#advice

Ryan writes:

I have a car purchase dilemma. I currently have a 2005 Acura TL that is a fine car. It does what I need it to do as I live in Chicago and only have to drive 1 mile to work. I am looking for a change though, and the Chicago winters always make me want something with 4-wheel drive. My fiancé’s car is a 07 Civic. We drive it most of the time around town because it is easy to park, great gas mileage and its a tank as far as reliability is concerned. I had a 2006 RL come on my radar recently for a great price (father of a co worker selling). I also found a 2001 Porsche Carrera 4 in great condition, low miles and great price available. What should I do?

Chew Bacca (no, really) writes:

I have a 1963 Ford Ranchero with the 144 cu in six, it hasn’t run in 8 years, but I recently got the go ahead from my dad to work on it, in addition to changing the oil, oil filter, draining the gas tank, and fuel filter, I replaced the spark plugs, spark plug wires, and ignition coil, and it still won’t spark. I put a charged battery in and the starter works, strong enough to move the car, any suggestions?

Colin writes:

Sajeev and Steve: I’m a Brit currently on expat in the US. For several years now I’d loved the idea of buying a cool American only car and taking it back with me, have something fun to drive for a while and then selling it in the UK (or Europe) for more than its total cost. I have 18 months left before my return, however to avoid import duties and VAT I need to own the car for a minimum 12 months in the US and 6 months in the UK.

Sajeev, I was hoping you’d have an answer to my unusual problem and post my letter so I may get some feedback from the brilliant people who visit your website. I bought a 2004 GTO (automatic) back in September ’09. It’s in beautiful condition, yet has an unusual plight. Here goes:



John writes:

Hello: I have a question about a 2003 Toyota Camry with 130,000 miles. Every time I get the oil changed the attendant comes out with a clipboard and a long list of items needed to be done. Such as flush the engine oil, flush the power steering fluid, start using high mileage oil etc. Should I do this? So far I have not given in as the car runs good and it’s paid for.

Longtime TTAC Commentator Educatordan writes:

Okay Mr. Mehta and Lang: Currently my fleet consists of a 2004 F150 Heritage and a 2008 Roketa (Chinese) 150cc scooter. My current commute is about 8 miles one way each day and the miles are town and metro area where the speed limit never tops 50mph, I occasionally drive that with my scooter (top speed 60mph) but usually my girlfriend and we commute together in her 2005 Pontiac Vibe. My problem is this, I’m a teacher, soon to be administrator, and I anticipate a big change in my career next year with a new masters degree and new license. I currently work for the largest (geographically speaking) school district in the United States and my new administrative position will likely involve a commute of 40 to 90 miles round trip everyday. As an administrator I’ll be required to report to work as close to 7am as possible, come hell or high snow, teachers/students get canceled days, I will not. I’m in the mountain west (Northwest New Mexico) at an elevation of 6,500ft with parts of the county hitting 8,000ft.

TTAC Commentator Daanii2 writes:

Hello, I enjoy your Piston Slap column. My question is this: my 1994 Honda Accord gets less than 10 miles per gallon. In fact, in mixed city and highway driving it gets about 7 miles per gallon. The figures are supposed to be 20 in city, 27 on highway, and 23 combined.

Is the car just drinking gas because it’s old? It has less than 100,000 miles on it. It has been maintained fairly well (although the paint has peeled and looks like crap). The idle is a bit rough, and seems to be getting rougher.

If something can be done to get better gas mileage, I’d like to do it. If it’s time to put the car out to pasture, though, I’ll do that too.

With strong new auto safety legislation being debated in congress,the role and scope of government regulation in the auto industry is becoming a hotly-contested issue. But one important consideration is being left out of the discussion: the role of private “regulation” of the auto industry. Even as the new legislation was being drafted, we were treated to an object lesson in non-governmental regulation when the non-profit Consumer Reports issued a “do not buy” warning for the Lexus GX after it exhibited lift-off oversteer on a test course. Because CR performs independent testing on a wide variety of dealer-example vehicles, it was able to detect this error, which prompted Toyota to stop sales and production of the model until a fix was released. Throughout the incident, NHTSA played second fiddle to CR, merely checking the non-profit’s work. The lesson: a subscriber-based, non-profit is the real front line of US auto regulation. But, as the Wall Street Journal [sub] reports, Consumer Reports is being shadowed by another organization called Consumers Digest… and you don’t want to make the mistake of confusing the one with the other.

TTAC Commentator Windswords writes:

My co-worker told me the other day that her daughters brand new 2009 Honda CRV (11,000 miles) was making a noise. Her daughter described it as a “chirping” sound. Thinking it had something to do with the belts I told her to see the dealer about it. She later told me that the dealer found the car was low on oil. As a matter of fact the car was 2.5 qts low. The car has the 1.6L 4-pot motor which takes (according to her) 5 qts. The car had just had the oil changed at the same dealership. They gave it another (complimentary) oil change and made sure it was filled this time. The noise is gone. The engine light did not come on during this episode.

TTAC Contributor David Holzman writes:

Sajeev, my ’99 Accord (2.4L 4cyl, 170k) when cold makes noises that sound like slightly loud tappets. If the engine is around 10 degrees (scan gauge) when I start the car, I’ll hear it. If the temp is more like 30 degrees or above, if I baby the car until it’s around 140-150, I won’t hear anything, but if I push it, I’ll get the noise fairly loudly. So I don’t push it. When I described it to Ray Magliozzi (Clack, from NPR’s Car Talk show) he thought it was piston slap. What do you think?

Kevin Writes:

My sister’s current car, ’98 Nissan Altima A/T 180k Miles, recently came back from the mechanic where she received the unfortunate news that expensive repairs were in her near to immediate future. She’s been toying with the idea of purchasing a new car for the past year or so, and the recent news of dropping 2k into a car of such age and mileage finally has made her expedite her search. As such, she came to the knowledgeable “car guy” in the family… yours truly. She is looking for something reasonably inexpensive (roughly 25k max), automatic, four-door sedan, decent m.p.g., and most importantly excellent reliability with the intention of keeping the car for 10 or so years. Together we have narrowed down the choices to the following: Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, VW Jetta, and the Ford Fusion. I’m personally leaning towards the Altima, but am unsure of the long-term reliability and cost of replacing/repairing the CVT. She liked the Fusion as well, but is being cautious on the reliability of a car on a newer platform.

Andy writes:

TTAC: I have a question. My fiancée owns a 2008 Audi A4 2.0T with just under 15,000 miles on it. Tonight, the low oil indicator light came. So I said I’d get it checked out tomorrow. But before doing that, I figured I’d do a quick search to search about other A4 owners having oil issues. Turns out, they are. Both on topix.com and facebook.com, there are posts regarding the 2008 A4 2.0T burning a unexpected amount of oil and essentially Audi dealership and corporate claiming this is normal for turbo engines.

What do you guys think? Have you heard of this?

Ken Dowd writes:

I’ve got high compression readings of over 190 lbs on all cyls on my TR4. The head has been reworked twice that I know of, about .050 has been shaved. I got these readings after putting the engine back together with all new sleeves, pistons, rings and a head/valve job. I CCed. the head at 55cc and crunched the numbers on several online compression ratio calculators and figured my compression to be about 9.5:1 Compression ratio on the stock engine is 9:1. Would you expect to see such high compression readings with such a small increase in compression ratio?

I’ve searched the world over and cannot find a spec for compression on a healthy 2138cc TR4 engine. Do you have any experience with after market solid copper oversized (thicker) head gaskets to bring down compression? That is the only thing I can come up with. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

T.W. writes:

Hi Sajeev,

Is it nuts to buy an original, low mileage ‘88 Mazda 323GTX that has not been rallied to death, even if I don’t need another car and have no place to park it?

As you probably know these cars are usually spoken about with a hushed reverence from the rally car crowd, they’re quite rare, and I’ve wanted one for years. It’s over 20 years old so it will need paint and other assorted repairs, and parts are getting scarce as well, but it may be worth it.

I thinking more of a long term investment while understanding it’ll never have a return like a 69 Super Bee, GTO, or what have you.