07/09/2009 Short Fuse,

[pugofstardock]

Hey, back in the day, Beetles were good cars. Not the New Beetle, mind you, the original '60s Beetles.

The "old" Beetle is much older and was produced from the early 40s (called KdF-Wagen) till 2003 with over 21,5 Million Units
http://www.cqql.net/vw.htm

[Deacon]

and for the law against using the horn: at least i dont wake up on a sunday at 5am becaus some idiot thinks its funny. Its an emergency signal and should be used like one.

You have a LAW about it. And I've never woken up on a Sunday at 5AM because of someone honking a horn.

I was just working on my electrical nightmare. In the process of trying to change the alternator and a light bulb, my car destroyed its battery and knocked out the high beam indicator light. ...

I feel your pain.

Your pain is your own damn fault. Disconnect the battery before doing shit like that.

[pugofstardock]

You have a LAW about it. And I've never woken up on a Sunday at 5AM because of someone honking a horn.

You too as it seems http://www.seattlepi.com/local/329092_honk27.html (I assume laws about driving are more or less the same in differend states)
Or do you live in the woods where nobody drives by?

[mechtechie]

You know, a great thing modern cars have, are those internal diagnostic items in the computer. A mechanic can just plug in a diagnostic tool or a labtop and get the information which part of the computer has the problem.

I had a broken ignition in my 2002 Golf IV, it took the mechanic under 5 minutes to insert the tool check wich of igntion plugs was broken and change it. Whats the meaning of this? If you want to spend days finding a problem in a car electric, thats a fine way to burn calories. If your a trained mechanic that's fine and in older cars where the electric isn't a big part of the whole constructon that's not a problem.
There has to be a purpose why, in Germany, there are apprenticeships like car electrician besides car mechanic.

[pugofstardock]

You know, a great thing modern cars have, are those internal diagnostic items in the computer. A mechanic can just plug in a diagnostic tool or a labtop and get the information which part of the computer has the problem.

they also can enable features in th ecar electric which are disabled because you didnt pay for them extra
like the cable guy who could enable the pr0n channels

[Lord_Vadus]

Your pain is your own damn fault. Disconnect the battery before doing shit like that.

I did. The alternator had a short in it, so when I reconnected the battery, kapow. the gauge lights are due to a printed circuit delaminating. It's like a piece of a plastic bag with aluminum foil connections on it.

[Judd Sandage]

I do know that BMW is German, I also know that they can be some what un-reliable, but everyone I know thats a snob claims that the BMW is the be all and end all of the best driving car in the world... and he just looks at me with a deer caught in the headlights look when I ask why do you pay $50,000 - $80,000 on a car that is not as reliable as a $15,000 Corolla? and the Corolla is cheaper to maintain as well, and don't require exotic synthetic oils nor special spark plugs and just about any mechanic can work on it. so those cars I wouldn't mind to drive or have as long as I didn't have to worry about the money for them, but as for a daily driver I will go for a cheap Ford or Toyota.

Heck even they aren't immune to failure, the Ford V8 Diesel in the F150 and F250s are known for blowing out the high pressure (were talking 20,000 PSI on these things) fuel rails and the and the gas versions have been blowing out their spark plugs. The iforce V8 off the Toyota tundra eats its intake cams every 30,000 miles or so.

[FireAza]

I love the delighted look on Hitler's face. "I am amused by tiny itty bitty teeny car!"

I have no idea why Hitler sounds like TF2's Heavy in my mind.

[serindela]

yes no V cars, that includes the Austin Martin, I have seen to many VEE DUBS at my dads work that they ran the oil or water out and most cars can handle a little bit of something like that but those dang Germans, it must be this temp and this temp only, overheat slightly and you engine is TOAST... and replacements are not cheap, also parts regardless of of what they are tend to be on the high side of ridiculously expensive... a merc came in and it needed new plugs, Bosch was the only maker of the type needed, and only sold thru dealers, and they take 2 per cylinder, so 16 of them at 30 bux apiece and thats not including the install time. with out the "free" maintenance offered by most of those brands people wouldn't buy the cars do to the very high maintenance costs. what sucks is being the son of a mechanic you tend to understand what goes in to most cars and the stupid ideas that some car makers make to get there cars in the shape they are in and tends to make you shy away from most problem cars and brands.

on a side note... yes I would love to have one of those cars, a Porsche or a Farrie or a lambo, hell even a BMW, but I don't have the money nor the desire to put up with the frailtys of those cars.

I've got a jetta. It's over 240k miles, and still running pretty great even though I've managed to run the oil out at least twice, and I messed the clutch up when i was learning to drive it. But it still works. The only trouble I've had is the electrical. Sometimes it just decides it doesn't want to start. It was the ignition system. So we bypassed it with a push start button and since that it only decides it doesn't want to start when its hot. I let it cool off inside and it starts again.... go figure.

[Deacon]

everyone I know thats a snob claims that the BMW is the be all and end all of the best driving car in the world... and he just looks at me with a deer caught in the headlights look when I ask why do you pay $50,000 - $80,000 on a car that is not as reliable as a $15,000 Corolla? and the Corolla is cheaper to maintain as well, and don't require exotic synthetic oils nor special spark plugs and just about any mechanic can work on it.

They're looking at you like that because you're a totally different species of person. Why pay $1900/mo for a mortgage on a house you love when you could pay $900/mo for an apartment that keeps just as much rain off your head and is cheaper to maintain since you can just have the apartment maintenance people do it and doesn't require any mowing or edging or watering? Why pay for a decent bourbon when you can drink Everclear? And Everclear gets you drunk faster. Why have a hot and exciting and smart wife and end up paying more to live out your dreams when you could have a dumpy and boring and kinda dumb wife who'll be at least as loyal and doesn't require any exotic oils, either?

By the way, synthetic oils aren't exotic, and BMW offers free maintenance for 5 years (or however long), and they're generally very reliable.

[StruckingFuggle]

Yeah, luxury is one thing, as is prestige, even if that one is kind of stupid. Now, if it was just performance / speed, Judd'd be onto something.