A Lil' Love For Us Reply #15 – January 21, 2012, 11:48:30 AM Ummm my TC is still fairly tight and has over 140K mi, along with around 700 drag strip passes on totally orig suspension, no bumps, clunks or rattles... Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #16 – January 21, 2012, 11:49:35 AM don't worry... all cars rust to nothing in Buffalo. my new van was rusting after 1 year. My lincoln has rust, my 05 ranger is totally rusted underneath with 6000 miles on it...bring it here, I can kill it fast after 1 winter Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #17 – January 21, 2012, 11:50:44 AM and my cougar didn't have a rattle or squeak ever. drove like a tank Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #18 – January 21, 2012, 11:51:10 AM Quote from: daminc;378308don't worry... all cars rust to nothing in Buffalo. my new van was rusting after 1 year. My lincoln has rust, my 05 ranger is totally rusted underneath with 6000 miles on it...bring it here, I can kill it fast after 1 winterSounds like a great place to be FROM... Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #19 – January 21, 2012, 12:05:43 PM That's the problem ANYTHING is gonna rust in the right environment lol. The salt probably tends to "sandblast" the paint right off! Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #22 – January 21, 2012, 01:59:38 PM Quote from: TOM Renzo;378298Here is a late model GTI getting a new radiator. Tell me the new cars are easy to work on . Cougar 2 Go is 100% correct. This is what the new cars are like to work on.Note this is not a collison repair it is a radiator replacement. 600 bucks + parts!!!!!Ahh yes, been there done that. As the only guy in our shop who isn't afraid to work on Eurojunk I've been there far too many times, in fact. I wish I still had the pics of when I had to install two turbochargers in a 2002 Audi A6 quattro 2.7. I had to remove the entire front end, THEN I had to remove the entire front subframe with the drivetrain and exhaust system still attached, and even then, with the engine/trans sitting on a stand, it was STILL a huge pain in the ass to get at those turbos. It was an 18 hour flat-rate job. 18 hours at $105/hour, plus $3500 worth of turbochargers. On a car you MIGHT fetch $5k for, if it was in perfect shape (this one wasn't).With those VW's with the longitudinal engines (Passat, A4, A6, etc) you also have to remove the front end (VW calls it the "Lock carrier") to replace timing belts. With just about any VW, whether longitudinal or transverse engine, you need to do it to access the radiator, A/C condenser, etc. One thing is good, though - at least they use flexible A/C hoses, so you can swing it out of the way without cracking the A/C system open.As for 80's cars: It's easy to look at a car with 30 years under its belt and call it flimsy. Indeed, when I put my T-Bird back on the road after having it garaged for two years I actually laughed the first time I used the wipers, at how flimsy they looked. Probably 90% of the perception of "quality" is in the look and feel of the materials. It's nothing whatsoever to do with how well the car is made, it's how it looks and feels. Actual quality/durability has nothing to do with it. Witness the fact that everyone wants soft-touch materials inside their car instead of hard plastic, and then look at the soft-touch dash of a mid 80's Thundercat that has seen some sun and then wonder how good an idea this may be. It's also easy to look at a car that weighed ~3500 pounds and call it flimsy when a modern version of the car would likely weigh upwards of two tons. We'll just see how well the new cars look after 30 years. All I know is that I walked away from my '88 Cougar after bouncing it back and forth between a guard rail and an 18 wheeler without a scratch. Also without airbags, exploding seat belts, etc. That was not a "flimsy" car... Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #23 – January 21, 2012, 04:15:50 PM Quote from: Thunder Chicken;378315All I know is that I walked away from my '88 Cougar after bouncing it back and forth between a guard rail and an 18 wheeler without a scratch. Also without airbags, exploding seat belts, etc. That was not a "flimsy" car... Quoted for truth and badassness lol. Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #25 – January 21, 2012, 06:46:19 PM Quote from: EricCoolCats;378249Remember that the author has likely never owned one of our cars. It's easy to be an armchair critic on that there Internets. Still, the subpar quality of the steel used in all 1980s cars qualifies as 'flimsy construction' in my book. Had waaaayyyyy too much experience with that in the last 25 years.One cannot tell me that the door panels are not flimsy.Fox seat backs. Sit down, do they not twist?Hath the console latch withered the test of time?Do seat belt receptacles not expose their fragile innards?Oh, the arrow of time...curses unto thee.See I've never had any of the above happen with my T-bird. Maybe I'm just lucky but I think it has to do with how the car was maintained over it's existence. Quote from: ZondaC12;378303As Eric said, armchair criticism is what's going on in that article, and a LOT of it.I used to get aggravated with the red car, it felt like a rattle trap, especially up front. Nothing "looked" bad though, and I've learned a lot since then. I figured that's how they were built. Then I bought the black car and test drove that around the guy's neighborhood and almost ped myself. There's nothing else to say. Tight and quiet as any nice brand new vehicle. It has....maximum motorsports C/C plates. Big whoop? The rest of the suspension is original...I think maybe poly bushings or just NEW bushings all around, but there you go. And 100k on the thing. Never hit a pothole in its life maybe? Idunnfrickinknow but obviously it's capable of being like that. I'm excited to see what the red car does once it's back together and I freshen the whole front end. Thunderjet302 said he did that and his front end is quiet as a mouse too. What are others' experiences? This doesn't get generally thrown out there a whole lot (I feel like it anyway lol)Mine was quiet and tight up till about two years ago. Then the driver's side lower control arm started to squeak at about 129000 miles. I did not like this. I knew the bushings had to be replaced so I just went nuts and replaced every rubber bushing in the front end. The car rode slightly better and the squeak was gone. The car feels tight like a new car, and feels even tighter since I had the subframe connectors welded in last year. I would say that it rides just as good if not better than the '11 Focus or the '12 Mustang. Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #26 – January 21, 2012, 08:03:10 PM "the oddly-formal Cougar."You know, I think there is a better word for that. It's called "CLASSY." Ha. Quote Selected
A Lil' Love For Us Reply #28 – January 21, 2012, 09:24:28 PM The Mustang GT only got a C+ for collectibility. Those cars have a huge following! Quote Selected
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