[geeks] electric cars

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:57:04 -0700
"Sheldon T. Hall" <shel at tandem.artell.net> wrote:

> Writes Michael Parson ...
> > 
> > GM almost killed the diesel market for cars back in the late
> > 70s/early 80s by putting out a crap engine which was basically a
> > gas engine converted to run on diesel.
> 
> My father had one of those.  Actually, the engine lasted longer than
> the transmissions.  Note the use of the plural.
> 
> Another FPOS diesel engine was perpetrated by Volvo in the 1980s.  It
> was a six-cylinder, 2.4 liter version of the VW Rabbit Diesel.  Those
> engines were semi-OK in four-rattler form, but the six was just
> junk.  Even with fanatical maintenance, you were very lucky to get
> 200,000 miles out of one.
> 
> Owning one of those showed me a very interesting side of the car
> business. When I had to replace the glow plugs, Volvo wanted about
> $30 each.  VW wanted $17 each.  The Bosch stockist next door to the
> NAPA store wanted $9. All exectly the same part.

A few years ago I had to get a plastic part for my Ford Taurus.  It was
$55.  I found the GM equivalent for $9.  The only difference was the GM
part had an extra bit of plastic on part of it which was easily filed
off.



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["Castles are sacked in war, Chieftains
are scattered far, Truth is a fixed star, Eileen aroon!" -- Gerald
Griffin]