For a while i wanted the most basic, reliable and economical car possible that was still confortable enough for long trips and i've been very well served by my old W202. Probably the most dependable car i ever had. Everything is extremely easy to get to and parts are cheap. During three years and 100k km, all i had to replace was a bad MAF, took me maybe 2 minutes and a water pump which was probably a 20 minutes job. Changing spark plugs and coils takes about 15 min and i don't even have to lift the car to change the oil, filter is right on top of the engine and it's a super clean job. It would be just as simple if i had to replace the starter, alternator, AC compressor, PS pump etc. Mileage is around 6.5L/100km (36 US MPG) on gas on the freeway or 8.5L/100km on E85 (28 MPG).
Recently a friend of mine bought a 99 Accord 3.0 V6 automatic coupe and another friend got a Peugeot 406 3.0 V6 automatic coupe. Drove both and loved them. I always prefered automatics but happen to be too distracted when i drive them. The V6 was the best part, they sound good and the torque is much more pleasant. However, both persons are only short trip, agressive drivers and don't care about their cars and do very little if any maintenance at all, the opposite of me.
After all i am a car enthusiast and to me there's no replacement for displacement. I would really like to drive something that sounds a bit nicer and has more torque but am unsure i can have it both ways and find something good on fuel and more importantly, be as easy to work on and reliable as what i currently have. A nice candidate would probably be another Mercedes with a longitudinal V6 like i had for a short time, they were designed to be easy to work on but 12 spark plugs to replace is stupid. What scares me the most is a transverse V6 with a bank of cylinder impossible to get to and requiring to pull the intake along with a bunch of stuff just to replace sparkplugs, diagnose a misfire or replace a gasket. Are they all that bad?
Waiting for your opinions and real life experience on owning cars with both types of engines and transmissions!
Recently a friend of mine bought a 99 Accord 3.0 V6 automatic coupe and another friend got a Peugeot 406 3.0 V6 automatic coupe. Drove both and loved them. I always prefered automatics but happen to be too distracted when i drive them. The V6 was the best part, they sound good and the torque is much more pleasant. However, both persons are only short trip, agressive drivers and don't care about their cars and do very little if any maintenance at all, the opposite of me.
After all i am a car enthusiast and to me there's no replacement for displacement. I would really like to drive something that sounds a bit nicer and has more torque but am unsure i can have it both ways and find something good on fuel and more importantly, be as easy to work on and reliable as what i currently have. A nice candidate would probably be another Mercedes with a longitudinal V6 like i had for a short time, they were designed to be easy to work on but 12 spark plugs to replace is stupid. What scares me the most is a transverse V6 with a bank of cylinder impossible to get to and requiring to pull the intake along with a bunch of stuff just to replace sparkplugs, diagnose a misfire or replace a gasket. Are they all that bad?
Waiting for your opinions and real life experience on owning cars with both types of engines and transmissions!
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