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It's really sad about the reputation of the America

I think the Austin America is one of THE most unversally hated cars in the United States. Combine their well earned reputation for breaking down permanently prior to 30,000mi, with their 1275cc solid wall engine block being highly sought after by the classic Mini community and you have the death of nearly 50,000 cars that were sold between March of '68 and early 1971. There are probably fewer than 100 still running in the US, and that's a stretch.

But regarding their reputation, I have never once heard of anyone who drove them with respect, maintained them correctly, or when they broke down, built them back to original spec. Nope, 100% of the people who bitch about what a POS they were/are, will in the same sentence tell a story like the one above. Usually a combination of, "We bought it new and drove the hell out of it and when it finally broke we junked it 3 years later." Or, "We bought it for $100, got it running by slapping it back together as half-assed as we could (of course they never admit that) and then flogged it for a short time until it broke and then we junked."

Their reputation is kinda sad, because when built correctly, they are as bulletproof and dependable as anything out there, especially in the vintage car world. My longest trip has been 15.5hrs non-stop (other than fuel) from here in southern California all the way to Olympia, Washington, arriving at 3am. Slept in the car until 6:30am, drove to a fellow 1100 owner's home where about 5 other 1100's met up and then we drove back south 100-something miles to Portland, Oregon to the All British Field Meet. Did the show all day the following day, and the next day, I drove home non-stop about 13hrs. Back when I was in college, I'd think nothing of leaving work at 10:30pm and driving 550mi back to my home town in northern California, arriving at about 7am. I'd leave a day later and drive home. When I was doing road rallies a few years ago, I would drive 320mi to get to the rally start point, stay in a hotel overnight, and the next morning start a 2 day rally. After the banquet on day 2, I'd drive the 320mi back home. When we were actively showing the car, starting when my daughter was 1mo old, we'd load the car with 2 dogs, my wife and I, a 10x10 EZ-up, cooler, luggage, infant in baby seat, lawn chairs, and all the display stuff for the show, and drive 200-300mi to each show, show the car and drive home in the same day. Our furthest show was 550mi away in Phoenix, AZ (although we didn't take pets or daughter to that one).

Needless to say, after 26 years of ownership, I've pretty much dispelled the reputation as being owner induced.

Chris, about your final drive......that is a fantastic gear ratio for the automatic!! Let's get your transmission working properly so you can enjoy the car this summer!
 
My daily driver!

Hi

My daily car is a company one , its a 2007 BMW 320d SE

It does 45mpg and goes 20,000 between services and i do about 35,000 miles a year. Its a great car but being rear wheel drive is useless in any snow deeper than 1 inch!

Richard

ricky5050++11-21-2010-04-45-16.jpg
 
but my heart sits with ..

This is my 1973 Wolseley six auto, it does about 22mpg and has power steering and and a 3 speed auto box which has just been rebuilt (ouch!!££) It still needs some tinkering but its a rare car over here now. Its the Wolseley version of the Austin/Morris 1800/2200 which is the bigger brother to the Austin America and Morris 1100 all of which were based on the original Mini.

ricky5050++11-21-2010-04-54-25.jpg
 
1973 Wolseley six auto

Lovely...

So that has the 2200 'E' series 6 cylinder engine that was developed from the 1.5 'E' series 4 cylinder that the Maxi and Australian Morris 1500 had (which was a slightly reworked 1100 and could be had with a 5spd!)....

A small item of trivia for you...the 6cyl engine was used first in the Australian made Austin Kimberly/Tasman in 1970, 2 years before the British could get their hands on one and effectively making an Australian car the first to have a transverse 6 cylinder engine...
 
Todd

I would love to have the reverse gear working fine...but I have to tell you that automatic transmission places (and I am not the least bit mechanically minded) charge about AUD$2-2500 to overhall one of these....

...so whilst it may be a smallish job to do the brake bands, and I am happy to have a quote from someone, hourly rates for mechanics in Oz are over $100....

Now knowing that we are close to parity for the USD, you can see just how expensive it can be here...
 
Chris, a decent shop should only need about 2hrs labor to adjust those bands and if you have a good local shop that works on vintage stuff, you should have no problem talking them through it. It's pretty easy.

Love the Wolseley 6. I've always loved the "Land Crabs" and especially the Ute's that were built in OZ.....those are killer!

For snow driving in that Beemer, you need the latest snow traction technology, the snow socks. Have you seen these yet? Awesome!!! Just a special fabric "bag" that slips over the tire in seconds and off you go. No clearance issues, no messing around with fasteners/tensioners, no rough ride or slow driving. They're about $75 for a pair here in the US through places like Amazon and Tirerack.
 
Um, Austinado . . .

You are reading rather more into my story of Jim's America than I wrote. The car was indeed bought and sold for little money, but at the time a used Austin of any sort (excluding Austin-Healeys) had minimal resale value in Dallas so that was a given. My father and Jim and I did not, however, get it running "by slapping it back together as half-assed as we could". It was put together right, and from what recollection I have the engine never failed again but the car had other issues. Very possibly it had been abused or negelected mechanically by a previous owner even though it was physically quite presentable. Jim spent years with his DS19 as a daily driver, and also had a good luck with the 2CV and a Renault R10, so he wasn't mechanically insensitive. I always remember that story with a chuckle as I was an auto-obsessed teen who didn't appreciate the fact that other people didn't know or care much about cars, and was totally surprised when Karen said "Is that a problem?" to my sad news that the America was only running on three cylinders! I now know that was a typical reaction for a 16 year old girl, even a smart one like Karen, but at the time I was left at a loss for words.

I do not recall any hatred for the America at all - it was so rare even when new that most people here in the US didn't have a clue that it existed. Back then this perplexed me as from an engineering design and conception standpoint it was so superior to anything from VW, Toyota, or Nissan, and yet people snapped up Beetles, Coronas, and Datsuns as fast as they could be shipped over.
 
Austin America

I remember here in the SF Bay Area, at least one AM radio top 40 station ran ads for the Austin America in the late 60's and they were very common on area roads. But now that you mention it, not for very long.
 
A lot of imports never made it to the middle of the US, as importers and dealers tended to cluster along the east and west coasts. The few that did make it this way (other than VW of course) had to deal with little or no dealer support, hard-to-get parts, and few or no trained repair technicians.

Thus, something like an Austin would have been every bit as exotic here as a Maserati.
 
Chris, I emailed my buddy Kevin to ask if he or one of his Mini bretheran are anywhere near Canberra. Trying to get you hooked up with someone who can do your brake bands.

Hydralique, it's been my experience tht the Americas sold well initially, and their sales numbers each year prove that. They were very popular at the time because they were cheaper than a Beetle and much nicer to drive. They're the car that's like "3 degrees of seperation." in that if asked about, generally someone with "your circle" will have either owned one, or had parents or a neighbor who owned one.

My comment on the repair of the one you know about wasn't a put down of you or the other people involved in it's repair. Automotive repair requires a lot of skill. Anybody can lift the hood and spin a wrench, but less than 1% of those folks are able to do real, solid, repair work. I see this evidenced over and over again in the automotive field.
 
Austinado . . .

I have confronted this problem myself. When I bought my VW TDI I made a point to buy a new car as I didn't want someone else's problems and I also figured it might be nice to have someone else maintain it. I took it to the dealership during most of the waranty period, which was handy as when the turbo blew up and destroyed the engine VW warrantied it. I had done a few oil changes, but had my receipts for factory filters and Mobil I Delvac so no issues there. After 7 weeks I got my car back - it ran but had the following problems: loose left halfshaft, noticed after a trip to Monterey when it left a grease trail up the firewall, turbo oil pressure line clamps not correctly attached to engine, and the turbo itself was defective. At that point I gave up on the dealer and since then have maintained it myself as with all the other cars I've owned.

Part of the problem is with the factory manual: there is almost no theory in the manual, just a list of items to be replaced if something malfunctions. This means the mechanic has to either just replace parts until the car works or suss out the way systems work by himself. Shortly after the engine replacement I got a check engine light. I hooked up my laptop wtih Ross-Tech's Vag-com and found a code for "excessive EGR". The factory recommendation was to start replacing parts of the EGR system and various sensors. It didn't make sense to me as the car ran fine, not something that will normally happen with excessvie EGR. After some experimentation with my Mighty-Vac and vacuum gauges I figured out the proper opening vacuum required for the EGR valve, and found insufficient vacuum coming from the electrovalve that opens it. Turns out a small piece of smutz had partially clogged it so the EGR wasn't able to open at all. The car's computer wasn't seeing any EGR, so kept calling for more EGR until it maxed out the duty cycle and then gave the error code for excessive EGR even though there was actually none at all. Duh . . . all it took was a little spritz of computer dust off through the electrovalve and it was fixed, but the warning code was totally counter-intuitive. Same when the airbag computer failed, it gave codes for failed airbags and not itself but it didn't make sense to me that there was a repeatable (albeit very hard to document) sequence to the error codes. Replacing the airbag computer solved it, but according to the manual I would have first replaced four of the six airbags at great expense. I also saved a friend a lot of money when his ABS failed in a New Beetle: 25,000 one-owner miles on the car, but the warranty had timed out. According to the dealer their computer diagnosed a failed ABS unit, and what with labor and all they wanted nearly $3000. I normally don't ever work on anybody else's cars, but since it was a VW and I have Vag-com I checked it out. Sure enough, the computer said a failed ABS system. There were no blown fuses, but the owner had replaced the battery and there are several connectors that must be pushed out of the way to do this. I checked the wiring diagram and found that one took power to the ABS. He had managed to just barely loosen the connector so it didn't fall off but also didn't conduct power. We seated it properly, I cleared the code with Vag-com and that fixed it. The dealership guys should know this, and it should be noted in the manual!

I'd like to think these problems are unique to VW but have browsed through a few other repair manuals and I'm sure they're not; this kind of crap is why all the really good mechanics I've known have opened up their own shops and try to do high-end collector car work.[this post was last edited: 11/22/2010-15:36]
 
My half brother, Robert, just bought his baby!

2011 Dodge Challenger RT!!!!! WOW! It sure looks beautiful!

Apparently this is a special color than only a few exist in the US. Its some metallic grey.

This pic was sent by my other half brother, Mike from his phone so the pic is bad. Its brand spankin new. He says its the most comfortable car hes ever been in. Far more comfortable than the mustang and Camaro.

Ill have more pics when I go out and see it. He wont drive it this winter. He has custom ordered blacked out 5 spoke rims on order for it. And in about 6 months he is putting a fully functional shaker hood onto it, and tinting the windows a bit.

Ps thats Rob sitting in it. :) He is 19, and works a full time security Job. this has been his dream car for several months. Hes "crunched his numbers" so to say, and has managed out his payments on everything, so hes good to go. Its all him paying for it.

washernoob++11-22-2010-17-22-57.jpg
 
I got to see my brothers challenger today. Wow! What a gorgeous car!

ITS HUGE! Holy moly. Much more room inside than my dads mustang. And talk about trunk space! Impressive.
The color is gorgeous too. Almost looks purplish blue on the light. Hard to tell in the pics.

washernoob++11-25-2010-23-23-26.jpg
 
Awesome pics of the lights.

The inner lights are tinted yellow. Reminds me of foreign BMWs. I guess they are used for fog? Someone fill me in on their purpose please. :)

You get a little better idea of what the color looks like.

washernoob++11-25-2010-23-25-0.jpg
 
You know I am actually not sure. I only have seen 3-4 challengers driving around, and never at night. I dont know if they are Xenon. Ill ask my brother tomorrow. The yellow tint lights are really cool if you ask me. :)

When I was in germany 2 years ago, I recall seeing many older BMWs with the yellow tint. Since germany is often quite foggy in the morning, I have a hunch thats why they used the yellow lights.
 
Lord Kenmore's Link . . .

Has a neat photo of a Bizzarrini with traditional French yellow headlamps, although the front license plate frame looks like an Italian one as Italian front plates are much smaller than the rear plates. The Bizzarrini was made in Italy and closely related to Iso cars, but under that shapely hood is a very highly tuned 327 Chevy with four sidedraft Weber carburettors on wild cross-ram manifolds. Needless to say, Bizzarrinis were seriously rapid machines and are now worth a great deal of money.

I really think the small Italian front license plates are great, as large front plates just look ugly. I have a client who lives in the best part of Beverly Hills and drives a spotless black Hemi Challenger. I mentioned one day that her car had no front plate, which is required here in California, and she said "So what, if they give me a ticket I'll just pay it because I'm not putting a front plate on my Challenger!"
 
Front plates

My grandpa is like that with front plates. He has gotten a ticket because he doesnt have one on his 2010 corvette, nor any of his previous corvettes.

He always said it ruined the appearance, and his new corvette doesn't have a mounting spot for one.

My dad also refuses to put one on his mustang front.
 
The front number plate issue reminds me of one huge headache for many people in Washington a few years ago. They started "Good To Go", a transponder for paying tolls. The standard transponder is a green sticker that goes on the windshield behind the mirror. Many people--like those with daily driver collector cars--absolutely HATE those transponders. I know one woman with an old Mustang who spent HOURS rigging up a system so she could have a transponder in place that could be easily removed without harming the windshield, or leaving a huge mess, and yet still work with the system. I don't remember for sure, but I think she did get it working OK.

I think they also now have license plate mounted transponders. The original Good To Go project affects an area near Tacoma where there is money, and people who hate to have their top of the line Mercedes marred. Although, I'm not sure why the state would have even cared--the project in question (a new bridge) was horribly unpopular (putting it mildly) as proposed, and was--from what I heard--basically shoved down the throats of the people affected.
 
If I had a classic car, or a nice sports car, I would never put stuff on it that just looks gaudy in place. If I have a Ferrari and there is no front license plate mount, I aint putting no front license plate on! Id rather stick it in the window than that.

Its pretty common to hear stories like that around here. Omaha and surrounding cities, are quite largely known for having exotic vintage cars.

Just a short walk down the street from me resides a couple with an original model corvette in mint green, convertible of course. Across from them is a guy with a 1970 Chevelle, and next to him a couple with a 1929 ford model A. On the other side of the street, there is an olds 4-4-2 for sale in original condition.

Each week during the summer a local shopping plaza has a car show and you see lots of old beautiful restored cars. Ive seen this 1959 Cadillac there twice now. HUGE white beautiful car. Talk about fins!
 
Depends

Here in Munich, I don't have to keep a car - our public transportation is safe, clean, cheap, fast, reliable, gets you from anywhere to anywhere faster than a car can.
Americans haven't a clue what they're missing.

I tried a bus for exactly one round-trip between Fort Collins and Cheyenne four years ago. Never again. Ever again.

Absolute losers, criminals, the dredges of filth. No, I'm not talking about poor people, I'm talking about the folks your parents used to have nightmares about picking you up on the way home from school.

So lets see. My daily driver is a '98 Malibu with all the options except sunroof. Sandy is reliable, cheap, paid for, never breaks, when she does she is easy to get parts for and everybody can fix her, never gets less than 22 miles to the gallon under the worst conditions, cools great in summer, heats great in winter, handles very well on ice and snow...good crash test ratings, she's exactly what GM should have been building across the line.

My Chevy S10 hauls 99.99999% of the stuff one of those pregnant hippos which symbolize American decadence haul...but gets 28mpg on the highway.

Upchuck, unfortunately, has never yet made it through one summer without a major breakdown. His computers, hood lock, airconditioning, transmission, clutch, brakes, motor, did I mention the computers?, windshield wipers, lights, axles, did I mention the computers?, CD player....

This is precisely the reason GM got into the trouble they did.

I think we have everything fixed except the airconditioning which has two temperatures - 10°C and 50°C. You never know which you're going to get.

And did I mention the computers?

We finally sold the Cadillac. I understand Cadillac is still underperforming on quality. Give me a few hundred pages and I could explain why. AND I LOVE CADILLACS.

In fact, the two cars I chose to drive when I'm buying are Chevys and Cadillacs.

My darlin' drives a Bonneville and an '89 TransAm GTA with the corvette engine. She has a drinking problem but is one of the most reliable cars he's ever had.

I refuse to buy a Ford product until they change their politics on gay rights. Cadillac pushed our rights when the christians were on the rise, I support GM 100%.

As for the German quality - hmm. I've had two German cars since living here (wasn't always in the city and here in Germany, country living is as isolated as it is in Montana). An Audi which was reliable and never broke, ever and an '83TurboDieselGolf. Biggest pile of stinking you-know-what I have ever had in my life and the last VW anything I will every buy. Period.

The German and Italian car industry have made enormous progress these last few years but the Japanese are still way out in front on the niggling little things which drive peoople crazy. Today, if I had to buy a new German car, it would be a Skoda.
(If you don't get the joke, don't bother telling me who builds Skodas and where).
 

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