wrote:
On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 13:45:33 -0500, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 11/17/15 1:04 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:48:08 -0500, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 11/17/15 12:43 PM, True North wrote:
On Tuesday, 17 November 2015 12:51:11 UTC-4, Keyser Söze wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/oe58qgs


On the way to his new owner...

Looks in good shape. I believe the 4Runner was based on the
Tacoma..or what came before it, maybe a T100??
I thought about one for a minute or two but felt the smoother riding
Highlander would suit me and the boss a bit better. Believe the
Highlander was based originally on the Camray.


Yeah, I believe the 4Runner is built on the Tacoma chassis. Separate
frame and body, not monocoupe. It really was a great vehicle, with
absolutely no problems and only the usual maintenance items - tires,
wiper blades, a battery, brakes...that's about it. Toyota does it right,
most of the time.

We have had pretty good luck with Hondas but we also seem to do well
with Fords.. We paid $3500 for old "brownie", drove it for 10 years
and sold it for almost $5000 (Thanks Barack)
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Brownie.jpg

I also had 2 E-150 Econolines that treated me well and the 2000 Sport
Trak we have now is still doing well. My 97 Prelude is still getting
the job done with embarrassingly little maintenance.


I do like the Japanese approach to ordinary cars. Toyota, Honda, Nissan,
et cetera, seem to do a nice job. My sister in law has an Audi, and when
it needs a repair, the labor and parts charges seem outrageous, and the
damned thing really eats tires. One of the guys down the street has a
"5" series BMW, and, to me, it seems entirely too clever and
over-engineered. My sports car is that way, too, but the mileage is low,
it lives in the garage, and only goes out on nice days.

BMW is ridiculous. A battery is something like $500.
Everything is simply unnecessary complication to a fairly simple task.

The Japanese aren't quite as bad but they have some ridiculous
maintenance requirements too. You pretty much have to remove the
engine to replace a cam belt on my Prelude. (take loose the mounts,
lift and tip over about 15-20 degrees along with whatever else you
need to disconnect to do that.)
I don't pay people to work on my stuff very often but I gave this one
to the dealer, a $1000 belt. Our local mechanic just said no.

No wonder they lost the war ;-)

That is about all I have done to the Honda tho other than a few oil
changes and a clutch master cylinder. I did replace the front speakers
the other day but that was just for better tunes.


Bad design when the cam belt needs to be changed before a tuneup is needed.