128 replies to this topic

[XJ6]

I have a few friends who work on jaguars , they both have told me to never get one.

You hurt my feelings ....A Car is Just Another Car....But A Jaguar is a Jaguar....Well you know what they say a Jag that does not leak oil....Has no oil in it...

My Jag is my other hobby. ...always doing the Maintenance...But they are a lot of fun....

Cheers.....Don aka XJ6

[Agent G]

I am not a mechanic, but I am close, oh so close, to sixty and my police career is currently at 32.99 years. Considering I drove a new work car nearly every other year, and have owned quite a few, I feel secure in these comments.

The 70's 80's and early 90's proved just how bad the american automotive industry had become. We literally changed makes and models mid year, every year, searching for an acceptable car. Remember we didn't always drive just one car regularly, so I can say with some experience none were all that well liked.The worst seemed to be the Ford Fairmont, and 1979 Ford LTD, not the LTD II.

My personal worst was a toss up between a 1975 Plymouth Roadrunner and a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu Classic wagon. Second was a 1999 Suburban.

G

G

[Skip]

AMC Pacer, a co-worker's door fell off his Pacer in the parking lot at work, when he opened it as he was runnig out for lunch. He never did live that one down, we all laughed ourselves silly over it. Read something later about the Pacer's doors being a little on the heavy side for the hinges, well duh!

Who ever said anything Mopar, never owned or knew anyone who owned one powered by a slant 6. A buddy's mom somehow punctured the oil pan of her slant 6 powered Dart. By his guess-timate of her remembering getting a little "high centered" she drove it around without a drop of oil for more than a week. After getting the hole in the oil pan really clean we slathered it up good with JB Weld let it set up and tossed oil in it. The "repair" didn't leak and she drove the Dart around for another 5 or 6 years without a hic-up.

[Joe Handley]

Considering how badly they rolled over, I'm surprised the Bronco II and '90-early 00's Explorers aren't on the list. I've ridden in a TTB Explorer as well as a IFS Explorer that were in decent shape and at low speeds, both had more body roll that my Cherokee did when all 4 shocks were shot while taking corners in a fairly aggressive manner.

[Dragline]

Having worked on Peugeot's for more than 15 years i can safely say they are one MAKER who is not very good at all.So many problems even with brand new cars. More than I care to mention. I also worked on Chevettes and Citations. Awful little cars those. By comparison, Omni's, Escorts and MB 190E's were great cars with very good reliability.

My brother owned a Fiero and that was a POS in my opinion. Electrical nightmare with MAJOR reliability issues. Hit the foglamp switch, the wipers came on! When it was brand new!!!!

In its defense, it handled like a go-kart.


There is more, but my therapist has warned me against going to those dark places.



Bob

[Michigan Madman]

Every GM vehicle I've ever owned was complete and total trash, except for the series of '81-'83 Delta 88s I had. But since this is asking for the worst car...

I'd have to go with the early Neons. My 96 two-door Plymouth version had a mere 74,000 when I got rid of it- by that time, it was on its second instrument cluster (both fixed for free, but a total of four days I had to find alternate transportation), near the end the engine would only run for about ten minutes at a clip before it needed a break, and the three-speed automatic (yep, three speed- Chrysler didn't offer a four-speed so they could run a passenger's side airbag) started to sound like a coffee grinder at about 70,000- not to mention the hard 1-2 upshift. And there was that weird high-speed vibration no shop could seem to track down.

And not only was it starting to fall apart rather rapidly- there was quite a bit of built-in badness. The upholstery pattern looked like a microcscope slide of some nasty bacteria, the wiring looms looked like they'd been strung by Chef Boyardee (the guy I sold it to went through said harnesses and managed to fix about half of the car's electrical ailments), and the interior of the car reeked of cheap plastic, especially on hot days.

I will say that it got fantastic gas mileage, but that's mostly due to the fact it spent so much time not running. I hear the later '96 and newer Neons were actually halfway decent cars, but I'll Never Ever Own 'Nother Neon. The '98 Tracer which replaced it (320,000 miles and counting with no significant problems, though it is obviously due for a little R&R at this point) was like some kind of starship by comparison.

[Michigan Madman]

Oh... my white Neon also had the popular bare metal option on the roof, and the majority of the trunk lid by the time I got rid of it.

[Deathgoblin]

My answer's gotta be a late 70's Plymouth Volare. I had one that had been a little old lady's car. Right after I got it, the exhaust system snapped on its own while parked when I met my parents for dinner. While the slant-6 itself was indestructible, everything around it was trash. I know at one point the carburetor started coming apart, causing it to stall whenever it would come to a stop.

[jas1957]

I spent 25 years repairing cars for a living...my list is quite long. BUT- I have also seen Chevettes and K-Cars with over 200 000 of pure abuse still running reliably. (Luck perhaps?) Styling is subjective...what's ugly to some is beauty to others.I personally like the 61 Dart and the 62 Fury while most avert their eyes to avoid blindness. I based my choice on vehicles I have repaired in the past. (...sadly.)

Two vehicles that have always been at the top of my list were both Renaults...The Fuego and Le Car. To call them manure spreaders would be doing a disservice to farm machinery everywhere...even the finest of Russian tractors. Their styling was abysmal ,at best, but it was the mechanical aspects of these disasters that stuck in my mind. I could go on forever about them, but that would be wasting time on the same scale as actually attempting repairs on them.

Anyone remember the Chevette Diesel?

My sister-in-law had a Chevette Diesel when my brother met her. Nothing to look at & slow as sin, but it ran FOREVER & got great fuel milage. She was very sad when it finally died.

[BKcustoms]

Pretty much all Fords

[Nick Winter]

I dunno. Nick. I've had the misfortune of actually having to work on a Yugo. At least some of the Bricklin was made with sevicable parts.

I have spoken to a owner of a running Bricklin, took a lot for him to get it to stay that way, and parts have to be sourced from other similar vehicles. I'd Sell my toolbox before I'd work on a Yugo.

Nick

[Paul Bunyan]

Ford Edsel

[Jantrix]

Any dodge.

Pretty much all Fords

I'm pretty sure he's asking about true lemons, not asking people to vent their automotive predjudices.

Edited by Jantrix, 28 October 2012 - 05:35 PM.

[martinfan5]

I'm pretty sure he's asking about true lemons, not asking people to vent their automotive predjudices.

I agree, but this has turned into what cars or what decades of cars people hate , although a lot of the cars that have been listed, are junk

[kurth]

You can make a case for the ford Tempo, as many of those had a tendency to just stop and not restart for several hours. I also remember a local call-in as the mechanic show and for many years there was always someone calling in describing on 80s GM cars the steering box failing. There were lots of Quality issues with all American makes in the 80s. Big changes in a short amount of time and a huge learning curve. My least favorite? Most cars designed with sealed beam headlights but switched over to composite head lights, they usually look weird.

[martinfan5]

You can make a case for the ford Tempo, as many of those had a tendency to just stop and not restart for several hours.

In my case, I had a Tempo, and among the many problems it had, one of them was once the speed hit around 50 mph, there was no acceleration, the engine would still be running, I would have to bring the car to a complete stop before i could continue on my way. That became a big problem on the freeway

[Fat Brian]

My Dad bought a Tempo new in 89 and he put almost 300,000 miles on the car, it never gave us an unusual amount of trouble and was still in decent shape when he gave it to my sisters ex husband who proceeded to drive it into the ground.

[kurth]

My Dad bought a Tempo new in 89 and he put almost 300,000 miles on the car, it never gave us an unusual amount of trouble and was still in decent shape when he gave it to my sisters ex husband who proceeded to drive it into the ground.

In some cases people get lucky with a given car. some people have had horrid luck with Grand cherokees, and others have gone 300,000+ with minimum fuss. I am glad you had a good experience.


I love the stories from Automotive Technicians. Any other wild stories from auto techs about Lemons?

[mnwildpunk]

My list of bad bad cars
#5 chevy sprint
#4 dodge onmi
#3 ford ranger 80's I owned one later model that was much better
#2 merkur x4ti or whatever it was called it came with an factory alarm but if you set it it would drain the battery in seconds the whole car was a nightmare
And the #1 goes to the renault alliance three
gaskets in 1 yr. It leaked oil so bad it gave B.P. and the exxon valdez a run for their money. It somehow granaded a 4 inch hole on tranny case. I took it the junk yard because no way would be comfortable selling it to someone

Edited by mnwildpunk, 29 October 2012 - 02:46 AM.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Well, I'm sure this will stir the old hornet's nest, but other than REALLY bad cars like the Yugo or Trabant....cars that have more wrong with them than rignt, right-out-of-the-box.....cars with serious design or material defficiencies..... I believe the VAST majority of vehicle-related problems and subsequent bashing of one make or another come from un-enlightened operators, poor maintenance, and lousy mechanics.

I have 260,000 miles on my Chevy truck, 125,000 on my Jag XJ-6, and 220,000 on my Arizona airport car, a Geo Metro (which belonged to a GIRL before I bought it, at 200,000 miles, with never a clutch necessary!!!). I have a good friend with 240,000 on a 2001 Dodge truck, another friend with 170,000 on a 2003 Dodge truck, and none have been junk. I put a trans in the Chevy truck at 200,000. I upgraded the Jag trans to a GM 700R4 at 80,000. I've had Fiats, Peugeots and Renaults (that I bought cheap, supposedly un-useable) with well over 100k on them, and all they took to get to be reliable transportation was some light repair work where it was actually needed. The common denominator here is that all these vehicles received necessary maintenence and correct repairs, from competent techs.

The trick to making almost anything run forever is to take the time to understand how a car works, pay attention to what it needs (it will tell you if you learn how to listen), and if you don't maintain it yourself, find a mechanic with a brain.

I know, that's asking too much.