Bring back the station wagon!

Metering rods are pretty standard on most Carter carburetors going all
the way back, and a worn metering rod would indeed enrichen the cruise
mixture. The Pontiac 6 wasn't bad, being a derivative of the old
Oakland Six of the early '30s. The elongated 8, however, was another
story entirely...inefficient, less powerful than the Ford 239
flathead, and with that long, twisty crank.

My uncles both had '49 and '50 Silver Streak 8s, and both had to have
a dealer installed truss that went over the head studs to help prevent
the block from warping and breaking the crankshaft. Usually the
Pontiac 8 was good for around 50K miles, give or take, and things
would just start going bad...worn mains being the biggest wear item if
the block didn't have that "truss." If trussed, they'd last fairly
well up to around 90K before cashing in their chips. Both had
HydraMatic, making thim instantly superior to any Chevy, as well as
all that jazzy chrome on the hoods and dashes..

The Pontiac/GMC 287 V8 of '55 was welcome relief. My grandparents had
a Star Chief with the 4 bbl version and got a lot of miles out of it.
I do remember, being in Montréal for l'Expo in '67, that all the
Pontaic Parisiennes and Laurentians were Pontaic bodies and trim with
Chevy engines and Powerslide.

 

Well you certainly fit into that category.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Well, that would be pessimism, I think. I'm not sure what pessamism is.
And I know a little about the Koreans as my employer has a couple of
plants there and has had a joint venture with them for several decades.
And you don't have a clue as to what you are talking about.

Matt

 

If its anything like priapism, it might explain why no blood is getting
to his brain...

 

It's a misspelling.

Really! OK, oh brilliant one, I've had to work with them for over 10
years, so I know how they operated. Also, my assertions that early
Hyundai products were awful has already been verified. Next?

 

Didn't I tell you to go sit on a fire hydrant?

 

I wasn't questioning the crappy early products, I was questioning your
statement "If you know anything about Koreans and Korean
culture, you know they're some of the biggest fraudsters on earth.
Anything from Korea...stay WAY away."

They are absolutely intense about doing things right and making the
highest quality products on the planet. They despise the Japanese and
wnat nothing more than to crush them at their own game, making the best
products in the world and becoming very successful in manufacturing and
business. Anyone who knows anything about Asia knows this and has no
problem buying Koreans products knowing that they are working day and
night to make their products the best in the world.

Matt

 

HA! They want the money.

More globalist/corporate bullshit, piled higher and deeper. The
Japanese and Koreans have despised each other for centuries, long
before this country existed. The Japanese held that they were/are
always superior in everything and the Koreans...well, let's just say
they're considered to be the "low end" of the Oriental scale for a
variety of reasons. OTOH, the Japanese oppressed the Koreans with
their imperialistic agenda for at least that long, and any time the
Koreans would try to advance, the Japanese Imperialists were there to
stop them, with force if necessary. If you doubt the ferment of the
Japanese attitude of superiority, just ask the Chinese. Japan's
record in Asian affairs through history, even in the previous century,
speaks for itself.

Crime and graft in Korean business and politics is rampant. Do you
homework and quit reading all that corporate crap they feed you. One
thing I learned about them after working with them for 11 years...they
lie like rugs, and never take responsibility when things go to hell in
a handbasket. I handled the Seoul Olympics video feed in '88 on the
US end and had to deal with their people on the uplink end. Lie, lie,
lie after lie about problems on their end right up until air time,
when NBC from 30 Rock threatened to pull their revenue cut for
"non-performance." THEN, and ONLY then, did the transmission
impairments get fixed....and that was 7 minutes before air time. Even
INTELSAT, a unit of the UN, would give up trying to get the Kumsan
earth station to do anything right. As an operator at the INTELSAT
Operating Center would say, "Hey...it's their culture. We'll just
work around them."

So much for yours and others' self-engrandized opinions on the
subject.

 

I agree. My fully restored 1940 Chrysler Royal Coupe has the 241.5
flathead 6, 108HP. It weighs in at over 3600lbs, and gets over 20mpg
with the original overdrive transmission. Why can this old Chrysler
get by with only 108HP, and my wife's 2005 PTCruiser convertible has
the 180HP Turbo and only gets 21 around town and 28 on the highway!

 

No doubt. That doesn't change the outcome. The way to get the money is
to make the best products and thus sell more of them than your competition.

I never said anything different and never discussed the genesis of the
animosity. You sure have a propensity to read things that aren't there.

Just like it almost every other country. What has that to do with the
quality of Hyundai cars? You do remember the topic, don't you?

My opinions are well-supported in fact. Check the quality metrics for
cars and watch the progress that Hyundai has made in the last 10 years
contrary to your assertions that their products are crap and not worth
buying.

Matt


Matt

 

"Quality metrics" depend on how much the automaker (or any other
concern) wants to pay for them. Look at all the "Car Of The Year"
trinkets GM won over the years for garbage.

I'd give you the point about their improvements, however...and they
are considerable indeed. But, going back to my original statement,
they DID make extremely bad cars for some time, that's irrefutable.
What they make/sell now, in my way of looking at things in general,
therefore requires some caution and research before investing.

 

I'm thinking more of JD Power surveys, and other less biased sources,
not magazines supported by advertising.

And I never disputed your assertion that early Excels were inferior
cars. I don't think they were as bad as you claimed based on other
information I've seen, but I agree that they weren't at the top of the
food chain by any measure.

Matt

 

Power's sales figures are generally considered to be factual, but
things like thier "best in initial quality" awards give me pause.

Another poster backs up my observations, as did the poor fellow I knew
who owned one...and torched it out of desperation!

 

They have certainly put out effort, but they seem more successful at
raising money for themselves and their companies- in that order.

 

It's all about torque, at the RPMs most of us drive.

 

Here the early Excels were worse than anyone has said. Those that
continued running, quickly rusted out with our winter road salt.
I felt so sorry for those who bought them. They would have been much
better off buying a used NA vehicle.
I looked at an early Sonata and the crudeness of construction under the
hood (mechanical and electrical) was so poor I didn't bother with a test
drive.

Only the Yugo was worse.
As a story I heard in the UK went:
A chap went in an auto wrecker and asked:
"Can you give me a side view mirror for my Yugo?
After a bit of delay the answer was:
"OK I guess we can manage that trade".

Once my UK sister in law who loved to get cheap small used cars had just
purchased a few yr old Yugo for a song. A few yrs later when I visited
again I didn't see it and asked where the Yugo was.
She answered "it's GONE"! That's all she was willing to say. >

 

Just means the vehicle was OK for the first month.
It's the 3 to 5 yr+ quality that counts.

 

That same thing stuck with me on that rental Sonata, as well.
Tie-wraps holding refrigerant lines in place was the last straw for
me.

The Yugo was an archiac and typically defective Fiat 124 design, built
in a medieval Soviet-style Yugoslavian factory by Soviet-controlled
bureaucrats, promoted by an American "get rich quick" scam artist, the
kind that flogs things like "Tap Lights" and other "Seen on TV"
crap...four strikes against it right there. Consumer Union, at the
time, commented that overall, it was one of the worst cars they'd ever
tested. They weren't wrong, either, although the Hyundai Excel gave
it stout competition later on. CU's initial write-up of the Excel was
almost as unforgiving.

 

Agreed.

 

Let's please quit feeding this troll posting as DesertBob, CAINE, and
streambredbrowneye, probably other pseudonyms that carry on
conversations with themselves.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')