Posted on 09/12/2010 7:39:28 PM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
These are the cars that cause us to mumble under our breath when they drive by. So smug. So reliable. Sure! Drive right past our shop! How's a mechanic supposed to make a monthly boat payment with so many of these things on the road?
Yes, the cars we hate most, as mechanics, are the cars that provide us with the fewest repair dollars. I mean, you see a '99 Jeep Grand Cherokee roll into the shop and you can practically smell the transmission rebuild. But the cars on this list? You'll be lucky to sell their owners a set of brake pads or a muffler.
If you're looking for a car to buy, however, this list might provide you with some good clues. Oh, sure ... don't worry about us!
P.S. This list reflects our own experience, of course. So when we cite the ready availability of parts, we're talking about the typical repair experience in metropolitan areas in the Northeast. We're not sure the same is true in North Grainbucket, Iowa.....
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
> “I’ve also got an Explorer, you know, the ones mechanics like to sneer at. 12 years old, and all I’ve had to replace was a starter, a couple of stabilizer bar links, a battery, muffler and a couple of tires. Runs like a champ.”
.
You probably don’t drive a lot of hilly, curvy roads.
The Explorer is mechanically as good as the Ranger. It was the tires and the rear suspension of the Explorer that caused all the hubub. They lack a rear stabilizer bar (really dumb) and their springs are way too soft.
People that fixed those problems love their explorers.
Had a pacer back in the 70’s..I loved it, hubby had to do the work on it and hated it....bought it off oldest son when he went into the navy. Best seats on any car,great windshield, easy to drive, smooth...I didn’t have to fix anything that broke...thats what I got married for...:O)
No, I know about the Mazda, but they are half owned by Ford.
The Nissan trucks are also Ford, but they have restyled fenders to keep their identity, and Ford quit making a minivan a long time ago, and took advantage of their relationship with Nissan.
The nissan deal actually resulted in numerous improvements to the half-ton Ford pickups too. Ford had to cave in to Nissan on a number of issues, including engine size.
The small nissan truck doesn’t look anything like a ford. The big one is discontinued and seems to me like it had mopar parts in the drivetrain somewhere.
I smell rice burning.
Some of the V8 grands had tranny issues, but the inline 6 cyl models were as solid as the basic Cherokee.
Real jeepers do not usually buy the V8 because the six has as much low end torque as the 8 and they cool far better than the 8.
The only car in america I would call uglier than a gremlin is the pacer.
Do you know what it’s like to have the traffic helicopter of your favorite radio station KNOW your car and refer to it personally on air?
Look at the engine, frame, and the suspension, and on some the dashboards.
Actually the Nissan versions are preferable on the newer ones because Nissan is thumbing their nose at the fed gov presently.
ping
There was an article on here a couple of weeks ago about a Volvo that was close to 3 million miles.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2583722/posts
Not a Volvo fan but wow, that is pretty impressive.
> “The only car in america I would call uglier than a gremlin is the pacer.”
.
What about the PrIOUS?
They have to be the ugliest thing on wheels.
Being quite old, I never had a car with heated seats and didn’t even know they made them until I went someplace with my daughter in her car....after about 5 minutes I yelled, it feels like I wet my pants...she laughted and said it was a heated seat...
I would buy the two stroke oil by the gallon from West Marine. With a splash of Vanilla cooking flavor in the take everywhere I went smelled like a freshly baked cake.
I also had a 2CV at the time it was better on mileage at over 60 mpg while the Trabbi got about 30 mpg.
The Trabbi bodies were made out of cotton and somthing like that pink wood workers glue. I guess it was commie fiberglass.
With the two Rd350 Expansion chambers I had fitted on it it sounded like a GP racing bike.
I agree about the gremlin, but the little pacer was sweet...to me. It was back in the mid 70’s and was like driving in a glass womb.....:O)
Thank you. The main problem with the later (V-8) models is not the trans, per se, but the sensor(s) that tells the control module that the tranny is overheating, (after being parked for 3 hours in mid February?) thus shutting down the whole system. Good mechanically, but design issues with the electronics. This is from talking with disgruntled owners. I personally drive a '92 Metro that's been 100% all this time. Nature is reclaiming the metal parts, though. Chicago winters are hell on lightweight cars.
Now that's a blast from the past. I wanted one of those so bad (my first car)...Seems like the one I wanted was around $5000? Anyway, my dad refused to allow me to have one.
So ...they were crappy cars?
I don’t know what people are talking about. This isn’t 1987.
Anyone who says their Hondas and Toyotas are “more reliable” than most other cars don’t know what the word “reliable” means. Or they consider one less trip to the shop than other models as a trump card.
Yes I’m sure you know dozens of Honda and Toyota owners. They all have the same gremlins other owners do. It’s call “owning a vehicle”.
Bottom line: buy any car today and chances are it’s reliable. Even Kia’s are very reliable compared to the trash in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Sorry. The reliability game the Japanese played in the 90’s is officially over.
People need to get over this silly game and save lots of money. Remember, even though Hondas and Toyota’s may “go longer” (which is a farce because you don’t see many old ones on the road either), you ultimately pay for it up front on the price of the vehicle, especially when there are similar makes at 60% of their sticker price.
I want to know where and the hell my boat is.
If they think this is such a money making profession, maybe they ought to try making a living at it. Between the whining customers, crooked dealers, and manufacturers that couldn’t build a “Big Wheel” without at least 50 recalls on it. This is not a rolling in the money profession.
In case you’re wondering, that manufacturer warranty costs us plenty. They get special parts prices and labor time (of which they make up), which means as a auto technician we take it in the shorts.
As far as I am concerned most if not all of the so-called latest and greatest auto’s are nothing but plastic JUNK. Car owners better hope we don’t have global warming happening (farce). These plastic piles of crap will be melted goo in the parking lot.
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