That explains it!
Somehow right before the COVID lockdown I sold our CUV with the intention of buying another one. But, then we didnāt really need one as the outings became few and far in between. But we would still take weekend out of town excursions and I started renting for those. Rentals were cheap, around $100 for a weekend. I didnāt have tp pay for insurance, registration, maintain the car, etc and it was fun. Until recently when the rental prices are very high and most of the local rental places have cut their hours adding a day or two to my rental. So, back to the drawing boards and I eneded up buying a used CUV.
I remember the scene, but not the name of the movie.
It was Goldeneye . . . I believe the year was 1994
Yup, computer, too. My IP knows all sees all cause it goes through their servers.
Maybe the NSA does, tooā¦
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Thank you.
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Different brands, different reliability.
Two cars I owned:
1994 Hyundai Excel - absolutely indestructible - basic maintenance is all that was needed. Drove it for 20 years and then sold it in perfect running condition.
1993 Ford Festiva - constant self destruction - by the time I sold it for salvage, I think I had replaced every part in that carā¦even the brake cable; Iāve never had to replace a brake cable in any other car.
Bought a brand new Dodge - transmission, wheel bearings, ect, ect., so many problems in short order and thankfully under warranty.
In low end cars, the big thing is "CVTā for the transmission. I would not by any car with a CVT unless it is a Toyota or a Honda.
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Then you apparently never had the misfortune to own a Chevy Citation, or any of its other X-car clones. I had to replace the e-brake cable on that bomb twice. By the time that I was ready to dump it, the cable had rusted into place once again, but the guy to whom I sold it was prepared to do that repair.
If the parking brake is rarely used they tend to ārust in placeā. My last 2 cars, 1988 Olds Ceira and 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo, I tried to use it once in a while to make sure the cable was free. Especially just before a state inspection. Because if it failed for that, the shop would get you for a few hundred bucks to fix it!
I now drive a '17 Chevy Volt which has an electric parking brake. I think they are less prone to freezing over time. (And no, I donāt use it much either!)
Thatās the perplexing thing, because I always used it as a result of the car having a manual transmission.
I asked my indy mechanic about the reason for its frequent failure, and his answer was that the e-brake system on these cars worked completely opposite to the way that every other cable-activated e-brake system worked. I wanted him to show me what he meant, but he didnāt allow customers to go under the lift, so I have no idea of whether his statement was true, or if it was BS.
There were some REALLY BAD cars back in the day. The Chevette, Citation, Yugo, etc. were just junk. Of course there is the Vega which got a bad rap. The sad part is that the Vega had some innovative ideas but the product was cheapened to where it was junk. By the time it was fixed, the damage was done to the image. One such āfeatureā was better rustproofing but they cheaped out on that as well.
I own one of the cheapest most basic, and no frills cars money can buy, a 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage. The car is routinely bashed by reviewers for its lack of creature comforts but owners seem to love it. These have been going for INSANE prices right now because of fuel costs as well as the car shortage. I happened to look and see what used ones were selling for right now and ones with 90-100K or more miles are selling for more than I paid for mine new. It isnāt just this car but many models are dealing with this right now.
The car has like 80K on it now and it has been really trouble free. It has just needed basic maintenance and that is it. I change the oil on time and it shows no signs of slowing down and doesnāt burn oil. The one flaw is the CVT as mentioned by others here. They must be cheap and a better way to game the EPA CAFE standards but I would rather not have one so I opted for the manual. There are no complaints about the manual but the CVT tends to grenade after 120K or so. In the old days such a cheap car like this would be junked for a bad transmission but I wonder if more people are repairing cars like this that in the old days would have been considered ādisposable.ā
I think even a ābadā car these days is pretty decent compared to a ābadā car of days past. That being said, there are a few exceptions, even from brands such as Toyota.
Another friend has a 2015 Chevy Equinox. Apparently oil burning was an issue on these and his was no exception. It was burning oil and the dealer always came up with a way to worm out of it. GM was of no help so he resigned himself to having to add a quart every 500 miles. Then a postcard arrived in the mail about a class action related to excessive oil consumption. He filled out the proper forms and suddenly GM was offering to make it right. I donāt know what happened but he either got a completely new engine or they rebuilt his engine with new pistons and rings. Either way he is happy and he says it no longer burns any oil that he can see between changes. Apparently this is a known issue on Car Complaints as well.
Yes, my '81 Citation was a badly-engineered, badly assembled car, butābelieve it or notāits reliability/durability was far superior to that of my '74 Volvo. That should give you some idea of just how bad my Volvo was.
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I believe the electronic E-brakes have motors on the back of the caliper. that is why you have to disengage the system to retract the piston. usually through the info system or with a scanner before replacing the rear brakes.
My '81 Citationāto which I was referringādid not have an electronic e-brake, butāthen againāneither did any other car in 1981. By contrast, the electronic e-brake on my Outback has functioned flawlessly for the 11.5 years that Iāve owned it.
It comes down to statistics. Every manufacturer produces good and bad cars. Some manufacturers produce more bad cars than others. Some manufacturers may have a design or manufacturing problem that takes them years and years (sometimes even decades) to rectify. It also depends on how many miles you drive. Buy a brand new vehicle and sell in 5-7 years with only 10k mile/year driving then ANY vehicle will be more then reliable enough. But we tend to keep our vehicles well past 300k miles. From my experience not all manufacturers can do that.
No way. NSA only looks at international traffic. If itās all domestic, the FBI would be the agency.
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The problem with the ZF8 's in a lot of their cars and SUVās is they wont touch them as they are supposed to be sealed for life . We all know that is a lie . Changing the fluid on the ZFās is a lot more involved if you actually find someone competent to do it and it will cost you probably $700 to get it done as you replace the transmission pan with the filter and the fluid is like $20 a quart ā¦
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Georgeās link seems to contradict that statementā¦
Heh heh heh. I like the sign welcome to the Utah data center. Our employees at work, but hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, for our own good. I expect lights, sirens, etc. if any Joe Schmoe wanders off the path. Itās also rumored that certain words and phrases are captured if used.
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