Buying American Cars What Does It Mean?

7263 messages, Last post on May 27, 2009 at 4:31 AM

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What is this discussion about? Car Buying

With parts coming from everywhere, does "Buying American" have much meaning anymore? Is quality and price the bottom line?

Outline

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#6577 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [alltorque] by andre1969 Nov 24, 2008 (7:36 am)
Replying to: alltorque (Nov 24, 2008 7:14 am) Ah yes.............foot-operated parking brakes. A carry-over from horse-drawn wagon days, so probably quite appropriate for most American cars. (Sorry, couldn't resist). I think the foot brake might be best in a situation where you need to do one panic stop. A situation where the prime goal is to simply bring the car to a complete stop as quickly as possible. But in other situations where you have to regularly apply and release the brake, I think a handbrake would be easier. Easier to pull the brake with your hand and apply just the pressure you need, and then either press the button or twist the handle to release. With a foot brake, once the thing's activated, you have to use your hand to pull the release, a much clunkier operation than using a handbrake. I drove my grandmother's '85 LeSabre about 9 miles with no brakes once, and stopping was a bit of a pain. I tried to use the emergency brake as little as possible, because it was foot operated. Instead I'd just try to time the lights, plan my stops as far ahead as possible, keep plenty of distance from the cars in front of me, downshif frequently, etc. It wasn't too hard to do, but still a bit of a pain with the foot brake. A few years before that, I did the same thing with a '67 Chrysler Newport with no brakes. However, it had a hand brake, which made stopping a lot more convenient...much easier to apply just the pressure I needed, and then just twist to release. Replies to this message: lemko (Nov 24, 2008 7:40 am) andre1969 (Nov 24, 2008 7:45 am) steve_ (Nov 24, 2008 7:54 am)
#6578 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [dieselone] by fezo Nov 24, 2008 (7:38 am)
Replying to: dieselone (Nov 24, 2008 7:24 am) Good plan, diesel! I don't much care where the parking brake is as long as they're not hiding it someplace. The current fleet has three between the seats and one on the floor. once owned a car that had a long pull handle over on the left under the dash.
#6579 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [andre1969] by lemko Nov 24, 2008 (7:40 am)
Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 24, 2008 7:36 am) But wasn't the handbrake on that '67 Newport under the left hand side of the dash instead of a big ugly lever sticking out of the transmission hump? Replies to this message: andre1969 (Nov 24, 2008 7:45 am) steve_ (Nov 24, 2008 7:54 am)
#6580 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [lemko] by andre1969 Nov 24, 2008 (7:45 am)
Replying to: lemko (Nov 24, 2008 7:40 am) But wasn't the handbrake on that '67 Newport under the left hand side of the dash instead of a big ugly lever sticking out of the transmission hump? Yeah, that's where Mopar put their handbrakes. My Darts and the DeSoto were the same way, only the DeSoto's is a big chrome thing just waiting to impale your knee if you slide up into it for any reason...which might just be why they don't put handbrakes under the dash anymore! I don't have a problem with the handbrake being on the transmission hump. After all, chances are the car has a console and floor shifter there, anyway. Now with a bench seat car, I imagine a foot brake would be mandatory, but I don't see a problem with a handbrake on a car with bucket seats and a console. Replies to this message: steve_ (Nov 24, 2008 7:54 am)
#6581 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [andre1969] by steve_ HOST Nov 24, 2008 (7:54 am)
Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 24, 2008 7:45 am) And in the old days, you'd go to hit the floor dimmer switch and land on the e-brake. 4 pedals down there, plus a button. Handbrakes are much easier to use when you are doing a 180 power slide into a snow covered parking space. We had this discussion months ago over in The Future Of The Manual Transmission. Future headline? (Swap "Yugo" for "Chevy", "Ford" or "Dodge") R.I.P. The last Yugo rolls off the assembly line
#6582 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [dieselone] by nwng Nov 24, 2008 (8:10 am)
Replying to: dieselone (Nov 24, 2008 7:24 am) you must not be living in a hilly area. one time I was walking on the sidewalk and have to go and help a guy who just could not get his car going up on a stop and go incline traffic light. Turned out he didn't know how to use the ebrake in conjunction with the gas and clutch pedal on an incline start. feathering the gas and clutch is good fun only for about 5 minutes, plus your clutch doesn't like you doing it. Replies to this message: dieselone (Nov 24, 2008 8:38 am)
#6583 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [nwng] by dieselone Nov 24, 2008 (8:38 am)
Replying to: nwng (Nov 24, 2008 8:10 am) you must not be living in a hilly area. one time I was walking on the sidewalk and have to go and help a guy who just could not get his car going up on a stop and go incline traffic light. Turned out he didn't know how to use the ebrake in conjunction with the gas and clutch pedal on an incline start. I've always been able to move my feet fast enough from the brake to the gas and go. I don't live in a hilly area, but I have used a manual trans to pull boats out of a lake on a ramp with over a 25+ degree slope. If you move your feet fast enough and know what you're doing, the vehicle won't roll back at all. Semi drivers go through the same thing, they don't have a parking brake that can be used to hold a hill, then immediately release. When I had my Jetta TDI, that little diesel had so much torque at idle I could put the front tire against a curb, slowly let the clutch out and it would climb the curb w/o having to touch the gas pedal. In my neighborhood (wouldn't do this in traffic of course), I could start in first and work my way through every gear ending up in 5th w/o ever touching the gas pedal. Between the diesel torque and quick idle speed control it was easy to do.
#6584 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [m1miata] by lemko [imidazol97] by m1miata Nov 24, 2008 (9:21 am)
Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 24, 2008 6:17 am) Really? How do you back off on the brakes, and then re-apply them using a foot brake. No, I can safely say a foot brake is not an emergency brake, and it is always in the way of legs, and may be hazardous to feet in an accident. Foot emergency brakes are totally wrong. Replies to this message: obyone (Nov 24, 2008 10:45 am) gagrice (Nov 24, 2008 12:05 pm) imidazol97 (Nov 24, 2008 1:22 pm) obyone (Nov 25, 2008 6:00 am)
#6585 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [lemko] by m1miata Nov 24, 2008 (9:25 am)
Replying to: lemko (Nov 24, 2008 5:37 am) Does your car also have curb feelers?
#6586 of 7263 Re: Ahhhh, so now [m1miata] by lemko [imidazol97] [m1miata] by obyone Nov 24, 2008 (10:45 am)
Replying to: m1miata (Nov 24, 2008 9:21 am) The parking brake pedal was never designed to be an emergency brake. If you look at the setup those miniture pads were definitely not designed to stop a car in an emergency situation. By the way my parking brake pedal doesn't have a release lever. I have to step on it again to release it. I'd rather have the foot pedal which releases when shifting out of park automatically. And if you need to use the parking brake handle to engage the clutch while on a hill, I'd suggest you practice more as you're not using the parking brake as designed. Replies to this message: gagrice (Nov 24, 2008 12:05 pm) imidazol97 (Nov 24, 2008 1:22 pm) obyone (Nov 25, 2008 6:00 am)