’t catch on.
. It was really a step.up.from the Maverick. I don’t know why the Fairmont didn’t catch on.
I also had a Maverick and a Fairmont and agree with your assement on both the only thing I did not like about the Fairmont it was an automatic I think it would have been much better with a manuel.
You have a very optimistic view on how people treat things that are not theirs.
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I rent cars almost monthly (or at least use to until Covid and now not traveling)…and believe it or not…very few people actually abuse their rentals.
Same here. Seen plenty of abuse on rental cars. I am sure it’s small scale in the big picture but Its still out there. Have also gotten into and then promptly gotten out of plenty that had clearly been smoked in despite the copious amount of air freshener used to hide the odor.
A low statistical occurrence still happens a lot if the population size is large enough. If you go to the beach, your chance of getting attacked by a shark is something like 1 in 11 million. And yet just about every year we hear about more than one shark attack because a lot of people go to the beach.
This year doesn’t count because car rentals have fallen off a cliff, but last year more than 40 million people rented cars. If only 1% of them abused the car, that’s 400,000 times a rental car gets abused by some jerk every year. The actual number of cars will be somewhat less as it’s likely that one car gets abused by more than 1 person, but still, that’s a very large number of potentially abused cars to be worried about if you’re thinking about buying one.
I’d suspect it’s far far less then 1% even.
Who here has dealt with an obviously-abused rental car? The one we bought was fine, as have all the rentals I’ve had, except for the PT Cruiser that refused to start one morning. Not an abuse issue, though.
It might even be true that non-rental used cars are, on average, in worse shape than rental used cars. At least rental cars get reasonable periodic maintenance.
When my brother and SIL went on their honeymoon in Hawaii (he was on R&R from Vietnam) their rental car was a Ford Cortina. EVERY morning, that thing would crank and crank w/o starting, and every morning they would have to call the rental company to come and start the engine. Once they got past the initial start of the day, the car was fine, and it drove very nicely.
Not the result of abuse.
Perhaps the result of Lucas electrical components??
7 months ago I’d have agreed with that. But after watching people abuse store clerks up to and including punching them and pulling guns on them for doing what their managers and governments tell them to do regarding having customers wear masks, I’ve concluded that there are a lot more lunatics than I previously thought in this country who just don’t care if someone else gets hurt as long as they can do whatever they want.
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I haven’t but I rarely rent vehicles. I have, however, seen my brother-in-law drive across a median with a rental so yes, it happens.
I haven’t either…and before Covid I was renting a vehicle at least once a month.
Part of the reason I didn’t see an abused vehicle was because it was probably taken out of service until it was repaired. Also rental companies will go after you financially if you abuse any of their vehicles. When ever I rent a vehicle I inspect it thoroughly and take pictures of any/all problems.
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That is not uncommon for race drivers. I have been to a few test sessions with race teams. The 2 drivers took their rental cars on track and bump drafted for a few laps untill the brakes faded while the mechanics made changes to theiir race cars. Once cooled, back on track they went.
One year at Sebring, a showroom stock Camaro team damaged the front end of one of their cars in testing. The driver that wrecked the car tried to rent one to “borrow” the front bodywork. Local rental agencies know this trick and every one of them claimed not to have any Camaros.
true, yet sometimes you get dinged where you would not expect…
last time I rented some Hyundai in Las Vegas, it was almost new and no visible damage to my eye
in a couple of hours and 100 miles away, something started scraping in the front… oh well, I parked and went on investigation… to find that the front fender underside protection was rolled atop of the wheel since the car received some damage over curb or parking lot concrete stop barrier and a couple of clips fell off 
whoever was renting it before me did not find anything better than to use some shoelace to try holding it together and it untied and was bent by the blowing air 
my fix was to reuse the shoelace, but do better work on knotting, and it was how car got another week and ~1000 more miles… I did not feel obliged to report that to rental office as it was a good, long lasting fix
Allegedly, people would rent these for the weekend, race them, return on Monday.
I bought a rental T-Bird, served me well.
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Don’t forget that rentals have devices that record location, speed, and other data as you drive. They can tell if you drive out of state against the terms of your agreement, drive too fast or otherwise abuse the rental. Ever wonder how they never check the mileage on the dash but just wand the car when you return it?
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Because they don’t care how fast you drove that Ford Fiesta or Toyota Corolla?
I do not think anybody in rental business would care to get you under a microscope, unless they suspect a high-risk transaction.
Forty years ago I drove a rental car on a four hundred miles trip. The horn kept randomly non-stop blaring. A few firm fist hits on the horn button would stop it … until in a rural area with no gas stations or such it came on and stayed on. I pulled off at an exit to nowhere, left the engine running so not to drain the battery, and looked for the horn to pull the wire.
It was the first front wheel drive car I’d driven and first transverse mounted engine I’d seen. Couldn’t find the horn! A few minutes later a farmer came along and helped. He couldn’t pull the wire and ended up cutting it with the tip of a fence cutter.