I share your pain. While I am only 5'8", I have very short legs and a very
tall torso, sitting next to my 6'7" friend on a bench, I am as tall as he
is. Finding a vehicle that fits me is hard. As a general rule, if it has a
sunroof, I cannot fit (except maybe when the sunroof is open if it is wide
enough). Forget wearing a hat. I have my best luck fitting into Scandinavian
cars.
jm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Maas" <[email protected]>
To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: OT: help identifying this car
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:29 AM, Scott Loveless <[email protected]> wrote:
On 6/3/09, Adam Maas <[email protected]> wrote:
Daimler also seriously decontented the Chrysler cars interiors and was
repsonsible for absolutely gutting the smaller FWD platforms. Sit in a
300M and a pre-2008 300C sometime. The interior of the 300M is
significantly better than even the current 300C let alone the
atrocious interiors in the pre-2008 models (the 300M and other 2nd
generation LH cars were the last pre-Daimler Chysler designs). The
real pity of the death of cab forward is that in most regards other
than drivetrain the cab forward designs are flat out better cars than
their successors. Even the LX cars (300, Charger, Magnum and
Challenger), which are very nice cars for the ost part are in most
ways inferior to the LH's which proceeded them. Especially when it
comes to view.
My 2003 Dakota (purchased new) was a complete POS. The engine was
nice, and that was it's only saving grace. The electronic shifter was
slow to respond, the AC failed at 3500 miles, the weather stripping
around the doors had to be replaced several times, the driver's seat
back was loose and wobbly, the parking brake release came off in my
hand one day and the cheap, plastic interior was a worst-in-class
IMHO. I owned that vehicle for 6 months and traded it in for an
American made 2003 Nissan Xterra which has served me relatively
trouble-free (a fuel injector replaced under warranty and the AC
stopped working last fall) for almost 100k miles.
That was right in the middle of the Daimler cuts. The new interior
came in 2001 and is the main reason for at least half the complaints
you list. Sounds like you had a serious lemon encounter as well.
The problem Christie and I encountered with the "cab forward" design
was the wedge shape and the high rear dash. She's 5 feet tall and
once seated so that she could reach the controls, she couldn't see
anything other than a tail-gating Mack truck in the rear view mirror.
Which ruled out Chrysler sedans. GM was worse and she simply refused
to even test drive anything they offered due to low seating and a high
dash. Ford was a little better with their small cars, but we found
that the European and Japanese cars were just about all suitable. The
glaring exception at the time was Mitsubishi, who seemed to be
following American design trends.
Being 6'3" Cab Forward was an absolute godsend to me, my 94 Eagle
Vision is still one of the most comfortable cars I've ever sat in.
The full-size LH's were not small-people cars though, no bones about
it. The Japanese, designing for a fairly small home audience, do the
best small-people cars.
So with an abysmal Chrysler experience and a collection of sedans that
my wife can't (or at least couldn't) drive, it's going to be a very
long time before we even consider anything from the "big three". The
exception being Ford's other brands, specifically Mazda and Volvo,
which we tend to like very much. Now with the bail-out and gov't
involvement, I'm tempted to avoid them on principal even if they do
come out with something that doesn't suck.
Chrysler should have gone to a 3rd generation LH platform as a upper
midsize choice rather than the atrocious clunker that is the current
Sebring/Avenger. And the less that is said about the Caliber the
better.
Agreed. That Caliber thing is horrid. Who ever thought it a good
idea to replace a popular, fuel efficient car with that piece of crap
needs to be made to drive one for the rest of eternity.
--
Scott Loveless
The worst part is they stuck Jeep with the damned thing too.
--
M. Adam Maas
http://www.mawz.ca
Explorations of the City Around Us.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and
follow the directions.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
