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Car mistakes?

Nero

Nero

Re: Tired
Following on from the 'Why do we change cars?' thread, I wondered if anyone here had made any car mistakes?

My contribution was when I was a bit of an Alfahead, and I had a 3.2V6 GT for a while. I loved that car although it was a real bone-shaker, and you couldn't listen to the radio because of the (beautiful) noise, but eventually after 70k miles, I had to think about a replacement.
I needed something a bit more economical and practical so I traded the GT in for a 159ti station wagon with the 2.7 diesel lump and big wheels.
I went through the front tyres in 7,000 miles, and the fuel economy was tragic for a diesel (low thirties IIRC)
It was quickly chopped in for a Prodrive V6 Brera. I mean, if you're going to burn fuel, you might as well have fun doing it!
 
My worst car mistakes aren't that severe but I'd say they were:
  • Most boring: Audi A4. Not only was it pretty boring to drive but it also had some niggly issues that the very poor dealers weren't able to resolve. Most annoying was that the ignition would occasionally lock solid (causing a couple of AA call-outs to get going again) and the dealer couldn't (or wouldn't) get replacement parts to fix it under warranty.
  • Most unreliable: Ford Mondeo 2.5 V6. Sad really, as it was a nice car to drive and quite quick (for it's time). It spent a lot of time in various dealers getting fixed (both in the UK and in Belgium, where I was working at the time) with the worst fault being all 3 catalysts melting. It was still under warranty at the time but took some persistence for Ford to eventually fix it at their cost. I also had to limp it back from Belgium to the UK as the Ford dealers over there had never seen a V6 before so had no idea what to do with it. The mechanics in the UK hated working on it as well as there wasn't much space under the bonnet and the engine got too hot to work on very quickly, even if just started for a couple of minutes to check stuff. It visited several dealers and, as seems to be the case with Ford dealers, all were awful.
I've had worse cars (including my first, a Mini 1000 and a Fiat Panda 1000 - both of which were rustbuckets) but can't really complain as I think I paid £150 - £200 for each of those!
 
Yes. My new (leased) Octavia was a serious mistake. I had foolishly assumed it would be like the last one, idiot that I am. I like cars that always have speedometers where speedometers are supposed to be, that don’t flash up messages telling you there is a roundabout ahead so slow down stupid, that start when you turn a key, that don’t make tapping noises when it thinks you aren’t paying attention (I think this is what it’s doing, it’s the only explanation I can come up with for these sounds), that have heating systems that are not ‘smart’, a satnav that you can zoom in and out on by using a knob rather than pinching on a touchscreen, don’t give out an ear-piercing warning that you are going to hit something a split-second before you think it’s time to slow down (cont. p.94)

The software on the satnav crashed after three days. I took it to the local dealer where the service manager (who I think was about twelve years old) reset it. He asked if there was anything else he could explain. I suggested a button marked ‘revert to old version’ would be handy. Ha ha, he said. It took me three months to learn how to use mine and [glancing at me meaningfully] I’m pretty tech-savvy.
 
A B reg Austin Maestro, bought from my dad for £200. I wuz robbed :D

Joking of course, but what a dreadful car. Ugly, heavy, slow, 4 speed, handled like a drunken cow. Had great fun on Southport beach though, failing spectacularly to do J turns.

It lasted 6 months before the engine showed soon-to-be terminal issues, but by then I was getting ready to go travelling so only needed it to last another month. I took everything valuable out of it (um, just the tape player and my tapes) and left it unlocked in the back streets of Birmingham city centre while I was at work. Came back to it one evening to find someone had put the driver's window through, so for those last few cold November weeks I drove it without one.
 
Cars I shouldn't have bought: Fiat Brava 1.6 (just utter rubbish, lots of niggling faults because Italian QA), BMW 330cd Cab (dull), Audi A4 2.5TDI quattro avant (lovely car but a money pit), MB CLK320 Cab (thirsty, dull).

Cars I regret selling: BMW E24 M635csi, BMW E30 325i MSport, BMW E34 525i Sport (Avus blue M5 clone), Saab 9000 Aero (loads of fun in FWD), manual Volvo V70 & S60 D5 (just well screwed together and a great engine).
 
Buying a professionally converted VW camper van. It’s great, reliable, I can’t really fault it, but… well, it’s way too small for a family of four plus two medium-large dogs, and my boys never really took to the idea of weekends away. I should sell it, especially as used values are strong (it’s only got 37k on the clock and is really pretty nice) but I do quite like having one.
 
deebster said:
A B reg Austin Maestro, bought from my dad for £200. I wuz robbed :D
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Did it have the talking dash? I remember working on a TV show once (probably Top Gear, it’s the sort of thing they did) where they tested how suitable cars were for everyday use by racing them round a track. The driver rolled the Maestro, and after three or four revolutions it eventually came to a halt upside-down in the middle of the course. As the wheels flap-flap-flapped to a halt and folk ran over to extract the driver, a soothing female voice came over his mic - ‘warning, oil pressure is low.’
 
Settling for a 2006 Subaru Legacy 2.5i when I really wanted the GT version, and I was too impatient to wait four months for next shipment. I thought I was being clever saving a bit of coin with the lesser model. Instead, I had buyer's remorse for three years.
 
The first car I bought was a 10 year old Ford Fiesta diesel. Drove the car home and called my roommates to show it. Oil everywhere under the car. Had it fixed, used it for half a year then got a leasecar. Sold it to a mate. First time he wanted to use it, it didn’t start and it had to be fixed again. Maybe it just didn’t like new owners?
 
deebster said:
A B reg Austin Maestro, bought from my dad for £200. I wuz robbed :D

Joking of course, but what a dreadful car. Ugly, heavy, slow, 4 speed, handled like a drunken cow. Had great fun on Southport beach though, failing spectacularly to do J turns.

It lasted 6 months before the engine showed soon-to-be terminal issues, but by then I was getting ready to go travelling so only needed it to last another month. I took everything valuable out of it (um, just the tape player and my tapes) and left it unlocked in the back streets of Birmingham city centre while I was at work. Came back to it one evening to find someone had put the driver's window through, so for those last few cold November weeks I drove it without one.
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I had one of those as well, although it didn't make my worst cars list. Mine was also a B-reg and was the 1.3HLE model (with a hugely high 4th gear) and also ate an engine - due to a water-pump failure in its case. It was vastly better than the cars my friends had at the time though (Mini's, Mk 2 Escorts and even a Marina).
 
Marchbanks said:
Did it have the talking dash? I remember working on a TV show once (probably Top Gear, it’s the sort of thing they did) where they tested how suitable cars were for everyday use by racing them round a track. The driver rolled the Maestro, and after three or four revolutions it eventually came to a halt in the middle of the course. As the wheels flap-flap-flapped to a halt, a soothing female voice came over the driver’s mic - ‘warning, oil pressure is low.’
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A colleague of mine used to work in a transport cafe near a notoriously dangerous stretch of the old A604. An MG Maestro went off the road in the dark and the only way the emergency services found it was that voice "oil pressure low...fuel level low..." etc.
 
deebster said:
A B reg Austin Maestro, bought from my dad for £200. I wuz robbed :D

Joking of course, but what a dreadful car. Ugly, heavy, slow, 4 speed, handled like a drunken cow. Had great fun on Southport beach though, failing spectacularly to do J turns.

It lasted 6 months before the engine showed soon-to-be terminal issues, but by then I was getting ready to go travelling so only needed it to last another month. I took everything valuable out of it (um, just the tape player and my tapes) and left it unlocked in the back streets of Birmingham city centre while I was at work. Came back to it one evening to find someone had put the driver's window through, so for those last few cold November weeks I drove it without one.
Click to expand...

My first car was a £600 Montego 1.6 LX auto. Apart from the automatic choke regularly flooding the engine and leaving me stranded, a boot lock that permitted me access to it when it wanted ("yes boss, I know there's £5k of stock in my boot which you need for the Christmas sales but I can't get in the b*stard"), a fuel filler cap that behaved like the boot when it came to granting access, terrible structural rust and the piston rings failing so I ended up sitting in a cloud of thick blue smoke at junctions, traffic lights and queues, it was alright I s'pose. Comfy too.
 
Marchbanks said:
Did it have the talking dash? I remember working on a TV show once (probably Top Gear, it’s the sort of thing they did) where they tested how suitable cars were for everyday use by racing them round a track. The driver rolled the Maestro, and after three or four revolutions it eventually came to a halt upside-down in the middle of the course. As the wheels flap-flap-flapped to a halt and folk ran over to extract the driver, a soothing female voice came over his mic - ‘warning, oil pressure is low.’
Click to expand...

Nah, god bless ya guv. Was the 1.3L, replete with plastic plates where switches were not.

Made even more distressing as dad bought it new through my uncle Len, who used his employee discount.

The door is a jar... :D

 
Seeker_UK said:
My first car was a £600 Montego 1.6 LX auto. Apart from the automatic choke regularly flooding the engine and leaving me stranded, a boot lock that permitted me access to it when it wanted ("yes boss, I know there's £5k of stock in my boot which you need for the Christmas sales but I can't get in the b*stard"), a fuel filler cap that behaved like the boot when it came to granting access, terrible structural rust and the piston rings failing so I ended up sitting in a cloud of thick blue smoke at junctions, traffic lights and queues, it was alright I s'pose. Comfy too.
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That reminds me of the time I killed my Peugeot 405. It had an automatic dipstick which told me on the dash that the oil was low,so I got out and put loads of oil in without checking the physical dipstick. I now know what ‘dieseling’ means, as I disappeared in a cloud of smoke up the road while the engine fed off its sump oil.
It was towed to my local dealership where I said ‘take me to your sales department’. To be fair, it had already done 75k miles
 
A Mondeo 2.3, bought at 3 years old. Lovely to drive, when it worked. It spent more time in the dealer than on the road. I suspect it was actually a little older and had spent a year in the factory field
Power steering rack failed
Power steering pump failed
Those horrible thin plastic water return pipes kept breaking and losing all coolant
Chronic over heating problems - it had the dodgy in the wheel arch wiring that stopped the fan reaching full speed.
I don't think it could take Malaysian heat, the Mazda 6 equivalent has two cooling fans
Void bushes broke - its a Ford
 
all my cars seemed to meet my needs at a moment in time, apart from the Mk2 Escort i bought from a cousin who was emigrating. What i hadnt realised was the electrics had suffered some sort of water ingress, and the lights, wipers etc etc only worked intermittently. Drove it about 15 mins down the road, when i realised my £250 had bought me a wreck, turned round and got my money back.
 
Jamie said:
First car.
Allegro.

Nuff said ..
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Definitely a leading candidate for "worst car I've ever driven", and with the worst understeer as well. Other candidates were the likes of Lada's and Polski Fiat's - back when I used to help out at my uncle's garage in the summer holidays and did a lot of delivering of cars.
 
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