by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 09/07/2017 at 11:05
by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 09/07/2017 at 11:05
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STARS: 0
Considering that the Mustang was a dirt-covered rain collector with a busted out window and dead battery sitting in a field with a forest growing through the engine bay, and that it’s built by me with parts from Craigslist and eBay, I’m stunning at how well the Mustang starts every day and shuttles me to and from work, and my girlfriend before me. Sure, the power steering hose blew out and the front sway bar bushings just straight-up disappeared and if you plug in a radio the tail lights all blow out, but that just gives it character . *eye twitch*
So Oppo, what’s a car that has surprised you in some way? A beater that refuses to die? A supposedly reliable car that refuses to live?
"Party-vi" (party-vi)
09/07/2017 at 11:13, STARS: 4
I would beat the piss out of my ‘88 Cherokee, and it kept on running. Beat that thing like it owed me money, and it kept on trucking. I’m doing the same to my ‘02 330Ci, and it has been a trooper minus several small annoyances.
After reading about the reliability (or lack thereof) of used German cars, I am surprised that my E46 hasn’t shit the bed. 195k miles and everything mechanically is still fine. My dealer service tech commented and said he was surprised how nice it was for having such high mileage.
"Clemsie McKenzie" (thestirringcolumn)
09/07/2017 at 11:14, STARS: 0
Well, my only car, the Oppo Clio! I expected a cheap comfy compact car, which it is. I didn’t expect it to be able to go around the ‘Ring at a reasonable pace and come back cruising on the Autobahn at 180kph. And only one piece of trim is falling off!
Honestly there isn’t much this car can’t do, it seems.
"adamftw" (adamftw)
09/07/2017 at 11:14, STARS: 1
My old D1.
Yes, I was tinkering on it often and I often bought higher quality parts than necessary (because I thought I was rewarding the truck) but it never failed me... until the head gasket blew like everyone said. BUT! I had 3 years and 30,000 miles of daily driving and weekend adventures without a hitch. Including a 1200 mile round trip road trip, a wheeling trip up to northern Vermont, overheating on the beach, and beating it up at Rausch Creek and upstate NY. If circumstances were different, I would have rebuilt or replaced the motor but I literally just bought and moved into my first house the week the head gasket went; and these motors need more than just a gasket set when that happens.
They say you should never meet your heroes, but this truck was my teenage dream machine and all my friends who called me crazy for buying a 20 year old Land Rover were proven wrong by it. I miss it.
"PotbellyJoe and 42 others" (potbellyjoe)
09/07/2017 at 11:29, STARS: 0
1998 Ford Escort ZX2. Way more fun than a $12k new econo-coupe should ever be.
"NojustNo" (front24200)
09/07/2017 at 11:31, STARS: 0
It always surprises me how many GOOD cars are put out to rot over a minor issue like say a fuel pump.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
09/07/2017 at 11:32, STARS: 1
The IS300 has been much better than I had imagined it would be. I still look in my garage every day to make sure that I actually own the thing.
"CaptDale - is secretly British" (captdale)
09/07/2017 at 11:34, STARS: 0
I would have to say my 85 Suburban with the 6.2 Diesel (non turbo). While that truck had almost zero get up and go, it could drive up a near vertical cliff face while towing a boat.
Horsepower / Torque: 130 hp (97 kW) @ 3,600 rpm / 240 lb·ft (325 N·m) @ 2,000 rpm
The specs seem low, but the thing was a beast off road.
"unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins)" (unclevanos)
09/07/2017 at 11:35, STARS: 0
My e38 was a beater. Blown struts, cracked windshield, bad control arm bushings and a rear sls system that never worked. Engine and transmission refuses to die. That pre vanos m62 can start in 14F wind chills with 15w40 (don’t yell at me m62b44s use it for that temperature also conventional oil) and not be noisy. It ran great in the cold. Previous owner left the engine sludgy and a lower oil pan gasket revealed that. The zf 5hp30 never had its oil and filter changed since off the factory line. That’s 2/22/1996 if anyone wants the date. It still shifted two years after I changed the fluid. Suspension is weak on the BMWs but the pre vanos engines are damn good. Still got check engine lights but it ran.
The YJ doesn’t die. The 2.5 cares little if it has no oil at all or the gasoline grade is equivalent to sewer water. Giant potholes are no problem with it.
"DrScientist" (DrScientist)
09/07/2017 at 11:36, STARS: 0
how many total miles did it have when the gasket failed?
"lone_liberal" (token-liberal)
09/07/2017 at 11:41, STARS: 1
I owned a Ford Windstar minivan as a utility/winter beater and that thing, while an undeniable POS, always surprised me. It was comfortable, the 3.8l engine was torquey enough to sometimes enable amusement and it handled the worst winter we had in decades without missing a beat. Now part of the amusement came from not giving a fuck if something happened to it, sort of a rental car attitude, but it also moved both people and cargo without any issue at all.
"adamftw" (adamftw)
09/07/2017 at 11:42, STARS: 0
Around 155k
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
09/07/2017 at 11:43, STARS: 1
After having owned my Mx-5 for 3 years (which was no slouch by any means), I have to say that my ITR has surprised and keeps surprising me in a way I’d never expected.
I had started modifying the MX as soon as I had gotten my first paycheck and by the time I sold it, it was a fun, quick car. I loved it, but I could have never prepared myself for what the Integra was about to give me. This thing is just a completely different animal. It has some minimal mods at this point (I/C/E and some other things), runs around the 225hp mark, which is not shocking or surprising in itself, but the way the car translates that power into the experience that we know as ‘driving’ is just....mind blowing.
Its sort of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in car form. Below the 5500 rpm line, everything is cool. Not entirily quiet, but not screaming loud either. Passing the 5500 rpm line? All hell breaks lose and youre in for a thrill ride. A thrill ride that’ll leave the driver amazed at the capabilities of the B18C6 engine, the perfectly balanced chassis.
It not only surprises me every time I get in, it puts a hell of a smile on my face too.
"adamftw" (adamftw)
09/07/2017 at 11:44, STARS: 0
My father in law still talks about how great of a car their family Windstar was, even with blowing a trans at like 65k.
"lone_liberal" (token-liberal)
09/07/2017 at 11:54, STARS: 0
The drivetrain in mine was strangely solid. The 3.8 didn’t have any head gasket issues and the trans was solid. It was weird. It did have all sorts of issues with things like the door switches (which kept the dome light on even with the doors shut) and a jammed front passenger window but when you drive a POS you expect that kind of stuff.
"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
09/07/2017 at 11:56, STARS: 1
The trick to BMWs is that they run better when you drive them like they’re stolen, they get sad when they never have to work hard.
"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
09/07/2017 at 11:59, STARS: 0
M60s are tanks, everyone just lets the cooling system shit the bed and/or lets the chain guides wear out and then complains that the car is unreliable because they didn’t maintain it. Oh an 5HP30s are tanks as well, between that transmission and the massive diff, pre-VANOS V8 BMWs have similar drivetrain losses to AWD cars, super overbuilt. Just don’t overheat it too much.
"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
09/07/2017 at 12:03, STARS: 0
My Blazer surprised me with how it refused to die. I bought it for $600 and put like 35k kms on it.
The Raider really surprised me, since it was parked for 4 years because of supposed overheating, and then made it over the Coquihala all the way home without a hint of overheating.
"unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins)" (unclevanos)
09/07/2017 at 12:06, STARS: 1
Thermostat mod with a resistor on the m62b44 non vanos so I run at around 195 instead of the 205F plus on the electronic thermostat. If the m62/M60 family runs at a cooler temp, the chain guides don’t fail or become brittle. I’ve got a spare 95 e38 diff :)
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
09/07/2017 at 12:13, STARS: 0
I had a ‘63 Corvair that was suprisingly reliable. DD’d it for the better part of a year with no mechanical issues. Handled Phoenix summers suprisingly well and did 70mph on the freeway a few times (scary as hell).
"E90M3" (e90m3)
09/07/2017 at 12:20, STARS: 1
Tell that to my TPAs. Although, I’ve been making an effort to make sure it’s fully warm before I romp on it.
"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo)
09/07/2017 at 12:22, STARS: 0
Pretty much all of my cars have been as good, or bad as I thought they’d be. The only car that surprised me was my wife’s Cavalier. I hated it and I still do, but over the 6 years and 80,000 miles she owned it, it was dead reliable. The bigger repair it ever needed was two window motors had to be replaced. I beat on it for a few months when she got her Fit and I didn’t have a car, and as a beater it was almost fun.
We replaced it because the rocker panels literally fell off, but we see it every now and then and it’s still kicking, with probably 180,000 miles on it.
"Pickup_man" (zekeh)
09/07/2017 at 12:30, STARS: 0
My 924 which wasn’t as ungodly slow as it’s made out to be. It’s still slow, but not that slow. Keeping up with traffic was pretty easy, but if someone was trying to merge in a hurry it was a foot to the floor event for me, and a slightly quicker than usual merge for anyone in a modern car. I just learned to corner faster to make up for the lack of acceleration. I miss that car...
Dad’s old Corsica, the car I “learned to drive in” by which I mean going tearing through fields and sliding around for fun. Dad drove it as a daily for years, I drove it occasionally as a teenager and I was never kind to it because it was a turd. The 3.1 made some horrible valve noise but the car refused to die. We traded it for an oxy/acy torch at 185,000 miles assuming it was near the end of it’s life, the guy who got it put another 50,000 miles on it last we heard. That was about a year ago and as far as I know he still has it.
"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
09/07/2017 at 12:37, STARS: 0
I guess I should say that’s the secret to E46 and earlier. I’m totally unfamiliar with anything newer, an the Nxx engines
"My bird IS the word" (mybirdistheword)
09/07/2017 at 12:47, STARS: 0
My mini. Even with BMW parts you would expect a car to last to at least, what, 60k without major problems?
Nope!
"That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms" (thatbastardkurtis5)
09/07/2017 at 12:48, STARS: 0
I was shocked that this was the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever bought:
Though in retrospect, it was a Neon, so...
And I was surprised that this is the best, most reliable car I’ve ever owned:
"E90M3" (e90m3)
09/07/2017 at 12:51, STARS: 0
S65*
"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
09/07/2017 at 12:58, STARS: 0
My bought with only one previous owner and perfect service history Accord started to disintergrate at around 120K miles. It would have needed a little bit of everything to keep going (power steering pump dying, doors that that wouldn’t open at all or only when they wanted to, steel brake lines rusted out, etc...) So there goes the proverbial Honda reliablity.
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
09/07/2017 at 14:09, STARS: 0
This stupid thing.
I thought it flop around like noodle. The engine is fantastic, the handling is great for crossover, & the 6spd is the cherry on top. I’ve done more fun drives in this then any other car I’ve had.
"KevlarRx7" (kevlarsupra)
09/07/2017 at 14:33, STARS: 0
Rx7, always starts, never been rebuilt 47KM miles.
"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
09/07/2017 at 18:13, STARS: 1
Oh right you have an N55 and an S65 don’t you. Yeah the S65 I’m also totally unfamiliar with. I just meant I stop knowing anything once the Mxx engines stopped, and the Nxx engines came out. I know something about Sxx engines up to the S54, but not much at all after that.
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
09/08/2017 at 06:14, STARS: 0
my current Lancer that won’t die, 655k km and still going strong