My wife had an old Steenkin’ Lincoln.
It was a 1983 model. 4 doors. Maroon. What I would call ‘Mighty Thor’ had been nothing more than a temporary home for sunbathing cats and vast amounts of driveway real estate.
Thumbtacks, staple guns, duct tape, a maroon bathmat for the passenger floor, along with a new battery and fluids gave the car a new life.
For several years it gave my wife basic transportation at a time when gas was cheap and our expenses were slim.
Then it happened…
On the way back home from the interstate, the engine started to sound like a castanet orchestra. My wife pulled over within walking distance from a gas station.
“Steve. The car is making funny sounds. I think it’s dead. Can you pick me up?”
I came to the gas station. Took a long walk to the car since no u-turns were possible along the long and winding road… and…
“Clickety-clackety! clickety-clackety!”
At 224,857 miles it was clinging on to dear life. I managed to get it to the gas station where it simply glided into a permanent state of rigor mortis. Never to be awakened again. A tow truck. A $100 cash payment (if I remember right) and the Steenkin’ Lincoln was no more.
Thankfully I had discovered a nouveau riche doctor who had been willing to sell his not so old 1986 Camry for $500, plus the impound fee due to his carelessness. So all was still right with the world.
Today’s question is, “Have you ever given up on a car?” Some vehicles get to a point when they’re worth more dead than alive. So feel free to expound on your old ride’s near felonious record of defects and desertions. Extra credit if you left that hideous beast in the middle of nowhere.
No, but a Chevy Short-bed Van I once owned in the 70’s was found, after having been…..stolen, burned out on the outskirts of town.
That I owed 23 more payments on it was….mere co-incidence.
Sure, most recently I had a ’91 BMW 318is that was a great runner but was getting rusty. It was worth WAAAAY more to me in parts than as a car, so I bought a pristine bodied ’91 318is down South and parted out the first one. Took all the best bits off and put them on the “new” car, sold off the rest. It is quite relaxing to take a car apart that doesn’t have to go back together again. I got more than I paid for the car selling off the parts.
Waaay back I gave up on a heap of an ’82 Volvo 245 Turbo. It just hated me, broke down constantly with every possible Volvo dilemma. I sold it on cheap. Should have just sent it to Valhalla.
’92 325i, perfect body but blown head gasket from one too many cooling system failures. Since it was at the stage of its life where something was always failing, I couldnt keep it as a daily driver anymore. Yes, I did all required maintenance. On an old German luxury car, except maybe a W123 MB diesel, thats not enough. Sold it to a kid who apparently had access to a cheap junkyard engine.
Steve,
I was driving home in 82 MB300TD sedan with a coworker on I287 in NJ during the evening rush hour. All of a sudden, it starting losing power. I maneuvered onto the shoulder and opened the hood to find that the hose from the oil cooler to the engine had ruptured and leaked out all of the oil. The bearings were toast so I has the car towed home and gave it to a local charity who received scrap value for it.
The TD is a estate (station wagon), not a sedan. And mine was an 82 MB 300SD, finally got tired of fixing its multiple electric and mechanical issues and dumped it in 97 by giving it to charity after being unable to sell the damn thing for almost any price. It was a hand-me-down from my Dad, and it made me wonder if he really liked me or not.
“My dad gave me a Mercedes S-class” turns out to be less of a dream than it sounds?
hmm very interesting…
I gave up on my very first car. It was a 1972 Impala that I had bought used. It was great for the first while, but then the problems started coming in a steady stream one after another: manifold gaskets, exhaust, more gaskets, brakes, alternator, carburetor, starting motor, wiring, and so on. Finally one day it wouldn’t start. I played with the solenoid switch for a while, and then just stopped. I realized that I was putting more time and money into this thing than I both wanted to and could afford, so I just closed the hood and never opened it again. It stayed in the driveway for a long while after that, until my sister actually began to wonder whether I’d lost my license or something. My brother-in-law worked at the docks at the time, and he knew a Russian who was interested in it. A few days later and the old Impala was on a cargo ship heading across the Atlantic to Europe.
It was a long while after that before I bought my next car.
I’ve had several that I should have given up on sooner. Right now, I have a 17 year old Pontiac Sunfire GT that should really be recycled into washing machines, but I like it too much. Until something really expensive (ahem, engine) goes on it, I’ll keep it around. I just put $800 into it to replace lower control arms (factory originals) and several other nuisance items. I usually spend <$600/year on the car for repairs, the vast majority are due to age and the previous owners' neglect of the car.
The one car that stands out in my mind of car ownership of over 30 years now is my old Mercury Topaz. When my mother retired (for the second time) her then-boss gave her a Honda Accord as a retirement present. She had this Topaz for several years at that point; but I lived five states away, so I wasn't familiar with it. When she offered it to all of my siblings and no one took it, that should have been a clue.
At the time, we had little kids and needed another car so a free car sounded good. Until we actually got the car. It was slow, cramped and generally miserable to drive. It really got miserable to drive once the AC quit (we lived in Atlanta at the time) and found out it would cost $1000 to fix it. It had multiple leaks and other issues, but with two young children and mortgage, it wasn't going to get fixed.
Long story short, we kept the car, and even brought it to Michigan when we moved here three years later. By now the transmission was slipping, previously repaired oil leaks were re-leaking and rust was rapidly advancing. When I finally sold the car to a Mexican in 2001, the front and rear struts were shot (thanks FoMoCo, no cheap repairs on those!), the engine was leaking like a sieve, the trans only had two forward gears, various interior parts were falling off, the brakes had gone out twice, etc., etc.
I used to think that people just didn't like a car and made up catastrophic stories to justify their hate or their desire to rid themselves of the car. Until I had this car. I don't discount those catastrophic stories anymore, I lived through one of my own.
Due to this car and two other Fords, they are off my shopping list these days. I sometimes think a nice Mustang GT would make a good 'midlife crazy' kind of car, but then I think of the gallons of oil that once stained my driveway from that stupid Topaz and think: Where can I get a nice Challenger R/T?
What other Fords did you end up with?
My Fords, in order of when I bought them starting in 1980 and ending in 2001…
1980 Mercury Capri RS Turbo: bought as a leftover, but with warranty. Lasted two years, numerous overheating incidents, blown head gasket, coked turbo, bad trans. Traded on a 1983 Pontiac Trans Am, which was total POS, too.
1969 Ford Torino GT. Bought VERY used. Kept it about 9 months, caught fire due to electrical issue. Scrapped
1974 Ford Maverick: 6 cylinder coupe, original Ohio car. Kept about 18 months. Swapped out the 6 for a 289 and C4. Did lots of bodywork, was assured body work would hold up to winters. The bodywork rusted right through. Sold the car.
1979 Ford Pinto ESS. Bought used, needed some TLC upon delivery, but nothing new with a used car. Kept it two years, blown rear main seal led to catastrophic oil loss, destroyed camshaft. Clutch issues addition to leaking seals in rear axle. Clutch and axle issues never resolved. Traded car in.
1985 Mercury Capri RS V8 4 speed. Bought new, maintained to factory specs. Transmission was weak, replaced twice, power steering rack developed catastrophic leaks, rear end axle seals developed leaks. The transmission issues became chronic. traded car in.
1986 Mercury Capri Sport Coupe V8 purchased new. Bought new, maintained to factory specs. The first year with the 1985 was great. So much so, I decided to buy one for myself. I was horrified when the 85 started having problems, thinking this one would too. But, the car was super solid. Only saw regular maintenance and a minor recall. Sold it when my first child came along. Shouldn’t have.
1990 Mercury Topaz; used, in 1995, was gifted this car, it was the kind of gift I didn’t want. Numerous problems outlined above. Sold.
1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS; 10 years old, used, but was a great deal! Bought it when gasoline spiked after 9/11. I knew it had issues when I bought it, but I could not keep up with the existing issues and new ones as they developed. Donated to charity.
Granted, when you buy used, you’re buying someone else’s maintenance habits and a couple of times I lost. But I grew up in a Ford owning family, I wanted the cars to be better but it took me 20 years of getting burned to learn better. Shame on me.
Thanks for the list, my family largley owns Ford (500 and a Sportrack Explorer), I quite like the 500 while the sporttrack is an undrivable pile of crud with no room in the back seat for cargo.
I used to have a fox Mustang with the 3.8 (basically a Capri that didn’t look as nice), sold it after it kept stalling on me. You’
d be surprised how many pairs of sun-visors I had to buy to get a pair that would fit.
1988 SAAB 900 turbo convertible. Red – tan leather interior, 5-speed. Odometer quit working at 243,000 so for the next 3 years I would change the oil every 6 months. AC = gone, power top = now manual operation. It still ran like all kinds of bad ass. The Michigan winters, however; had taken their toll.
No visable rust unless you looked under the car. Got so bad that if you opened both doors at the same time they were hard to close (really). Local frame shop told me that any accident over 20mph would result in the car breaking in half.
When the engine finally melted down on I-69 south of Lansing I had it towed to the house (yes I considered rebuilding the engine) and finally decided to give up.
No salvage shop in Central Michigan was interested because none had use for foreign cars in that area, plus there was not all that much metal to salvage. They were going to charge me $500.00 to come haul it away.
Put it on E-bay (completely honest about the condition) and sold it for $1,200 to a guy in Kansas who had was collecting them.
I have owned faster, more powerfull, more responsive, nicer etc… cars over the year, but I have NEVER loved a car more. Doubt I ever will.
There is always the aftermarket when it comes to consumables and that is usually a chance to make it better. Shocks/struts, springs, sway bars, filters, and all the fluids that today’s cars can usually be replaced with something better.
I almost had a C5 convertible frame fitted under my 1988 Beretta GT after it was stolen stripped of it supercharger and go-fast parts. The Beretta was too narrow and broadening it would have exceeded weight goals.
Working on another engine swap now that no one has done.
85 Dodge Aries. Bought it with known lack of performance, check engine light. Played with it every so often over the next two months. Never got it to run right for more than 10 minutes. Finally said ENOUGH! Gave it to a car donation charity. GONE!
Sadly I have. I drove a Lotus Europa for 14 years and would still be driving if a cracked fuel pump had not caused a fire that destroyed it. I could not imagine driving anything but a Lotus, so I took the insurance money and bought a 77 Lotus Esprit and a fire extinguisher. The Esprit had 40k miles and needed a new interior. I had it restored for about another 7k bringing my investment to about 17k. It seemed like there was always a problem of some sort with the car. Over 12 years 80% of the miles were back and forth to the shop that worked on it. Finally, about 5 years ago, it developed a problem where it would run 15 minutes until it got warmed up, then the engine would cut out. At first we thought it was a fuel problem, then an electrical problem. Every part of both systems was replaced multiple times. After spending another 10k trying to solve the problem, using several different mechanics, I just was beaten. I sold my $30k investment for 5k making sure the new owner was aware of the problems. He kept it for a year and sold it for 10k on e-bay. I didn’t see any mention of the problem in the ad. maybe he fixed it.
Yes. 2002 Ford ZX2. After replacing two transaxles I sold it for scrap when the motor overheated and destroyed itself. I entertained thoughts of fixing it with a junkyard head or complete motor but gave that up after realizing the motor, intake manifold and exhaust system were put together like one of those puzzles where you have to get one bent nail out from another bent nail.
’73 Opel GT. At 18 years and nearly 200K miles, the engine needed an overhaul. While jacking it WAY up (engine comes out the bottom) one of the jack points collapsed due to rust and it almost fell on me. So faced with an engine rebuild plus structural body repair on a vehicle with increasingly lousy parts availability I gave up and sold it for $75.
I left a Jaguar that I loved at a service shop because the repair was more than I could afford at the time and probably more than the car was worth at that point.
Also, coincidentally, I had a wrecking yard take my Toyota Tercel today. The city was starting to hassle me about it and when I checked prices on Craigslist it wasn’t worth the cost of the struts, alternator and door it needs. Shame, the drivetrain still worked fine.
What year is it? I could probably use a few parts from it.
’92 Volvo 745T. Bought for $200 after it sat for a couple of years. Replaced the front brakes, fuel filter, turbocharger (with a rebuilt one). Engine threw a rod after ~16 months and ~7k miles. Interior was thrashed and suspension pretty much done for, plus it needed rear brakes and various cosmetic work to pass inspection, so it’s getting parted.
As long as it ran, I limped it along. Fist-sized hole in the block? Yeah, no.
A few. All American & not in a good way.
ouch
Twice. First, a 94 Ford Club Wagon Chateau. At about 164K, a most unique failure. A reluctor wheel inside the differential lost a tooth. The reluctor fed the rear vehicle speed sensor. With a tooth missing, it fed different info to the computer than did the front vehicle speed sensor. Result: at random times, the perfectly shifting E4OD transmission would become confused and shift itself into neutral. A cheap part that required total disassembly of the diff to get it there. The finance committee at home nixed the cost of a diff rebuild (about $3k) in the year that gas first hit $4. I (sadly) donated it.
Second, a 99 T&C with 207K. Again, a perfectly shifting transaxle had something break inside early last fall. Again, the finance committee voted down the $2500 tranny rebuild. The car was too nice to scrap (I done several other things to it) and gave it to a co-worker who put the new tranny in it and is still driving it today.
In both cases, if it had been my decision, I would have kept the cars and eaten the repair. But I have been married for 22 years and am not looking to end that streak, so compromise was necessary.
And by ‘compromise’, we married men usually mean, ‘capitulate’.
A 19-mumbledy-mumbledy Morris Minor. My father put in new crank bearings, but it didn’t save the engine. Combined with brakes that delivered the merest suggestion of deceleration, it was just time to call it a life.
A 1959 TR-3, which survived a rollover and being rear-ended by a Corvette on Peachtree Street (after a frame and body transplant – hmm that makes it a different car, doesn’t it?). An engine fire finally did it in. I still miss that car, although not on very hot days or very cold days.
Two of them.
1986 Merkur xR4Ti. Hydrauliced the engine in a rain storm (no did not drive through deep water). Somehow, someway, in a blinding east Texas gutter washer water got into the intake and that was that. The car was a borderline hooptie when I bought it (oh I’ll fix it up) and that was just the end.
The other was a 1998 Pontiac Trans Sport Montana LWB 4-door. What a steaming pile of crap. In less than four years went through the stereo head unit, power sliding door control modules (twice), rear self-leveling air suspension (three times), transmission, a driver seat (wore out at 43K miles), front windshield wiper motor, both headlights (water intrusion/condensation to the extreme), driver side rear vent window motor, and that’s what I can remember. That was all under warranty or covered by GM (the seat was out of coverage but GM covered).
The windshield wiper motor failure was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It kind of sucked because in the case of the Merkur, I had bought it cash, and in the case of the Montana I only took out a 3-year note and it was paid off.
Yes…our 1992 Chrysler LeBaron convertible. Coming home from work on a beautiful September, 2007 day and the engine hesitated and just quit. Had it towed, the engine let go. No longer worth putting money into it, so I begged our mechanic to buy it for $500 bucks and he did – for a co-worker who spent money on it and I believe it’s still around town somewhere.
Bought that car in May, 1999. Lots of fun and a beautiful car. 101K on the clock when we bought it and 148K when the 2.5 blew.
90 Cressida. Such a purty little car, so nice to drive and in mint condition. One head gasket repair later and am now thinking for this money I could have bought a Jag (Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag to paraphrase Clarkson).
After my dad died, I inherited his 1978 Chevy Caprice Wagon. When it was 12 years old with the body shot and interior, it also started leaking trans fluid out the rear seal. Enough that I had to keep a few bottles in the car to make sure it kept going.
One morning i backed it out of the driveway to go to work, put it in drive, nothing. Got out, opened the hood, started pouring the fluid in, then realized that I hadn’t put it back in Drive, and the car was now chasing me down my street, trying to pin me between it’s front bumper and that of my neighbor’s Camaro. Still being a spry youth, I managed to out run it, come back around the open drivers door, dive into the front seat and jack the trans lever back into park…just before hitting the Camaro. And all this with my wife of 6 weeks watching from the front door… Good times…
The end came when I was driving up I-275 in Canton Twp MI, and the trans gave out completely. I managed to cruise up the off ramp at Michigan Ave and make a left turn onto the shoulder of the bridge. There it was left. I had a guy come out and tow it away from there. The End.
A Buick X car,1980 since it would start overheating at any given moment, it became useless except for the short commute to work, so it had to go and took a beating at trade in time.
I am ashamed to say I have killed not one, but TWO of the Keith Richards of the automotive world: the 90-93 Accord.
Both were slow deaths brought on by bad streets, lowered suspensions, and flimsy oil pans. First one was my first car, in which I hit a massive pothole that dented the oil pan and did some damage to the front crossmember. I replaced the crossmember and drove it for a good year or so, and then a few days after an oil change the motor just seized. I think the oil pump or pickup was damaged and it just died.
The second was especially bad as it went through THREE motors. The first one was burning oil when I got it so I just replaced it. The second motor… I’m not sure what happened. I think the oil pan got dented over bumps and let out a slow leak at the drain bolt. It was partially my fault for negligence. I finally gave up when the third motor died on the way to the airport to pick up my wife. I parted out what I could (very difficult in NYC during the height of the recession!) and junked the rest.
Those Honda motors are tough, as long as you protect the oil system.
I had evil thoughts about this very subject two weeks ago. I was drving my elderly but still good looking and reasonably reliable 95 Explorer on its way to 300,000 miles in Colorado. It was humming along till about the middle of BFE Panhandle Texas when the OD light started flashing. Having been through a blown trans with it once before, I was thinking that another $2,000 sunk into it was money not well spent .
It got all flustered about OD missing, but yet it was hitting on all 4 forward gears, shop that I took it to to read the code in Colorado reset the computer and changed the engine oil and it was fine. put another 2,000 miles of HARD driving on it and it didn’t complain.
Otherwise it’d wind up living somewhere in CO,NM or panhandle TX and I’d just mail the lucky new owner the title.
There have been a few, one was a 1990 Horizon with a tranny that broke (previously I put a ton of money into this car and drove it very carefully), so you can add me to the list of “Ex-80’s Chrsyler owners).
Another was a 197069 VW Fastback, when I brought it the tranny only worked in 2 gears, the electrics were shot, he starter was shot, the guages didn’t work, one wheel couldn’t hold air (not the tire, the wheel), it smelled like gas very badly inside, it was quite a bit rusty, the brakes were shot, and the engine bay was too little to work on the engine, hence I call it “badly designed”.
When push came to shove I considered bashing the thing up just to tick off other VW fans, frankly I do not get along with them very well. I only got as far as a few dings and crashing the thing due to the brakes being shot.
I sold it for $1000 to a few VW buffs, I hope that car and every other Type 34 and 2 is scrapped for their awful designs, performance, low quality, and the stupid prices that even NOS VW parts cost.
After that I brought my Horizon, swearing that “Air Cooled VWs are for suckers”, now I say “FWD Chryslers are for suckers” while standing by my previous comment.
That movie is pretty amazing.
An 80 something Volvo and a 2002 Saturn Vue. I should have expected the Volvo because I bought it at auction. The vue was new though when we bought it.
Clutch, transmission, four computers, leaky sunroof (broken – drain not plugged, and finally, it proved it was an interference engine (why?) when the timing chain broke. Less than 200k.
1988 Ford Ranger. 2.0 4cyl with computer controlled terrible carb. Annual carb rebuild kept it running bad but not awful. First it tried to kill itself by jamming the starter solenoid, draining the battery and setting the starter on fire. I was coaxing it through the winter, with an escalating series of failures and increasingly fickle carb, hoping I could get one more year out of it. Then one snowy morning in 2000 it would.not.start.
I lost it in the driveway, screamed “That’s it, you’re FIRED!” Went back in and made two phone calls. The first to work “I’m not coming in today”. The second to my father in law at the Ford Dealership “What have you got on the lot RIGHT NOW”. Wound up with a nice 5-speed Focus ZTS which I still have today. Truck got sold for $500 to some kid who was walking to work. He was probably doing a lot of walking to work after he bought it as well.
I had a 1990 Prelude Si that, after the head gasket blew, caused some freakish Final Destination-esque event of fluids squirting and electronics getting hit, left me stranded on my way to class. I very begrudgingly gave it up when my mechanic (a friend of mine whom I know on a personal basis) told me it wouldn’t be worth saving. Manly tears were shed that day, and I’ve promised myself to one day restore a Prelude of such vintage to make things right (also it was a really fun li’l car!)
Had a 1995 Windstar for 10+ years, sold it to my son for $1, but a block from the house that very day, the transmission quits. He calls me as I’m boarding a plane from Indy to Boston, I post it on Craigslist for $500, when I land 1.5hours later a guy is ready to pay cash and tows it to Texas. Nice cash-out on a one-owner vehicle that my son beat to heck while in college.
Had a 1975 128SL Fiat. The worst car I ever owned in my life. It was a 1.3 liter engine that was about as powerful as 6 mice, and that was on a good day. The timing belt broke and bent numerous valves. Spent a small fortune to have new valves installed only to have the belt break again in a few months. I purchased my first Japanese car a Mazda 626 and found out why people were buying Japanese cars. The Fiat sat in my appartment comples for 2-3 months until it was towed for scrap. I got about $25 for it.
1952 Packard.
I swapped it for a Austin Cambridge A60 . I tried to get it running , towed it with my housemates 1948 studebaker until it fired ( yes,old style 2 speed automatics allow you to tow start) and once running it was rather nice,smooth,quiet and almost silent gearshift into top. I put $5 worth of juice in it and ran up the street. At the 1/4 mile mark it had drunk all the fuel and expired with a burp..
I gave it to some bikers who absolutely loved it.
1999 Subaru Outback. Mega-Lemon. The only car I ever traded in to a dealer because it was so revoltingly, trouble-prone.
I’m actually going through these abandonment issues right now.
The 2000 GMC Jimmy lost it’s entire rear axle 1 week ago, I managed to throw it into neutral and coasted to the tranny shop. They want at least $1500 to replace it, so I’m haggling with a wholesaler over the salvage value while the car sits in the lot.
I’ve hated the car since my wife (then girlfriend) purchased it new and I “inherited” when we had our 2nd child and she upgraded to minivan Mom status.
The frugal part of me wants to hold out for the best deal with the wholesaler, but I’d really rather just never see it again.
Here you go…
http://www.car-part.com/
Installing one can be a little labor intensive if it’s 4WD. But not even close to a junking event. Unless the powertrain is near death, it would make a lot more sense to fix it and sell it.
Oh, GOD!!! And here I thought I was the worst mudpie God ever baked. Jberger, the car I killed was your stablemate, a 1998 Chevy Blazer 2 door—voted the most deadly vehical on America’s highways (96 Fatalities per 1 million miles)!!! Sporty and SUV are words that should not be spoken in the same breath. [Same as Ford Explorer and FLIP-Over!!!].
I knew I was going to have trouble with ‘BitchBoy” the truck when the damn thing BIT ME on the dealer’s show room (Rear seat cut my fingers). Did I listen? I bought ‘Bitchboy’ used with a lousy 57K miles on him. 57K miles on a Japanese car is considered ‘showroom fresh’, 57K miles on an AMERICAN Car is when you start singing “I’m heading for the last round up!!!
I’m not even done yet!!! I just brought Bitchboy home when both the Alternator and the regulator went out (I mean, I had the truck for 7 days!!!). Dealer told me to go to any Chevy shop, have them fix it and send them the bill. I did. Dealership B charged Dealership A “$1,300.00 as a professional courtesy”. The managers were cussing each other out in my presence. When the DM was called in, I was asked to leave with my miserable truck!!! Talk about Possessed: Within 10 days of ownership, this damn truck BIT ME and TWO Chevy DEALERS!!!
I abandoned the car at 114K miles. The Truck was worth $3.6K max, but needed repair of Chevy’s goofball push button automatic 4X4 transmission. They wanted $2.8K to fix it and then I would be withtout any dash board lights or speedometer or computer. It ate ALTERATORS AND RADIATORS FOR LUNCH– 3 NEW RADIATORS IN 2 YEARS, ALWAYS HAD TO BE TOWED TO THE REPAIR SHOP FROM THE FREEWAY?!!!
Wanting to have it crushed, I drove it to a smog shop and a tech offered me $1,000.00 if ‘she’ had no problems. I literally had a private talk with BITCHBOY “You can go home with this nice white man or I will take you to the junkyard and crush you into a toaster. The Choice is yours!!!” It worked. The truck ran FLAWLESSLY, the dashboard worked (I wacked it hard) and even the computer started working (over the rear mirror).
Days later, the police told me to pick up my car. I said what? The mechanic had it for less than 10 days and it ‘brewed up’ on the freeway. Funny how he paid me $1,000.00 for the car but got a NICE INSURANCE CHEQUE for $6K!!! Mechanic…fuel line…fire?!! What is wrong with this sentence?!!! Damn mechanic told them it was still my truck and that I woundn’t mind paying for the tow & storage costs?!!! I had just waxed Bitchboy so he was at his best when he was ‘TORCHED’. I felt sad for him while smirking “What comes around, goes around and you still ‘toast’ (or is that toaster!!!)
Funny this comes up today, I just handed the title and keys to my 300SDL to the tower for the local NPR station’s car donation program. 426,000mi, and so many little expensively German things needing fixing that it would cost more than a good “low” miles example to fix, including neither the estimate $5k in body damage or the replacement of visibly rusty sheetmetal. My landlord’s gonna want me to powerwash the remaining oil/steering fluid spots out of my driveway at some point soon.
My ’87 Seat Ibiza had 95000 km on the clock, when constant overheating problems started. I found a crack in the cylinder head, so I attached a 20 liter water tank to the radiator hose and decided to drive the car until it died.
Four months later I finally gave up when the windscreen wiper failed. The engine still ran fine.
1971 Mercury Capri(bought in ’76). Good body, low miles( I thought),1.6 engine. 2 months later charging system quit. Found it to be the voltage regulator, which was built into the alternator. Shop wanted $70 for a replacement. I didn’t have that at the time, so mechanic showed me where to wire in a generic regulator. Cost was $8. 3-4 weeks later I came out from work and seen my headlights on. Checked and the switch was off, and it was the high beams on. Gave up trying to trace the problem after replacing the dimmer switch, and checking the headlight switch and just unplugged both high beam lamps. month or so later it blew a head gasket. Drug it home and tore into the motor. In addition to the headgasket, #4 piston had a hole burned in it the size of a nickel. Dropped the oil pan and found every bearing shot(figured then that the speedo had been disconnected for an extended period). New piston, all new bearings and gaskets. Went to fill the cooling system and the radiator was pouring out in 2 places. Connected the battery and the 2 remaining headlights came on.
Pulled the battery out, stuck it into my old Chevelle, pushed that POS Capri outside and let it sit there for about 1 1/2 years. Brother in law bought it for $300(about 1/10 of what I had in the vehicle), but never got all the issues fixed with it.
I’m betting that when it finally made it to the crusher, it tore up the crusher.
Another cat tray refugee I owned was a New Triumph Stag. At 35,000 miles it started pouring water out the exhaust. I had the heads removed. They were warped so a machine shop planed them.
The cam ways were then out of alignment but the heads were bolted back on anyway. The cam bearing caps popped off as the bent cam shafts tried to turn.
The heads were removed again.
The car sat for 6 months because no engine parts were available.
The heads were machined and bearing inserts installed to allow for the misalignment . The head studs were 3/8″ with one row at a strange angle and most broke off while they were removed.
the water pump was removed to be checked. It’s a tiny little device in the middle of the block and it was found to be seized .A new one couldn’t be found so the machine shop made a new impeller etc.
it was advised by the dealers that the crank be checked due to others having bearing problems.
The crank was found to have been reground already ( I had bought the car brand new!! ) and was .030 undersize.
When the parts finally arrived from the UK, the engine was reassembled which took a week.
As the engine was being cranked over to check the spark timing and the cam covers were off,the chain was seen to come around on the left bank with two links sticking up,and it promptly broke.
When it was finally running, a heater hose burst…over heating the rebuilt engine and warping the heads.The compression was also so high the starter had problems turning it over,so when it went back together for the last time,two headgaskets on each side were fitted. With a 25PSi pressure any little leak was a disaster.
All the time it was sitting idle,the mufflers had rotted out.
It was sold at 2 years old and still only 35,000 miles for a profit but I still hate those cars 30 odd years later.
Since getting my licence in 1997, almost all my cars have left my ownership by my ‘giving up’ on them. Some were better than others, and I looked after all of them properly. Of the 6 cars, 2 had serious engine problems (78 Corolla and 76 Corona 18R) but most just got so rattly, squeaky, uncomfortable or just inconvenient that I had to let them go.
Strangely, I’ve always found a private buyer. I never sent one to a junkyard yet.
If anyone ever tries to sell you a S12 Nissan Gazelle, RUN away. Don’t look back under any circumstances.
As much as I want to say the ’73 plymouth cricket I bought as a 16 yr old(no I did not get laid much), it would have to be the ’88 rx7. Nut sheared off in the gear box. While I was in the shop paying the $1,300, it was 7 months out of warranty, the mechanic came out to say the dual exhaust was perforated and I was looking at $2,200 to replace.
Three days later I was driving home in a new civic hatchback that was more economical, faster and more fun to drive. But back to not getting laid much….
A Citroen AX. (Yes,I know, I was young and foolish)It was a wonderful little roller skate, an econobox that thought it was a sports car. Unfortunately that sports car was a 1970s Alfa with 200000 kilometers on the clock. In humid weather the distributor would not spark, it overheated two weeks after I bought it and then spent three weeks waiting for spares from France. Finally it tried to kill me with total brake failure, luckily at a fairly low speed that demolished the front, but not me! After waiting SIX MONTHS for panels for repairs I abandoned it at the body shop, bought a second hand Toyota HiLux that only failed to proceed when the battery died. The battery was six years old.
Saturn Vue, it had the VTI transmission. It broke once and GM replaced it. I found out later that it would break again in another 40k that gm would not replace.
I’ve never had to give up on a car, but my cousin did.
2001 Passat 1.8T. Bought new. Timing belt change interval was 105k per VW service recommendations.
The belt broke and valves hit pistons at 85k miles, and the car was out of warranty. My cousin asked for a goodwill repair, and VW of America basically told him to shove it.
He threw the car on Craigslist and sold it for a pittance (an 8 year old Passat with a trashed engine isn’t worth much) and now drives a Subaru, which has been extremely reliable.
A couple years back I decided to buy a then 4 year old Focus with around 70k km to replace my aging Civic with 300k km on the odo. I figured this would serve me well for a few years and maybe if I was lucky I could even drive it for a while after it was paid off. Well turns out the car was a total POS money/time pit that left me stranded in the first month of ownership. This should of been a warning but I kept it anyways and put 110k km on it along with many repairs to keep going that long. The car couldn’t go one oil change interval without something going wrong with it ; broken flexpipe, catalytic converter melting, EGR sensor quitting, shocks blowing, bearings wearing out prematurely, random stalling when hot, clutch master cylinder spilling all my brake fluid inside the car and on and on until last winter after having yet again put some money in it thinking “well this time it should last for a little while” it started to develop another noise/vibration while driving. That was the last straw and I didn’t even want to figure what was wrong with it and I traded it in for a new car. When your daily driving appliance demands more attention than your 80s project car it’s time to move on.