Car brand that burned you so bad on reliability you'd never buy again?

Originally Posted by cvlw
2000 Dodge Intrepid with the infamous 2.7 liter "sludger" and "timing chain tensioner" bad apple.
This car made me understand the hard way to do intense research before buying a used vehicle.
I had to replace the timing chain, tensioner, and coolant pump twice in the ~60,000 miles I owned it before someone smashed into it while it was parked.


The guy that smashed into it did you a favor
grin.gif
, you should have looked for him to shake his hand.
 
BMW.

Two were enough for me. Love the driving experience, hate the ownership and dealer experience.

I watched many friends go through the same, some bought 6 figure cars whose air cons stopped worked while still wearing paper plates other simply went electrically dead.

UD
 
I've owned alot of brands of cars thru the years, and have had problems with just about all of them. But the latest brand I've owned, also has the lowest mileage. My wife's Chevy. It's a 2011 with the oil using 2.4 4 cyl motor. I kinda remedied the oil usage, but for such low mileage, I'm not a fan. Also the brakes have been kinda wonky. The right front brake will start making a grinding sound after a few months. I take them apart and everything looks fine. Grease up the pins and it's perfect for 2 months, the it starts making the noise again. I never had that issue with any other brand of vehicle. My wife bought this car off my sister with 35 k miles on it, and had only been dealer serviced. It has 62k on it now, again not impressed.,,
 
As a former mechanic there is no brand I would not buy. BUT what I would pay would vary.

European cars I would not pay top dollar. Just to many issues and only get worse as they age. Chrysler is also similar.
 
Originally Posted by UncleDave
BMW.

Two were enough for me. Love the driving experience, hate the ownership and dealer experience.

I watched many friends go through the same, some bought 6 figure cars whose air cons stopped worked while still wearing paper plates other simply went electrically dead.

UD


If only I had known!!!
crackmeup2.gif
 
When I was 16, almost 17, I'd saved up a bit of money at my part-time busboy job, and of course invested it wisely in fledgling tech stocks and was able to retire before 40 and now live a life of luxury ... no, actually I squandered my savings and bought the worst car I've ever owned. Looked at the car, a '68 Vauxhall Viva, in the evening, in pretty much pitch darkness, and took it for a 2-minute test drive. Went with my dad, who knew pretty much nothing about cars. Paid $500 for it. It already had 89,000 miles on it, and during the three months I had it, I dropped hundreds of dollars on repairs. Valve job, upper rad hose, and on and on. It had gotten very hard to shift, and the garage said I needed a new transmission. But they also said that the ball joints were shot. And bonus, the diff was also shot.

At that stage of my life I scarcely knew which end of a screwdriver to use, and didn't have a clue how to take on the repairs, and by this point my savings were exhausted, so I sold the car to a friend for $25.

This is probably grossly unfair given that the car was old and high mileage and could have been abused by the previous owners, but I've never owned another British car. However, I also love the older Brit cars, so always have to stop and look them. Would be delighted to own an original Mini, or an MG. Vauxhall was part of GM, but my prejudice didn't extend that far - I owned three Chevys after that.
 
We're pretty soured on Ford in this house.

Years ago, we were caught up in the 3.8 head gasket issue. At 40,000 miles or so, my wife's Thunderbird went kaput and we went to our local Ford dealer to have it checked out. They diagnosed that the head gaskets had failed and, since we were over the 36,000 mile warranty, we were told we were on the hook for the entire bill (car was maybe 3 years old at this point). We balked at that and the dealership turned pretty nasty, so we sent letters to then CEO Jacques (call me Jack) Nasser, and then CFO Bill Ford.

Imagine our surprise when, several weeks later, we receive a call from an underling of Bill Ford. He tells us that through their grand generosity, they will pay half the bill. We balked at that, explained that practically new cars shouldn't blow head gaskets, and that we were done with Ford. No cussing, no yelling - we were just firm in our position that the car should be fixed at Ford's expense. He says - flatly, "It looks like we wasted our time even giving you half."

Yeah. No more Fords around here.

And, for what it's worth, the 3.8 actually ended up with a recall on the head gaskets - up to 1995. Ours was a 1996. Can't win 'em all.
 
Last edited:
Anything GM. I grew up maintaining some fine GM vehicles from the 1980s, and a couple with the infamous "morning sickness" steering racks. Thought things had surely improved since then and got a Traverse. Hands down, one of the most unreliable vehicles I've had. The timing chains wearing out were the final nail on that one. Had enough bad experiences with GM service techs who seem to know very little about how their vehicles work and have questionable diagnosing capabilities.

Wife's Equinox is having the oil burning issues and the rusting doors, both of which are known issues. Dealer slapped a coat of paint on the doors, but they are rusting again. Got the oil burning class action letter with our VIN called out that says her vehicle is eligible for the repair, but the dealer is dancing around it and claiming that our VIN doesn't come up so it's not eligible. Oh, and the 2.4 is also known for timing chain issues. I'll be glad when we get rid of it.

Maybe Honda has had problems with oil burning with their VCM, but my Pilot doesn't seem to burn any oil. It's my third Honda, and the other two (a 2004 and 2008 CR-V) were very reliable. Not thrilled that has a timing belt, but after the timing chain experience on the Traverse, maybe that's not such a bad thing after all. At least you don't have to drop the whole front end of the car and remove the engine to change the belt.
 
Subaru

My first new car back in 2000. The only car that ever left me stranded. A half-dozen or so new cars later, they have collectively spent less time in dealerships for warranty work than that one Subaru, nevermind out-of-warranty repairs that culminated with, no surprise, leaking head gaskets.
 
2006 VW Jetta TDI with the PD engine and DSG transmission, purchased new.

Too many disasters to list, but it started with transmission failure at 3 weeks old, leaving my wife stranded 200 miles from home. The third time it left us stranded, the dual mass flywheel exploded and destroyed the transmission case, $7K repair bill.

Bottom line: $20,000 car, $12K worth of repairs in 70K miles.

VW will never get another penny from me.
 
BMW. Had an 02 BMW 325xi and nothing but problems with it. Struts, window regulators breaking multiple times. e46 so it had the head gasket issue throughout ownership.. had it from 132k to 145k. 12mpg. steering clunking issues and oil leaks. In the cars defense, I didn't know anything about cars at the time much less BMWs with the special tools they needed. sold it for 1300.

On the other hand, I've had an 04 solara for about 5 years now, put 50k on it, hitting 200k soon and no major problems. Basically learned how to work on cars from this toyota and its been a good experience so far.

But again, I would never own a BMW out of warranty. Maybe leasing it if I really wanted another one.
 
Honda. Wife had an '01 Civic that needed ac work every other year, and after 100k it just seemed to be needy. Like it rivaled my 2004 VW for frequency (but was still way cheaper to repair).

My VW was pretty needy but I liked the car. I don't think I'd buy one again though, but not for good reasons: they seem to have a small number of "qualified" mechanics who can work on them, and the scanners seem expensive, as are the tools. But that seems to be true of most anything today, no?

These days I don't think I'll buy anything new, all the reports of problems make me think nothing is reliable anymore.
 
Originally Posted by doitmyself
After Toyota's engine sludge debacle of the late 1990's............ "Toyota's new policy is a dramatic change from a so-called Special Policy Adjustment begun in February. Amid increasing criticism for refusing to deal with the problem, Toyota notified 3.3 million owners of the affected engines that sludge-related repairs would be covered for one year, as long as they proved the oil had been changed at least once in the previous year.

It insisted then - as it does with the new policy - that owner negligence is the cause of the problem." https://www.autosafety.org/toyota-broadens-sludge-repair-program/


Sounds familiar, huh? GM, Ford, FCA, Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, VW, Subaru (remember the 2011+ oil consumption issue was the owners negligence?). Yes, guys, even our sacred Toyota has skeletons in their closet. Yet, people today banish a brand claiming the same reasons that people hated on Toyota a few decades age.

I think that a person has their head in the sand if they banish a brand based on their personal perceptions and/or single experience. Nearly ALL brands have a reason to banish them from your buy list. Just my opinion.


RE: Toyota sludge.


As a former master tech at Toyota, I can tell you that the issue was owners (usually on leased vehicles) NEVER changing the oil. They'd come in at 40-50k or so miles because the engine was running poorly, sludge would be found, then the Tech would find it was still on what was left of the factory fill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

eljefino
How to buy a car on Facebook Marketplace
Replies
16
Views
713
Elkins45
Hermann
Rental review of the 2022 Audi Q5
Replies
7
Views
1K
Hermann
C
can u get a reliable used car for under $3k anymore?
4 5 6
Replies
103
Views
7K
Cheetah-kins
92saturnsl2
FIL dropped car off of temp jack
2 3 4
Replies
68
Views
6K
scrowley
O
The company cars of American Greeting Corp., and the bad things we did to them, 1980-2013
Replies
4
Views
2K
earlyre
Back
Top