Why some people are too stupid to own a car

[jjeff]

I don't think my Mazda has pistons...

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Cool rc engine. Had a wankel in one of my old Evinrude snowmobiles. Interesting write up on it, despite me drifting like a UP snow drift. It definitely weighed a lot like article says and rode like a bulldozer, stripped out the plug threads on it due to engine design couldn't put a helicoil in it. Unfortunately ended up parting it out and scrapping the rest over 30 yrs ago.

Flashback: The 1973 Evinrude Trailblazer | SnowGoer

An advertisement for the 1973 Evinrude Trailblazer. In June 1964, Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) became the first big name manufacturer to enter the

snowgoer.com

 

[Jstpssng]

Cool rc engine. Had a wankel in one of my old Evinrude snowmobiles. Interesting write up on it, despite me drifting like a UP snow drift. It definitely weighed a lot like article says and rode like a bulldozer, stripped out the plug threads on it due to engine design couldn't put a helicoil in it. Unfortunately ended up parting it out and scrapping the rest over 30 yrs ago.

Flashback: The 1973 Evinrude Trailblazer | SnowGoer

An advertisement for the 1973 Evinrude Trailblazer. In June 1964, Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) became the first big name manufacturer to enter the

snowgoer.com

It wasn't just the Wankel which had problems back then though. The plugs were fat with about 3 threads before bottoming out. When changing them in a hot engine- a common occurance with the earlier sleds- it was easy to strip them out.

 

[KennyG]

The only 'extended warranty' worth anything is an OEM one. Aftermarket warranty companies make a ton of jack and really provide marginal coverage anyway.

Even the OEM warranties are a rip off. I recently saw that even warranties that aren't scams have a 50% to 75% profit margin. That means that odds are you will only get back 25% to 50% of your cost.

 

[tradosaurus]

I owned a 2-seat Mercedes 380SL sports car. At 66,000 miles it threw the timing chain. Ruined the engine. No recommendation in the owner's manual about it.

Dealer quoted $7,500. I researched and found the "450" engine used to have a double row timing chain but they changed to single row to save weight when changing it to a 380. After that, lots of reported problems.

It was out of warranty but Mercedes of North America paid half. With urging by me of course.

After repair, I sold it. The other beef was brake jobs. That vehicle recommended a brake job every 10,000 miles. And it was very expensive to do those even if you didn't use the dealer. The brakes were fantastic-- but not "that" fantastic.

You either lease a Mercedes or sell before the warranty expires.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Yep totally agree, if you do the numbers most total aftermarket warranty costs would cover the cost of a fairly extensive repair,
probably with cheaper aftermarket parts provided it's even covered and probably can't do diy pm either anymore.

The dealership we bought my wife's SUV from offers a lifetime powertrain warranty on every car they sell. It's one of their sales gimmicks. Her SUV was 2 1/2 years old when we bought it with about 17k miles.

 

[5030]

You could go back to non overhead valves and they would be non interference . Are you ok with 150 horsepower engine out of a 350 cubic inch engine? I’m not going to say modern engines have to be interference engines but I bet almost all are.

HP don't mean a lot to me, MPG does.

 

[5030]

Even the OEM warranties are a rip off. I recently saw that even warranties that aren't scams have a 50% to 75% profit margin. That means that odds are you will only get back 25% to 50% of your cost.

That applies if you don't have any warrantable issues. Today's vehicles are so complex that any warranty (extended) is better than none. OEM's aren't nearly as bad as the 3rd party ones, by a long shot.