The Worst Cars on the Road.

[N2NH]

This is a list compiled by Forbes with some information from Consumer Reports.

GM had 4, Chrysler had 5, Nissan 1 and Mecedes Benz had 1. Ford had none.

In Pictures: The Worst Cars On The Road (http://www.forbes.com/2011/04/13/mercedes-gm-chrysler-nissan-business-autos-worst-cars_slide.html)

Story here. (http://www.forbes.com/2011/04/13/mercedes-gm-chrysler-nissan-business-autos-worst-cars.html)

[W3MIV]

I have no ax to grind, but I don't trust Consumer Reports having once bought one of their "best buy" recommendations and found it to be among the worst cars I have ever owned (1972 Plymouth -- V8 with a ten-gallon tank during the "gas crisis" of 1973, and a diff that went south at 17k miles).

I trust Forbes ("Capitalist Tool") even less.

[W5GA]

The last article I read (either Car and Driver or Road and Track, don't remember which) said the worst reliability record awards world wide went to Benz and Bimmer.

[NQ6U]

The last article I read (either Car and Driver or Road and Track, don't remember which) said the worst reliability record awards world wide went to Benz and Bimmer.

Could be. The thing that we Americans tend to overlook is that in the rest of the world, the Benz isn't the luxury brand it is here. Everywhere else, they make cars of a wide range of prices and quality levels. Watch a foreign movie sometime and you're likely to see fleets of Mercedes Benz taxicabs.

[kb2crk]

working for many years as an auto mechanic I know what brands i worked on the most. Chrysler was not one of them. i have owned gm's fords and chryslers and i have had the worst luck with the fords. i currently have a dodge caravan with 255k on it, a town and country with 155k and a plymouth acclaim with 190k. the vans still run flawlessly with basic maint. the acclaim needs a trans because i screwed up and knocked the shifter into reverse while accelerating. of the fords i have owned, one was a crown vic, motor ate a piston 500 miles after i bought it at 95k, a mercury lynx that i had for 3k before it swallowed a valve at 50k. and several others. the gm's i have owned have at least made it to 150 k before junk time.
i rarely have gotten rid of a chrysler before the 250k mark. several were over 500k.

[kb2crk]

why it went up twice i am not sure.
delete dupe

[W3MIV]

Could be. The thing that we Americans tend to overlook is that in the rest of the world, the Benz isn't the luxury brand it is here. Everywhere else, they make cars of a wide range of prices and quality levels. Watch a foreign movie sometime and you're likely to see fleets of Mercedes Benz taxicabs.

You're right and you're wrong. The reason that many taxicabs around the world are MBs is because they held up extremely well under the grind of daily service as a cab. Most cabs were privately owned (at least they were when I was in Germany and Austria), and their owners sought the maximum utility at minimal cost of operation. Too, the MB was "upscale" in its reputation, comfort and larger than many other sedans, particularly in the period following War2 when the "tradition" was established.

Nowadays, I would expect that the choices are far greater, especially so since much of the current MB production rivals Toyota in size. In the fifties, sixties and into the seventies especially, only the big Opels (Admiral and Kapitan) offered significant competition to the MB for cab business, and there were many of them serving as cabs. In Europe, a cab had to be a roomy, durable sedan that was painted black.

BTW, the MB panned in the article did not suffer its fate by being a poorly built bit of junk.

As for the Bimmer, the 5-series tend to be good cars, if a bit pricey, and the 7-series autos are very fine machines, well crafted and well designed, if a bit pricier yet. I am loathe to even think of spending $80-100K on any car. You can't blame BMW for promoting their lower-order cars as "ultimate driving machines" when there are so many yuppies and buppies out there who will fall for such marketing blather. All that matters to some people is what total strangers might think of them as they drive past in their Bimmer (or Jaguar, or Porsche, or fill-in-the-blank). I cannot imagine one particular friend of mine driving a new Hyundai Equus, even though it is the cost of my current Sonata less than his Bimmer and better equipped and warranted. Image is all.

Talk about delusions!

[N8YX]

To me, an "ultimate driving machine" will do mid-9s in the quarter and has a 0-100 time of just over 3 seconds.

(It isn't a car. And you can buy ten of this particular machine for the price of one 'well appointed' 7-series sedan.)

That said: Mazda and Subaru grace our driveway. I wouldn't mind owning a Dodge Viper if I had enough extra garage in which to store one. Perhaps a turboed Nissan 370 Nisma.

[ka4dpo]

In 2003 I bought myself a Dodge Hemi Ram and my wife a BMW Z4. The Dodge never caused me any trouble but the tranny (torque converter) was getting strange so I dumped it after a year with only 4500 miles on it. The Z4 was in the shop 4 or 5 times in the first year for something other than routine maintenance and at least twice the next year. Got rid of it also and got her an MX-5, that little sucker ran like a top and never had a problem. I like Hondas, Toyotas, and Fords in fact, I'm planning on getting a new F-150 with the Eco Boost engine. We'll see how that one does.

[KG4CGC]

working for many years as an auto mechanic I know what brands i worked on the most. Chrysler was not one of them. i have owned gm's fords and chryslers and i have had the worst luck with the fords. i currently have a dodge caravan with 255k on it, a town and country with 155k and a plymouth acclaim with 190k. the vans still run flawlessly with basic maint. the acclaim needs a trans because i screwed up and knocked the shifter into reverse while accelerating. of the fords i have owned, one was a crown vic, motor ate a piston 500 miles after i bought it at 95k, a mercury lynx that i had for 3k before it swallowed a valve at 50k. and several others. the gm's i have owned have at least made it to 150 k before junk time.
i rarely have gotten rid of a chrysler before the 250k mark. several were over 500k.
Our 2001 Dakota was at 238K before some bitch of questionable sobriety hit it in the GE parking lot last Thursday night at 10:49PM. Fortunately my GF was not injured, just a little sore but the truck had another 6 years of service on it before we would even consider an engine rebuild. On that V6, you do need to pay attention to the cooling fluid levels. The system would naturally evaporate cooling fluids and you could lose a water pump if you did not watch it. Everything else (oil and tranny fluids) was simply change it and check it.

[kb2crk]

i have owned several subarus and i was impressed with them. i beat the living hell out of them and they just kept on running.

[W3MIV]

i have owned several subarus and i was impressed with them. i beat the living hell out of them and they just kept on running.

I could say the same thing about VW Beetles, but I'll be damned if I ever want to own one again.

[kb2crk]

I could say the same thing about VW Beetles, but I'll be damned if I ever want to own one again.

i had one of those too for a short time. a patch of black ice on a curve and a utility pole took care of it..

[KG4CGC]

I could say the same thing about VW Beetles, but I'll be damned if I ever want to own one again.
Retightening the the nuts and bolts on the engine was a common weekly ritual on mine. I did however drive it to its fullest and it rode like it was on rails with the McPherson strut front end.

[W3MIV]

Retightening the the nuts and bolts on the engine was a common weekly ritual on mine. I did however drive it to its fullest and it rode like it was on rails with the McPherson strut front end.

Well, my two -- a 1957 and a 1965 -- did not ride "like it was on rails." The trailing-link rear suspension would as soon tuck a wheel under as track if there was the least excuse to do so --> snow, ice, bit of sand or gravel, etc. Those wonderful 5" wide bias-ply tires didn't help. I should point out that the tuck-under would occur when the wheel hit a patch of solid friction.

I had the '57 in the Alps winter of '65 while I was a stu at the US Army Intel School, Europe, in Oberammergau. Miserable POS tried to kill me countless times -- the Germans do not scrape roads, they merely mix cinders with the snow and hope that the resultant ice-pack will retain some grit. It usually works out OK for cars with a front weight bias and a bit of understeer. The legendary traction of the engine-over-the-drive-wheels was great when going in a basically straight fashion, but when the road got twisty, the trusty VW got squirrelly. Never rolled the sucker, but did many an award-winning pirouette that would have made Sonja Henie jealous.

[kb2crk]

Retightening the the nuts and bolts on the engine was a common weekly ritual on mine. I did however drive it to its fullest and it rode like it was on rails with the McPherson strut front end.

it appears that you had the super beetle Charles. the standard beetle and every beetle prior to 1970 used a transverse torsion bar front suspension. great for off road but a little squirrelly on road

[W1GUH]

The last article I read (either Car and Driver or Road and Track, don't remember which) said the worst reliability record awards world wide went to Benz and Bimmer.

Surprised Audi wasn't in that list. Do German cars still lose their valve guides at 10,000 miles or less? All Audis I ever owned did.

It's also very surprising that Car and Track or Road and Driver (didn't they merge?) say anything negative about BMW's. Every road test I read about them were total gushes -- but they were never, ever rated on reliability.

It was a very sad day in the automotive world when VW forsook the ultra-reliable, simple, and easy to work on bug for the awful, horrible, frightful Rabbit which was nothing but an Audi.

[W3MIV]

I remember when VW bought NSU and Auto Union and merged them to form Audi. Both companies had long reputations for quality in their respective markets that were, of course, severely disrupted by War2. NSU, IIRC, made mostly two-stroke stuff and motorcycles; Auto Union, of course, had been building some pretty glitzy sedans 'til the war. They were an East German outfit, originally. NSU was in either Heidelberg or Heilbronn, if memory serves (as often it does not). Maybe Neckarsulm, now I think of it.

Matter of fact, I remember now it was NSU that first produced the Wankel engine.

Checking on Wikipedia shows that NSU made some pretty spiffy sedans for a while.

[WØTKX]

Had a Super Beetle as well, a 72 with the flat glass windshield in an orange color. Pretty good car, had a lot of fun with it, but got into the Opel Manta Obsession and sold it. Loved those Opels.

Used to get cheap winter beaters living in MN, and the Mopar products gave me more crap than others, unless it was a straight six, had some great Dodge Darts and one Valiant. A Ford Falcon and a Maverick did OK, again, straight six motors.

All the Honda, Nissan/Datsun and Toyotas I've owned were great. VW Jetta (89) Carat for 9 years that was still on the original clutch at 190K when I sold it, the only thing it ever needed was CVC joints, and door handles, they used to break off. The Jetta was the first car I ever bought with payments.

Was into smaller usually foreign compact cars pretty quickly, even when the Oldsmobile Cutlass was King.

More recently I had a Mazda (Ford built) 626 break a wrist pin at 130K, and a bent valve in a Pontiac Sunfire at 116K. Sunfire was kind of a crap box, with a good stereo. Yuch. The Mazda was a damn nice car till it crapped out.

I'm pretty floored with my aging but still zoomy '97 Integra. At 190K it's still quick, handles good, and gets 36+ on the highway if I take it easy. The new Previa gets 27 on the highway at 70-75, pretty good for a big round brick. I want to try a slower back road 50-55 run soon, as I think I can do better.

[W1GUH]

Ever wonder what the 4 circles in the Audi trademark mean? The four companies that made up the Auto Union...Audi, Horch, Wanderer and DKW. August Horch established the Horch company. Then he had a falling out with the company and started a new company. He couldn't use Horch, so he used Audi -- Latin for Horch.

Story here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horch)

[WØTKX]

Audi and VW together fixed a lot of what was wrong with Audi.

Speaking of Beetles, here's the new one for this fall. Nice lines.

http://image.motortrend.com/f/30694999+w750/2012-volkswagen-new-beetle-spied-front-three-quarter.jpg

[W1GUH]

But do German cars in general have valve guides that fall out within 10k miles? That was the norm in the 70's.

And, IMHO, it's a travesty to call that a Beetle. A REAL Beetle has an air-cooled 4 cylinder engine in the rear and windshield washers that run off of tire pressure. And a gas gauge? Who needs a gas gauge? Use the reserve tank when you run out!

Beetles were cool...had a 4-on-the floor (double date? :giggity:), a sunroof, and Baby Moon Hubcaps!

[WØTKX]

The Opel's had a cool way to pressurize the windshield fluid, a squeeze bulb on the left side of the floor covered with a foot pedal with a switch. There was a dash wiper on off switch as well. One tap on the pedal and it would wipe the blades once, hold it down, and it would keep wiping. Pump hard and it would squirt.

That sounded baaaaaaad. :lol:

[W3MIV]

Speaking of Beetles, here's the new one for this fall. Nice lines.

http://image.motortrend.com/f/30694999+w750/2012-volkswagen-new-beetle-spied-front-three-quarter.jpg

Sorry, but I prefer these lines:

4078

[WØTKX]

I kind of like the retro modern look. The PT Cruiser does that too. The HHR tries, but it's ugly.

The Sonata is nice looking, kind of zoomy. But then, there is really ugly, and in keeping with the topic...


http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/06/conti-k-car.jpg

[KG4CGC]

I kind of like the retro modern look. The PT Cruiser does that too. The HHR tries, but it's ugly.

The Sonata is nice looking, kind of zoomy. But then, there is really ugly, and in keeping with the topic...


http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/06/conti-k-car.jpg
http://www.brokencountry.com/index.php/2010/02/07/griswolds-wagon-queen-family-truckster-in-the-super-bowl/

[NQ6U]

Speaking of Beetles, here's the new one for this fall. Nice lines.

http://image.motortrend.com/f/30694999+w750/2012-volkswagen-new-beetle-spied-front-three-quarter.jpg

Not bad but, to me, these are nice lines:

http://www.calconnect.com/weekly_photo/1957_Ferrari_250_Testa_Rossa_HR.jpg

[KG4CGC]

Not bad but, to me, these are nice lines:

http://www.calconnect.com/weekly_photo/1957_Ferrari_250_Testa_Rossa_HR.jpgGood luck picking up chicks in that oneleism mobile.


As for my Beetle, yes, it was the 313.

[NQ6U]

Good luck picking up chicks in that oneleism mobile.

Hey, who cares? I'm married. In any case, if I had the money to buy a Ferrari 250 Testa Rosa, I do not think I'd have to worry much about finding chicks.

[KG4CGC]

Hey, who cares? I'm married. In any case, if I had the money to buy a Ferrari 250 Testa Rosa, I do not think I'd have to worry much about finding chicks.
Yeaaaah, I was basically making fun of what looks like a one seater. Big Red Go Cart anyone?

[NQ6U]

It's a two-holer, it's just got a red (leather, no doubt) tonneau cover over the passenger seat.

[KG4CGC]

I remember visiting a preserved old Georgia plantation when I was a kid with my parents and relatives. One of the most notable features was the 8 and 10 hole Outhouses located in several places throughout the site. The tour guide let it be known that beyond a shadow of a doubt, "the Georgians believed in togetherness." I still couldn't figure out how to work the corn cobs though. Just couldn't understand why anyone would do that to themselves.

[NQ6U]

I still couldn't figure out how to work the corn cobs though. Just couldn't understand why anyone would do that to themselves.

Yeah, give you hemorrhoids just thinking about it, doesn't it? I'll take the Sears catalog over corn cobs any day.

[KG4CGC]

Yeah, give you hemorrhoids just thinking about it, doesn't it? I'll take the Sears catalog over corn cobs any day.
Not only that, stage one was removing the kernels in one manner or another. Stage two was taking the cobs to the outhouse. Stage three was taking those cobs over to the hogs. A bit bizarre.

[suddenseer]

I wish that I had my baby back. 2000 gmc sierra. I bought new in 2000. I traded it for a new Silverado 4door crew cab. I only replaced 2 batteries, 1 starter, one tie rod. I used synthetic oil, and changed the transmission fluid every 30K miles. The odometer was 20 miles shy of 500K when I traded her in. I miss this truck, it was good to me.
http://s1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa328/suddenseer/?action=view&current=gmc.jpghttp://s1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa328/suddenseer/?action=view&current=gmc.jpg http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa328/suddenseer/gmc.jpg

[N8YX]

I wish that I had my baby back. 2000 gmc sierra. I bought new in 2000. I traded it for a new Silverado 4door crew cab. I only replaced 2 batteries, 1 starter, one tie rod. I used synthetic oil, and changed the transmission fluid every 30K miles. The odometer was 20 miles shy of 500K when I traded her in.
That truck belongs in someone's record book - I've never hear of one of their products lasting that long without major engine/transmission work.

Here's the Ferrari I would like to lay my mitts on:

4084

But for half the price of a used "BB", the turbocharged version of the Nissan below will eat the Prancing Pony's lunch:

4085

[W3MIV]

But for half the price of a used "BB", the turbocharged version of the Nissan below will eat the Prancing Pony's lunch:

4085


As well as eat your lunch in gas costs.

[suddenseer]

That truck belongs in someone's record book - I've never hear of one of their products lasting that long without major engine/transmission work.There were many tune ups. The tranny fluid change is over $100 these days. I made several cross country camping trips.The last tune up mechanic suggested a major overhaul to the engine as a pm measure. There are many trucks over a million miles, and still
running (http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?id=157). I failed to mention many sets of tires/brakes. I think 12 sets of tires. I run Mobil 1, changed every 6K miles. I also had to replace ball joints, and tie rods in the front end. Batteries, starters, alternators, thermostats, and other maintenance parts. No major work was done.

[W1GUH]

Yeah, give you hemorrhoids just thinking about it, doesn't it? I'll take the Sears catalog over corn cobs any day.

Yea, but the cobs are wonderful for the itching.

For other uses, read Sanctuary by Faulkner.

[W1GUH]

I remember visiting a preserved old Georgia plantation when I was a kid with my parents and relatives. One of the most notable features was the 8 and 10 hole Outhouses located in several places throughout the site. The tour guide let it be known that beyond a shadow of a doubt, "the Georgians believed in togetherness." I still couldn't figure out how to work the corn cobs though. Just couldn't understand why anyone would do that to themselves.

The Romans had big, public bathrooms with many, many holes. Seems it was a major social function to crap together.

[NQ6U]

The Romans had big, public bathrooms with many, many holes. Seems it was a major social function to crap together.

"The family that craps together...."

Hmmmmm... What rhymes with crap?

[KG4CGC]

slap

[suddenseer]

Trap (yeeeehaaawww)

[NQ6U]

Flap? Clap? Sap? Lap? Rap? Map? Tap? Yap? Nap!

"The family that craps together naps together."

Kinky.