Simple Q: Most unreliable car you've ever had?

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2010 Chevrolet Traverse.

-Power mirrors were non-functional when I bought it at 99,000. Dealer spent 2 days on it, could not even identify the fuse that was blown. Turns out the switch contacts fell apart internally and short circuited the power supply, hence the blown fuse.
-Ate the front ball joint
-Odometer fluorescent display started intermittently failing, finally failed so it was only readable at night or if you covered up the daylight sensor.
-Driver's door speaker failed twice. First was because the wiring harness corroded, and I noticed the headlight reminder didn't work anymore, since the chimes only come through the left front speaker. Fixed the wiring harness, but a week later the speaker itself failed.
-Intermittent check engine light and "Service Stabilitrak" messages until I figured out the IAT harness wasn't making good contact. Reseated the connector, problem went away.
-Random "Service Stabilitrak" messages when it got below 10 degrees F.
-Rear brake pad separated from the backing plate and started grinding the rear rotor, needed an emergency brake pad replacement in the middle of winter.
-Rear shock tore the rubber out of the upper mount.
-Intermittent power window switches that often left you with a window stuck down
-Keyless entry fob died completely
-Air conditioning leaked refrigerant
-Set a check engine light for an evap leak. After ruling out the gas cap and the purge valve up at the engine, it was looking like it was going to require dropping the gas tank to get to the vent valve on top of the gas tank. Was mulling that over until..
-A week after the EVAP leak, check engine light came on for camshaft position errors. The problem I was dreading after finding out the GM 3.6 V6 was notorious for wearing out timing chains. No way was I going to spend $3000 to pull the engine and have the timing chains replaced, it had 170,000 by then and it was going to have to pass e-check soon to renew the registration.

In the 4 years I had it, it was rather disappointing that it had so many electrical problems. Sad that my MG Midget, with the infamous Lucas electrical system, was trouble free compared to the Traverse. There's a certain irony in having to drive a temperamental British sports car to get parts to fix the daily driver.
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
I've never really had a majorly unreliable vehicle
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Same with me. All my V8 vehicles [Impala,Caprice,Tahoe,Silverado,Cadillac,Town Car and Crown Victoria] were just fine. All vehicles were serviced regularly. Never owned a 4 or 6 banger and have no plans to own one.
 
1993 S-10 Blazer 4WD bought new
2000 S-10 Blazer ZR2 bought new
1996 GMC 1500 Extended cab bought new
These 3 vehicles were in for warranty work so often that I knew the service adviser on a first name basis. There were times that between my wife and I we nearly had both of them at the dealer at the same time. Never again!
 
Originally Posted by Aero540T
Originally Posted by bullwinkle
Originally Posted by csandste
For new car:

1986 (IIRC) Ford Tempo was the worst new car ever. Ford had a warranty program that would fix anything taken to dealer after the first repair. Found out all sorts of different things could break once. Caught fire while trying to cross the Ambassador Bridge and get back into the U.S.

My mom had an ‘81 Lynx (Mercury Escort) for a while that liked eating ignition switches-had it fixed at the local L-M dealer-again, and again, and again... They got tired of putting free ignition switches in it! My vote for most unreliable has to be any Escort, Lynx, or Tracer that had a FORD 4 cylinder engine in it-between lunching timing belts, bending valves, even cracking blocks due to losing the timing belt at speed on the interstate, and dropping valve seats out of their GARBAGE cylinder heads!


I don't know I had a 2000 Escort ZX2 with the 2.0 Zetec and manual trans. I owned it I think 7 years and got it with 114k on it, put another 70-80k on it before selling when the water pump started leaking and I didn't want to deal with it. I'll be darned though if the thing just ran and ran on my long commute. It seized a pulley once and threw the belt but I still made it home. Other than that it was tires and oil and a rusted muffler in that time. Oh and the AC evaporator too.


The Zetec was a much improved engine over the older Ford 4cyls. The Duratecs (mostly Mazda engines) were better still. Were it not for their garbage DSGs, Ford would actually have some fairly reliable small cars these days. Widely proliferating the DSG (especially when they have very good conventional automatics, some of which they spent a fortune on with GM, and then hardly used) was the biggest mistake they've made in a very long time.
 
Originally Posted by Sierra977
My first car was the least "reliable". In 1962 bought a 1956 Chevrolet 150 2-door post. Found it on a small-town Texas used cart lot sitting there sprayed primer black. Paid $250. I was thirteen and just got my driver's license. Car had V8 with two four-barrel carburetors. Turned it into a 1960's street gasser just like everybody else. Gotta say it was not very reliable but all the work it took to keep it running taught me everything it took to get me started with cars and the people associated with them. Do it again in a heartbeat.

ETA: Like this one
ETA 2: Engine did not have an oil filter at all, none

[Linked Image]


Was the engine a 265 Chevy v8?
 
Originally Posted by SirTanon
1982 Ford Escort. Total piece of crap.


I owned a 1985 Escort GT, was extremely reliable. Knew not to buy older ones though since they had interference engines. Mine had the fuel injected engine, and it ran great.
I still drive my 1995 Escort, and it's also extremely reliable.

Worst car was a 1975 Chevy Monza. First year car and used a lot of left over Vega parts, like undersized brakes. Besides brakes, my other issues was that it was my first car ever and learned the hard way where not to buy auto parts.
 
Ex wife had a 1992 Pontiac Sunbird with the 2L OHC engine.

Head gasket failed 2x and transmission input shaft broke before 75k miles.

What a pile of excrement.
 
1982 Saab 900. The fuel injection was never quite right on it, no matter how much I spent or what mechanic did the work.
 
'76 Nova by a longshot.
Didn't own it for very long, but it had a major issue with the rear suspension that we just couldn't get fixed.
Dad either made his own repair or had somebody else do it just before he gave it to me and it broke maybe 6 months after I moved to Dallas.
Broke again in less than 6 months, although the shop told me that they were going to actually get the "right part" the second time around, so maybe the first TX failure wasn't all the car's fault...this was a Chief Auto shop attached to a 7-11, I went there because it was right across the street from my apartment complex.
A gal in a little Honda rear ended me going about 45mph while I was stopped in traffic before it could break again...I went out and bought my own little Honda that was no trouble at all for me for several years.

That Nova had a hard time starting in Dallas winter weather, I can't believe my dad drove it in Chicago for so long.
 
I haven't had any that left me stranded. The ones with the most warranty issues were:

2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2015 Lincoln MKC

Both were bought brand new, and both were first model year of re-design or initial design.
 
BMW 335d.

At 50k miles the pump in the DEF tank would not turn off and consequently it would pump alll of the DEF through the vent tubes on to the ground.
 
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1985 Buick Skyhawk. Bought it right at mileage where stuff starts to go wrong, was young and didn't really know any better.

Close 2nd - 2003 Mazda Tribute V-6. Got a lot of miles out of it, but took a lot to get there.
 
Originally Posted by addyguy
1985 Buick Skyhawk. Bought it right at mileage where stuff starts to go wrong, was young and didn't really know any better.

Close 2nd - 2003 Mazda Tribute V-6. Got a lot of miles out of it, but took a lot to get there.


That second one is odd. I don't think the Escape/Tribute with it's 3.0 is the most reliable vehicle ever built, but generally speaking they seem solid, and parts are cheap. There's still a lot of those things running around my neck of the woods because they're a cheap 4WD with good ground clearance, decent mileage low costs to run. and You must have gotten a bad one.
 
2nd most unreliable vehicle I had was an '84 Bronco II 2.8l V6 4x4 w /Manual transmission and 31.5" A/T tires and stiffer suspension. It wasn't unreliable per se, it was just never fully functional. I think the A/C only worked through the warranty and never worked that long again. The A/C really worked quite rarely. And it frequently stalled when turning one direction. With those tires and whatever gearing it had, my highway trips would be foot to the floor at about 80 mph.

My least reliable was a tie between an '85 Aerostar V6 Auto and an '04 Audi A4. Both were bought new and were horribly unreliable right off the bat, neither got better with age. The Aerostar had similar problems to the Bronco, but at least it was fuel injected. Multiple transmission rebuilds/replacements during and after warranty. Rarely working A/C and power windows (The bronco II had crank windows), issues with the digital dash and A/C control. General malaise, but we ended up getting it to almost 200K on two engines. The Audi we only had for 67K but it felt like 200K. That was one of only three vehicles I've ever sold with less than 80K miles on the odometer, and it was the only one due to reliability.
 
1999 Mercedes ML320-great driving car, but just awful; switches falling apart, circuits switching on/off uncommanded, center bearing gone at ~25K miles, final straw was the car having a stroke at ~40K miles and completely shutting down at cruise on the highway. A main engine harness shorted at a connector and shut down the car, failed the OBC and panel. ~$4K and three trips to the dealer later (to correcte lingering issues-the harness was spliced), we traded it in. This car and the dealer and MB USA's response has me still soured on MB.

2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited-top of the line GC. vinyl sides of the leather seats cracked at ~20K miles, nav and entertainment screen issues (volume, locking up, etc., not switching between functions), then a burning smell that required warranty replacement of a relay pack in the dash. Final straw was the transfer case pulling itself into neutral after the car shut down...found this by sitting in the car finishing a call when I heard a whirr and the neutral light came on dimly. Traded it in with the burning smell returning. This car sold me on Range Rovers...figured if I was going to deal w/ this quality, I might as well get what I really wanted.
 
I've been pretty lucky. I've only ever owned trucks, but all of them went to, or over 300,000 miles without much fuss. They were Dodge's, Chevy's, and Toyotas.
My uncle, brother, and mother all had Ford F150s with major issues though. My uncle's literally dropped a driveline on the freeway on the way home from the dealer! Two weeks later, two of the coils went out on us 300 miles from home, in the middle of nowhere. Limped back on six, rough riding cylinders. Two weeks later, it wouldn't go in reverse. Brand new F150 that got lemon lawed in first month of ownership!
My brother's and mother's F150s both suffered cracked blocks before they hit 60,000 miles. They also had a lot of electrical things go out, and my mother's park brake never worked right.
Needless to say, I am still scared to own a Ford to this day. I guess that's why I bought Chevys, Dodges, and Toyotas!
 
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Originally Posted by wings&wheels
1999 Mercedes ML320-great driving car, but just awful; switches falling apart, circuits switching on/off uncommanded, center bearing gone at ~25K miles, final straw was the car having a stroke at ~40K miles and completely shutting down at cruise on the highway. A main engine harness shorted at a connector and shut down the car, failed the OBC and panel. ~$4K and three trips to the dealer later (to correcte lingering issues-the harness was spliced), we traded it in. This car and the dealer and MB USA's response has me still soured on MB.


Ughhhh the first gen ML was probably the absolute worst modern Mercedes ever made. Overall the entire Mercedes lineup was just garbage the entire time during the Chrysler marriage, handsome cars yes but not reliable by any stretch of the imagination. I think the W211 E-Class is probably the best looking E but I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole hence the W212 in my signature which IMO was MB's return to engineering excellence.
 
2006 BMW 330xi, 90k miles, valve lifter tap, doors leaked water, window motor failure, door lock actuator failure, iDrive failure, driveshaft/rear end clunk, power mirrors would move on their own in the rain, oil leaks, randomly not starting, required programming for everything you replaced, fear of sudden electric water pump failure...that alone was enough for me to dump the car. Not only would it not start, it could break down whenever it felt like it.
 
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