View single post by Jim Sohl
 Posted: 10-18-2006 06:49 pm
PM Quote Reply Full Topic
Jim Sohl

 

Joined: 03-26-2005
Location: Chandler, Arizona USA
Posts: 39
Status: 
Offline
 Hi all.  I feel that for those unfamiliar with the Jensen Healey 'reputation' for 'problems' of one kind or another, there really is no reason to re-state that an early seventies, low volume, english car was unreliable.  Nearly all cars of the era had issues.  Ask anyone with an MG or TR of the same time.

Regarding poor quality, I owned a 1973 Fiat 124 spider in the years before I purchased 11210.  The Fiat stopped running and I parked it.  Along about 1983 or 84, I received a letter from the U.S. District Court for Cook County, Illinois (Chicago) stating that as a settlement condition to a Federal lawsuit naming Fiat as a defendant, my car was included in a group of Fiat cars (mostly 124's from around '73) that were thought to be 'unsafe.'  It seems that rust was causing front shocks and/or rear trailing arms to tear away from the chassis while the car was in use.  A court mandated inspection at the Fiat dealer determined that my (non-running, I towed it in) car had such significant rust that it would be included in the suspect class.  I was paid a generous, fixed amount for my 124 which was literally chopped up at the dealer and the pieces, with VIN, photographed to prove to the Court that the offending car had been 'removed' from the U.S. fleet.  Now that is unreliability far, far worse than anything attributable to the Jensen company or the Jensen Healey. 

Just a thought.
Jim Sohl