Rick-Yeah... I dunno where you grew up, but if it was Nebraska, there was NO REASON for a car to NOT run well there... Flat as a tabletop, no "High altitudes", nothin' like that. But, again, seems like I remember reading GM had "Redesigned" the turbohydramatic for its "downsized" cars, saved a lot of weight, & prolly, if I know GM, left half the damn parts out. MY Th200 in that Gawdawful '79 Cutloose, you'd "Shire down" on it to get around someone in town, & you'd find out it had somehow thrown itself out of gear, & you were just revvin' it to the Moon. Or, it would seem like it had a dozen or so intermediate gears in it, whilst in traffic, & never could find the one it REALLY wanted.. GM nearly went under for shenanigans like this in the mid-80s, if they HAD, it would have been largely deserved, I think. They bowed down to the FALSE God of Cost Accounting, & nearly died for it.. At what point does "Cost Accounting" stop, & REAL value starts being stripped from the product you're trying to produce ?!?

I swore off driving American cars based on this. I really do want to like them, and I keep hearing they're getting better - and it is horrible to see what has become of Detroit - but all I know is since I started driving Japanese, I'm spending about 90% less time in line at NAPA auto parts. No more trying to figure out what sensor is bad or changing this gasket or that seal to stop a leak, and no more difficult to diagnose vacuum leak, or difficult to interpret OBD2 code. Now I just buy things like brake pads, or air filters.

I don't even mind working on cars, in fact I like it well enough - but if I want a make work project, I'd rather it be related to vintage electronics.

Around 1973~4 in a suburb of Philadelphia I had a neighbor who had a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 190D. On a business trip in the very early 1960's he bought it in Germany and a few years later, drove it to Stockholm Sweden.

Had it shipped to the USA 1966~7 along with his new wife and infant son.

<both from Sweden>

4 cylinder, 4 speed on the tree. Drove it acouple of times, slow in 1st.

Died of rust 1976.

Replaced with a '76 P-Something diesel station wagon.

Had a friend in the very early 1980's that had the Oldsmobile sedan and he said "it needs alot of oil changes".

Twin brother had a VW Diesel Jetta, 2000. I road in it once.

We have at work a Ford F-550 2 door TurboDiesel that was "hot-rodded" Chipped, twin turbos, straight thru exhaust. No need for DEF.

Quarter of a tank of diesel fuel and no payload, It was FAST...

Maxhifi - I did get 300k out of an '06 Mustang, but I hear the new ones *suck*.

If GM has gotten better, they're gonna have to prove it to me. And the last few I've been in weren't even close...