Lemon Cars: Which "lemon" did you own that really was a GREAT car for you?

I had a 1963 Corvair 4-speed convertible in my senior year of high school. I always seemed to be working on it to keep it running (half of that was learning and fixing the mistakes I was probably making). I have a lot of fun memories of that car.

Not the best cars I’ve owned but pretty good nonetheless: '81 and '83 Olds Omega (“X” car) and '95 Dodge Intrepid.

Any car can be a lemon

True…but some cars have a MUCH HIGHER Lemon rate then others.

Nothing wrong with Firestone wilderness a/t !
Nothing wrong with Explorer 4-doors !

UM…WRONG…

Let’s start with Firestone…For MOST people here in the US (especially the northern states the tires were fine. But they had MAJOR problems with them in the southern (HOTTER) states. Not to mention Mexico and South America where the failure rate far exceeded any other tire. Ford wasn’t having even close to the failure rate of the other tires by other manufacturers that were OEM for that vehicle.

FORD…The NHSB found that the First generation Explorers had a major safety problem with too short axles. They recommended that Ford pus the Axles out 4" due to EXCESSIVE roll over problems. Add to the fact the faulty tires from Firestone and how easy it was to roll the Explorer amounted to disaster.

Fords Second Generation Explorers had Axles that are 4" wider…and using different tires…GUESS WHAT…Roll overs dropped dramatically…despite the fact that there are far more Second Generation Explorers sold then First Generation. If it was all driver error then the roll over rate wouldn’t have dropped…in fact the number of rollovers and deaths should have risen because of the increase in Explorers on the road…

“The problem wasn’t due to flat tires, but with the tread separating and folding over.”

Correct. The Firestone 721 tire cord strands were two center wires twisted together and wrapped with 7 wires. This was done in a stranding machine and all these wires were the same size. The last wire was a wrap to hold the package together. It was thinner by almost half compared to the 7-2 construction. The steel used at the time did not have the right ratio of silicon to aluminum and many of the inclusions (silicon and aluminum tie sup oxygen in the molten steel) were non-deformable. These inclusions couldn’t break up as the wire size got really small. The wrap wire sometimes broke during wire drawing, but sometimes it broke during stranding. If it broke during stranding, it often ended up in a tire. The broken wire stuck out from the tire cord mat into the rubber and eventually led to tire delamination.

No, 26 psi is what overheated them. Too much flexation in each rotation.
Take any tire and put only 2/3 the psi in it and drive 80 mph down a desert hiway and those tires will not like you.

Any vehicle you give a wider track will handle different. you MUST learn to drive your vehicle type and not pass blame for your own lack of operational knowledge.

No, 26 psi is what overheated them.

Then explain why the 26 psi was NOT overheating the Michelins or Goodyears that also were OEM on those vehicles…Or explain why the replacement tires that Firestone paid for were also NOT overheating.

I never heard of any other oem tires for these, and never heard of any other brands ever being aired to merely 26 psi. After the recall the psi recomendation was amended too. I bought my 92 Explorer new and bought a second 91 used in 96 for the wife. NEVER air the 'stones @ 26 and NEVER had any problems. These are the facts for me. Having owned ( still own the 92 ) the “problem” products, I cannot logic any liability to brands, only to mis-use and operating knowledge.

Yes, we can debate this all day, but I’m only applying my personal / non-technical slant on this having been at my Ford dealership since 1979 and seeing none of my customers have any issues since we,the dealer, would air them @ 32 psi.

I never heard of any other oem tires for these

Then you should have followed the trial or read the transscripts. That was one of the MAJOR things brought up by Ford that Sunk Firestone. MOST of the tires they were using were Firestone…However there THOUSANDS of other tires by Michelin, BF Goodrich and Goodyear that were used…and the failure rate was almost nonexistant. Tire pressure is based on tire size and vehicle. A different tire that’s the same size on the same vehicle will have the same psi. Ford increased the psi recommendations…doesn’t mean that it was the solution to the problem. The OTHER major point also brought up at trial…was that Firestone was experiencing much higher failure rates with those tires on OTHER vehicles…But those vehicles didn’t have the roll over characteristics of the Explorer.

The fact that the tires would blow out PLUS the fact that those early Explorers could roll over easily was what was causing the deaths…

I had a 98 Blazer that I ran to 180k before selling. The only things other than regular maintenance was replacing an alternator (~100k), a U joint (~120k), and the ball joints every 50-60k.

Ahh, 1957 Plymouth…The Forward Look. My dad bought a new 1957 Savoy with a V-8 and standard transmission. Within 3-4 years the front seat had also fallen through the floor. Also the torsion bars had snapped. I also remember that the engine would throw out excess oil if the level was filled to the “full” mark on the dipstick. Eventually dad learned to leave it alone at the “1 qt down” mark and it wouldn’t use oil. He traded it in 1963 with about 55k miles. At that time the fuel pump was leaking fuel into the crankcase and he changed the oil weekly to prevent ruining the engine.

I just watched several hours of the Barrat-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale Ariz, and didn’t see one 1957 Plymouth. Is it any wonder?

My '72 Vega (hi Mike!) was a lemon. The Vega division was a lemon grove. Nothing but lemons were produced there.

But doggone it, I LIKED that car! If the quality hadn’t been so terrible that the rear axle actually came out of the housing while I was moving (a common problem with the Vegas) I might have considered another GM.

Like Mike, I switched to riceburners and have lived happily ever since.

But if I understand your question correctly, you’re asking for tales of cars with bad reputations that actually were good cars?

What year? I understand they’d corrected the major problems by the last production years, but by then the reputation had been made. The '71s and '72s were awful reliability-wise, especially the '71s.

I liked my '72. A great concept very poorly manufactured.

Those torsion bars suffered from fatigue failure; I was having dinner one evening and my car was parked at the curb near the rstaurant window. During dessert sudddenly the front of the car sagged; one of the torsion bars had just snapped. The 57 Chrysler products were the only automobiles that would break down while standing still with the engine shut off!!

The windshield leaked so badly that I could have used wipers on the inside as well as the outside. I ended up keeping a sponge on the dashboard and wiping down the water.

A city in Texas buried one in a time capsule to be dug up in 2000. It was a Fury hardtop, and guess what, it was a plie of rust when they opened the box.

Yes, that is correct. I am just wondering if anyone owned a car that other people (or the media, etc.) deemed “terrible” in quality, reliability, ride/drive, or styling – but it was a GREAT car for you.
Thanks!

Pinto

The first car I bought was a '76 Pinto in 1980, (Stallion trim I believe), and my sister had one a year or two newer (MPG trim). There was never a serious mechanical problem with either of them and I understand that this is a common story. Better than my other cars? Probably better than the '84 Le Sabre, equal to the '80 Corolla. It was not as good as the '99 Grand Marquis, but that is a much more modern vehicle.

I got rid of mine when the floor rotted through. It had long before rotted through in many other places. Sis’s did not rust badly due to addition of fender well liner and better metal or coating, I believe. The engines and trans were very reliable. I installed a timing belt in a parking lot in Buffalo. I sweated bullets before and during the process of cutting a hole in the roof to install a sun roof. (It was for better air flow since I had no AC.) I hung a salvaged door on it after someone pulled the lock out of one trying to break in while in Wood’s Hole.

The “Pinto Engine” as it is known was used in many, many vehicles. Mine was the relatively advanced 2.3 l version. As hd72mm indicated, they are very robust, though he had the 2.0 l version. Is is also known as the “Lima” engine. They were used well in Rangers up to 2.5 l. They were turboed (with or without intercoolers) and use in Mustangs, Capris, Murkurs, and Thunderbird turbo coupes. It made up to 100 hp NA and over 200 turboed. A 16-valve version was produced by Cosworth. I believe that they can still be bought from Ford as a crate engine for industrial uses.

I had a very late 70’s or early 80’s Volare, just before the K cars came out. I bought it when my neighbor died. This car was produced right before Lee Iococa (or however you spell it) took over and Chrysler nearly went belly up because of all the quality problems.

Even though the car had 14k miles, the windows didn’t seal, the doors sagged, and the engine ticked from the time I bought it. But hey, a perfect $400 car for someone in college.

The engine ticked for another 60k miles and probably would have gone for another 60k if I wouldn’t have wrecked it. I never had any problems with the car except how easy it was to accidently lock the doors when I shut it. It even got about 24 mpg on the highway.

I didn’t own it but my grandfather made me drive his 76 red Hunter, which remains my favorite to this day.

'81 Chevy Citation X-11, hands down was an awesome car.

I’m glad that there’s another person on the planet that is aware of this.