I learned that when replacing BMW window motors (‘cause you will be replacing them), you buy a bunch of panel clips (‘cause you’ll break them), plus the molded liner (‘cause you’ll rip it), plus the adhesive.

If you look in the same Cincinnati Craigslist, you’ll see two other 951's, one at $16k for 67k miles and nice condition, and one at $11k and 117k miles, also in pretty nice condition. So I’m sure the owner feels this isn’t that far out of that range. Having said that, the cost of putting the paint right pretty much…

Every older VW and Audi owner has faced the evil choice: Have heat and die from antifreeze poisoning, or no heat and carry blankets to cover your entire body?

My Red Flags:

Alfetta GT. Because rpm’s are important. The rest? Not so much

The Mustang T5 was a pretty common swap into these cars, as even the manuals were under-designed for the power being put out.  

Yup. I passed an early-80's Mercedes 190D the other day on the highway, and couldn’t help but notice how small it was. I mean, like a Fiesta is proably larger in cross-section

Mini Cooper?

What I’ve learned in a lot of years in wrenching on old cars?

In the end it’s still basically a two-stroke, and you have to lubricate the seals enough, which means it’ll never meet emissions.  Too bad.  I loved my 84 RX-7, my 87 turbo, but couldn’t pull the trigger on a RX-8 and it’s 90k mile engine...

With regards to GM:  Would someone with a financial background explain to me the advantage of the stock buybacks that GM, and a lot of other corporations, spent billions on?  I assume it pumps up the stock price, but there’s probably more to it than that...

In another article today someone made a really good point about American products. American companies, when a product doesn’t immediately take off, scrap the whole thing and start over, instead of improving the parts of the product that aren’t the best. This “Go big or quit” mentality is distinctly American, and…

IIRC, Hyundai hired an American exec, who put a long warranty in place. That put the cost of reliability on the books, instead of in some vague place like “customer goodwill”. Funny, how when your warranty costs are eating you alive, reliable products becomes a true “job 1.”

A BMW in winter? BMW owners are those people who know to open their door to order and pick up at the drive thru, courtesy of those high-quality OEM window assemblies. You know you suck when the Autozone replacements are better than the originals.

I thought it was the BBC that did a survey, to find that 40% of people don’t know what the check engine light icon means. Yellow or red either. What I told my kids: See that “gravy boat” icon? If it’s yellow, go to Autozone and get it checked. If it’s red, pull over and turn the damn engine off!

A friend of mine in high school had one of these in black, with a v6 engine (not sure if that was stock). But it was a fun car, and good looking in an era of Yessongs record covers (look it up).  Very much a product of the time.

I’ll vote CP for the price, but these cars get a bad rep by association to other TR’s. I had a TR7 back in the day, and it was a comfortable, reliable car, excepting a couple of water pumps. It’s acceleration was best described as “leisurely,” and the 60-0 braking distance as “terrifying”. But I thought it attractive…

Um, $2500 for a fairly similar car..

It's the bro tech version of "Hold my beer and watch this!"

I did about everything you’ve done on my A4. I’d suggest buying the single screw Schwaben spring compressor. I’ve had the “deathstick” spring compressors come off in spite of my best efforts (that was exciting). Plus, the deathsticks take freakin’ forever to use. The single screw is quick, and so worth the money.