Best Of

From my pov the current tariff/trade war situation is unfortunate. Especially when it comes to Canada, which has up until recently been the closest and arguably most important ally of the US, this seems like a mistake. My wife and I were happy that our 2018 Honda CR-V was built in Canada, and although I have issues with the Honda's 1.5 turbo in that car, the assembly quality was great and it was really built with care.

Many Europeans and Canadians are now boycotting US goods and services, which has already probably cost thousands of jobs. So the costs both diplomatically and economically seem higher than any possible benefits. But with all that being said, along with the damages this has seemingly started to bring increased vehicle production to the US. A video story I watched recently said that since the start of the year the percentage of vehicles sold in the US that are made in the US has increased from 51% to 56%. Increased production was from overtime and extra shifts. And a story yesterday in Auto News picked up by Auto Blog says that Volvo is probably going to increase production in its South Carolina factory by about 100,000 over the next few years.

https://www.autoblog.com/news/will-tariffs-bring-volvos-popular-suvs-to-american-factories

"According to one of the sources who spoke with AutoNews, Volvo expects to build about 60,000 XC60s and 50,000 XC90s annually in the U.S., which would take advantage of the factory’s 150,000-vehicle capacity."

I know it isn't in the realm of interest at the moment, but I figured I would toss an update on the car project.... We FINALLY got the subframe reinstalled tonight. This whole project has been an endless comedy of errors. On the subframe, the new bushings, which are high quality enthusiast parts (more intended for the WRX crowd), had a bit of a hiccup in that they did not mate directly to the stock spacers for his car. He followed up with the manufacturer and provided photos, and they came back today saying that "our Australia team determined that this kit is not compatible with the SH Forester."

This, after multiple websites sell this kit and list it as compatible.... Really? Over the SPACER?! Seems the better idea just to have a variety of spacer kits that the buyer can select based on the specific application. Anyhow, the company offered to just refund my son his money (about $400... not a cheap kit!). I told him the same thing that I did the first day of the project: We should just modify the original spacers so that they are compatible! He was skeptical, but since we already removed the original bushings, I was down for an adventure. About an hour later, and I had four fully compatible spacers with the subframe back under the car. He was pleased because now he has a free bushing kit; I told him he should send photos and instructions to the company to avoid de-listing the only bushing kit in existence, and he said, "I will. AFTER they process the refund." I think he should just pay for it and let them learn the lesson via feedback, but he feels that it is so ridiculous that they didn't have that sorted years ago his give-a-darn is busted.

Try finding parts for a ‘97 Opel! 2nd hand overseas parts take a lot of searching. The maser has been tough, too, which I don’t fully understand. I guess the low production factor. The Opel is laid up again. I went to change the calipers and struts and keep running into problems. I broke one of the CV joints. Good grief. Then broke a tie rod. Ugh. And each time is like a week wait to get a replacement.

At least BMW and Mercedes provide some support to older models.

Heck, I can still get some fintail bits from the dealer - for a price, of course. Thankfully there is a huge secondary market for old car parts.

I bought quite a few parts for my 2002 at my local dealer, and at that point it was 37 years old.