The best and worst quality cars you’ve owned

Best/why:

Porsche 356A: Beautifully built, doors shut with authority, zero cheap plastic, no rattles, square weave wool carpets, heavy chrome and glass gauges that are little works of art. Vintage but a tight, sporting drive.

Second place: Porsche 964: Again no rattles after 30 years, incredible shut lines, although the rear lenses fade and need regular replacement. Interior is ridiculously overbuilt - Porsche hadn’t yet put accountants in charge of design.

Worst:

1. Fiat X1/9: I actually loved this car, but it had every problem from major rust after 4 years, broken door lock, ate 4 wheel bearings in a year…

Second worst: 1998 Mercedes SLK230: Instrument cluster failed at 6000 miles, door panels peeled and came unglued, and the automatic gearbox clunked into gear.


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As I recall, Mercedes used to make high quality cars up until the early 1990s, then fell off a cliff.

Toyota is probably king of the hill today, but the quality seems to vary by generation. From what I've observed online, the previous generation of Camry and Lexus ES-350 is more trouble-free than the current offerings.

 

True, I’ve driven a 560SL and it was terrific. But I haven’t owned one so no long term experience. 1998 was a DaimlerChrysler year, probably the cliff you mention.



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Mercedes (and BMW) have been riding on their "German engineering" mystique F O R E V E R

Mercedes issues 'Do not drive' advisory for 292,000 SUVs
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/business/mercedes-suv-recall/index.html

.

 

Best was an 1989 BMW 325IX, bought new. It was a all wheel drive 3 series. It survived 3 teen drivers. All 3 of us took it off road and we beat the heck out of it. It lasted until 1999 with 460k kilometers on it. Had a bad valve by this point and decided to sell it.

Worst: 1986 Jaguar XJ6.

 

Best cars ever: Chevy Volt and Toyota LC

Worst cars ever: Mercedes GL450, ML320, Dodge Durango.

 

Best- Any Porsche- And I've owned 4

Worst- 1998 BMW 540i - Absolute POS

 

Mercedes taking a beating here…


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Porsche 924S and Alfa Romeo Milano Verde. Easily the worst. Maybe not Lotus Elan S1 or Biturbo bad but really close. I loved both cars and was hoping eventually a muzzle wouldn’t be necessary.
Nope, garbage.

Best, probably a Jeep Liberty. Cheap everywhere but basic maintenance only and everything still worked through 200k miles. Simple works.

 

Best - 2020 Dodge Widebody Redeye
Worst - 1979 turbo 4 cyl Mustang

 

Not sure how much manufacturing quality had anything to do with it, but my worst car was the first I ever bought/owned, a ‘65 BMW sedan, at the tender age of 15 (DL age were I grew up is/was 18) 40+ years ago.
It was also the only time I ever bought a car purely on emotional decision (I’m a quick learner).
The sole purpose of this acquisition was to loose my “innocence” by offering a ride(s) to any of untold number of young ladies commonly hitching such in and around the city/society I grew up in.
And no, they weren’t pros. This (cruising) was a very common practice for opposite sex teenagers to socialize.
I and my 16 y.o. friend co-purchased (50/50 investment/ownership) the car Thursday evening and shortly after “contracted” an 18 y.o. neighborhood guy w/DL to be our chauffeur/driver for the Friday evening/night.
Then, the following evening, with a full tank, enough adult beverages of all varietals to thwart off any potential issues or obstacles universe might throw at us (drinking in a moving vehicle is/was also legal for anyone other than the driver) and pants bulging with enthusiasm and expectations, we took off to one of many “usual” spots to find riders.
Within 30 or so minutes we had a pair of lovely and what appeared to be “enthusiastic” adventure seekers of oppositesex in the car (The driver was strictly instructed and paid to just focus on driving, not the riders), after which I requested the driver to “get on it”, so that we could quickly get to another friends house where a big party had been planned for that evening.
Well, 5-10 minutes before reaching our “destination”, perhaps at a speed of +/-120 KPH (limit was 100), the engine of this POS suddenly just quit & wouldn’t re-start, leaving us stranded on the highway.
Feeling/seeing the “enthusiasm” of our “riders” slipping away, I quickly surveyed the upcoming traffic, saw a taxi with its roof light on approaching, hailed it down, told my 16 y.o. friend and the “riders” to get in it, gave our driver some extra funds, asked him to deal with the car any way he sees fit and let us know the next day, how much more, if anything, we owe and quickly jumped into the taxi, to proceed with this “adventure”.
Unfortunately, all this proved wasted effort (& money), since as soon as we arrived to that planned party location, it turned out to be a dud and next thing I know, the “riders” had gone outside, saw another group of guys in a (fancy American) car, jumped in and were gone forever.
I’ve never been able to forgave that fiasco for the Bayerische Manure Wagen brand*.

It took another few months to accomplish the original objective, but that didn’t involve or require any vehicles…

All other (100+) cars I’ve owned since are/were intelligently bought and are/were all quite good.

As for the “best” , I’d have to say my “Hot Rod Roadster”, i.e. ‘32 Plymouth PB Roadster with a 276” DeSoto Hemi and other early ‘50s (all “period correct”) modifications. So far I’ve owned it over 32 years (with no plans to sell), driven 50K+ miles and without a doubt, it has given me more driving “pleasure” than, let’s say my 3-5 other favorite (vintage) cars combined.

All my DDs and/or modern (made within last 45 years) cars have been as exciting/interesting as our household dishwasher or refrigerator.

* Just last week a friend asked me to “fix” a minor issue in his 2019(?) BMW SUV (X5 ?) and I was shocked to see the quality(?) of OEM materials used in its construction being something I wouldn’t expect to see on anything other than cheap aftermarket kit car or something.

 

1972 vw bug

 

Sacrilege!!

(I own two Milano Verdes. There's a reason I own two of them. )

 

I had a 2005 Liberty as a daily driver and you're right, it never broke in the 3 years I drove it. Dull as anything, but it was reliable. Not much to break... My 1996 Grand Cherokee leaked oil after a month.

 

Best: 1990 Acura Integra. Over 100,00 miles of hard driving and only changed the oil/filters. Fantastic car.

Worst: We haven't had any real issues across the following brands over the past 25 or so years: Acura, Toyota, Lexus, Ferrari 328 GTS, Volvo and one Chevy truck.

We did buy a used five year old BMW 3 series (2000 E46) for one of our sons. What a piece of crap. I was always fixing something.

 

LOL. I loved that nightmare. And like so many Italian cars, driving a mile makes you feel the world is a better place.

After that, it’s a crapshoot. .

I had an unbelievable amount of stalkers follow me in the 75, it was beyond belief. And that is who I sold it to. A gent followed me inside my parking compound, double parked behind me and asked me to call him when I was ready to sell.

Exactly 24 hours after the sale was complete I received a phone call from him. “Uhh, is there another way to open the hood? The pull cable snapped…” .

Welcome, my friend, welcome.

 

Worst: 1983 Chevy Citation. I had to hit the AC compressor with a 2 iron everyday today get it to work. It was replaced under warranty and still didn’t work. I was doing 65 on the highway and the bottom of the dash fell off and hit me in the foot. It was a company car and I was stuck with it for 2 years.
Best: Any of the Porsches that I’ve owned.

 

My wife had a GM-era SAAB 900, which was lovely but terribly unreliable.

My 1993 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce cost $23k new, and Alfa of North America spent more than $6,000 on warranty repairs.

Matt

 

Best: Tesla P100D, owned it for 4 years, nothing ever went wrong with it, never even took it back to the service center once.

Worst: BMW E92: Water Pump, windows, turbos, intake, injectors. Everything on that car was a pain in the ass to fix too.

 

Best car: 2010 Mercedes S550 4matic. Hands down the best car I've ever owned. I've had three MB's in the last 20 years and all of them have been top notch with very few problems.

Worst car: 2006 Jeep Rubicon 2 door. The car itself was mechanically fine but it had extremely poor fit, finish, handling and overall quality. I was amazed at how crappy this car was. We had it about three months and sold it for more than we paid. People love these horrible vehicles for some reason. I think they suck.

Bonus category: Best car loved by the ladies: 1972 Triumph Spitfire in red/black. Young women would fall all over themselves just to touch it. No idea why.

 

Owned an '07 R63 AMG great car , reliable for it's complexity and excessiveness , had it for 12 years & 60k miles.
Tried a new '14 C350 4matic, pos crappy little car , turned it in in 6 months took a loss on lease termination.
Went back MB with an '18 E63S wagon , another great car for 2.5 yrs & 34k miles . I guess MB's higher end cars / AMG unit are put together better

All my Porsches were solid

Tried a '14 MKZ for 4 months yuk, traded in for a '13 XTS so much better

 

Best cars I have ever owned?

All my Mercedes

05 and 06 cl65 never had an issue and over 30k on each

19g550- 12k 0 issues

16 s63 coupe owned 3 years 40 k miles

——-

Worst?
Mmmmmmmm

Buick skylark 1996 (first car) and bmw i3


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The best car I have owned is my Z8! LUV MY Z8.

Joe

 

Unlike others, my 2013 911 had multiple problems in the first two years I owned it (which was two years after production--it was a CPO lease turn in). My 2015 Wrangler Rubicon had the nav drive fail once under warranty--fixed, then failed again two years alter. Other than that, with 55K miles, not a single issue. (I think it is most reasonable to compare cars of similar vintages.). Worst car though was my 2004 Maserati Spider--so bad that I sold it 4 months after I bought it at a huge loss--didn't care.

 

Best: 2017 Fiat 500 Pop
Bought new from dealer and have since put nearly 180k on it. Towed 2 boats at once (Sunfish on roof rack, O'day Daysailer on trailer), towed utility trailer, Uhaul trailer, motorcycle trailer. Yes, the trailer hitch and roof rack were stock (it was called the "adventure package"). I've done all the basic maintenance myself (oil, brakes, plugs, etc). Easy to work on. 35 mpg on avg; I've gotten over 40 mpg in the summer though. Most reliable, fun, and suprisingly capable car I'ver owned.

Worst: 1995 Audi S6. Needed constant maintenance. So many things on this car broke -- engine, suspension, electrical. Ridiculous. Annoying/frustrating to work on, even when it came to basic things.

My current F355 Spider and my former Alfas and old, rusty Jeep Wrangler YJ are all somewhere in the middle. So... in my purely anecdotal example, I guess this is a big W for Italy and a big L for Germany, lol.