Pros & Cons of Euro Cars

[nickb4]

Pros:
Oil reads in Druck
Cool turnsignal lenses (Italy)
Hella 118s

[jesseandersson]

Europe consists of countries with very different climates, from dry and warm regions in Italy, Spain and France to cold, wet and humid regions up north, Sweden, Finland, most of Germany and UK etc.

Many of the cars up here in northern Europe suffered from severe rust issues already after 5 years, the first owner of one of my 912´s told me stories of how her left foot almost slipped through a hole in the floor by the pedal area in 1971 when the car was just 5 years old.. Back then, many of the cars were driven all year around hence suffered from the cold and wet climate.

BUT there are examples of very nice, unrestored rust free cars up here aswell, not too many though

[POS]

I chased a lot of old Mercedes before buying this Porsche, and I particularly loved the Mercedes euro versions. Oddly, they seemed to rust faster than the US versions as well.

[Bob Schaefer]

I guess you have never seen cars from the Minnesota area or Northern New England. The salt they use is full strength premium. I have had three rust free S cars from Europe that were pretty dry including the one I have now from northern Italy. Maybe they were selectively driven. But Europe does not beat the northern tier US states IMHO. It is a dead on tie. Cars from south Italy, France and Spain should be like western US. The worst Porsche I have ever seen was from the Twin Cities, MN. Man they like their salt. And in parts of NE all the trees next to the roads are dead or on the way due to road salt. I grew up in Franconia, NH.

Here's an interesting fact.......when a US carmaker wants to investigate rust on cars, they go to.........the coast of Florida!

The higher year round temperatures combined with the salt air accelerates corrosion much more than in colder climes....like Minnesota or northern New England. Ask a chemist. As an automotive engineer, I've been on such fact finding 'field trips' researching the corrosion resistance of critical fuel system components.

[Michael Meldrum]

My word, lots and lots of great information!

I'm looking at a European 911 purchase so I will be even more vigilant of any rust issues.

Once again the Early 911S Registry proves itself to be a best online source of expertise for Early 911 Cars.

Thanks

[767driver]

One of the things to be aware of is that the Euro car being sold here will almost always have a US speedo in MPH. Every seller always quotes the car's mileage as whatever shows on that US speedo/odo...never mind the fact the car had God knows how many kilometers on it before the original speedo was swapped. Without a comprehensive history on the car you really have no choice to treat it as "true mileage unknown".

[Michael Meldrum]

Good shout 767Driver!

Fortyantly, The car I'm looking at has not been converted from KPH to MPH.

[csbush]

A good point about the milage though. It had to be converted to be imported- easy thing to do was to buy a new MPH speedometer. You never know at what point the original KPH speedometer was put back in the car. I had my KPH converted to MPH because the new MPH speedometer was not an exact match. When I had it converted, the milage was reset to zero.

You just can't ever tell...

[steve shea]

The euro gauges remained in my car. Brought in mid eighties. They are one of things I like about ROW plus the less fussy dash with simple knobs and no cartoons for washer and light etc. One the most fun things is the look on passenger's faces as they soil their knickers when they see the speedo well over 100 most of the time! KMH is good entertainment plus it keeps your math skills sharp!

[LongRanger]

Jeez . . . a lotta talk about the cons


How 'bout some pros?

Like their headlights --- H1s . . . much-more-attractive (IMO). Lotta US-cars --- that originally came w/ 'sugar-scoops' . . . 've been switched-over to a natty set 'o 'flies.' Anybody price-compared the two types of lighting, lately? (That tells me something)

And then there's the Euro-style amber + red tail lights w/ more-interesting-looking/two-tone front turn signals? (Ditto)

And I like the metric instrumentation --- totally flummoxes the passengers. '(Drück? Wuzzat?')

But the biggest pro? . . .


. . . genuine Euro cars are rare --- prolly because of their cons