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'73 Chevy Vega -- similar platform to the Monza that rabelais complained about before. Handled well enough, drove well enough, but the main problem was the crappy aluminum-block engine. When it overheated, the block would soften just enough for the weight of the head to deform it microscopically. By the time I had 40,000 miles on the thing, it was burning a quart of oil every 200 miles, and got worse from there. Had the engine replaced at 50,000 with a rebuilt job with steel sleeves. One of the sleeves let go at 95,000 on the freeway and the resulting plume of cloud and smoke was spectacular. And most Vegas didn't even make it that far. I left it at the gas station, sold to a kid for the price of declaring it dead.
Oh yeah, and it was practically impossible to change the oil filter. You couldn't get the damned thing out from above, and if you unscrewed it from below, it would drop out and get hung up on the steering struts or whatever they were. You had to go back into the cab and turn the wheels back and forth until you heard the filter drop out with a clunk onto the ground.
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