Good and Bad Cars Owned

[petef]

After reading Nictry's thread it made me to start to think about the cars I have owned since 1978 and which were the least and most reliable...and the absolute nightmare ones that take over your life due to daily problems.......
My most reliable where..

Ford fiesta diesels 1984 model B REG , 1989 G REG model and 1994 model.Ford fiesta 1.1 ghia V REG 1979, Ford sierra G REG 1990 model, Ford Mondeo 1998 model....what a work horse sold with 140,000 miles with no problems...VW Beetle 1972 model ( my first car )...that car just repaired it self, it got sick then got better. VW Golf Gti 1987 E REG. BMW 316 1990 model J Reg and the best car BMW 320 diesel..what an all rounder.

And for the worse......Rover SD1 2.3 ( SWEENEY TYPE )..Mini Van 1979, Mini Clubman 1975 ( yes i should have learnt my lesson )Fiat X19 1979 MODEL ( Owned for two days..it had no reverse gear...I was only 20 ) Seat Ibiza diesel bought brand new on a J plate ...(nightmare, old people passed me on their motorised scooters it was that slow ) Mercedes coupe 1990 model...I woke in the night worrying, I spent more time off work trying to get it repaired, the garage loved me I think there profits went up by 100 %. I even somtimes wonder now where the garage just makin up jobs and creating problems as they knew I had a passion for the car and wanted it top notch. There was always another £500 job waiting to be done according to them. I do think some garages see you comming if you ve bought an older merc and you are passionate about them. They know you will want it in tip top condition.
If Ian Walker had been in buisness I probably would have kept the car and given it to him to sort. I reallly do think in hind sight it was the garages swift diagnosis of faults and future "round the corner" problems that put me off.

 

[SEM]

My old Beige Ford Cortina Mk3, Cost me £50 and £15 for a new prop shaft.. great motor.. Vauxhaull Cavalier V Reg 2 giant doors, duff engine, Cam was well worn load of tosh, had the AA man booked every week as the tappets kept closing up and always broke down on the motorway.... so glad i moved on...

ahh the memories the pain!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2lC5oMTVug&mode=related&search=

 

[prprandall51]

Best car: 1993 Jaguar Sovereign. Boy, I was a fat cat in that.

Worst car: 1993 Jaguar Sovereign. <Winston voice>Never, in the field of car ownership, has so much money been lost on a single car in such a short period of time.</Winston voice>.

You needed a stop watch to measure the time taken for the car to depreciate by £1.

Philip

 

[Alfie]

Best - All my Mercs
Worst - Volvo V70 (2001) Yuk spit spit.............

 

[reflexboy]

I loved my Mark II Cavalier SRi. She was gloss black with proper recaros and looked mint. I loved and miss that car.

 

[neilrr]

After reading Nictry's thread it made me to start to think about the cars I have owned since 1978 and which were the least and most reliable...and the absolute nightmare ones that take over your life due to daily problems.......
My most reliable where..

Ford fiesta diesels 1984 model B REG , 1989 G REG model and 1994 model.

A friend of mine is disposing of his 1980something Fiesta 1.6 diesel. The first series Fiesta.

He's owned it since new, serviced it himself (really, he has) and covered 100K miles in it if my memory is correct.

It's a sort of mushroom beige colour, needs an MOT & a bloody good clean & is SORN'd. It needs rear shocks for the MOT but hasn't investigated any further. He told me he'd quite happily get in it & drive to Scotland & back.

He's scrapping it next week - too many cars, doesn't need it anymore. If someone wnat to save it he'll take the scrap value of £30. It's in Maidenhead, M4 J 8/9.

 

[jwarren]

My most bizarre was my first car, an Austin Allegro, it had a square steering wheel and the most bounciest suspension ever, which at 17 and in my prime, having a bouncy suspension was fun..... snigger

Not yet found my best car, despite working my way through many in my 20 years of driving, did enjoy my old Capri Laser, Fiat 500 (because it was just fun - could pull back the sunroof and drive with my head out the top!).

I would say that my MB is my fav, because I have worked hard to buy one as it was my ideal to own one.

The worst - my 1.1 Fiesta Sport (comical calling it a sport), more leaks than a farmers field

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

The C32 is undeniably the best car I've ever owned, but unfortunately has been to the dealers more than any other I've owned, so you could say it's been the worst.

I had a quite few Vauxhalls that just didn't break - service 'em and they were happy to soldier on. Excellent cars.

I had an MR2 SW20 (one of the last) which I cringed at every November, as there was always an 'extra cost' when it went in for servicing - but it was almsot always reasonable. The clutch went and I thought I might have to re-mortgage the house as it was an engine out job - turned out to be £300 at the main dealer!! Incredible value I thought. Small service £95 and big service £195. Not bad as at the time they were a fairly flash motor IMHO.

 

[Wil]

Best car I've owned is the one I have now, after I had a few problems sorted when I bought it, like heated seat, central locking, rough idle, but good job I had the 3 months warranty! I also have a 2000 W reg Vxl Vectra (with a Turbo bolted on) and that has been extremely reliable (despite what Clarkson says), never had any real major problems or failing an MOT with well over 100k on the clock.

Worse car has to be my first car, Metro Turbo, blown turbo, gasket etc.

 

[BTB 500]

Worst - first car, a Morris 1300 bought with no MOT (belonged to a friend's dad, who died). It only went on the road twice ... to the MOT test station, then from there to the scrap yard

Best ... hmm ... tough. Maybe a Vauxall Sintra MPV, which was the first new vehicle I ever bought. Great car, only replaced it (after 4 years) with the Sharan because I wanted 4WD after getting stuck in muddy fields several times. Yet the Sintra came bottom of the JD Power survey, bizarre. As did the Sharan!

Obviously I love my R129, but being nearly 10 years old there's always the slight worry of some huge repair bill coming along!

 

[wobbly]

Best, most reliable car I have owned was a five year old Porsche 944 turbo, never a problem in two years, great handling, bit expensive to service, but was great fun. Then it would be my ML, the longest I have ever kept a car.


Worst cars.
Hilman Imp, which i learnt to drive in, paid £125, and sold six months later for £300, it was awful.

Lotus Europa, I was only 18 at the time, the car kept falling to bits, rear suspension collapsed, throttle cable snapped every week, heater matrix pipe burst, filling my girlfriends handbag with dirty brown water. But it blew the doors off the XR3's that were the boy racers choice at the time.

Lotus Eclat, what didnt go wrong, electrics caught fire, blew engine, then blew the diff.

TVR 390. JUST BLOODY DANGEROUS!!!!


Strange the best are German, the worst British.

 

[ralphsanders]

Best car - Triumph Spitfire with 2.5lt 6 cylinder.:bannana:

Worst - Citroen Zantia, I tried so hard but just could not break it so was stuck with the thing for 3 years

 

[Rose Chap]

Worst car was questionably the Renault 19 TXE. This shifty, lazy, pathological liar of a car frequently mislead me about how much fuel it had left in it, went on strike and refused to stay running whenever it didn't like the look of the weather, developed bizarre and unusual noises and remains the only vehicle I've ever owned that has broken down on me.

Best car is definitely the CLK I have now. Its fast, comfortable, utterly reliable, extremely solid (feels better than the W124 I had), and running costs are fine.

All that said, I still have a soft spot for my first car; 1983 Daihatsu Charade XTE. 3 cylinders, 1 litre, plastics so unfeasibly cheap you could see light through them, and light brown seats. Nice.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Best cars: My w124 estates, by a huge margin. Previous best car: 1968 Volvo Amazon 123GT. Over-engineered, unbreakable, great to drive, simple to fix. I also had a couple of Honda Accords, both wonderful cars, but pricey parts.

Worst cars: early seventies Avenger estate - it rusted so bad, I awoke one morning to find it on it's knees with rusted-through front chassis members. Ghastly car. And a Granada Scorpio jellymould hatchback. Like driving a badly-upholstered sofa, with handling to match. Had all bells and whistles, most of which broke one by one. It used to flex so much on bumpy roads I swear you could crack walnuts in the gap between the scuttle and the front door.

 

[SG CL500]

Best car is without doubt my current - although I have had a variety of boring astra's & an accord which were are very reliable and capable if extremely dull. First car was a £250 Mini which was utterly unreliable and utterly fun.

The only 'bad' car I had was a Hyundai Accent which had such a puny engine that you couldn't drive up one particular hill as it would grind to a halt if the air-con compressor kicked in (this was in the tropics so it was on a lot!)

 

[blackscooby]

Best car ~ 1984 Audi quattro Turbo (UR quattro)

Worst car ~ depending on your definition. Least reliable W203 C32.
Worst to drive ~ Fiat Panda 4x4

Most expensive to own ~ Subaru Impreza competion car. Hybrid Turbo with cut back blades every few events. Several gearboxes... set of pistons. An intercooler or two...
Finally became reliable when I turned down the boost from 32PSI & fitted Cosworth "slipper pistons" which were a beautiful work of art and these lowered the compression. It was basically a "Group A" Impreza running Anti-lag

 

[BonzoDog]

Best my current S211. Worst New Miitsubishi something. Cracked head after a few thousand miles and Mitsu denied all responsibility.
Another best my air cooled VW, my VW Polo and my Rover Sovereign type. Also good, three Audis. Bad Ford Scorpio - it would just accelerate itself away. Totally unreliable my 1932 or 35, Ford Y type but a great car. Alvis TA 14 and TD21 also unreliable. Tons of other old cars but never really had problems with anything in a million years of motoring except those above.
My Lancia Beta was perfect to drive, gave no problems and never showed a spot of rust; still one of my fondest memories.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Best car I've owned is the one I have now, after I had a few problems sorted when I bought it, like heated seat, central locking, rough idle, but good job I had the 3 months warranty!

What did the rough idle turn out to be? And was it constant or only in specific circumstances?

Worse car has to be my first car, Metro Turbo, blown turbo, gasket etc.

I saw a mint and original red one the other day. Believe it or not it got me thinking about scouring ebay for just such a car. Don't worry it passed though!!

Worst car ~ depending on your definition. Least reliable W203 C32.

I can see a trend!!

Finally became reliable when I turned down the boost from 32PSI

 

[Wil]

What did the rough idle turn out to be? And was it constant or only in specific circumstances?

It was diagnosed to be a miss-fire on cylinder 6 (ECU light was on), only occured when the engine was hot and at idle. They swapped out the leads which cured it for good, a common problem with these engines apparently.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Ahh, I see. I've had a rough idle problem that has had my dealer scratching their head, but it looks like they may have fixed it now. Only happened after a cold start, when stationary in D with foot on brake, 2 minutes in, and lasted about 10 seconds. Again a common problem with this engine it seems.