On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 22:00:17 -0500, Howard Ferstler
wrote:

dave weil wrote:

The OP left out Volvos. There are tons of them around, especially from
the 80s, which was a time that American cars weren't particularly
well-built in general.

The latest issue of Consumer Reports has their annual
statistical result section. Volvos did not do all that well
when it comes to reliability. Not well at all.

I was speaking of older Volvos. They are now owned by the compay that
build your previous unreliable oil-eating car, the Mustang.

Volvos are certainly overengineered to a fault.

Maybe, but that overengineering appears to do little to
handle the reliability problems that the CR survey showed
up.

That could very well be true for current models. I'm sure that they're
still one of the safest brands around though.

Plus, their engines
are extremely easy to work on because they are very accessable.

And this ease is obviously important, given those
reliability issues.

As far as I know, the current models are just as crammed to the gills
with wall-to-wall motors as any other. I was speaking of said 20 -40
year old cars.

You want reliability? Get a Toyota or Honda. You do not have
to work on them all that much.

I had a Toyota for a while and found it not only reliable but easy to
work on as well. You DO know that to keep a car running, preventative
maintenance is a must, right? That includes doing things like
replacing timing belts and the like. I like being able to get to the
oil filter from the top for instance. That's one reason I liked
myVolvo when I had it.

BTW, the world record for a car mileage is a Volvo. Over 2 million
verified miles. In fact, the owner of that car has gotten two new free
Volvos from Volvo for that feat.