I'm awake and pissed off, not a good combo if you have my attention.

[godofthunder]

  I was told they replaced the "Win" system or wireless ignition. I used to be pretty good with cars back in the day now I have no idea what the F they are talking about.

[gweimer]

Back in the old days, I was able to haul a full Acoustic 360 rig, my bass (in a BIG flight case), and accessory bag in the back of a '73 Opel station wagon.
If I do ever move my amp now, it fits in the back of the Vue without reclining the seat, and the bass goes in the back seat.

[lowend1]

[Hörnisse]

I had a '69 Kadett wagon.  I could haul a Peavey 215 cab and amp, Fender Rhodes Piano, 2 basses and put the Fender 4x8 PA speakers on the luggage rack.  (talk about great German engineering!)  Paid $500 for that car in '78 and sold it the next year for the same price when we moved back Stateside. (this was in Panama)  You could do a lot of stuff in that car with the back seat folded down.

[TBird1958]

It's about the same size as my Subie .......I love little wagons!

[dadagoboi]

One of these was my gear hauler in the late 70s.  Driver seat only.  2 SVT cabs, 2 Coliseum heads, 2 basses.



Replaced it with the wagon version in the early 80s.  Cheap, economical and dependable.  No rust in SoCal.

[TBird1958]

I don't remember the specifics, but didn't Vegas have a major flaw in the motor?  I may be wrong here, so edjumacate me!

[Hörnisse]

I drove a both '75 and '77 Pontiac Astre's (their version of the Vega)  The '75 had the problem all aluminum motor and it started to burn oil at a good rate at around 10 years old.  I would feel sorry for whomever was behind me at a stop light because it would leave a huge white smoke cloud when I'd take off.  The '77 had the Iron Duke engine which is nearly indestructible.  Mine had a bad knock and still ran fine for several years.  Both cars were inherited from my older sisters who bought them new. 

[Big_Stu]

The '75 had the problem all aluminum motor and it started to burn oil at a good rate at around 10 years old.  I would feel sorry for whomever was behind me at a stop light because it would leave a huge white smoke cloud when I'd take off.

My Opel built Vauxhall Vectra went the same way. The head buckled and it was drinking coolant; which made the white smoke. On the last day I drove it, it drove 11 miles home from work & stopped permanently 20 yards from my door.

[dadagoboi]

I don't remember the specifics, but didn't Vegas have a major flaw in the motor?  I may be wrong here, so edjumacate me!

All aluminum engine with plated walls caused the early ones to burn oil prematurely.  In SoCal you could get a new short block with iron sleeved cylinders for around $200.  Problem solved.  The new technology wasn't up to the application in 1970 but it's fairly common today.

[gweimer]

Yep! That's the one!  Mine was yellow.

[Pilgrim]

I just inherited a '93 Cherokee 2WD with almost 125k on the clock. The Jeep fanatics tell me that they consider that to be barely broken in.

My daughter's experience with her '99 Cherokee at more than 150K miles bears that out.  The Cherokee was one of those vehicles that owners swore by but it wasn't flashy enough to get press.  But there are tons of Cherokees still on the road even though their last year of production was 2001.  IMO a vehicle that Jeep should still be producing.

I don't remember the specifics, but didn't Vegas have a major flaw in the motor?  I may be wrong here, so edjumacate me!

IIRC, the flaw was that GM saved a very few bucks on the casting for the head or block - I don't remember which - but the result was an engine that was quite prone to overheating.  The result was a high number of engine failures.  The Vega was a really low-end economy car, but the engine problems were what doomed it.

[lowend1]

My cousin had a bright lime green mid 70s Vega that he drove from upstate NY to northern NJ every day. One day he pulled into the repair shop because the car was handling funny. The rear end seemed to be wallowing around and he figured he had probably blown out a shock absorber or something. Turns out that the rear section of the frame / unibody had rotted away and separated from the rest, with the car essentially being held together by the body panels. Wallowing indeed.

[TBird1958]

 At 204K miles the Subie is my Highway Star  
















That's how you get Ritchie Blackmore into the thread 

[uwe]

  But when I hit the biturbo of my Volvo V-70 and its 300 hp it's more like Stormbringers's comin' ...