SentraSE-R -
Quote:
Originally Posted by SentraSE-R
...
When you ignore what the rest of the world drives. Your metropolitan driving conditions occur world-wide. You've chosen to deny that other posters in Seattle, San Francisco, and LA can get >30k miles out of their clutches. You've made claims about the advantages of automatics and the inferiority of clutches that are not supported by real-world usage patterns.
|
I got my 1999 SW2 used at 36K miles. At 115K miles I needed a new quill bearing (throwout bearing?!?!), so I replaced the clutch at the same time. Dealer quoted $1800, but I got it done by my previous mechanic for $1100. I am now at 205K miles. If the same thing happens as in the past, I *should* need a new clutch at 230K miles.
Here's an expansion on my previous theory :
In all countries it's cheaper to run a taxi cab fleet where all the transmissions are the same.
In first-world country "X" (USA) :
- The majority of the population drive automatics
(which leads to ...)
- If you have a fleet of auto-tranny taxi cabs, then you have a larger pool of drivers that you can hire.
- Labor costs more, so you want a large labor pool to drive down the wages.
In first-world country "Y" a majority-stickshift driving population will lead to manual tranny taxi cabs.
In third-world country "Z" :
- The majority of drivers drive manual
(which leads to ...)
- If you have a fleet of manual-tranny taxi cabs, then you have a larger pool of drivers that you can hire.
- Also, in third-world countries the cost of labor is low, but the MPG benefits of the manual increase the likelihood that they will be used by a taxi cab fleet.
CarloSW2