Posted on 06/17/2011 6:40:06 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
10) Olds Cutlass Ciera(GM A-Bodies)1984-1996
9)Geo Prizm 1989-2002 The what? Heres the story, in short: Its a Toyota Corolla with a different nameplate, and everyone knows Corollas last forever.
8)Subaru Wagons(All of Them) 1990-Present If all of these failed to start tomorrow, thousands of college professors in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest would have to walk to class.
7)Volvos (Rear-Wheel-Drive Ones)Dawn of Man-1996 To some extent, these are the Subaru wagons spiritual and actual predecessors. Volvo's secret? It basically built one car for 25 years under a variety of nameplates.
6)Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Marquis 1992 - 2011 If these can handle police pursuit and taxi duty, they can handle you.
5)Fiat 500 (in Europe) 1957 - 1975 basically, a lawnmower with a roof. Only a handful made it to the states since they top out around 50 mph.
4) Mercedes 300D/300TD 1975-1985
3)Honda Accord 1976 - Present
2) BMW 3-Series 1982 - 1990
1) Jeep Cherokee 1987 - 2001 Were going to make an exception to our no-trucks rule for the Jeep Cherokee. For one thing, its not really a truck the first small crossover SUV, it did not have the traditional body-on-frame construction. But it did have plenty of the Jeep toughness (and a straight-6 engine) built in, and many of these are still roaming Americas secondary roads and Europe as well, in a turbodiesel variant. Interestingly, even as Jeep came up with the upmarket Grand Cherokee (somewhat less reliable, natch), it kept cranking out the old model, basically due to consumer demand. Oh, one more truck exception? The original Toyota 4-Runner.
(Excerpt) Read more at kiplinger.com ...
Cannot forget the Toyota pickup truck ! I own one with 194,000 miles ! It is 20 years old now and still keeps on going and don’t plan to get rid of it anytime soon !
I also had two 2.4 liter Volvo’s. The 1976 I called the TANK because it was green and very heavy. It was stolen from the place that was replacing the clutch @ 150K miles.
Then I bought a 1982 that somebody rear ended and the insurance company totaled it , even though it still ran great.
I then bought my first Toyota pickup truck(1988). I sold that at 120K miles. It’s 4 liter engine still ran great. I am now driving a 1999 Toyota V6 pickup. I am up to 99K miles. It is still like new.
A friend in college had a '58 Mercedes diesel which had over 500k on it. It was a nice roomy sedan with all the pickup and speed of a VW Bug but it had served him well for years. Somewhat inebriated he called me one night to come pick him up. Seems as he put the clutch down, the floorboard fell out of the car. Floorboards are evidently a major fault with Mercedes. ;o)
“10 Cars That Refuse To Run
Our contribution would be: Volvo turbo station wagon, Volvo turbo sedan, VW Jetta, and Toyota minivan.”
Our ‘01 Jetta w/ 2.0 two valve treats us so well we bought another, a ‘08 2.5. And a Toyota van gave you trouble!?
Wrong after years of Olds 98’s I got my wife a 2003 Crown Victoria out of MO. She loves it.
I like her driving good safe cars. The last Olds was rear ended this past winter by a garbage truck on I-80 in Clevland. There were 3 ladies in the car and all walked away. Olds was totaled in the back & front.
1990 Olds Cutlass—great car, wish I had never gotten rid of it
1997 Astro van—still runs like a top w/~278,000 miles on it
2004 Toyota Camry—runs better every day...150,000 miles..made a big difference when I put the new Michelin tires on it...they are the best tires I have ever purchased
Don’t ever buy a Cadillac with a northstar engine.
Notorious headgasket problems because of design flaw with the headbolts. It’ll cost you 5k to get it fixed.
Cad engineers should walk into the ocean and drown themselves.
Also, stay away from 6.0 ford diesels unless you like smoke and spending money.
And it is definitely a muscle car with the Police Interceptor P71 package.
I think the Toyota pickup is not listed because the 1980’s models beds all rusted out along the seem on the side of the bed. I owned a 1988. At a lot of the car shows they have the best Toyota home made bed contests/awards.
Then from 1995-2005 they had the recall on the frame rusting out. I presently own a 1999. I have had both sides of the frame repaired. However, Toyota bought most of these back at Kelly Blue Book full retail x 1.5. I have my letter in my safe stating they will buy mine(I am the original owner) within 12 years of the original sale @ KBB full retail x 1.50.
Also, don’t forget the Toyota Tacoma is The Official Vehicle of the Taliban.
Well, with your description of the belly pan, maybe it was a chunk of it caught somewhere rattling, and it finally fell out with the hard turn.
I'm going to have to dive into the front-end, I hit a bump yesterday on my commute (same bump every day) and the whole front-end shimmied and it felt like a tire was just bouncing - maybe just the shocks finally going (or maybe I knocked a wheel-weight off, but it didn't really do much except when driving over the bumps), but for about $150 and my time under the front-end, I can replace all the rubber bushings, another $80 for decent shocks, and then to the alignment shop. The stock rubber is basically shot, and I don't want to waste time/money on the alignment without replacing the bushings first.
Nothing about Buicks? I got a 1997 Buick Park Avenue with over 200K and gets 35+ miles to the gallon on the highway. Like one guy I know said: Buicks don’t get broke in good till 250K miles.
His went over 500K before it dropped. Most of the time the body falls apart around the engine and transmission, which is basically what happened to my Buick Century, my last car. I think it had 215K before I had to give it up and it ran wonderful till the day I sent it to the scrap yard.
Whoops, sorry, that wasn’t your belly-pan, that was jwalsh07.
My wife's 98 Cherokee got the cat rattle at about 150,000 miles as well. I bought a new Magnaflow cat on e-bay for about $80 and had it installed by a local exhaust shop. Cost me about $150 all told.
The guy at the shop told me that the baffles inside the cat wear thin over time and will break off and rattle around inside the cat. Just replace the cat and you should be fine.
82 Benz td runs forever...325k....can run on French fry oil....30 mpg
I loved those Chrysler LHSs. They are/were nearly as well appointed as a Caddy. The leather seats were better. We maintained them well, and did not give up on them through several transmission and AC replacements. The one we still have uses no oil and still gets the same gas mileage it did when it was new. I just don't trust it on a long trip.
We recently bought another Cadillac (we have to have front whell drive) -- a 2008 with only 18,000 miles on it. The poor old Chrysler will be donated to charity, but I hate to see it go.
I swear that if I could find another one with low, low mileage on it, I'd buy it. I still think that it was one of the prettiest cars on the road.
I love my Jeep, beart up as it is. I’ll be sorry when we have to junk it
My brother owned a Fiat 500 back in the early sixties. In fact he had two of them.
At the same time.
These shouldn't be counted because they are only driven a couple of times a week by super-senior citizens, and NEVER more than 35-40 MPH.
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