The most Reliable sports car...

In reply to Flight Service:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap

Learn some history? Points for resorting to the ever popular: "I don't think it's offensive, so it can't be offensive!" Double points for adding the: "well I have [fill in the minority of any kind here] friends/family/neighbor, so it's ok that I talk/act/smell like a bigot"

Miata, or anything Honda to be relevant to this thread. I beat the everliving hell out of my EG civic and my Miata; both just come back asking for more.

In reply to accordionfolder:

Notice you left out the key component...I am referring to a THING, not a person.

and from your own source

"Across the world[edit] An Australian owned business news wire service based in Asia used the term.[13] Jap-Fest is an annual Japanese car show in Ireland.[14] In 1970, the Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada opened the "Jungle Jap" boutique in Paris."

Looks like things can be referred to in the abbreviation. We done now?

Cotton wrote:

mad_machine wrote:

mtn wrote: Miata, MR2, or Corvette. My reasoning is that in any of these cars, you can basically ignore ALL maintenance besides oil changes, and they will run for a long long time. My Miata has left me stranded four times. Alternator went, and 3 flat tires. While the alternator is the only one that was actually the car, it wasn't part of regular maintenance but not unexpected.

I cannot disagree with you on Miata or MR2.. but vettes are not reliable. They may start and run everyday, but there is so much crap in them that is unique to the rest of the Chevy line up that they always have niggling faults that can drive you mad... and do not even think if the big stuff that is unique to them goes sour... like I said above, everyone I know who owns or owned a vette, it was in the shop all the time

Coming from the guy with a Land Rover and a Fiat... Seriously though, if a modern vette can't be considered a reliable sports car I don't know what can. Of course we never really defined reliable either. I would weigh "radio going out" at a different level than "tendency to blow head gaskets".

True enough, but I do not list fiats among the reliable

Seriously though, friend of mine as one of the very last vettes with flip up headlights.. since it was a year old, it has had problems with those lights. He usually leaves them up rather than having them fail down again

I had a former coworker that had a few modern Vettes (C5 and then went C6, never a particular version just Vettes) They were always in the shop. He admitted they weren't reliable. He had coils go out, transmissions needed rebuilding, his seat broke twice (He was a 170lbs soaking wet, I have yet to figure out how he did that one, twice) convertible top stopped working on one. This was all while I was working with him. I asked him why he kept buying them if they always tore up, and these weren't his first ones either. He had owned C3, C4, C5, and C6 Vettes.

Most eloquent response I have heard about a car obsession.

"I love them. I know I could get something sensible like a Toyota, but I would rather arrive with my hair on fire and stop in an explosion than show up unannounced." Well put.

Flight Service wrote: In reply to accordionfolder: Notice you left out the key component...I am referring to a THING, not a person. and from your own source "Across the world[edit] An Australian owned business news wire service based in Asia used the term.[13] Jap-Fest is an annual Japanese car show in Ireland.[14] In 1970, the Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada opened the "Jungle Jap" boutique in Paris." Looks like things can be referred to in the abbreviation. We done now?

Hahaha! "Selective Reading" - it's like selective hearing for the internet, your post is bleeding irony (and ignorance). I doubt I'll change your mind; carry on I suppose.

My c4 lt1 has been like a rock, reliable, fast, good looking, its a driver and I dont baby it either. I do my own wrenching, so I dont have a shop always finding something wrong and charging me the corvette tax.

doc_speeder wrote: I have no direct experience with any LBC, but a good friend had a very nicely sorted Triumph Spitfire. It never left him sitting, but it also rarely got put away without needing "something" to make it right before the next drive. So I'll add to my 350z suggestion above by mentioning an S2000.

Along these same lines. Have had my MGB GT since 1978 and it has never left me stranded on the side of the road. The Miata I had for 10 years left me stranded once with a bad ground cable. So, the MGB must be declared more reliable eh?

The thing with the MGB is that the drive train's running characteristics are so manic depresive that you almost hope that it does stop running. Never met a car that while being reliable, expressed such distaste for having to go about its business of being a car. Kind of the sports-car version of Marvin the Robot in Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

A "reliable" car to me doesn't necessarily mean it never left you stranded. camry whose starter went out at the grocery store isn't automatically unreliable. A Rover that has never left you stranded yet spends more time on a lift than on it's tires is still unreliable.

In reply to Flight Service:

FYI: Other phrases you can never use, regardless of connotation, include "peanut gallery", "call a spade a spade", "uppity", "hip hip hooray", "ghetto", "gypped", "paddy wagon", "hooligan", "hoon", "Eskimo", and "rule of thumb", as all include similarly offensive historical usages to the abbreviation "Jap".

.

If the NA/NB Miata had a timing chian, they might have simply walked away with the title. With the regular maintenance timing belt, although non-interference is a bonus, I'm not sure it's able to fit my own definition of "most reliable"...But even then, it's still got to be in the running.

Based on some of the other cars listed here I'll go ahead and throw Lotus Esprit out there. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has had a reliable one.

Interesting discussion, and I agree that "reliable" is subjective based on usage.

However, given the nature of this particular forum, I think "reliable" should refer to "can be beaten on a road course track" and continue to live w/o major failure or a barrage of minor failures.

I still refuse to say I'm a "Miata guy"... but I am continually impressed with my Miata. It's had an aftermarket turbo on it through the past 3 owners, which means like 10 years, and all of which have track-abused it. Yet with 161k miles on it, I've never had to turn a wrench on it at the track and nothing has failed... (that wasn't induced by an aftermarket part or owner error).

Driven5 wrote: In reply to Flight Service: FYI: Other phrases you can never use, regardless of connotation, include "peanut gallery", "call a spade a spade", "uppity", "hip hip hooray", "ghetto", "gypped", "paddy wagon", "hooligan", "hoon", "Eskimo", and "rule of thumb", as all include similarly offensive historical usages to the abbreviation "Jap". . If the NA/NB Miata had a timing chian, they might have walked away with the title. With the regular maintenance timing belt, although non-interference is a bonus, I'm not sure it's able to fit my own definition of "most reliable"...But even then, it's still got to be in the running.

I'd like to add Beemer to the list. I am offended every time someone calls my car a motorcycle.

Driven5 wrote: If the NA/NB Miata had a timing chian, they might have walked away with the title. With the regular maintenance timing belt, although non-interference is a bonus, I'm not sure it's able to fit my own definition of "most reliable"...But even then, it's still got to be in the running.

Pretty sure the Miata already won this discussion

Keith Tanner wrote: Seriously, MGB? My mom used to tell me stories about having to occasionally cool the fuel pump with ice cream on her brand new B.

Well that is the first time I've heard of that particular solution.

The reason the stock SU fuel pump occasionally gets hot is that the points can corrode (they put capacitors and later diodes in later ones to prevent that). The solution is to file the points to retouch them (a routine maintenance chore every 50K or so), or replace the pump, NOT to dip it in ice cream! I should imagine that treatment might likely exacerbate the problem!

On the early non-smogged cars without vented gas caps, there is a get-home step I used once - got a rubber stopper at a hardware store, a piece of copper tubing to stick through it, and a length of rubber tubing that I routed into the cabin of an MGA. My wife, the passenger, could blow into the tube and keep up a couple of psi pressure in the tank which was enough to get gas to the carbs.

When we went up hills, demand increased and she did tend to hyperventilate a bit, but it got us to a parts store where I replaced the pump.

In reply to calteg:

I don't know. I feel like there could be some kind of sports car out there, even if less common and less 'pure' of a sports car, that can equal the Miata reliability with even less maintenance...But then again, I certainly haven't been able to come up with anything yet. Some of it might come down to more specifically defining the limits of what constitutes "sports car" for the sake of this particular discussion, not necessarily the official definition of the term, much like "most reliable" needed to be more clearly defined.

In reply to wspohn: Now that is about as funny a story as I've read in years! I've done a lot of jury-rigging over they years, especially with British rides. And I always kept a tire iron in a B to "tap" the fuel pump with. But that beats any story I've ever heard.

12A Rx7, MSM, and C5/C6 Corvettes from personal experience.

The E36 M3 was the least reliable, by far.

I would propose that "Reliable" be defined as lowest cost to own based on unexpected maintenance cost and daily driving duties only.

Under that definition, I suspect that the Miata will mop the floor with the competition.

NOHOME wrote: I would propose that "Reliable" be defined as lowest cost to own based on unexpected maintenance cost and daily driving duties only. Under that definition, I suspect that the Miata will mop the floor with the competition.

Under that definition with the addition of HPDE and autocross, wouldn't it still mop the floor with competition?

Sincere apologies to any mops I might have offended. I am sure someone will come and insult me and call me names in your inanimate honor.

Rupert wrote: In reply to wspohn: Now that is about as funny a story as I've read in years! I've done a lot of jury-rigging over they years, especially with British rides. And I always kept a tire iron in a B to "tap" the fuel pump with. But that beats any story I've ever heard.

The one my wife doesn't like me to tell is the time our Wolseley 6/99 (same body as an Austin Westminster but with classier fittings) had a pump on the way out.

I gave her a wrench and put her in the trunk and told her to tap the fuel pump if I yelled to her. It got us where we were going, but when we parked, I had to get out and let her out of the boot. As I did so, an elderly couple were walking by. As she climbed out I said 'And any more back talk and it will be into the trunk again for you!" I think they believed me and my wife still hasn't forgiven me. She's been pretty game for helping on cars all in all - many years of being pit crew and all.

In reply to wspohn:

She's a keeper!

In reply to NOHOME:

So more involve (expensive) and/or more frequent maintenance doesn't count against it, as long as the maintenance is expected? Don't Brit(ish) car drivers "expect" to have their wife in th trunk beating on the fuel pump??

Rufledt wrote: As a rotary owner, I feel like I should join with the NA rotary vote here, but I don't think I can. Going with Driven5's definition, which I like, no rotary will last. NA rotaries might be great to beat on for days on end with proper maintenance, but neglect with kill them. Even stock maintained RX8's have problems with the cats, and coils, and clutch pedals, and so on.

As an FD owner, my FD has been surprisingly more reliable than my E36, E30, A1 VW and B5 Audi A4.

amg_rx7 wrote:

Rufledt wrote: As a rotary owner, I feel like I should join with the NA rotary vote here, but I don't think I can. Going with Driven5's definition, which I like, no rotary will last. NA rotaries might be great to beat on for days on end with proper maintenance, but neglect with kill them. Even stock maintained RX8's have problems with the cats, and coils, and clutch pedals, and so on.

As an FD owner, my FD has been surprisingly more reliable than my E36, E30, A1 VW and B5 Audi A4.

You just listed BMW, VW, and Audi as your reliability measuring stick. I don't think many will be surprised your other car has been more reliable even if it is a rotary.... Okay maybe a little surprised, but not much. Lol

Not really a sports car, but definitely a performance car- Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8. The cars are very solid, despite what their owners do to them. Years of "evolution" have worked out the bugs, I can't think of any mechanical issues that these cars had.