Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

andre1969

I didn't think any car could start in gear. The Rolls will not start in gear.

There's a design feature in some older automatics that does allow them to be push-started similar to a stick, if you have a dead battery. In my '57 DeSoto, I think the procedure is to get the car up to about 10 mph in gear, turn the key, and it should start. I think the older GM 4-speed hydramatic could do that, too.

IIRC, it had something to do with older automatic transmissions having the pump at the end of it, or something like that?

andre1969

Well, that's a deal killer. Guess I'll keep shopping other makes.

Heck, on my '89 Gran Fury, having the rear windows only stick up about an inch was a bonus! Considering how wide and tall those windows were, and that the doors themselves weren't so huge, I thought it was nothing short of an engineering marvel. Especially when you compared to a Caprice where they only went down about half-way, or a Crown Vic where they only went down about 3/4. Or worse, GM's 1978-87 RWD intermediate 4-doors where the rear windows were stationary!

It's kinda sad, I guess, when you figure that some of the cheapest 4-door imports back then had windows that rolled down all the way, yet you could buy something like a late 70's or 80's Caddy or Lincoln, and only have them go down half-way or maybe 3/4.

mark156

Andre, I misunderstood the 'starting while in gear' scenario. Yes, the Rolls will start when pushed. I actually had to do that once. Thank goodness we live on a hill (steep hill .7 of a mile down when leaving the house).

The car would not start well after a complete tune-up. So, I wanted to get it back to the shop for them to fix it. I started down the hill and the car started. But, it backfired like crazy. It blew out the exhaust and I had to have it replaced. :mad: The car died a mile from the house and the repair shop came and got the car.

So yes, the car will start in gear when pushed.

Mark

andre1969

Now that I think of it, what is it, exactly, that keeps a car from being started in gear, when it's stopped? Is it just some safety switch somewhere that can be overridden?

fintail

My fintail can be started in gear from a dead stop. Maybe it has to do with the transmission design...it lacks a torque convertor, maybe there is something behind that. There's no lurch or anything like if you try to start a manual in gear....it just fires up and barely creeps forward, as it doesn't have much torque to begin with, and is in second gear.

fintail

Every MB I have ever seen has windows that go all the way down. The "soft pillar" in the rear door must always be in the right place.

bumpy

Old 2-pump Powerglides can be push-started too. That second pump was there to provide fluid pressure which wasn't being provided by the main pump (since the engine wasn't running).

boomchek

Darn you beat me with the Grey Poupon comment. :P

That's so funny Mark, that you actually keep a jar. You have a good sense of humour!

stever

He keeps a 5 pound tub of French's from Costco in his motorhome. :shades:

boomchek

ROFLMAO

british_rover

aahahahhasfhlaskdfhasflkfaf

that was funny.

woodyww

anyone recall the 90s GM cars that had seatbelts coming out of the doors

My ex had an '89 Jetta that had NO seatbelts. Only shoulder belts. No airbags. Apparently VW had figured out some loophole in the US regs so they could sell cars for that one year with shoulder belts, but no seatbelts......

How many manufacturers would go to that much trouble to reduce quality & safety to save what, $40-50 per car???

corvette

Newer cars with an automatic have a park-neutral position switch that, as the name suggests, will only allow the starter to engage if the transmission is in park or neutral. There may be other technical reasons why push-starting or starting in Drive wouldn't work on a modern automatic.

corvette

Aww, come on, it's a high end motorhome... Maybe he keeps the French's in the CR-V. :P

boomchek

Only shoulder belts. No airbags. Apparently VW had figured out some loophole in the US regs so they could sell cars for that one year with shoulder belts, but no seatbelts......

Maybe someone removed the lap belts. Wasn't this in the years of the motorized shoulder belts that ran along the window pillar, and the lap belt had to be buckled in manually?

I really find it hard to believe honestly, but I'm not questioning your credibility, just that there's gotta be another reason for that.

stever

Nah, it's French's classic yellow mustard. Of course, French's is owned by a Brit conglomerate, so it really should be living in the glove box of the Rolls. Grey Poupon is just a Kraft brand and made in the US for our market I think.

Only the best for Mark.

(I'm sure he doesn't relish our making fun of his condiments).

andre1969

Speaking of doors and safe, anyone recall the 90s GM cars that had seatbelts coming out of the doors. And i'm not talking about the automatic ones, just the normal type.

I never liked those, either. For one thing, if the door popped open in a crash, you would find yourself suddenly un-belted! Or worse, what it the door got gouged out and pulled towards the back of the car? Wouldn't the seatbelt then slice the occupant apart? I have a friend who had an incident like that with a 1983 Bonneville. Now it just had the normal seatbelts, mounted inside the car and not on the door, but he got hit by a mid-70's Dodge wagon going the other way, which gouged out both of his doors on the driver's side, and they ended up on the street, somewhere behind the car.

Those seatbelts were actually a lame attempt as "passive" restraints, because even though they weren't automatic, the idea was that you didn't have to unfasten the seatbelt to get in and out of the car. At least, if you were a contortionist I guess.

fintail

I've always called those "decapitation seatbelts".

In high school, a friend had an early Ford Probe with those, and another had the rare and sought-after Mitsubishi Precis rebadge of the Hyundai Excel, and both had those belts...very annoying if you are above average height, and probably for shorter people too.

michaellno

(I'm sure he doesn't relish our making fun of his condiments).

I'm really struggling playing ketchup with all of these posts.

Bada-boom!

(I'll be here all week)

corvette

"The Jetta was equipped with an automatic shoulder belt that required no action by the vehicle occupants. By design, the Jetta did not have a lap belt at the driver's or front seat passenger's position; instead, it used knee bolsters to prevent a person from sliding under the belt during a collision."

Link, from a lawsuit about those (allegedly) unsafe belts, no less.

mark156

Just for the record, my little bottle of Grey Poupon is really little. You know those small ketchup bottles that you get from hotels (about 1.5 inches tall)... well, my Grey Poupon bottle is like that.

My car mechanic gave it to me when I first took the Rolls to him for an inspection. He said that I would have people ask for it! And, guess what, they did.

A few years ago, a 1979 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (Silver and Maroon) pulled up next to us and asked "Do you have any Grey Poupon?"... they just about peed in their pants when we showed them the small bottle. We all laughed! :P

Mark

boomchek

Well, I learned something new today!

mark156

I had an '89 Nissan Maxima that had the automatic seat belt. But, it also had the lap belt. I got in the habit of ALWAYS using the lap belt. I sure am glad they changed that stupid automatic belt to a regular normal shoulder/lap belt.

My '87 Maxima had the normal belt but switched to the auto belt later in the '87 model run. :confuse:

Mark

corvette

In their infinite wisdom, Congress decided that Americans were too ignorant to reliably buckle a seatbelt, and decreed a phase-in of "passive restraint" devices. "Passive" could mean either airbags or some form of automatic seatbelt. Ford, Chrysler, and luxury brands generally went with the airbags, and everyone else (plus Jaguar) went with the automatic belts.

Despite the lack of perceived and actual safety with the door-mounted belts, at least you could buckle and unbuckle them like a normal seatbelt.

michaellno

Oh, man. I remember the days of the "passive restraints".

I had two cars that took different approaches - a '91 Sentra SE and a '91 Protege LX.

The Nissan was my daily driver and had the belts attached to the door frame. The idea was to leave it buckled all the time and you could enter / exit the car and the belts would always be in place. Never, not once, did I use them like that. I always buckled / unbuckled them like regular shoulder belts.

The Mazda (which was my ex's), OTOH, had the motorized shoulder belts on the door frame with the separate lap belt. I always used the lap belt and left the shoulder belt buckled into the door frame - though there was the option of unbuckling the shoulder belt as well.

The Protege got totaled when my wife T-boned an elderly man who made a left turn in front of her in a Chrysler 5th Avenue. Was replaced with a '92 Accord LX that, thankfully, came with a drivers side air bag and regular seat belts.

donwhiteauto

This discussion brings back some old memories. Thanks guys!

woodyww

My 70 y.o. mother bought a Rolls a couple of years before she died (unfortunately I didn't get the Rolls). She & her other elderly friends in S. FL. with RR's carried around bottles of Grey Poupon, & thought it was the most hysterical thing in the world. I'll try to put this as kindly as I can: these were not the most highly evolved people on the planet, IMO.

I buy Grey Poupon at Costco; it's about $7 for two 16 oz. jars. Excellent mustard, but for some reason I don't feel a compulsion to carry jars of it in my car, to show to other drivers.

Is it weird to have never owned a car where part of the fun of ownership is to show other people jars of ketchup or mustard, or.......what about mayo????? Hellman's is good. But I'm pretty sure that if I carried around jars of ketchup or mustard to show to other bmw owners, they'd probably try to have me committed......

andre1969

when we were younger, my friends and I would sometimes get a kick out of pulling up next to an expensive looking car (not necessarily a Rolls, as they aren't every day occurences) and shouting in an upper-crusty voice..."Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?"

We used to get a kick out of it...until I saw it on "Wayne's World". :P But also, back then those commercials were a lot more common. I can't remember the last time I've seen one.

bumpy

...was the day I drove the smart home from the dealer, oddly enough. I'd already had about 3 stoplight conversations, so I wasn't surprised when two girls in an older Saturn motioned for me to roll my window down. They looked to have been maybe 5 years old the last time those commercials ran, so I have no idea where they got it from.

mark156

Woody, that's why you didn't get the Rolls.... you have no sense of humor (or, Humour as Boomchek says it). :P

Mark

lilengineerboy

Speaking of doors and safe, anyone recall the 90s GM cars that had seatbelts coming out of the doors. And i'm not talking about the automatic ones, just the normal type

Late 80s/early 90s Preludes had them as well, and I think the early 2dr Accords did.

The Escort of the era had those motorized mouse belts.

I'm glad those days are behind us.

michaellno

I'm glad those days are behind us.

Me, too.
'
Interesting - before we owned the Sentra and the Protege, the ex and I drove an '86 Isuzu P'up and an '88 Isuzu Trooper .. both had "normal" B-pillar mounted seat belts.

I wonder if, because they were trucks, they were exempt from the passive restraint laws.

The Sentra and Protege were the last cars I owned that didn't have air bags .. though, I suppose, the '92 Legacy wagon I inherited from my FIL (and subsequently gave to my son) counts -- it had the motorized belts as well.

woodyww

If andre once thought it was funny, I can understand it a bit more. It was actually knowing rich Rolls owners in S. FL. in the '80's, & their mentality, that gave me a bad attitude about the whole thing.

I loved "Wayne's World", the first movie. 20-somethings, in an old Pacer, tweaking old rich people in their fancy cars (even with mustard jokes), now that I can totally support. Plus the film had both Tia Carrere, & Laura Flynn Boyle.......uummmm......my eyes are glazing over.....

michaellno

Down, Woody.

Actually, it's Lara Flynn Boyle, but we'll forgive you.

And, I'll second your opinion on Tia Carrere. :surprise:

Quick trivia question .. what kind of car did the Rob Lowe character drive in the movie?

boomchek

lol, yes we Canadians sometimes turn simple words into fancy looking ones.

roadburner

The twin to my old 1988 M6 is for sale- just 20 minutes away.



I guess it won't hurt to go look at it...

corvette

I guess it won't hurt to go look at it...

No, it can't possibly hurt to look, and maybe even touch and/or test-drive, as well. :P

guss

Just leave the checkbook at home, or you will be coming home with it. Nostalgia for a car you owned before has a way of playing with your mind.

stickguy

the other optin besides leaving the checkbook home (always a chance they will take a 20 to hold it) is to bring the wife. That should pretty much elimnate the chance of an impulse buy!

woodyww

what kind of car did the Rob Lowe character drive in the movie?

(I'm down, I'm down)

A mint, cherry, orig. '64-67 pontiac GTO, in red, a convertible I believe? Almost has the same effect on the male brain as Tia Carrere.......(??)

michaellno

While I don't know the year, you are right on the make / model / body style.

roadburner

the other optin besides leaving the checkbook home (always a chance they will take a 20 to hold it) is to bring the wife. That should pretty much elimnate the chance of an impulse buy!

My wife said, "Sell the Mazdaspeed and buy the M6!"
Alas, it was sold by Thursday afternoon...

woodyww

I would ask you the mileage, price, condition, etc., but I don't want to bum you out more if it was nice at a good price. I'm still trying to forget mine, & yet I was sick of the heavy clutch & shifter, high maintenence costs as they age, etc.

The car-lust side of my brain doesn't care about the practicality tho, & if you find another nice one (you will), I'd say go for it......They're so beautiful.....

andre1969

That car was a 1966 GTO...

roadburner

I would ask you the mileage, price, condition, etc., but I don't want to bum you out more if it was nice at a good price. I'm still trying to forget mine, & yet I was sick of the heavy clutch & shifter, high maintenance costs as they age, etc.

It had 170K on it, but my local shop serviced the car. The PO was a doctor who never cut corners on repairs. At @150K it received a valve job along with a new timing chain and guides. In the past two years it had received-among other things-a radiator, a new cat, an A/C compressor, some suspension bushings, and new Bilsteins(I think the load leveling system was removed). Oh well...
On a more positive note, I'm thinking I'd be better served by an E28 or E34 M5. While not 1% as stylish as an E24 M6, a sedan would be much more practical, and what I know about the M6 carries over to the M5 almost without exception. I've already started looking...

lilengineerboy

I'm thinking I'd be better served by an E28 or E34 M5. While not 1% as stylish as an E24 M6, a sedan would be much more practical, and what I know about the M6 carries over to the M5 almost without exception. I've already started looking

The E28 M5 was one of my first automotive crushes. A comfortable, practical sedan that handles very well for the time, and can pick up its feet and move sounds like a lot of fun.

roadburner

The E28 M5 was one of my first automotive crushes. A comfortable, practical sedan that handles very well for the time, and can pick up its feet and move sounds like a lot of fun.

They aren't terribly expensive to run if you can do some of the maintenance/repairs yourself. And for just $250 you can get a Turner/Conforti chip that adds 48 hp and 32 lb./ft of torque. Then you start hunting Mustang GTs...

tifighter

I was sick of the heavy clutch & shifter, high maintenence costs as they age, etc.

I just got an email today from a friend who like to rebuild cars. His wife got him a '78 Ferrari 308 that has been in storage for 20 years as a birthday present. Now THAT'S a project; makes a high-mileage M6 seem pretty economical. I'm going to start calling him Magnum.

roadburner

I just got an email today from a friend who like to rebuild cars. His wife got him a '78 Ferrari 308 that has been in storage for 20 years as a birthday present. Now THAT'S a project; makes a high-mileage M6 seem pretty economical.

I almost bought an Espada once. Talk about a potential money pit... The thing is, Italian exotics have to be driven. Letting them sit and/or just driving them on short trips causes more problems than frequently flogging the daylights out of them.

stever

Your friend may enjoy this link.

Edmunds had an '84 308 in the Long Term fleet for a while a couple of years ago.