Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Yup 2000 V6. All repairs were covered under warranty, but being carless for a few days while they sorted it out sucked.

USMCgs3

For me it was my 91 galant vr4, guess it was the Dsm curse....

feetsies

Yeah, unfortunately those trannies are a huge problem. Glad to hear you got rid of it. Even the reman ones are garbage.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Recently test drove a 2001 Accord 4cyl.... with like 90k miles... that transmission was the biggest pile of balogna EVER. felt like it was all loose like it was going to fall off in the middle of the test drive.

I don't get how people say Hondas are built to last... my friend's 94, 97 accords all had the same ****ty trannies... his 97 Acura RL was even worse. Every gear banged and shook the car. I HATE Hondas. Newer ones aren't much better judging by my friend's 2010 crv.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

Close tie between my father's 81 Cadillac Fleetwood (with the dreaded V8-6-4 engine) and his last car, a 2001 S500. I learned to fix cars on that Caddy, as majority of weekends were spent handing tools to him as he was under that car fixing something. CEL would go on after every pothole. He would spend at least a couple of hours on the weekend disconnecting a harness to get rid of it. Until he hit another pothole. Drank oil like water (good thing oil was very cheap back then). He was always fixing those 4 wheel drum brakes... Stalled on the highways whenever it stayed in 4 cylinder mode for too long. He would compensate by slamming on the gas every several minutes or so (feeling the surge of those... 150hp LOL). The AC, however, was awesome. Could turn the interior into a freezer in less than 15 minutes. He sold the car in '91, and even through all that, I swore I saw him shed a tear as the new owner drove off...

The S500... Went back to the dealer almost 13-15 times the first year alone. Engine was solid, but the electricals and suspension was garbage. Worst was air suspension failure. Can't drive it since it ended up sitting less than an inch off the garage floor. After the first year it was fairly stable for the next 5 years until it got toasted in our house fire. My S550 has proven to be ridiculously reliable in comparison.

mmarshall

Yep....an interesting design for the period, but terrible engineering and quality. My 1980 Citation was even worse than the 1982s...the 1980 model had POS carburators that never worked right, instead of the '82's throttle-body injection. But my Citation was only one of several new GM/Chrysler products I owned in the late 70's-early 80s that were lemons....I learned about the American cars of the period the hard way.

One has to have actually owned the American cars of the late 70's-early 80s t know how bad many of them were, even considering the fact that, by then, EFI and electronic ignition on some models had replaced the notoriously balky and unreliable carburators and breaker-point ignitions.

lamar411

1997 chrysler town and country. Had transmission problems, to many electrical problems that nobody could diagnose, and when it stalled on the expressway doing 75, i dumped it as fast as i could.

lexmenow

200sx se-r

madmax2k1

2003 Honda Accord EX V6 (wife's car). Here's the list of issues over 3+ years:

- Driver power seat replaced 3 times
- Front LCD display for Climate/Radio replaced
- Front carpet clips replaced twice
- Rear brakes replaced 3 times within 50K miles
- AC would stop pumping cold air randomly, never resolved
- Automatic transmission failed completely, replaced under warranty

Sold the car in 2007 and bought a new RX350

RXSF

1994 Mercedes C280

rcf8000

Close contest between a 1985 Jaguar XJ12 and a 1995 MB S500.

V8_MPG

iTrader: (2)

I forgot to add my father's 2002 ML320. Luckily all problems were covered by the warranty and some were recalls. But now he can't listen to FM radio (everything works AM, CD, nav) because the system is connected by fiber optic cable. Dealer quoted him $4000 to replace cable.

FrankReynoldsCPA

Hmm, between my Firebird and Lexus, i'm not sure. The Firebird broke down more often, but it generally minor issues and was cheap to fix. IT was of course, the typical 80's domestic car. I love american cars, but I will admit that between the late 70's to the early 90's was not the best time in Detroit history. They were pretty good before that and are pretty decent now though. My Lexus has had problems that while less common, are 10x more expensive to fix.

As far as our family vehicles go:
Anything we've owned with a Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth badge.
1990 Dodge Dynasty, great little fuel sipper, but ate transmissions every year.
Sold that to buy 1993 Plymouth Voyager minivan, pretty reliable, but felt like a POS.
1998 Chrysler T&C, no engine failures, but the typical electrical gremlins that plagued Chrysler products of the 1990's. In fairness, it did make it to 180,000 miles before we gave it to my cousin, who is still using it(but she had to have some stuff fixed).
Our 1992 Chevy 1500 pickup came with lots of problems, at only 110,000 miles. Made all manner of noises, Bad A/C, electrical gremlins, transmission lasted 6 months after purchase. We scrapped the truck.

As for our most reliable vehicle so far, i would have to say our 1992 Ford F350. This truck has not had an easy life since we bought it in 1998 with 60,000 miles on it. We take it on jeep trails, haul stuff beyond capacity, rarely maintain it, etc. I learned to drive a manual on this truck. It has never had ONE problem with the engine, other than a bad water pump at 160,000. It does have a faulty fuel selector valve(For those who don't know, Ford pickups in the 80's and 90's had two fuel tanks), where if you are running of the rear tank, it will pump fuel into the front tank as well. So you can't run the rear tank first, or you'll pump fuel out on the ground. It also causes the fuel system to lose prime when you are parked, causing you to have to crank it a bit to start it(or just turn the key to the on position 3 times to prime it). That cost us a few starters. Other than that, NO PROBLEMS. I love this truck. It now has 179,000 miles on it, and i wouldn't hesitate to drive it across the US.

Iqraam

2004 Audi A4, had probably 60-80k on it, I cant remember. Lets just say when I traded it in after about 4 months of ownership in 2009, it spewed oil all over the parking spot at the dealer where I traded it at. But before I traded it, I had the timing belt and all that service work done to it, like maybe a few weeks before I traded it. P.O.S.!

I8ABMR

We had a Mercury Cougar way back in the day that broke down every single week. I remember so may saturday morning trips with my parents to the shop to either drop off the car or pick it up. That car was the last American car anyone in my family ever owned.