mmarshall

I had a '99 SL2 myself, bought brand new and special-ordered. Nice little car. It was arguably the best of the pre-2000 S-series line. By then, they had gotten most of the S-series' notorious engine noise out, but without the noticeable cost-cutting that followed with the redesigned 2000 S-series models....and the unimpressive Ion after that.

FrankReynoldsCPA

It was an impressive little car when we picked it up in 08, mostly used for my dad's frequent cross-country trips. When he finished with those in 09, he ended up parking the car for a couple of years. Well, we all know that the worst abuse a car can take is to sit. When my sister turned 16 at the end of 2011, that car took some work to get back on the road. It has its problems for sure, and it looks like hell. But for a free car, she shouldn't be complaining, lol.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Thanks. Yeah her Explorer has Michelins iirc. Though for our gen 2002-2005 I don't think Ford was using Firestones by that time after it affected the 1995-2001 models.

FrankReynoldsCPA

Even if those tires weren't defective, it's not like you world or should be running them in 2014. Tires deteriorate regardless of use. I chose to learn this the hard way via blowout in my dad's truck.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using IB AutoGroup

mmarshall

Though I agree that sitting is the worst thing for a car, the thermoplastic side-panels on that car at least ward off rust and corrosion. And they don't ding or dent when something small hits them. I've long-maintained that the worst move Saturn ever made was getting rid of those panels, but from what I understand it was done for cost, ease-of-painting, and noise reasons. Those panels added to the car's decibels on the road, and required wide gaps to take expansion/contraction into account.. They also used a difficult-to-apply, expensive waterborne paint that had to flex along with them.

mmarshall

True. 6-7 years is a general good rule of thumb, even if you don't have a lot of miles on them.

mmarshall

OK...maybe so. I thought that the factory-Wilderness models ran a little later than that.

That fiasco, BTW, ended some 100 years of a close business partnership between Ford and Firestone, dating back to when Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone signed their first contract for tire-supply at the Ford plants.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

who needs common sense with a phone and google?

mmarshall

People who regularly use those gadgets behind the wheel while driving, that's who.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Gotta love those tycoons who's names stand up to a century. Let's face it all these new businesses are made up and edgy in sound. It's wasn't John Google

mmarshall

IMO, Henry Ford was the greatest auto tycoon of them all. He didn't build the first cars, and he was a feisty old guy who stubbornly stuck with outmoded designs and engineering long after his competition had moved on. But he gave us something that, at the time, no other manufacturer could do....mass-production and the moving auto-assembly line, which brought down the Model T's price (and production numbers up) to a point where they, together with the $5 a day wages he paid without union pressure, made it possible to literally put the nation on wheels. For the first time, the average Joe could afford to buy and run a brand-new car.

mmarshall

Nice post. It does say something. Kids shouldn't have to live in a vacuum.