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So Ateixeira (that handle's a mouthful buddy - just kidding!), did you prefer joyriding American luxury barges or imports more when you were valet parking? Heck, you've got to get some perks to make up for the cheap [non-permissible content removed] tippers! I had a buddy who did that at some NJ resort when he was young and he liked the land yachts.
I'm glad you asked!
I actually enjoyed the job. It wasn't good money, but I like cars and I made a little on Friday nights instead of going to bars and spending a lot, so the net gain was decent. Never damaged any cars, either, though someone working with me did once.
For sure, without a doubt, a lot of my personal biases were formed during that era, late 80s basically.
I enjoyed parking the smaller, sportier cars, everything from a CRX to a Scirocco or GTI to an Omni GLHS. In a tight, urban environment, twisy garage with small parking spots, they were right at home.
To this day I prefer smaller, sportier cars.
Next came the smaller lux cars. You learned about Saabs on your first day - gotta put it in Reverse to get the key out. Those were fun, back when Saabs actually had real character, not a GM rebadge. I liked 3 series, too. Euro cars with a good manual transmission.
I hated the big ones, though. I'm sure they'd be better suited to an autobahn at 120mph than a city at 5mph, but fintail may recall those delayed throttle pedals where you got nothing at all out of an S class for the first inch or two of pedal travel. And back then, the diesels were terrible, both slow and stinky.
American luxury barges were far worse. More body roll than a sail boat at high tide. Town Cars and big Buicks seemed to be the worst. Stop and go enough times and it felt like the bumper would scrape the ground. I could not stand those cars. Toss in Oldsmobile while you're at it.
Back then, the Camry/Accord were so much better than the domestic cars it was almost comical. With a few exceptions ... but not many. I honestly think today's Malibu and Fusion are so, so much more competitive.
From a bored valet's perspective, I always preferred a stick shift, and it seemed like the imports had a far higher ratio of sticks, even European. So I would rather get a Saab 900, 3 series, Accord, or Celica over an auto-only GM10, for instance.
Despite an apparent bias, I bought a 91 Ford Escort after that job, so I am very open-minded. It was light, DOHC, has a nice stick shift, and gave me good bang for the buck.
My roommate had a Dodge Shadow ES (turbo) and it was marginally quicker but my Escort was better in every other way. What was GM making back then? I guess the Cavalier Z24, which simply didn't interest me at all. Later Dodge put a small V6 in the Shadow, these compacts were getting 19mpg city, who are they kidding? My Escort was rated 26mpg.
So, there you go. What did I learn? Stick shift + light = fun. I tend to seek light, efficient models in any given class. Bang for the buck, basically.
There was a V6 Shadow - my brother had a Sundance Duster with a V6. I also remember a V6 Tempo...torque steer had to be an issue.
My Aunt had a 93 or 94 Shadow ES with the Mitsu 3.0, period hunter green over tan. It was a fun little car. Plenty of power, I guess 0 to 6 in 8 seconds or so. I drove it quite a few times when I first got my license. torque steer wasn't terrible, but was noticeable.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
It was more than hard, though, they actually had an inch or so where it would not react at all. They did away with it, as I never noticed that in the 90s Benzes I sampled, nor the more recent ones.
85 Olds
I remember that, too. It was the opposite, very non-linear. You barely touch it and you get full throttle. Hard to be smooth. Plus the soft suspensions would dive and squat like crazy, I hated that.
The Tempo, wow. That and the Diamante we mentioned in the other thread have got to be among the quickest depreciating vehicles ever. They made some 400k of those the first year, incredible by today's standards, beats the Camry and Avalon combined.
Lincoln ... let's see, back then it was the Town Car and the Continental, which was basically just a stretch Taurus. Big automatics, no interest to be honest. I do recall driving a rare, oddball MT5 Taurus.
The first Lincoln that I liked (80s and beyond) was the LS manual that my wife's cousin owned.
I parked a Roller once, and yes it was also a pig. Older, beat up, badly.
Jags were OK, back then I thought the J-gate was neat for an automatic. What I remember most is the nice leather aroma, oddly.
M-Bs were Ok but the owners were cheap. Tip was $1, no more. We usually got $2-5.
What cool cars do I recall?
I parked Wilbur Marshall's 911. He was the "6 million dollar man", i.e. a Redskins player who had just signed a $6M contract. He was huge so we were VERY careful with it. I think he would have killed me if I dinged it.
One time a DeTomaso Pantera pulled up ... but he found street parking right in front of the restaurant. I was so heart broken!
Met Larry King (cheap) and Paul Barry (generous) from TV.
Odd ball cars?
One time we got a Chrysler TC by Maserati. Gimme a break. It even looked like a LeBaron. One time I parked an 80s era Quattroporte (did they call them that back then?) and I just remember trim pieces falling off inside. Horrific quality control.
Lots of muscle cars, but those were like the proverbial bull-in-a-china-shop in that area, so I never really liked those. Same for Corvettes, you could barely see out of them.
I used to like the Starion turbos, those were cool. Colt turbos, too. 323GTX. GTI.
See? I tend to remember the small/nimble cars more, since that's what I enjoyed driving.
I have a friend who rebuilt (and modded) the Mitsu twin, a Dodge Conquest. The thing is insanely fast and looks like brand new after some extensive body work to repair the rot and a couple of dents.
:lemon:
Those Mitsu V6s had oil burning issues, IIRC.
Remember when cars would sit really low in the back if people were in the back seat? That Olds would do that.
The Tempo, for as horrible as it looks now, has to be looked at through the eyes of the time. Amazingly, it was pretty modern when new, and it looked modern, so they sold.
Nope, but then again I was always driving (to park 'em).
Remember the 85mph speedos? Even a mediocre car could pin the speedo.
Foreign cars must have been exempt, MB from that era anyway have 120+ units.
Just call him Juice like most everyone else does.
"In a key ruling in the Toyota sudden-acceleration multidistrict litigation, a federal judge on Monday tentatively dismissed foreign consumers' claims against the automaker. The judge also tentatively dismissed racketeering claims against Toyota, as well as products liability and negligence claims."
Judge Tentatively Dismisses Foreign Consumers' Claims Against Toyota in Sudden-Acceleration Case (Inside Line)
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
Kind of like ATX, I like small and nimble. My first new car was in 1985. I looked at small and nimble handlers, and ended up with an '85 Jetta which gave me 143K nearly trouble-free miles. I did look at the Tempo as it was just a bit bigger. HATED the interior - that peach fuzz headliner and the really soft cloth seats with no bolstering. Almost all of the US brands had those types of seats and that alone was pretty much a deal breaker for me.
My girlfriend hat an '84 Toyota Camry LE. Kind of tinny and much smaller than today, but the interior was nice and the seats were firm yet comfortable, like most foreign cars of the day.
85 MPH speedometers were required between 1979 and 1982 (appx) in accordance with NHTSA regulations with an emphasis the 55 mph national speed limit.
But there were ways around it. Here is a period Ferrari speedo:
Call me "juice", or use my initials, AJ. :shades:
Today it's the other way around, the Jetta suffered from cost cutting, while the Golf is still a bit more upscale than mainstream competition.
I did enjoy driving VWs. Audis back then were awful, though.
Yes, the '85 Jetta was German. That was the first year of the "new" style after the original boxy style of the first Jetta incarnation.
The Camry of the day was a much smaller car than today. My girlfriend's car had really nice brownish striped velour seats that were firm, and the interior was pretty nice as well. The car wasn't powerful (102 hp as I recall) but would cruise at 65 mph under 2K rpm, getting great mileage.
The Camry went big/soft starting around '91 or so. Ironically it worked - that generation is when they took over as best selling car.
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/11/22/automakers-suck-at-ui/
Mercedes and Fords, too.
They need for Entune to be well received.
A 1982 S-class:
Here's a 450SL:
Those were dark days. I remember our Ciera actually had "55" in a red outline.
Though, to be fair, I complain even more about the opposite problem, i.e. when the speedo is WAY too optimistic.
Does my Miata really need a 150mph speedo when top speed is 130 or less?
The 85 MPH speedos made driving at 55-60 seem downright wreckless while your 150 mph speedo in the the Miata is to make you feel optomistic.
Another thing with the 85 MPS speedo was that the 55 had to be highlighted.
We have MyTouch in our new Explorer. As I have used it more, I will admit it's a bit frustrating. She likes precision. The voice commands require that you first say the street address with the city last. But if you don't know st. or ave., she isn't happy. I wish it would accept input of the city first then ask for the street name. Even doing it on the screen follows the same schema. One time though, she did say "Let's try this a different way, what city?" and then "what address?" so she is able to do that. I just need to find out how. I'm sure it's somewhere in that 400 page book I have.
I recently had to go to 161 Emerald in Wrentham, MA The nav came back with a few streets names Emerald in other towns. I then tried Sirius Travelink included with MyTouch and it was able to give me directions to the same place without an issue - with voice commands.
BTW - Ford is sending MyTouch owners the 2013 update via USB stick early next year and for those of us with nav, we will get a new SD card with updated Navtech maps. It's all at no charge.
What would you expect from a German software company?? It's complicated for the sake of elegance.
My GPS addresses that.
I love that some of the menus have seemingly 87 options.
What do they say, the human brain can memorize 5-7 options? Keep it simple, guys.
Our SAP programmers are the best paid.
Generally positive. They like the steering, which is a surprise from a Toy/Lex product.
I wonder if a 6 speed auto is behind the times nowadays?
Nice 12.3" LCD screen, matches the XTS' huge screen. I wonder if they used the same supplier?
joint development of lithium-ion batteries. BMW will also supply diesel engines to Toyota in Europe as part of the tie-up.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20111201/COPY01/312019939<meta name=#ixzz1fIN5kVuM
Could actually help BMW meet CAFE and benefit Toyota in Europe.
My favorite line:
but we can’t help think that enthusiasts and tuners around the world will want more power –- and very soon -- leading to bolted-on turbos. Why? Because the chassis can take more power. A lot more power.
You don't need a lot of power to pull just under 2700 lbs. People are used to ton-and-a-half or more cars, this is a light weight.
200hp in the '86 will be equally as fun as my Honda and probably be even better in the corners due to it being a HT and about 250lbs lighter. Heck, the Lotus Elise is 2700lbs and that thing is very highly regarded on the track IIRC.
This looks to be similar specs except it will just have an actual interior to go with it, lol
Top 20 best-selling cars of November 2011 sales charts
Also to note, the Civic is picking up pace and has captured the top spot in its class as well.
Now, where are the naysayers who claimed that nobody was buying Civics and Camrys because they were no longer desirable and had handed over the market to Chevy rental cars (Cruze/Malibu) never to look back?
Oops...
Amazing how the Escape keeps humming along for a 10 year old design. My guess is people are scooping up the last of the truck like ones before it changes over to the new "Kia" inspired theme :P
MR2 lives on with Toyota GRMN Sports Hybrid Concept II
The standard 2ZZ four-cylinder (or lesser 1ZZ in the States) has been swapped out for a 3.5-liter V6 mounted amidships and outputting 247 horsepower. While that's not much juice from a big V6, the addition of an electric motor powering the front wheels brings overall output up to just under 300 hp, allowing the 3,300-pound roadster to run to 60 mph in the mid-five-second range.
It's only a concept but still... :shades: