Least Reliable Vehicle

[crgildart]

My daughter wanted to pull the trigger on a 2016 Mitsubishi Mirage until we started checking in to it. Hard pass! Keeping the 08 Honda Fit and fixing the A/C and new stereo instead.

 

[Nancy Hummel]

My 2012 Mini Countryman. Mostly, a persistent check engine light and a skip issue when going from 5th-6th along with excessive oil consumption. It may be getting a new engine this week. I only have 100K on it and since Covid, I do not drive much at all. Not in the market for a new car.

 

[Tony S]

1999 Saturn LW. Their first "larger" car. It was a lemon. Left me stranded more than once. The only American car I ever bought or will buy. Too bad, because lots of the innovations in the more superficial areas were awesome. E.g. removable rubber cup holder liners you just toss in the dishwasher.

 

[Dwight]

Any thing I purchase lately. Granted, I don't purchase very new vehicles.

 

[cantunamunch]

1999 Saturn LW. Their first "larger" car. It was a lemon. Left me stranded more than once. The only American car I ever bought or will buy. Too bad, because lots of the innovations in the more superficial areas were awesome. E.g. removable rubber cup holder liners you just toss in the dishwasher.

OMG I never want to think about Saturn transmission problems again. GAH!

 

[johnnyvw]

My daughter wanted to pull the trigger on a 2016 Mitsubishi Mirage until we started checking in to it. Hard pass! Keeping the 08 Honda Fit and fixing the A/C and new stereo instead.

We've had a few Mitsubishis, they were very reliable. But that Mirage always shouted "cheap POS" to me....

To be fair, almost every car in that class does.

 

[johnnyvw]

The worst NEW car I ever drove was a Suzuki sedan, mid-2000's (I think). Brand new car, and it sounded like the transmission was going to grind itself to bits. What a piece of junk. I think that model was made by Daewoo.

 

[cantunamunch]

The worst NEW car I ever drove was a Suzuki sedan, mid-2000's (I think). Brand new car, and it sounded like the transmission was going to grind itself to bits. What a piece of junk. I think that model was made by Daewoo.

LOL - I had a Reno as a rental once. It's only upside was that it was better at staying on the road than a Toyota Yaris in a central FL windstorm.

 

[Bill Miles]

Forgot to add, in addition to the Corvette transmission problems:

1979 Honda Civic--Died on a road trip right after dealer tune up due to worn out distributor. Was able to wiggle things around and keep going. Worn out at 80k miles. Soured me on Honda forever.

1974 Mercury Capri--Stranded me when the plastic teeth on the timing gear stripped.

 

[crgildart]

We've had a few Mitsubishis, they were very reliable. But that Mirage always shouted "cheap POS" to me....

To be fair, almost every car in that class does.

Agree other Mitsubishi models are decent. That Mirage model is a lemon. Average life was like 140K miles with major transmission issues. Other MItsubishi models and other brand siimilar mioels are up around and over 200K on average Worst reliability rating of all 10 cars in that class/category across all the major publications. My guitar player's daughter has one. He said DO NOT BUY ONE.

 

[cantunamunch]

To be fair, almost every car in that class does.

Agree other Mitsubishi models are decent. That Mirage model is a lemon. Average life was like 140K miles with major transmission issues.

There is a viewpoint from which the problem with cars like ^this is NOT their lack of durability.

The problem is that they're priced to where people expect durability instead of recyclability.

 

[crgildart]

The worst NEW car I ever drove was a Suzuki sedan, mid-2000's (I think). Brand new car, and it sounded like the transmission was going to grind itself to bits. What a piece of junk. I think that model was made by Daewoo.

@johnnyvw our best friend had one of those early 00s Suzuki Foreza(?) That thing was ALWAYS in the shop, TWO transmissions.. One day someone asked her what "Forenza" means and she replied "SUCKS!!!"

 

[tch]

Nissan Stanza, c. mid 1990's. Not a bad car generally, but lack of attention to details in design/build meant hundreds of minor, but nonetheless infuriating issues.
My "favorite" was the fact the windshield wipers were attached to the motors with nuts that screwed on in the opposite direction of the wiper motion. So with every pass, the wipers slowly loosened the nuts, rendering the wiper arm less and less attached -- and finally completely detached from -- the motors. I still remember driving down the highway in a pouring rain with the wiper action becoming more and more erratic until they finally met in an unmoving X across the windshield.

 

[KevinF]

Nissan Stanza, c. mid 1990's. Not a bad car generally, but lack of attention to details in design/build meant hundreds of minor, but nonetheless infuriating issues.
My "favorite" was the fact the windshield wipers were attached to the motors with nuts that screwed on in the opposite direction of the wiper motion. So with every pass, the wipers slowly loosened the nuts, rendering the wiper arm less and less attached -- and finally completely detached from -- the motors. I still remember driving down the highway in a pouring rain with the wiper action becoming more and more erratic until they finally met in an unmoving X across the windshield.

Sorry to laugh, but the windshield wipers detaching themselves over time seems like one of those things that somebody should have realized...

 

[scott43]

Nissan Stanza, c. mid 1990's. Not a bad car generally, but lack of attention to details in design/build meant hundreds of minor, but nonetheless infuriating issues.
My "favorite" was the fact the windshield wipers were attached to the motors with nuts that screwed on in the opposite direction of the wiper motion. So with every pass, the wipers slowly loosened the nuts, rendering the wiper arm less and less attached -- and finally completely detached from -- the motors. I still remember driving down the highway in a pouring rain with the wiper action becoming more and more erratic until they finally met in an unmoving X across the windshield.

You're Kramer...

 

[sparty]

I had a 2000 Nissan XTerra that I bought with 214,551 miles. The engine seized just over two years later at 227,814, and it wasn't financially worthwhile to troubleshoot what may have happened (my best guess is that something went wrong with the timing belt or related parts, but I had that stuff changed shortly after I bought it and they really shouldn't have failed in 10k).

I wasn't surprised that something significant broke on a 17-year-old car with 227k. I was surprised that a Nissan engine with a fresh timing belt and oil in it seized, though.

Prior to that, my 91 Golf (bought around 180k, sold with something like 215k on it) was probably the least reliable vehicle I've had, but that was more than 10 years ago. My 2002 Taurus was an intermittently crappy POS (like wouldn't climb hills crappy) but I sold it without ever being sure what was wrong (it may have been the fuel pump, which was the last thing I replaced, but I don't recall having had enough time to conclusively say so after I had the repair done).

None of the above held a candle to my sled, though. 2007 M8 that ran great until it didn't, and then would restart when it was happy again. That generally took between 30 minutes and a week, so waiting for it to get better wasn't ideal.

 

[KevinF]

I've had three cars since graduating college in 1992.

• Mazda Protege : I was fresh out of school and didn't have the money to keep up the regular maintenance schedule other than oil changes. Still, it lasted like 150k, 170k miles. I think the emissions finally went.
• Acura RSX : Sporty little hatchback. I loved that car. It was basically trouble free until the emissions went at around 250k miles.
• Honda Fit : Current car. It's had a few issues -- AC went, a few emissions issues, door latches... Still running fine though at 180k. It's probably been the "worst" car, but it's still been pretty darn good.

 

[scott43]

These stories are awesome by the way..

 

[Ogg]

I would like to say it was the 1987 Dodge Omni that had been abused by my father's delivery drivers but it was actually the red 1982 Toyota 4x4 pickup that I sold that car to buy. It had been detailed up nice and the frame wasn't rotted so I bought it ignoring my wife's protests. It was a complete money pit and I didn't know enough to wrench on it myself. It burned oil like a 2 stroke leaving a Bondesque smokescreen in it's wake, had recurring brake and front end issues and with no power steering or A/C was miserable for commuting. It did however take me on some of my most memorable ski adventures and got me through some of the worst conditions I've driven in.

 

[Bad Bob]

Anything with Lucas electric systems.