Every car at an auto auction is a failure. Well, maybe not the 4Runner that Bertel and Ed saw with me that had 459,000 miles (it sold for $1800 by the way). But there always comes a time or a point where an owner will say, “Enough!” and proceed to accept a wholesale price for a retail vehicle.
There are many reasons for failure… and here are some of the most common ones I find at the auctions…
Demographic Failure: Once upon a time the United States sold over a million minivans every single year. They were the quintessential American vehicle for nearly two decades. Space. Comfort. Wonderful real world hauling capability. The baby boomers quickly found that minivans could take care of 90+% of their needs in modern day suburbia.
But then the kids moved off to college… and mom and dad found something else. Anything BUT a minivan in most cases. In the meantime the auctions became absolutely loaded with these models.
So if you are looking for a cheap hauler these days you can forget pickups or SUV’s. Even tree hauling companies are now using minivans thanks to the aging baby boomers and the former big three dumping their unloved models to the rental fleets for years on end.
Mechanical Failure: Sometimes automakers create utter crap… and then hide behind an army of lawyers once the warranty expires. Is it a fair thing? Well, one thing I can tell you is that these vehicles will spend years on end at the auctions seeking another idealist who is willing to machine 32 valves or rebuild a CVT.
The rebuilding process for the nastiest stuff rarely works. However I have seen a lot of vehicles get the automotive equivalent of a sex change. The Jaguar that gets a 350 V8 under the hood. A Saturn Vue whose automatic gets replaced with a manual. The Dodge Intrepid with the 2.7 Liter that gets recycled into Chinese beer cans. You get the idea.
Overproduction Failure: It could have been GM’s need to make surplus Metros and Cobalts to satisfy CAFE requirements. Honda may have found irrational exuberance when it came to producing the Insight and CR-Z, not to mention Chrysler’s maniacal stocking of Crossfires, Stratuses or Sebrings during the mid-2000’s.
Sometimes it’s not even a channel stuffing game… but a finance game. Mitsubishi’s decision to offer 0 down and 0 payments until the next year for every crack whore that found one of their dealerships was a legendary example of this.
I won’t name any names (except for the Aveo, Sentra, and Caliber) but some automakers still find themselves pressing the production circuit a few too many times for reasons other than popularity. Those models wind up selling for lower prices at the auctions.
There are dozens of ‘failures’ out there at the auctions. Substandard repairs. Electrical issues. A bad owner. A car that simply got lost in the shuffle due to a lack of market awareness.
But before I go to my fifth auction this week, I have to ask you, the Best & Brightest a quick question. At what point did you consider your once prized ride a ‘failure’? The last failure I had was a daily driver that I simply didn’t have time to drive anymore. It was a Camry… a boring two door refrigerator… and now someone is still driving it with over 300k miles. Minus a 200,000 mile rollback. No doubt courtesy of the ‘exporter’ who bought that 4Runner.
What year was the 4Runner? I just sold my “mostly restored” ’85 for double what I paid for it. That doesn’t mean I didn’t lose my ass in the process, but 4Runners hold their value amazingly well. The only thing that seems to hold its value better than the 4Runner is its cousin the Tacoma.
90’s on up 4Runners and Tacomas don’t sell for any crazy amounts of money in Upstate, NY auctions. Perhaps it’s the rotted out frames, suspensions and bumpers that keep the value down. Or maybe it’s the hundreds of replaced frames sitting outside the back of every Toyota dealership that keep values reasonable. The first thing our dealership does is pass them up for the suckers that want to rebuild the entire vehicle and fix a rust bucket.
I’m the person you’re describing in the end of your sentence, or at least I used to be.
Well, here’s an interesting “failure” for anyone to comment on: I drive an ’01 Z3 3.0, which I bought as a CPO car in 2003 and which now has 63K miles on it, 40K of which are mine. I like the car; it looks good and except for a few bumper paint scrapes and a separating seam in the driver seat bottom between two pleather panels, is cosmetically excellent. It has 4 excellent tires. I spent about $2,000 for the 55K service (at a top-rated independent shop specializing exclusively in BMWs and MINIs), the valve cover gasket replacement, some brake work and replacement of the stability sensor which got wet when I left a window open and it rained. It now needs a new thermostat and the CEL comes on sometimes, with the car missing at idle until fully warmed up. A fresh load of fuel usually cures this problem for a while.
When I bought the car, it was a third car . . . just for my use. Now, it’s a second car, and its not a very good one. Since it’s a manual my kids can’t drive it when they come home for a visit and it can’t take me, my wife and the dog out to the country. (In fact, it can’t take the dog at all, since he’s too big to sit on the passenger side floor.) But for that, I would happily spend more money fixing these small problems. (Unknown is the durability of the clutch which, while treated gently, has seen a lot of use, since most of those 63K miles are not on the highway.)
So, I’m thinking about replacing it with something that actually carries 4 passengers and has a usable (but not necessarily commodious) back seat, which leaves out: MINI, Mustang, 1-Series. I’m not feeling flush with money right now and don’t want to own a repair queen (like, possibly, a VW product). Another used BMW might be nice, but my price leaves out a CPO car; so I would be buying something with probably 50K miles and out of warranty.
So, it sorta seems like anything I get which meets these requirements is not going to be particularly fun or exciting. The new Focus drives well but, on a good day, would beat our Honda Pilot at the stoplight (maybe).
So, am I in “failure mode”?
When I consider my car to be a failure is a very carefully calculated projection based on the statistics of it’s rate-of-failure and cost-of-repair vs current miles and the traditionally expected life of the car. If the failure rate accelerates when it’s nearing the statistical end-of-life for the car in miles, and the projected repair expenses exceeds car’s value, the axe comes down.
Me, I just wait until the squeaks get too annoying. Works out about the same, I’m guessing.
For me it’s mechanical failure that makes me finally declare a car gone. My 8 year old 2002 Golf TDI with 26,000 original miles that blew a head gasket (among other problems like a leaky sunroof, windows that suddenly fell into the door, etc etc etc.)
I thought about having it repaired, but I took a long hard look at it and decided that I had finally hit the point where the latest problem was more than just minor “WTF were they thinking when they designed this thing?” annoynace.
So, I put it on Craigslist for $3500 and people fought for the honor of being the first to haul it off. Good riddance.
Safety reasons; My 195K mile Olds didn’t have air bags, and my 125K Saturn doesn’t have enough. I have a family now, so I need to live.
A lot of people here will mock you, but its a valid concern. Automobile accidents are a major cause of death and disability, and I want to give me and my family the best chance I can. If a car with full airbags and anti skid is 25% safer than one without it, then its a reasonable investment in my mind
The PERCEIVED fear of something going horribly wrong.
That was the reason I traded in our 1996 Dodge Intrepid with only 46,000 miles on the clock. It had the 3.5L and ran like crazy, but after the fuel rail replacement, sometimes it just didn’t want to start and that bothered me, plus the Ultradrive – which was doing fine, but I feared for the future.
Traded it in on a brand-new 1999 Stratus – first and only time I actually drove a car off the showroom floor. We kept it three years, which is what I planned. I bought my wife her 2002 CR-V and she’s been happy ever since.
The only car I ever got rid of for mechanical issues was a 1980 Skylark which kept overheating and nothing could be done to keep it from happening, so my family and I could not go anyplace without fear of getting stranded far form home, so I had no choice buy to trade it (Lost a ton of $$ doing so)
Did you buy the skylark new?
If not, someone obviously ran the engine before you with no antifreeze or not enough antifreeze and everything corroded preventing heat transfer.
1999 Saab 9-5 V6t Wagon. Dark blue on cream, loved the car and only bought it for fun (’08 Elantra is my daily commuter). Needed some work but was overall in great shape and could be driven regularly w/ no issues. Then things started happening. Warning lights, heat stopped blowing on the driver side, water pump went out, random dash bulbs quit. Decided I had to sell at 120k miles when faced with the prospect of a timing belt change. Posted it on CL and within a couple hours it was sold at a profit. Made the decision to sell at 3pm, posted the ad by 4pm, new owner drove off around 7pm. I almost shed a tear watching it cruise away.
I think you auction goers keep prices for “old Jap cars” inflated. I was at an auction in
Col, OH, and couldn’t believe some of the prices you guys were paying.
The only good deals were the repo’s, bullet holes and all! Better deals on eBay where I’ve purchased half dozen cars.
Found it’s better to avoid the ‘honeymoon’s over’ situation by waiting & saving to buying a car or truck I know I’ll be in love or at least happy with ’til one of us suffers a grizzly death. Maybe I still can’t really afford it at the time of purchase but if spread out over 20 years of happy ownership, it’s not so bad. Tweny years ago a GMC Syclone or Typhoon Jimmy were like 30K which was alot but would’ve put a big smile on my face at least once a week plus are rare, highly sought after classics today. Then again if you have to get a strict fuel sipping commuter-appliance, just kill yourself now… Just kidding! Anyways, you can always tell the honeymoon’s over when it stops getting regular detailing.
your last sentence is so true. I stoped wasing my 2011 accord 2 months after I got it. SHortest honeymoon ever.
A 2007 Suzuki XL7 I bought because it seemed like a great deal: $20K for a 7-passenger AWD CUV with leather and a DVD system, brand-new off the lot. Combined with the screaming V6, fast-shifting transmission and what I still consider a very capable chassis (on-road only), it seemed like I couldn’t go wrong.
Well, I found out that when I was in test-drive mode I tended to keep an upright posture, but when I settle into the way I drive when going to the store for smokes, my knee rubbed against the console at precisely the wrong spot. When I adjusted the seat so that didn’t happen, my left shoulder rubbed against the B-pillar. I could not get comfortable in that car no matter what I tried–and I tried everything.
After about 18 months of ownership the car started to live down to its origins as a badge-engineered GM product. The front swaybar mount broke–twice. There was a transfer case leak that was the object of a recall. The gas struts for the liftgate failed–out of warranty. The radio started its string of intermittent–undiagnosable–failures. The map lights broke and were revealed as dollar-store crap. What was most dangerous (and amusing) was when the front door trim drooped enough to keep the doors from opening. I had to keep a crowbar handy inside the car to allow exit.
On top of this all–it seemed to fail specifically at the purposes I had selected it to fulfill: It had replaced a Ford Explorer with 4X4. I didn’t expect it to be a rockcrawler, but it couldn’t even pull itself out of a shallow ditch. My wife’s Civic with snow tires was more capable. I had hoped for considerably better mileage than the SUV, but it rarely got more than 19 on the highway. I wanted interior space, but compared to the minivans driven by my wife-at-the-time’s friends, it came up short. There were very few things to compensate for the general crappiness of the car aside from the thrust of the V6 between 4K and 7K on dry pavement.
So at about 80K I took traded it in at a time when 7-passenger SUV’s were hot on the used market and I got considerably more than I expected, though the dealers were so unfamiliar with the model that most of them had never seen another one. I have a feeling that it ended up in auction-land somewhere, mainly due to public unfamiliarity. However, I know the real reasons why it SHOULD have JUSTLY ended up there.
So I learned you get what you pay for, and a “sleeper” isn’t always a diamond-in-the-rough.
When a Mazda dealer offered me half of what I owed on my RX-8 in trade (on a new RX-8). Buh-bye.
When a dodge dealer offered me $1000 trade-in for the 4-year old 1995 Hyundai Elantra with under 50,000 miles i was driving, and promply offered twice that for an 1986 Toyota 4×4 i owned sight unseen on a Dodge Ram SS/T. May have saved me from Mopar transmission hell. I wound up dumping the Elantra after a broken timing belt at 55,000 that was covered under warranty and a broken A/C component that was not. Traded it in with another dealer on a 1997 Firebird Formula, just barely got payoff for the thing with less than a year to go on the note. Hyundai has come a long way since those days, i guess.
BMW e36 325i that became an unreliable money pit at about 150,000 miles. It was not neglect, as the scheduled stuff is as easy as any vehicle I have ever owned. The failures, however, were getting ever more frequent and time/money consuming.
When I was leaving college I paid $1,400 for a then-fourteen year old Honda Civic. I didn’t notice until later that the odometer was stopped, so rather than 130K it was probably closer to 200. Whoops.
So, yeah, turns out no matter how reliable Civics in general are, a couple hundred thousand miles of neglect and Northeast rust can turn anything into a lemon. The thing waited until the least opportune times to completely crap itself, and the two biggest breakdowns were in the middle of two different moves to new apartments. After the second, I decided it was enough; I put an ad on Craigslist for a broken-down POS and accepted $600 for it. The “proud” new owner towed it off of my parking pad to use as a parts car, after which I believe he towed it to the junkyard; I guess the $300 price difference between what he paid me and scrap value was worth whatever parts he needed.
My bubble Taurus was always too small. But I had some affection for the way it could suck around PA roads. 15mph switchback on the uphill? Approach at 40, throw the wheel hard over to the left, let the bald tires scrub off speed until you were down below about 23mph, which was slow enough to shift back to 1st when you punch it.
15mph switchback on the downhill? Approach at 35, crank the wheel all the way to the right, use brakes as needed to prevent from sliding sideways into the uphill lane.
But the legroom was always an issue. My girl complained that we never get out of the mountains; I didn’t want to because of how horrible my legs felt after three hours on the interstate. Where it “failed” was when the power seat adjust broke. Would only go forward… wouldn’t go back. For a car that was already too small, this was utter failure… spending money to fix the seat would still net me a car with inadequate legroom.
I said “fuck it” and bought a Panther.
1971 Opel 1900 Sport Coupe. I thought I was getting good German craftsmanship, and in fact the car handled well once I replaced the OEM bias-plys with Michelins. But the shift lever buzzed like crazy and the dealer was no help: “They all do that.” I ended up taping a three-pound piece of bar stock to the lever; that helped but didn’t totally kill the buzz. The carpets started coming apart before the car had 10,000 miles on it. It had this gimp two-barrel carburetor that was calibrated so that you’d press on the accelerator and nothing much would happen until the second barrel opened, then the car would suddenly squirt forward. This made for lots of fun in parking lots. It was real easy to decide to cut my losses and trade on a 1972 Celica which was a better car in every way except for the handling.
I sell my cars if I have more than $2000 in repairs and honest maintenance in any year. BMW’s do not pass this test well. Lexus and Saabs have generally passed for years longer than I want them too.
The 1988 Festiva turned over 300,000 and had a woman I wanted to marry.
I hit pay dirt and made a kid. The Ranger had to go.
I kept hitting pay dirt and making kids. The VUE had to go.
I kept hitting pay dirt and making kids. The Relay with the two separate middle seats had to go.
So – um, I think it’s my penis’ fault.
It’s only pay dirt if you get a return on your investment.
They’re called “raincoats”, my boy!
Ah the propolatic education videos that Zachman likely had to sit through in the airforce… ;)
For me it was an ’02 Passat wagon that ate a rear differential at about 88000 miles. $5000 for a replacement. Off it went…
My most unreliable car: 1979 Ford Mustang Turbo TRX 3-Door
Clutch stuck, killed the synchros
Turbo failure in the Smokey Mountains,1982 Worlds Fair. Random ignition module failure, and a Weber/Motorcraft carb that would shake its top loose every chance it got.
Wrong brake proportioning valve sent me off the road in the wet
Mt wife’s most unreliable car: 1972 Mercury Capri 2.0 More English than German, ’nuff said.
Note to Fincar1: My ’72 Opel 1900 Rallye(Manta) was a GREAT car, less the Solex carburetor. The shifter buzz was caused by engine mounting and balance–the Chevy Vega was smooth(when they ran) with the same gearbox because GM suspended a heavy weight from the transmission to compensate for the a/c compressor. The Opels never had that weight installed, and all a/c’s were add-on kits.
But I LOVED the handling, epecially with the Michelin XAS tires and Bilstein shocks I installed.
One of my most unreliable cars was my 1980 Mercury Capri Turbo. Head gasket failure, carb was crap, various interior parts were crap (not the Recaros, though), and after almost 30 years, I’ve forgotten a lot of the other sins.
My overarching memory of that car? The smell of hot antifreeze and hot oil…
I carpooled with a guy who had an 81 Mustang with a 6 cylinder engine and an automatic. It was reliable for the day, but seemed to have a really short range between fill-ups.
I dumped my last car (which was also my first car) in better shape than I bought it in. Consequently the 40,000 miles I put on it cost me almost nothing in depreciation. However, I shudder to total up the maintenance costs… it was a VW Jetta. That’s not why I got rid of it, though, I found the upkeep cost worth it. It just got too squeaky and rattly.
Speaking of which, it was when my ’02 Jetta 1.8T received its 7th recall/service bulletin that I decided, detailed it and sold to Carmax.
Just made me real uneasy to keep it any longer.
I considered my 2000 Jetta to be a failure when the rear suspension collapsed on my way to work. I know its an old car, but it has absolutely no structural rust (its only rust is a zit behind each front wheel arch). Unfortunately, I have to stick with the lump o’ junk for a couple years to get my money’s worth out of it.
My dad’s rule always seemed to be that a car had to be replaced when something happened to the transmission. I don’t think he has ever repaired or replaced a transmission in his life — manual or automatic. One of the cars he ditched for that reason was a ’57 Chevy 210 2 door wagon. Ouch.
For me, the quickest path to asking for an automotive divorce is when the machine leaves me stranded more than once. Especially if such strandings happen while on vacation (’77 Town Car), in Mom’s driveway (’84 Skyhawk), or in the middle of an intersection (’88 Celebrity).
Interesting that there hasn’t been any mention of rust, peeling/fading paint or other body issues. I gave up on a strong running ’75 Cadillac with a PERFECT interior once it developed the dreaded water-under-the-vinyl-top problem. On many 70’s GM cars, water gets under that vinyl top without an obvious entry point and starts wreaking havoc. Usually you know you have a problem when water is leaking into the trunk (or cascading, ask me how I know). By that time the only fix is to remove the vinyl top and the rear window and do the necessary metal reconstruction, which will be major. It even happens to California cars; I have seen baseball sized holes in the C pillars.
I knew the late 90’s Fords had their issues, but I figured if I got the most reliable drivetrain they made at the time I’d be ok. With that, the wife and I bought a two year old 1997 Taurus wagon. It had the AX4N transmission, which was supposed to be the most durable trans they put in the taurus. It also had the “Vulcan 3.0.” And I guess for a FOrd it was durable as it went 125K miles, substantially more than my father’s 96 Windstar. Anyway, both head gaskets and the trans were shot. So this wagon, which looked like friggin NEW, went to the auction. Due to the Taurus being a fleet queen, the car must have been one of many, and all of em at the auction had suspect drivetrains. So this car, less than 7 years old with 125K on it had the hammer drop at $1400. To think that my 2000 CR-V with 140k would bring three times that at an auction tomorrow makes me hang my head in shame.
As per my previous question to the B&B about ‘New or Used’, I tend to view my cars as failures either when the repair they require is worth substantially more than the car, or when the car is actually getting distinctly dangerous to drive.
Here’s my examples of ‘non-failings’. Take my old Ford Escort for instance. The alternator failed, so I replaced it with a junkyard unit. The battery soon went after that, so I replaced it with one left in an abandoned car. The air conditioning failed, so I stripped out all the pipework and the compressor and found a serpentine belt which was for non aircon Escorts so it bypassed it all together. The horn failed, so I wired it to a toggle switch I drilled into the dash. The shocks got worn out… so I didn’t do anything.
Failure for me was that finally the front wheel bearings got so worn that driving around corners the car would randomly lurch from left to right as the wheels wobbled. That was a ‘failure’ in my eyes because it was actually dangerous and the front wheel bearings required being punched out by a hydraulic press at a shop which would have cost too much money.
Other than that, if it starts, drives and stops – it’s all win for me.
A perfect example of why yearly inspections should be mandatory in all 50 states…
An even better method that doesn’t waste the time and money of those intelligent enough to look after their vehicles: remove the negligent idiots who cause collisions from the road.
About to ditch a 2011 pilot because I can’t deal with all the rattles and buzzes.
I had a 2002 Taurus with 60K. I bought new in 2003 for 15,700. I had the 24V V6. leather, side bags, etc – pretty decent car. Only real issues during ownership was $150 bushing repair to the front suspension, a tail light, and a trunk leak.
I wholesaled it earlier this year for 3K. That’s a lot of car for 3K.
Why
I wanted a new car
I wanted anti skid (I have no delusion that I am a race car driver
I wanted curtain air bags ( I see a lot of shitty drivers out there every day)
I felt the car was not projecting the right image for me. I work in Silicon Valley, in a start up as an executive. Always felt a little weird showing up at board meetings in a Taurus.
So I got a 2011 Accord SE for 20,900 and 0.9% financing. Anonymous and practical. Fits the image I want to portray.
However, I cannot stand the seats – they are uncomfortable in so many ways. Has an annoying creak from the trunk anytime the car has any sort of twisting. Its noisy as hell on the freeway too, road noise. I had read that about the car, but discounted it.
I like the steering and handling – better than my Taurus was, but the Duratec V6 in the Taurus with a low geared 4 speed was much more responsive vs the I4 in the accord. Had to get the accord with a 4cyl to avoid the sunroof. I am 6’4″
I think the Accord will be movin on when its paid off, in 4.5 years. Maybe sooner if we get a “liquidity event” with my company and I feel like celebrating.
I wish I had bought a Hyundai Genesis. The base model is avail without a sunroof, and I hear it’s as quiet as can be. I think it would have been 30K, which is more than I wanted to spend, but I am so out of love with the accord – I’ve only washed it 3 times, all in the first 2 months of ownership.
Finally ditched a 1998 S-10 Blazer. Had already sunk money into the water pump and alternator, but the final straw was when the A/C compressor went out.. this was at the begining of summer.
The fuel economy was no great shakes to begin with but only got worse over time.
Structural issues are a major deal breaker for me. 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham sedan (150,000+ miles) that was stolen during Thanksgiving weekend in Southfeild, MI in the year 2000. The guy did me a favor cause the trans was starting to go and the front drivers side swaybar mount had come detached because the frame rusted through at that point. I was thinking about getting rid of it but knew that it was worth almost nothing when it was stolen and was gone for long enough for the insurance to simply cut me a check that made a nice down payment on my next ride. Mechanical failure usually isn’t enough, I had the trans rebuilt in my 1997 Ford Escort wagon because the rest of the car was in such great shape.
I’m really cheap, so I can put up with a lot. I don’t mind squeaks and rattles, but I’ve only owned about three new cars of my own. The rest of the time, I’ve owned beaters (for myself, the family always got the ‘good’ car). I’m used to squeaks and rattles.
Since I’m pretty handy with a screwdriver, I let a lot of things go. This is probably bad, because I know it will come back to bite me. As an example, I know why my one car’s CEL is on, the carbon canister needs replacement, but I haven’t done anything about it because A: I know that it’s non-fatal, and B: it really doesn’t seem to affect the operation of the car.
Usually what kills a car for me, is numerous, expensive repairs in short time frame. I had a Mercury Topaz that blew through a brake wheel cylinder, transmission malfunction, a tie rod end, needed the struts replaced, all within a six month period. I may have done all of that had I liked the car. But it was a slow turd of a car that had no redeeming value to me.
OTOH I’ve put a transmission into my J body Sunfire because the car is otherwise OK and appeals to me. But the rust cancer is claiming that car, and soon I will have to take it off the road.
I bought a Lexus es330 in ’05. I knew it was a rebadged camry, but I liked the looks and the gizmos.
After a few years of getting used to the electronics (which were fine) I was totally and utterly bored. So I sold it and bought an E60 BMW.
What a difference! But, what a waste of money. I sold a perfectly good car that as the article says, will run 300k miles.
But, life is short and I wanted a toy.
Bought a new Clio 2 years ago, with a great *recession* discount (25% off the pricelist), but then appeared the goverment scrappage scheme, and then they kept having offers on it, and now the lowered the pricelist. And keep doing offers.
Irish market is flooded with Clios, and I’d be happy to get 50% from the original pricelist after just 2 years and 13.000 miles. I think I’ll have to keep that one for some more time….
I had a 2007 Xterra that spent more time in the shop on the road. It ate suspension components, threatened to throw it’s timing chain on multiple occasions, and had enough electrical gremlins to make a Volkswagen blush. After being stonewalled by Nissan corporate customer service and arousing the suspicions of my boss who couldn’t belive such a new car needed to spend so much time in the shop I finally decided to get rid of it a few thousand miles before the warranty expiried.
I bought a 1991 Bronco with over 200k miles on the clock and had less problems with the same gas mileage for about 5% of what the Xterra had initially cost.
Had an ’81 VW Jetta coupe — very rare car. And fun, once I replaced the suspension & drivetrain with GTI parts. Unfortunately VW had designed the car so that the rain gutters essentially drained directly onto the fuse panel! Result: a thick sheaf of fix-it tickets for non-op taillights. The judge offered to throw them all out if I’d just sell the car to the junkyard. Done.
Had a ’73 Porsche 914 and did a ton of engine upgrades. Fun on an on-ramp! — until 4000 rpm, when the fuel injection computer decided it couldn’t possibly be seeing THAT much air and fuel going through, and FROZE to ponder…meanwhile oh god, here comes an 18-wheeler!…until regaining composure and rocketing into the rev limiter. Sold it to a boy racer, since the only apparent easy fix — carbs — weren’t legal on a street car in CA. Two months later, CA changed the rules and I could have put carbs on it. Killed me.
Had an ’82 VW Scirocco. Caught fire. (In fact, all three of these cars caught fire at one point or another.) Took it as a sign from the gods that I should…that’s right…put a bigger motor in it. But eventually I was done with German engineering.
Got a featherweight little ’98 Saturn SL2 16-valve stick, then a punchy little ’06 Mazda 3 2.3L stick, both semi-fun to drive and rock-solid reliable.
Then, having learned nothing, I got a 2002 VW Passat V6 wagon with impossibly low miles. So far I’ve paid the book value for it twice: once to buy it, and a second time in repairs over the following year. Thing is, it looks good, it now runs like new, and it still has low miles…who could justify dumping it now?
And so it continues.
I disagree with “Sometimes automakers create utter crap…” because technically every conveyor-built vehicle is crap until you reconstruct it properly.
There’s only one way to Rolls.