Biker395 

Yup. Also inexplicable is that Buicks always seemed to have a better reputation for reliability than the others ... even if they were assembled at the same plant, side by side.

Zinger

My '97 Riviera wasn't so impressive in the reliability of anything other than the motor or drivetrain. I got rid of it before those went.

Wogster

I thought OLDSmobile was supposed to disappear as well, then GM could finally bury the gutless Cutlass for good.... I knew a guy who had one, they took a big car, cut about 2' off the backend on an angle, then replaced the V8 with the most anemic V6 they could find. A Yugo could outrun one....

That's another one, Yugo that is no more..... Along with Lada, saw hundreds of Lada's at one time, they all seemed to have the right headlight out.....

CommuteCommando

I currently drive a Pontiac Vibe, which is the "same" car as a Toyota Matrix, except they did not come from the same plant and look quite different from the outside. Sit in the car and the only way to tell the difference is by the logo on the steering wheel. I found out the hard way that some interior parts I thought would match, didn't. The Vibe was built in a now closed Plant-NUMMI in Fremont CA, the Matrix comes from a plant in Windsor ON. (Canada)

Biker395 

Wow. That set me off noodling about the NUMMI plant and it's closure. Found a "This American Life" podcast about it. Yikes.

Wogster

Actually the Toyota plant is in Cambridge, ON about 250km East of Windsor and slightly North, it's just outside of Kitchener...

CommuteCommando

Thanks for the correction.

Gravity Aided

But still very popular in parts of Eastern Europe. No fuel injection, so easy to convert to run on LP gas. But you are still driving a Yugo (Zastava Koral).

CommuteCommando

The Yugo was actually a version of the Fiat 128. The plant (in modern Serbia I believe) was built by Fiat. I believe the Russian Lada had the same origin.

Fiat Dassapeared from the US market in the '80's I think because of a negative quality reputation (Fix It Again Tony!) The reintroduction in the last several years is probably to ride the coat tails of the nostalgia boom started by the Mini, and NewBug. Another that left the US market is Alfa Romeo. That one was always in a nitche market. I think they were imported here sporadically over the last two decades. I did see a couple as support cars in this years TDF (to bring the thread back towards bikes)

My dad had a '72 model of this; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rlina_1974.jpg . Great fun to drive, which I was only allowed to do a couple of times. Sadly it was victim to the quality troubles that was hitting the American, British, and Itallian auto industries at that time.

Wogster

Lada was based on the Fiat 124... You know Fiat quit making them in 1985, Lada continued building them until fairly recently. They quit importing them into Canada in 1998. I think largely because they couldn't meet Transport Canada safety regulations anymore.

Zinger

I heard a Judge tell a girl, in court once, that just because her car
was a Fiat wasn't yet proof that it hadn't been running.

Velo Fellow

My hair and my muscle mass.

SunTour Superbe Pro and ST ratcheted bar ends.

Popcorn in a box at the movies that could be flattened and thrown.

Simplex retrofriction down-tube shifters (except the pair I'm hoarding).

Water bottles that left a nasty plastic taste.

Italian bicycles actually made in Italy.

CommuteCommando

Done any charity rides lateley? There is always a vendor at the after festival giving those nasty tasting things out as promo's. I actualy was naive enough to use one after my first charity ride.

loky1179

That was my impression exactly. Though they didn't always get ALL the bugs out. Case in point, my first car, a 1976 Vega. I loved that car, the only small downside being the engine. Used two quarts of oil for every tank of gas. But as long as I kept the oil topped up, and changed the plugs every 5000 miles, it ran great!

Bikey Mikey

OMG! My first car that I owned, used, was a Vega...damn thing went though a couple of clutches the first year or so I owned it.

loky1179

OK, I may have had the clutch replaced as well. And the alternator. Maybe the heater core. But still, I could fit my bike in the back without removing the wheels (hatchback). Maybe that's why I have fond memories.

Biker395 

We had a '71 Vega. It pooped out 20 miles after we picked it up from the dealer. The reason? NON-functional alternator. That left me thinking ... WTF ... don't they test them before they ship them?

The engine was a total POS, and needed rebuilding after about 12,000 miles. I read somewhere that even the GM engineers thought it was as bad as a crappy tractor engine. On the other hand, GM picked up the cost of the rebuild, and the rebuilt engine (with the cylinder sleeves) worked fine for the next 80,000 miles. Yea, it consumed a lot of oil (I never figured out how ... didn't see it out the tailpipe, nor did I see puddles underneath the car), but it did run. We burned about a quart of oil every other tank.

There was the speedo: 10 20 30 40506070 80 90 100
There was the glovebox: Oh ... they forgot that.
There was the window cranks: skinned knuckles.
There were the window locks: unreachable from the driver's seat.
There was the performance: With the 50 hp engine and a 2 speed auto transmission.

But you know, it ran and it got me where I wanted to go (albeit slowly) ... and that is all that mattered.

Good times, eh?

Zinger

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
One of the problems with Vegas is that they did something to the aluminum cylinder walls that were supposed to make them harder but once they ever got hot they were toast. The only way to go with the aluminum motor was to steel sleeve it. I think Chevy went with their little cast iron 4 cylinder (that used to be standard in the 1st Chevy 2s) for awhile after they gave up on that one. It was a shortened version of their 6 cylinder.

My dad had one of the aluminum motored Vegas sleeved and we put it together for my sister to drive. She promptly traded it for a Camero.

loky1179

AFTER buying my Vega, I started reading up on the engine, "Aluminum Cylinder Block". That didn't raise any flags for me - I'd rebuilt my '71 Honda 350 which had an aluminum engine block, with steel sleeves for the piston walls. Eventually, it became clear that not only was the cylinder block aluminum, but the cylinder WALLS were as well! I thought for sure it was a misprint - anyone with an IQ above room temp would know that aluminum was way too soft for this. Surely the engineers working for the largest corporation in the WORLD were smarter than me? Nope.

Ah, the loss of innocence.

Nerdanel 

Frostline kits. I still have the down sleeping bag I made from a Frostline kit in 1975 and plan to use it touring next year.

elcraft

PF Flyers! They make you run faster and jump higher·········