Bad cars that were good for you.

1972 Vega GT  purchased new and put more than 60,000 miles on it.  Never a problem.  Great fuel mileage ( for the time)  should have just welded the throttle pedal to the floor, rarely at less than full tilt boogie. Fastest trip to Wisconsin I averaged 88mph from San Diego to Balsam Lake with most of it  over 105mph 

 A minor flick of rust showed up  and the dealer completely repainted the whole car.  ( and provided me with a Camaro demo in case I wanted to trade it in ) 

   Worst oil use was about 1/2 quart between oil changes.  Sold it in 1974 just before I got out of the Navy depreciation worked out to be $300. 

I haven't had many cars in my life so far, but I'd say my first car–a '94 Integra–was a bad car of sorts because it wasn't in the best condition when I became the owner.

It gave me an appreciation for having a car in which everything works. For instance, the A/C didn't work (a must for a car in southwest Florida in the summer), which wasn't the biggest problem except the driver's side window wouldn't go down, meaning all that hot air in the car would swirl around in my face when I was driving.

And then there was the time the distributor got a nice oil bath because the previous owner over-torqued a bolt.

Fun times.

MK4 GTI 1.8T

It took endless beatings over 50k miles (120k-170k) including many, many Rallycross events and never complained. No CEL's or anything. I did have to pull the sunroof relay because it would randomly open, but that's a pretty good record for a MK4 VW. I loved that little car. 

When I first moved to AZ, my only car was my '89 5.0 Mustang, which was pretty much a drag car with plates at that point.  Not very practical.

I bought a Ford Fairmont Futura for $500 to be a daily driver.  200ci straight six, automatic.  Over the course of a year, it got an $18 master cylinder, a $12 carb rebuild kit, and one oil change.  By the end of that year I was ready to buy a truck, and I sold it for $500.  It also got ~22mpg averaged over the year.

Probably the most fiscally responsible vehicle I've ever owned.

When my wife and I started dating, she had an ex-rental Chevrolet Cavalier. Automatic, 2.2. I think it was a 96?

There was nothing special about the car, but I don't think it would have ever stopped running if it was given basic maintenance- fluids, belts and wear items.

When we sold it, it had more than 200k miles. I was driving it because the crash rating suuuucked and my wife had the kids with her. The AC broke and I drove it for a while until I finally had enough and ditched it.

It never left either of us stranded, though.

Just about every car I've ever owned has been good to me with few exceptions. One was an 83 Nissan Stanza that was the devil wrapped in sheet metal. The other was my 07 Silverado. While it wasn't horrible, it frequently needed a $1000 donation to keep operating properly.  

The 2000 Ford Focus was supposed to be a year to avoid - I had one for a couple years, didn't have to replace anything more than the handbrake handle and add the Focus Salvage cabin air filter mod to keep water from leaking into the cabin.

Yugo. 
 

OMG it was fun!

2007 Mazda3 wagon. Bought it from Hertz in 2009 with 30k for $15,000. Drove it for 70k miles over 7 years without incident, sold it for $7000. Took my family a lot of places in that car. Kinda wish I hadn't sold it now. 

Not me but my wife.  She got a then brand new 84 Fiero for her 18th birthday and it never gave a hint of an issue until replaced by a new 92 Geo Tracker.  Nothing ever went wrong on the Tracker either other than consumables.  Actually that's a lie, the volume knob on the radio got sticky and the seat adjuster rusted up after it sank offroading, but it carried on for years until rust claimed it.  Two much maligned cars that worked perfectly with nothing but consumables for many years and miles.

My aunt bought my cousin a Ford Tempo; it worked flawlessly for 180K till she got rid of it. My wife's Tempo..........lived up to all the bad press.

Subaru engines get a bad rap around here but I've had great luck rallycrossing my high mileage Impreza.  One of the reasons I bought it is that used engines are relatively cheap and I've driven it hard.  It has exceeded my expectations.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

Subaru engines get a bad rap around here but I've had great luck rallycrossing my high mileage Impreza.  One of the reasons I bought it is that used engines are relatively cheap and I've driven it hard.  It has exceeded my expectations.

I know many people with Scoobies.  Owners range from school teachers to young people starting out in life and driving older ones to a friend who bought a new 04 STi and still has it and has autocrossed it a bunch.  Probably at least a half dozen people who's had at least ten cars between them.  The one common factor between them?  No one has ever had a single engine issue with any of them, no matter the mileage.  

Modern Dodge truck. 360K miles with problems few and far between. I was sad to see it go. Im a GM guy, but that Dodge was the best truck Ive ever owned. My dads crossed over 500K with similar success a while back.

LT1s. Ive never had a non self inflicted opti failure.

My current DD and only car for the wife and I.  2002 Silverado.  Former county truck that lived a hard life.  When I bought it, the inside looked like a dust storm had parked in the cab and sat for an hour.  It was only $2200 and the A/C worked.  Probably has about 140k miles on it (the odometer display stopped working) and leaks a bit, looses a bit of coolant, front end pops a bit, dents on every panel, etc.  But it runs and runs and runs.  I've been doing minimal maintenance on it just to keep it running.  It ain't pretty, it ain't comfortable, but it always starts and has gotten us through some difficult times.   Thinking about the future, I go back and forth on if I'll ever get rid of it.  It's just a work truck and does work truck things.  If it was a shortbed, I'd be more likely to keep it, but I'm still thinking it'll be with me for a long time.  Hoping early next year I can take it off the road for a bit and do some serious maintenance on it to make it last another 10 years or so. 

-Rob

In reply to rob_lewis :

A close friend has pretty much the exact story. 2002 Chevy previous life was a work truck. Paid 2300 for it, ac worked like a champ. He didnt have much for a truck and fully expected a pile but a few years later its been super reliable and when something did break very easy to repair. Hes come to love it, and hes not a GM guy.

My first car was a 1974 VW Beetle, bought in 2008. Objectively not a good car. Rusty floors, sketchy wiring, bad window rubbers.  But it taught me a lot about working on cars. I learned rust repair, how to do window rubbers, wiring, practiced suspension rebuilding, built an engine, learned about blowing up an engine, built a second engine.

My folks bought an 84 Ford Tempo 5-spd in 1988 and then a 1989 auto Topaz in 1991. The Tempo was.... odd. Engine threw a rod bolt at 120k miles idling through town. Ate ball joins every 30k miles and passenger CV shafts yearly (in a time when AZ wasn't around every corner. Those were $300 a pop in 1994).

The Topaz was sold with 280k miles. Had never had anyhing but plugs/wires/cap/rotor/tires/oil. It was slow as balls. Not ergonomic (late 80's Ford). Not really fuel efficient (~27mpg on the highway). But it was a cockroach. Hell, it didn't even have rust when we sold it in 1999.

In reply to bobzilla :

The wifes Tempo pinged constantly even with premium; it ate a valve on a road trip it's started bucking then almost died then kept going albeit with slightly less power. Ford fixed it under warranty; despite her telling them it pinged like mad they did nothing. We adjusted the timing so it had ever so slightly less power and then it stopped pinging.

Meanwhile the cousins car just marched on.......

In reply to frenchyd :

My mom graduated from Highschool in 1970 and her parents bought her a new 1971 Chevy Vega sedan. She drove it until it was no longer a functional vehicle so about 7 years. Within the first 2 years it was having electrical gremlins. She tells a good story of the headlights wiring going out while driving in the middle of Florida on her commute from Merritt Island to Tampa for college. By the end she was burning a quart of oil every hundred miles. One day she stood on the door sill and fell through it, still has the scar. People got used to seeing her car broken down all over this island.

In 91 I bought an 85 Skoda 130 GLS for $400 because it had a burnt exhaust valve. $20 in parts and a few hours work that car was a perfectly reliable (and fun) commuter for few years and about 150k.

The only time I ever had a problem with it, it quit on me one evening when Mrs. and I were out for a drive. It turned out that when I'd done a tune up earlier in the day, I had gapped the plugs too large and the weak ignition system couldn't reliably jump the gap.

It was the same colour as this one and the paint was so bad it would fade and get chalky, looking like it was red primer until I went over it with polishing compound.

Unfortunately mine didn't come with the cool 80's Eurochicks, but I still loved that car.

Very first car. '82 mustang I pulled out of a farmer's field with my grandfather's help. It was a gigantic POS, but I spent the entire Summer with my grandfather swapping a 5.0 in, learning how to bleed brakes, patch holes....it was incredibly difficult, but it laid the groundwork for my car guy knowledge and let me spend a huge chunk of time with him before he passed. 

 It was January Chicago winter. I had no monies and needed a car after my DD was stolen. Found an accident damaged 1991 Honda CRX Si for $500. Had to ingress/egress via the passenger side because the mounting points for the drivers door were caved in. It ran and drove better than it had any right to. 

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

I find myself wondering how awesome an 04-07 STI would be at rallycross.  I'd love to find out.

Isuzu Impulse Turbo.

It swore me off of turbos AND piston engines, and I bought my first RX-7 as a direct consequence, and that was 23 wonderful Wankel-y years ago.

I did end up buying piston engined cars again, and not one but two different turbo cars, but both of THOSE were Volvos.