Horror stories - are they really justified!

So many folks on here hate certain marques or manufactures, the mechanics amongst you loath certain cars to work on, many will say "It's Mitsi!", or "It's a Daewoo" or "They crack heads" in answer to questions. maybe I've just been lucky, but we as a family have owned so many vehicles over the years (Absolutely no brand loyalty) (Renault's / Citroens / Hyandai / Kia / X-Trail / Landcruiser Prado and 70 series / Avenir / Calais / Pajero / Triumph / Falcon EL and EF / Laser / Escort / VW Passat /) - all of those cars fitted where we were at in life, what we needed, what money we had or didn't.

Any yet we've never had any massive problems, have only ever cracked one head (on a renault 18 gts station wagon), the Triumph 2.5 was a joy to explore NZ in as a young couple, the Landcruiser was by far my favourite, the SWB Pajero was thirsty but fun. The X-Trail (2010) is boringly practical but the first car we've owned that is brand new apart from company cars, and thus the only car being re-called (X-Trails and Dualis being re-called in Aus for power steering failures). The Kia Carnival, supposedly a mechanical POS @ >100,000kms, was just fine, suited our purposes, and did what it was supposed to do - carry a family across central NSW safely and practically and cheaply.

My argument (if I have one) is that, most of the time, if your careful and don't treat your vehicle with contempt, pretty much any modern car is fairly reliable.

Cheers

Yep got in 1.
Personal opinions from ppl that either had a bad run for whatever reasonable reasons or ppl that simply can't see past their noses that they caused their own problems.

Daughters b/f hates Mitsi's because her 92 v6 Galant screwed the gearbox.
Yea they do have some issues but to him it's totally beside the point that in 6 months, HE shredded both brand new front tyres / both sides back brake shoes & left flat spots on both back tyres to the point they thumpted at highway speeds

Ya know . just saying >>>>>

Yep - there's absolutely no doubt negative comments about some auto industry legendary "fails" are real and truly justified.
Practically every modern car isn't "fairly reliable".There are some terrible cars out there.

Had a 1999 Tata Telcoline ute.Cracked head at 65,000km, then again at 79,000km.Also had an emissions sensor draining the battery.Took a student a university to find the prob after 6 different mechanics had to give up looking for the power drain.Never had a prob before or after with any other 4x4 or deisel.The best thing about them was the fact that Isuzu engines have the exact same engine mounts.

I don't buy into horror stories. But I have had a fair few personal experiences with certain makes/models and when the issues occur the guys I deal with have come back to me with the comment that in THEIR experiencethe issue is fairly common.
EG--leaking roof in 1996 mg roadsters.
Aircon issues in audi A4 /VW passats
Aircon issues in Opel/holden astra's
Electrical issues in euro cars from singapore

"There are some terrible cars out there".Well, maybe, but nothing we've owned so far has put us firmly off a brand or manufacturer, none of those cars (I forgot the Saab 9000, the Mu and the 1987 Cressida, the '98 Courier) were expensive ($900 for the Cressida to about $23,000 for one of the 'Cruisers), all were oldish to old, all had high Km's (>100,000ks). Maybe we've just been lucky, but a lot of the hatred of some makes is based on opinion, snobbery, a degree of racial bias (Jap cars / pommie cars / French cars), and the tedious Holden/Ford thing. The head that did go went coz I was young, driving a 1597cc Renault like a twat, ignored it when it got regularly hot - lesson learnt. Still like Renaults.

Look I'm not disagreeing with you, but a cracked cylinder head can have massively different financial consequences (and causes of course).These days, something apparently simple - like the trouble prone servos/sensors/controllers for the roof on the lemon-coloured jap import slk merc your wife bought on a whim, are likely to cause you much more financial pain that the cracked head on an old renault did years ago.There are brands/cars with multiple "issues", even if they've got great engines.Yeah - I've "slagged" slk mercs above - had to give an example, and assume there won't be too many offended owners here, as if you've got even enough passing interest in cars to be reading this forum, you'd hopefully have enough nous to at least use google before handing the deposit over.

half the time, its people not realising that they are projecting their own prejudices. Think about it, last time you got cut off in traffic, you looked at the driver to see if they were a (choose asian, woman etc to suit your prejudice) - its what we do. I ride motorcycles, more than drive cars but in terms of how you view the mechanical ability of brands, its the same. Half the jappa riders (I ride a jappa) think harleys are unreliable pieces of shit, but several of my mates ride harleys, on a regular basis, and not one of them have had a mechanical or electrical fault in the last 3 years or so that I can remember. A lot of the harley riders have certain views on jappa bikes, but their prejudices are in my experience, un-founded.
It becomes problematic, when you want or ned advice, because the majority of people weighing in are full of shit. You have the group who own the same car, think theyre cool, and say 'it awesome', you get the group that just dont like them, who will point out every fault theyve EVER heard of that car having, and label it as a heap of junk. Youll get those who dont know their asshole from their nostrils who want to jump in and spread the innaccurate information they've heard 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand. Sadly, very few people have the ability to provide you with an unbiased analysis of a vehicle.
My response to this, is to ONLY listen to people who have ACTUALLY OWNED one of the vehicles in question. I weigh up all the responses from people who actually had one, and I completely ignore the rest

youve had so many cars and obviously for only short periods so you cant realy comment on how good the are.

Case in point- Toyota Cavaliers. Somebody I know had one, and apart from the elctrical faults, steering issues, suspension problems, engine, brakes, windows, exhaust, battery, seats, it was OK.