Originally posted by neelnug:
I like that 6000. It was ahead of its time. Now most manufacturers are attempting to create a 4wd sedan now. Air suspension, steering wheel controls etc. and other technology are just now becoming widespread. So its not pretty... not many cars in the mid 80's to early 90's were. Look at a 1985-90 bmw, audi, merc, acura. At least its not rice!
Ever see an Edsel...Steering wheel controls. 4wd and fwd go back to the beginning of the auto age. Air suspension: Caddies had it in the 50's Eldorado. My cousins '64 Chevy Impala had fuel injection. Except for the electronics, it's all been done before.
Not knocking CBM's 6000 in particular, but the 6000 was a kludge job for the most part. The Chevy Celebrity/Olds Ciera/Buick Century/Pontiac 6000 were not state of the art cars even for their times. The engines were pretty coarse (no real technology in them, but that isn't necessarily bad), suspensions barely adequate, aerodynamics nil. I had an 86 6000. My brother-in-law had an 86 Celebrity Euro-Sport (meant blackout trim and red lettering) The recalls were numerous. Suspensions broke. The chassis was supposed to be a replacement for the Impala/Caprice (And the other GM variants). Put the target market liked the old body on frame Impala that it never took off with that market. Solid rear axle. Not bad cars. Just not state of the art. The Pontiacs and Celebrities (both 4 cyl and V6) were fleet cars in my company for 3 years. The fleet manager realized his error as the car's maintenance record was lousy. Brakes, struts, exhaust, wheel bearings, transmissions and a few engines...on cars that are much better treated than a rental. My company expected 60,000 miles from them with good, routine maintenance. They didn't meet these expectations.
The 6000 was an o.k. car for it's time, but state of the art, hardly. And to be fair, this was the age of the K-Car and the Tempo. As someone mentioned earlier, Ford had a 4WD Tempo Variant, while interesting, not too state of the art either.
