Re: Musings on a Camry vs a 200q

[John Cunningham <johnc@together.net>]

Paul Wilson wrote:

> 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.

hmmm.  not at all my experience with some qualification:  with _recent_ japanse
cars, i.e. last 10-12 years.  i know of an approaching 200k mi. integra that has
passed through a couple of my friends hands.  sure it's needed a handful of
things on it's way, including a gas tank and full rear brakes recently, but
hardly disintegrating all at once.  my over 100k toyota truck and integra didn't
have that problem either - common maintenance items required but only what's to
be expected with miles (or less).  you really can't take a shot at reliability
with japanse cars.

now, comparing an Audi with 150k and a japanese car with same, total difference
in feel - japanese ride is much looser (presuming you've watched bushings and
details on the Audi of course). but still, it's not like the j car is
spontaneously dropping parts on the road.

and of course 'character' assertions certainly hold up, which is why my friend
has taken to driving his totally beat Jetta GL over his far less beat honda.
'it may be trashed but it's a much nicer drive'.

JC