Originally posted by J_A_B
"Guzzled gas, etc. "
Blame the poor quality of the Japanese-built engine. The 3.4 litre V-8 in the late 90's Taurus SHO was assembled by Yamaha. It was known for reliability issues.
That V6, which was built and designed by Yamaha's Marine division was a rock. Significantly smoother than any V6 of the day, in any other automobile. There were no realibility issues with it at all.
The rest of the driveline sucked. The transmission was notchy and difficult to shift with any authority. The clutch was extremely weak and wore out very quickly if you did anything other than nurse it. Oh, those components were built by Ford.
If the engine guzzled gas, it was due to people not keeping thier foot buried in the accelerator. I had one and it consistently got 28MPG on the highway.
As far as longevity of Japanese engines go, you must have been sleeping under a rock, or still stuck in the 80's yourself. A well maintained Honda engine will typically go 180K miles before needing an overhaul. Come back and talk about your engine when you have that many miles on it.
It's not uncommon for Nissan's V6 to go for over 150K miles without laying a wrench on it.
My Wife's last Infinity I30 had 135K miles on it when we sold it, and the engine ran like new. Her current Volve S60 has 117K mles on it and the engine is still like new. We never even had to replace water pumps on those two cars.
My neighbor's Mitsubishi has over 200K miles on it and has never had any engine work done. It does not burn oil, still sounds solid, and runs very well. Matter of fact, that car has not ever been in the shop. Brake shoes have been replaced, oil changed, coolant changed, and spark plugs have been replaced once.
You really have no idea the level of sophistication Japanese engines have attained.
