Least Favorite Cars

[mkc]

’70 Chevelle 350 2bbl
-surging on acceleration
-left front tire wore out on the outside in less than 5000 miles
Neither the numerous mechanics nor the GM Engineer that looked at it could fix either problem.

’90 Taurus
-stalling and rough idle
-on long road trips after about 2 hours of driving, a damper inside the dash would close and then no more AC until the car cooled down completely
Numerous mechanics tried and failed to fix these problems
-AC compressor failure
-numerous CV joint replacements
all w/ less than 70,000 miles

Topic

[Johnathon Balderas]

Chrysler and Dodge products are junk. Pretty much anything European. Toyota and Chevy for me. Have 297,000 miles on my 1995 Silverado and it just keeps on going.

[dan]

[quote=”hondaslave1342″ post=14989]all pontiac brands suck[/quote]

I would have to greatly disagree… though Pontiac had some issues with some of there cars, cars like the Pontiac Grand Prix where among there best affordable cars, not the best but among them, the only people who say the Pontiac grand prix sucks are people who got a bad one, or just don’t know how to take care of a car… other than that people praise them, in fact there is a massive forum probably one of the biggest car forums on the internet entirely devoted too the Pontiac Grand Prix, now if they sucked so much would they have that?

there is a reason here in Michigan there are so many on the roads, in our work parking lot including mine there are at least 4 or 5 others that sit in the parking lot every day that people drive to work every single day, and that’s of my cars generation then there are more grand prix of older generation, there is even a GXP which features the 5.3L V8 sitting in the parking lot every day… I wouldn’t be afraid to say I see at least 3 Pontiac Grand Prixs on the road every single day, now I think they owe part of there success too the 3800 engine as the Buick Regal LS and GS are also cars I see all the time, but not near as common as the grand prix… the Pontiac grand prix I would have to say is one of the most common cars here in Michigan, and for very good reason.

[dan]

[quote=”hondaslave1342″ post=14989]all pontiac brands suck[/quote]

I would have to greatly disagree… though Pontiac had some issues with some of there cars, cars like the Pontiac Grand Prix where among there best affordable cars, not the best but among them, the only people who say the Pontiac grand prix sucks are people who got a bad one, or just don’t know how to take care of a car… other than that people praise them, in fact there is a massive forum probably one of the biggest car forums on the internet entirely devoted too the Pontiac Grand Prix, now if they sucked so much would they have that?

there is a reason here in Michigan there are so many on the roads, in our work parking lot including mine there are at least 4 or 5 others that sit in the parking lot every day that people drive to work every single day, and that’s of my cars generation then there are more grand prix of older generation, there is even a GXP which features the 5.3L V8 sitting in the parking lot every day… I wouldn’t be afraid to say I see at least 3 Pontiac Grand Prixs on the road every single day, now I think they owe part of there success too the 3800 engine as the Buick Regal LS and GS are also cars I see all the time, but not near as common as the grand prix… the Pontiac grand prix I would have to say is one of the most common cars here in Michigan, and for very good reason.

[dan]

[quote=”johnbalderas89″ post=119421]Chrysler and Dodge products are junk. Pretty much anything European. Toyota and Chevy for me. Have 297,000 miles on my 1995 Silverado and it just keeps on going.[/quote]

agreed somewhat, Toyota does make cars that seem to last, though I am not much of a fan for foregn makes I have to hand it to Toyota, some of there cars are very good cars with the exception of the Prius which I think is nothing more than a sales gimmick. the Chevy Silverado of your year I have noticed seem to be the kind of truck that just keeps running, probably the Chevy 350… any Ford F-150 with a straight 6 300 in it lasts forever too, and I am not a fan of Chrysler either, so many issues with the Dodge rams of late 90s and early 2000s it makes me want to vomit, ignition coil gets wet it fries… distributor cap in the most Ludacris location, issues with there lateral links and chassis rusting out, I can go on and on about all the issues I have seen with a Dodge ram, the only Dodge car I think is worth anything is the Neon, and its slow… ugly… and pathetic. Most European make cost a arm and a leg just to buy let alone fix, and German cars are just money pits all together.

[dan]

[quote=”johnbalderas89″ post=119421]Chrysler and Dodge products are junk. Pretty much anything European. Toyota and Chevy for me. Have 297,000 miles on my 1995 Silverado and it just keeps on going.[/quote]

agreed somewhat, Toyota does make cars that seem to last, though I am not much of a fan for foregn makes I have to hand it to Toyota, some of there cars are very good cars with the exception of the Prius which I think is nothing more than a sales gimmick. the Chevy Silverado of your year I have noticed seem to be the kind of truck that just keeps running, probably the Chevy 350… any Ford F-150 with a straight 6 300 in it lasts forever too, and I am not a fan of Chrysler either, so many issues with the Dodge rams of late 90s and early 2000s it makes me want to vomit, ignition coil gets wet it fries… distributor cap in the most Ludacris location, issues with there lateral links and chassis rusting out, I can go on and on about all the issues I have seen with a Dodge ram, the only Dodge car I think is worth anything is the Neon, and its slow… ugly… and pathetic. Most European make cost a arm and a leg just to buy let alone fix, and German cars are just money pits all together.

[dan]

[quote=”JS” post=100197]

I’ve never ever seen an American built car last longer than 250,000mile. [/quote]

you aren’t looking hard enough, not to be rude if you aren’t being sarcastic I don’t think you are looking very hard at all, mid 90s trucks the Chevy 350 reach staggering mileages, the ford 300 straight six is one of those engines people claim won’t die… the jeep 4.0, had a friend who had a Mercury sable reach 280,000 before the trans gave out, engine ran great, Cummins owners claim 1,000,000 miles all the time, we had Powerstroke F-350s exceeding 300,000 at my shop, and the only reason the 3800 in my Buick Regal failed was because of severe abuse, and even after 2 spun rod bearings it continued to run for quite some time before it just wouldn’t start anymore, that engine had 200,000 miles on it, the engine I had put in it after that had 220,000 miles in it and still ran like a champ after it sat in a cold barn in the middle of the winter with its old black oil in it for months before it was put in the same car again and I beat the crap out it… wasn’t until I was dumb and added an entire quart of marvel mistery oil too the crank case and beat the crap out of it that it simply spun a rod bearing and I drove it everywhere anyway. American cars, 250,000 miles all the time…

[dan]

[quote=”JS” post=100197]

I’ve never ever seen an American built car last longer than 250,000mile. [/quote]

you aren’t looking hard enough, not to be rude if you aren’t being sarcastic I don’t think you are looking very hard at all, mid 90s trucks the Chevy 350 reach staggering mileages, the ford 300 straight six is one of those engines people claim won’t die… the jeep 4.0, had a friend who had a Mercury sable reach 280,000 before the trans gave out, engine ran great, Cummins owners claim 1,000,000 miles all the time, we had Powerstroke F-350s exceeding 300,000 at my shop, and the only reason the 3800 in my Buick Regal failed was because of severe abuse, and even after 2 spun rod bearings it continued to run for quite some time before it just wouldn’t start anymore, that engine had 200,000 miles on it, the engine I had put in it after that had 220,000 miles in it and still ran like a champ after it sat in a cold barn in the middle of the winter with its old black oil in it for months before it was put in the same car again and I beat the crap out it… wasn’t until I was dumb and added an entire quart of marvel mistery oil too the crank case and beat the crap out of it that it simply spun a rod bearing and I drove it everywhere anyway. American cars, 250,000 miles all the time…

[Brandon Driskill]

[quote=”4.6LOHCV8″ post=118876][quote=”TeenageAngst” post=15018]I haven’t really driven lots of cars so my opinion doesn’t hold a lot of weight but if there was one car I consider a blight on the road, one car that if I had my way would be stricken from history, it would be the Dodge Caravan and it’s numerous offspring. There’s really absolutely nothing exceptional about them in any way as far as the ride or driving experience is concerned. They look hideous from every conceivable angle but *particularly* the back. Getting caught in traffic behind one of these bulbous freaks of the automotive world is a comparable experience to being inside of a Vietnamese POW camp. This is exacerbated by the fact that these things are absolutely everywhere so you’re many times seeing multiple Caravans at the same time. Last but certainly not least though are the drivers. I can certainly understand why someone driving a Caravan they paid good money for would want to kill themselves but the driving habits of most Caravan owners seem to indicate they want to take with them as many people as possible. A Caravan, loaded with children, is the most ungracefully driven machine I’ve seen yet. No indicators, ever. Foot to the floor, flying by cars in all lanes regardless of traffic speed. Erratic lane shifts with no real purpose other than to cut someone off for the hell of it. Headlights are optional before 8pm always. They maintain this incredible precision of always being exactly in your blind spot yet completely unaware of their surroundings. I’m convinced a meteor could strike the roadway leaving a mile wide crater and every single Caravan driver would drive top speed right into it. That is unless there was a sign indicating road work ahead in which case they would all crowd into the one open lane to the right of the crater and attempt to hit the workers trying to fill in the hole.[/quote]

*Applauding* that is hitting the nail on the head my brother. but on top of that i dont know if a reliable dodge caravan exists, rather a entire crowd of them. every one i see or hear of needs at least 500$ work done to them mechanically.[/quote]
TeenageAngst basically was making a statement about drivers not vehicles, which is ridiculous. I know the Caravans aren’t Hondas, but the 2006 we owned made it to 180K without many repairs before it was totaled in a collision.

[Brandon Driskill]

[quote=”4.6LOHCV8″ post=118876][quote=”TeenageAngst” post=15018]I haven’t really driven lots of cars so my opinion doesn’t hold a lot of weight but if there was one car I consider a blight on the road, one car that if I had my way would be stricken from history, it would be the Dodge Caravan and it’s numerous offspring. There’s really absolutely nothing exceptional about them in any way as far as the ride or driving experience is concerned. They look hideous from every conceivable angle but *particularly* the back. Getting caught in traffic behind one of these bulbous freaks of the automotive world is a comparable experience to being inside of a Vietnamese POW camp. This is exacerbated by the fact that these things are absolutely everywhere so you’re many times seeing multiple Caravans at the same time. Last but certainly not least though are the drivers. I can certainly understand why someone driving a Caravan they paid good money for would want to kill themselves but the driving habits of most Caravan owners seem to indicate they want to take with them as many people as possible. A Caravan, loaded with children, is the most ungracefully driven machine I’ve seen yet. No indicators, ever. Foot to the floor, flying by cars in all lanes regardless of traffic speed. Erratic lane shifts with no real purpose other than to cut someone off for the hell of it. Headlights are optional before 8pm always. They maintain this incredible precision of always being exactly in your blind spot yet completely unaware of their surroundings. I’m convinced a meteor could strike the roadway leaving a mile wide crater and every single Caravan driver would drive top speed right into it. That is unless there was a sign indicating road work ahead in which case they would all crowd into the one open lane to the right of the crater and attempt to hit the workers trying to fill in the hole.[/quote]

*Applauding* that is hitting the nail on the head my brother. but on top of that i dont know if a reliable dodge caravan exists, rather a entire crowd of them. every one i see or hear of needs at least 500$ work done to them mechanically.[/quote]
TeenageAngst basically was making a statement about drivers not vehicles, which is ridiculous. I know the Caravans aren’t Hondas, but the 2006 we owned made it to 180K without many repairs before it was totaled in a collision.

[James O’Hara]

I had a 94 plymouth grand voyager it made it past 175k and I only got rid of it because the door was pulling away from the frame. Only work done to it that was major the transmission was rebuilt which is normal for any chrysler. Hell before i got rid of it I had it up too 114mph. It all depends on how well a vehicle is maintained, driven, and who is maintaining it.

[James O’Hara]

I had a 94 plymouth grand voyager it made it past 175k and I only got rid of it because the door was pulling away from the frame. Only work done to it that was major the transmission was rebuilt which is normal for any chrysler. Hell before i got rid of it I had it up too 114mph. It all depends on how well a vehicle is maintained, driven, and who is maintaining it.

[Andrew Button]

Yea, lots of these cars get bad raps because of bad owners. Opinions spread around here way too much. The biggest piece of crap on the road I am personally aware is Land Rover stuff – just horrible in all ways. And for older stuff the Toyota Hi Ace Van. A forklift engine in the middle of the van, really. Freaking garbage. The Nissan van that was made to compete with the Hi Ace van was so bad that Nissan bought all 33,000 back and destroyed them – When the factory buys them ALL back at much higher than retail price to get them off the road, its a pretty good sign the vehicle probably really sucks. Another absolute turd if is that Mercedes ML cars… we fixed planetaries on one of them, there were originally riveted in – about 1/2 of side slop –wonderful I have never seen a more poorly made part in any car, anywhere, no matter what the make. The Mercedes ML user reviews are an absolute riot. A riveted cam gear in an Early VW beetle is a close second in crapola engineering, but that was a 46 hp engine, not a driveline part for an SUV.

[Andrew Button]

Yea, lots of these cars get bad raps because of bad owners. Opinions spread around here way too much. The biggest piece of crap on the road I am personally aware is Land Rover stuff – just horrible in all ways. And for older stuff the Toyota Hi Ace Van. A forklift engine in the middle of the van, really. Freaking garbage. The Nissan van that was made to compete with the Hi Ace van was so bad that Nissan bought all 33,000 back and destroyed them – When the factory buys them ALL back at much higher than retail price to get them off the road, its a pretty good sign the vehicle probably really sucks. Another absolute turd if is that Mercedes ML cars… we fixed planetaries on one of them, there were originally riveted in – about 1/2 of side slop –wonderful I have never seen a more poorly made part in any car, anywhere, no matter what the make. The Mercedes ML user reviews are an absolute riot. A riveted cam gear in an Early VW beetle is a close second in crapola engineering, but that was a 46 hp engine, not a driveline part for an SUV.

[Lorrin Barth]

Walls of metal – before retirement I worked for a utility. While I generally did shift work, every so often they would rotate us out to days so we could get reacquainted with our families. Then, at work, I got stuck in a truck – climb in – climb out – drive carefully because of truck handling. Anyway, I had enough experience with trucks to wonder how they can be so popular.

There’s lots of 18 wheelers on the highway near my house and lots of traffic lights. Too often a semi gets rolling and can’t stop at the next light causing a big wreck. Surrounded by all the now tall pickups and fat SUV’s I can’t see to either side when the light turns green. I just have to wait until the sight lines clear with horns beeping behind me.

So what I hate are those walls of metal that keep me from seeing the road.

[Gary]

[quote=”barneyb” post=125813]Walls of metal – before retirement I worked for a utility. While I generally did shift work, every so often they would rotate us out to days so we could get reacquainted with our families. Then, at work, I got stuck in a truck – climb in – climb out – drive carefully because of truck handling. Anyway, I had enough experience with trucks to wonder how they can be so popular.

There’s lots of 18 wheelers on the highway near my house and lots of traffic lights. Too often a semi gets rolling and can’t stop at the next light causing a big wreck. Surrounded by all the now tall pickups and fat SUV’s I can’t see to either side when the light turns green. I just have to wait until the sight lines clear with horns beeping behind me.

So what I hate are those walls of metal that keep me from seeing the road.[/quote] I noticed that too. Pickups have gotten higher in height over the years and more “bloated”. Then you have the people who never take their truck off-road yet insist on putting a 6 inch lift on them. It’s funny, as a truck guy and someone who has done his fair share of offroading, a lift does not give you more ground clearance..it makes the frame/body/suspension ride higher. The actual purpose is so you can put bigger tires on and get ground clearance on the axles. Some guys just don’t get that. The axles will still be the same height without taller tires.

[Author]

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