Any cars you regret buying? - My '14 CR-V experience

[Pablo]

2017 CRV Touring.

yeah what a POS. Still have not fixed the rear driver's side door lock............needs a whole new wire harness.

No more Honda in this family.

 

[WylieCoyote]

OMG, I wasnt going to post in here then saw this.
Between a Subaru I had MANY years ago that turned into a major disappointment to a 2002 Nissan Altima.
The Suburu was a Lemon, noisy, even the exhaust pipe started corroding. The Altima was a disaster. Head Gasket blew but took a few trips for the dealer to figure that out after repairing the wrong things AND entire rear suspension system had to be replaced due to corrosion. When I say replaced, I mean replaced!!! Like cut off and new one welded on!

Mine (3.5 M/T) had a glitch in the ECU that needed to be "flashed out". The car would enter a mode that cut power by about half, but never an indication why. 2 sets of front struts failed within 17,000 miles due to an " out of spec" suspension mount that was causing them to destroy themselves. Then 3rd gear lost it's synchro, they attempted a transmission repair which made every gear hard, or impossible to engage, and it spent an additional 17 days on the lift before I finally gave up and traded it while it was still there. Total miles: 19,000. Awful car. But fast, and looked good (IMO).

 

[alarmguy]

Mine (3.5 M/T) had a glitch in the ECU that needed to be "flashed out". The car would enter a mode that cut power by about half, but never an indication why. 2 sets of front struts failed within 17,000 miles due to an " out of spec" suspension mount that was causing them to destroy themselves. Then 3rd gear lost it's synchro, they attempted a transmission repair which made every gear hard, or impossible to engage, and it spent an additional 17 days on the lift before I finally gave up and traded it while it was still there. Total miles: 19,000. Awful car. But fast, and looked good (IMO).

View attachment 103613

Yeah, it was a fun car to drive. I to my ignorance was under the impression that leaky head gaskets were a thing of the past back in 2002.
Ever so slowly, I cant remember exactly how long I would have to refill the coolant tank.
At some point, I think maybe when it was 6 years old and low mileage (wife's car) she told me she left the house, drove a short distance, and the car was hesitating to the point she thought it was going to die and get stuck, but then it cleared up and worked fine the rest of the day. This happened every so often for months.
I myself tried many things, including replacing some sensors ect. It wasnt doing it all the time.

Finally some time later to the dealer it went, dealer claimed is was some ignition coils and forgot what else. Paid a fortune, and, nope, happened again. I bought up the head gasket to them on a return trip and yup, it was, and it was another fortune to get fixed however, the dealer credited us back the money for the mis diagnosis the first time which saved quite a bit. I gave them an A+ for the honesty.

Then the entire rear suspension on another appoint was replaced but it was a recall if the car was driven on winter roads with salt, which moving from NY it was. They had the car about 10 days for that, it was involved, I cant believe when I looked under the car, entire rear suspension system was new and welded back into place.

I think at some point there was a recall or refreshing of the ECM too.

 

[Marcozi]

1969 Austin Healey Sprite. Basically, it was a rebadged MG Midget. Sucked money like a swimming pool water pump. Sold it and bought my first bimmer.

 

[mjk1967]

1996 Nissan Altima.

 

[racer12306]

2016 Ford Focus with the DSP6 transmission

It was a kind of sort of, impulse buy in that I did zero research.

Had the clutch replaced at 55000 miles or so under warranty. Accepted that if I were to keep the car I'd likely be putting a $$$ clutch in it a few times.

Made the decision to get a truck since I was only driving 25 miles round trip to work instead of the 110 that I'd driven for years, best purchase to date.

 

[SeaJay]

Maybe because it was near the end of the production run, but a 1994 Caprice Classic purchased new had a ton of problems over the 90,000 miles I drove it.

 

[grampi]

Worst car I even owned, 1984 Z28. That car was in the shop more than it was in my garage. 2nd worst car ever, 1998 Dodge Intrepid. It's 2.7 liter engine started burning oil at 1 qt every 500 miles with only 60K miles on the odo. I changed the oil and filter every 3K and used nothing but full syn...Piece of junk!

 

[Stonemason Jason]

1999 Oldsmobile Alero was the biggest piece of junk I ever bought from a dealer it broke down every few days & I was lucky to get two weeks of driving without winding up at the shop usually by way of tow truck, I had a Chevy uplander I bought for $100 dollars from an individual it had electrical problems, an oil leak & well everything else wrong with it, the transmission went out & I sold it to a guy that was going to cut the top off of it & haul it across the scales full of metal, I got more than I originally paid for it, out of the two the Alero was the worst, I have never seen a car that broke down so many times back to back I was paranoid everytime I or my wife drove it, because it was at a time where I was struggling to stay a float & that car sunk everything I had keeping it on the road, the only good thing that came out of it was I am now a self taught mechanic & I got a good reminder that I should always do on to others as I would want to be done onto, I fix poor people's cars at an insanely cheap price & if they can't afford it & I'm able to spare the money I buy the part & fix it for free, I remember all too well how low I felt hitting loan companies & borrowing from relatives everytime I turned around for high mechanic bills, no one should have to feel like garbage because they are struggling, in a way the curses we face in life can be blessings in disguise I lost a lot of money, but my character grew stronger.

 

[charles g]

2016 Ford Focus with the DSP6 transmission

It was a kind of sort of, impulse buy in that I did zero research.

Had the clutch replaced at 55000 miles or so under warranty. Accepted that if I were to keep the car I'd likely be putting a $$$ clutch in it a few times.

Made the decision to get a truck since I was only driving 25 miles round trip to work instead of the 110 that I'd driven for years, best purchase to date.

DITO only on a 2013 . trans was worst than what a cow leaves behind in the field

 

[Rmay635703]

That’s the best diesel VW made ALH

And the worst transmission, I had to replace almost everything but the motor itself by 120,000 miles on the odometer.

Injection pump went due to a factory screwup @ 105,000 and wasn’t rebuild able.
Had to replace the entire front wheel ends and brakes because they were rusting apart and stuck. Full Rear brake assembly replacement
Both fenders and rear bumper had the paint sheet peel, interior was flaking apart and uncleanable, front end kept going out of alignment, glove box broke off

And of coarse that isn’t to mention the normal mandatory maintenance items like the water pump and timing belt

 

[easym]

Does anyone regret buying Ram 1500 V6? Ram dealers are the only one in my area willing to negotiate price below MSRP.

 

[Cycle Freak]

Dodge dakota and dodge shadow

 

[Quantico]

My two new jeep wranglers 90 and 91 were both junk in a few thousand miles. I used the lemon laws to get rid of both. In 4 months my second wrangler had 12 tows from the freeway all on the way back from the dealer .

 

[pbm]

I purchased the first year (2011) Chevy Cruze 1.4T new and while it was a nice car to drive the constant odor of coolant was sickening. The fact that the dealer denied knowing there was an issue despite hundreds of pages of complaints on the 'Cruze Forum' was also annoying. I traded it in on a new 2014 Focus SE (5 speed manual because I had read about the terrible DCT) and it's been a great car.
I have purchased a few used cars that I'd rather forget like my 1968 Firebird with the OHC 6, my 1980 Dodge Omni 1.7 and a few others...but all in all I've done well with used car purchases.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

There's a few,... At least I know better now.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Mine (3.5 M/T) had a glitch in the ECU that needed to be "flashed out". The car would enter a mode that cut power by about half, but never an indication why. 2 sets of front struts failed within 17,000 miles due to an " out of spec" suspension mount that was causing them to destroy themselves. Then 3rd gear lost it's synchro, they attempted a transmission repair which made every gear hard, or impossible to engage, and it spent an additional 17 days on the lift before I finally gave up and traded it while it was still there. Total miles: 19,000. Awful car. But fast, and looked good (IMO).

View attachment 103613

I always liked those V6 Altimas with a standard transmission!!

 

[earlyre]

I've not regretted any of my purchases, but my Brother has made some poor choices that had him taking a financial bath on a couple vehicles...

Fall 97, buys a new mustang GT, by 14k mi driving a manual in DFW Rush hour drives him crazy, parks it in the garage and dailies his pickup.

Fall 2015, I'm visiting him down in Dallas, he's decided he wants to trade his...2013(?) Challenger for an Ecoboost mustang.
Found one configured the way he wanted, we drive down to the dealer, take it on the test drive, and he buys it. ($$ - minus his trade).
On the way home, he pick up a screw in one of the tires, dealer makes it right.
Within a month it developed some weird drive line vibration that no one is able to diagnose.
It drives him batty enough that within 6 months he trades the Mustang in on another Challenger ( another cash deal, lost something like $6k on the Mustang)
3-4 months later he moves back to Ohio, has the Chally and the 98 Mustang shipped.

The 98 went right into the garage in his new place, where it still sits to this day ( (~14,500 mi), the '15 Challenger turned into a driveway ornament. The first year or so back here he just drove his Dakota. Then one day he up and decided to get a used VOLT from the local Buick dealer as his new daily.

About 2 years ago now he gave up and sold the Chally to Carvana for about $25k. ( ~5k mi, lost something like $13k in the process)

He finally got worried about finding someone "qualified" to work on the volt at a local dealership; so he decided to trade it in to Carvana while it was still working well, and prices high.
They give him more for the Volt than he paid for it in the first place.
I wasn't sure what vehicle he had in mind.
One day I get a text from him with a carfax link, I start looking it over, it's a 2017 Escape , with the 2.0l Ecoboost. Before I can type " those engines are having problems with cracked blocks and coolant ingress into cyl 2/3" a second txt pops up, " I just traded the volt for that "

I didn't say anything, not wanting to seem like saying "I told you so" or something similar.

The new car has a weird stumble when cold, that goes away when warmed up...
He starts looking it up, and discovers the problems with 2.0EB on some forms and Facebook groups...
Now he's trying not to turn into a giant worry wart about having to (possibly)spend $7k on a new engine...
This car also has some very poorly done paint work on the passenger side ( looks like a VERY quick closed door respray, we're still finding masking tape poking out from behind the lights) with a CLEAN Carfax...no mention of any accidents or damage at all.

Considering flipping it back to Carvana as soon as he gets his title, but knows he'll loose $$ again.
Also wants to try to get it diagnosed by Ford during his 100 day warranty from Carvana, and try to get them to pay for the new engine...( Good luck)

 

[jeepman3071]

My two new jeep wranglers 90 and 91 were both junk in a few thousand miles. I used the lemon laws to get rid of both. In 4 months my second wrangler had 12 tows from the freeway all on the way back from the dealer .

What went wrong with them? I actually heard a similar story from a guy who used to work at a Jeep dealership ~1984-2000. He said they would have some Jeeps that could barely make 20k miles without a ton of problems, and others that required nothing during warranty. Really strange quality control it seemed. My dad had a 1987 Cherokee Limited when I was a kid and I remember that at 5 years old he had to have it repainted because certain panels the paint was literally flaking off. The rest of the vehicle was solid until about 200k.

 

[97prizm]

Honorable mention to the 2002 Altima, which spent more than its share of time in the shop, but there was a fun-to-drive element that offset that a bit.
1985 Calais 3.0 - 25,000 miles, more problems than I could keep up with. Couldn't wait to get rid of it.
1997 Ranger 2.3 - Bought new. Slow, uncomfortable, numerous problems. Was very glad to see it go.

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Were the 2.3 problem prone? My friend had a 97 with the 4 liter V6 and it ran flawlessly until he traded it for a bigger truck.