[V8] ...a 2.7T?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Well, it IS all about the "overall spirit" now, isn't it?  
 
I know people who have very high mileage Lexii LS 400s. Good for them.  I am
surprised they could stay awake that long behind the wheel.
 
Of course, the later Toyota products have all fallen ill to the greedy bug.
This Toyota learned from their liason with GM in the early 90's in
California.  They may decide to go back to the earlier lessons they learned
a the hands of Edwards Demming.  My guess is that they will quickly learn
how to make their current models less suseptible to short term failure, but
fall apart in the 125,000 range, long after the first and second owner has
traded on something else.  This will be much like Mercedes and BMW are
doing, and much like GM and Ford did for decades.  
 
My guess is this "recession" may well be permanent, and people will by
necessity need to put many more miles on their cars than they ever thought
they would.  The real story about durability and overall quality may not be
written for current automobiles for another 150,000 miles or perhaps more.
 
Keep your Lexus. It's probably better than anything more current on the
market now.
 
Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: Ricky Joshi [mailto:rickyjoshi01 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2011 3:35 PM
To: Roger M. Woodbury
Cc: KeithT1967 at aol.com; v8 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V8] ...a 2.7T?


I think one car that no one thinks about is the 1990-1994 Lexus LS400.  I am
a V8 fan forever and am willing to deal with the cost/ effort to keep the
car going.  The LS doesn't come close in terms of how fun it is to drive or
overall spirit.  BUT I'm convinced its the most reliable car in history. I
bought my 1991 in 2008 with 49K miles.  Its now at 80K and I haven't spent
one penny or one minute on repairs except oil changes and tires.  


On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 6:20 AM, Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net>
wrote:


I never thought about  the newer turbo charged engine in a C4.  I wonder if
it would be more difficult to get the electronics to work with this engine
than with a 3.6 V8 swap?

I quite agree that the C4 is the best car for us, particularly at this point
in our lives.  I have little tolerance for "niggling" issues that I believe
should have been eliminated during the design and engineering process.  I
have NO issues with a car that has north of 150k developing "issues", but
when the car has less than 50K and has "issues", I can get right nasty.
When my brandy new BMW 318 developed run on problems and bad synchronizers
TWICE in fifty thousand miles and I was advised by the BMW factory rep that
I should "hold on" until the newer 325 appeared because it was going to be a
MUCH better car, I nearly came unglued.  That was the last Bimmer in my
life, because BMW admitted that the 318 engine was not properly designed to
operate in the US on US formulated unleaded gasoline....couldn't operate at
high enough temperature to burn off the anti-smog additives, and they
admitted to me after the first transmission overhaul that they had
experienced a period of issues with the synchronizers that were supplied for
that gear box.  Fourteen plus grand for a small two door sedan was a bunch
of money in 1983!

In 2001 I paid about that for the C4 Avant which we now have 165,000 miles
on.  The car now has "issues" of old age and wear and tear.  It needs
refurbishing, both inside and out, it needs a new A/C compressor at some
point, although the system still works as it should.  The control head is
argumentative until the car has run for an hour or so, the transmission has
a one second delay going from park to drive first thing in the morning (not
after that), and the engine has leaks that will need to be addressed at some
point by pulling the engine and resealing.

My wife thinks it's perfect as is.  If she is content with it, I won't stir
up the hornets nest, but I still have this fanatasy of a similar car that
just once...one time only....really surprises some yahoo in his new, retro
Mustang.

Just not going to happen THIS year, but since C4s keep getting thrown away,
who knows what next year will bring.

Roger
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