Every American made car I’ve owned has been a piece of shit constantly falling apart and needing repair and maintenance. I thought that’s just how cars were for a while. Then I started buying Asian and German cars and realized Americans just can’t make a good car.
I had an American-made 2001 Honda Civic that didn’t start having significant problems until it was well over 100k miles. Had an American-made 2007 Accord that never had a major issue with 116,000 miles. Now have an American-made 2023 Integra, and I hope it fares the same.
Edit: but our American-made '96 Astro was a total piece of shit.
My dodge durango was the absolute worst. My bmws are amazing.
I had two ford Tauruses and both were gems. However the Chevy Malibu Hatchback I had was garbage.
It’s all in whether management lets the engineers make a good product or pushes for cost reduction above all else. American made Toyotas are just fine.
A similar thing is true with Chinese made goods. Companies that care enough to implement proper process and quality controls can have perfectly adequate quality come out of Chinese factories. It’s just that the companies that were quickest to export production cared more about minimizing every last cost than about quality.
98 Volkswagen Jetta. Rampant problems for everyone, not just me. Body molding falls off, window motors fail, water pump fail, wiper motor fail, 3 starters and an alternator, frame problem wearing out at the wheels, and the clear coat peeled.
When my third window motor failed, I drove my pregnant wife and her sister (who were in the car) to a dealer instead of whatever plans we had. I bought a Highlander on the spot and drove home in that. My wife drove that Highlander for 14 years.
I went from one extreme to the other! :)
Not a car I personally owned, but I knew someone with a 2010’s Audi (don’t know what year/model) where the trunk lock was always broken in a way they couldn’t repair, the fuel gauge had a mysterious not working issue for like a year plus, the windows didn’t work, and the transmission, while automatic, would stall out on you like a manual if it was hot out, just stranding you in traffic. And this was a new lease FROM Audi, not like a used lemon.
2010s* Audi
I can’t recall the year, but it was a Dodge Aries K-car, to pin down the era. Jesus. It was a replacement for when my 1970 VW Beetle died in an accident. It was not as good as the Beetle, which says a lot.
I did once for a job briefly drive a Chevy Chevette. That might have been worse than the Aries.
My parents bought a Plymouth Reliant K Car. It was so bad that no one in my extended family has ever considered purchasing a Chrysler product since. I don’t understand how Iacocca saving Chrysler with the K car was not prosecuted as fraud on the American people. That thing was a piece of shit. My favorite feature was how the air conditioner had a condensation collection tray that would fill with water as it operated. Then when you stopped the water would slosh out onto the feet of the front passenger. The floor in ours eventually rusted from the AC condensate. (Lived in Houston which is both humid and hot requiring year round AC). It had plenty of other problems too (shitty carb, bad brakes, lots of squeaks and rattles). My parents sold it before I was old enough to drive.
I had one of those that was grandma-owned but the transmission shit the bed within 5k miles. What a pos.
My favorite feature was how the air conditioner had a condensation collection tray that would fill with water as it operated.
That seemed to be a thing for that time period of cars, as I can recall others that did the same thing. How was that better than just a tube to the outside? Why?
Also a feature of cars then, having the vent to recirculate air close from the inside. Why is that a problem? Well, it isn’t until the car is moving fast, and then air pressure from the outside pushes the door open just enough to whistle. Again, was money saved by doing it wrong?
I e only ever had Japanese cars, and they’ve all been great. A Nissan, a Toyota, and a Subaru.
I had a little Mazda B2200 truck for a while. The gauges didn’t work so I had no idea how much gas I had, how hot it was, or how fast I was going. And it leaked everything, gas included. Thing only actually got me to where I was going half the time.
Gave it to a friend and he fixed it up
Hyundai sonata 2017
The door hinges do not hold the doors open. If the car is on a slight incline or a very slight wind the doors will slam shut. Better not have an arm or leg in the way.
The rear view mirror is set so low in the window that it blocks view of front right of the window.
The seats are hard as rocks. You can literally feel a metal bar that goes left to right through the seat. It’s right under your butt.
I’ll never buy another Hyundai again. Zero chance.
I had an '82 Ford Escort. Those things were notorious for lunching the motor if the timing belt ever broke (which they did every 45,000 miles like clockwork) while you were traveling down the road. The valves would stop in whatever position they were in at that instant, and then the momentum of the car would keep the pistons moving up and down, bashing the piston tops in to whichever valves were unlucky enough to still be open, ruining pretty-much everything. At the same time I owned that car, my best friend owned an '82 Chevy Cavalier. We were constantly one-upping each other over who owned the biggest turd…
To be fair, that’s the expected outcome for any interference engine that loses the timing belt, which is almost all modern engines as far as I know. 45k is a really short lifespan for a timing belt though :/
actually now that I think back it was the water pump that regularly went out at 45k, and it was run by the timing belt. The noise coming from the water pump is what usually alerted me and I was able to replace it and the belt at the same time, which spared me from ever losing the motor. I drove that thing til it had over 160k on it, which was a lot for one of those…
A 2011 GMC Terrain. It burned oil like none other. The power steering would occasionally just not work upon starting the car, requiring me to turn it off and on again a several times. Sometimes, I’d stop at a red light, the engine would die, and when I’d restart it it’d go into limp mode. And traction control and AWD would occasionally just give out, which can be dangerous where I live due to ice and snow.
The thing was a hazard and GMC and all associated brands can fuck right off.
I had a 2006 Ford Taurus that would’ve been stronger if it was built with Legos. Water pump fell off one day - like… just… fell off. The brackets weren’t broken or misshapen or anything like that, it just fell. None of the bolts were loose or unthreaded or anything. I know that doesn’t make sense. I KNOW. It makes even less sense that it happened twice.
There was also some kind of electrical issue that I could never isolate, but it was causing fuses to blow out every couple months, and would burn out the starter about once a year. I had to replace that starter so many times that I stopped needing to refer to my Chilton book for the steps. Sometimes the power steering would just stop working and then start working again with no warning.
lol. Wow.
Worst I’ve owned was a Saturn. Worst I’ve driven was a Chevy Malibu.
2002 ford explorer. You don’t see many 20 year old cars on the road at all, but that thing was already a rare sight by 2012 when I ignorantly bought mine.
After owning that pile of scrap for 2 or 3 years, when the 2nd transmission gave way and the front left suspension just sorta collapsed in on itself, I was left surprised that any of those cars survived beyond 2003.
I don’t buy new cars. I buy them 5-10 years old, and for a bit before, try to keep an eye on how many I see of them on the road. Not very scientific, but it gives you an idea of their longevity.
An Audi TT.
FUCK Audi. Never again. Nothing but problems with that heap of shit, and repairs cost more than I paid for the car.
I had a passat for 3 days when the engine almost exploded going over a bridge from engine sludge. I loved my Ranger and hate to speak ill of it, but it was a ford. I kept a full wrench set and spare parts under the jump seats. Most parts I’ve ever changed on a car and some repeatedly. Ultimately gave in to its unfixable head warp.
my 2011 toyota camry.
it’s also the best car I’ve ever owned, probably because it’s the only car I’ve ever owned.
