HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: djm48887@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Dan Moisson)
Subject: Re: My new Saturn in the shop for new transmission
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 04:53:57 GMT
Keywords: Saturn reliability

underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:

>In article <1992Nov19.011448.11730@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> clee@praha.jpl.nasa.gov (Chang Lee)
>writes:
>>Two weeks ago, I put down 15K at the dealer for a new SL2.  500 miles and a 
>>week later, the car's back at the dealer for a new transmission.  Obviously,
>>I'm unhappy about the situation.  I bought the car partly because of claims
>>of quality and reliability, but this episode has me deeply worried.  So,
>>I'd appreciate feedback from Saturn owners regarding the reliability of their
>>car (or should I get a refund and buy a Civic?)

>I should slap Mr. Lee for this.

>Mr. Lee could spend 15K, and he bought a Saturn?  Buy Saturn if you are pressed
>for money, but 15K doesn't sound like Mr. Lee is pressed for money.

>My advice, if Mr. Lee doesn't mind buying 100% Japanese (but I personally would
>have second thoughts because I'm an American), then buy an Acura Integra.
>It's a much better car than the Saturn.

>On the other hand if he wants to buy American-ish, then I would suggest
>a Honda Civic.  Again, it's a much better car than the Saturn.  Since you
>are obviously willing to pay the $1700 worth of pure profit (to the dealer)
>for the Saturn, I'm sure that you won't mind paying MSRP for the Civic or
>the Integra.

>------------------------------------------------------------------+------------

Hey Mr. Slap Happy,

   Coming from a person who is so "American" as you are (Ha),
I find it hard to believe you are saying go buy foreign
car.  The Saturn is a VERY good car.  I just saw something like
Saturn is only behind Lexus and Infiniti in a independent quality
survey.  Why don't you tell all of us what you based your
information on??


Newsgroups: rec.autos
From: rajiv@hilltop.mitre.org (Rajiv Kohli)
Subject: Re: Manufacturers' Addresses and Phone Numbers
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:30:23 GMT


It would be nice if we can have foreign addresses too. This way one can
complain to the root source [may not help] also. I will send you
Mitbitchy address for Japan.

Don't buy a Mitbitchy - OR you will really need all the addresses.
If you agree call - 1-800-222-0037 and convey to them my regards too.

	Tell them the word is getting around

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rajiv Kohli		Email: rajiv@mbunix.mitre.org Tel: (617) 271-3506
Mitre Corporation 	Intelligence System Integration and Support
202 Burlington Road 	Bedford, MA-01730 Mail Stop: K 306
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 @                               _                                  ,,       
 \\   _   @'                    ( )_                       .      _  \\     
  \\_( )_//                    / Y |                   .      /--( )_//     
    | Y/--                    /\   /               .        '//  \~ \       
    |_/       _ / o"         ( _\ /            .                   - \      
  _ //\      | | |    .       \_\\\        .                     //  \\--,  
 /_// /      | | |      .    / \ \\\ .                           \\         
/ // /_______|_|_|__________/_/_\ \_______________________________\\_______
-------------------------------------------- Play Cricket -----------------
From: eliot@stalfos.engr.washington.edu (eliot)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: integra vs. ... (G20 vs. Altima, Fast vs. Slow
Date: 17 Nov 92 20:42:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: engr.Nov17.202530.24092
Organization: clearer than blir

In article <1992Nov17.192837.7711@oakhill.sps.mot.com> shantanu@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Shantanu Ganguly) writes:
>While I haven't driven the G20, I have driven a Legacy for a week, and its
>handling simply does not compare with an Integra. 

the legacy rolls more on its considerably softer springs i'll grant
you that, and its ultimate grip is limited by its 175 section tires.
it also does not have the structural rigidity of the integra.  but it
does not understeer the way the integra does with so little
provocation and most importantly you feel that the entire package is
working as a team.. the tires, springs and dampers.  with the integra
you feel that the springs are at odds with the dampers and perhaps the
overall geometries are at odds with the tires as well.  i feel more
comfortable exploring the legacy's limits than i do with the
early-understeering integra.. i never know when the front will wash
out completely.  i won't argue with you over which is "really better",
but my opinion is that subaru has gotten a lot more out its raw
materials than honda has with the integra, so in that respect i like
the legacy more.

like i said, go try a g20 for size and then maybe you will think less
of the integra.  check out a corrado too, while you're at it..

>With the exception of
>a GTI, I doubt if any of the above VWs will outcorner an Integra either.
>Heck, I can blow away Jettas and Foxes in my civic, leave alone an Integra.

notice i never mentioned the civic.  there are lots of common parts
between the civic and integra, but i found that they are very
different in real life behavior.  for one thing the civic grips a lot
better.  i don't think you can extrapolate your civic experiences to
the integra.  as to the comparison with vws i'll have to ask you this:
have you driven any of them?  hard? 

>The Civic/Integra chassis is quite good, try driving a previous generation
>Civic Si some time. While its suspension travel is not as much as it could
>be, its handling is quite tenacious. With most hondas that I have driven,
>raw numbers may not be tremendous, but most of the grip is usable, and
>the transient behavior of the car at the limit is very predictable.

my experience with the previous generation civic si is that yes, it
corners very well.. on a smooth clean surface.  its lack of compliance
means that if you hit a mid corner bump, you could lose it in a big way.
i slid a couple of yards after hitting a bump at high speed;  i left a
lot of room for this possibility and ended up using most of it.. i took
a friend's scirocco 16v back to that spot and it soaked up the entire
bump without flinching...  i'm sure the g20 would have excelled there
as well.


eliot
From: philg@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Philip Greenspun)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: Extended Warranty (3rd party recommendations)
Date: 18 Nov 92 11:03:42
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
	<1992Nov16.213211.16188@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: philg@martigny.ai.mit.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: zug.ai.mit.edu
In-reply-to: rjwade@rainbow.ecn.purdue.edu's message of Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:32:11 GMT


In article <1992Nov16.213211.16188@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> rjwade@rainbow.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert J. Wade) writes:


   In article <PHILG.92Nov15161532@zug.ai.mit.edu> philg@martigny.ai.mit.edu writes:
   >In article <BxoEAu.4v8@world.std.com> sandyb@world.std.com (Sandy Bendremer) writes:
   >
   >   I am just about to take delivery on a new Ford (Taurus SHO).  Can anyone
   >   recommend or provide a list of 3rd party extended warranty providers.
   >
   >   My goal would be to have as good (or better) coverage than Ford's program,
   >   at lower cost.  
   >
   >Don't get a 3rd party warranty.  In most states the implied warranty

   don't get an extended warranty ever, they are a ripoff *always*.
   put the money in the bank and use it to cover repairs after the 3 year wait
   is up!

Put the money in the bank!  My Ford requires several thousand dollars
worth of repairs each year, including piles of new brake and engine
control parts.  Maybe this advice makes sense for a Toyota, but I
wouldn't buy another Ford without an extended warranty.

If you don't buy the extended warranty, you are entering a lottery.
You might win the few hundred dollars that the warranty costs, but you
might lose thousands.
--

      -- Philip Greenspun

-------------------------------------------------------------
MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
545 Technology Square, Rm 433, Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 253-8574
From: rkast2+@pitt.edu (Rajiv K Agrawala)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: Mech ABS retrofit (ABS-TRAX)
Date: 22 Nov 92 12:17:51 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <53060095@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com> leonglaw@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com (Lawrence LEONG) writes:
>I've just seen a mechanical ABS retrofit.  Its called "ABS-TRAX" and is
>supposed to be derived from aircraft systems.  Have you heard of it, and if
>so, any data-points or anecdotes?
>
>The system consists of a small pressurised chamber which fastens (one per 
>brake circuit) onto the master cylinder output, somewhat like a reserviour.

[other stuff deleted]

Forgive my stupidity, but, would it be a fair guess that "one per brake circuit" means you have to buy two systems if your car has two brake circuits?
-- 
/==================================================\
| Rajiv K. Agrawala      rkast2@unixd.cis.pitt.edu |
| Undergraduate Mech. Engrg., Univ. of Pittsburgh  |
\==================================================/
Newsgroups: rec.autos
From: issa@cwis.unomaha.edu (Issa El-Hazin)
Subject: Re: Japanese Full Size Trucks
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:03:25 GMT


 
>> Has anyone seen the commercial advertising the new full-size truck
>> made by Toyota? (I believe it was Toyota.)  I've read in the past that
>> this is a VERY profitable market segment for the U.S. manufacturers.
>> It will be very interesting to see how they (Ford, GM, Chrysler) respond 
>> to this new entry.


>  The largest available engine is a V6, and you can only get the 4-speed
>  automatic with the V6 engine.

No Sir, you can get the 3.0-liter, 150-horsepower V-6 with a five-speed
transmission (manual).
Manual and automatic transmissions are available for all the T100 trims.
The V-6 is the only engine availiable in the T100.
If it's needed in the future, a larger version of the V-6 could be built,
Toyota claims.

> will be pretty expensive compared to the domestic trucks, which will out-
> haul and out-tow it pretty handily.

The four-wheel drive half-ton with five-speed transmission has 1,550 pounds 
standard payload capacity. The two-wheel drive one-ton can handle up to 2,550 
pounds.  Towing capacity is 5,000 pounds for the two-wheel drive half-ton, and 
4,500 pounds for the four-wheel drive.

>	Herb "Mopar Maniac" DaSilva


>The 'T-100' will be the best thing that ever happened to domestic truck
>builders because of it flaws...  It continues in the 'it-looks-like-it's-
>a-truck-but-don't-put-a-load-on-it' pattern of all the micro-'trucks'.

>Walt K.

>p.s. -- predicted msrp's are in the $25000-range...  P.T. Barnum described any
>potential buyers of the Toyota T-100 quite well...

The base price of the T100 is $13,998.
The base price for the T100 SR5 is $15,718, the price for the top of the line
SR5 is ~$19,639 (equipped with options of cruise control, aluminum wheels,
air conditioning, tilt steering wheel, tachometer, power windows and door 
locks, interval wipers, chrome front and rear bumpers and an incredible AM/FM
stereo with compact disc player that turns the cabin into rolling head phones.


Issa

From: leonglaw@hpsgm2.sgp.hp.com (Lawrence LEONG)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 10:05:55 GMT
Subject: Re: How To Drive the RIGHT way!
Organization: HP Singapore
Newsgroups: rec.autos

In rec.autos, seanr@lobo.rmhs.colorado.edu (Sean Reifschneider) writes:

|In article <1992Nov18.002420.4123@memstvx1.memst.edu> ujmli@memstvx1.memst.edu writes:
|>In article <Zyg4TB4w164w@cellar.org>, blu@cellar.org (Dan Reed) writes:
|>> paperwork he is doing, forget all about the person he just pulled over,
|>> and come after YOU!  Play it safe, on a 55Mph road, pass the cop at
|>> 40Mph.
|>
|>Don't forget to mention something about people slowing down to 5mph when passing
|>an accident site to see what is going on, even though the accident isn't
|>blocking the road and over a hundred cars are waiting behind you. 
|
|I do that.  I slow down to the speed limit or lower when I get to an accident.
|Not to look, but just in case there is something in the road, or because other
|people are slowing down.  IMHO, it's just a good idea to slow slightly.
|
|Sean

We usually see two accidents in a row.  The second one, some 50-100m later, is 
caused by drivers turning around to gawk at the scene of the first.

lawrence


Newsgroups: rec.autos
From: dclayton@bnr.ca (Don Clayton)
Subject: Re: How do you spell relief?
Reply-To: dclayton@bnr.ca (Don Clayton)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 14:46:45 GMT

In article <184308@pyramid.pyramid.com>, lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell) writes:
|> >In article <BxtH82.Ix0@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> mshar@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mike Mshar) writes:
|> >
|> >>Damned it, for the last time, its is spelled C-A-M-A-R-O   
|> >
|> In article <4186@unisql.UUCP> wrat@unisql.UUCP (wharfie) writes:
|> >	*I* thought it was spelled D-O-G
|> >
|>    
|>    Well, I thought it was spelled, S-E-X, but to each his own...>:-)
|> 	^^^

From a C-A-M-A-R-O?!?  Man you have easy women!  Where can I get some?

Don Clayton
a.k.a. Admiral Maverick, DM of the Drow
My brain, my thoughts, my words.
If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a K-car (a nice reliant automobile),
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC                                        CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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CCCCCCCCCCCCCC                   C                    CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC             CCCCCCCCCCCCC              CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC              CCCCCCCCCCC               CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC             CCCCCCCCCCCCC              CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC           CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC            CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC         CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC          CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC       CCCCCCC   CCCCC   CCCCCCC        CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC      C CCCCC   CCCCCCC   CCCCC C       CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC        CC  C   C CCC C   C  CC         CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC                   C                    CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCC                                        CCCCCCCCCCCCCC
               **** JAYS in 6 - WORLD CHAMPIONS! ****
Newsgroups: rec.autos
From: bqueiser@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Brian J Queiser)
Subject: Re: SHO WAGON -- Again
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 19:42:42 GMT

tpickett@auspex.com (Tom Pickett) writes:

>aas7@po.CWRU.Edu (Andrew A.Spencer) writes:

>> why in the hell are they doing this??..why not do it RIGHT the first
>> time w/ 92 parts or something easier to find..and the plus of a stick
>> and by the time they get all the bugs worked out, they would have a much
>> less hard time finding one of the autos(as i can understand wanting an
>> auto in a wagon loaded w/ screaming brats!..)...but..what the hell!!??!
>> get if off the ground w/ a stick..they should be easier to come by, to
>> begin with..and should be a decent conversion platform to build off of to
>> put in an auto later, when they are less "novel".

>Perhaps the Registry is trying to influence Ford with this vehicle,
>and they know Ford would never be able to understand a station
>wagon with a manual transmission.  Although I think in the early
>days of the Taurus there was a manual available with the wagon...
>
>I think the reason for the '93 parts is that the wagon is probably a
>'93 wagon...

Yes, an MT-5 wagon version was available for a while, but its been killed
along with the demise of the I-4 in Taurii.

But for the Registry to get a new wagon and install the guts and glory
from a totalled auto-SHO sedan seems like pure folly to me (without having
read the Registry article).  Well, maybe I'm missing something.  Remember
that Ford had to move the Yamaha so they could mate it with the AXOD?
That took years!  How is the Registry gonna get a vanilla wagon and just
drop in the stuff that dreams are made of?  Does that mean that regular
Taurii, including wagons, share the auto-SHO chassis?  I don't know,
but I doubt it.  Does anyone know?  Seems to me that it would be easier
to get a '93 SHO automatic sedan and a front-end totalled '93 wagon and
cut the pieces of the wagon and paste them to the sedan, if ya know
what I mean.  Why waste time moving engines and firewalls and stuff
when you can glue panels and rework suspension systems?  I don't know.
It's obvious there's more to it than that, probably the unibody problems.

And BTW, is the Registry somehow employing engineers, or what?  Are
they SVO wanna-bes?

Regards,

Brian

bqueiser@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am the engineer, I can choose K.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Department of Engineering Mechanics
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (Ad absurdum per aspera)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: Fast Japanese Sports Cars
Date: 20 Nov 1992 12:44 PST
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

> the lingenfelter vette is bored to 383 and kicks out 440 bhp.  not too bad.

Stroked, actually, as Michael Mshar points out.  Apparently a host of
other things were done to it as well.  I haven't yet identified just
everything Lingenfelter does to those engines, but apparently the
popular articles such as the one in Car and Driver give the mistaken
impression that he just "blueprints" (silly word!) the things.  Some
E-mail correspondence with various netters indicates that there are
other details in his hotter jobs -- little things like "Oh, yeah, 
almost forgot -- he replicated the pushrods and rockers in titanium"
and other minor points like that.  (Speed costs money, and my urge to
go 170 mph does not correspond well to the available money.)  

Getting 450 hp out of a 383-cid small-block Chevy is, on the face 
of it, not *that* great an achievement -- unless you insist that it 
be streetable and smoggable and deliver its putative power for several
consecutive weekends without blowing up.  One gathers that, whatever 
Lingenfelter actually does, it's a wee bit more sophisticated than 
just inserting a longer-throw crank.  :)

Of course, comparing a 300ZX TT to an LT1 'Vette is like comparing apples 
to bananas.  They're both good; they're both a matter of taste; enjoy
the one you prefer!  Although one can always find a use for more grip and
horsepower, the opportunity to trade up to either of these cars, stove
stock, would tickle me pink.  As a colleague said when I told him there's
another 150 hp or so to be had in his new 3000GT, "Dear God!"

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
Newsgroups: rec.autos,rec.autos.driving
From: tedebear@leland.Stanford.EDU (Theodore Chen)
Subject: Re: CONSUMER REPORTS
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 23:26:04 GMT

In article <milo-141192174802@mielo.dorm.rutgers.edu> milo@dorm.rutgers.edu (james mielo) writes:
>The SC isn't intended to compete with the sports coupe class. It's more of
>a GT. If you noticed the tires tell the story. The eclipse runs on low
>profile sport tires. The SC uses all weather radials. The eclipse has a
>more aggressivly tuned suspension. The SC is more for cruising than
>autocrossing.

but don't get the wrong idea.  the saturn SC is one of the most competitive
cars in the IMSA firestone firehawk series.  the 1991 champion
in the touring class was a saturn.

-teddy
Newsgroups: rec.autos
From: nau@ssesco.com (William Nau)
Subject: Re: Raising the limit
Organization: SSESCO
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 19:20:15 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.175045.8175@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>, fengxi@prancer.eche.ualberta.ca (Fengxi Zhou) writes:
|> I heard (so it could be wrong) that in Taiwan, one part of the driving test is
|> to accelertate to 100kph and slow down to 0 in a stright stretch of given
|> length, with with stick shift!  Now, if add another part, driving through a
|> snaky stretch at a no slower average speed than, say, 75kph (hey, this is just
|> driver's test.  Let's be nice), and emergency lane change at 110+ kph, 
|> then every one of us will come out as a "qualified" driver.

It doesn't really prove much.  Let's have deer jump out in the road whil
taking a test.  Let's have an idiot cut you off.  Let's have all traffic
in front of you suddenly stop.  Let's do all of this on ice and poor
visibility.

!>  Oh, don't forget
|> every one (including your grandpa if he still drives) must pass this to 
|> re-register.  Every car must pass an annual mechanical test to ensure safety,
|> emmision, etc.  How is that?

Sounds expensive.

|> BTW, one guy in a car mag suggested that there should be a new licence plate
|> system.  THe first letter indicates the driving skill and safety record.  "A"
|> platers are allowed to drive at >200kph, and "B" platers >150 but <200kph, etc.
|> Sounds neat, too.  Of course, annual re-registration is a must, then.

So if my wife is rated for class A and I am rated for class B, what do we
have on the licence plate of our one car?  How about our son who is rated
class F?   (class F = stay the hell out of my car)
-- 
William R. Nau
Supercomputer Systems Engineering and Services Company (SSESCO)
511 11th Avenue South, Suite 216
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415-1536
(612) 342-0003

nau@SSESCO.com
From: tcarter@53iss4.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Tom Carter)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Tire Recommendations
Date: 21 Nov 92 15:00:23 GMT
Organization: Imaging Systems Division, NCR Corp, Waterloo, Ont., CANADA

I have a 1987 Acura Legend L Coupe. This will be my first winter in this beast
and so far, with the little snow we have had up here in the frozen north, I am
NOT impressed with the TOYO M+S tires on this thing. What I am looking for are
suggestions/recommendations for something better in an all season radial so I
don't feel like I am taking my life in my hands in the snow. I am looking for
the best compromise here for winter and summer. I do not want a "pure" snow
tire. At the moment I am trending towards Yokahama U+4 or A+4 (I think).
Any advice would be appreciated. E-mail would be great. Thanx....

--
Tom Carter
Newsgroups: rec.autos