stateside skodas, etc. (NAC!)

[Nate Stuart]

> > Were they not right up there with
> > the Lada and the Hyundai "Pony" in terms of quality?
> > ;)

>         Yes they did and No....        ... they were worse, even more so
> than the Renault Alliance

Hey, what was so bad about the Renault Alliance/Encores!? I have had
several, and still own one. Never left me stranded, and the engine in my
current Encore is nearing the 200k mile mark, and believe you me it has not
had an easy life either :).... But I digress, I haven't driven any of the
Renaults at all since I bought my first quatto.... ;0) They were great,
reliable, and cheap transportation, perfect for the High school student. I
actually went to buy one of my Alliances from a woman, and when I showed up
she just handed me the keys and said "Take it"! There was nothing wrong with
the car, and I drove it home! I later ran into problems getting a title for
it (she lost theirs) so I scrapped it for parts, but it was still worth
every penny :).

> that was NOT a french import, but a Nissan, North
> American ONLY, original.

No it was not a American ONLY car. The Alliance/Ecore are the exact same
cars as the R9/R11 in europe, just re-badged (gee where have we seen that
before:). And they came with different option packages.
Oh, and they were built locally, but it was with/by AMC, not Nissan. Renault
bought AMC/Jeep(I think)/Eagle in the early 80's to try and save it, as well
as giving them a stronger foothold in the US market. Neither objective
succeeded, and AMC was later bought out by Chrysler (If I remember all this
correctly, who knows). I believe Renault is going to or already has
purchased Nissan for very similar reasons they purchased AMC in the early
80's. But from what I've heard they are not looking very hard at importing
into the US market. At least not at the present time though.

Oh well, enough rambling for me!

Later!
-Nate