The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Ch 1 - My Mopar Upbringing 

My dad was a proud Mopar man so I was too. We knew Chrysler made the coolest, fastest, best cars.  Richard Petty proved it.

But every six weeks something would go wrong on my 6 year-old Duster with with 80,000 miles.  I can’t tell you how many voltage regulators I replaced.  Despite repairs and replacements the power steering unit leaked like a sieve.  Replacing the water pump was an annual event.  The thermostat about every six months.

I figured everybody had to tinker constantly to keep their cars running.  Then my brother got a Toyota.

Ch 3 - My Toyota Years

In 1986 I bought a brand new Toyota pickup.  Buying foreign cars in the 1980s was still kind of a scandalous thing to do.  It was the Reagan years and there was a big propaganda push to “Buy American.”  Only hippies, liberals and immigrants bought foreign cars.  As a matter of fact once I had it, lots of girls wanted to go out with me because they just assumed that if I had a Toyota pickup I must have weed.

Being a 20 something with a pickup, I spent most of my weekends helping my friends move.  

But I drove that truck for 10 years and 180,000 before I sold it.  Other than a front end alignment and a new clutch, it was nothing but gas, tires and oil.  

Very reliable.

Ch 5  - My Ford Stigma

In the 1970s Ford sold Pintos that blew up.  In the 80s it was cars that would stall in traffic or jump out of park.  In the 90s it was Explorers with bad tires that would flip a high speeds.

Seemed to me Ford was doing what the guy on Fight Club talked about.  They were comparing the costs of fixing a problem versus the cost of settling civil suits.

I didn’t want to buy a vehicle made by people who valued the lives of their customers so flippantly.

Ch 7 Coming Round to Ford

In 2008 when the US had to bail out the auto industry, I kind of liked the way Ford refused a handout.

Years later I started watching “Alaska State Troopers” and I was amazed and impressed by the intrepid endurability of their Ford Crown Vics.

Then my oldest son got a job with Direct TV.  They gave him a 10 year old Ford van with 250,000 miles and sent him every day from Leander to places like Bastrop, LaGrange, Columbus and Katy.

The kid drove the van like a mofo.  Down dirt roads to rural homes.  Through the woods to even more rural homes.  Every evening he’d sit and wonder why the OBS Chevys he drove required so much loving maintenance while this damn Ford van just went and went and went.

The final straw was an overheating problem with my last GM vehicle.  I replaced the radiator, hoses, water pump, thermostat, everything- nothing worked.  But there was one wickedly placed bolt on the thermostat housing that could only be unscrewed a mm at a time.  About the 50th I put it back in and it still overheated I said that’s it.  Screw GM.

I bought 3 Fords in the fall of 2016 and haven’t been this happy since I had my Toyota truck.

What’s an OBS GM?  Are you talking about the 90s models that predate OBDII?  

OBS - old body style circa ‘88 - ‘98

Nothin to do with onboard diagnostics

Two different monkeys

Never been to witcita falls. 

I live in Brazoria, Tx, which is a small town on the Brazos river south of Houston that Stephen F Austin himself named. 

In fact, I know the present owners of the Perry Ranch where SFA was originally buried.  The Perry’s are descendants of Emily Perry, who was Stephen Austin’s sister.