The German assembled ones were far better than the Aussie rubbish - the car had the ability to rust on sight.
321mat,
Mar 14, 5:34pm
and speaking of rust - in the 1970's and early 80's, nearly ALL Alfa Romeos came out with factory fitted rust.
I remember my father repairing a brand new (less than 500 km old) Alfa Sud after the owner had put his foot through the floor (and on to the road) at an intersection.
321mat,
Mar 14, 5:37pm
I seem to remember Telecom going through dozens of these in a very short space of time.
Also, they were front wheel drive, so even though it was a van, you couldn't actually load anything in the back.Unless you wanted wheelspin and chronic understeering.
thejazzpianoma,
Mar 14, 5:39pm
This is the sort of thing that sucks people in. They take statements like that to mean they will save money running one over a regular car.
In reality its only a very small advantage in conditions that only affect a tiny percentage of New Zealanders.
Even if you are one of the few who drive in Urban conditions enough to gain a fuel advantage you never save any money because of the other costs associated with the Prius. even if you do massive mileage.
321mat,
Mar 14, 5:41pm
And you've forgotten the real bugbear. it this car gets hit in the side, the side impact bar is mounted in such a way that it (almost) always gets shunted up into the locking mechanism, which then locks ALL the doors, so you have to climb out the windows.
321mat,
Mar 14, 5:45pm
And, for those of you out there who have never known anything but electronic ignition.
We (over 40 years old) will always remember those cold mornings when we went to start our BMC or Britsh Leyland (or what ever the company called themselves that week). we put the keys in the ignition. "whirrrrrr". "Whirrrrrr-rrrrrrrr-rrrrr- rr-rrrr". Flat battery.
Sh*t I hated those bl**dy cars.
bmwnz,
Mar 14, 7:36pm
I've owned cars since 1967. In all that time only two cars have failed to proceed. for the first, I changed the spark plugs on the side of the road and off we went again. 1955 Vauxhall Velox. The other was a Wolseley 1800 with the std rain-drenched (I live in Taranaki) HT electrics. When it happened, I ripped a small metal sign from a local fence and shoved it in front of the electrics and it was perfectly reliable thereafter.
As for cars in the OP's specified era, are there really latish model cars that actually don't work, or do people just talk bullshit a lot!
vtec101,
May 19, 7:47am
Notice how everyones not mentioning honda. Because there up there 1 of the most reliable japanese cars with nissan and toyota
johnf_456,
May 19, 7:51am
Because not many people in here own them for reasons that would start a war if said.
berg,
May 19, 3:26pm
Fiat Ducato. Theres a name that still send shudders up my spine. Truely awful bloody things. The Ducato ambos I used to work on were the standing joke of town. Anybody got an ambulance for the broken down ambulance!
ct9a,
May 19, 3:44pm
bunch of haters.
r15,
May 19, 4:07pm
i think this is a common factor for a lot of 4wds. eg surfs, terranos, wizards. mus, mustrals
r15,
May 19, 4:17pm
find for me some toyotas that overheat or have cracked heads that have had their cooling system looked after and have all their fans working correctly that havnt been used for things they werent designed for.
1kz engined surfs and hiaces etc crack heads because they over heat. they over heat because either the radiator gets blocked up over time, or the viscous fan doesnt work as it should.
3c-t's crack heads because they get overheated. sure the steel radiator pipes to the front of the vehicle wasnt a good design, but a radiator clean out once every 5 years or so sorts that out.
2l-t / 2l-te. not the best engine ever either. but there are still plenty around with 250,000km's plus.again these tend to overheat through neglected cooling systems
common deonomiator here- toyota slob syndrome: "i have a toyota, ill just ignore maintenance and it wont ever break down"
heads only crack from being overheated. alloy wont crack for no reason- that defys physics
cjohnw,
May 19, 7:00pm
Has anyone here owned a Citroen!
Where do I start! Blardy thing dropped the cam belt at 65,000km. Spent 3500 fixing it, then the gearbox turned into a box of cornflakes. Amid endless problems with electrics, electronics, on and on and on.
Grrrrrrrrr, still pretty angry about it and it was over 5 years ago!
thejazzpianoma,
May 19, 8:05pm
You are completely right in that neglect and abuse will greatly increase the chances the heads to crack. However they will definitely sometimes fail for no reason at all (other than their flawed design).
I have seen this first hand. Two mates of mine who work together and both own Hilux's and Supercustom's have had heads crack. Now they are absolute maintenance freaks. Their cars get oil changes every 5000'km without fail, the intake manifolds are kept so clean the look brand new, they get new injectors etc regularly just for the sake of it and the list goes on. Their maintenance procedures far exceed Toyota's requirements and their vehicles do not get abused when used either. (Generally only used for going to work in)
Despite that they have replaced cracked heads on two of their four Diesel Toyota's in the last 18 months.
jrlaw,
May 19, 8:07pm
My Mini uses sae spanners i still have a set of whitworth spanners and sockets, britool stuff. some now about 60 years old! oh those were the days. Sorry intrade my Mitsubishi cars have been real good to me. But the 1997 models I must agree were not good, in the engine bay for sure. and electric stuff suspect.
321mat,
May 19, 8:07pm
Subarus are "reliable". until something goes wrong, and them you'll wish you'd never bought one.
Ha ha. who am I kidding! They are just downright appalling. gearboxes and clutches appear to have been made from cheese, and the automatics. well, your airbag doesn't go off when the thing seizes from poor build quality.
thejazzpianoma,
May 19, 8:08pm
Your on the ball! Glad someone got it.
gilco2,
May 19, 8:11pm
My most unreliable car was a 1965 Fiat 1500 Crusader what a heap of c**p that was. The most reliable was 1962 series 6 Morris Oxford. Also if you left lights on and flat battery, insert crank handle one crank and away she went. My Corolla is very reliable but too soon to say if it will beat the Oxford
thejazzpianoma,
May 19, 8:11pm
My 80's Mitsubishi's were outstanding but the 90's ones I have had were both pretty rubbish. The Mirage VIE I had was not reliable and had parts fail way before they should. It had loads of grunt but zero feedback through the steering which just made it dangerous. The later Mirage coupe was reliable but was thirsty and not half the car my 2000 Punto was for the same money. That said, I would be prepared to give a Kiwi new Magna manual a shot though.
thegravelracer,
May 19, 8:12pm
Becouse they know there the most reliable cars known lol
thejazzpianoma,
May 19, 8:16pm
Not impressed with the reliability of a friends Honda Odyssey, or some other Odyssey's I have encountered.
321mat,
May 19, 8:20pm
Yes, Honda Odyssey gearboxes (the automatics) are well known as unreliable.
duggin,
May 19, 8:30pm
I WANT ONE!
On 2nd thought - new Police Pursuit vehicle!
thejazzpianoma,
May 19, 8:35pm
I'm surprised that dreadful witch hasn't issued them with them already! The head shaven, power tripping, arrogant little sh!$s that make up a good proportion of our Police would love those.
I would love one too! Incidentally you can even buy the meaty V10 secondhand for under 40K now. soooo much car!
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