This was part of my afternoon. To replace the battery in the Solstice you literally have to take off a quarter panel to get the battery out. It's the craziest design. I had to tape it all up so I didn't scratch the paint.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
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I wonder if the cheap gas prices and free time at home will spur more interest in the classic cars that are easier to work on and our driven for special occasions. Also, want happens to auto driven cars now that your subscriber can make you sick? Do we see everything delayed or will they say f it to the rest and let the computers take over the highways. df
ReplyDeleteThat's diabolical.
ReplyDeleteBut there's worse: there are some Korean vehicles where there's no dipstick to check the transmission fluid. You have to put the vehicle up on jacks or a lift to be able to check the transmission fluid level.
At some point, "low maintenance" intersects with "quasi-disposable part that isn't cheap to replace" with these things.
Why even bother with checking it if you can't refill it and it's a sealed unit? If it burns out, you'll just have to replace it anyway.
DF: Yes, and if I weren't moving out of the country eventually, I'd see if that Grand National that was for sale up in New England is still available.
Instead, I may go for an older model of Range Rover, especially considering I will need a right-side drive vehicle in the future. If I don't have to comply with Euro-Idiot eco-bullshit, that'll make that easier.
When things get more mobile, provided that we're not in a low-scale version of Boogaloo O'Clock, there's another combat driving course that I want to take, this one being in a place where I'll get more right-side drive time.
Oh - you think THAT is diabolical. On Sunday we worked on a heater sensor under the steering wheel. Which can only be gotten to by sitting completely upside down in the drivers seat. My head at the gas pedal and my feet up at the head rest. And I'm just the tiny hands of this operation! I was still struggling. We've done it before, but even so it wiped out a couple of hours. A man over 5 foot 2 could never work on this car.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if I should buy the Caterham anyway, flaws and all, and then hire an engineering team to redesign parts of the chassis so it can be rebuilt as a hard-top vehicle.
ReplyDeleteCaterham itself hasn't done this since they took over from Lotus, but they may just be willing to pay for the design if it works well, especially if the hard-top mods can be applied as a customization during the build.
And at a minimum, I will have a very unique Caterham with a hard top.
Redesign parts of a 65 year old design that's still in production?
It wouldn't still be in production if the core design intent were wrong.