What is the worst car you have ever owned and why?
6For me it was a tie-1989 Hyundai Sonata (1st year that model was on the market) because it broke down as I was driving it off the dealer’s lot after buying it. And my 1999 Cadillac Catera because everything about the car didn’t work as expected.
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When I was 13 or so, my parents bought a very nice used 1989 Dodge Caravan with electronic everything. When I was in highschool, they got a new model and mom began driving that instead. So, my sister and I got the Caravan as our daily driver for a while.
I’m not sure what happened, but one day, it all went wrong. Nothing worked right, or really at all. It was like it had a self-destruct threshold that we had inadvertently crossed.
The wipers would come on when they damn well pleased but never when you actually needed them. The front two windows would fall into the door at random times, normally when it was 15º outside. The radio volume was stuck at full-blast and it would shut off while driving. You’d have to wait a few minutes and it would start back up just fine. The driver’s seat had electronically controlled adjustments, but it was stuck as far away from the wheel as it would go. The door locks were screwed up, so if you locked it, you had to call a locksmith to fix it.
Dad sold it a few weeks later and bought a 1992 Chevy Lumina. Such an ugly car, but compared to the Caravan, that thing was the tits!
@capguncowboy hahaha, you said tits
/giphy tits
Ah, the first generation Sonata, made during an era in which Hyundai thought buying designs from Mitsubishi would be a path to reliability. Except, it’s Mitsubishi, which were NOT renowned for their reliability like Toyota, Honda, or Datsun/Nissan were.
Me … I bought a $350 Volvo with a bent front end and the unpopular V6. One junkyard spindle and a couple hours with a hammer, and it looked straight again.
Two months later, the A/C went out.
So I sold it for $850.
1995 Nissan Altima had every bug an altima can have the crowning glory was when the drivers side door operator stopped operating. no dash lights, no heat, then it developed an unsolvable ignition problem. I drove it to pullapart they gave me 300 bucks don’t ask about the $300 pcv valve.
Tied between the 1988 Furd Bronco II and the 1984 Pontiac Grand Am.
Bought the Bronco II from my Dad. He had endless problems with it stalling when idling in Drive and when accelerating from a stop or while passing on the highway. Occasionally it would just randomly stop running and wouldn’t restart until it was good and ready. Dad had it to the dealer for the problems several times but they were never able to resolve the cause. Eventually he decided to trade it in for a new pickup, and I convinced him to sell to me at the dealership trade in value. Foolishness of youth, and a poor choice by me.
The Grand Am was a first model year of the 1984 reintroduction of the Grand Am. Nothing worked on that car. The paint started peeling off in big chunks after a year, alternator failed about 3 days after the 12,000 mile warranty passed (and probably 4 additional times after that), radiator fan failure at 25k miles, water pump at 30k, A/C compressor failure at 45k, front wheel bearing and CV joint at 55k, transmission at 60k, and the last straw was the main oil seal blew out at 75k. Not just leaks, but totally blew out of the journal. And nearly EVERY part on the car was specific to that model year. So of course the price for parts was 30%-50% higher than later model years.
My Toyota Celica. Needed $1000 to get it working properly a week after I purchased it from a Toyota dealership. I towed it to them and told them to keep it since they refused to fix it. Ended up in court.
@conandlibrarian court details please
/giphy gavel
@conandlibrarian I hope you won.
@Catdad I so lost. I was 18 and had no idea what I was doing. I basically thought I could go to court and ask to the judge to do the thing I thought was right, without any type of explanation or proof.
In 1988, I bought a 1984 Pontiac Lemon (Sunbird) for $5000. That POS broke down every other month for the 4 years I had it. The thermostat was replaced every month and I hated that stupid car. In 1997, I bought a 1983 Toyota Starlet for like $400 that ran better than that stupid Pontiac.
@melwin '84 Grand Am, same deal. It was a dark era for the once great Pontiac brand.
@ruouttaurmind I had a 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit before I got the Pontiac, which I bought because the Rabbit was a diesel and a pain in the butt to start in cold weather. But at least I could push start it if I needed to. The Pontiac probably spent more time in the shop than on the road.
My favorite POS was a yellow 1984 Ford Thunderbird. I was riding as a passenger in the front seat and we pulled up to a payphone. I rolled the window down to get the phone handset, dialed the number I needed, then rolled the window most of the way back up because it was cold outside. When I was done with my phone call, the window wouldn’t go back down so I could hang up the phone. The power for the window just quit working. I was able to push the window down just enough to get the phone handset out the window, and we drove off. For a while I thought I was going to have to go get help because the stupid handset was stuck inside my car. Derp.
Chevette going up any hill it would drop from 60 to 35 in a heartbeat, i would then start chanting I think I can,
I think I can, until we reached the top of the hill.
/giphy chevette
@cattylaq Here’s the source/article from which the GIF came from.
http://jalopnik.com/you-wont-believe-how-much-shittier-compact-cars-were-40-1760556993
The drop in power is reminiscent of my 4-cylinder S10. Gutless? Absolutely. It also keeps running and running and running.
@cattylaq There was a reason it was nicknamed the “shovette”
@narfcake '01 4 banger s10 is my current vehicle. Just bought it a few months ago from my wife’s grandparents, only has 27k original miles on it. Even has original tires still in decent condition. But gutless is an understatement!!
The biggest POS I ever drove was my cousin’s Chevy Corvair which she left at our house when she went on vacation. Never saw a car so stripped down and bare bones in my life.
Not counting the early 80’s Datsun I owned (because I only paid $100 for it). It was pure crap & burned a quart of oil every few weeks. Not worth spending much money on, but I bought it cheap.
It would have to be a red 72 Chevy Nova I bought in the mid 80’s. Not because it was a shitty car, but the previous owner was a brain-dead douche-bag that had fucked up most all systems this car had. I should have walked when I noticed zip-cord in the engine compartment. The trunk was always wet, leaking from the rear window that was too rusted to fix…
I actually owned another 72 Nova in the early 80’s that I sold for more than I paid for it after putting over 100,000 miles on it. That straight-six engine was a workhorse if you treated it properly.
@daveinwarsh
(Warning overused saying alert)
Wish they still made cars like that.
@daveinwarsh I had one of those Datsuns, a B210 I think it was. Actually, I got two for $400, one to drive and one for parts. The front axle broke while someone else was driving it on the highway, and I don’t know what we did with it after that.
@melwin Great, now meh’s going to think there’s a market for Twofer Tuesday old Datsuns.
@brhfl Not even if meh paid ME to take them.
The best car, in a sense. Wish I still had this one.
I think I told this story over on deals.woot once.
My very generous Dad wanted his kids to be able to drive around once we got licenses. This might have been not the best idea, but he was lovely, and of course we worked on him. And most kids we knew had cars.
So Dad bought a used Chevy Nova from the late 60’s or early 70’s. Not like the later Nova’s - this was a stick-shift hatchback and it was tank-tough. The eldest child did his best as a respectable teenage to destroy it, in the ways teenagers do, and he did a fine job. Then I got a license, eldest went off to college (no car for freshmen!) and so my turn, and I tried to maintain the family tradition (task: persuade horse to lean on car.)
Then I went off to another college and Nova went back to school with eldest. Then eldest bought a car or something, and Nova went to school with me. Then my life moved forward, and youngest inherited the Nova. Youngest also played an independent team in a softball league, and so the car took various team members all over a 200 mile radius to the softball games, and they camped in state parks or Walmart parking lots or whatever.
Then I moved to NYC and youngest went to college. Somehow I persuaded youngest that there was more to life than hangovers, so he applied to Yale as an xfer and was accepted. And he brought this Nova that had now served teenagers for something pushing a decade.
I wish I had a picture. The Nova started out gold. By the time youngest got to New Haven, the engine was fine. But every single panel on the car was a different color. Sky-blue, white, green I think, navy, black, primer, brown perhaps? Possibly red? And I think the hood was kinda pepto-bismol pink? I think some of the panels were painted courtesy of drunken post-softball celebration.
And youngest’s softball buddies kinda helped things out by having used the Nova as a trampoline and diving platform. That car attracted admirers, and since youngest is not an asshole, he became instantly quite popular in New Haven.
But what was best was that he would drive to NYC when I begged him. Now I had a car in Manhattan (yes stupid, but hey!); but my pinto bbq-mobile wasn’t so much fun. We would grab some friends and drive the Nova around to where the busiest spots were, thick with limos and taxis. Say Madison Square Garden or Times Square or 5th Ave and 42nd St. Just hit the horn a lot and act like the total jerks we intended to be. And the taxis and limos and BMWs and buses and Bentleys would see us, and traffic would part like the Red Sea once it met Charlton Heston. No one wanted to challenge us.
We would only do it for half an hour or so before we had to stop at a bar and re-hydrate. Then repeat till even the after hours clubs wanted to close up.
One friend wouldn’t drink, so we never risked lives…just (so people feared) other vehicles’ paint jobs.
To my adolescent mind, watching the Manhattan traffic scramble like we’d loosed a stink bomb was pure bliss.
…,
Wish I knew what happened to that car. In my imagination, teenagers who are “basically good kids” are still driving it.
@f00l Your car by itself had a more exciting life than me!
@ELUNO
That car was bliss. And even three teenagers with zero mechanical interest among us couldn’t hurt the engine.
@f00l Cars used to be built like tanks. Nowadays they are built like cellphones. Disposable and ready to trade in every couple of years.
Speaking of Nova, I remember hearing that it sold horrible in Mexico because, in Spanish, “No Va” literally means “doesn’t go.”
@ELUNO
If I could get a stick Nova from those days, in decent shape and cheap, esp a stick, I’d have to talk myself out of it or it would own me. I wonder if parts would be harder to find for a stick or an automatic.
@f00l There are some on ebay at a wide range of prices. It depends on which trim, year and shape. You probably can take a look at your local craigslist site.
@ELUNO @f00l uses craigslist for other reasons
/giphy stalking
J/K
@0Wise1
@ELUNO
I use /giphy for stalking
/giphy cat stalking
@f00l
/giphy calling the internet police!
@ELUNO that’s a big negative. Urban legend at best.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
@jbartus Noooooo. My whole life is a lie! Damn you college professor that told us this story!
Neither of the cars I’ve owned have been particularly awful, but I did have a fun rental once while my current car was out of commission for a few months. Was an older Civic hatchback, back from when they were actually kind of small. It was very barebones. The interior reminded me more of a truck, nothing even remotely inviting about it. It didn’t have a tach, nor the ‘shift up’ light — I’m thinking it may have actually had the latter, but it was burned out… who knows. Driver side mirror only. It was dangerously slow, and turning the A/C on was basically like an emergency brake. There were a few fun things about it that were actually broken… like I seem to remember having to hold the turn signal lever in place in order to keep them on. I think it had ~360,000 mi on it. It was an experience.
@brhfl My ex’s Civic must have been one of that era; You had to turn the A/C off to merge onto the expressway. In Florida, that’s a no-go, but the car was her grandma’s and thus free.
My 2012 Hyundai Sonata GLS is the worst I’ve ever owned. Why? Here’s the list:
So yes, I hate it and will never buy another based upon my experience with it.
@Cheddy you said it all at ‘Hyundai’
75 Monte Carlo. It had a huge V8 and was scarily fast, but only got 10 mpg. Even with 50 cent gas, that was terrible. Also would vapor lock every time you parked it, so it wouldn’t restart for an hour or so.
Traded it for a 71 Pinto with 170,000 miles on it. It was another POS (had to carry a case of recycled SAE 30W in the trunk, never changed the oil) but it was hella more reliable than the Monte Carlo.
I can’t believe no one else has said the PT Cruiser.
I bought my 2003 PT Cruiser brand-new. I was 22 years old and saved up $3,500 for a down payment. I was so good to that thing. My plan was to own it for a very long time.
First, that PT Loser ate tires. In the total of nine years I owned the car, I went through nine tires. I’m talking 80,000 mile tires when I barely put 8000 miles on my car per year. Ridiculous.
Then, there was the control arms and bushings. I had to replace all those twice. Coincidentally, I was dating a guy with a 2002 PT Cruiser at one point. He had the same issue with the control arms and bushings.
In 2012, my car was nine years old with 62,000 miles on it. The engine went out. I had no plans on buying a new car so I went ahead and bought a rebuilt engine. That was $4000 and that’s when all hell broke loose. It was one thing after another. I don’t even remember everything I fixed. Once I hit $7000 invested and the alignment went out, I was done. Fuck that car.
I now drive a 2009 Nissan Cube and say what you will about the looks, I freaking love it! It’s perfect for me and my three dogs. It is very zippy, gets good gas mileage, has more room than you may think, and best of all, I haven’t had any problems other than a minor exhaust issue. (Knock on wood)
I learned that buying a new car isn’t always the best decision.
@Lrok
There are some redeeming qualities, though …
http://jalopnik.com/here-s-why-i-bought-a-chrysler-pt-cruiser-1689215344
@Lrok Definitely the Chrysler family of cars from that era!
My bad car was a 2001 Chrysler Sebring. Got it in 2011 from my wife’s grandparents (her grandpa retired from Chrysler so he was good about maintaining it) for less than half the market value. Aside from a lot of the weird mechanical quirks (battery in the front driver’s side wheel well=have to take the wheel off to change the battery), that thing just broke yearly. Same issues with control arms and bushings as your PT, wheel bearings broke (1 wheel did it twice within 2 years). Also, because they made things complicated with the mechanical layout, almost all maintenance was very costly labor-wise.
The last issue I had with it was the water pump. My mechanic told me he wouldn’t even give me a quote, because all of the labor costs would probably be close to or more than the value of the car.
@Lrok No one said it because no one else was crazy enough to buy it! Btw, seems rather obvious you were burning through tires due to the suspension issues. Only Chrysler product I ever owned was a 1996 Dodge Avenger. Truly a beautiful car for the time period but what a piece of crap. That’s typical Chrysler/Dodge, they tend to have quality designs but are totally junk.
@Lrok First a PT Cruiser, then a Cube? You are bold. Your sure must love those ugly cars.
@narfcake LOL
"People loved them. People wanted them. People thought they were cool. And now it’s deteriorated to the point where you could never, say, show up at a job interview in a PT Cruiser, or else they’d write “HAS A PT CRUISER” on your application and tell you sorry, but this job is going to a more qualified applicant, such as an adult chipmunk."
@thejackalope Oh yeah, the Sebring at PT made Consumer Reports worst cars list. My parents had one. I’m staying far away from anything Chrysler from now on.
@cinoclav
When the PT came out it was huge! People were paying over sticker for awhile. Mine was electric blue with all the bells and whistles. I know they are an eyesore now, but damn that car was hot when it came out! Plus, I am a chick, so ya know… I like pretty things.
@dooiedood As a student of the arts, I can’t help it. I like different!! So many cars look the same. It’s boring to me.
@Lrok I hate Chrysler and anything related. My parents had a 1978 LeBaron and it seemed cool when we got it in 1980 or so. They liked it so much that they bought a brand new one in 1985 and guess who got it in 1986 to drive? I hated that car.
@melwin I forgot about the LeBaron. My parents had one of those, too. The top was a pain in the ass to latch, it was so noisy, and just plain ugly.
@Lrok Your PT Cruiser woes reminded me of one of my favorite ask reddit titles ever: PT Cruiser owners, what tragedy burdened you with your car?
@travis LOL!! OMG This is the best! Thank you! I’m freaking dying over here!
'62 Chevy Nova convertible, black with red interior. Sounds like a cool car and it probably was at one time. Bought it for $199 from a fellow TTU student, actually Dad bought it since he told me if I could find a car for under $200 he would pay for it. Time frame 1974. Had it for 2 weeks and took some friends for a drive on a nice summer afternoon. Top wouldn’t come loose (latches were broken but wasn’t told that when I bought it). Friend in the back unzipped the back window as I yelled at him that there was no stop on the zipper. Too late. Zipper pull went down inside the back never to be seen again. In a few minutes a downpour started so he was holding the window up to try to keep most of the rain out. We drove thru a big dip in the street and everyone in the back suddenly shrieked. Behind the drivers seat the floor was rusted out and a piece of sheet metal had been placed under the carpet to cover the hole. When we went thru the dip the water surged in but as we came out of the dip the metal dropped leaving several inches of water in the back.
It had a 3 speed on the column and the linkage under the hood locked up after a couple months so that I had either 2nd gear with reverse or 1st with 3rd. Where I lived was accessed only thru the alley with a parking area on the side of the house so I would back out into the alley, pop the hood, manually shift the linkage to get 1st/3rd and speed shift from 1st to 3rd to my destination. Tried to avoid pulling into parking spaces - too much hassle.
No odometer or speedometer as the cable was broke and I didn’t have the money to pay to have it replaced. I drove with the traffic flow.
As the weather got colder realized the heater didn’t work. Mechanic friend said I was missing the hoses so he replaced them. Mentioned that the fact they were missing could be a sign that there was a problem with the heater. First (and last) time I used the heater it pumped green water all over the floor. Driver side window then malfunctioned so that it was about 2 inches from closing totally. Lived in the TX Panhandle where it does snow so at times I drove around totally bundled up with snow in the back seat since the back window could not be repaired.
Never drove it out of town or farther than I cared to walk back since the engine had unknown mileage on it and it started using oil almost as much as it did gas.
Owned it for almost a year but couldn’t get it re-registered since the last owner stalled on sending me the title. Was told by a friend to go apply for a lost title since I had a bill of sale and all of the past registrations. Turned out they never paid the import tax on it when it came from Georgia so I couldn’t get a title but somehow they had registered it for several years without one.
Called a wrecking yard to come get it since I couldn’t do anything else and it really needed to go away.
Next car - '67 Camaro with a 327.
@carwinew
You got the best car-from-hell story tho.
1981 Chevy Citation. It had so many issues, too numerous to mention, but the biggest problem was that the engine would shut off for no apparent reason, like when merging onto the highway in rush hour (I was a traffic report) or making a left turn in a busy intersection. Since I did a good job maintaining the exterior, I finally sold the body to someone who worked for my auto mechanic and he had his own engine put in. Oddly enough, the car still had problems. Shortly thereafter the guy who bought the car passed away and I always wonder if the car had anything to do with it. I’m sure it was possessed.
@heartny It was considered a "moving citation"
@heartny Just saying Citation would’ve been enough.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/12/curbside-classic-1980-chevrolet-citation-gms-deadliest-sin-ever/
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/dishonorable-mention-the-10-most-embarrassing-award-winners-in-automotive-history
@heartny
Had forgotten. One of these was in my life at some point. I bitched about how bad it was and how much $ it cost so much that Dad said, “I’ll give you $200 once you’ve sold it just so I don’t have to hear about it anymore. Buy anything else.”
@heartny “I was a traffic report” Love that! Nobody wants to be a traffic report, but somebody has to be it.
I don’t even know where to begin!!!
@growyoungagain So, have you figured where to begin yet? Baby steps.
Back when I was buying cars: Jaguar.
If you buy one, trust me and just break down and buy two identical models - one to drive while the other one is in the shop.
@Pavlov For a luxury car jags could cause alot of headaches and then there was the problem of finding mechanics who could work on them.
@growyoungagain
And the problem of paying the mechanic and paying for parts.
@Pavlov Many years ago my uncle bought one. And got rid of it shortly there after. He also said the seat did not have enough thigh support. What he bought next was a toyota tercel wagon with 4WD which I inherited when it didn’t pass inspection due to the amount of rust (my state had no inspection). I loved that thing, although I figured that if I was ever in a wreck all that would be left is a little rust dust on the road.
The ghetto van (1990 grand caravan) went through 4 transmissions (was the era of bad transmissions), peeling paint, was always breaking down, had to get some parts from the junk yard as they were no longer made, mechanic had to hand make a belt guide as none were to be found… finally blew an engine bearing mid 2015. Naturally that happened right after I got historical car plates and paid for life time rather than 1 year, sunk a bunch of money into it… Couldn’t afford to ditch it with cash for clunkers as I couldn’t afford a car payment (and at that point it was marginally cheaper to keep fixing it). Adding it all up on what I spend, adjusting for inflation I could have paid cash for a nice car had I had all that money in one place at one time… Currently driving an 11 year old car that only has needed, in 16 mo a $600 repair (and a couple of things that came broken that I am not fixing either due to expense) and oil changes. What a difference. With the ghetto van I’d likely be out at least $2500-3500 in the same time period.
The up side was that I got very good getting the stupid thing fixed on say, Sunday afternoon, out in a very rural area, 1000 miles from home, the 3rd of July. Yes I really did get it fixed on a Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend. Got hosed doing it and I am sure that (cash only) payment was not reported, however that was better than hanging out several days.
@Kidsandliz I think that was the era where the running line was when you scheduled your routine oil change with the dealer, they ordered a spare transmission just in case.
@RedOak I would agree with that. And it wasn’t designed to last as long as I made it last either. Getting parts for the last 10 years of its life became increasingly incredibly difficult.
Don’t know if this still holds.
Family biz had a buncha cargo vans. Normally Ford E150s w poss dual A/C, otherwise stripped. Prob V6 I think.
Between 1990-2010 those things did the miles. Rarely dead before 350K. Some made it past 500K. Wonder if they still hold up?
@f00l The Econolines/E-series were the best selling vans since 1980 for a reason.
@f00l Yep, they were tanks. My dad’s business went thru 2-3 Chevy vans in the same time as his Ford E250’s. But that twin I-beam front suspension could eat tires if they weren’t the right tires or the suspension was out of whack.
87 Dodge Omni. It was about 10 years old when I got it, and I drove it for about 7 years. The choke stuck, so as soon as it warmed up, the engine died and I had to get out, pull the top off the carburetor and knock it open to get going again. It also had a habit of dying on corners – I freaked someone out by throwing it into neutral and restarting it before I even finished saying the engine had died.
It also went through about 2 alternators a year – nothing like driving on a highway late at night and realising you’re on pure battery power. That car (and that problem) was the reason I got my first cell phone – it wasn’t IF I got stranded, but WHEN. I got very good at spotting the damn things in junkyards, too.
Now I have a car that just works and funnily, I miss my junkers a little. Once you figured them out, it was like having something special. Knowing I’ll be able to get home wins, though.
@Pixy I had an '82 Omni that was in the shop more often that it was on the road. I had just moved and for the first time in my life, was more than a 5 minute drive from work and/or school (I was about 20 miles from both). I thought gas mileage was important, but didn’t realize that the reason that it had such good gas mileage was that you had to push it wherever you wanted to go.
@Pixy I mentioned my mother’s Omni in the ‘Your first car’ thread. Funny story - it’s here: https://meh.com/forum/topics/your-first-car#54dd00b3fa49bae40a3c5eb6
92 3cyl Daihatsu Charade hatchback.
Based on first gen Hyundai Elantra, with about 30hp less.
Car had been rolled before I bought it, luckily no air bags so it wasn’t salvage title.
Come to think about it, it wasn’t soo bad going downhill.
Favorite car would either be my first car - pearl white 240z (custom paint, 426 Hemi). Or my current 350z with welded diff, wee.
@lysdexia Toyota based, perhaps, but not Hyundai. I’m also presuming this wasn’t in the US, as Daihatsu withdrew in 1991 after a scant 4 years.
@narfcake Ha I was gonna argue with you, but son of a bitch Daihatsu is and was a part of Toyota’s line.
However per wiki (and having to be somewhat right): The third-generation car was sold in the United States for just five years, from 1988 through 1992.
Had the last year’s model, and was living in the US at the time in Albuquerque.
Funny as I typed that I realized there’s probably a chance albeit minute that someone on the forum could figure out who I am, then come to kill me or some such.
Anywho thanks for the partial correction - been thinking they were Korean all along. I think it was the inner door handles - identical to the excel of the era.
And now this
/youtube daihatsu charade engine swap a closer look
About two weeks before I proposed to my wife, she bought a brand new Ford Escort. I have never told her this, but the thought of being on the hook for that piece of garbage for the next 5 years almost made me reconsider proposing to her.
If I had to say something good about it… I would be rendered mute. Even fresh off the showroom floor, it sounded like f’ing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and felt like you were driving down a gravel road when you were tooling along on an interstate highway. I un-affectionately referred to it as the Crapmobile, but since it was the first car my wife actually owned, she still has fond memories of it.
1998 Jaguar XJ-6 Fast, Sexy, British Racing Green. I burned through the soft Perelli race tires like butter on a hot ear of corn. At $325 per tire I couldn’t afford gas. Oh, and it got maybe 10mpg if I went easy on the tires. If I adjusted the side mirror, it would blow every fuse in the box. It always had this super musty smell. Like the low lands of foggy England I imagined. The paint began to fade and get spotty. The super cool Jaguar hood ornament was a popular theft item. The first one was literally ripped off the hood along with some sheet metal. The second one was put on a post with a quick disconnect. I had to remember to take the Jaguar ornament with me whenever I parked on the street. (Is that a Jaguar in your pocket or are just happy to see me) I finally sold the car to a nice lady who wrote a bad check for it. Then once that was resolved she continued to hound me every day for the next six months, wanting her money back and threatening to sue me for selling her a lemon, I mean Jaguar.
@accelerator Gotta love Lucas electrical systems
@cranky1950 Loose Unsoldered Connections And Splices!
@accelerator '95-97 are really the only decent years for XJ6 in terms of reliability
My neighbor, in Merced CA, actually bought a brand new Yugo. I count this as one of my worst cars because I ended up having to push it out of the way every other day so I could get my car out of the car port. That car literally broke down on the road as she was driving it home from the dealership. It would not start half the time and the other half when it did start, the transmission would slip and grind and not work. She ended up abandoning that car on the roadside and it was scooped up and taken to salvage.
@accelerator One time my Catera broke down when the service advisor went to retrieve the car after they said they had fixed the problem. So she drove it out to me, told me the thing they thought was fixed really wasn’t fixed and drove it back into the shop again.
That is why when I was ready (forced to trade it in), I got 4k more for the car from CarMax than any GM dealer would give me for it in trade-they knew what kind of a POS it really was.
1993 Toyota Corolla. Had it it’s entire life until I sold it on its last year to a friend
. Odometer stopped moving at 224765, but it ran forever …onward. it did not go in reverse around 190000 so I had to spend extra minutes every time I drove it looking for a spot to park where I could drive forward.
The worst thing about its cheap plastic mocha interior, is your butt was basically sitting on a rock. No cushion whatsoever in the seats…or the back of the seat. And as a college graduation gift I bought myself this car with gift money for the down payment. Even though it was new, it was at a second hand car dealer, probably because whoever bought it sat in it once and said " Hell to the No",.
When it came time to buy my first brand new, first owner vehicle, I bought a Buick Regal and when I first sat down in that luscious, plush, velour fabric seat, I thought I was really rich to be able to afford such luxury. A friend bought the Corolla and from day one, he bitched and moaned how he had to go to a chiropractor for his back due to that seat!
Probably a toss up but I’ll go with my first car, a 1982 Buick Skyhawk. Endless repairs, which I guess in a good way taught me quite a bit about fixing my own car. I could swap out an alternator faster than Old Man Parker could change a tire in A Christmas Story. That entire J platform was pretty hideous, including the Chevy Cavalier, Cadillac Cimarron, Olds Firenza, and the Pontiac J2000/Sunbird.
Kia Sportage. Too small. Traded for a Chrysler Town and Country.
Of the three vehicles I’ve owned (a '96 Nissan Sentra, a '95 Ford Escort, and my current ride, an '83 Ford Ranger), I’ve never had a bad one. I sold the Sentra at 25X,XXX miles, and last I heard it was still going. The Escort lost a fight with a deer, but never needed any work that wasn’t the result of normal wear and tear. And the Ranger is at just under a third of a million miles (I think - it only has a 5-digit odometer, and the title says “exempt” in the miles column) and going strong. (I also technically owned a '78 Kawasaki KZ650 for a while, but never rode it, and eventually gave it to a friend who’ll actually give it the love it needs.)
The worst one my family ever owned, though, was probably my stepdad’s late-'80s Sedan de Ville. He loves Cadillacs, but has never been able to afford a new one, so he’s gone through a sting of older ones, and that one was by far the worst. It broke down at least four times a year, and overheated at least twice as often. It’s long gone, and hopefully burning in hell. (His current ride, a like-new '78 Fleetwood, is a dream.)
@dannybeans I am happy to hear about your Nissan. I’m crossing my fingers but my Cube will last at least half that long. 54k no problems yet. (Knock on wood)
@Lrok A friend has a 1997 honda with an accord engine (is a mini van though) 231,000 and counting. Her mechanic has one with 578,000 and counting. My element has 172,000 and no repairs in 14 months (well routine maintenance but that is it). My bummer grand caravan bit the dust at around 210,000 and 25 years so your honda should beat that by a zillion miles since they are so much better built.
Late 70s Fiat 128. A poor man’s BMW 2002 (maybe?), it was lightweight, had a manual transmission, and was fun to drive on back-road twisties. Not so much on superhighways as top end was lacking, and not well-balanced for wet or slushy conditions (frequent occurrences in the Midwest). However, worst part was the clutch - went thru them like crazy.
Finally parked the damned thing at my girlfriend’s apartment on the shady side of town when she moved in with me. It was stolen in less than a week
BMW 335d. As some of you may know, diesel now requires you to inject cat urine into the exhaust of the car to limit the amount of NOx you put out. Well, pigs piss will crystallize easily. So once the bird crap injector started getting crystals on it, it failed… Well good luck passing emissions if you have a light on that says your pee pee shooter isn’t shooting pee pee. So I had to get that fixed. I tried figuring out how to hack it so that it would think I was spraying piss out the tailpipe, but BMW seems to have gone to some serialized proprietary system instead of just letting the sensor communicate with the computer. Eventually I took it to a dude that showed me my entire back half of the car was basically a giant ammonia crystal and said the only real solution was to replace everything. So, a few grand later I have a brand new system spraying #1 all over the exhaust properly.
Then, I thought I broke a belt. Took it into the shop expecting a $30 belt and came away with a $1200 crank pulley. The crank pulley relies on a bond between rubber and metal to last a long time. It lasted 3.5 years.
Finally got that fixed, not much else could go wrong now. Light came back on after a few more months though. The whole back end of the car was covered in crystallized condor dung again.
To add insult to injury, BMW refuses to acknowledge that the “selective catalytic reduction system” involves a catalytic process. Doing so would require them to repair it under the mandatory emissions warranty.
@westownsend 3-1/2 years on a harmonic balancer? Ouch. No wonder BMW stands for “broke my wallet”.
@narfcake The reason for the word on the street, don’t buy a German car out of warranty
@cranky1950 Saw my first Fiat500 sitting on the side of 85 with the flashers on this weekend.
@cranky1950 … the only thing less reliable than a German car is a Happy Meal wristwatch …
http://dougdemuro.kinja.com/german-reliability-the-greatest-myth-ever-sold-to-amer-1572026115
@narfcake I had a 2001 Audi A6 for ~3 years with little in the way of reliability issues, what repairs I had to do involved normal maintenance and expected failures on a 200K+ mile vehicle.
@jbartus also notable… the Audi Allroad Doug mentioned is the same basic vehicle as my A6 Quattro was with the lone addition of the suspension change and wagon body versus my sedan. Otherwise identical.
Having watched much of Doug’s stuff on YouTube and read many of his columns, while I respect the guy and he does know a fair amount, I wouldn’t consider his positions and expectations of vehicles to be the most grounded, not to mention the wear and tear he manages to impart upon his vehicles. I mean hell, he’s put over 10,000 miles on his Aston Martin in well under a year, far outside its expected yearly mileage.
@jbartus With some cars, it’s the added stuff that can really make or break the reliability. Suspension failure was common with the Allroad and the added weight puts more stress on the powertrain.
For a drastic comparison, 20 years ago, the Ford Taurus was a reasonably reliable car. Add the heavier body of a minivan to the same underpinning and powertrain, and you get a lemon of a Windstar.
What were your expected repairs anyway?
Prior to my aforementioned 760, I had a “cosmetically challenged” 740 wagon. Wheel rash? Try fender rash! With 165k miles, I bought it for $1k, drove it for one year and 10k miles, sold it to my cousin for $1k, where he put 8k more miles before he got sandwiched in a freeway pileup. Car in front stopped; he stopped; the pickup behind him going 60 mph didn’t. Totaled, of course, but he got $2k (+ medical) out of a car that only had three oil changes as the maintenance expense between our ownership.
@jbartus Except for the initial timing issue, Doug’s Aston has actually been pretty reliable. His Range Rover, OTOH …
How many suspension failures has he had? 
Let’s see what stupid shit he’ll do with his “new” car, though!
@narfcake My brother has a BMW-dealership-trained mechanic friend who now services BMW’s independently from my brother’s property.
Since that friend services my brother’s cars labor cost free, my brother occasionally buys used BMW’s.
For the last shopping exercise he was looking for a 5-series and two stood out, both very clean: a 545 and an M5. When he talked to the M5 seller, the guy matter of factually acknowledged that whomever bought it for his asking price would spend that same amount every year keeping it running!
My brother bought the 545 and other than really scary-expensive tires, it has been a pretty good car.
@RedOak E60 M5? Yeah, it’s expensively fragile alright! If one wants one, buy it from Carmax WITH the warranty!
@jbartus One additional thought - the regular A6 is more apt to have the normally aspirated 2.8L V6, not the twin-turbo 2.7L that’s on the Allroad.
@narfcake my point was that he doesn’t exactly treat his cars with kid gloves. I had the 2.7L with twin turbos as well and if you check his comments on that article there are quite a few Allroad owners who spoke out as well. Doug’s doing his job, he’s taking up position on one side or another of an issue and writing a piece for pure entertainment purposes, that’s what he’s paid for. He’s a glorified blogger, look at his replies in the comments section some time, he’s not a serious journalist. He wrote that article so that everybody who hates on German cars will smile, nod, and tell him how great he is and the people who don’t will provide fodder for him to shit on for more entertainment for the masses. The literal issue with most failing Audis and the like is the cost of parts causing people not to maintain them properly here, my A6 never missed an oil change in my care and it treated me well accordingly, I paid $2600 for that car when I bought it and put over 35,000 miles on it.
@jbartus Yeah, I’m very aware he’s not a “serious journalist”, hence why I enjoy reading his stuff. I don’t watch Top Gear for the news either, y’know.
I’ve also heard some of the horror repair stories a friend had while he worked at VW, plus personally knowing two other friends that separately lemon law an A4 and a Jetta in the early 2000’s. So what he says isn’t out of line.
I’m happy your A6 has served you well.
@narfcake @jbartus In a prior life I worked for that German monolith and had a lot of contact with the mothership.
The Germans were always resisting American car company attempts to extend service intervals. They claimed (correctly) that unlike Germans, Americans were lazy about maintaining their cars. If the service interval were set at 5,000 miles, Americans would do it at 7,000, if 7,500 miles they’d do it at 9,000, etc…
They really amped up those feelings when the 1.8 turbo motor was released. Best way to kill a turbo motor - don’t religiously change the oil.
I suspect Toyota’s oil sludge issues were related to idiots not changing their oil.
(Have a friend who proudly never changed the oil or washed the car on 2-year leases. Not sure how they passed the turn-in process.)
@jbartus There are definitely German cars that are sufficiently reliable. I’m never buying a BMW again because of how I was treated regarding the warranty though. It also wasn’t that great. I was impressed with the engine, but the interior was meh, the comfort was meh, the handling was meh, the feature set was meh.
@westownsend Older German cars were very durable; look at how many W123’s are still around, 30+ years since the last one rolled off the assembly line.
As for the BMW, I’m guessing since you say the interior is meh, F30 3-series?
@RedOak Dealers desperate for another sale will tell the service department to “overlook” those maintenance issues. It’s also why more of the manufacturer’s are including service in first few years.
Sludge issues aside, the 1.8T did have issues with the coil packs too.
@narfcake can’t speak for all car companies but for those with which I had an affiliation, the push for including Free Maintenance came 100% from the Sales and Marketing folks, not the Technical folks.
It was a competitive feature that made ownership appear more hassle-free. That made the cars an easier sell. The cost of the FM was even shared with the Sales & Marketing folks.
And of course dealers have trashed their own image by padding maintenance packages over and above manufacturer requirements… driving up cost of ownership. It’s gotten to the point where you almost have to show the Service Writer the manufacturer owners manual schedule!
@narfcake yah, one of my company cars was an A4 1.8T manual with Sport Package. That car was a lot of fun - more fun than the 2.8s. It had the coil pack issue.
@narfcake Yup. F30.
@narfcake @jbartus @westownsend
Bought a new 2001 VW Jetta wagon (manual) when our first child was born (0.9% financing; they practically paid us to buy it). That car was light, pretty fun to drive (tho not quite a sports car), and it was bulletproof reliable. Never a single repair ever - just the normal oil & consumables. We finally gifted it to a local charity last year when the interior plastics, headliner, and window switches started giving out @ 165,000mi. They have an in-house fixit man who keeps it running; they’re still using it to shuttle needy families on church & grocery runs.
@compunaut Did it have the the 2.slow?
@narfcake
OK @narfcake and others, tell me what a bad or good decision I just made
Wanted a backup beater. Local guy has a solid and amazing rep for dealing with TDI’s and VW’s - people come from various other counties to get service from him.
He found something for me, and just replaced all sorts of stuff including a/c system and water pump. He swears it’s worn but great long term.
2004 VW Jetta TDI wagon GLS
165000 miles more or less. Passed inspection no prob. Haven’t taken possession yet but already insured it and paid $3000 for it which includes repairs, so it’s mine. I basically went for it because of the mechanic’s reputation.
Am I stupid or not? This mechanic - people who have dealt with him for years rave about his skills and him being completely honest.
Haven’t owned a VW since an air-cooled beetle decades ago.
Am also thinking of getting a gas 1993 Eurovan from him. Also $3k fixed up. 110000 miles. I thought it might be a blast, based on those hippie touring memories. Again, is this beyond stupid or possibly a tolerable purchase? The body is a bit battered, nothing catastrophic. Interior - well it looks 20 years old and like someone did not care. I’m cool with the aesthetics. it was used as some kinda weird work van.
@f00l I don’t really see too much of an issue with the TDI wagon personally, especially if this guy has the kind of reputation you say. The van, on the other hand, I’d be more leery of. If it was driven by employees then dollars to donuts it was probably abused. The only things that you need to be aware of are that 1) parts will cost more than domestic or Asian parts and 2) you need to perform maintenance like oil changes on time, not sometime in the general vicinity of when it was meant to be performed.
@f00l I had three T4 Europeans as company cars. Loved them all. (We had 4 kids at home at the time.) The VR6 engine made them amazing all day highway flyers. They also handled surprisingly well (firm) for such a boxy looking vehicle.
The interior is huge and makes maneuvering around inside much easier vs a typical minivan. That size approaches a domestic full size van.
I very seriously considered buying our last one knowing it was the last year for them and the even nicer T5 would not be coming to the US but… (Their owners loved them like Toyota Previa owners loved their vans so used prices actually went up a bit when it was cancelled by VW.)
Downside: really horrible fuel economy and the TDI was never offered in the US even tho a version was in Canada. Like 14 MPG around town and hard keep above 20 MPG on the highway.
Also on an older one watch for any signs of rust at the vertical seams on the driver side. BTW, a quirk that we considered a safety feature - no driver side sliding door.
@f00l Yeah, the TDI is fine barring the typical mk4 VW issues (interior trim, window regulators, etc.).
The EuroVan … pass. 1993 was its first debut in the US, for only one year with the 5-cylinder, and was off the market until 1999 when they put the VR6 under the hood.
I’ve read quite a few of these stories. You guys crack me up.
77 Pontiac Grand Prix. I had it less than a year. It was a new body style and the bugs hadn’t been worked out.
It rattled, leaked oil. and was just all around poorly built.
Traded it for a Honda Accord Hatchback and never owned a big 3 brand since.
'87 T-bird. It wasn’t all that bad, considering some of the stories in this thread. It had an electrical problem that would kill the alternator if I put a fuse in the fog lights slot. It happened once, and then I forgot and it happened again. When I replaced the alternator the second time, I upgraded from the stock 65-Amp to a 75-Amp alternator. I never had to replace that one. I did have to have the clutch replaced, and slid off of a wet road and dinged a fender, but all those together were the sum of my woes. I have indeed been lucky!
Hmmm, I owned three cars before that and three since, so that was my middle car.
Hands down was a Ford Pinto…nothing at all was even acceptable about that %^$&Box. I remember driving across country…a sloooow trip, it being an automatic, and having to replace the tires in Denver because the shocks had already worn out. No power, uncomfortable, ultra plastic, and having a bomb in the back of your car (at the time known only by Ford) was not a comfort. Funny, but you never see one on the road, even 20 years ago.
The Pinto was Fords’ punishment to America for wanting something they hated making, a small, efficient vehicle that was somewhat fun. Chevy’s answer was the Vega (Cosworth excepted). Their punishment was a dying market share, and the slamming of their house values in greater Detroit…all in all an anti love story courtesy of Corporate America.
@margot When we were teenagers we used to put Chevy small block V8s in Vegas. you could actually buy a kit with most of the parts needed at the local speed shop. That gave those cars enough power to be fun and dangerous, but if you didn’t have a welding shop reinforce the chassis the torque would eventually actually cause the cars to twist enough that the doors became difficult to open.
@margot My girlfriend when I was about 17 drove a Pinto. We actually used to go parking and make out in it. just the thought of that makes my back hurt now.
@margot Irony:
Back in college a guy with more money than common sense paid me to remove all the gas components from a Pinto, design, fabricate, and install a plug-in electric system.
The result worked but it was heavy and slow as a pig. And the range sucked. But he got (an expensive) laugh and I made good money and an excellent real world education that summer! That was way back in the '80’s.
@margot Even an AMC Pacer (w/ denim interior!) was better than a Pinto
@compunaut True, A friend (who was a bit of a latter-day nerd bought one new…hilarious car, but fairly comfy to toot around in.
@margot I was reminded that we did NOT have a Pacer but a Gremlin; kinda funny-looking but actually one of the better small cars of that era. Until the driver’s door & hatch openings started rusting away (from Chicago’s salted-street winters).
/image AMC Gremlin
Reading the above stories, we’ve been fairly lucky I suppose.
Although while we still love Honda’s and own three of them, the 2000 Odyssey with 140,000 miles on it that we hang onto in order to keep our new-driver kids humble… has been a money pit the last 20-30,000 miles.
First it was a transmission rebuild for about $2,500. Then a slow and gradual wallet sucking of $250-400 per issue. One of those “hindsight is cheap” things. We’ve spent more than it was worth over those 20-30 Kmiles. So the damned thing is worth more to us than the market since we’ve replaced just about everything that is likely to break. It’s a new car to us, mechanically!
(My brother’s identical 2000 Ody went 280,000 miles with only routine maintenance and one preemptive timing belt replacement he only did because of the harassment he was getting for not doing so.)
@RedOak Honda’s 5-speed auto is definitely one of their poorer efforts. Then again, so were the 4-speed auto in the Civics of that era.
They’ve since improved.
@narfcake we’ve had zero transmission issues with any other of our Hondas.
I suspect that example was at least partially related to the 99-04 Odyssey being by far the heaviest vehicle to date for them. It goes thru front brakes faster than typical as well.
@RedOak It was a design issue, as the V6 Accords and Acura RLs had transmission troubles too.
Even then, they’re still a lot more reliable than some other (coughChryslercough) makes.
@RedOak My dad’s 2002 Ody tranny went last year. The power doors don’t seem to work often and the drivers door handle fell off. He keeps it in good shape but I can tell his blind love for Honda’s seems to have faded.
@StrangerDanger the 99-04 Odyssey seems to be a lesson in avoiding buying the first generation of a new category entry for a Brand. (The prior “Odyssey” wasn’t really a minivan.)
An amazing number of folks (including my brother) got incredible service out of them. However, a slice of folks were not so lucky.
We have no regrets whatsoever about our choice in 1999. No other minivans came even close to the handling, solidity, design and features at that time. We thoroughly tested and researched them all.
The Sienna at that time was a small slush bucket. Even the current much larger Sienna, with vastly improved handling has an incredibly crappy, plasticy interior.
We kept the '00 Ody and now also have a curent gen Ody. An excellent vehicle with great comfort but still decent Honda handling for a vehicle its size. And we regularly get 28-30 mpg on the highway depending on loading and speed.
I’m an auto mechanic, so I really have no excuse, but for most of my life I drove shitty cars back and forth to work out of cheapness. When things would break, like most mechanics I know they ended up being rigged somehow just because after working on cars all day you just want to get home and not stay late fixing your own. (Never buy a car that a mechanic owned).
Anyway, for a while I drove this crappy green 90 Geo Storm that I bought for a hundred bucks out of the trade in row behind the shop awaiting the salvage yard truck. I drove that car for another three years, basically ignoring all the things that continued to break/ fall off. There was a block of wood under the drivers seat because it was sagging. The windshield wipers were held on with gobs of duct tape because they kept coming loose. The exhaust was patched together from sections of used pipe welded together from the scrap metal pile out back. I carried a couple of quarts of steering fluid because the rack leaked that much in a week. Towards the end there was a heavy bungee cord holding the drivers door shut because the latch was broken.
At the time my girlfriend’s family owned a restaurant and I often spent my evenings helping out there in exchange for all the free meals I ate. 5 miles down the road is a state run juvenile prison, complete with razor wire fences. One evening some kid managed to escape and made it up the road, and proceeded to break into the row of employees cars behind the restaurant trying to steal one. He smashed the window of the first car and pulled the steering column apart trying to hotwire it. The same with the next car, and the next. He then walked around my Geo With the window down and the keys hanging in it and stole the next one in line.
That’s how crappy that car was.
@Steve7654
Lol.
@RedOak What @Steve7654 says is true. For about 5 years, my cousin (who owned a shop) daily drove a Saturn SL … which didn’t have much for features to begin with because it wasn’t even the SL1, but did have one “special feature”. 3rd gear is stripped? Hey, it still shifts into 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th!
@narfcake 2nd and 3rd are overrated anyway
@cranky1950 Come to think of it, skipping gears is a GM feature …
http://jalopnik.com/the-annoying-trick-that-helps-the-corvette-stingray-get-720645145
Gotta love those loophole exploits.
@narfcake Well that seems a little confusing.
Any and every Ford I ever sat in. They all feel like a moron engineered them and all the problems from fuel/mechanical problems to brakes/ball joints to window/mirror problems. Not to mention most of the people who drive them seem to all have sticks up their rear end.
@acewingman
@acewingman you try to repair them, but they got together so well on the assembly line.
@RedOak yes great 50000 mi cars as most of met focus owning friends are finding out
I decided to lease a new car, for safety & gas mileage reasons. Costs me $ but it’s an area I didn’t want to skimp on, especially with wife & I being new drivers (yes, we’ll ding up a new car, but were less likely to hurt ourselves).
My dad, though, had a truly terrible car. 81 Chevy Caprice Classic, purchased in 96 after 15 years of neglect. had your standard reliability problems, of course, but there some especially crazy things. Power steering would die while on the road, rear view mirror kept falling off the windshield, upholstery started disintegrating and insulting foam coming off the roof inside. My brother once actually had the steering wheel come off the steering column while on the road (thankfully, he was able to shove it back on and get enough control to move to the curb).
We actually started keeping an Adam Sandler song in the car (I think we dubbed it onto cassette so it would play on the old stereo) as its anthem:
Unbelievably, my father drove it for at least 10 years (most of these problems showed in the first couple years, but he kept it). Meanwhile, my mother went through two brand new minivans.
edit Oh, and I completely forgot the time my fathers car was mocked by Jay Leno on national television. I wonder if I can find that clip…
Since I first posted my initial question-I have read with great interest and enjoyed everyone’s input. As kind of a follow-up and maybe as a resolution to my horror stories with my Cadillac and Hyundai fast forward to 2012 when I had sitting in my garage-yep-you guessed it a Cadillac (2008 CTS-the best car I ever owned) and a 2011 Hyundai Sonata (20+ years removed from the original model).
Sonata was not a bad car-liked the 5 year warranty and the 10 year power train warranty. But there was one item that broke 3 times (the brake sensor which meant the push button start wouldn’t function). They kept replacing it and couldn’t figure out why it kept failing, but with the 5 year warranty expiring figured didn’t want to deal with an item like that our of warranty so traded in the car with 24k miles on it (still brainwashed by my parents mentality on cars (after 5 years or 50,000 miles get rid of it).
Now have a 2013 and 2014 Cadillac ATS which me and my wife put about 5k miles on each a year (great small car for us older folks who want to avoid hitting things).
Since the subject is cars. 2006 Matrix, the radiator cooling fan is not working, the relay is good, the fuse is good and the motor works when it’s hot wired. Fan does not come on at all, not with the a/c or when it comes up to temp. other than the ecu what could it be?
@cranky1950 Have you tested the fan temperature sensor?
@cranky1950 It could be the wiring itself. Is there voltage at the plug when the A/C switch is engaged?
@narfcake no not the plug but to the contact side of the relay. put in a new relay and fuse anyway. I can’t find a schematic, I may have to breakdown and buy a haynes. Or, get mechnicy and wire in a driving light relay to the battery and the ignition switch
@RedOak No, but I thought the a/c controller would turn on the fan, I haven’t seen the wiring for the temp sensor I don’t know if the a/c signal routes through the sensor
@cranky1950 The A/C rarely goes through the temperature sensor; it’s typically a parallel circuit.
As for a Haynes manual, it’s about two steps above the Farmer’s Almanac when it comes to information. I’ll see what I can find a bit later tonight on this.
@cranky1950 I tend to get better results from enthusiast forums than from Hayneseses. Try asking over here, perhaps.
@narfcake yeh I figured that too, but I’m grasping at straws. I really don’t want tø start breaking part and spraying connecters. I’ll try resetting the ecu. Not that it’ll do any good but sometimes it does. Life was easier when every system on a car was discrete.
Renault Alliance. When they first came out, they were great. Won car of the year, so they added a 2nd shift to make more cars up there in Kenosha, WI. The car kept selling, so they added a third shift. Here’s the problem… the first assembly shift had basically been trained by the French. When they upped production, they called back all the laid off workers and put them back on the line without any training. When they added the 3rd shift, it was from help wanted ads. No experience and no training at all. I, of course bought mine when they were cranking them out by the untrained shifts. My car was at the shop more than I drove it. The regional service manager told me “It’s an unsolvable problem”. I looked at him and said “So you can’t fix it and it’s no longer your problem, so you just solved it, right?” He nodded his head yes.
I tried to trade it in, but the former owner of the dealership was working at the BMW shop I went to. He laughed very hard, told me the story of the Alliance and said that Chrysler bought the dealership from him rather than pay him for all of the warranty claims.
Sold the car the next week to some poor high school kid who needed a reliable car for delivering pizzas. Yeah, felt kind of bad, but he paid cash. I took the money and ran.
Worst. Car. Ever.
@transplant Renault anything is the worst car
@cranky1950 I had a 5 that the engine fell out of. Friends in high school had a Dauphine that the engine tore up at 30000mi so their father had it rebuilt, american piston rings were too hard and tore the engine up in 10000 mi. They ended up scrapping it.
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Or was it Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery?
1992?
The deal was, I was attending a six month school, the Army Engineer Officer’s Advanced Course. I had just left Germany, having left my German-spec BMW behind. And I already knew my follow-on was Korea, so I couldn’t take a car with me. Needed a car for six months, and didn’t want to buy anything that cost real money.
Grabbed a late '60s VW Bug from a user car hustler, which promptly caught on fire during the test drive.
Shoulda been a warning sign …
Nothing else on the lot interested me, and I’ll never learn from my mistakes, so i drove away in a '73 Plymouth Fury, $300 lighter.
Where to start? I guess at the beginning. Car didn’t even come with a full tank of gas, so that’s what I took car of first. Filled it up, drove back towards my apartment, heard something scraping, and saw sparks in the rear view mirror. Pulled over to check it out, saw the gas tank was touching the ground. Half the bracket had rusted off. Was getting late, of course it was a Sunday, said “fuck it” and walked home.
Next morning, checking out the situation, first thing I noticed was the ground was wet all around the car. But the tank wasn’t on the ground anymore. Turned out there was also a leak in the gas tank. Three-quarters of the tank had bled out onto the ground, drained into the Big Piney River.
Confronted the dealer, who just laughed. Said he already had an F rating from the BBB, and we were too far from the St. Louis and KC markets for the Ch 7 investigative reporters to care. Didn’t care about his rep, because his market was guys like me who didn’t have any other options. Ft Wood was 90% basic training and TDY folks, so he was spot on. It was like a restaurant in an airport. No repeat customers, so notice incentive to do a good job.
@MehnofLaMehncha
Just Wow.
What I only found out later was, dude was on something called the Committee of Fifty, bunch of yahoos who ran Pukaski County and had managed to keep it in the '50s for half a century. Total Wild West when it came to regulations. Led the nation in unsolved arson and murders, per capita. They let a guy build a hotel with water sprinkler heads stuck in the ceiling with no pipe on the other side — ornamental sprinkler heads to fool the guests into thinking they had fire protection over their heads. Only reason they got caught was that the builder caught the hotel owner sleeping with his wife, and, more importantly, cheating at poker, so he ratted him out.
Restaurant owner was on the C of 50. One night, drunk driver plowed his F-350 into the garbage dumpster, knocking it over. Dumpster had a hundred dead, skinned, meatless cats in there. Tastes like chicken, yeah?
Pukaski County, MO. Most fucking back woods, in-bred, God-forsaken place I’ve ever visited. I’ll do another combat tour anywhere before going back there.
But back to the car …
@MehnofLaMehncha
Beyond Wow
I thought I knew corruption. Guess not.
Perhaps “worst counties” deserves a thread of its own. I think you might win tho.
Am a little surprised that people from the Fort didn’t find ways to get some of their own back. Even if most of them are short-termers, the Fort itself should have had some institutional memories and traditions.
And… Engineers.
At a party, a writer friend once said “Dont piss off writers. If they want revenge, they get it.” Her date, an electrical engineer, added, “And don’t piss off engineers. Same reason.”
Had to use ether to start it, all summer long.
Nothing electrical worked if it rained.
Damn thing was so long, couldn’t make the turn into my carport parking space. So had to swing around and back in. After a couple of weeks, there was an inch thick black carbon ring on the back wall of the parking space.
Could only put five gallons of gas in it without the tank dragging. Five gallons got me five starts. Only drove it from my apartment to the PT field, then to the school house, then home, so maybe 10 miles a day. But every other day had to put five gallons in it.
Realized how much damage I was doing to the environment, but something stubborn in me said, screw it, no one else around here cares about anything.
Right when it was time to leave, saw an ad for a demolition derby. Totally wanted to enter, but it was the week after I was supposed to leave. But I drove over to the field where they were going to hold the event, signed over the registration and put it on the dashboard, with the keys in the ignition, and a note wishing whoever picked it up good luck.
@MehnofLaMehncha
@MehnofLaMehncha
Your solution was beautiful. It satisfied all the requirements dictated by aesthetics, ethics, and philosophy (save for the requirement to cause an explosion to the car dealer’s establishment).
Either/Or
Kierkegaard
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Either/Or