Reliability of Current Vehicles.

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
My current G35 has 155k miles. Repair wise it has needed all four wheel bearings, a radiator fan and a window motor.

Maintenance wise it is on it's 8th set of brake pads and rotors, 10th set of tires -

Geez, that thing sounds like a junker. Either that or you love to replace parts. My VW has original silent wheel bearings, original front brakes (2/3 remaining at 160k miles) and its 3rd set of tires.

Brakes & tires are not indicative of a "junker" so much as they are of how the vehicle is driven and sometimes the quality of parts used.

On the other hand, it sounds like his G has never had the trans dropped to replace something like a flywheel. I haven't had to do that either. To some people flywheel X2 would = junker.
I didn't necessarily mean junker as unreliable. I guess I worded that weird. I was assuming since its a daily driver it wasn't track driven or driven like a race car, so a set of tires every 15,000 miles is pretty ridiculous for a daily driver, unless he slams on the brakes to stop 20 feet from the light then burns out and corners like a Nascar driver. Also with that many sets of brakes for the same reasons. I guess some people beat on regular cars.

 

[01rangerxl]

A lot of people beat on regular cars!

I see what you mean, and that is a lot of tires and pads, but if you drive it hard it happens. Pads & tires are two things I don't really blame on the car.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
A lot of people beat on regular cars!

I see what you mean, and that is a lot of tires and pads, but if you drive it hard it happens. Pads & tires are two things I don't really blame on the car.
Yeah I don't really blame pads on a car either, but I'm taking into consideration that quality pads were bought in the first place. Not the Auto Zone $14.99 pads. My dad had a 04' Duramax, put 58k miles on it, plenty of those were city miles on it and plenty were pulling trailers on the weekends. Including a 9-10,000 pound gooseneck trailer and he 99% of the time never bothered to use the trailer brakes. It was all on the truck and he only had put brakes on it when he had just bought it. Now my step mother, well her PT Cruiser was going through brakes every year for speeding up to lights.

 

[wander2039]

04 Escape with 132k.. I consider this the best vehicle we've owned been everywhere and did alot of work it shouldn't of over the years.

-Seat belt harness had to replaced a month after we bought it, had to disconnect the PS kick up sensor (I'd bet it was caused by the filter), also had to have a small charge of freon although haven't had any issue's since. Other than only maintenance items. Currently it is getting rust and the front timing cover seal is leaking (rust prevention!) and radio has a mind of it's own.

02 Focus with 122k.. just a normal vehicle not really a best although it sure cruises well down the highway.

-A/C has died twice although that was due to setting the first time not sure on the 2nd, ignition coil replaced twice (cheap replacement the first time), temp sensor and the radio had to be replaced. Bypassed the EGR valve and runs like a champ, pinged excessively. Just the AC isn't working now.

05 Chevy Express 3500 with 33k.. ehh we'll see. Sure has more problems than my grandparents 02 E450 chassis.

- Replaced the fan coil (overheats in slow crawls jury is still out if it's fixed), transmission is leaking from both ends apparently a common issue, not sure on the power steering works but noisy and the CD player quit ejecting CD's. If I didn't know better I'd think it would have the same mileage as the other 2 although it is close to the same year so maybe that's the key.

 

[HangFire]

Reading this thread, I can only conclude that life is a box of chocolates.

My benchmark for unreliability was my '99 Taurus. That car couldn't get through 9 months without at least $1K of repairs. It ate front brakes and front end components for breakfast. Everything else on it failed except the transmission, which had a mind of its own, but at least it never outright failed. Yet I meet happy owners or former owners.

I am currently having great luck with a Honda and a Toyota. That could change tomorrow. But if I had to replace one tomorrow, I know where I'm going to vote with my dollars.

As my extended family gets older, they have started trading in once their vehicles go out of warranty. If you ask them about reliability all of them would say their vehicles are great, yet all have been to the dealer for major warranty work. As long as it's covered it doesn't matter. For them, vehicles are more reliable than ever.

 

[Buick8]

Some cars break, usually a fairly small part causes downtime. I have a bud with a busy shop; he sees a lot of water pumps, leaking radiators; Ford modular V-8s with plastic manifold failure, variable cam timing mechanism failure; Ford rear wheel drive rear axle bearings; some wheel bearings, especially if the brakes get hard use because it overheats the bearings. AC evaporators and some of these are a b to change; ac compressors; electric power steering whcih can be failry expensive to repair; electronic modules and computers.
I think a lot of "troubles" are chain repair shops ripping off the unsuspecting. How do you know it needed changing? How do you know it really was changed? Then again, sometimes cars have design issues which lead to early or repeated problems with certain parts.
Women burn up minivan and more recently SUV engines because they never change the oil, until they lock up. Manufacturers sometimes include scheduled service for new cars, so the car will still run when it comes off lease and they can sell it. Yes, people were not changing the oil in BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes, believe it or not.The subsequent owner had heck adn the warranty was eating the dealers up. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention: some oil changes were not really happening, adn the shop was pocketing the money. My cousin caught a Toyota dealer doing this red handed.

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
My current G35 has 155k miles. Repair wise it has needed all four wheel bearings, a radiator fan and a window motor.

Maintenance wise it is on it's 8th set of brake pads and rotors, 10th set of tires -

Geez, that thing sounds like a junker. Either that or you love to replace parts. My VW has original silent wheel bearings, original front brakes (2/3 remaining at 160k miles) and its 3rd set of tires.


Brakes & tires are not indicative of a "junker" so much as they are of how the vehicle is driven and sometimes the quality of parts used.

On the other hand, it sounds like his G has never had the trans dropped to replace something like a flywheel. I haven't had to do that either. To some people flywheel X2 would = junker.

Lmao +1 I agree, any automatic trans work I personally think is not worth it, it costs toooooooooo much

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
It has to be a hard thing to do if you don't have a lift.

No, it's a light cylinder head on a 1.8L 4 cylinder...you remove the head, then clean it up and redo all the seals, then remove the oil pan to have access to the Pistons, clean & re-ring and put everything back together.

No need to remove the the short block from the car, let alone the need for a lift.

 

[Russell]

Originally Posted By: dareo
Try buying a used BMW. I'm about 400 miles into owning a '00 540iT and it has produced the following failures:

New Failures:
Air springs, $400
Window Regulator $62.50

Preexisting conditions:
Hatch springs, all 4 $150
all filters and oil $125
Empty Gas tank $65
Some sort of suspension clunk (not fixed yet, probably a few hundred in parts)
No 2nd key ($165 when i get that done)

It was cheap, and its a fun car, but i expect something to break every time i drive it.


Older euro cars require more care. I know.

 

[DirtyMoe21]

Our shop truck (06 F150 4.2) has almost 280k on it, had the transmission rebuilt at 230k. But it does eat up wheel bearings every 50-75k other than that just normal wear and tear parts. And it always has the bed full and I've even had it on the bumpstops driving all over Dfw metroplex. Were going to try and get 400k out of it.

 

[oldmaninsc]

The 05 Camry my wife bought new Oct. 2004 has been basically flawless. The only non-normal item I've had to replace in 95,000 miles was the speaker grills on the rear deck due to damage from the sun. Original battery made it about 8 years, I've replaced the front brakes once.

The 04 Grand Marquis we bought with about 30K miles as a "certified" used car. The only bad thing I found was the rear rotors had grooves in them. I replaced both the front and rear pads and rotors shortly after buying and still have the same pads on it 100K+ miles later.
The weak part of this car has been electrical. The lighting control module died about 3 years ago - the fan blower module died shortly after that, and the HVAC blend door actuator died about a year ago. All were relatively inexpensive to replace and work I could do myself. These are common failures according to various Panther platform forums.

The 05 Trailblazer we bought new in Jan. 2005. It is probably the nicest driving vehicle I've ever owned. Handled well and a fair amount of power but not very good MPG. Comfortable to drive, BUT - a long list of problems.
A major one was a vibration at idle in drive. Had it to 3 different dealerships none of them could fix it. Found a member on a forum who said it was worn out motor mounts. I lived with it for a couple of years then replaced the mounts myself. Solved the problem.
Another major problem was the electric fan clutch. GM had several updates on these clutches until they got it right. Problem was poor A/C performance at idle and low speed driving.
Another problem GM never fixed was on the liftgate - there was a black trim piece that went around the license plate area that looked bad after about a year and a half. GM replaced it once and said they wouldn't replace it again because it's a "wear and tear" item.
Many other minor problems - everything from rough idle to front suspension clunks. It spent a lot of time in the Chevrolet service bays. One time we were going out of town and I had to rent an SUV because the trip would have put me over the 36K mile mark and I had several things I needed Chevy to fix on it. It did still have the original brakes both front and rear when I sold it in early 2011 with about 75K miles on it.

The 95 Aerostar we bought with about 32K miles on it. It has the 4.0 V6 engine. Most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. Up until 200K miles the only problem was a TPS which was 25.00 and took about 5 minutes to replace. Also an 02 sensor which was also pretty easy to replace.
Around 200K miles the radiator developed a leak, and I replaced it and the water pump and fan clutch.
It currently has about 215k miles on it and stills runs well but unfortunately the vehicle will probably be junked or parted out soon mostly because of problems with registration with the DMV. Long story short I thought I had sent in a Non Op on it when I moved about 3 years ago, but the DMV claimed they never received it. The penalties for not registering is now several thousand dollars or about 2 - 3 times what the vehicle is worth. Welcome to California!

It has passed smog every time with no problems.

Previous to the 95 Aerostar I had an 87 Aerostar with the 3.0 engine. I bought it used - lots of problems with it, biggest being tranny.

Edit: the reason I said the Aerostar was the most reliable vehicle we ever owned was because it went over 200K miles before needing any major repairs. As I stated in the first paragraph, the Camry has not needed any major repairs up to this point. I'll check back in another 100K miles or so!

Also the Aerostar made numerous trips from Southern Ca to Tacoma area and Florida without ever having a problem. I don't think the Camry has ever been outside of southern Ca.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc


The 95 Aerostar we bought with about 32K miles on it. It has the 4.0 V6 engine. Most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. Up until 200K miles the only problem was a TPS which was 25.00 and took about 5 minutes to replace. Also an 02 sensor which was also pretty easy to replace.
Around 200K miles the radiator developed a leak, and I replaced it and the water pump and fan clutch.
It currently has about 215k miles on it and stills runs well but unfortunately the vehicle will probably be junked or parted out soon mostly because of problems with registration with the DMV. Long story short I thought I had sent in a Non Op on it when I moved about 3 years ago, but the DMV claimed they never received it. The penalties for not registering is now several thousand dollars or about 2 - 3 times what the vehicle is worth. Welcome to California!

It has passed smog every time with no problems.



That is sad having to possibly junk a good vehicle over a paperwork issue.

 

[CBR.worm]

My 'junkers' do spend a fair amount of time on the track, towing trailers and also acting as daily drivers. I do use the best rotors available and not quite race compound pads that work when they are cold.

I am totally fine with 15-20k out of a set of UHP Summer tires and brakes. Using them at the limits makes me happy. I suspect that impacts my bearings as well. I like few things more than cornering hard.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc


The 95 Aerostar we bought with about 32K miles on it. It has the 4.0 V6 engine. Most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. Up until 200K miles the only problem was a TPS which was 25.00 and took about 5 minutes to replace. Also an 02 sensor which was also pretty easy to replace.
Around 200K miles the radiator developed a leak, and I replaced it and the water pump and fan clutch.
It currently has about 215k miles on it and stills runs well but unfortunately the vehicle will probably be junked or parted out soon mostly because of problems with registration with the DMV. Long story short I thought I had sent in a Non Op on it when I moved about 3 years ago, but the DMV claimed they never received it. The penalties for not registering is now several thousand dollars or about 2 - 3 times what the vehicle is worth. Welcome to California!

It has passed smog every time with no problems.



That is sad having to possibly junk a good vehicle over a paperwork issue.


Register it out of state and then sell it.

 

[Jarlaxle]

That!