RE: Musings on a Camry vs a 200q

["Paul Wilson" <pauldwilson@ne.mediaone.net>]

>     Well, last week that time rolled around again- my wife's '87 Delta 88
> was rapidly turning into a major project car and it was time to gratefully
> retire it and move on to something new. I tried to get her into a nice '93
> 100CS Quattro, but, alas, she didn't like the side/rear visibility. After
> perusing all the usual suspects, we ended up with a low kms, single owner
> '96 Camry V6 - our first Japanese car. It's a fascinating study in
> minimalist engineering - everything seems designed and sized to be just
> enough to do the job and a little bit more, with no excess.

There's a reason(good or not so good, you decide) for this.  In Japan, all
cars must go a major inspection and overhaul every 4 or 5 years.  This
procedure costs the equivalent of $2000 or more depending on the car.  It's
been my experience that Japanese cars seem to last a certain period of time
and are reliable during that time, but tend to quickly fall apart once their
time is up.  This time period coincided with 2 of these inspections.

If there's truly a corelation here, it's actually an impressive engineering
feet that these cars last a set amount of time and disintegrate shortly
after.

>     I took it for a run on my 150 km commute. It's a great car, smooth,
> solid, quiet, wonderful engine. But..... something's missing. I notice I'm
> cruising 20 - 30 kph slower than I do in the 200q and it doesn't
> really feel
> comfortable to push the Camry faster.
>     The next day I'm back in the 200q and the difference slowly
> dawns on me.
> I sat in the Camry to drive it, but I wear the Audi. It's like
> putting on a
> pair of comfortable old shoes or supple leather gloves. Safe,
> secure, solid
> as a rock, almost an extension of the senses. What a strange revelation. I
> hope I don't have a problem here .....other than the fact that I will
> probably always want to drive an Audi.
>     I certainly hope the Camry lives up to it's reputed
> reliability. It will
> give me a lot more time to work on the 200q.

The Camry is a very well made, very reliable appliance.  If I had a bunch of
money lying around I'd go buy one of those new Toyota full-size pickups for
weekend trips to Home Depot and such.

Paul Wilson