patrick.net

no car is the best car. all cars suck period.

Best car was a Honda Accord. Nothing fancy but it ran perfectly, no problems, just change the oil on schedule.

The worst car was - ahem - from a different company. Beyond that, we shall not speak of it.

Worst car? I've been fortunate. All have been reliable. But for amenities, my '88 Toyota FX was a tin-box stripper. Paid $500 for it, put $200 into it, ran great and reliable for 50K miles, and sold it for $800...

My best car was my '99 CRV, which I finally got rid of last year. Bought it used in '00, put 180K on it, and sold it for $4k....2nd runner up, is my '76 BMW 2002. A great car to tinker/upgrade, while a blast to drive, and gets thumbs up here in the Northeast, where they ain't so common.

Worst Olds Toranado, 92 Honda Civic, 198 or 199 Acura
Best '89 Ford Econoline E150, 77 Dodge Tradesman, 98 Dodge Caravan, 2002 Mazda MPV, 2012 CX-9

I guess I'm a Van man.

Best car, hands down 94 honda prelude vtech. I scrimped and saved like a mofo while every other kid was struggling thru HS, I bought it for myself as a graduation present. Had it as fine tuned as you will find a naturally aspirated motor vehicle,,,and could bang on plenty of cars of higher prestige on the strength that I am a professional driver. Bought in 99 for 11,9k and sold for 9.7k three+ years later. I beat the living piss out of that car, as if I was a product tester for the rev limiter. Never gave me any issues

Worst car was 2001 nissan maxima anny edition. Had always heard everyone have such good luck with maximas, so I chalked that one up to bad luck, and likelu bad previous ownership. It was a money pit from hell

Currently drive a 05 chrysler pacifica, and I have zero complaints

I think I've owned 20 motor vehicles in my 15 years of driving, and the nissan was the only one that ever gave me any problems

Sort of depends on how you define best and worst. My best value has to be the 1984 diesel rabbit I bought for $100 from a friend. It just needed an interior cleaning, a tire and a battery. I did do $700 in maintenance over the 4 years I had it, but I got over 40k miles on it and it did 40 mpg. I'd never own it today, though.

Worst was an 1986 dodge ram... Rear end went out, engine had trouble....pos

My current 2007 Subaru outback has been almost flawless...love it except for the throw out bearing that failed resulting in premature clutch job.

I'll always have a soft spot for my 1988 Volvo 240 wagon. What an awesome car. Parts were so cheap, and you could fit so much in the back...it almost brigs a tear to my eye.

swebb says

Sort of depends on how you define best and worst.

I guess that's open ended and everyone is welcome to approach it in their own way.

For me, when I think about all my cars I've owned, some of them put a smile on my face, and some of them give me an ulcer. It's not very scientific, but my list shows cars I've been pleased with, cars that I haven't been pleased with and the reasoning.

BayArea says

I am currently driving a 2001 Lexus GS430 and think it's a fine car. It has the same level of luxury I would expect from BMW/Benz but at half the maintenance cost. Plus, the styling is out of this world. I haven't had her long enough to draw any conclusions however.

Yeah, the GS is pretty good. Handling is not as sharp as a bimmer but it is very comfortable.

Japanese cars tend to be refined but most of them have weak low-end torque.

It is hard to drive like a gentleman if you have to rev it up all the time.

Best Car: Subaru Impreza WRX wagon, blast to drive, can carry stuff, looks like Japanese toy wagon that hides incredible solidity and reliability, goes fast but acts like econo box when kept below the turbo kick at 3000 rpm.

Otherwise, I have liked most of my cars one way or another, no major lemons, just hassles and some problems. Volvo c70, sublime seats, great to drive, awkward steering radius, but has that TORTURE chamber panel that must be some kind of dealer support subsidy scheme that just has to act up every 1000 miles, won't own again for that alone.

Peter P says

Yeah, the GS is pretty good. Handling is not as sharp as a bimmer but it is very comfortable.

That's what I thought until the coilovers and the 19's went on. Handles fantastic now (wheels are still BMW for what it's worth ;-) had to redrill them for the Lexus 5x114.3mm bolt pattern).

Peter P says

Japanese cars tend to be refined but most of them have weak low-end torque.

It is hard to drive like a gentleman if you have to rev it up all the time.

Again, that's why I was seeking the 300hp 4.3L GS430

Cool!

They don't make V8 GS's any more. :-(

My GS300 lacks power.

Ya, but I think the new 6cyl aren't too shabby eh?

what year is your GS300?

BayArea says

Ya, but I think the new 6cyl aren't too shabby eh?

what year is your GS300?

I forgot... '03 or '04.

The engine is very smooth and it has good power at higher rev. Problem is, the transmission is not always quick to downshift.

I've only had two so far as I keep vehicles until the wheels fall off. Current vehicle is a 17 year old Toyota Tacoma. Its got 254,000 miles on it. Its simply reliable and I seldom do anything to it.

Peter P says

BayArea says

Ya, but I think the new 6cyl aren't too shabby eh?

what year is your GS300?

I forgot... '03 or '04.

The engine is very smooth and it has good power at higher rev. Problem is, the transmission is not always quick to downshift.

That 2JZ 3.0L in-line 6 engine is one of the most reliable engines to be ever produced.

My GS has almost 150K miles and it is still going strong.

We only fixed the same door lock twice. Otherwise, it is very good indeed.

Yes, the engine is super reliable. But I will trade some high-end power for more low-end torque. :-)

150K is just getting started. Plenty of 200K and even 300K examples out there as long as the car is maintained.

Mine had a loose front suspension when I got it at 90K miles. I went ahead and swapped the ball-joints, tie rods, caster arm bushings to tighten the feel back up...

Pretty much done spending money on her now.

Yeah, she feels as solid as a new car.

My Geo Metro. Bought it as a 4 yr old used car with 44k miles on it. Drove it for another 100k+ miles and only routine maintainance and not even at regular intervals.

Drove that thing cross country-coast to coast- and all over creation. Never had a problem. Finally started to get engine noises and so traded it for my new car.

Worst? Porsche 924 Turbo. Horrible POS. Climate control never worked, turbo coked every 18 months or so (despite proper warmups and cooldowns). paint crazed. The worst part was the complexity. It was a terrible car to work on. It seems Porsche looked at the engine bay and decided to stuff every part they could into it - no room to do anything. I've seen FWD cars with smaller engine bays and the ENTIRE DRIVETRAIN under the hood with far more room to work.

Second worst? 'mid '80s Toyota Corolla. It had a bad stutter I could never get rid of. I spoke with a few other owners who had the same problem.

Other crap cars? Mid-90's E class Mercedes and mid '00s BMW X5. Both were constant sources of expensive repair bills for things like broken door handles (BMW), valve lifters(Merc), electrical gremlins (Merc), rubber door seals (BMW), the list goes on.

Best cars? Honda Accord, Jeep Cherokee. Honda just works, period. Jeep looked like hell but was dirt reliable.

New Renter says

Other crap cars? Mid-90's E class Mercedes and mid '00s BMW X5. Both were constant sources of expensive repair bills for things like broken door handles (BMW), valve lifters(Merc), electrical gremlins (Merc), rubber door seals (BMW), the list goes on.

I've heard this from a lot of people about some of those brands. I think what they do really well is initial fit and finish, handling, and the attention to details and styling. But the long term reliability is crap.New Renter says

Best cars? Honda Accord, Jeep Cherokee. Honda just works, period. Jeep looked like hell but was dirt reliable.

I had a friend with a Jeep Cherokee. These are real hit and miss. His had the straight 6 in it. He STILL has it. He told me he has never changed the transmission fluid in it- which is really bad. His has well over 350,000 miles at this point. Amazing it still runs.

edvard2 says

I had a friend with a Jeep Cherokee. These are real hit and miss. His had the straight 6 in it. He STILL has it. He told me he has never changed the transmission fluid in it- which is really bad. His has well over 350,000 miles at this point. Amazing it still runs.

Yep, that AMC straight six is an amazing beast. The 4sp auto transmission is sourced from Aisin, same as Toyotas.

The drivetrain was not the problem with those cars, it was the body hardware. Lots of squeaks, rattles, wind noise, etc. Taking mine off road was a mistake - everything loosened up after that. Still since most of my driving was highway I just turned up the radio and got used to it.

CaptainShuddup says

Worst Olds Toranado, 92 Honda Civic, 198 or 199 Acura

Best '89 Ford Econoline E150, 77 Dodge Tradesman, 98 Dodge Caravan, 2002 Mazda MPV, 2012 CX-9

I guess I'm a Van man.

Yes they are great....for living in down by the river.

Best car. 1991 Honda CRX. This car never dies. Nearly any part will work on this car! Great for parking. It'll probably get stolen because it is so awesome though.

Depends on what you call best. My 20 year old 735il is a terrific car that I enjoy every day. It does everything so well you don't even notice. My 86 5.0 mustang lx was stone ax reliable for 290k and fun as hell. Nothing ever broke. Sold it very reluctantly to move overseas. A trio of ford fiesta's in the early 80's were tons of fun as urban warriors but were sorely lacking for long distance trips. Dodge and Ford vans were always good to me.

Stone losers, 87 jag xjs, 80 toyota corolla, 97 subaru outback. Owning a jag is like zipping up your dick, it's so painful you only do it once. It's like owning a f14, you need 50 hours of maintenance for every hour of driving.

CaptainShuddup says

I guess I'm a Van man.

Why does that not surprise me?

OK, I'm being unfair, but you walked right into that one and I have no self-control when it comes to inappropriate jokes.

bob2356 says

Owning a jag is like zipping up your dick, it's so painful you only do it once

---------------------------------------
HAHAHAA... That's really funny. You made my morning...

Worst car: 75 Pinto (about that year, not sure). It caught fire, and I replaced the water pump so often that I ended up keeping one on-hand. The front end shook, the cars had springs that popped up thru the seats and the thing smelled like fumes. It was one of the recalled model, the put a plate behind the gas tank to keep me from exploding (if I didn't die from the fumes).

Best car: 75 Pinto. Exclusive of all of the above, I bought it for $250, the water pumps were about $40 and I could change them myself. At that price, it was the perfect car to go "crick bombing" (driving fast and flipping donuts in the muddy creek beds), plus we could fit about 8 drunk roomies in it and when my horse kicked the shit out of it I didn't care at all.

That's highly entertaining. My engineering ethics class at UCLA was based on the Ford Pinto and the responsibility that we as engineers have when it comes to designing products with both function AND user safety as the priorities.

Someone above mentioned the Jeep Cherokee. That's definitely a hit or miss. I've known people who swore that they just couldn't break these no matter what they did while others complained about them being money pits.

Some other notables that we've had in the family:

1985 VW Jetta - I guess I can't complain too much since it did go 200K miles without any work to the engine/trans/clutch/differential. But it did have some pesky problems that just kept on surfacing. The fuel pump was replaced no less than 5 times and it simply would not run in 100+ degree weather. We had it into the dealership several times and we could never identify the problem conclusively since it was intermitent. The interesting thing was that if you put fresh fuel (cold fuel in it) when it was stumbling and missing, it would run great for about 15min. Then once it heated up, it would start it again. It was the most bizarre thing. The interior quality was just horrendous too. I remember my old man and I in the early 90's getting stranded on the Bay Bridge as the gas pedal fell to the floor. Apparently some plastic grommet that held the throttle linkage broke off, lol. The pedal fell to the floor and the throttle blade closed. And one other memory... We are driving and all of a sudden hear the most awful "metal dragging on asphalt" noise. We get out and the rubber fastener that holds the muffler to the chassis broke off. Easy fix. I did learn to drive stick on it though!

1987 BMW 325I 6cyl - Loved this car. Like many BMWs it had a lot of little pesky problems like window switches and door lock actuators, but it was a blast to drive, and did everything decently well (acceleration, braking, handling).

1987 300D 6cyl - Also reliable in the transportation department, but constantly having little pesky things break like the BMW.

1987 Camry 4cyl - Went 200K mostly trouble free miles. No complaints but I do recall it struggled in the mountains with a family of 4.

As mentioned above, loved the Mustangs and played with them for a few years. Here are some pics:

Worst Car: 2001 Civic EX 4 door, threw a cam at 40,000 miles; need i say more? Many friends have them of this vintage with some problems, radiator being the worst. I just got very unlucky as I did not flog that car, I loved it till it died.

Best Car: current car, 2003 Tiburon. I am very lucky as I've doubled the mileage of my Civic without so much as a fuse needing replacement.

Besides the fluke engine death, I've been very lucky with cars. Even my first; a junker Amc eagle would never ever just die, if there was gas in it; would take you where you wanted without drama.

Danaseb says

Worst Car: 2001 Civic EX

OMG, how could I have forgotten this one! My old man commutes 85 miles per day between Pinole and Pleasanton. Therefore back in 2001 he thought it was a good idea to buy a Civic EX automatic for the commute. Sure it got 35mpg on the highway, BUT:

Transmission blew on me in the rain on I-5 in Los Angeles coming back from San Diego on New Years day. It had about 95K miles. Between getting soaking wet pushing the car off the highway, racking up towing bills, and purchasing plane tickets to get back home to SF and later pick the car up, that one cost me about $4500 total.

Then at about 120K, the balljoint snapped essentially braking the passenger side wheel off the car causing steering to be lost. Lucky that this happened at slow speed.

Don't even get me started with the smog failing problems.

Sorry folks, I'm done with Honda after that experience.

bob2356 says

My 86 5.0 mustang lx was stone ax reliable for 290k

Bob, got a pic of this one? Loved those EFI 4-eyed Mustangs from '86

BayArea says

bob2356 says

My 86 5.0 mustang lx was stone ax reliable for 290k

Bob, got a pic of this one? Loved those EFI 4-eyed Mustangs from '86

Not in digital. But it was stone stock black 86 coupe. I was the original owner and really, really hated selling it after owning it almost 20 years. Bought from a dealer that had it as a "demo". Pretty odd having a demo that was one of the last 100 cars produced for the model year, had 18k miles on it, and bald rear tires. I always wondered if they demoed it anywhere besides raceway park.

Had a 67 coupe with a 427 medium riser for 10 years that I raced at englishtown in SS/B with the manual and SS/C with the auto running 11 flat at 135 if I drove out the back. It was "street legal" but barely. Definately a toy, not transportation. Used a 69 fairlaine 428 cj as a tow car. Can't believe the numbers these cars get now. In the early 80's when I sold them (again to move away) they had almost no value at all, 1k for the fairlaine, 2k for the stang.

bob2356 says

stone stock black 86 coupe.

Please scan and post! '86 coupe is one of my favorite Mustangs of all time. Light-weight and no non-sense!

My first car was a 1967 Mustang 289/C4 that I drove to high school. I've also owned the following:

1987 GT T-tops 5-speed
1992 Mustang LX Hatchback AOD
1993 Mustang LX Coupe 5-speed (white one pictured above)
1994 Mustang GT 5-speed
1996 Cobra 5-speed (red on pictured above)

They are fun and reliable toys and I daily drove them for many years. But I did get to a point where it was time to move on from them and grow up, lol.

And yes, it was around the time "Fast and Furious" came out 3-4yrs ago that I noticed a huge surge in the price of classic cars. We'll start seeing that with the 86-93 Mustangs soon too I bet.

But ya, back in the 90's and even early 2000's, classic muscle cars didn't command big bucks.

I also did a lot of drag racing when I was younger at Sacramento Raceway and Infinion Raceway (I still call it Sears Point).

elliemae says

Worst car: 75 Pinto (about that year, not sure). It caught fire, and I replaced the water pump so often that I ended up keeping one on-hand. The front end shook, the cars had springs that popped up thru the seats and the thing smelled like fumes. It was one of the recalled model, the put a plate behind the gas tank to keep me from exploding (if I didn't die from the fumes).

Best car: 75 Pinto. Exclusive of all of the above, I bought it for $250, the water pumps were about $40 and I could change them myself. At that price, it was the perfect car to go "crick bombing" (driving fast and flipping donuts in the muddy creek beds), plus we could fit about 8 drunk roomies in it and when my horse kicked the shit out of it I didn't care at all.

Ah Pintos. We had a few country squires in our family as well. Its funny to see one today and wonder how the Hell we fit a family of five in one of those things.

Then I remember - back then kids were cargo!

BayArea says

Please scan and post! '86 coupe is one of my favorite Mustangs of all time. Light-weight and no non-sense!

Sadly that will have to wait until I finish a large house remodel and get everything out of storage. The 86 coupes (mine was a total stripper without even air) were little too light weight in some respects. Getting off the line was much more challenging than my 427 stang although in all fairness the old side oiler's big cam had zero torque below 3k, then all hell broke loose. The 5.0's made torque everywhere which combined with the flexi flier chassis and the truly dreadful goodyear gatorbacks made launching a crap shoot. On the other hand steering with the throttle is always great fun.

Thanks to gatorbacks I really believe more 5.0's went off the road backwards than any other way. They would load up the sidewalls until they sprang back and kicked the tire loose. Once loose they never regained traction. I once went a least 1/4 mile absolutely sideways on the NY thruway at 80 mph before I got it back after some moron decided to do a u turn without looking and I had no option but to crank the wheel hard. Worst tires goodyear ever made.

I'm considering importing a late 90's cobra. The rules have recently changed here and I would not have to convert it to right hand drive. I'm seeing some 97/98's for pretty good prices.

The 5-liters were an absolute blast. What other car back in the early to mid 90's could you buy for $12-13K new with that kind of power, a durable 5-speed, posi-traction and EFI?

There were huge production numbers on those cars but also a huge amount were wrapped around telephone poles or simply wrecked due to lost control. Although I loved that solid live axle because of the durability and low cost maintenance, they were unpredictable especially with the flimsy control arms that allowed a huge amount of deflection.

Bob, today the 96-98 Cobra is probably the best value Mustang of any 79-present variety. The one pictured above, I made 300rwhp with nothing more than exhaust, underdrive pulleys, short runner intake, cold air induction, and a tune. They lack low end torque but that's nothing a 4.10 or 4.30 gear can't address.

Best of luck. And you are right, throttle steering was too much fun.

I've only owned 3 vehicles to date: a used 2000 Saturn LS2, a new 2008 Saturn VUE XE, and a 2011 Nissan Sentra SR.

My least favorite would be the used 2000 Saturn LS2. The vehicle's first owners, an older couple, ended up trading it in for a 2007 Saturn VUE because the vehicle was a constant sources of expensive repair bills. In the beginning, they kept up with its maitenance. But when the problems started emerging (around 30,000 miles), they started maintaining it less and less. When the problems became too frequent and close together (around 50,000 miles), they decided to give up on it altogether. When I purchased the car it had 57,000 miles on it. The problems started 2,000 miles later. In the 7 months I had it, I spent $3,000 to fix all the problems that cropped up every 2-3 or so weeks. Every time I turned around, I was taking it in or the Saturn technicians were finding problems while it was there to be serviced for routine maitenance. I paid $6,000 for it used and feared I'd pay another $3,000 7 months down the road so that's when I decided to ditch it. This vehicle, by far, was the worst I've ever owned.

My favorite would be the new 2008 Saturn VUE XE. It got decent gas mileage for an SUV, especially when it came to highway driving, handled well in wintery conditions, and made for great long distance travel. Not to mention, zero problems the entire time I had it.

Obviously, I haven't had the Sentra long enough yet to say yea or nay to owning it.

wosrt - Ford Focus.

Best - Hond Civic or Toyota Camary (tie)

Most nostaligic - 76 Dodge Dart