I've recently noticed some on the list remarking about the increasing cost of
synthetic oils (e.g., M1). I've been using Delvac 1300S in both my '76 450SL &
'84 300D at the suggestion of a fellow who used to be on the original MBCA
E-list who had retired from one of the major oil companies. I tend to change
the oil & filter in my diesel at 3K-5K mi. intervals but, since I tend to put
<1K mi./Y on the SL, I only change this one once/Y. Note: Neither car is in
need of oil between oil changes.
G. M. Brown
Rochester, NY
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Thread-Topic: Re: [MBZ] Golden Age? Finding 80s Autos
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Curt wrote:
"I disagree somewhat. American made CARS are crap. Trucks are a
different story."
What are you basing this statement on? I agree that American cars
needed to improve and they did - dramatically. Maintenance costs have
dropped dramatically, fuel mileage has increased, reliability has
improved and resale is higher. Beginning in the mid 80's ALL American
cars improved. I agree with you that they are still behind the Japanese
and the Germans. But you must not have much REAL experience with
American cars if you believe they are crap.
I was a service manager at an Oldsmobile and Honda dealership. The
thing I noticed is that the GM Cars and Hondas that were maintained
would last 200,000 miles without any problems. I did notice, though
that the Hondas just seemed to die after that, but the GM cars would
just keep on running.
I have had three Oldsmobile 98's or 88. Each of them had over 300,000
on them when I got rid of them. Other than my diesel Mercedes, the best
car I ever owned was my big ole American Oldsmobile. Seeing hundreds of
these cars come in every week at the dealership with 150,000-200,000
miles, I can promise you that they are not crap.
My wife used to work at a Wholesale Pharmacy and they decided to
purchase some Oldsmobile Achievas for their fleet vehicles. They
maintained them at my dealership. They put thousands of miles on a week
because the cars were running deliveries nearly 24 hours a day. They
had six of these achievas. 3 had the Quad 4 engine and the other 3 had
the venerable (if underpowered) 3.1 "m" motor. 5 of these cars crossed
500,000 miles (and one went over 600,000). The sixth car hit two deer
in a 6 month period of time and was retired to the junk heap with
470,XXX miles. They replaced these cars when they got over 500,000
miles. They bought 5 1999-2000 Oldsmobile Intrigues. They put
200-300,000 miles on these cars (I left the dealership to go to law
school, so I don't know if all of these cars made it to 500,000 miles.)
In terms of maintenance, they changed the oil on the Achieva's every
10,000 miles (using plain old 5-30 Pennzoil0. They changed the
Intrigues every 7,500 miles (if you waited until 10,000 they would use 2
qts of oil - the 3.5 intrigue "Short Star" held over 6.5 qts).
The other repairs they made were replacing the alternators about every
75,000-100,000 miles and a water pump about the same intervals. One of
them needed a transmission rebuild after 300,000 miles. One needed a
steering rack after 300,000 miles. That was really about it. We also
changed the transmission fluid every 100,000 miles and flushed the
coolant at the same time.
I didn't really like the achievas - they are too small. But, when I saw
how well the intrigues were doing, I bought one a 2000 model also. I
drove mine for 3 years and 60,000 miles. I did not do ANYTHING other
than change the oil and replace the tires. My in-law's bought it. They
have over 120,000 miles and all they had to do was replace the
alternator (covered under extended warranty from GM). They didn't even
have to replace the front brakes until the car had 100,000 miles.
Donald H. Snook
1990 300SEL 133K
