Other than that, it was a truly good city car. On the highway? Terrible. And yeah, Hondas firing spark plugs out of the engine under load is a real thing, and not just on the Fit, 4s and V6s, Civics, Accords, Pilots and Odysseys too, going back at least to 2005 if not earlier. Including original spark plugs that got…

Yeah, the ignition lock cylinder thing was widespread. We had a hand operated key punch to make new keys by code and a box of replacement tumblers. The keys would get shaved on the sides by the lock cylinder and get paper thin, the fix was to punch a new key (5 minutes) pull the lock cylinder (15 minutes or less),…

Any competent truck spring shop can remove as many spring leaves as is safe.

Who pays $400/night for a hotel room?

This huge rig is absolutely not for “camping”.

The valve body and the trans pan that covers the valve body on every S series automatic transmission is on the top of the transmission, below the battery and battery tray.

Ex Saturn master tech here (‘96) -

There was no GM parts bin stuff in the S series cars. They had a special dispensation from Roger Smith as a core value when they started: they were the only division that had complete freedom to source their own parts from any supplier, anywhere in the world, not tied to GM…

Ex saturn master tech here. Have had a 1996 SL2 as a family second car for 20 years straight now (same one).

1984 Jag XJ12 - my neighbor growing up bought one new. I remember it being towed out of his garage about once every other month for the first year and a half he owned it. Many, many dealer repairs. The final straw for him was when the gas tank rusted out at 18 months old. The gas leaked out onto the sidewalk and the…

Try driving a stock 1966 VW 1300 beetle on I-95 or I-80 or or I-5 or any highway in Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, Dallas, Nebraska, Kansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Arizona etc etc -

...with the stock top speed of 100kph. It is a terrifying experience, even firmly in the far right slow lane, with *everyone* closing rapidly on…

These things happen sometimes. GM spent a bunch of money for ‘96 to get the B/D body platform up to OBD2 compliance from OBD1, and they also splashed out for a bunch of brand new parts for the Impala SS - new analog instrument cluster with tach (not cheap), moving the shifter from the column to the floor, a new…

Auction has been cancelled by C&B

Where do I start? Here are selected highlights (lowlights?). This is not a comprehensive list, just some big ones. They’ve been dogged for six straight years by major engine and fire issues, on top of their previous history of major engine problems.

1) This year Hyundai/Kia recalled 485,000 vehicles for engine…

If you want to pay to purchase, maintain, repair, register, insure and park two or more vehicles and have the space to do so, sure.

But where I live, that’s typically a very expensive proposition that’s also a gigantic hassle. I do it anyway, because I moved here with my vehicles but if I cut it from a car and a…

I was a Saturn certified master tech back in the 90s and did Saturn Service Technical at Spring Hill. We have had our ‘96 SL2 in the family since ‘99. Still going strong, burning a quart every 300 miles. It’s still the cheapest, easiest car to repair and maintain anyone in our family has ever had, which is really…

That’s true, but boy, it seems like kia/hyundai have had a lot of major problems across the board on most of their N/A 4 cylinder engines

The biggest problem with Kia is Kia dealers, both for new and used car sales, service and warranty repair.

It is potentially the largest brine lithium source in the entire world, containing 50 to 100 years worth of supply, in an area that’s already a sparsely populated environmental disaster area where the federal government owns much of the land. If you haven’t read about the project lately, it is worth getting an update…

Yep!

As raw materials prices increase and stay high, extraction tech and methods that were formerly unprofitable become profitable. There are currently 11 geothermal power plants around the Salton Sea that already bring up vast amounts of lithium-bearing brine, which is currently simply pumped back down by those power plant…