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Name a defunct car brand you would like to see come back.


Rabbi
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4 hours ago, XSIV4S said:

If I went down to the dealership I wouldn't be getting a 1996? For what it's worth F150-F350 were all made of aluminum starting in 2017 (See Car & Driver article below). I've worked around cars all my life and as a kid around a great many antiques. They have built some of them out of aluminum for decades. The thing is when you looked at a decades old aluminum car the aluminum was as thick as the Corvette's fiberglass. To get the strength of steel it takes more aluminum and to avoid heavy/sharp item punctures well...Your guess is as good as mine.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/aluminum-body-2017-ford-f-350-super-duty-adds-at-least-425-to-base-price

 

It also depends a lot on what aluminum grade and alloy

Ever try to bend a stop sign?

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2 hours ago, Borg warner said:

AMX.

 

amc amx1a.jpg

I remember those!

There was a guy in the town I lived in who bought an brand new AMX and would take it to the ⅛ mile drag strip. There was something really cool about watching the chevy owners getting their asses hand to them by a Rambler.

It wasn't that the car had that much horsepower. It would just hook up and launch while the Camero's were sitting at the line smoking tires.

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9 hours ago, Duramaxsky said:

People say Pontiac and Oldsmobile. But they were all Chevrolets for the last 20 or more years. That is why they are gone. Why pay more for a Chevrolet? GM screwed up by making them all the same.

The was no Fiero equivalent in any line. It was made in the last 20 years of Pontiac. The Fiero was a brilliant concept poorly executed. If they had not stopped halfway through and turned a sports car into a commuter car using mostly off the shelf parts, it would have been fabulous. In the last year it was pretty good. It would have been great if they had been allowed to put a all aluminum V8 in it, maybe even the quad 4 would have been good. The space frame with easily replaced FRP panels was a great idea. Made for easy and cheaper body updates. The mill and drill attachment points for panels made for very consistent body gaps when other cars were crap.

 

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7 minutes ago, racerford said:

The was no Fiero equivalent in any line. It was made in the last 20 years of Pontiac. The Fiero was a brilliant concept poorly executed. If they had not stopped halfway through and turned a sports car into a commuter car using mostly off the shelf parts, it would have been fabulous. In the last year it was pretty good. It would have been great if they had been allowed to put a all aluminum V8 in it, maybe even the quad 4 would have been good. The space frame with easily replaced FRP panels was a great idea. Made for easy and cheaper body updates. The mill and drill attachment points for panels made for very consistent body gaps when other cars were crap.

My first car had a quad4 in it. Scream'n ass 4 banger for the time. I smoked v8's in that car!

 

 

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18 hours ago, tous said:

Studebaker.

They made some beautiful, innovative automobiles back when it was all about fins and chrome.

And, the Avanti.  Not everyone's cup of tea, but it was a true American performance car in the early 1960s.

 

Not only beautiful but their fitment and quality of parts was their downfall.  When you use (for instance) machined brass nuts on steel studs to prevent chemical corrosion and frozen connections, and hundreds of other thoughtful innovations, that costs money and post war Americans were more budget conscious.

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The Pontiac Fiero was doomed when it was announced that it would come out with the Buick 3.8L Turbo as found in the Buick Grand National.

And a Manual 4-speed.

Consumers licked their lips but the insurance industry pretty much said it would be financially impossible to buy coverage with that package.  So Pontiac put the weak 2.5L in that platform and it was doomed.

Edited by nitesite
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39 minutes ago, nitesite said:

The Pontiac Fiero was doomed when it was announced that it would come out with the Buick 3.8L Turbo as found in the Buick Grand National.

And a Manual 4-speed.

Consumers licked their lips but the insurance industry pretty much said it would be financially impossible to buy coverage with that package.  So Pontiac put the weak 2.5L in that platform and it was doomed.

And thus entered my people; the gear heads...

 

See the source image

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1 hour ago, nitesite said:

The Pontiac Fiero was doomed when it was announced that it would come out with the Buick 3.8L Turbo as found in the Buick Grand National.

And a Manual 4-speed.

Consumers licked their lips but the insurance industry pretty much said it would be financially impossible to buy coverage with that package.  So Pontiac put the weak 2.5L in that platform and it was doomed.

guys around here put 5.o  stang motors in .  they would scream 

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Forgot about owning a really great car that I would like to see resurrected. ---> The 1982 Pontiac Grand Safari with the 5.7 DX (Diesel) engine.

Full size station wagons are all but gone by now - I don't imagine I can think of any company building a full sized wagon at all!

GM made Corporate Wagons in that Chevy, Buick, Olds, Pontiac all had the same station wagon but changed some of the badges and trim levels, grill, hub caps or wheels, bumpers, tail lights, etc. to the same wagon and called it 'Theirs".

I worked on these 4.3/5.7 engines and I was fortunate to get a Canadian 5.7 version with a better cam, higher compression, better pistons and CAV injectors. I got 438K miles on it towing a 32' Fleetwood Trailer behind it, hot or cold - AC on or OFF, up hill or down and still got 22 MPG with the trailer on and off, I got 26 MPG. I finally gave it away to a friend who was still driving it when I left Hemet CA in 2001.

I built a nice THM350C for it and put in a small torque converter to keep the RPM in a better zone. I miss that car and what it represented to me with my first wife who passed away in 1992. I owned a few auto repair shops in those days and I built transmissions and had access to the best parts and always upgraded my own stuff to the max.

The 5.7 DX Diesel engine got a lot of black eyes (how many eyes? I dunnow) --- but with the Canadian version and the better cam, higher 22.5:1 compression and injectors and that I studded the block to get rid of the "Torque-To-Yield" head bolts, I never had a head gasket failure after that changeover.

For a couple of years I was the only Auto-Club certified diesel mechanic in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in SoCal. I learned a lot of tricks and how to add life to these orphaned engines. I worked in Anaheim on the corner of Euclid and La Palma.

They were really very good engines, but California screwed them up with lower compression, retarded camshafts and Bosch injectors on the Stanadyne/Roosa Master injection pump, to which they were not a good match.Lower compression meant to GM that they could use those head bolts and cheaper pistons. That was a bad move as the head gaskets failed every 20K miles that way. There's the black eyes. Plural!

GM had screwed up by letting California dictate the standards for engines in the first place. Lower compression meant lower NOx which California wanted, but now the diesels with lower compression couldn't burn the fuel efficiently - so they used a lot more of it. Win-win for someone's brother in law in Sacramento!

It would have been a lot easier to boycott vehicle sales to California in those days than it is now.

That said --->  This is exactly the color and trim package that I had on my '82 Pontiac:

i106273.jpg.b85196e5f1902bc37658ec7501f0f849.jpg

I have no idea who or whom those guys are in that picture (^).

Red pants? Red Shirt - well, OK on the red shirt - but the pants gotta go!
 

Another car that I seriously think was a great auto was the Datsun 200/240Z. (For Millenials: Nissan was Datsun when you were still in liquid form --- or not!)

1970260Z.thumb.jpg.59188e0154b06ac09c329a02f3f7f5d2.jpg

.... and here's one that caught me by surprise one day when it was passing me on the San Diego Freeway as it passes Costa Mesa. It was moving at 70 or 80 MPH and the tiny little wheels had to be melting!

This is a 1964 Honda N600 with a two cylinder motorcycle converted engine with just air cooling only IIRC. You shouldda seen the monkey-motion shift linkage!

1964Honda_N600_1st_Honda.jpg.ae3136990f570764ff61fe5720fa06a5.jpg

These little guys were so fa-a-ast and so small that you had to get out to change your mind.

 

One of the bestest and baddest Corvettes - I wish they would bring this back - even if they upgraded the engine/transmission to meet air quality standards - it'd be so kewl!

1958_Corvette.thumb.jpg.3bf7dd4af490d98916461f22d9171a05.jpg

chevrolet-corvette-1958-8.thumb.jpg.f5ab9727d2ad1db9bfc8a3a579d4054a.jpg

I need a cold shower right now.

 

BBL   

joe

Edited by JoeIsuzu
Demographic error. (wrong model number)
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Lots to agree with in this thread: Studebaker (borrowing V8s from other companies), the Datsun Z series with a powerful straight six, the 442 with a powerful V8 in a midsize body and you'll never convince a Firebird owner that a Camaro is its equal.

The Lincoln Mark series had a couple of nice vehicles in the Mark VII and the Mark VIII.  I'd like to see more V8 powered rear wheel drive performers out of them.  The remake of the Ford Thunderbird two seater was a great attempt.  I only wish they didn't stop making them (and made them a little lighter and a little more powerful).

2002-NM.jpgVS943681337.jpg

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On 7/8/2018 at 12:08 PM, ASH said:

opel , izuzu   

Had a couple Isuzu trooper  the 90’s versions ,  my family liked them so much they bought into both the same vehicle in both the Isuzu and Acura verions. Great off road, coil springs in back good towing capacity..

 

reliable 

 

 

Edited by Moeman
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11 minutes ago, Borg warner said:

I liked the Plymouth Prowler except that it had an underpowered engine. they should have put a turbocharged small block 360 in it with some bigger rear tires and the 5 speed tranny from the Viper.

car plymouth-prowler-1300.jpg

Though I'm not 100% sold on the styling, it is a cool vehicle.  The thing is, as you suggest, it DEFINITELY should have been possible to get one with three pedals.  Slushbox only, as it was?  No way, wouldn't even consider it.

-Pat

Edited by Cubdriver
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