@Scandinavian Flick: Front brakes and rear tires wearing out at about the same rate tends to indicate a certain driving style, eh?

@Scandinavian Flick: I'm keeping my mouth shut about how well my '01 330ci treats me... lest Murphy comes and kicks my ass! ~knocks on wood~ ~rubs shiny penny~ ~strokes rabbit foot~ I HAVE replaced the front control arms and bushings, rear bushings are coming due, just replaced the intake cam sensor, new front brakes…

@loveableterror- has an SRT and knows how to wield it!: And the 2.0l and 2.4l engines are direct descendants of the old 2.2l and 2.5l Chry-cos that also took to turbocharging readily! Same bore spacing and bore size allowed the newer DOHC head to be almost bolted on to the older engines...

@DoctorNine: ~raises hand~ learned at 12 on the farm trucks

Learned on a 3 on the tree at 12 years old at the cousins farm in the trucks. I was riding motorcycles with clutches at 9. The majority of my cars HAVE been of the 3 pedal variety, currentlyeven my old Caravan was converted a couple years ago after the slushbox grenaded. When I was looking for a car, one prerequisite…

@egoods: Chryslers 2.7l was a great engine... ON PAPER! Short stroke, rev happy, 4 valve, dual overhead cammed all aluminum engine with a timing chain (no belts). It made 200 horsepower but suffered from a seriously deficient oiling system which would frequently wipe out the rod and main bearings. Once that happened…

@E1050: OH YEAH... E-36 fo' sho'! If I didn't already have an E-46, I would rock a M3 in either E36 or 30 form!

@rhozn: unfortunately, the majority had the 2.7l hand grenade engine... the 3.2l and 3.5l engines are much better, even though the transmission guts are shared with the Caravan and as such are prone to the same failures! I had a '99, loved the car aside from the engine rebuild at 77,000 miles and frequent transmission…

@Prismatist steers with his right foot: Fiat Group... top left!

OK good, no minivans... thought I was gonna have to do the walk of shame! ~carrying on~

@Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet: In my line of work, that's the equivalent of a $2500 PC board burning up to protect a $.30 fuse!

@Ash78, pending babydaddy: Well, that just means you don't have to worry about her wanting to drive it! Another reason why my Bimmer and my van are both sticks, amazing how many people can't drive em.

@Jeb_Hoge: You must live here too!

@MrFizzle: Maybe you have never had a pre-nanny car that came without all the safety doo-dads... But Mopars well into the 90's were not equipped with clutch switches, nor brake interlocks on the automatics. Even the Viper was resistant about putting ABS as it wasn't available on them til about 1999 (?). So, the story…

@1AJeremy: It WAS... until the fire department got there. Now he has to start all over again!

@dannypaulny: and surprisingly enough, it wasn't the engine that doomed them, it was the electronics! OK, not so surprising from GM. Hell, GM still needed an ECM kept in the trunk next to the jack and lug-wrench all the way through the 90's. The engine itself was based on the 472-500ci series engines.

@fratto: I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the Beetle Bug engine. Very reliable provided proper service methods are followed, and ALL the engine cooling tin pieces were replaced when any service has been done! In stock trim they were economical to drive, and maintain... Sure, they drooled like a Saint Bernard…

Sushi with Sauerkraut! No thanks, I prefer my German Knackwurst to be made in the good ol' USofA

@Laurent Fignewton: @Rotorhead5000: That's not to say that I have never pulled engines using brute force in my younger days, even completely disassembling the engines on occasion to remove it in smaller pieces. And I'm guilty (quite) of cutting the nose off a junker so I can remove the wheels and set the engine down…

I'm glad the rotary didn't make a loud "BANG" as we pulled it out of the RX-7 tonight. Of course a hoist most certainly is the correct way to do it!