Not a direct answer, but if you ever get a chance - go walk around a self-serve junkyard. This is where cars go when they finally just aren’t worth fixing anymore. It is eye opening. There are cars that you will still consider ‘new’ that have already given up the ghost (mainly Dodge/Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia, & Nissan). And you can’t help but think - WTF are these cars doing here, aren’t these still for sale at the dealership?
Conversely, there are also cars there so old you hardly recognize them (usually Honda, Toyota, and full size pickups from Ford/GM).
For a loose definition of “me” and more “my parents when I was young” was a mid-70’s Fiat. I have lots of memories where we waited in some parking lot or by the freeway for a tow truck or some other help to arrive.
Fix It Again Tony
Lol more like F*** It, Am Totaled
This I can confirm, I had a 70’s 124 coupe, was nothing but trouble. It is also my favourite car I have owned.
a mid-’70s* Fiat
Jeep. Not owned but have rented two. First one was a 2022 Compass. The electric system died mid highway. Never recovered fully. Second was a 2024 Ranger. A true shit box. After a week having it I despised that piece of shit.
Mercury Sable
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.
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
Not me, but someone I was dating. Her family owned a Chevrolet dealership and she was always driving some kind of lightly used mid-range sedan. Two of them catastrophically failed and one of them would randomly shut off when going over slight bumps. Like going over an expansion joint on a bridge could do a full shut off, no power steering, etc. These were all sub 20k mile cars. She would just get it towed back to the lot and get another one, like a disposable product. The family laughed about ripping off customers. The whole operation was banking off soccer moms buying enormous Suburbans and boomer nostalgia for Corvette. Basically just rent seeking an ancient contract to be the dealer for a large territory. Needless to say I will never buy a Chevy.
I bought a 1987 Cutlass Supreme and thought I had one of the best cars ever made. Except I bought it used in 2003. I learned a lot about carburetors and tightening belts that summer. The poor thing died one foggy fall day when a tractor grazed the side of it and the damage was more than the $400 the car was worth.
The car I had the most trouble with wasn’t because it was a bad car, but because it kept getting trashed. VW Cabriolet convertible. Bought it when I got my first real job out of school.
One week after driving it off the lot, parked on a busy city street, someone slashed the roof and tore out the stereo. Fixed it all up. Insurance rate went up. Six months later, knife through the roof AND a smashed window. Stereo gone. Switched to a removable, pull-out stereo. Still got broken into.
Had dozens of slashes/smashes. At one point, just left the door locks open. Nothing to take. Someone slept in the back seat (left food wrappers) and pilfered through the ashtray where I kept loose change.
Loved driving it with the top down, but what a pain it was to fix.
2016 Chevy Volt. Needs an EGR valve.
Chevy: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No.
That’s when you put in a block off plate instead.
Do they not make the valve?
The OEM part is, as the service manager at the dealer put it, “on intergalactic back order.”
They don’t make the OEM part any more, and anyone who has new stock isn’t selling it to other dealers. You might be able to find a Chinese version, but if you have a warranty or service plan, you’re rolling the dice with it.
It’ll be a class action suit one day, I feel it in me bones. 🏴☠️
Should be a class action suit now. Isn’t it typical to have 10 year part availability?
Maybe I’m totally wrong, but doesn’t EGR stand for EXHAUST Gas Recirculation? Is the Volt a hybrid? I thought it was an EV and thus had no exhaust.
Edit: This was a joke, wasn’t it?
The Volt is a PHEV, I think the Bolt is the pure EV. I was considering its Vauxhall badged version years ago as a choice for a company car.
The volt is hybrid both gas and electric
The Volt is a hybrid gas & electric. The gas engine is there in part to charge the battery, and in part to power the electric drivetrain.
Under normal drive conditions, the gas engine short-cycles and doesn’t really come up to operating temp, which gums up the EGR valve causing the valve to pull too much current and start blowing fuses that power other critical parts of the battery charge control circuit. Left us stranded on an interstate this past spring until I could limp it to an auto parts store off the next exit to buy a replacement fuse. It ate two more before we could get home.
(edit: the OEM part is no longer manufactured, and what OEM stock is left is unobtainable. What’s left is remanufactured, Chinese aftermarket, or a scam. Install at your own peril.)
The workarounds to disable or bypass the EGR (for now) can cause other potential issues with the engine in the long run. Simply disconnecting the EGR keeps it from blowing fuses, but then the car isn’t road legal in many states because it fails emissions. Also, the EGR is part of the combustion engine’s cooling system, so not recirculating hot crank case gases works the rest of the cooling system harder, and potentially damages the pistons & cylinders.
The whole situation is a mess. Thankfully we have a second vehicle that’s a regular gas engine, so we use that one for distance driving, and can just use this one for around-town driving while we figure out what to do next with it.
Probably my 2008 Suzuki Reno. It’s coolant system was made of such brittle crumbly plastic that it would crack and leak out all the coolant, and I didn’t realize this at first I didn’t know to look for it, so I get off the highway after driving 20 miles just in time for huge plumes of white smoke to be coming out of the front of my car.
I got it fixed only for it to crack again and leak again. And it became this nightmare of whack a mole where I’m constantly adding coolant, constantly checking my temperature gauge, constantly bringing it in to be fixed.
And then the whole engine died on the highway and I had to pull over while driving to my new job.
Mid-2000s Suzuki Forenza. I loved having a hatchback for getting additional storage while not sacrifing fuel efficiency. This part was good on paper, but I had issues with overheating + lack of power + alignment, but the real killer was constantly needing to replace the transmission selector switch—which got me ripped off for quite a while before I know what was wrong & mechanics absolutely took advantage of me if I didn’t say exactly what was wrong. This affected almost everyone that bought the vehicle. I stuck with it for like 4 years, & ditched it for a early-2010s Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart Hatchback which was nicer in literally every way & had no issues with the vehicle. As a bonus I didn’t have to be yet another Subaru Outback driver meme.
I didn’t have it terribly long tho—I had to sell it to leave the US. I had to sell it to a dealer since I couldn’t find a buyer, & it was kinda rare to find them. Guys at the dealer ran out to gawk at it, one piped a “this is a nice car; why you think you had trouble selling”? “It’s not a Subaru”, I lamented. The rest of the men nodded their heads in agreement with that fake smile of knowing the truth. & now Mitsubishi no longer makes sedans/wagons.
But despite moving from something I loathed to loved & selling prematurely, I am not too sad since being outside the US, having a car is not a requirements where walking, public transport, & a motorbike (want a bicycle) cover my needs while being much cheaper & better for the environment.
Not mine, but an ex-girlfriend had a Mazda 3 with a blown clutch. That thing sucked.
What year model was it?
I don’t remember, this was back in the mid-'90s so it was no later than '95 or so.
Must have been the 323, before they rebranded to 3 in the early 2000s. Shame for you it was broken, they were good drivers’ cars in a modest way
2001 F150, hands down
1994 Pontiac sunbird. 2.0 liter iron duke had 80 hp when it was brand new. God knows what it was by 2001. Thankfully it had a manual transmission, but that thing REEEEAAAAAALLLY struggled on the smallest hills.
Sounds like a hella inefficient 2.0L.
Oh it absolutely was. It was a weak POS that would last forever. The thing was in service since 1977. I have a 2.0l in my MX-5, and that engine is incredible!
