Anyone have a horror story about a Japanese or European car?

[MrPerson]

Leave out the Yugo. We know they suck.

[doctor jazz]

1. British - not technically Yurpeen- any car with Lucas electrics

9 kinds of horror and despair.

[EmilyAnne]

14. Oh! My first car was a 1968 MGB convertible. It was 27 years old. The electrical system was alway

a problem. Everything else was fine and it was such a cute little car.
Being stranded many times over electrical failures was pretty much a nightmare to a teenage girl and it was sold after a couple of years.
Of course, that was an old car.
I don't know about British cars today.

My husband and I had a Suburu WRX that went through two clutches within the first 5,000 miles.
There was a definite problem with the car that the dealer refused to acknowledge. Warranty covered the first one, though the dealer said it didn't have to.
The second one was to be paid for by us.
He said we must have been driving "abusively" and that the pictures taken of the clutch and flywheel proved it.
He accused us, two thirty year old nerds without any speeding tickets on our records, of using the car to RACE!
It was such a hilarious accusation, but we stopped laughing when we had to hire a "lemon law" lawyer.
The lawyer knew exactly what kind of Subaru we had before we told him because apparently there was a well known problem with faulty clutches on that particular model.

After a single call from the lawyer, the manager of the dealer offered us the option to make an even trade with another new, more expensive model of Subaru.
An automatic.
So, two abusive drivers got to make an even trade of a used, abused and damaged racing car for a brand spanking new upgrade.

A few years later, there are stories all over the internet about the clutch problems with that car.
Still, we have been extremely happy with our Subaru.

Before that, we had a Honda for ten years and put 100,000 miles on it. We kept up with the oil changes and maintenance, and never had a single problem.
We traded it in because we nervous Texans wanted an all wheel drive for the snowy, windy Pittsburgh roads of our new home.

When my dad bought his first Honda, a bright yellow hatchback, in the early 70s, my WWII veteran grandfather supposedly refused to speak to him for months. My grandfather was originally from Detroit and worked for Ford Motors there until he moved down to Houston with his wife and children in 1960. So, aside from a problem with the Japanese, he had put some blood and sweat into an American car company. It was very personal. In fact, not one of my four grandparents ever drove a foreign car.

[doctor jazz]

20. Being one who gives second, third and multiple chances, I forgave Lucas for my MG-A

1959 model...then after some years I got an XK150 Jaguar which exhibited most all the same schizophrenic tendencies and I pretty much forgave them too but failing to learn I bought a `83 DeLorean thinking hey, it came from Ireland, must be better.
It was not. :scared:

Last 20 years I've had only German and Japanese cars...and virtually no problems. And that is my admittedly limited testimonial. :D

[EmilyAnne]

23. You had a DELOREAN!! Are you my Uncle Brad, by any chance. I will never forget the

Easter weekend when he cruised up to my grandparent's farm in a DeLorean.
My cousins and I thought he was the coolest person alive!

MG-As are beautiful cars and my dad always wanted one or an MGB, which probably gave my teenage self the idea to get one.
Poor guy certainly regretted even mentioning the car the second I found a cheap one in the paper that I could afford with my tiny savings.
Of course, I couldn't really "afford" such a money pit and he had to spend quite a bundle on the sporadic repairs.
He loved borrowing it, though. Probably pretending he was 17.

[doctor jazz]

24. Haha...no not Uncle Brad. I actually liked the MGA but the DeLo was a real POS.

It was like with boats...happiest days were getting it and getting rid of it. :D

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. '61 TR3 and a '68 Jag XKE. Both wired by the Prince of Darkness Lucas.

Red wires going to green wires going to red wires. Radio on, windshield wipers stop working or brake lights fail. Or, more likely, the car stops altogether.

But, that damned TR3 was the only car I ever loved.

Don't even ask about the BSA(Bastard Stopped Again) motorcycle and it's Lucas ignition system.

[doctor jazz]

26. I wanted a TR3 so bad I was ready to prostitute myself on the streets for one, but

that didn't work. However I did have one of those accursed BSA motorcycles (well, a 250cc impersonation of one) :rofl:
It ran fine until it quit running...like the One Hoss Shay.

[RB TexLa]

31. Yes, technically britain is European. What are they something so special they are not a part of

Europe?

[salguine]

33. Ever heard the joke that goes, "Why have the British never manufactured and

marketed their own home cumputer?" "They've never figured out how to get one to belch smoke and leak oil."

[Medusa]

36. And the British don't get air conditioning and cooling systems

it's why they serve beer warm

Had a Jag---one problem after another with the wiring and cooling systems. But damn that car looked great.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

41. Oh yes, har har har you fucking racist piece of trash. n/t

[salguine]

45. If you can explain how that's racist, I'm all ears.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

39. Uh, 1979 was thirty years ago.

Do you have any more recent horrors?

[etherealtruth]

2. How about Korean?

I seem to be the only Hyundai owner (in the last five years) that believes they have had the car from hell.

[FreakinDJ]

3. My Brother was killed in 1

[MrPerson]

6. I am sorry to hear that. That must have been awful.

[FreakinDJ]

7. Yep he was 16 and I was 17 - it changed every thing

Car rolled over and folded up like Tin Foil

I left home, took a GED, quit school, and joined the Army with in 2 months

[EmilyAnne]

15. That is heart breaking. I am so sorry that happened to you and your family. nt

[Pavulon]

4. MB USA

has taken plenty of my money. E class electrical issues, power window problems, etc. Stuff you dont expect from that type of vehicle.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

43. I used to drive a 1992 Saab 900. It was perfect.

Never spent a penny on repair work. Then I bought a 1998 Saab 9-3. The thing was an absolute mess. I sold it off after tiring of the constant repair work.

[Mike 03]

5. I have a horror story about the Fiat, but I'm not sure where it is manufactured. I was young at the

time. It was my parents' nightmare, to be blunt.

[Nay]

29. My brother had one Fiat after another. He spent all his time working

on them -- hardly ever drove them, cuz they never ran!

[northzax]

38. You know what FIAT stands for, right?

Fix It Again Tomorrow.

[Sherman A1]

46. Had one of those in College

Spyder Coupe. Never buy a used sports car......

[haydukelives]

52. Fix it again Tony

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. A friend of mine had an Audi....

He considered himself an "Audi Guy".....

One of his Audis had an electrical problem that was apparently VERY hard to diagnose. It would stop running at the most inconvenient times and have to be towed to the dealer - several times.

Anyway, he traded the Audi for a Chevy Blazer - after about six months, one of the Blazer's windows went off the track so it spent several hours in the service department. He swore up and down he would never buy a "piece of shit American car" . True story.

[csziggy]

9. My story is very old - I had a 1970 Datsun back in the mid 1970s

Right after I got it I took it in for servicing at the Datsun dealer. They did not tell me that they could not lube the thing because they did not have the metric fitting for their grease gun. :wtf: I went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving and on the way home The car started hesitating and acting as though the brakes were being applied randomly. I left the interstate and stopped at a gas station in a small town - when they put the car up on the rack, the axle and wheels glowed red. The dry bearings had overheated and welded the wheels to the axle.

I had to call my parents to drive up, pick me up - there were no motels in that little town, no bus station, no way to get anywhere. Then it took two weeks to get a replacement axle and wheels and another week for the mechanic in that little town to get the metric wrenches and other things to work on it, and it cost us plenty of $$$ (I don't remember the total).

When I went back to the dealer, they took no responsibility - after all, they didn't charge me for the lube job they didn't do. They didn't figure they had any requirement to tell me the entire servicing I had ordered was not done so I could take the car to someplace that COULD do the work.

Other than that, I loved that little Datsun station wagon. It was cheap to run, used little gas and I could load all kinds of stuff in it - just no more than two medium sized adults in the front and two small people in the back seat. :eyes:

That was the last foreign made car I owned until we bought a used Honda in the 1990s. That car was not anywhere as useful as the Datsun.

[Fumesucker]

47. IANAM(echanic), just an old hot rodder..

But I've never seen a car where you used a grease gun to lubricate axle bearings.

Rear axle bearings on something that old (rear wheel drive, live axle) were lubricated by the gear lube in the rear axle and the front axle bearings would have been packed by hand.

[csziggy]

48. I could have the way it was lubed wrong - I know very little about auto mechanics

But the dealer's shop manager told me they did not have the metric fitting so they could lube the joints that were left dry. It was the rear axle that was frozen. I just went by what the mechanic that repaired the car and what the shop manager at the dealer both told me.

But you know, I guess it would be like when I lube the gear box on my Bush Hog mower deck for the tractor? Unscrew a bolt, pour in the gear lube and put the bolt back in? If so, that makes it less comprehensible.

[madmom]

10. Had a Mitsubishi, head on with a motorcycle, totaled the car!

motorcycle took a curve to fast hit me head on twisted the frame so bad it totaled the car. Had my 3 month old in the car with me.

[Initech]

11. Not really.

My Volvo that I drove for a while blew a gasket but then again the car had almost 200,000 miles on it.

My Nissan that I drive now had a recall notice on it but they fixed it free of charge.

[taught_me_patience]

12. I had a bad experience with a 1990 Honda Accord

Many things went wrong with the car:

1) Transmission died at 95k miles.
2) AC died a short time later
3) Constant overheating
4) Weird electrical problem that shut down everything in the car (but the car still ran).
5) Burnt out ignition coil left me stranded on the side of the road at 125k miles.
6) Cooling fan died
7) Water pump siezed at 130k miles, snapping the timing belt.
8) Window motor died, preventing me from winding the window down.

All in all, it was a bad car.

[EmilyAnne]

16. Ha! Sounds like our old Accord. Except it was still going strong at 100,000 when we traded it in.

[Muttocracy]

21. Wow, sounds like the car didn't want to live past 95K. Were you the first owner?

I'm on my third Accord (all used). Current one had some major problems recently, though really they've been problems with my mechanic diagnosing things. Some of them are due to the first owner not taking care of some things. Looking for a new mechanic now...

[Mudoria]

13. Had a 98 Toyota Corolla

After a few months it kept developing problems. Take it to the dealer, get it fixed, something else goes wrong take it back to get it fixed. Worst car I've ever owned. Traded it in for a Chevy in 2000 and still driving it with 175k on the odometer.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Fiat 850 Spyder - the story was related here ......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1164355#1164819

[Hekate]

18. None that was the fault of the car.I've had a used Corolla, used Datsun wagon, new Tercel, new Camry

... wagon, and now a new Honda Accord. To my BIL's disgust they've all been 4 cylinder engines.

We left the Corolla in Hawaii when we returned to the Mainland (it's usually not worth shipping a car with you due to damage from the climate, we were told). The Datsun wagon was around 11 years old when I sold it to get the new Tercel, which we kept for 24 years. The Tercel overlapped with the Camry, which we still have at 20 years old. The Accord is more luxury than I'm used to, but it's also wider, being a sedan. I am still getting used to its width almost 2 years out, but I expect to keep this one for 20+ years like the others.

I want a car that's totally reliable, doesn't break my bank, and doesn't guzzle gas. The latter has been a bit of a disappointment, because the mileage on this car is virtually identical to the mileage on our much-older cars.

Hekate

[madrchsod]

19. renault... need i say more?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

44. My parents bought two of those Le Car monstrosities.

Both of them were trampled by goats before they had a chance to go wrong mechanically. Honestly, I think the goats *knew* what they were doing.

[Muttocracy]

22. My dad had an Audi or VW (forget which) that was an awful lemon, but an Olds the same.

My parents had many Oldsmobiles. I've had Hondas and a Geo (Japanese/US mix I guess) and been pretty happy (all bought rather used and driven until material for auction block, mechanics, or high school kids).

[TahitiNut]

27. 1974 Volvo 244 DL ... 8-12 mpg

Bought new, it NEVER got better than 12 mpg, despite several attempts at service at THREE different dealerships. Candidly, a mechanic opined that the Bosch injectors were faulty ... but Volvo refused to replace them saying "we don't advertise gasoline mileage." A FOUR cylinder engine with a 4-speed manual transmission and NO turbocharger. I never carried anything in the trunk other than the spare -- doing everything I could to not see the gas gauge VISIBLY creep toward 'E' as I drove. It was maddening. At first, I was looking for puddles of gasoline on the driveway ... even suspecting my neighbor might be stealing gas.

Volvo of America ... both at the district and national levels ... was so dismissive and condescending that I swore I'd not only NEVER buy or rent one again, I'd never ride in one again.

[flvegan]

28. Jaguar XJ6. Total piece of shit.

Nice looking ride, though. Hated starting. Running for a long time wasn't it's favorite activity. Electrics were horrible. Mileage was a disaster. A/C worked great, though...when it ran. Got rid of it when it got to around 50k miles.

I've had two German cars that gave me no problems, though. A Porsche 928S4 and a Benz 450SL. I'm on my third Japanese car. No problems on this one or the previous ones (knocks wood).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

30. I had a 1969 Toyota Corolla whose throttle stuck

and set me careening down an alley until I shut off the ignition. I also had a Datsun B210 that would sometimes just drift to a stop and I'd take off the air filter and stick a screwdriver in the butterfly valve to hold it open. But I don't think they were inherently sucky cars; they were just very used.

[uppityperson]

32. Ford Tempo aka pyrocar

company is USA but bits are made elsewhere. First front brake pads stuck, got hot enough to melt the "hubcaps". Then dash caught fire from shorting out headlight switch and burnt up inside of car.

[McCamy Taylor]

34. VW Squareback was one ugly car.

And it "gassed" anyone who was sitting in the back.

[Synicus Maximus]

35. Opal GT

It was good looking and exciting to drive especially when the steering wheel came off. I also had a Fiat (Fix it again, Tony or Fu**ing Italian Attempt at Transportation), my mechanic used to let me drive it every week or two.

[REP]

37. Yeah. The loan payments!

And people always want to fucking tell me how nice my car is.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

40. VW and Mercedes have gone to hell over the past five years.

The biggest surprise is Fiat, which has actually started producing cars that don't explode upon purchase.

[DeltaLitProf]

42. My 2003 Honda Accord

Damn thing keeps running without a hitch. Nothing has gone wrong with it in the least. I'd love to buy a nice new car, but I can't pull the trigger because there's just no practical reason to do it.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

49. After 10 years my 1999 Toyota Tacoma got a cracked windshield during a hard freeze.

It really pissed me off. I haven't had it fixed yet, when I do it will be the most money I have spent on it in 100,000 miles. That's some kind of shoddy workmanship I tell you what. Who could imagine having to spend $200 on a vehicle after 10 years?

David

[tilsammans]

50. '78 VW Rabbit

Piece o' shite from the git-go. Routinely on the back of a tow truck.

After that horror show, no mo' V-Dubs for moi. :rant:

[dysfunctional press]

51. my cat had diarrhea on the shifter of my corolla.

it was pretty horrible.

[FudaFuda]

53. 1991 Nissan Stanza. Automatic tranny failed @ 125k

I was driving just outside of town, 45mph zone kind of place near an industrial park, and suddenly the tranny went out. Once I got the car to a stop, I was able to drive in "1st" gear, then "2nd" gear, which nobody even uses those with an automatic, but I was able to get home at 25mph. Vehicle was well maintained, but at 125k I guess some would say high mileage. Tranny was shot, and replacement @ $1500 couldn't be justified. I replaced it with a Mazda RX-7 - 10x more fun, and despite some people who don't like the rotary engine, I loved it.

But basically, you really can't go too far wrong with a Japanese car. But they'll never have the soul that American cars had from the 30's thru the 60's.

[ContinentalOp]

54. I had mixed experiences with a Jetta...

but that was made in Mexico so it doesn't really count.