My mother had a late 70s 2 door Datsun in the real early 80s. For some odd reason it kept having cam issues and it was a “good f****** luck” trying to find anyone who would even touch it. The few mechs that did didn’t really want to and honestly didn’t have a clue about it and probably why it was constantly breaking down. I remember all of them bitching about it being a pile of cobbled together Jap tin cans. Haha
When was VW ever competitive? Nobody around where I live drives one. With the execption of a few old Beetles and a tiny smattering of New Beetles they basically don’t exist here. One of my daughters made the bad life choice of buying an 06 Pissant against advice. That thing was nothing but a headache from day one.
I just wish GM would bring back a decent, inexpensive, non power frickin’ everything, manual transmission, BOF RWD/4WD compact truck.
Blue Ridge Pkwy or Tail of the Dragon with a manual tansmission… even in a 4 banger S10.
Done both plenty of times in my custom 95 ext. cab and 03 standard cab.
On my 05 Kawasaki EX500R is pretty fun too.
And there it is… was waiting on that one. 😆
Who cares how much it hauls or tows. It’s a hideous looking flaming pile of EV uselessness.
I’ll most likely always own a GM product of some sort. Hell, I’ve got 5 right now. Newest being my 2003 S10 I ordered.
Manual brakes never really bothered me. A LOT of the vehicles I drove early on were no power brakes or steering. 65, 67 Mustangs, 80 LUV, 88 S10…
And for some real fun the square body 3500 Chevrolet roll back I used to drive was no power steering or brakes. 350ci, 4spd manual trans… yeah boy.
My old '87 S10 Blazer had developed a squeak behind the dash… absolutely could NOT locate it. Pulled the dash like 4 different times, installed padding at all contact points… didn’t help. I got so pissed one evening with a this chick on a date because it kept squeaking everytime we tried to talk I managed to crack the dash because I kept smacking it with my palm. 🤦🏼♂️ Never seemed to do it unless there was a passenger in the truck.
I’m sure the 2 Pioneer Free Air 10s in a custom built box and bridged 400 watt amp, plus a pair of Sony X-Plod 6x9s and Infinity 5x7s powered by a 50Wx4 amp with JVC 40Wx4 head unit didn’t really help things either.
Better than mine.
I’m surprised Ozium spray didn’t handle it. I can’t stand the smoke smell either. People who are non-smokers don’t realize. Glad I quit 25 years ago. Have two ex GFs and an exwife who smoked.
Bought an '86 CRX quite a few years ago for $100. The carpet and seats were full of cigarette holes. Only way I was able to get rid of the smell in that car was to yank the carpet out and reupholster the seats. Thankfully I have the skills and tools for that but the smell in that thing wasn’t coming out otherwise.
There’s plenty you can do depending on what you have.
Swapping in new replacement coilovers, changing out the leaf springs for a 3 link… two trailing arms and a panhard bar.
Make it ride and handle a lot better.
Pulling the interior (seats, carpet, door panels) and trunk liner out and installing Dynamat or Boom mat then putting the interior back together. Spraying the bottom with a Line-X type bed liner. That’ll help with noise and helps keep the inside a little cooler.