Bit o' memorabilia found

[DrEntropy]

One of the AMC cars I'd sold stands out in memory. A Gremlin. Young lad ordered it with the biggest V-8 it would fit, no carpets, just mats. Bucket seats, standard four-speed gearbox. That thing would go sideways at will. The other salesman and I wanted to get another one to paint up looking like a P.F. Keds high-top and take it racing. Sadly, nobody else saw the humor/potential in our scheme, tho. :sorrow:

 

[pdplot]

Once manned a booth in Greenwich for the American Cancer Society selling raffle tickets for two Porsches - a 928 and a 911 RTarga. I got to drive both of them. Hated the 928 as clumsy, expensive, overly complex, and very sensitive to tar strips, etc., but loved the 911 and would have taken one on the spot. Client of mine has two 928s and loves them. I hope he has the deep pockets if something breaks.

 

[PAUL161]

One of my grandsons worked for a BMW dealer in Tulsa pulling wrenches a few years ago and he said he would never own a BMW! Most owners they dealt with just called them to come get theirs and fix/service it, if it was a couple years old and it was going to take longer than a few days, they just bought a new one! We are talking about the high-end money makers in town. My grandson said the BMWs are nothing but an electrical nightmare, the shop is always full of them for one thing or another. He said one of them they just pulled in the shop and the engine caught on fire!

 

[Bayless]

A few years ago I did some work for the local Mercedes dealer, not the customer cars but his private collection. I developed a good relationship with the service manager. One day I asked him about a few of the cars seemed to stay in the shop several days. He said they were really having a lot of electrical problems that are hard to find as well as fix.

 

[NutmegCT]

Gents - following up on a previous thread about German cars ...

how 'bout Audis of the last ten years or so. Problems?

 

[AngliaGT]

Great cars! - at least until the warranty runs out.

 

[NutmegCT]

Thanks Doug. Most cars are great until the warranty runs out. There's a secret built-in timer in most of them.

But Audi *after* the warranty runs out. Mechanical, electrical, electronic, transmissions, engines, etc. Any thoughts?

 

[waltesefalcon]

I think most modern German cars have issues with electrical gremlins after awhile.

 

[JPSmit]

Gents - following up on a previous thread about German cars ...

how 'bout Audis of the last ten years or so. Problems?

Someone was recently waxing eloquent to me that Mercedes and other German manufacturers were specing their piston rings <nikasil? > for about 150k km - the average length of the first owner's tenure, the Japanese had to "negotiate" with the manufacturer for a much longer ring life. Maybe was even true.

 

[AngliaGT]

I was referring to the fact that Audis can be really expensive to repair/-
maintain.Very hi-tech machines.
I'd avoid them at all cost.

 

[PC]

 

[Silverghost]

Yeah, I sold Pacers... *sigh*

Yes, and you also got to sell 390 AMXs, Rambler Scramblers, Rebel Machines, SC/360 Hornets, etc. to make up for that!

 

[John Turney]

This talk of German cars reminds me of the Mercury ads with Deiter.

 

[glemon]

That is a great picture of a 924, count me among the fans of these cars, they were certainly underpowered but good in most all other ways.
Excellent handling and a nice package with a large hatch area when you folded down the useless rear seat back. Speakingg of AMC, did you know that the Volkswagen 2.0 liter used in the 924 was also used in slightly modified carbureted form in the Gremlin.

Here is Pic of my 924 I had a couple years ago, they look much better with the "snowflake" wheels than the cheap steel wheels the early cars had.

 

[judow]

It’s a real treasure.