Wheeler-Dealering with Texas Mike. Lots of CHANGES this winter!

Hello All from down here in Austin Tx. I was talking with one of my wagon group friends, and it was brought up that I need to update my vehicle list....mainly due to all the changes in the Massey household this winter. It has been a wild, wheeler-dealering winter, WAY more so than in most years for us here. SO if you're bored, here's the latest.

I started off in November by bringing this 2010 Kawasaki Voyager home from Dallas over the Thanksgiving holiday. This is my dream bike, and I can't believe I own it. 1700cc's, cruise, stereo, tons of storage and SO comfy. Like riding an easy chair down the highway. I'm tickled with this thing.


Also last fall, my father-in-law gave my son Eddie his 2002 Silverado 1500HD, which frankly is WAYYY too big for a green 16-year-old driver, but Eddie grew up riding in this truck, it's the same age as he is, and he rode in it as a baby when he was new, so he is totally smitten with it.


SADLY, since getting the Silverado above, Eddie had not touched the 78 Electra Wagon project, and after seeing it sitting under the carport for months, getting covered in dust and pollen, and seeing surface rust starting where the wood had been removed, I reluctantly put the car on Craigslist, and a young guy in his 20's from a few towns over bought it. Happily he IS working on it, and he's promised to keep me in the loop on progress. I am not a person to let a project sit, but still have two projects of my own, so this wagon is gone.


NEXT, the 2012 Buick Enclave that I bought in August of 2016 turned out to be one of the most trouble-prone vehicles I've ever purchased, and a REAL disappointment. It looked BEAUTIFUL inside and out, with deep and smooth brown paint, black leather, and lots of wood and leather inside, dual sunroofs, roof DVD, it was loaded and should have been great, but MAN we hated it! In the time I owned it, the rear shocks leaked, front struts froze, drag link bushings tore, the water pump blew out, the a/c leaked, the Check Engine light was perpetually on, it blew BOTH rear tail light bulbs at the same time, two of the 20-inch chrome-clad wheels cracked, the intake filled with oil, the front motor mount broke, a purge valve failed, I had to have NEW Bridgestone tires balanced and rotated three times because of shaking in the steering wheel at highway speeds..a problem that just kept coming back...and on and on. Beyond reliability issues, living with this vehicle was not nearly as nice as it seemed when we were test-driving these in town. The seats, while beautiful looking, are HARD and narrow, and on our frequent trips to Dallas, a 3-hour drive, my wife and I both were terribly uncomfortable. The 3rd row especially is like flat and HARD. The middle row captian's chairs wear mounted very low, and there was no footroom under the front seats for the middle row riders, so adults were never happy back there, legs and knees in the air. It was almost like the designers never actually SAT in the vehicle when designing it! To continue the bitch-fest, the front suspension was firmer than the rear suspension, so the vehicle seemed to bob up and down in the back, despite changing the shocks. It was like the spring rated front-to-rear were different. We also HATED the visability, or lack of it, out of the rear window, and with the curved rear 1/4 windows, 3rd row passengers felt like they were sitting in a hole. One other gripe, I like to service my own vehicles, and changing the oil, specifically changing the oil filter, was an exercise in anger and frustration, as the filter is on the front of the engine, wedged between the motor and the radiator, and can't be reached from the bottom, and can barely be reached from the top. When removing it, it soaks the front motor mount and engine cradle with oil. TERRIBLE design. That engine itself, the 3.6 V6 that GM uses in everything, was something itself I grew to dislike. The direct injection "ticks", and sounds like lifter tap to me, and due to the direct injection the chrome exhaust tips were constantly sooty, and I learned that was "normal", but to me that looks like oil burning...and I kept a rag in the rear floor storage to wipe off the exhaust tips at every fill-up.... The 3.6 motor is smooth, but has poor low-end power (but good highway power), but still it felt overmatched to the weight of the vehicle, especially with a load of passengers. The real disappointment was it only averaged low-teens for mileage. The best we ever saw was 18mpg on a trip once, with 15-16 normally on the highway, and no-kidding, 12-14 in town. HORRID mileage for a V6. The final kicker was hearing all the horror stories of other Enclave and Acadia/Traverse owners, with timing chain failures, intake valve caking, and so many with either engines or transmissions failures around 80-120K miles. I did not want to deal with that possibility. We made a plan for after the holidays, before the Enclave would hit 75K miles and take that depreciation hit, that it would have to be traded in.


My wife has a longer commute than I do, and I ride the motorcycles a lot, so we decided we would get her a nice car to commute in. BUT we still have a big family, and like 3-rows of seats for trips, so the decision was made to sell my daily-driver first, our 2008 Chevy Trailblazer. Now this was HARD, because despite what you may have heard about these, this was a wonderful little SUV, and a REAL, full-frame truck. The inline-6 ran smooth as glass, and towed great. The seats were wide and soft, the truck rode smooth and quiet, and was a great size. It was also in beautiful shape, with my only real gripe being it was a mid-level model, so it lacked the sunroof and leather seats. Beyond that, I loved this little thing. VERY reliable and serviceable, BUT it went on Craigslist, and the first person that looked, bought it. I should have asked for more...


SO still needing three rows, I got on Craigslist myself and spend three weeks looking for a clean 2001-2006 full-size GM SUV. I've owned three Suburbans and a Denali XL, and the 01-06 are the sweetest and most-reliable models in my opinion. No cylinder-deactivation, no cracking dashboards, they have BIG tall windows with a ton of glass area, wide, soft seats in ALL rows, and they just run and run and run! I found this 2002 Suburban in San Antonio, optioned just the way I wanted, with LT trim, sunroof, 2WD, towing package, and it had a lot of recent service work done, had all records, and was BABIED since new. The paint was perfect and the leather was still beautiful...hard to find good seats here in Texas, they burn up, but these had been treated since new. Truck had 118K miles. Has 124K now two months later. I'm totally in love with it! Smooth, strong, quiet, and just awesome for trips. I've even been commuting in it a lot, which I shouldn't do, but I love driving it SO MUCH! The best part is, it hands-down gets better mileage than the Enclave, and I have faith that it will run to 200K and beyond with only basic maintenance. Great Truck!


SO once I got my Burb, that left the Enclave to trade in for my wife. My wife wanted something with decent mileage, but both being large people, we wanted something with some room too. We kicked around leasing a car, and looked at some new value-leader models, but we both like toys in our cars, so we decided to look at off-lease used cars. We went to the Dallas Auto Show in Feb and sat in a TON of new sedans. I was mad at GM for the Enclace, but was still thinking of a Buick Lacrosse or a Chevy Impala...I've always had GM cars. BUT I decided to keep an open mind. We sat in Avalons (my Mom had a 2015 Avalon and loves it), sat in the Mazda 6 and Honda Accord, the Kia and Hyundai larger cars, and even sat in a Taurus (NOPE!). All those new sedans look like melting bars of soap...so many look THE SAME..and I hate that. Also, the current trend of putting fastback styling on sedans means getting in and out of the back seats is often a head-knocking experience, or you have to lean your head way over getting in and out, and then have pinched windows to look out of...and we wanted visibility after the Enclave. Then we sat in a Chrysler 300. I am NOT a Chrysler guy, and my wife was turned off by the "gangsta" stigma these have, but MAN when we sat in it, we both loved it. You can see out of it. The seats are wide and soft. The rear roofline is traditional, and it's easy to get in and out. The dash design is tasteful wood and metal trim and does not look like something from Star Trek. Everywhere your arms touch is soft and padded, the sunroof is HUGE, and the car just felt GOOD. My personal favorite was the view from the driver's seat. Unlike most of the other sedans we sat in, where all you see is a big dashboard and some wipers, in the 300 you look out over a long, sculpted hood with peaked fenders! It felt just like my big old 70's-80's cars, only missing a hood ornament out there on the tip! Ha! I did some research and the Chrysler V6 makes about 300hp and averages 31mpg on the highway...I would have rather had a Hemi, but this was for my wife. We test drove one and it moved out really well! On looking under the hood, you can see all six spark plug locations, the oil filter is easy to access, as is the belt, hoses, I just LOVE rear-drive cars with north-south engines! So I took a chance, and we recently traded the Enclave for this off-lease 2015 300C. I hadn't wanted a Chrysler, or another black car, but when this one showed up on the local Covert Ford used lot, the price was right and the options were right, and we took the leap. We'll see how it holds up!


Oh and I still have the 96 Roady Wagon and '82 Z28 Camaro. I don't plan on letting either of these go...got to have projects and these are both my toys.




So there's the latest! Never a dull moment!!

Hope everyone had a great winter and most everyone is thawing out and enjoying springtime!

-Texas Mike.

 

What displacement is the 300's engine? The Pentastar V6s are known for longevity, EXCEPT for the all-aluminum 2.7L engines. I've personally worked on a few of them; it seemed like the blocks and heads would crack into the water jackets right at the holes for the engine jigs. If it's a new crack, I've had success tapping the hole and screwing in a gooped set screw, but if it goes unnoticed and overheats from low coolant, it's replacement engine time.

 

The 300 has the 3.6 Pentastar V6. I'd read a lot on it, and it's rated pretty well. Smooth, quiet, and has a lot more power than the GM 3.6 in our Enclave. I also really like that it's NOT a direct-injection motor, so no soot-covered exhaust tips and a lot less worry about intake valve caking. We'll see!

 

There's something wrong with the system, if the direct injection is causing soot and pisspoor milage. The idea behind direct injection is to have the combustion cleaner

 

Dang-O Mike!
That certainly is a lot of change!

That's crazy that a 15 year old truck based SUV with a V8 gets better fuel economy than a late model V6 crossover.

Did you mention the SWF to the fellow that bought the 78? Sorry to hear it's moved on, but sounds like it has a great new owner.

I'm glad to see you went with the Chrysler over some of the other cars you mentioned. I personally love the 300's and I have to say I am quite jealous. The one you purchased looks beautiful!
I know it must be weird after all of these years as such a dedicated GM guy. But I hope it turns out to be a great car for you all.

Thanks for catching us up on everything.

 

Yeah, I agree with Ivy on the GDI--it is supposed to be far cleaner-burning than batch or sequential port fuel injection. But now, it's someone else's headache. So, good luck with the new rigs!

 

Direct-Injection engines are known for sooty exhaust. Take a look at the next Enclave/Impala/V6 Camaro/Traverse ect that you see on the road, and note if the exhaust tips are bright or sooty. It's a known issue with Direct-Injected motors. Nothing to be done about it. As for the poor mileage the Enclave got, that also was common on these Enclave/Traverse/Acadia models. Those fake- SUV's weigh more than my Roadmaster but have a V6...so you are working those motors hard...and they need the gas!

 

And yep, it was hard to go from GM to Chrysler after a lifetime of GM ownership. I hope that 300 proves to be a good car for my wife. I love the look and driving experience!

And yep, that old Suburban just just about everything better than the Enclave did. I miss the steering wheel controls the Enclave had on trips...that's about it.

 

I WILL email the guy that bought the Electra wagon about this forum. He's promised to bring the car to the local Cars and Coffee when he gets it road-legal, so pics to follow, of course!

 

sounds good!

 

Mike - Did you know the Professor here on the forum (Victor) used to own the '78 Buick? I think he sold it to the guy you bought it from....

 

Holy fistfight batman was that Enclave a mess. I'm surprised at that Chrysler 300, I'll keep it in mind for the future. Thanks!

 

I have a 2015 Dodge Charger with the same v6 engine. The wife loves it. Keep an eye on the top end of the motor, we lost several lifters on ours and had to have all of them and the 4 camshafts changed under warranty. If you read deeply it appears to be an issue that isn't overly common but does happen.

 

Interesting....... Caused by oil starvation? Clogged oil passages? (Sludge build-up?)

 

That's what I would suspect. It's interesting to note, engineers have oil life between 8 and 10K miles, yet these idiotic proble.s come up, even if you use the company branded oil and filter. My IT gal lost her 2012 F150 due to the breakdown of the cam phasers; she had always had the dealer service it, no Jiffy Lube for this rig, but in trying to get Ford to pay for the repairs, she got behind on the payments, and it was repossessed. Too bad, because it was a gorgeous truck. But the little point about the cam phasers failing is she had driven to the dealer, zero CEL (they tell you it's lit before servicing it); as soon as she went to fire it up, it was running really bad, and the CEL came on. The code was the one that tells you the camshafts are beyond phasing limits. It was just one big s#!t sandwich for her and her husband.