Piston Slap: David the Explorer Questions TTAC's Used Reviews

Sajeev Mehta
by Sajeev Mehta

TTAC’s own David Holzman writes:

I was struck when I did my old Beetle review by how much worse the steering and handling felt than I remembered. The ’67 Imperial also seemed a lot floaty-boatier than I would have expected. Thus, I found very interesting your implication [in the Piston Slap question about the Explorer] that ride could deteriorate badly in less than a decade. Are old car reviews doomed to vastly underrate the cars relative to how they drove when new—unless they’ve recently been overhauled?

Sajeev Replies:

Yes. Because getting old sucks. Even for cars.

After publishing the Explorer question on Piston Slap, I guess I shoulda asked for it’s mileage: shocks are wear items. When it comes to older or high mileage cars, the oil/gas in shocks either turns into maple syrup, or leaks out. Parts and labor are not cheap, and not essential to keep an older vehicle on the road. I talked owner of the 1996 Explorer I reviewed, mentioning the correlation between a terrible ride and 13 year old shocks. He’s less than thrilled with the idea, even though he hates the ride. So who in their right mind proactively replaces shocks on an old car?

Then there’s the metal. Springs become more ductile over time/mileage and begin to sag. Sway bars do the same, especially the hollow units on modern cars traveling salty roads. I’ve seen vacuum lines and gaskets go bad after 5 years of heat cycling. And rubber is the worst: it will dry out, crack, or get a (delicious) glazed coating with Father Time’s assistance and exposure to Mother Nature. And nothing kills a test drive easier than hard, dry rotted, or glazed tires that are several years old.

Tolerances in engines, transmissions, steering systems, etc. get sloppy with every passing year. A worn engine may perform better, but nobody likes extra play in their pinions, ball joints, or tie-rod ends. Point is, we must not judge a car’s historical impact by the condition of the used car we drove. In a perfect world, used cars offered as TTAC testers need to be fully reconditioned. Recently. And with a binder full of receipts for repair jobs.

And forget about testing a car that’s been restomoded with aftermarket upgrades, unless its a tuner car like a Lingenfelter Corvette ZR-1. Then it’s okay to cheat. Sort of.

Sajeev Mehta
Sajeev Mehta

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  • Confused1096 Confused1096 on Mar 26, 2009

    It is amazing the difference routine maintenance and care will make in a car. I just drove a 357,000 mile GMC Sierra back from auction to a friend's lot. The truck runs and drives great and the only issues are cosmetic. The head mechanic at the car lot is convinced the truck is running with the origional engine.

  • Texan01 Texan01 on Mar 27, 2009

    I agree, with you Golden, a properly maintained old car will surprise you. I have a 1995 Explorer with 250,000 miles on it that looks, smells and drives like a brand new 2nd gen Explorer. A coworker had a 96 Explorer that felt like it was going to die at any minute and he had 1/2 the mileage I have. He was always asking me if I really had that many miles on mine or did I jimmy the odometer. Several people have always commented that my cars seem to look like they are new cars, despite the newest one being 9 years old. I always strive for maximum mechanical reliability, while doing what I can to maintain the appearance. I had a 1986 Pontiac 6000-STE for a bit in 2000 that my friends thought was a '96 despite it's very '80s looks.

  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
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