Oldtimer 11, You Must Be Responding To "And the Chryco K-Car…WOW…what a car…7yr/70k miles…so reliable…you can’t even find one today…YUP…So reliable… "
Obviously You Can’t Believe Everything Posted Here. I Too Had K-Cars (Four Of Them).
I accidentally fell into my first K-Car purchase, a used one, owned by a relative. It was so reliable and fuel efficient and required virtually no repairs that it resulted in our purchase of another when it became too old. That one resulted in another and so on. I quit buying them several years after they quit making them. I would have continued buying them, otherwise.
I agree, they were all great in the snow too. Our rural mail carriers discovered these cars and ran them on the route for many, many years.
CSA
Chrysler offered a lifetime powertrain warranty from 2007 to 2009 (Cerberus ownership). Vehicles before and after came with 3 years/36,000 mile warranty, most vehicles were the same during that time period so it was just a marketing strategy.
Mike, there are K cars here in Las Vegas for you (true K-bodys, not E, J, H, P bodys).
http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/cto/2510261988.html
I’m having trouble finding a Vega.
So you agree that based on that warranty mileage figure Subaru is a blight on the face of humanity that should have never been allowed to see the light of day?
Well…as I said in my original post…“What I’ve seen”…Never heard about the 1,000,000 warranty on the Subaru…I’m sure you can find others…
The point IS…the high warranty means NOTHING…Same with a LOWER warranty…You CAN’T compare how reliable will be based on their warranty. What companies have done in the past because of problems with their vehicles they’ve increased the warranty to ease fears of the product in potential buyers. The Vega and K-Car were one example. I NEVER look at the warranty…I usually blow through it in 1-2 years.
For what it’s worth, I was working for a multi-line dealer who became one of the first Yugo dealers around and if you think their warranty was one of the best around you better think again.
When the Yugo first came out they were offering a warranty in line with everyone else…But when reliability issues cropped up (very early in sales)…they upped it to 3yrs…One of the only vehicles at the time to offer a 3yr warranty…And if that vehicle had a 10yr warranty I wouldn’t buy it…
Mike, there are K cars here in Las Vegas for you (true K-bodys, not E, J, H, P bodys).
http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/cto/2510261988.html
I’m having trouble finding a Vega.
There were a LOT MORE K-Cars sold then Vega’s. Plus the Vega was about 10 years earlier…In either case both vehicles were extremely unreliable…and the manufacturers put very high warranties on them ease buyer apprehension.
Are there cases where a manufacturer put a very high warranty on a very reliable vehicle…sure there were…never said otherwise…The point I’m making is a vehicle that has a high warranty does NOT mean it IS reliable…In many cases it was just the opposite. Many many people equate high warranty to high reliability. And the auto industry time and time again…just the opposite is true.
Subaru in 1980 is irrelevant to now.
The current warranty is industry standard 3yr/36k bumper to bumper and 5yr/60k powertrain.
However the amazing part is bumper to bumper covers wear items like windshield wipers, brakes including pads/rotors, alignment (once), and clutch.
I agree with you Mike, I was just giving you a hard time about the worst car(s) in the world example. Some of us less fortunate have had to drive these cheap cars.
Well I owned a Vega…AND a Chevy Luv truck…both were very unreliable…
I’m Almost Embarrassed To Admit That I Owned A Chevy Luv (Isuzu) P/U For Several Years, Purchased Several Years Old With Less Than 100 Miles (Long Story).
Mine was pretty reliable, but that’s probably one of the bad parts because I had to keep driving it. It had an automatic trans (metric Power Glide - 2 Speed ?) that worked well, but the trans must have soaked up half of the HP because I got about 20 MPG HYW out of that little 4-banger.
Other memorable features were the uncomfortable bench seat and the low driving position that made me feel like I was sitting in a hole. The truck was handy for occasional hauling, but the ride stunk.
I shouldn’t complain really. For what I paid for a “new” truck (ridiculously cheap - another long story), I sure got my money out of it commuting and as I’ve said it was pretty darned dependable. I don’t remember ever being left standing.
CSA
I remember when most warranties were for 90 days or 4000 miles. Chrysler shocked the automobile world by offering a 5 year or 50,000 mile power train warranty in 1963. Chrysler had improved its quality over the late 1950s at this time.
I bought my Luv used…so I couldn’t be too sure of the maintenance before I bought it…It was ok…but in Upstate NY winters…it was rusting out in 2-3 years.
Engine ran fine…the interior was small but OK…couldn’t haul much…I hauled a yard of top-soil ONCE…when I got it up to 35-40…I could turn the steering wheel and had no effect on the direction of the truck…Scary as hell…Drove the rest the way doing about 20. Luckily I only had to travel about 5 miles…Needless to say that was the last time I tried that…