I got the bug!

[PK]

OK first it was PK in my head, now it must be Dub, OMG somebody save me!!!!

Hey - let me outta here!!!!

I feel like I am in a big empty box looking down on this wonderful rack.

Oh wow - I am in VX Kat's head.
You beauty, now what can I get up to???

And so as not to thread jack -

89Vette - so you have owned Jeeps and a Vette -
Double the off-road-ability of a standard jeep, and you have a VX.
On-road-ability of the VX would sit nicely halfway between your Vette and the Jeep.
Coolness is about with the Vette. (Gotta remember, I am an Aussie, so Vettes are pretty scarce out here, and well sort after.)

Decision easy.

Good luck and welcome.

PK

[89Vette]

On-road-ability of the VX would sit nicely halfway between your Vette and the Jeep.

Not necessarily IMO. With some minor suspension mods and offset 60 Series tires/wheels, my Jeep had a very wide stance. Cornering went up by leaps and bounds. Plus Cherokees only weight about 3000lbs. Considering my vette weighs 3400, this always bothered me! LOL My Grand Cherokees weighed about 3750. Last night, I just found where VX's top the scales around 3900lbs! WTF! How is it that heavy? Isn't is smaller than a Grand Cherokee?

Consider power-to-weight ratio (since the 4.0L is similar to the 3.5L in power) by looking at a weight difference of almost 1000lbs, it doesn't sound like a VX could "keep up". IOW, I bet a Jeep would run circles aroung a VX on the street. (Make sure you understand I'm not criticizing the VX here, just pointing out the obvious difference -- on paper).

[89Vette]

Not necessarily IMO. Cherokees only weigh about 3000lbs. I found where VX's top the scales around 3900lbs! WTF! Geez, how are they that heavy? Consider power-to-weight ratio (since the 4.0L is similar to the 3.5L in power) by looking at a weight difference of almost 1000lbs, it doesn't sound like a VX could "keep up". IOW, I bet a Jeep would run circles aroung a VX on the street. (Make sure you understand I'm not criticizing the VX here, just pointing out the obvious difference -- on paper).

More digging...I found a site that provided 0-60mph times. For whatever reason, the VX's are 1-2 seconds faster than Cherokees. Hmmmmm.....

I guess body shape (drag), and gearing might be better on the VX. Still doesn't seem right!

[SlowPro48]

Strange how 75% of the threads where VX KAT is involved we end up talking about racks. What up with that?

OK to get this train back on the tracks...

Last night, I just found where VX's top the scales around 3900lbs! WTF! How is it that heavy?

Because it's built like a brick sh*thouse, that's how.

Isn't is smaller than a Grand Cherokee?

Yup - and that's a major drawback if you have a lot of stuff or people to haul.

Consider power-to-weight ratio .... a Jeep would run circles around a VX on the street.

If you just consider the power to weight ratio it might look that way but the VX is geared low and the transmission shift points are matched well with the engine's power characteristics so it actually has a fairly "zippy" feel to it. The VX is not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but it's quick enough that it's fun to drive. And for a 2 ton vehicle with high ground clearance, it's surprisingly nimble. Once you get comfortable with the lack of visibility, you can slice through traffic like a border collie through a herd of sheep.

Shocks were "one" of the parts I was concerned about them becoming obsolete.

No worries there - those Kayabas are completely rebuildable and if you don't like how stiff they are, the compression damping can be altered via the shim stack. I wouldn't touch the rebound stack though - unless you're going the aftermarket springs/big tires route. Rebound damping is spot on for OEM springs and wheels/tires.

If you decide to go for it and start looking at VXs, make sure to check the shocks for leakage. Dragging windows can be fixed with 50 cents worth of bungee cord and 30 minutes of your time but leaking shocks means serious ka-ching to rebuild if you want to stay with OEM. I don't know exactly how much - probably in the neighborhood of $600-$800 which believe it or not is half the price of new OEM. But even if you do it yourself (not advised if you haven't worked on shocks before) the parts are pretty expensive. If they're soft but you see no evidence of leaking fluid then you can probably get by with a nitrogen charge. (OR maybe no fluid visible means all the fluid leaked out and washed away years ago )

They're the floating piston style so naturally the N2 leaks out over time. You will not be able to tell if they need nitrogen just by pushing down on a corner of the car - you can't push hard enough to cause cavitation - they will damp well and appear to be OK at slow shaft speed even if they have almost no nitrogen. Take it for a drive - if they need N2, whacking a few bumps will introduce air bubbles into the shock fluid and then you'll be swaying and diving and boinging down the road. Nitrogen is cheap though. If the VX of your desire has 100K+ miles on it you might want to figure the cost of shock rebuild into your negotiating even if they aren't leaking because like most all things the internals wear and the fluid gets thinner with use.

[tom4bren]

"Tom do you need a pic to verify how aerodynamic...?"

I wish to respectfully decline your invitation as any response on my part would certainly result in cataclysmic results from one source or another.

[89Vette]

Well,,,I did find (on this site) the gear ratios. I was surprised to see the diffs are 4.30's! Now I know how they get this thing to scoot!

MPG isn't the biggest consideration. However, when I finally broke down and bought a V8 (Jeep) last fall, I started to get annoyed by how often the darn thing needed gas. According to the display, I was getting about 12.5 mpg in moderate temps. Dead winter might have shoved it down near 10 mph. That's a little rich for me.

All the past units with 6-bangers never bothered me in that regard. But they couldn't have been much better in reality. EPA says they're only 1mpg different. If I got 14mpg or better in the city, I'd probably be "happy".

I guess my personal guage is whether my Corvette can get better mileage. With the stock motor, it could beat 15mpg around town. And, 30mpg on the hwy! Not sure what the new 383 will get though.

If I bought one and felt it didn't perform any better than my short-timer V8 Jeep performed, I might (secretly) feel I'd made a poor choice. Because a bigger, more versatile car is always better -- if MPG is the same.

I think my biggest concern is the parts situation. Somewhere (maybe this thread), I read that Isuzu stopped selling/importing cars to the U.S. last year. Is that correct? If so, I gotta wonder where you'd go to order a part. Do you have to call overseas? Is everything salvage at this point?

For a backup "go-to" vehicle to my good-weather-only Corvette, it would need to be something that could/would be fairly reliable. And, in the case(s) where repairs were needed, having to wait for weeks/months to find a part would get OLD fast!

Paying more for a respective part -- than for my vette would get annoying too. (I already consider some parts too expensive with a "Corvette tax" built-in. I'm probably not "rich" enough to own multiple money-traps.)

On the other hand, now that I've got the bug, every other SUV looks BORING. I can hardly look at a Jeep anymore. I'm definitely hooked.

[VX KAT]

I think my biggest concern is the parts situation. Somewhere (maybe this thread), I read that Isuzu stopped selling/importing cars to the U.S. last year. Is that correct? If so, I gotta wonder where you'd go to order a part. Do you have to call overseas? Is everything salvage at this point?

For a backup "go-to" vehicle to my good-weather-only Corvette, it would need to be something that could/would be fairly reliable. And, in the case(s) where repairs were needed, having to wait for weeks/months to find a part would get OLD fast!

I actually can't recall reading or hearing that anybody had to get any parts directly from Japan, at least not so far.....chime in here anybody if I'm off.....

vt_maverick summarized the parts availability issue very well here:
http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...94&postcount=2

[Ldub]

Well,,,I did find (on this site) the gear ratios. I was surprised to see the diffs are 4.30's! Now I know how they get this thing to scoot!

MPG isn't the biggest consideration. However, when I finally broke down and bought a V8 (Jeep) last fall, I started to get annoyed by how often the darn thing needed gas. According to the display, I was getting about 12.5 mpg in moderate temps. Dead winter might have shoved it down near 10 mph. That's a little rich for me.

All the past units with 6-bangers never bothered me in that regard. But they couldn't have been much better in reality. EPA says they're only 1mpg different. If I got 14mpg or better in the city, I'd probably be "happy".

I guess my personal guage is whether my Corvette can get better mileage. With the stock motor, it could beat 15mpg around town. And, 30mpg on the hwy! Not sure what the new 383 will get though.

If I bought one and felt it didn't perform any better than my short-timer V8 Jeep performed, I might (secretly) feel I'd made a poor choice. Because a bigger, more versatile car is always better -- if MPG is the same.

I think my biggest concern is the parts situation. Somewhere (maybe this thread), I read that Isuzu stopped selling/importing cars to the U.S. last year. Is that correct? If so, I gotta wonder where you'd go to order a part. Do you have to call overseas? Is everything salvage at this point?

For a backup "go-to" vehicle to my good-weather-only Corvette, it would need to be something that could/would be fairly reliable. And, in the case(s) where repairs were needed, having to wait for weeks/months to find a part would get OLD fast!

Paying more for a respective part -- than for my vette would get annoying too. (I already consider some parts too expensive with a "Corvette tax" built-in. I'm probably not "rich" enough to own multiple money-traps.)

On the other hand, now that I've got the bug, every other SUV looks BORING. I can hardly look at a Jeep anymore. I'm definitely hooked.

...You almost have yourself talked out of VX ownership.
Maybe best for you to get something more pedestrian, & continue to hang out @ VXinfo, living vicariously through the rest of us...
Ya only go around once...always making "safe" choices is boring, but the best course of action for some...

[Cobrajet]

...You almost have yourself talked out of VX ownership.
Maybe best for you to get something more pedestrian, & continue to hang out @ VXinfo, living vicariously through the rest of us...

Agreed. My thoughts on VX ownership have always been -- If you have to think twice about it, then you may not be cut out for ownership.

In my case, it was not IF I wanted a VX, but which one. Seeing the brand new Proton in the dealer showroom sealed the deal, even without a test drive.

[89Vette]

...You almost have yourself talked out of VX ownership.
Maybe best for you to get something more pedestrian, & continue to hang out @ VXinfo, living vicariously through the rest of us...
Ya only go around once...always making "safe" choices is boring, but the best course of action for some...

Well,,,if you can't say something more reassuring about parts, repairs, reliability, projected downtime, etc.....then maybe you're right.

I don't consider my Corvette build a "safe" choice by any means. How many people completely redo a car inside & out -- plus install a new motor requiring a specialize tune that I'll be a part of. (Keep in mind that a bad tune could burn up the motor and cost several thousand dollars!)

My last post was more about (parts) availability -- no doability.

Sooo. Where do you get parts??? Does everyone hit these parts distribution warehouses? Are most engine parts available aftermarket? Like sensors, injectors, brake cylinders, etc.... What if a turn signal switch goes bad? Or speedo? Brake pedal switch? You know...the kind of thing that would be a "dealer-only" item. With any car I've owned, there's always SOME parts that are dealer-only.

OTOH, the only part I can remember needing for my complete Vette refurb was a $5 heater rod fastener. Lots of other things need to be procured thru salvage. So, it wasn't the explanation about warehouses that concerned me as much as the comment about "if I'm patient enough,,,I'll find what I need." That's what I mostly would hope to avoid.