RE motors and preferences : we love all Gods little noisey mechanical children (although my personal preference is GM) That said when I started my other business (prior to JBP) I bought a new 88' Dodge Colt (Mitsu') cheapy 1500cc 4 speed for 6 years I drove to San Jose or LA and back 5 days a week doing Ins claims (90,000 mile a year average) NEVER had the motor apart ,went thru clutches,cv boots, and ALt and a Starter and an a$$ load of oil changes.
I retired the car in '96 the Josh drove/mobbed it for a while,then we sold it to a chick who drove it till she physically wrecked it. When retired from
me it was just shy of
500,000 miles (I got proof because I had to keep business records)
What the secret IMO ? maintenance ,when Josh was a pre teen he used to have to change the oil about every two weeks (2500 to 3000 miles) never overheated never run out of oil ! I started working at car dealers in 71' and did so till 88' then we opened AMCC and later Atascadero auto repair then Jetboatperformance to this day I still inspect Ins and warranty claims every week locally . Some of our Insp work is contract work for the "Big 3" as well as several Import mfg's (for example I'm going this AM to look at a FMOCO tech claim),there are some unavoidable inherent defects & problems in some vehicles, but a huge part of vehicle longevity comes back to service and maintenance by qualified techs (our with thier guidance) and recognizing and catching a problem before it becomes a catastrophic failure Just my O2
Tom
Sleeper (sorry for the thread jack !!
)
