Consider buying American!

In the USA, Unions have a lot of power by law. The reasons are that in
days of old, management was full of people who exploited the workers.
Unfortunately, Unions have gone way to far in the other direction, to
the point that they restrict work and prevent companies from doing
what they need to do to be efficient and make money. Not that American
car companies management have any clue anyway... I'm sure they'd lose
plenty of money even without unions.

 

I don't see how this is any different from RWD. The engine and tranny
are made to fit together and given two cars of similar size, you can
easily design both to use the same drive train.

For the average driver (and usually even for the above average ones)
FWD will be safer and more predictable in slippery conditions.

I can't see how they are any less fixable on the side of the road than
any other modern car.

There isn't much you can practically "fail safe" on a car outside of
maybe the fuel injection system computer. You're best hope is "not
fail" and Hondas are about the best there is in that department.

And yet the Honda engine is more reliable. Go figure.

 

I still love to drive my '94 GS-R. If I didn't, I would have gotten
rid of it long ago. I will take the remote risk of catastrophic
engine failure to the certainty that I will hate the car a year after
I buy it and suffer catastrophic depreciation when I get rid of it
prematurely. So far, with 170,000 miles (and a fresh timing belt), I
would say I am winning the bet.

 

Because I have seen recomendations everywhere from 60,000 to this
105,000 for when to replace the belt. Everyone swears they have a good
reason.

 

It just looked like a guy who should have bought a faster car to begin
with. I know guys who hot rodded VWs and Vegas too.
I think you folks call it "rice"

 

Like you turn the wheel and nothing happens?
What do you call it when the front weels lose contact with the
pavement?

 

It is why you have TWO separate brake systems. (at least before the
ABS system) You can lose your brakes without a 100% chance of
totalling your car but if I lose this belt I have been guaranteed a
100% chance of totalling my engine.

 

And it is not like chains never fail prematurely or catastrophically
anyway. The chains in those old Saturn engines were notorious for
failing at ridiculously low mileage. Saturn dealers touted the chains
as being superior to Honda's belts. Can you imagine how the owners
felt when they were spending big bucks on a new chain long before the
neighbor's Honda even needed a routine belt change.

 

A RWD drive train is assembled on the car line from parts by a US
union worker. A FWD comes in on a pallet sometimes from a 3d world
country or from a right to work state.
It goes in a lot faster and if you are building cars time is money.

 

I have owned about 30 cars/trucks and about a dozen motorcycles in the
46 years I have been driving. I never got emotionally involved with
any of them.

 

eh? did you read who the guy is???

http://theoldone.com/about/default.asp
http://www.theoldone.com/articles/

 

as i suspected, you're confused - losing contact with the pavement is
/not/ understeer.

 

why wouldn't you listen to honda? their service manuals are pretty much
as authoritative as you can get.

 

wrong answer. dual circuit is because of hydraulic problems, not rubber
problems.

the point is, your "rubber belt" is the same kind of technology that
holds race tires together at 160+ mph, that suspends elevators in modern
buildings, that provides reliability and precision in extreme
applications in countless machines all over the world, every day. don't
trivialize something that you don't properly understand.

 

They probably pay more tax, but the amount they pay toward health care
(in taxes) is less than what American companies pay in health
benefits. This is because health care is far more expensive in the US
than anywhere else.

 

46/30 = 1.53 years per vehicle. and you're bleating about reliability
of belt driven cams??? how do you find the time to drive them the
mileage necessary for it to be a concern???

 

utter bullshit.

 

Furthermore the Japanese health care system, both the public and
private portions, is incredibly cheap, costing less than half as much
as the American system does, this despite Americans making far fewer
doctor visits.

 

How do you check it if the engine has no mechanical distributor?

 

Rich Germans want to zoom along the Autobahns, yet there's a tax based
on displacement (also cylinders, etc.).