Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
A Car Dealer’s Scientific Guide to the 10 Worst Used Vehicles.
I have been studying this question in one form or another for nearly 16 years now. As an auto auctioneer, a remarketing manager and a part-owner of a wholesale auto auction, I’ve seen thousands of cars come and go through the auction block during the course of each year.
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Two years and over 660,000 vehicles later ... As far as those cars with the highest defect level at trade-in time, here are the 10 worst:
10. Mazda RX-8
9. Mazda 626
8. Lincoln LS
7. Suzuki Forenza
6. Land Rover Discovery
5. Cadillac Catera
4. Mini Cooper
3. Mazda CX-7
2. Land Rover Freelander
1. Mazda Millenia
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/a-car-dealers-scientific-guide-to-the-10-worst-116647051962.html
The RX-8 and Millenia are simple enough to understand. Unconventional engines and a slew of owners that did not understand the care and feeding of a rotary or Miller cycle engine.
The CX-7 was always an oddity anyway. Weird mixture of MPV and Mazda5 chassis parts and a DISI turbo engine. People expecting to have an SUV engine like a 4.0 Jeep that they could neglect found that they had a Mazdaspeed 3/6 engine that was finicky about oil and direct injected.
Funny that the 626 makes the list but the Ford Probe doesn't.
It's the same car.
Same engines, same transmissions, same chassis, built in the same AutoAlliance International factory.
I admit, the automatics on the 626es were junk. They were bad and for some reason they stuck with that awful transmission. F-series 4 cylinders were tough as any 2.0. KL-DE V6 was a jewel of an engine for its time. The chassis holds up as well as any Camry or Accord.
I have 2 clients with manual transmission 626es with well over 200,000 miles. I strongly believe that automatic hobbled an otherwise good car