MIT Engineers

[Owlman]

what's wrong w German?

[eCat]

BMW and Volkswagen are junk.

I've never owned a Mercedes so I can't comment on them but I've owned 2 BMWs and 4 Volkswagens. They are built for driving but not for reliability.

[aTm]

Most people I know who buy German cars have loads of problems with them. VW's are the worst offenders, although people seem to have issues with Audi and BMW's as well. Mercedes I dunno, I know one girl that has issues, but it may be because she cant keep the thing on the road.

[AlabamAlum]

I have a 1989 Mercedes 560 SL with 314,000 miles on it - no issues. Well, except the damn ragtop. I've replaced that three times since '89. But that's more of an issue with convertibles - not Mercedes.

And, yes, I know the above is anecdotal, so take it for what it's worth.

[Owlman]

I used to buy one year old Caddy's or Lincoln's. Typically would put on 250,000 to 300,000 miles on them before the nagging problems became irritating. But I used to drive a lot more out of town than I do now.

[aTm]

Older Mercedes were definitely reliable. You still see some of those things and I doubt they were rebuilt or refurbed. Recent german cars seem to still be high quality, but all the quality is put into the engineering for performance leaving the cost cutting areas to be in areas where " some stupid shit breaks and pisses you off"

[aTm]

Its similar to buying the $400 "its got everything the $2000 one has!" laptop and then a month later the fucking power button breaks.

[Owlman]

Dell

[eCat]

Volkswagen screwed themselves when they moved production to Mexico. There is a clear decline in quality after 1998. I personally think they peaked with the 1998 GTI VR6 and I'd be interested in buying one if I find it with low miles.

BMW has fallen for the idea that parts can be made in China - so they've seen a noticeable increase in problems related to normal wear and tear - ball joints, bearings, seals, etc

I heard someone tell a joke last week when they were cursing about how bad the quality is on their Land Rover.

You know why the British drink warm beer? Because they build refrigerators too.

[eCat]

46 seconds of redneck engineering

[youtube]8A_XOWA-DAk[/youtube]

[Bklyn]

Yeah, BMW is living off of its reputation for durability. Big Money Wasted nowadays.

My car is free (and gets recycled for a new one every 6 - 8 months), but the next car I buy will probably be a Land Rover or Range Rover. I know it will wind up causing me nagging problems down the line, but I love them. At least I'm honest about my hypocrisy.

[eCat]

now the reason I posted the above video is because I have a cautionary tale for trying it.

after using a bottle of tire slime in failed attempts to get a 3 wheeler tire to inflate, I decided to try this trick as my problem was I couldn't set the bead on the tire long enough for air to catch.

So I take the tire off the 3 wheeler and get the starter fluid and propane torch similar to the video above.

What the video fails to show you is that you really need to have a straw in the cap of the starter fluid to direct the fluid into the tire and not so much *onto* the tire. This is where the execution of said activity failed on me.

In my attempts to inflate the tire, the liberally sprayed starter fluid that had collected on the outside of the tire instantly caught on fire creating a now inflated round ball of fire death and also catching the grass below the rim that had starter fluid residue on fire. In my haste to put out the grass on fire (picture old man on front porch stomping out flaming bag of dog poop) the now inflated and perfectly round tire fully engulfed in flames rolled back into said 3 wheeler that had a float stuck on the carb resulting in a dripping gas leak that now also caused the grass where gas had been leaking to now ignite as well the left side of the engine case.

Screams of "AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEE" could be heard throughout Semmes , AL and the surrounding area.

Luckily all of this happened in the span of about 10 seconds and there were no explosions or permanent damage.

[Bklyn]

the liberally sprayed starter fluid that had collected on the outside of the tire instantly caught on fire creating a now inflated round ball of fire death

LMMFBAO...pomegranate greek yogurt went flying out my mouth (horrible visual). Classic.

[hedge]

LMAO...

"Screams of "AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEE" could be heard throughout Semmes , AL and the surrounding area."

I suspect that's not an uncommon occurrence in those parts...

[hedge]

Somewhat related, one of our drivers, Ronnie Blizzard, a.k.a., Cowboy, came in this morning to load, he was hanging out in the office for a few minutes and told the story of how some kid was coming around his place (I think he lives in a trailer park) and swiping cigarette butts from his and his neighbors ashtrays (evidently they all go outside to smoke), for whatever reason Cowboy harbored a resentment to this practice, with the result being that he conceived of a way to (as he said) "break him of that." So he trimmed the fuse of a small firecracker and loaded it into one of the butts. As luck would have it (or perhaps it was by design), Cowboy was in his trailer the next time the guy came around and indeed got to witness (or so he claimed) the results of his handiwork. He seemed very pleased with his ingenuity, as was I upon hearing of it...

[eCat]

damn, kid is hard up stealing butts

[hedge]

[youtube]PFCBbKDMKV4[/youtube]

[BigRedMan]

damn, kid is hard up stealing butts

Working around downtown in Indy, we had guys that walked around to all the ashtrays outside the office buildings looking for butts and such.

[Jungle Rat]

[DooKSucks]

I have never used the ether trick on tires, but i have seen dad do it.

Don't try it with gasoline though. It will send a tractor rim twenty foot in the air and crumple it like piece of paper.