Honda Car Forum

On Sat, 9 May 2009 08:51:43 -0700 (PDT), jon_banquer <jon_banquer@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>On May 8, 8:29*am, Black Dragon <b...@nomail.invalid> wrote:
>
>> I know people who've had nothing but troubles with Toyota's and will
>> never buy another.
>
>The problem with Honda, Toyota, Acura, etc. is that the cylinder head
>has so little material in it that if you experience even a momentary
>overheating problem such as would be caused with say a fan switch
>failure you're looking at a very expensive cylinder head rebuild.
>Other manufactures have more material in the head and their heads can
>often handle a brief over heating situation... not so with Honda,
>Toyota or Acura. This FACT makes automotive repair shops tons of
>money.
>
>Do Honda, Toyota and Acura have advantages... certainly they do. They
>have a much better fit and finish and I believe they hold their
>suppliers to tighter tolerances.
>
>I've had two Honda's. Both had cylinder head problems. I'd never buy
>another Honda again.
>
>A classic Saab 900 Turbo is a much better designed and engineered car.
>The classic Saab 900 uses double wishbone for it's front suspension.
>The only major weakness of the Saab 900 Turbo is a gearbox that can't
>handle over 300 hp without being babied. The engine can easily be made
>to output 450 hp. It's a far better car in every possible way compared
>to a Honda... better ride, better handling, more room, better engine,
>etc.
>
>Jon Banquer
>San Diego, CA
>
>

Since I am in my seventies, and have quite a few cars, I have had a
number of foreign, and a number of domestic. My first drivable car was
a domestic, a Crosley, the second was an MG-TD. Averaging among all the
cars I have owned, it is hard to make generalities. I have had domestic
dogs and domestic gems, foreign dogs and foreign gems. I have even had
both from same brand- often certain brands have bad years and good years.

ALL cars in recent decades have been far better than my earlier cars.
When people say, "they don't build them like they used to," I say
"thank god."

We have typically kept our cars for ten years, but in earlier days we
had to get rid of some earlier, but my last car was 11 years old (a
Dodge) when we sold it recently, with 150K miles. It was still in
excellent shape, but wife was getting worried about its age. Even
though the car got 32 in city, 36-37 on highway (used to get even
better) we also wanted something with higher city milage, since most of
our driving is city. We went with a Prius.

Again, I have had mixed luck with both foreign and domestic. If you end
up buying enough cars to even out the statistics, I don't think it makes
much difference. In general, too, the gems FAR outweigh the dogs, even
counting the cars from the forties and fifties, or the new cars of the
seventies that we bought. Keep abreast of car reviews in the mags, word
of mouth, etc. and you can avoid most dogs.

On Sat, 09 May 2009 16:01:03 -0400, Cliff wrote:

>>On May 8, 8:29Â*am, Black Dragon <b...@nomail.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> I know people who've had nothing but troubles with Toyota's and will
>>> never buy another.


You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones that
came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed their oil
(one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!) and then
wonder why the car blew up? "I had this kind of trouble with my Chevy, and
bought a Toyota so I wouldn't HAVE this kind of trouble any more!"

Yup...they're out there...

On May 10, 6:26 pm, Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B <Tru...@e86.GTS> wrote:
> On Sat, 09 May 2009 16:01:03 -0400, Cliff wrote:
> >>On May 8, 8:29 am, Black Dragon <b...@nomail.invalid> wrote:
>
> >>> I know people who've had nothing but troubles with Toyota's and will
> >>> never buy another.
>
> You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones that
> came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed their oil
> (one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!) and then
> wonder why the car blew up? "I had this kind of trouble with my Chevy, and
> bought a Toyota so I wouldn't HAVE this kind of trouble any more!"
>
> Yup...they're out there...

I have a friend that Never, ever, changed his oil on his new camry. He
was lucky because this was the model years they were sludging. Get
this, 37000 MILES on original oil and then it just died, and Toyota
just gave him a new motor no questions asked, free and clear, talk
about dumb ass luck for someone who didnt deserve it. But he kept it
washed and clean.

Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク <Trueno@e86.GTS> gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

> You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones
> that came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed
> their oil (one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!)
> and then wonder why the car blew up?

Gosh! FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles?

FFS, that's less than the recommended service interval on most new cars
over here... You 'merkins and your outdated obsession with changing the
oil every ten minutes.

Thus spake Adrian <toomany2cvs@gmail.com> :

>Hachiroku ???? <Trueno@e86.GTS> gurgled happily, sounding much like they
>were saying:
>
>> You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones
>> that came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed
>> their oil (one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!)
>> and then wonder why the car blew up?
>
>Gosh! FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles?
>
>FFS, that's less than the recommended service interval on most new cars
>over here... You 'merkins and your outdated obsession with changing the
>oil every ten minutes.

Huh? I just looked at the German BMW manual. Oil change at 15000 km.
Now things like "tune up" and "valve adjustment" come at something
like 165,000 km.

Of course, the service minder should be your real key for modern cars.
Even my Fit has one. I even think the Matrix has one.
--

- dillon I am not invalid

The RMS Titanic sank on April 15th. US income taxes
are due on April 15th. Coincidence? I think not.

On Mon, 11 May 2009 06:22:16 +0000, Adrian wrote:

> Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク <Trueno@e86.GTS> gurgled happily, sounding much like they
> were saying:
>
>> You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones
>> that came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed
>> their oil (one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!)
>> and then wonder why the car blew up?
>
> Gosh! FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles?
>
> FFS, that's less than the recommended service interval on most new cars
> over here... You 'merkins and your outdated obsession with changing the
> oil every ten minutes.


WHAT?!?!?!

I don't let Dino oil go more than 5K! I change my synthetic at 4.5K.

Works for me. Last three cars all had well over 250,000 on them.

The problems with the Toyotas was someone designed the oil passages too
narrow, and sludging occurred. The MFG's recommendation was 7,500 miles.
Most of the sludging occurred beyond that point. There were a few cases of
sludging at or below the recommendation of 7,500, and anyone that says
they experienced sludging <5,000 between changes was either doing
something horribly wrong, went to Jiffy-Lube, or is blowing smoke rings up
your nether regions...

BTW, Toyota's recommendation was lowered to 5K after that.

I guess they hope those few people would change their oil <12,000...

On 2009-05-11 01:22:16 -0500, Adrian <toomany2cvs@gmail.com> said:

> Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク <Trueno@e86.GTS> gurgled happily, sounding much like they
> were saying:
>
>> You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones
>> that came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed
>> their oil (one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!)
>> and then wonder why the car blew up?
>
> Gosh! FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles?
>
> FFS, that's less than the recommended service interval on most new cars
> over here... You 'merkins and your outdated obsession with changing the
> oil every ten minutes.

Where's "over here"? US miles are different than kilometers, ya know...
I can't think of anyplace that lets cars go 15K miles between oil
changes, unless it's one of those arab countries where cars are much
more expendable than they are here.
--
-----------------------------
I only talk like that in the movies

yoda <yoda@Dagobah.net> gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

> On 2009-05-11 01:22:16 -0500, Adrian <toomany2cvs@gmail.com> said:
>
>> Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク <Trueno@e86.GTS> gurgled happily, sounding much like
>> they were saying:
>>
>>> You have to do SOME maintenance! Were these the people like the ones
>>> that came into the service department when I was there, NEVER changed
>>> their oil (one documented case of 15,000 miles without an oil change!)
>>> and then wonder why the car blew up?
>>
>> Gosh! FIFTEEN THOUSAND miles?
>>
>> FFS, that's less than the recommended service interval on most new cars
>> over here... You 'merkins and your outdated obsession with changing the
>> oil every ten minutes.

> Where's "over here"? US miles are different than kilometers, ya know...

Just as well I'm not in a KM country, then. I wonder... If I was, d'you
think I'd have mentioned that? Yes, I think I might have...

> I can't think of anyplace that lets cars go 15K miles between oil
> changes, unless it's one of those arab countries where cars are much
> more expendable than they are here.

<shrug> Your lack of imagination is not my problem.

Here in the UQ, 18k miles/two years is not unusual as a service interval
for recent cars, including for both current Saabs. Very few cars here
"die" because of worn out engines.

"Adrian" <toomany2cvs@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:76sk35F1ed7kpU1@mid.individual.net...
<shrug> Your lack of imagination is not my problem.
>
> Here in the UQ, 18k miles/two years is not unusual as a service interval
> for recent cars, including for both current Saabs. Very few cars here
> "die" because of worn out engines.

Surely these long intervals are due to the numberof companies buying FLEETS
of cars and they only look at the pence (or whatever) per mile and are not
too worried about a long life.

Vauxhall/Opels have 2 yr service/oil change as you say but loads die around
60k/3 years due to thye oil issue - sometimes ts the turbo

Another example - audi - computer can be set to 10K services or "long life"
services - any mechanic worth his aslt would tell you don't touch the long
life serviced cars IF you are the sort that "owns" their car or keeps them
for years