10 worst used vehicle
 

According to a car dealer: a scientific guide to the ten worst used cars.

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoram...222709616.html

Two out of the ten vehicles listed are American brands and both of those are Fords.

Have a nice Day,
Dave

#10 - and in addition to that this retro crap looks like a well shaped piece of shit.

Newer style beetles literally have no resale around here, nice looking ones can be sold for less than 2,000 asking price.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4292680266.html

Carl

Actually, the Jaguar and the 2 Mazdas were Fords at the time. Since Mazda split the sheets with Ford, they've become class leaders in several classes (the new Mazda 3 and Mazda 6 are both outstanding vehicles).

Technically nothing else than a Volkswagen Golf (are they still named "Rabbit" in the USA?), and the bodywork design is a poor poor poor remake of the legendary "Käfer" (Bug).

The Land Rover was probably using Lucas Electrics aka The Prince of Darkness.

Glad to see no GM on the list.

And no Mercedes-Benz! ;)

Beat me to it....

German automobile magazines reported for many many years used cars from Japan (forgot the brands) being the most reliable ones.

Or Beemers either.

no Hondas on the quality list?

Not much of a list IMO.

I would say there are 20 or 30 US models that should be on a list of worst used cars before the first European or Japanese/Korean model shows up.

And what I'd expect from a US car dealer.

Well, well, well!

There are two 13 year old Chev Impalas in the garage that have only had new batteries (after eight years) new tires and brake pads, which we consider to be quite a record.

I sincerely am glad you've done well with your GM equipment Rob. Myself...back in '96 I gave the US auto industry another try after over a decade of German and Japanese cars, a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was in the shop 18 times in 18 months. Needed new front suspension bushings twice in less than 20,000 miles. That was it for me. So I guess we have our unique personal experience that we're going with.

Ike from what I have seen of the underside of some Jeeps they did not do much to alter the wartime design. I saw places where shafts should have had proper bearing surfaces but they did not. Now in wartime it was make them fast and get them out, long lifetimes were not part of the design.

Florence's was the first one, I was impressed with the handling and the five star crash rating as she is the only wife I have. Then when my Ford Probe hit 135,000 miles I borrowed hers while the Probe was in for AC repairs. Liked it so much I decided to get myself one.

I've been driving the same Dodge Dakota since November of 1996, over 210,000 miles. Other than normal maintenance, it's had a new fuel pump, water pump, heater core and...........well, three sets of ball joints and a set of rod ends.:o

But, it runs as strong as it ever did.

Of course it helps that I'm a mechanic with a garage full of tools.:)

My '09 Challenger has 32,000 miles and has required exactly.....one new tire in unscheduled maintenance.

Dave

Dave if you had that Dakota in this neck of the woods there would be nothing left of the body. The road salt eats those Dodge trucks almost as bad as the Fords.

I do love the new Ram 1500 though. 30+mpg on the highway with the 5.7L hemi, just awesome.

1996 Chrysler Cirrus with a Mitsubishi V6 just turned 180K. No issues and exceedingly quick in a body designed for an inline four cylinder.

They claim this one is smart with fuel.

http://www.dodge.com/en/2013/challenger/performance/

I love my Honda Accord.

I used to drive GMs, B-body wagons from the 80s, they were alright. As most of yous know I drive full size Fords almost exclusively and have had a very good overall experience with them, although I have a slight wobble problem with my 03 that's frustrating. For 20 years of driving inexpensive 'American' used cars (most I've ever spent was $7700) I've only been stranded a handful of times. The only foreign make I've owned outside of some toys years ago was a Geo Metro (Suzuki), but even that was UAW/CAW built (assembled) by the joint CAMI auto factory in Canada.

Pete

We had an '87 Accord. Reliablility wise it was probably the best car we ever owned. I think we put 150,000 miles on it in about 7 years without anything but the most minor repair or two. Then some CPA (cell phone asshole) guy ran us into a 6 inch high median curb at about 50...and even with replacement of all the busted stuff in the left front suspension, it never rode right after that. So we moved on to a Mazda.

My 2009 Accord was made in Ohio.

After 5 years and 57,000 miles it looks and runs like new.

But then I take care of my things and don't abuse them.

Those late 80s early 90s accords might be the best car ever produced. Simple 2.2L overhead cam ~140hp that never burns oil. If the transmissions held up past 200k and the bodies didn't rot away the engines would probably go a million miles.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

And if you had the '86 thru '89 Accord manual trans...it was the smoothest 5 speed gearbox in the history of passenger cars. And I hear tell, as good or better than most megabuck exotics of that era.

I remember one day maybe 15 years ago, heading down I-65 and I look in the mirror and see this mean looking, low slung black thing coming up on me fast. And I'm thinking...what the hell is that???

About 10 car lengths back I realize it's a late 80's black Accord LXi hatchback.

Those Mazda are all Mazda. Ford had bugger all to do with them.

20 years is an awful long times, and things change. In that time, Honda went from best engineered cars in the industry, to just another appliance maker.

Btw, you didn't give the US auto industry a try. You gave Jeep a try. The US auto industry produced tens on millions of cars and trucks since then that shared no parts with that Jeep of yours.

The only problem that I could see with Accords is that they are made with Reynold's Wrap. Get great gas mileage just don't hit anything.

BTW - Actually when I bought the Jeep, I gave Chrysler a try.

But nevermind that. Y'know what...US automakers put out crap for 30 years, maybe more while the Europeans and Japanese were making nice reliable vehicles, and in the case of Japanese cars, for no more money. And the US makers they knew they were selling crap. I remember hearing a former Chrysler exec in an NPR interview just come out and say, "We got in trouble because the US car industry didn't make very good cars in the 70's and 80's." All the while, anybody who bought a foreign car had to listen to the, "Out of work? Eat your Jap car." bullshit.

But in the 90's things were supposedly getting better so we gave it a shot. Never again.

When we got rid of the Grand Cherokee, we still wanted a mid-sized SUV and bought a '99 Lexus RX-300. It was less money than a comparable new Jeep, and it was the best car we ever owned. The only reason we're not still driving it is that it had almost a quarter of a million miles on it and we decided that with the price of gas we'd give the Toyota hybrid-synergy group a try. The Highlander hybrid we bought three years ago is probably the second best car we've ever owned.

We are interested in the Tesla's though. We'll see how they do over the next couple of years...and if it's good, maybe we'll go back to a US car company again.

I like quite a few imports, but won't buy them. Sometimes you have to sacrifice to support your local Union ;)

Pete

Uh...OK, then.

Pete, at least Ike is straight forward, forthright with his point of view.

Yours? :D

I'm uncertain of the question :unsure: It seems valid that in a car discussion someone, anyone, should say buy American. My apologies if it can be uncomfortable. I have had friends & family in the UAW.

Pete

FWIW, lots of Toyotas and Hondas are American-made, as are BMW and Mercedes.

My apology Sir. Now I am certain you are not messing with unions.

The Asian cos are not UAW, at least the last I checked. Are any of the domestic German plants (I don't know)? In both cases the profit goes out of country.

Pete

Nope, they all set up in the south in an effort not to deal with the UAW (Greenville, SC for BMW and Tuscaloosa, AL for Daimler). I'm not too concerned about the profit leaving the country. The cumulative wages/salaries/benefits far exceed the amount of profit sent overseas. Besides, nothing is stopping you from buying BMW or Daimler stock to help keep some of the profit here.

OK Pete...but are you a union man or just a UAW man? I'm curious if you own any pants that aren't union shop made pants?