The best and worst quality cars you’ve owned

Funny, same model cars different experiences loved my BMW '97 540. One of the worst was 2005 BMW 545, at the dealer every other week. One of the best is my 2014 BMW M6, change the oil and filters. My 2004 360 Spider has been good, great to drive. Had good luck with a couple GTI's. Another very bad one was 1986 Fiero GT.

 

Best: Chrysler 300M & 2004 Dodge 3500 pickup with Cummins 6 cyl common-rail diesel. No problems with either one, they did the job they were designed to do.

Worst: 1975 VW Rabbit. Horrible car. Bought it new, then cylinder head cracked, exhaust fell off, and the engine would mysteriously shut off. Rolling to a stop for a ten or twenty minute wait, the engine could be restarted and off I'd go until it did it again. The longest time it ran without shutting off while driving across Oklahoma was 20 minutes! I swore I'd never buy a VW product ever again- and I haven't.

 

DDs
Best - Porsche Macan Turbo with EPK and VT. A bulletproof SUV that genuinely acts like a sports car.
Worst - BMW 325i; just one component failure after the next. Never again.

Supercars
Best - F8 Tributo; no explanation necessary.
Worst - In that I have no desire to offend anyone, I must refrain from comment. Not a European or Asian marque.

 

Worst: 1972 Lotus Europa. Speedo went in first 5,000 miles, then everything else. No effective warranty organization. Best: 2019 Tesla Model 3. Three years of ownership and only had to replace the tires.

 

Worst:
All the cars we owned made in the 1970s - Chev Vega, Plymouth Barracuda (although gets points back for losing my virginity in it (girls liked it), Ford Mustang, Lincoln Continental, Cadillac.

Best:
My daughter’s 2016 Kia Soul, materials used were cheap (duh, it was $14k out the door new), has never needed any repairs, and has a fun manual transmission.

 

Worst was 1969 Fiat Spider my first car. Purchased for $1600 then $10000 in repairs in next 3 years and eventually sold for $800, but I had fun.
2nd worst a LEMON 2006 Mercedes S600 which Mercedes eventually bought back for every penny of the $134000.
Best hands down all three of the 911's I've owned (1985, 1995, 2006). 2nd best my current 2014 California but have been thinking to go back to a 911 Turbo.

 

Pretty hard to make a new car a lemon and get it bought back so that must have been something


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From what I understand, in California, it's super easy to get a car declared a lemon. An indie MB used car dealer here (Smith Imports) has them for sale all the time. I've driven several and supposedly the reasons have been comical, like not enough power or some minor thing that had to be replaced. Cars seemed fine. I never bit though as I'm shy of tainted titles.

 

Speaking purely on quality:

Best: E85 bmw z4, didn't break once, not even a button or hose.
Worst: 430 spider, something expensive seems to break once a month heh

Can't compare the drive though, 430 wins every time hands down!

 

As far as best in reliability and starts every time- 1998 Dodge 1500 pick up, 390K miles and only brakes, batteries and fluid changes, sold it running and not sure how long it lasted after that.
Worst was a 1985 citation X car with a V6, 8K miles and caught on fire on the freeway while doing 60 MPH.
Best to own for fun and excitement, my 2002 3 pedal 360 spider, soooo much more enjoyable than the F1 Modena I had.

 

Worst

• 2004 Land Rover Freelander 2.4 diesel. Registered a 'door not closed' issue driving home from purchase which took 4 months to properly diagnose and fix. In those 4 months had 2 recalls for 'wrong jack' (luckily didn't get a flat tyre) and 'dangerous fuel tank'..... so had them both replaced. Once new fuel tank installed had fuel pressure issues. Turbo "overheat" problem in month 6 - Overheat??? Really?? well, turns out there was the wrong turbo installed on that diesel engine which was WAY under specified, so this was replaced under warranty. Several other electrical gremlins and minor mechanical issues all before year 1 was out.

So, I cleaned it, had it serviced and sold it on day 1 of the 2nd year of ownership so the new owner had 2 years of warranty to help them with their purchase.

Best - a tie

• 2002 Holden Monaro CV8 - has annual service at dealer it was purchased from keeping everything original, and has only had one showstopper breakdown in 20 years: fuel pump died at a set of lights and I had to push it off to the side - pretty much can't predict that one. Still have it and the 350cc Chev runs like a dream and everything still works, even the cassette player.
• 2018 Kia Stinger 330S - 7 year warranty, and 4 years in have not had to use it, everything works perfectly, goes like a rocket.

 

easy choice. the worst car i ever had was a 1994 land rover discovery. mine was the THIRD one imported to the u.s. how bad was it? it was SO bad, it gave rise to the expression “doors falling off bad”. it was SO bad, it gave me the opportunity to drive every mid-sized american car as loaners during the time of my 3 year lease because mine was always in the shop for repairs. it was SO bad, the car (i can’t really call it “my car” because i don’t think i had it in my possession long enough to qualify) was in the shop so often, the service manager knew the first names of my kids and STILL sends me christmas cards each year!

the best car i ever had was a 2000 toyota land cruiser. after 3 years, not a squeak, not a rattle, not a single repair or issue, not a complaint. it was built like a bank vault (and almost got the same gas mileage). 19 years later, i STILL regret not buying it off the lease

 

Worst of 56 cars I’ve owned…1974 Mercury Capri. Brakes failed, gear shifter snapped off, seat backs quit being upright, timing gear cheap plastic and replaced several times, water pump replaced three times..
The best is my Jeep Grand Cherokee in terms of utility and cost of ownership. The best in terms of fun factor is the 458 with the Porsche C4S 991 a close second.

 

Only putting new cars in this list:

Worst: 2006 Mercedes E class (twice). We've had worse cars (way worse), but from a Mercedes you expect a quality product. Rattles and squeaks after a few weeks. Went back to the dealer multiple times and they claimed to have repaired it each time. Clearly didn't. Finally they took it in exchange if we took another E class. Rattled and squeaked again after a few days. Thankfully valet service did us a favour by writing it off at gatwick airport.

Honorable mention: 2002 Jaguar XJR. I genuinely think we did more miles in the loaner diesel S type they kept giving us. The XJR never ever ****ing worked. When it did it was glorious. Dumped the Jaguar after it died yet again, Jag brings us another S type loaner, and THAT breaks down just down the road.

Best: E38 735i, final facelift model. Not only was it utterly beautiful, it was faultless, drove like it was on butter, great engine sound, everything just felt like quality. This era of BMW was their absolute A game. It was black on black with shadow line as well...******* what a car. I want another, 740i or with S62 swap, apple car play, black on black with shadow line, M parallels, and redo all the rubbers in the suspension so I can have the same feeling it did when new.

 

In Cali you can get a car returned for not having the window sticker options listed correctly.

My most reliable car has been an ATS Cadillac 6 cylinder 4 wheel drive. Only thing that went wrong was the dashboard screen cracked. They can be bought on ebay for $30.00 or you can have the dealer replace it under warranty for $1500.00. That's the way dealers make their money now, ripping off the manufactures on warranty claims. Car has Brembo brakes also.

And yes the Milano is a disaster due to all the crap FIAT added electrically. ABS is also garbage on those cars. Otherwise a fantastic car I loved to drive. Sounded better than anything with 4 doors.

 

Worst- 1980's Chevy Monza, was screwed together very poorly and even though it was a 4-speed manual that tortured me too because the shift linkage would often pop off leaving you stuck in whatever gear you were in.

Best- Probably a tie between a early S2000 and early NSX, both were as close to automotive perfection right off the assembly line as I've ever experienced.

 

What? E39 was an excellent excellent car. You must have owned it later? Or you just got a bad one.

 

Yeah I think I just got a bad one- definitely not typical for BMWs of that era as I understand it- especially 5-series. Mine was pure crap-

 

Best city daily drive /work horse/value for money 2017 Honda Accord 3.5 V6. -Reliable and enough power to get the orange lights
Best exotic. 550 marenello sublime
Best Enzo v12. 365 gtc/4. Much more
Enjoyable than a Daytona


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Best - 2006 Honda Ridgeline. Quarter million miles and 16 years of ownership. Nary a rattle, CEL, issue until it topped about 220K miles.

Worst? Hmm. We've been lucky. Only car we sold quickly was a Toyota Tacoma, and that because we just didn't like the ride.

T

 

Interesting to see experiences that some people had.

I had an 04 s600 so same gen/engine as the one mentioned before without serious issue. TPMS computer failed for me but by then the car was 12 years old. Biggest thing wrong with the car IMO was the 130 mph limiter. IMO that car really needs at least a 155 or 186 mph limiter

Worst: 1998 golf gl with 2.0L engine. Literally everything went wrong except the engine. TCU cooked, a/c stopped working, radio short circuited, rusted through the floors. All of this before 120k miles. Had to dump it off at the junkyard. Honorable mention to the Evo X, nothing wrong with the car but everyone over hyped it and it didn’t live up to expectations particularly with the 5 spd.

Best: I had 2 separate 1994+ 3000GT VR4 twin turbos. One was gently modded to ~450awhp and I put 60k+ miles on it without incident over 6+ years. Finally went to scrapyard when a tire blew out on the highway and ruined most of the passenger side front. Other car I kept stock and had no incidents either. Extremely good in the snow with snow tires on. They also had a similar paint process to Lexus so rather rust resistant. I liked that I cut fit two car seats in the back so the whole family could go for a ride (before I had 3 kids)

Honorable mention: 2018 Charger 392. Owned with no issues for 3 years, great power, reasonable mpg. Massive trunk, a lot of passenger space.

Goes without saying: 1998 Lexus LS400



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Worst :
1975 countach LP400 , gorgeous car to look at , belongs in the living room as art . Nothing worked right , air conditioning sucked , the cabin was like a sauna in hot weather and of course the windows roll down a couple of inches , overheated all the time so had to install electric fans , fouled the plugs so here comes MSD , brakes were awful , the fuses arked all the time , tranny whined like a banshee , front end lifted over 200km/h , gutless , no way it had 380hp , maybe 330hp . But it looked and sounded fantastic and as much I hated owning it , I regret selling it as it is pure automotive art

Best:
2000 BMW M5
I drove it hard and fast everywhere, never skipped a beat . If I could find a mint one , I would buy it in a heart beat , best car BMW has made and I have pretty owned every M series till the early 2000’s

 

Nothing but nothing could ever match the true disaster that is (was) the Maserati Biturbo.

Not only was the car unreliable as can be but I was always astounded by the absolute poo-poo (I want another word there!) engineering and mfg of the car. Truly mindboggling as to some of the things Maserati did to that car:

1.) The clutch fork use to bend when push against the throwout bearing. To such a degree the fork would spread and slip past the TO bearing-locking itself between the clutch and TO bearing. Clutch would go nowhere, locked solid. Had to pull tranny everytime it did this. And it use to do this every other week. Finally made a new billet steel clutch fork to solve problem.

2.) The fwd bearing on the gear box input shaft would disintegrate every 4000 miles. Pull gearbox, strip gearbox down, rebuild. Replace syncros same time as they would also be going bad.

3.) Engine had wet liners with a really, really thin o-ring at base to seal liner wet side from the crankcase. But the engine block had a sharp ridge on it so everytime you slide a liner down with new o-ring the o-ring would get cut. And of course you never saw it. Put car together and water would be in oil sump. So pull head, pull sleeves and redo-only to have same issue. Did this 3 times in row before it worked!

4.) 3 Valve engine. And to save money the two intake valves had one cam follower that drove both valves. So when y0u did a valve clearance you had to choose which valve you shimmed for, or maybe an average??

5.) Was turbo'ed, no intercooler and a weber carb! And as the weber carb was pressurized by the turbo you had to have an airtight box around the carb. So how did you get the throttle cable and choke cable and fuel to the carb? You had to have airtight glands around everything!! Yea-That was going to work!!

6.) The rear lower a arms were never internally painted, and where a two piece welded stamping, with lightening holes. So the inner surface would rust, you would never know until the car just dropped down on one rear side as the a arm had snapped in half.

7.) The exhaust manifolds were cast iron and always cracked after a few thousand miles. And impossible to repair.

8.) The front struts would fail and cause car to take some really weird camber/caster angles.

9.) The interior would fall apart just by looking at it. The headliner would fall away at any time, the seats would split at anytime, the dash wood would fall away at anytime.

10.) AC and heater would work backwards. Turn on AC and get a lot of hot air. Turn on heater and get no heat.

And parts were more expensive than for a Ferrari!!!

I could go on but I am starting suffer from PTSD! Oh the horror, the horror!

 

I thought the synchros were shot it was so noisy so we took it apart , there was nothing wrong with it , just loud.