I like Trek, good value, great performance, consistent quality, strong resale, midwestern roots and leadership, family run. Midwest manufacturing may not be what it once was, but companies such as Cat, John Deere, Harley Davidson, GM, Ford Trucks, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Kohler, Whirlpool, Moen, Delta, American Standard, Hoover, Airstream, and lest us not forget Schwinn, made great product in the Great Lakes Region. No I am not a flag waver, the only Big 3 vehicles I've owned were a Ford Ranger, Durango, and currently an Expedition. I've owned 13 vehicles from 7 European marques.



















Not shown: a Carbon 2200 with Campy and can't find photo of my 1986 blue 620

I'll give a shout-out for Jeep.

There's only a little paragraph about it...

"It was through the specialization of design that Trek caught the eye of the American cyclist. Hogg pushed the concept of "function-specific" cycles- Long wheelbase geometry and handfuls of brazed-on bosses for touring bikes and short wheelbases and rigid frames for racing."

So taking that 42-44 cm chainstay length for an all-arounder and extending that as a specific touring feature.

Don't forget the mighty AMC!

Yupper. Had me a '74 Gremlin X w/304v8 and 4.10 gears, headers, holley carb and electric fuel pump. The car was a sleeper that embarassed a lot of local hotrods.

On the other hand, the Pacer was the ultimate dog. A car magazine did a road test of it and their headline was "We Test the Pacer and Wish We Hadn't"

And my all time favorite, USA made trek with campy. Also picked up cheap!

Golden Boy, ICONIC, not COMIC!

My uncle bought a Pacer used on behalf of and for my sister when she interned at his company in Houston. Her self esteem has never recovered.

My wife's uncle let me drive his Pacer one day. For such a nicely preserved and well-maintained example, it sure is a horrible car. The acceleration bog-slow and the handling unbelievably bad. Something like pushing a wheelbarrow full of water with an underinflated tire.

The AMC Hornet and Gremlins I have driven were practically sports cars in comparison.

that pacer is a cult collectible now. There was one along the highway here that sat for years and suddenly it was gone.

Then came that "fine Corinthian leather"!

As much as I hated the looks of the Gremlin X was indeed a sleeper but it wasn't that fast, the stock quarter mile was only between 19 to 20 seconds, slow by those days standards even but it could take on other small block cars and if built right could hang with them. Jeez, my new Acura TL with just a V6 would easily beat a stock Gremlin X, my stock TL according to reviews will run a high 13 quarter mile and a top speed of 140 governor limited will far outdo a Gremlin X for top speed as well. Even my (once had) 72 Mercury Cougar with 429SCJ ram inducted in stock form would only run mid 13's which was considered fast in the day, and that was only 1 of 3 cars that in stock form would run that quick back then which means my new Acura could beat about 97% of all the high performance cars of the day in stock form!

Classic American cars of the from about mid 50's to the early 70's are the ones I like the most, probably because that's the era I was raised in, but I do like some of the 20's and 30's cars but the ones I like cost over $150,000 each so I can't afford those, in fact with the way the 50's through to the 70's cars have gone up I can't really afford to add any more to my collection either, which is OK, I have enough for my purposes.

You betcha!

I'll give 6! That 242 4.0L engine isn't broken in until 100,000 miles! They quite making real Jeeps in 2005 with the exception of the bloated Wrangler with the pathetic Caravan V6.

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We've owned 2. Fantastic engines those 4.0's!!

Yes they are! This was my second one with over 242K miles. I still have the first with 215K miles. Still gets the same mileage and doesn't burn any oil. My 98 in Seattle has 130K miles.

So many XJ's with perfectly good 4.0's were destroyed with the stupid money loosing cash for clunkers program!