When The Wife gets home from work this morning, we’re going to take care of an itch she’s been scratching for a couple months now.
She wants a new (to her) car.
The clock on her current car is running down and I’ve never really liked it since it is a compact-sized point and squirt FWD machine. However, the price was definitely right seven years ago and she has gotten her money’s worth (and then some) from the thing.
We’ve picked a local dealership to peruse for our selection. I used to deride the soullessness of the mega-dealerships, but their buying power is undeniable, and if they don’t have it, they find it. The Wife has her eye on an Exploder, but it has too many miles for my liking, even if they drop the price by 10%. Plus, that is not exactly the car I see her liking to drive, but the more I try and push her away from it, the more she wants it. Apparently, letting her drive Buddy has given her the idea that sitting up higher makes for safer driving (Doh!). So we’ll see. It’s a few hours before we even head out and I’m already prepped to walk away from any deal, which is the first item needed in any successful negotiation.
So this morning, picture me trying to run a salesman as close to the red as I can on the day after Black Friday.
And since we’re on the subject, take a looksee at this early 60’s machine and tell me what it is.
Answer tomorrow.
Please, Please try to talk her out of the Explorer. There is Something Not Right about that vehicle. The trailer rental places (CT, NH, ME, CO,WY,UT, CA, WA that I personally know of) will not rent if you plan to pull it with an Explorer. (You towing this with an Explorer? No, a Blazer. Oh, ok then.) Recap places will not even talk to you. Ford has changed the recommended tire pressure, the specs on the rear shocks and it still goes through tires. Two of the local tire places will not sell you road hazzard warrenties with new tires. Was in the passenger seat when there was a sudden loss of pressure in a rear tire at highway speed in the beast and it was all she could do to keep the greasy side down. (The “girl” races HDRA, she does know what she is doing)
Have your SO look at FourRunners, Cherokees, Blazers but please not the Explorer.
That is that Pontiac concept car, canceled because it came to close to the Corvette.
Just read about it yesterday on someone else’s blog, cannot remember whose.
Jon beat me to it.
That is the 1964 Pontiac Banshee prototype XP-833 coupe. Glenn Reynolds linked to it on autoblog.
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/11/23/ebay-find-of-the-day-1964-pontiac-banshee-prototype-xp-833-coup/
I agree, talk the wife out of the Exploder. I mean, the Explorer. They just don’t last long, they have too many problems to name, and I say this as a Ford man. I’d buy a Ford truck in a heartbeat, but I won’t touch an Explorer.
I’ve mentioned our problems with a Mercury Mountaineer (an Explorer with a different badge) in the past — the engines melted (two of them). On the freeway. All the idiot lights go on at once and the engine dies. Not good. That was our first Ford vehicle; won’t buy another in our lifetimes.
David, I know of S-10 Blazers which did that as well…a whole fleet of them, at about 60K miles. The rear main seal gave out grand mal, and most of the drivers weren’t quick enough to get the engine shut down after the oil went away (just like NASCAR). All were V-6s, and the tranny didn’t mate exactly right with the engine, so there was a slight eccentricity which took 60,000 to do it’s evil.
Other engines may also go grand mal, you need to ALWAYS refer to a list of whether ANY car you plan to buy has a “clearance engine”. They are the ones that if the timing belt breaks, the engine just stops. The other ones are “interference engines”, in which the valves will only clear the pistons if the engine is in time, which it goes out of as soon as the belt breaks. When that happens, the engine is destroyed in about 10 revolutions. If you consider that the engine will turn 15-20 AFTER you turn off the ignition, you are doomed with an interference engine and a broken belt. This is probably what you are describing here.