Cars that exceeded or didn't meet your expectations ?

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fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Chatting with a colleague today, realised she had changed her car. What's happened ? Oh the mini is very dead.

She'd had to folk out nearly £2k last Christmas on some electrical wiring issue, and now this. It's apparently totally knackered (I don't know what) so she's got shut. It's a Mini Cooper S of about 8 years old.

My sister binned her mini after a year as it was so unreliable (engine management faults). Shegor rid for a Ford Focus.

My brother had a M Sport BMW 1 series that ate tyres, and also had engine management problems - he got rid for a Ford Kuga

Another colleague has a RR Evoque, and he's glad he's paid extra for a gold plated warranty/service pack as it's in the garage so often.

We've had Nissan's and Toyota's no issues.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
My brother had a M Sport BMW 1 series that ate tyres,
Suspect that is nothing to do with the car but the driver.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
I never have any expectations. I'm not into cars or wasting good money buying them, so I shop around diligently and inspect each potential purchase mercilessly. That way I don't get my trousers pulled down by garages, not that I use them myself.
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
I once had a Fiat Ulysse when the kids were younger. I called it the Fiat Useless (just for the pun). While it was an ugly mofo of a car, it did gazillions of miles and seldom let us down (the occasional electrical issue, but really not that bad at all)
 

colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
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.:sad:
 

dan_bo

How much does it cost to Oldham?
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.:sad:

Allegro company car? Ffs.

Bet it was only three years ago as well ^_^
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
We've got a 16 year old Honda Civic, and I'm getting fed up with its unreliability. We had to have a rear disc changed last week! Yes, really. I mean....I ask you, have you ever heard anything like that? They just don't make cars like they used to.
Serious point you didn't only have one done, disks need to be replaced as pairs along with new pads.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
We've got a 16 year old Honda Civic, and I'm getting fed up with its unreliability. We had to have a rear disc changed last week! Yes, really. I mean....I ask you, have you ever heard anything like that? They just don't make cars like they used to.


You'll learn
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
I've always been lucky with cars.
I guess it helps that I could just about fix anything.
Since 1999 I've had new cars every 1-2or 3 yrs
New cars are warranted so I don't care anymore.

My last van I had 11 yrs and never let me down,the new van is ok so far bar a warranty box fault .
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Upon getting the Team Macho Rapid Response Interceptor Unit, AKA the Smart car, I spent a solid day going over it, sorting every minor defect and getting it to a standard which satisfied me. I'm a bit anal about my weekly checks, so I'm confident there'll be no nasty surprises now for the 2 or 3 years I plan to own it before switching to a Smart ED.

A lot folk (no one in here, I'm sure) buy a car, don't get it inspected prior to purchase, never lift rhe bonnet between services, ifmindeed its serviced dilligentky at all, and then have the cheek to be surprised when it breaks.
 

Smudge

Veteran
Location
Somerset
I had some terrible cars in my younger days, that have been real money pits....... Triumph TR7, Rover 820i, Land Rover series 2A petrol, 73 VW Bay Camper and probably more lemons that i've erased from my mind.
Mostly owned Fords and they've all been good and reliable, as is my current Focus Estate.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
I had an Allegro 1750HL, it would have been reasonably old at the time but not an outright banger but it never missed a beat and was really quite nippy. I never experienced any of the problems it apparently had.

Company cars...circa 1990s we had a Citroen VX Volcane ...a turbo diesel, IIRC, Jesus it went like a scolded cat.
Also one that really surprised me was a Fiat Tempera estate, turbo diesel....a very mundane looking car but it also went like a scolded cat...jesus it was fast if you wanted it to.

Against my better judgement I brought a Ford for the first time in decades in 2008. I like a relaxed style of driving.. I got a 2007 Focus, fairly basic spec tbf....and I soon realised I HATED it with a vengeance. Got rid of it long before I should have normally, hated every minute driving it....in touch with the road they say...more like driving a bloomin go cart, coarse engine , twitchy, hard suspension, bloomin awful thing.

Ref the minis mentioned on post 1. My son is a garage mechanic and he maintains they're generally not reliable. The later 'proper' BMW ones are better but they're more about style over function.
 

Andy_R

Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
Location
County Durham
We've got a 16 year old Honda Civic, and I'm getting fed up with its unreliability. We had to have a rear disc changed last week! Yes, really. I mean....I ask you, have you ever heard anything like that? They just don't make cars like they used to.
I know, modern cars, eh. My 12 year old Occy had to have a suspension bush changed last month. 140,000 miles, bloody useless!
 
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