The Vega had an aluminum block which would warp if overheated. One of my friends had one and it had an electrical gremlin. The battery would not hold a charge, so we had to push start it a lot.
Funny. There were aspects of the Vega I kind of liked, but having never had the discomfort of owning one, that is as far as it goes!
I had a 1976 MG Midget, and put about 120,000 miles on it in the ten years I owned it (which is an accomplishment in itself!) but being as how the electrical system was made by Lucas (”The Father of Darkness”) there were many, many times I had to push start that car. It was light enough, and the engine caught readily enough, that I could park on a level surface, push it a few feet and jump in to pop the clutch.
I loved that car, but the malfunctions of charging of the battery...I drove around for a long time with my eyes burning from the emission of the hydrogen gas, so...I consider myself lucky that I never blew up!
The battery setup was asinine. The battery leads just had lead caps that were a friction fit, which caused no end of charging problems. I didn’t know enough about cars when I first bought it as a young sailor in the Navy, but changing those leads out for real clamps was a fix.
After that, I would pop the hoods on other MG midgets that had those stupid caps on them, and could see they drilled holes through them and into the battery post, and had drilled a variety of screws through them.
And then there was the corrosion. Just a crappy design...but it WAS British Leyland!
But it sure was fun to drive...:)