who does this a$$ at yahoo really work for

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/aut...YxNDkEc2VjA2ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawNzYW5rLWRldHJvaXQ-


im sorry but i cant beleve someone would fault the cavalier and astro, for sinking GM, those were the two of the most reliable vehicles made.

and the explorer???? cmon

 

Brain-dead auto "journalists" are in bed with Honda and Toyota, generally. Hell, look at Consumer Reports for the most biased tests around! No matter what, Honda and Toyota win, even though they really aren't THAT great of vehicles! I've seen plenty of both in shops to know.

The Cavalier sold from 1982 to 2006, so I'm guessing it was a pretty decent car to sell for 23 model years! Same with the Taurus! It lasted from 1987 to 2006. Pintos were built from 1971 to 1981. So, how exactly are these cars the "downfall" of Detroit again???

 

the cavalier cant be killed (actually if you let them sit for a long time, they dont seem to agree with that.) they are slow, unrefined but tough.

the taurus was considered the best midsize family car for the money for years not to mention ahead of its time when it came out. besides, if ti was a car that was so bad why did ford bring the nameplate back?

i have been in a fusion sel and a malibu ltz (both 09's) and they are just as nice, if not nicer than any import.

the only place that the imports really have us crushed is the small/compact pickup market. i like the ranger, but the tacoma and the frontier are much better.

 

Considering we don't even BUILD a tru "small" pickup anymore - OK, the Ranger is the only true small PU out there now - that's not surprising. The Colorado is a mid-sized truck, and now, the Dakota is a big as my old '85 Dodge D-150 full-sized truck was!

Take a '61 - '71 Dodge D100, park it next to a '72 - '93 Dodge, next to a '94 - '02 Ram, then an '03 - '08 Ram, then an '09 model, and look how they've grown! My old '68 D100 looked downright small, next to my '96 3500...and it, in turn, looks puny next to an '09 3500! Crazy!

The automakers could rake in a pile of friggin cash if they would make a REAL small truck like the old S-10, Datsun/Nissan P620, Mitsu MightyMax/Dodge Ram 50, or the Toyota SR5 (pre-1990). Not everyone wants or needs 15,000 pound towing capacity, or #4,500 in the bed! Some folks just need the ability to haul stuff, and without the top of the bed rails being nearly 5-1/2' off the ground!

Truck proportions nowadays are absurd. The worst are the new Fords and Toyota Tundras. I'm 5'11", and the bed top edge is at armpit height for me! That is just ridiculous.

 

those worst car reports

I've always had to wonder about those kinds of reports.There's never anything in there about how Ford sold more Pinto's, every year, after the "exploding Pinto" scandal started.OR,how Pinto WAS NOT the first or last car to have that problem.In the Seventies,somebody who had noticed dicrepancies in reporting such accidents,got a small network together to figure out how many different cars had that same problem.They had to do this because;at the time,foreign cars sold in America did NOT have to meet the smog and safety standards as cars made in America.So NTSB didn't keep records of accidents involving those cars...Five of one million Pintos got Ford into triouble.In that same time,more than two dozen Toyota Corollas and more than two dozen BMW 2002's blew up and killed people when hit from behind.And that was just in twenty states,mostly in the MidWest.The network of friends had to check old newspaper and microfilms there-of,to get that information...It wasn't until the 1982 model year,all cars sold in America had to meet the smog and safety standards that all cars made in America HAD BEEN meeting.Pinto and Vega included.Before the 1982 model year,only three foreign car makers had full lines of vehicles that did this; Honda,Volvo and VW.In 1982,VW Beetles became too smoggy to sell to Americans.But,could still be bought elsewhere in the world.

 

that bad journalism,part two

A P.S.:A few years back,an LA Times reporter was relating how her family had psychologically traumatized her for life...By buying a pumpkin orange Ford Pinto(like the one in this web article),eventhough her parents KNEW "they all explode on contact",were like totally uncool cars and---got it a horrendous PUMPKIN ORANGE!!! She spent her high school years being ridiculed and humiliated,,,because of this horrible exploding pumpkin her parents had gotten her...And that all the other kids got to drive around in cool cars like Toyotas and Hondas,that came in cool colors...In the 1970's,30% of all Hondas came in that same pumpkin orange color---and most Pintos did NOT...She DID admit that her Pinto NEVER DID explode,but she was deathly afraid of that happening,the whole time she was driving around in it...All five of the notorious exploding Pintos,were pre-74 Pintos.(and all three of the exploding Vegas,as well)Once Pintos and Vegas got superbumpers,and better gastank filler hose fittings,they stopped being exploding Pintos and Vegas.Ford and Chevy stopped making Pinto's and Vegas because of the bad press those two models were getting.They still made cars on those platforms.None of which have the same reputations.

 

Lousy article, not backed up by ANY exidence. The only ones that I might call failures would be the Chrysler Sebring (sedan version) and Jeep Compass

 

I'll say it again, we (the USA) gave away the whole auto industry to the Japanese on a silver platter!

IT'S OUR OWN FAULT!

 

Absolutely, I agree. Buy North American.
And it was those same car writers who told you to buy else everything but.

 

Everyone I've ever known that had a cavalier, we call them crapaliers just because of the fact that they're small, and we like big cars and trucks. But seriously, those things run forever. My friend has one that I beleive is an 89 or 90 and the thing still runs, and they hardly even maintain the thing!

Every block had an explorer on it. One of my friends also just got an Astro van, and though very truck-like, it is very luxurious and comfortable, especially for an ex-surveillance van!

 

I just junked my 91 Astro conversion van. Not because it was junk, but because I bought it for $400 to haul Amish and it did that for 3 years, every day! I bought it with 146,000 miles and when the 5th starter went out it had 386,442 miles on it. I said enuff is enuff. Gas prices were $3.33 a gallon here and I wanst make enuff money to keep it goin. Try to tell the Amish, who are very tight when it comes to money, that the rates went up because of the gas prices and oil for changes, and they just didnt want to hear it.

The motor was all original, the tranny had never been flushed since new and it just kept goin and goin. The front end was getting really loose, and the starters kept going out because it was about impossible to change the intake and valve cover gaskets. I spent a good 8 hours changing plugs, wires, cap, rotor and valve cover gaskets one day. I must have never gotten them seated right, mainly becuase there was no way to see around the entire valvecover, I had to do it blind, by feel. All the startups and oil leaking just kept eating starters. I know if I would have replaced the starter, I could have easily gotten over 400k out of it. The body was solid and I never washed the damn thing. It was a Amish hauler, the inside was caked with mud and tore up, because they have zero respect for anyone elses possesions. Id take that sucker over about any foreign vehicle in a head on and walk away. It was a tank, rode like a caddy and wasnt too bad on gas, 18mpg around town and the country roads. I made a total gross income of $127,548 with that in 3 years and I paid $400 for it. 1/4 of that went right back into gas and oil changes. Thats the only maintence I did to it other then a $15 muffler, and 3 sets of front brake pads and 1 set of rear shoes, 2 sets of studded winter tires and 8 summer tires, for both the front and rear. And this clown says they are a terrible vehicle? LMAO, what a clueless pencil pusher who has never been inside of any of these vehicles he is bad talking.

And.... Try hooking a 14x7x7 utility trailer to any of the FORD, Chrysler, Honda or Toyota mini vans and moving it anywhere. The trailer was HEAVY with carpentry tools and while it made the old Astro drag tail like a dog with worms, that lil 4.3 powerhouse had zero problems in movin it up and down the very hilly roads we have around here. If I had a Dodge minivan I would have replaced 12 trannys and 5 headgaskets and replaced the entire bottom foot of the body 3 times, Ford Mini would have been 2 motors and a tranny or 2 and lots of body work, Toyota, they dont make a minivan under of any age that can be had for less then $5000, let alone use it for any type of work and a Honda, OMG, they already sit so low that I would never had been able to even hook a trailer to it, not to mention the cost of maintence on either imports. If you wanna haul the kids to a soccer game, get a Toyota, Dodge, FORD or Honda minivan, if you want to tow anything or use it for work, the Astro/Safari are the ONLY mini vans to own.

Also, dont forget the 3 deer I slayed with this sucker with her STEEL bumper. The last deer, a nice big 7 pt buck, cost me a right side headlight and turnsignal light. No biggie, just a new headlight mounting bucket and a orange trailer light and she was good to go.

Here she is, in all her glory, aint she a looker?

 

Don't forget the Corvair.

Dad had a J2000 (Pontiac's Cavalier) wagon for a couple of years and that thing was great for what it was. I don't think he ever even opened the hood for anything other than fluid changes and I don't remember having to change any parts repeatedly. You got to love biased information.

 

A friend just recently scrapped a 1986 Cavalier, that her parents bought new. It has 307K miles on it! It had the original engine, transaxle, and radiator. The only reason they scrapped it was because her 17-year-old son got a case of the stupids, and ran the car over a curb - doing around 40 mph at the time!

My sister-in-law owned four Astro vans, and swore by all of them! Greatest thing on four wheels! She recently bought a Nissan Pathfinder, and she wished she'd never bought that thing!

 

I had an Astro too...loved it. It was like new when I got it in FL and like new when I sold it in WI 5 years later. My friends used to love riding around in it. It was tough and a great runner.

 

And the Sebring was a Toyota Solara in disguise.Why isn't the Solara on a Worst Car List?:banghead3: