The new CHINKMOBILE and the "ALUMINUM" engine

The new 'chinkmobile' has an alum engine, goes for 16k, it's a hybrid meaning
battery powered, some gas, almost a totally electric car. Now maybe it's just ME but I
have super bad bad memories of a Chevvie Vega with Alum engine. My kids made me
buy this lemon, a used one, alum engine, well end of story it overheated,
totally blew. Rebuilt motor twice, hopeless! And those models blew on
everybody who owned one, so there's not one Vega on the road today, well
hell, by 1990 there were none! Isn't this light weight metal penny wise, pound foolish of
China? What do you think? ever pull foil out of the barbecue? It turns to crispy
potato chips!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_F3DM has all the stat data & it
does nothing for me. 16k is prob better than an Amer hybrid,
whatzat gofer? 20k? 25k$ new? Now if it were 6k
we could buy'em throw'em away when the alum went south, buy a new one.
Or am I not considering that elec doesn't heat like engine combustion does
and did? You're the smart one, tell me!

Another pal said: Know what you mean about the vega.  It was my first car, I loved it!
 Blew it up, as it overheated miserably but Loved it!  (they used to street race them,
throw in a bigger motor, ) In '74 or '75 Chevrolet put steel sleeves in the cylinders &
greatly improved the reliability of the engine and I think eventually replaced the block with steel, but by then it died from a bad reputation.  An all aluminum block would be bad, but with steel cylinder sleeves...

A net pal wrote: Cadillac Northstar engine is alum. Has steel sleves in the cylinder walls which is fine until new pink coolent errodes space between wall and sleeve. Then on to a new engine. Do not know if they have corrected that snafu yet or not. Best to use green coolent until sure."

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