Quote:
Originally Posted by cashflyer
...But (coincidental to this thread)...
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This:
Re general build quality; in my opinion, excellent. Earlier Vettes, purty an' pow'full as they may be,, are junk in comparison. - the car has a cheap interior (I hear that's been improved on, though). I spent $1200 having the seats reupholstered; the orig. leather was terrible, after only 15 k miles tearing from wear and pressure from the interior hard frame at places and generally crap. But hell, I never really paid much attention to how it looked inside. I was always totally preoccupied looking out the windshield, trying to control my damned right foot and staying alive.
Re mechanical reliability; I drove the car like I stole it, from the day I bought it to the day I sold it. I drove it hard, but never abusively; got over 60 k miles out of the original brakes and it had the original clutch until just before I sold it - and, no exaggeration, 99% of the time I downshifted through all the gears, such was the irresistable aural delight listening to that small block beast winding down through those Flowmasters.
But alas, that did not come without a cost - a BIG cost! Just before I ended up selling it I noticed a slight "snick" when downshifting from 4th to 3rd (If I recall correctly) and just could not live with that. I HATE the sound of grinding gears! I NEVER grind gears when I shift!
So my mech. sent me to his recommended tranny shop and they tore the trans apart. Then the tranny guy called me and said he wanted me to come by his shop. Why, whassamatta? I asked. You really need to come by the shop, he repeated.
So I did. He led me to my trans, completely disassembled and laid out on a table, and proceeded to pick up gears and other parts and point out that they wuz all wored out an' he sez, It's hard to believe this trans only has 74 K miles on it - looks more like 150 k miles worth of wear. Well, due to my downshifting addiction...it was.
So, biting a very expensive bullet because I really loved the car, I sez, fix it and go back to work.
Hour or so later he calls again, same request, same question from me, same answer from him. Oh, jeeze, what now?, I lament to myself and drive back to his shop where he led me to a pan of brownish fluid that had a metallic sheen look to it - kinda like some metallic paint had been mixed into it. We drained the diff and this is what came out, he sez and I sez, Looks kinda like some metallic paint been mixed into it. Close, but no; that's little flecks of metal whut was once part of the differential an' that ain't good, he sez and I bite another bullet and I sez, fix it and go back to work.
He sent the diff to a shop in LA that specialized in that and I decided I might as well go ahead and have the rubber, "velocity joints"? (I always knew them as universal joints) at the ends of the driveshaft replaced, thinking maybe a couple hundred bucks in parts, only to be told that I had to buy a whole new driveshaft because they couldn't be r & r'd. The bullets kept on comin' an' my tooths wuz gettin' real sore, this one being something like $1200 (or more?) for a new driveshaft.
But in the end, the car drove like new (new clutch too, of course) and I was happy - but over 8 grand poorer. Gonna keep this car forever (or at least another 74 k miles), I sez to myself.
Then about a month or two later the dash began to intermittently go dark and my mech. says, Only a matter of time and the parts to fix it will cost ya 'bout $1200. So I drove off, lamenting again (I thought I was all finished lamenting
) and sold the car before it blacked out again - to an irritating, irrascible b!tch who shortly thereafter called me and leaned on me to fix the brakes properly (I'd had them done, gratis, as a condition of the sale - after she'd unmercifully ground me down from my asking price).
So I told her to take it back to my mech. and he'd make it right, which she did (she wanted me to, but I politely told her to go fk herself), and my mech. found nothing wrong.
So she calls me again and sez, I'm gonna sue you. Take the car back an' gimme back my money or I'm gonna sue you. I know the law, she sez. No you don't. Sue me (I politely (
) told her).
Never heard from her again...for about a month. Then she calls me again and sez, Now all the lights in the dashboard don't come on and I'm REALLY gonna sue you now! Fine, I sez. Have your lawyer contact me and don't call me again. It's been years, so I guess she gave up.
I actually felt a little guilty selling the car without mentioning the impending dash problem, knowing that, while the dash hadn't gone dark for over a month, it eventually would...permanently. But my buddies (who are even more unscrupulous than I am) said, Hey, it's a used car. Sell it as is. So I did.
Funny thing is, though, that the irritating, irascible b!tch bought the car on the recommendation of the Porsche mech. who first worked on my newly acquired SC (and screwed me to the tune of $650). She was his itinerant bookkeeper and I'm sure she filled his ears with her rants.
Then, to top it all off, I later learn from a third party that one day shortly thereafter, when she was there doing the sleazebag's books, he backed his pickup into her car and damaged it...to the tune of $1400.
What goes 'round, comes 'round, eh?
Life is fun. Sometimes expensive, but fun.
Gonna browse used Vettes now.
Incidentally, I drive my SC just like I drove the C5 - like I stole it. The trans was rebuilt at 63 k miles when the PO owned it, by his, and now my, mechanic. Just about to turn 200 k miles on that rebuild. Old Porsches am sure made of good stuff.
