Alternate Route

Sep 14, 2007 - Not That I Recall

Unless we ever find ourselves at the point where one manufacturer has somehow managed to wipe out all the competition and we all buy our vehicles from the same place, we'll always have fans of the various makes and models trying to explain why their choice is the best choice out there. One quick look at the various comparison discussions on the CarSpace forums will make that obvious. I'd bet that even if there was only one manufacturer with one model to choose from that we'd have postings like this:

Well mine was made on a Tuesday and is blue, and you know that your Wednesday reds have had far more problems than mine.

One of the many criteria people use to compare cars is recalls, specifically the number of recalls on a vehicle. While that may be a general indicator of which vehicle you might expect more problems from, there are problems and then there are problems.

I've had a number of recalls over the years on my Nissan vehicles. The vast majority of them have been very minor items like windshield wiper arm or weatherstripping replacements, items like that. The most recent (pardon the pun) I can recall was one to replace the power window regulators in my Altima, which were operating fine for me, but if I needed new ones, I guess I needed new ones put in at no cost. The point is, that while some of these were safety related, none of them was for something that would be life threatening or would leave me stranded on the side of the road unexpectedly. The absolute number of recalls on a vehicle is something to take into account when judging a vehicle's merits, but what those recalls are for is far more important in my view.

There's a big difference between a recall for a problem with an ABS system that could cause a fire or failure of the brakes, and a recall for a faulty brake light switch. A recall for one major issue can far outweigh a handful of annoying ones.

Choosing between cars
Which one has the most problems,
or loudest whining?

3:13 am | Categories: car comparisons, nissan altima, recalls Comments (1) | Permalink | Alert Administrator

Add to:

Sep 12, 2007 - Ginger or Mary Ann?

Life is full of suprises, and the mere prospect of some of them can keep you up at night!

Can you imagine what hitting a $314 million dollar jackpot would do to your life? Well a retired auto worker from Ohio and his adult offspring are going to get to find out as they finally came forward  to claim the 4th largest Powerball jackpot ever. They've decided to take the cash option, which will leave them with only $145,985,099 before taxes.

 When the Powerball jackpot gets up into the stratosphere, there's always a lot of speculation in online communities like the CarSpace forums about what you might do with that kind of money. And not everyone is going to jump at something flashy or fast, but many would choose panache over practicality. For example, one potential gazillionaire expressed it this way:

"Lambourgini, Ferrari or Maserati. Anything that ends in a vowel would be fine."
 
For me, the choice would simply not be as easy as picking from the top of the price list.  It comes down to that  classic dilemma... Ginger, or Mary Ann? The high maintenance, fun to drive machine or the car of your more earthly dreams that you can grow old with. Even though you could afford both, you still could only drive one of them at a time.

It would be just terrible to have to face that decision, wouldn't it?

Powerball jackpot
Match five numbers, plus one more
Hit the open road!

3:13 am | Categories: car comparisons, weird news Comments (3) | Permalink | Alert Administrator

Add to: