They all suck in their own special way some just suck worse than others.
Biggest POS we ever owned was a 2001 Subaru Outback, 5 speed manual. Bought new by us and well taken care of. BUT, it had bad wheel bearings on all four corners (and they were stupid expensive to replace), clutch chatter because of a bad flywheel (replaced clutch twice only to find out there was a recall for the flywheel that the Subaru dealer didn't know about), leaking head gaskets (Subaru's official fix was a bottle of radiator stop leak), HORRIBLE snow traction (5-speed has a less intelligent center diff, which I didn't know about), entire rear taillight electrical including taillights had to be replaced, and the Subaru dealership experience was never a good one.
My BIL and SIL are in love with the brand but they have nothing but problems with them. I never understood the love for these things.
Scott
Biggest regret happened this year. Bought a 2006 trailblazer with only 116,000 miles. Looked great. Always wanted one as I have a bit of an I-6 fetish. The atlas I-6 in it is awesome. The suv around the engine was absolute hot garbage. No wonder they’re so cheap used. After replacing the transmission, chasing numerous electrical gremlins and never getting it to idle and take off just right without hesitating, I finally got it in decent enough shape to sell to someone who will never notice the hesitation. I made it reliable but I was so tired of even looking at that thing at that point. Still somehow broke even on it. Learned a lesson that only cost sweat equity.
dumb Honda engineers kept the VTEC engagement point at 5200 rpm instead of lowering it down to 4000 rpm range. As a result, you only have 1200-1300 rpm to accelerate with decent torque/power.
Yes, the grass is always greener - then it isnt !If I had the money for the over 50 new cars I bought i could buy an island. That was my only vice though.
Just like @ARCOgraphite
May father's lease on of those that ran bad out of the box. engine had tip in flat spot and suspension bottomed out easily in rear. Japaneses Camry that's all. But it had the "Gold" package! Big Whoop. I sould of talked Dad into a BMW M Roadster.^^^No seriously!
Its MSRP was >$40K(in 2001) and we got it for ~$37K + tax, yada, yada, yada
*It rode nicely on smooth pavement but crashed over less than perfect roads and for the money, had poor bump absorption
*Great body structure and fit & finish but, lacked sound insulation of lesser SUVs and especially for a LEXUS
*Brake pedal was sooooo TOYOTA which means, MUSHY
*Steering again was sooooo TOYOTA which means SLOPPY(very 70s BUICK)
*Then the problems started right about the 2nd year of ownership with O2 & AF sensors which were not covered under the warranty(2 yrs on sensors). And they repeated themselves over the next 13 yrs...we owned it for 15 yrs total. You'd thing I would have gotten rid of it sooner.
*Fuel economy was never where the EPA rating so to say it was poor is an under statement
*Failed window switches, ABS, cruise control, HVAC blend door that clicked all the time even after repair, catalytic converters a-plenty and then, knock sensors. Finally the tranny died after we sold it. And I changed the ATF 7X's in my ownership with the proper ATF.
Don't get me wrong, there were some good things I liked but not for a LEXUS. There just wasn't enough that I did like for the money.
That makes our 02 Focus a walk in the park Did drop a valve seat, went through 3 ignition coils, yeah the motor mounts. But at least the interior isn't bad.I bought my oldest son a 2006 Ford Focus when he was in high school. I wanted him to learn to drive a stick and it was literally the only car I could find locally with a manual. The car had damage when I bought it. The owner had hit something on the highway and the radiator, condenser, and support bracket were all bent in. The front bumper was also cracked. I replaced the parts myself and had the bumper painted, which added about $1100 to the cost of the car. I also discovered some paperwork in the glove box indicating the car had been in a fairly major accident and had extensive work done to the rear-end. So yeh, a car that had been in two collisions.
Beyond that, this car was just a maintenance nightmare. The 2.0 duratec motor was actually reliable, as was the manual transmission, but everything else just fell apart - window regulators (3 of the 4), intake manifold funner flaps rattled (replaced the manifold), weird electrical gremlins I could never figure out, dash lights that would randomly quit working then start working, broken exterior door handles (twice), torque strut motor mount (probably 3 times, but I kept buying aftermarket crap), steering rack started leaking at about 80k miles, front control arm bushings shot at around 80k. And, the interior of that car just fell apart. The plastics got brittle and stuff was constantly breaking or cracking, the seats were junk, steering wheel leather came apart. I know part of the issue was the driver - a knucklehead 17-year old - but the car itself was just not well made. When he finally went to basic training in his early twenties, I unloaded that car for about $2k and was glad to have gotten that much!