I had to replace the headliner, a plastic bit for the driver’s side power window, one battery, four tires, and a few light bulbs. It never left her stranded. She wanted a new one when she decided on the Honda. The problem was that the nearest dealer was 50 miles away, and GM was talking about shutting down the factory. It was a good car with amazing owner loyalty, but the management blew it. They just couldn’t accept solid, consistent income, everything had to have unrealistic profits.
]]>Working on Compaqs put Torx in my tool box, and the Saturn used some, but they are better that Phillips-head, as you note. Electrical equipment is changing to square drive for a lot of things now.
Getting to the battery in a VW Bug was a PITA, but after you got the rear seat up, replacing the battery was easy.
I found the wipers – $50 for the set because that’s cheaper than Honda, and Bosche was the only set that didn’t Mickey Mouse the connection with assorted plastic filler pieces. Honda screws you on the filler strips, expecting you to reuse the metal strips and only supplying the rubber for an outrageous amount of money.
After 5 years you have to expect problems.
]]>At least my Wranglers have been stone axe simple to work on. Last time I had to change the headlight bulb it was literally five minutes including finding the bulb in my electricals box, a Torx screwdriver to unscrew/rescrew the housing then returning the Torx screwdriver to the toolbox. (Chiseler does like their Torx-head screws, sigh… at least they don’t strip out as easy as Phillips-head screws tho). When I changed the battery in my old Jeep I removed the two cables and set them aside, unscrewed the retainer clip (that hugs the bottom of the battery via the groove there) with a long-handled screwdriver then used the same screwdriver to push the clip backward, grabbed the handle on top of the battery, and heaved up and towards the pushed-backward clip to get it out of the (fixed) rear retainer clip. It popped right out. Something to be said for old school, though I must admit that the cost of gas makes me look lustfully at something like a Prius…
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