On 6/17/19 5:08 PM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Mon, 17 Jun 2019 16:49:24 -0400, Clare Snyder wrote:

On Mon, 17 Jun 2019 14:29:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Jun 2019 23:45:01 -0600, rbowman
wrote:

On 06/16/2019 09:52 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Jun 2019 21:07:17 -0600, rbowman
wrote:

On 06/16/2019 07:38 PM, wrote:
BMW is a whole other thing. It means Bring More Wampum. A ****ing
battery can cost you $500 by the time you get out the door. .

That philosophy has carried over to their bikes.

Pretty soon you figure out why they lost the war. Everything German is
very expensive, over engineered and hard to maintain.
One exception might be the old VW bugs but even they had some strange
stuff, like threaded exhaust fittings. Then of course there was the
gas tank, guaranteed to arrive first at the crash.


I had an Audi back in the day. They must have improved quite a bit since
they're still in business. It took VW a bit to figure out how to put the
engine and drive wheels in front.

In its defense Nixon dreamed up the 55 mph speed limits after I bought
it and it really didn't have a gear to handle that speed.

If you had an old (36 HP) Beetle the 55 MPH speed limit wasn't an
issue. That was about all they would do.
The REALLY old beetle (mine was a 1949) anything over 45 you KNEW you
were going downhill with a tailwind - - - -

I commonly did 70-80 mph in my stock '64. 90 mph downhill. The 36 HP did 65-70 mph.

I had a '66, the first car I ever bought new. My father had an Pan Am
airline pilot buddy with a side-gig buying Beetles on his layovers in
Germany, He imported them back to the US and sold them for a lot less
that the car would cost at a dealer.

I really liked the car and drove it until the early 70's. At that point,
it was burning a quart of oil per tankful of gas so I decided to trade
it on a new car, although it was in pretty decent shape otherwise.

But one of the secretaries in my office said she wanted to buy the car
and wasn't scared off by what I told her about the oil-burning. I told
her emphatically that if she didn't add a quart of oil at each fill up,
the engine would seize... and somewhat reluctantly, sold it to her for a
very low price.

Long story short- she didn't and it did- the first month she owned it.
She came back at me madder than hell- saying I didn't think you really
meant it about the oil. She said she thought my stories and warning
about adding a quart per tankful were just an office joke.

Last time I sold anything to anyone I knew!

--
Ever notice the shortage of "armed law-abiding citizen€� victim tragedy
stories in the news?