Cars that exceeded or didn't meet your expectations ?

[ozboz]

In the UK, where it rains occasionally, the later Navara had a nasty habit of actually snapping in half. Nice.

I’d believe that of a two wheel drive , bad chassis, that Ute of mine was regularly on the beach bashing waves etc, also fording creeks in the hinterland and we did get some really bad floods that I had to get through to get to work , part of the preparation at new was ro have fish oil pumped into the chassis box section , it stunk a bit for while , but it did help combat deterioration ,

 

[Racing roadkill]

I’ve got an 11 year old Honda Accord. It’s never let me down. It cost me -2500 quid ( courtesy of a down size ) that’s 2500 quid in my pocket, 8 years ago. Winner winner chicken dinner. I won’t touch modern cars, unless they are brand new, and have a warranty.

 

[steven1988]

Vauxhall Zafira 1.8i 16v Petrol

EGR valve
Lambda sensor
Coil pack
wiring loom
ECU

all within the space of a year

got shot of the last time it broke down

Awful awful cars. Mine shot its cam through the front of the Engine whilst in the fast lane of the M1.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Nissan Micra K11, 1.0 Bubble shape. The best car I've ever owned. Was totally reliable and un-breakable. Rust killed it but the engine was like new with 130K miles, driven fairly hard, but well maintained.

Mercedes Benz E220D 2018 Estate. Company car. Nice car, very safe, the best car I've ever had on fuel. But at the same time, has no driver involvement at all. Handles well for a huge car, but there is no feedback at all. Its like driving an armchair. Really nice, but way, way over-priced. I'm sure a Skoda Superb would be as good for vastly less cash. I'm not overly impressed with German cars for the price that they command. Then again branding means nothing to me, which I guess makes me a minority. Nice car, but I'm sure similar can be had for vastly less cash, if you don't mind the badge that is...

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Mine is an Octavia 1.6Tdi estate
June 2011 registered, we bought in March 2012 (with less than 7,000miles showing)


It had new 4 discs & pads at about 60,000miles, but SWMBO was commuting to Cardiff twice a week for almost 18 months, & after that (through Bradford) to Airedale Hospital, so a lot of stop/start/brake....

It's had routine servicing (main dealer, now a trusted independent), a new cambelt & tensioner, at 115,000miles
Two front shockers, at 120,000miles
Replaced front tyres last month, with just over 39,000miles covered (& still over 2mm remaining)

Still on original clutch/exhaust/rear shocks, etc...
Remapped, but not by a silly amount, just more 'driveable'/tractable


There's a bit of a noise over potholes from the F/N/S, think it may need a couple of bushes, at next service (but not mentioned at last MoT test)

Now on (circa) 133,000miles
The last two MPG figures for 'top-ups' were 61.8mpg, & 57.3mpg
I'm happy with that!!

It had an odd habit of burning out headlamp bulbs at intervals (used Bosch), but not had one for a couple of years

 

[JtB]

Austin Allegro...........(oh the shame) but in my defence it was a company car. The expectation that it would actually be capable of getting over the Pennines was (only just) realised. Brand new and it really struggled on the M62 to get up and over.

My first car was an Allagro. The suspension was so soft the car wouldn’t corner, brake or accelerate without skidding all over the place. The hand brake rarely worked, the engine mounts corroded and sheared and the bonnet opened once while I was travelling at 75mph in the outside lane of a packed M4 (that was definitely a brown pants moment). But it had a square steering wheel and 5 gears, athough the gear selection was a bit naff and it was impossible sometimes to select certain gears, while other times it was a bit “hit and miss” which gear actually got selected (which was a bit scary really because Reverse was right next to Fourth).

 

[mustang1]

Had cars from Germany, Britain, japan, Italy . The Japanese ones were obviously reliable, the German ones were reliable, the British ones were reliable (which is a huge surprise) and same goes for the Italian stuff (also a huge surprise).

I also know others who have cars from the aforementioned countries and they have problems .I guess I've just been lucky. No, wait. I have been smart. Yup, that's it, smart .a smart ass.

 

[Sillyoldman]

Vauxhall Signum turbo diesel was the most unreliable heap of shite I have had the pleasure of. Mind you it had a fridge in the rear seat armrest that the kids thought was the bees knees.

Best car I’ve had is my current 4 year old Skoda Superb. Very appropriate name. 75000 trouble free miles. Absolutely love it.

 

[Cavalol]

Exceeded? Quite a few, a very cheap Vectra CDTi a couple of years ago was a good example. Had done a few miles, had no service history and a short MOT. Breezed the test and was a brilliant car in every respect. Quite quick (120, not 150, sadly) great on fuel, roomy, reliable and had cruise control which I loved.

Years back I bought a Mk2 Cavalier 1.8SRi. I thrashed that car every single day without fail, raced everybody possible in it, crashed it (twice!) and pretty much completely neglected it, yet it never failed me once.

£200 Peugeot 306 1.9 diesel with the right (Bosch) type of fuel pump. Managed over 3,000 miles just on veg oil and no diesel in that thing. It was slower than a winter weekend stuck in a Rhyl B&B with Nigel Mansell, but by God it was reliable and cheap to run. Finally had to sack it when at the last MOT the inner rear wing was frillier than Ann Summer's knicker drawer.

£225 198,000 miles MX5 Mk1 1.6. What an absolute laugh that thing was, can't ever recall a dull journey in it. Just getting behind the wheel made you want to drive it like you were in the Lombard RAC rally. £s per smile? Pretty much unbeatable.


Didn't meet expectations?

Audi TT225. Decent mileage, full history and immaculate. Absolute pile of ****. It was a mobile catalogue of faults (expensive ones, too) and just a nightmare. From my previous experience with VW/Audi stuff I should have just known and not bought it in the first place.

Mk3 Golf: rusted away before my eyes, comically bad and hateful.

2005 Polo: Similar to the TT, the sodding dashboard lit up like Blackpool Hallucinations and it couldn't seem to complete a journey without something going wrong.

There's quite a few more, genuinely mostly 'VAG' group stuff and it's why I tend to avoid them now. Over-rated and expensive, genuinely cannot see the appeal.


*Edit: don't ever mention Iv*cos. I only haven't included them in this list because (obviously) I never actually bought one myself, just had the 'pleasure' of trying to pilot them round for a few years.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

V
Best car I’ve had is my current 4 year old Skoda Superb. Very appropriate name. 75000 trouble free miles. Absolutely love it.

If/when I swap/px the Octavia, I fancy a Superb estate, hopefully as a 2.0Tdi (150BHP), 6-speed manual

That, or a similar (mechanically) specced Octavia Scout

 

[Oldbloke]

I'd wanted a Range Rover for years & bought a 3 year old one with 40k miles in '94. Owned it for about 3 months of which it spent 6 weeks back with the garage with countless electrical problems whilst returning around 12 mpg. Never again.

2004 S-Type Jaguar 2.7D, numerous faults in the 15 months I owned it including the autobox locking itself in park at the most inconvenient times possible!

Most reliable cars I've owned..Mazda MX-5, Volvo 2, 3 & 7 series back in the 80s/90s.

Best value was a Rover 218D, cost £500 and ran almost faultlessly for 3 years.

 

[Levo-Lon]

I'd wanted a Range Rover for years & bought a 3 year old one with 40k miles in '94. Owned it for about 3 months of which it spent 6 weeks back with the garage with countless electrical problems whilst returning around 12 mpg. Never again.

2004 S-Type Jaguar 2.7D, numerous faults in the 15 months I owned it including the autobox locking itself in park at the most inconvenient times possible!

Most reliable cars I've owned..Mazda MX-5, Volvo 2, 3 & 7 series back in the 80s/90s.

Best value was a Rover 218D, cost £500 and ran almost faultlessly for 3 years.

I bought a Rover 216se early model with 135k on the clock for £50 as it needed a bit of work.
I fixed it with a £20 trip to the scrapy.
Wife loved it, it was a really nice comfy little car and i sold it to a mate for £80 2 yr later.

 

[Dave7]

Unlike @colly or @JtB I had an Austin Allegro for........ .........
24 hours.
New job and company promised me a Ford (Cortina??).
When I turned up they showed me this horrible turd brown Allegro. I said "goodbye" so next day I had my Ford.***

Best car was my brand new Rover75 diesel automatic in metalic red. After 100K miles it was going to cost me some money so I traded for a smaller car.
BIG mistake.......I should have spent the money and kept the Rover.

**the job turned out to be very bad......turned out they owed the bank £6M and went bust shortly after I joined.

 

[screenman]

If/when I swap/px the Octavia, I fancy a Superb estate, hopefully as a 2.0Tdi (150BHP), 6-speed manual

That, or a similar (mechanically) specced Octavia Scout

I am still searching for an Octavia 2.0 dsg estate. I have done enough gear changes for one lifetime.

 

[Ian H]

Cars I have owned & liked: Bond 875, Austin Cambridge A50, VW 411 coupe, VW K70L, VW Type2 (bay window), Citroen Dyane, Citroen BX turbo diesel, BMW 525D Touring, BMW 320D, Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Tepee, Citroen C3 Aircross.

Cars I have owned and disliked: Rover 200, Renault 19, Toyota Celica.

There were quite a few others which were unremarkable. 'Owned' includes firms' cars.