Joseph, there are some cars that no amount of maintenance in the world can save. From a reliability standpoint, they’re simply junk. Vega was one of those cars.
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
+1
As important as maintenance is, if a car was badly engineered during the design stage, and/or poorly assembled, and/or built with inferior-quality components, even excellent maintenance cannot turn it into a good car.
Joseph, if you never bought a really bad-quality car, you can count yourself among the fortunate.
I agree with MB…there are some vehicles that are just BAD. My Vega was one.
My S-15 was another. When I sold my S-15 and bought my Pathfinder I didn’t change my maintenance routine. There was a world class difference between the pathfinder and the S-15. I’m sure if I didn’t do any maintenance on my pathfinders they never would have given me a total of 700k miles with LESS maintenance cost then my S-15 did with about 115k miles. The Vega was even MUCH MUCH worse then the GMC. And I don’t care if you changed the oil ever 1k miles using the BEST synthetic oil ever made and the BEST filter and it would still be burning oil after 70k miles.
After the two incidences, I didn't need any more clues. I have had the following repairs in less than 60,000 miles...as of today....1 - air-conditioning compressor seized and smoked - replaced
2 - wheel bearing gave out - replaced
3 - front brakes and Rotors replaced TWICE
4 - Variable Valve Timing Chain broke and replaced TWICE
5 - Variable Valve Timing ARM broke and replaced
6 - Turbo Charger totally blew out - just 500 miles shy of Warranty Expiration
7 - a slew of other issues too painful to remember…
The AC compressor was a known issue for the 07 Cx-7s, they should have had a good will warranty on this, same with the turbo seals(also a known issue). I think there was a known issue with the timing chain, or something related to it, I’d have to look it up. However, if you were lax in maintenance with oil changes and whatnot, you’d definitely burn up the turbo in no time.
As for the brakes and rotors, those are maintenance items, you have to replace them no matter what vehicle you have.
The 08s on up have those problems fixed. I have a 2010 and have not had any of those problems. You probably got an early build date 07 CX-7
@thesamemountainbike ; You are right; some cars, and that includes most popular British, Italian and French cars sold in North America in the 50s, 60s and 70s were poorly made and had little rust protecion.
A colleague bought his wife a Vauxall Firenze; even the jack in the trunk turned into a pile of rust and was unusable after 2 years.These cars had virtually no resale value, and in spite of their low inital cost, were expensive to own overall.
“How have I done that? Easy, I take care of my cars. I follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for maintenance.”
Unfortunately, there are no manufacturer’s recommendations for maintenance before 5000 miles elapse. What could they have said that would have prevented my Austin America engine from burning valves? As you may recall, Brits shaved the heads of their B-L cars at 5000 miles during the 60s/70s as a remedy for poorly constructed engines. No amount of TLC could change that.
85 Plymouth Voyager
POC with the 2.2 engine. Cam lobes wore off and the rockers fell out.
OK, to add another, I know my Dad would consider his 1978 Plymouth Volarie as his worst car ever owned. Bought it brand new. Used mega oil so they overhauled it. Air conditioner leaked freon that they never could fix. Tires went flat, starter problem, air dam fell off, etc. etc. No amount of maintenance was going to take care of that one and traded it in a year.
My first car that my father MADE me buy with MY $, was a '78 Volare (I was 16 , female, and it was 1986). Stalled all the time; I would have to get out in the middle of traffic, take off the carburator lid, stick a pencil in the choke, go back & restart, then back out to get out the pencil, put the lid back on. Constantly. So to avoid this everytime I had to slow down, I put my left foot on the brake and put it in neutral, and pumped the gas a the same time. Didn’t always work however. Electrical problems, etc. That car sucked and I will never buy a Chrysler again. I can’t believe they came out with a new Dodge Dart !!!
1983 Chevy Cavalier Convertible. It was a cute little car and ran really well for about 1500 miles. Then the TBI went bad, for the first time. The Transmission slipped at around 5000 miles shortly before the the second new TBI was installed. Dealership claimed to rebuild Tranny, I think they really added more fluid and called it a day becasue it slipped again the day I got it back, this time they replaced it. The first time I drove into a car wash the top leaked like a sieve, I’m told that these are not good for automatic car washes, ok. I had the TBI replaced one more time around 15000 miles and the next week the engine blew up on me while driving on the highway. That was it, no more Chevy Cavalier for me.
Mine was a 1958 Triumph TR3. Everything went at different times: voltage regulator, instruments, headlights, exhaust system, and eventually - final blow - the transmission…only 1 gear was still working when I swapped it for a 56 Mercedes 220S (which lasted much longer even though it had higher mileage)!
The worst car I have ever had was a 1993 Ford F-150 “Lighting” that I brought new. If you even breathed on the brake pedal, on icy roads, the “anti-lock” brakes would lock up the front discs. You would lose any and all steering ability. Because of the crown of the road, the truck would slide HARD to the right. Either you went into the ditch, or into the car on your right. The Ford Dealer Rep assured Me “there is nothing wrong with the braking system” He also refused my offer to take the truck on his up-coming ski trip. I even offered to pay for gas. At 8500 miles, the truck was using 1 quart of oil every 100 to 125 miles. If I parked the thing in the garage, on start-up in the morning, I couldn’t see to back out of the garage. Ford dealer Rep - “You have to except SOME oil use” I finally called Ford Motor Credit, and told them to come get it, that I wasn’t making any more payments on it.
1984 Mazda GLC. I bought it used and it drove for approximately 7 miles and never moved much more. I found an advertisement for the 1984 GLC in the local library in a magazine and it touted how the carburetor had a brain and made decisions. I’m not sure how it could have done all that decision making with the 358 vacuum hoses going to and fro.
In order:
#3: The 1978 Mazda GLC Hatchback, which was apparently designed to hold water in the hatch until it eventually rusted through.
#2: The 1976 Triumph TR-7 was just awful.
And, drum roll please…
#1: The 1988 Nissan Minivan. This van had such a terrible overheating problem that the company eventually bought it back.
A 2002 Saturn SC2. I traded in a 1993 Saturn SL1 which did great, the sales guy figured out I had spent about $100 per month for the SL1, tires, repairs and insurance. It went 150K miles no problem, so I decided to get a new one. The SC2 was a silver coupe, nothing but trouble. Did not achieve close to the advertised MPG. Driving it 900 miles cross-country from Colorado, with the sunroof open, suddenly the sunroof would not close. Motor was destroyed, $2,000 to fix. I had them manually close it for $100. Two weeks later the alternator went at 24,000 miles. I traded it in. The first Saturn’s were great, beyond that, they made some serious junk.
MY WORST CAR??? A 1974 Ford Pinto and that’s all I’ll say.
Early seventies Toyota Celica. Lemon yellow, of course. The dealer, which was great, was constantly towing it in for failures of exhaust, engine, a/c. The accelerator stuck, too, though since it was a manual I just pushed in the clutch. I have always known that that car was not representative of the brand, but I’ve never revisited the Toyota brand.
@Trond:
I think by the SC2, GM had taken over Saturn and worked their “magic” on it
I had ab SL1. Underwhelming.
Saturn was actually conceived by GM as a seperate divsiion of theirs. The original concept included (1) a new sales model with fixed prices and no haggling, and (2) some unique design ideas, like plastic body panels.
^^^
…and Saturn was supposed to be “the Honda-killer”.
It seems that it did not turn out quite that way.
:- /