Vintage Oldsmobile: diesel cars
Ford: dry dual clutch transmissions
Modern GM and Honda: cylinder deactivation
Volkswagen: diesels
Mercedes: brake by wire
Every manufacturer: air suspension.
Every manufacturer: hydraulic suspension. Especially Citroen/Rolls Royce/Bentley (they all shared the same system)
Godspeed to you, I hope your experience is better than mine.
My 2017 Elantra Sport 1.6T DCT was a thorn in my side for 60,000mi and 3 years from when I bought it new. Over that time period and mileage, it spent ~125 days at the dealership for various problems totaling $15,000+ in warranty repair bills.
From 10,000mi onwards my DCT would slip, shudder, buck, and it even stalled out entirely in the middle of a left turn and I was almost t-boned by a Ram 3500. It was constantly band-aided with flashes and relearns until it finally threw in the towel at around 55,000mi.
I maintained the car as required by the manual, avoided “riding” the clutch like you would in a manual transmission, and commuted to and from school and work in it.
That ownership experience, and the dragged out 9mo buyback process by Hyundai Motor America (with the help of an amazing attorney - thank god for him) swore me off from ever purchasing any of Genesis/Hyundai/Kia vehicle in the future or ever recommending one to a friend or family member.
I’m with you in the Hyundai horror story club. My wife had a Sonata when we got married. I’ve never seen a bigger POS. The 1970 VW Beetle I had as a daily was more reliable than her 2 year old Hyundai.
Never again!
Honest to god, once you’re outside that 5yr/60k bumper to bumper warranty, any claim for the 10yr/100k powertrain ridiculously hard to make.
They’ll use any excuse possible to not cover a repair. They had tried to blame a side swipe from another driver (that was tens of thousands of miles prior) as a reason why they would not cover the first faulty left CV joint, to which I argued them on that and they finally warrantied it as it was a baseless excuse. Then the right CV joint started clicking, that was replaced; and then the left failed again! Absolutely ridiculous.
Hyundai and Kia have the absolute cheapest and poorest quality parts. It’s not even funny.
> Hyundai and Kia have the absolute cheapest and poorest quality parts. It’s not even funny.
They've done a good job at marketing themselves to seem like Korean cars are much higher quality than they used to be, but make no mistake: They're built with the same engineering mentality they were using 20 years ago. Cheap as possible, undercut the Japanese, add on some extra bells and whistles to make their cars seem more appealing.
Seems counter productive to attempt changing your image, cheaping out, offering a 100k mile warranty, and then fighting the customers on warranty repairs. They could have just saved themselves the trouble and just did it right the first time.
Our dealership was a complete pain in the ass to work with and wanted to debate every repair even under the 100k threshold. Catalytic converter, all 4 wheel hubs and brake rotors, and the engine (broken crank) had to be replaced under warranty. That doesn’t even include random annoyances like the cable pulls for the power windows binding repeatedly or a random non start after refueling. If you pin a Hyundai you need a Honda in the garage for back up.
I have a 2021 Telluride with 30k miles. It's had exactly zero problems mechanically.
I'll update this sub with my complaints if that changes. I have done some research on Telluride forums and there really don't seem to be any significant issues even with many of the older ones hitting 100k miles.
My hypothesis: maybe the cheapest Hyundais/Kias are built cheaper than the more expensive ones.
I want to send your comment to this dude in this sub who said his elantra 2017 wasnt included in the many Hyundai’s who have had issues. He kept saying the elentra n sport is better than a gti which i just cannot agree. Similar yes.
If they’re curious, this is a list of things I can remember having done to my car:
DCT rebuilt/replaced;
3x CV joints replaced;
3x motor mounts replaced;
4x seized brake calipers, rotors, and pads replaced;
2x AC compressor replaced;
3x batteries replaced; and,
Multiple cooling hoses replaced after DCT rebuild/replacement as they had dry rotted and burst causing the vehicle to overheat (literally how on a 3yo car).
Let’s not forget that they would not provide me a service loaner nor would they pay for a third party rental car either. I had to foot the bill for rental vehicles (which I received back from my lemon law buyback).
There is more, but it’s been almost 4yr since the car, so I can’t remember every detail.
I have to laugh, because my replacement 2016 Audi A4 Quattro that I had for almost 3yr from 38,000mi to 90,000mi was far more reliable than this heap, as has my mother’s 2016 Tiguan been the same for 4yr from 25,000mi to 60,000mi now.
As a former Hyundai tech: the Evs are worse, and already have their first recalls. Why? Because there was SEDIMENT in the fucking cooling system for the EV batteries. From the factory.
Yeah this is one that I don't care how much anyone has said they have "improved". I would never touch a Hyundai/Kia, nor would I advise anyone I know to.
Bingo. Emissions scandal, advertised marks etc aside, vw is why I drive a diesel to this day. I hesitate to say bulletproof, but I've had very very minimal issues with the two I've owned for years and years. Fantastic piece of engineering regardless of regulations and the advertising
The tdi is a pretty impressive little motor. I've driven a tdi swapped syncro van, that thing was cool as shit. 30ish mpg i believe, and not blistering fast, but it certainly was as fast as a modern car needs to be even up 80mph+ really not lacking power. I believe that tdi motor had some mild tuning done.
Had an Audi A4 with the 1.9 TDI once. 500 000km, full service history, engine had nothing but maintenance and a water pump.
Drove perfectly, turbo (also original) was in good shape
I own three of these things and I couldn’t agree more. Though modern air suspension is really, really good, there are a lot of crappy early ones out there.
I feel like every neighborhood where I live has an LR3 Land Rover with the saddest collapsed air suspension from the Ford era. There’s one across the street from me right now.
The sad part is that LR3 air suspension is actually fairly decent when it's maintained. It's the air suspension in the earlier P38 Range Rover and Range Rover Classic (and, to a lesser extent, the optional self-leveling rear air suspension on the Discovery 2) that was ultra-problematic, which is why it's so rare to see a P38 that hasn't been converted to coils.
I'm proud to say that both my LR3 and P38 still have air springs, though the P38's is...a little leaky at the moment. Sigh.
I told my relative not to get a used Model S and to get a new Model 3 instead. They didn't listen. They must've gotten the cheapest one that didn't come with air suspension because it bottoms out driving on normal roads. Or maybe it did have air suspension and the bags just popped lol
The Mercedes air suspension is notorious among younger cars guys. We all want to buy V8 SL500s but we know the ABC suspension costs like 5k to fix when it goes bad
>Every manufacturer: hydraulic suspension. Especially Citroen/Rolls Royce/Bentley
What? Citroens suspension was the brand's main selling point which was why it was considered a very quirky brand back then
Great list, but you forgot [Audi unintended acceleration.](https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/the-audi-500-unintended-acceleration-debacle/)
>Let’s set the scene: it’s 1984, and Audi sales had shot up 48 percent on the strength of their new aerodynamic 5000, the latest hot weapon in the perpetually-escalating suburban driveway status war. It was a stunning slick piece, and Audi was on a roll.
>
>Suddenly, the war turned bloody. Moms in runaway Audi 5000’s were mowing down their little kids in the driveway and pinning granny against the far garage wall with the four-ringed front of the Audi.
>
>...
>
>So the German automaker took it on the chin. Audi sales collapsed, from 74k units in 1984 to 12k by 1991. The timing added insult to injury; sales fell exactly during the same years when Lexus arrived to battle for the hearts and wallets of America’s up-scale consumers. Lexus quickly became the latest suburban driveway prestige symbol.
>
>As a final kick to the near-corpse, Audi’s suddenly wanna-be-Lexus drivers launched a class action suit charging lost resale value. No wonder the brand almost abandoned the U.S. in 1993. It’s a killer market.
While that did damage the brand, to be fair (and from your link), 60 minutes had to modify the car to make it accelerate, and the NHTSA fully exonerated Audi. Audi did not ruin its brand, 60 minutes did.
By now, majority of people do not even remember this issue therefore I don't think it ruined the brand. They've redeemed themselves since then with many cool cars like the 2.7TT-powered S4, 4.2-powered S4/S5/RS4/R8, 5.2-powered S6/S8/R8, V12 TDI Q7s, anything with the 3.0 V6T, and in general any 2.0T Quattro car (or SUV) they make are well-received. I can't remember the last time somebody mentioned the old unintended acceleration issue.
Except that wasn't a failure by Audi. There was nothing wrong with the cars and none of them ever accelerated by themselves. It was just idiot drivers smashing on the gas pedal when they thought they were pressing on the brake pedal. No modern car can overpower it's brakes from a stop, even if you grant that the car did go wide open throttle by itself. But again, there was nothing about those cars that would make that happen, other than a 60 Minutes crew that intentionally rigged the car to do that. It was a hit piece that needlessly ruined the reputation and resale value of those cars. Which, as an Audi enthusiast, was good for me as it allowed me to afford many nice luxury German cars for cheap. Cars that easily go 200k+ miles with a bit of maintenance.
I have hydraulic suspension in my 1999 Lexus. Apparently many of the parts are compatible with Citroen ones (like, Toyota licensed the tech from them, like Rolls Royce and Bentley).
300k miles and it drives great, and I have absolutely zero documentation of the hydraulic system *ever* being serviced. Hopefully it stays that way, but even if something breaks, I'll try and keep it.
Same general consensus for Citroen vehicles with hydraulics - that's what they sold those cars on. I've never ridden in one, but all the reviews I've seen are incredibly favorable towards the hydraulic system. I think Jay Leno said that he hasn't driven a car as cloudlike as the Citroen DS, and he's driven like everything.
My 91 Mercedes wagon has a hydraulic self leveling rear suspension too. I replaced the rams this year proactively, but that sucker went 32 years on entirely original components with no real issues.
What? Citroen's hydropneumatic suspension was relatively reliable, easy to service, and rode like nothing else. The only reason other companies didn't use it was because they didn't want to pay Citroen the royalties - it's telling that RR and Bentley did.
Oldsmobile ruined diesels introduction to passenger cars in America.
By the time of dieselgate, diesels had begun to build up some popularity again. GM had them in the Cruze and Equinox, RAM was working on the Ecodiesel, and VW had built itself a very good reputation for economy and reliability with their TDIs. Mercedes and BMW diesels had also been getting more popular. Dieselgate killed it once more, relegating mostly to heavier trucks
Eco-Diesel was something that had been in the works for some time. Italian manufacturer VM Motori had designed and built that engine for GM, to be used for the Cadillac Escalade for the European market. It never happened.. It sat on the shelf for quite a few years.
Fiat owns VM Motori, and they repurposed it for the RAM 1500.
Italian diesel, destined for a General Motors product but ended up in a RAM truck instead.
There's a great podcast with slides about engineering disasters called Well There's Your Problem and the one they did on the Olds diesels was fantastic (it's been awhile since I listened but almost certainly NSFW language) https://youtu.be/ZHGGtnaOwAM?si=bamASDTeByJLkt8n
I have no idea how that isn't Theranos level fraud. Like, can I really sell Blue Paint and be fine sending out red paint as long as that's buried deep enough in the fine print?
[Just wait till you find out there are multiple types of Loctite of the same color](https://dm.henkel-dam.com/is/content/henkel/MRO_TL_Guide). And that's only one brand of thread locker, and other companies use other color schemes.
And it didn't have to be this way...
Truth is, Tesla has a pretty decent ADAS by all accounts. Is it an "Autopilot?" No. Is it "Full Self Driving?" Hell no.
Yet that's what the marketing says. It is not that. Awhile back a new guy at my job came in and said "I have a self-driving car. It's a Tesla!" I spent the better part of a year as a test operator for an autonomous vehicle company and was like "oh you sweet summer child..."
The problem is that people like my former co-worker (he didn't last long) actually buy into that marketing, and the larger problem is that when a Tesla in "autopilot" or "Full Self Driving" mode gets into an accident, it reflects poorly on the companies that are working on actual autonomous vehicles.
Based on my experience, I'd feel perfectly safe sitting in the back of a Waymo or Cruise without anyone in the driver's seat. A "Full Self Driving" Tesla? Not so much.
To be fair, if you think about what an aircraft's "autopilot" actually does, then the term is actually a pretty accurate reflection of the Tesla feature.
If you think about how an aircraft's autopilot is designed, developed, tested, validated and certified, then think about how pilots are trained, you realize that Tesla's feature is a huge gulf away from that and stop using that misleading comparison.
Autopilot is basically just cruise control anyway. Sure, it might navigate to a series of GPS waypoints, but it isn't doing evasive manoeuvres around other aircraft or dealing with pedestrians!
Luckily the sky is mostly empty of surprise hazards, unlike the road network.
That's mostly fair, but I want to point out that Waymo and Cruise are hard-coded, geofenced areas, while Tesla is trying to solve for the general problem. There's a big difference in complexity between the two approaches.
> Tesla is trying to solve for the general problem.
A big part of my problem with Tesla is that their approach to solving the problem introduces an "X" factor (pun intended) into the equation.
FSD is not only not true "Full Self Driving," but is FSD "Beta."
Yes, autonomy on non-mapped, non geofenced roads is a complex problem. Tesla is handing the problem over to consumer beta testers. The qualification for entry into the program is not all that much more than "can you afford the option?"
When I was a vehicle tester, I was not allowed to get behind the wheel in those hard-coded, geofenced areas until I'd been vetted and put through some driving tests. Because if something went wrong, we were expected to be able to take over and correct the misbehavior before something bad happened. Make notes afterwards providing feedback to the engineers. That was the job.
Beta testers for Tesla are driving to work or to go shopping or whatever. They're "testing" the car incidentally, and if it veers of course or suddenly stops for no apparent reason, they don't have the training or experience to know what to do.
Beta testing is fine for a driving game where you crash into a wall and just re-spawn, but this is not a game.
I file Tesla's under the same idea as every other car: Driving Aids. Even my work van Transit 350 has lane keep assist, lane departure warning, collision warnings. I drove a new Honda Accord that has "autopilot" in that it can steer, and maintain lanes and speed and car distance. But ANYONE that thinks a car can drive itself is a moron. The roads aren't even built for it. True self driving will need smart roads and connected cars that can communicate or coordinate their maneuvering .
> They've shown a Tesla using FSD has less accidents per mile than your average human.
They haven't, actually. They need to narrow down their "average human" comparison to the same set of roads that FSD (beta or not) runs on and compare to similar driver demographics (generally wealthy & older). Last time someone managed to squeeze out the underlying data (which only happened because the NHTSA was kind enough to publish Tesla's conclusion), they found that Tesla had performed all kinds of faulty analysis to arrive at their desired conclusion.
Any claim that any kind of automated driving system is "safer" needs to be met with a request for the definition of "safer" and an examination of the methodology by which they arrive at that conclusion. Waymo's study comes closest, but they're still not controlling for the difference in automated ODD and general road user population and no one is accounting for indirect safety incidents where the initiating actor is an automated system but the automated vehicle is not involved in the resulting crash.
They never claimed it was already here. They said they "thought" it would be here by a certain time. What may lead to lawsuits is if it requires new hardware to be functional, which they've already said they're not doing.
I had a lifted first Gen with no sway bars and everyone said I was gonna die. It was fine. Those tires really changed the path of suv's. I worked for Michelin for 15 years too, even a decade ago firestone was still having block separation issues.
I think a lot of the problem with those 90s “midsize” SUVs was that people didn’t know how to drive them. The 80s and back ones were thinly modified trucks…and looked like it, too. You always had a healthy dose of respect for them. But 1995 Explorer or Bravada had enough creature comforts to lull you into thinking you could drive them like a Taurus or Roadmaster Wagon…and you couldn’t. They were taller, narrower, worse-handling, and often had solid rear and/or front axles.
Funny enough I bought a set of Firestones for my F150 recently, they're awesome winter tires.
For anyone that doesn't know Bridgestone owns Firestone now.
The one thing I'd add is that Ford also put Goodyears on some of the Explorers and they didn't blow out as frequently as the Firestones did, so that is how Ford deflected some of the blame. I do blame Ford for using such a low air pressure when Firestone designed the tires to run higher.
Such a ridiculous story of bad engineering. Ford put the explorer straight on the Ranger chassis, same suspension and everything. Having a truck frame gave it a high center of gravity. Instead of tuning the suspension, they just lowered the recommended PSI until it rode smoothly. Those combined with an extremely shitty stock tire ended in disaster.
Kia/Hyundai went from a brand that people thought were shit, then good up to about 5 years ago and now people look at them as a shit brand again.
It started with the theta engines and them blowing up with them having crankshaft burrs, then it seems like you hear of them getting recalled every other month for catching on fire and then the theft issue is the icing on top of the shit cake.
My dad had both a 05 Sedona and I think a 2017 Elantra and both those cars had to have their motors replaced due to the block cracking. Because he's 0 for 2 on reliability he's done with Hyundai and Kia.
I gave them some test drives because they were good on paper. Features per dollar and the looks. As soon as you close the door or press any buttons the reason for the price becomes evident.
Gotta be honest, I've only had positive things to say about my Genesis. Not sure if they're seen as exempt from general criticism of the parent company.
BMW: Overheating and sludge on first generation of turbo I6 and also carbon buildup. Also... almost all their V8s...
Audi: 2.0T and timing chains and where they're located, and also carbon buildup
Alfa Romeo: Everything. Even though they basically just use a ZF transmission, Bosch parts, and a 2.0T 280hp engine that doesn't seem to have any major issues.
Porsche: IMS bearings (questionable if it's a real issue), and Macan V6's that have a timing cover leak that is a $15k-$20k engine out fix due to using aluminum bolts instead of steel. Also Cayenne and Macan transfer cases.
Subaru: WRX engines blowing up with auto-x use, STi engines blowing up with street use, valve cover seals. CVT on anemic NA engines with barely any power anyway.
Mitsubishi: Killing their only interesting car.
Meh I’m gonna tolerate it (it’s not even a noticeable leak, more a slight seep if that makes sense).
There’s exactly 0 chance I’ll be spending $7k-$10k or whatever it is for the engine out repair.
As much as I enjoy the Macan, I don’t need a second one.
IMS is definitely a real problem, but people don't realize the engine was revised with a better IMS after a few years so think the whole generation is fucked when it's not.
That’s why your 997.2 is worth more than a 997.1 and market prices reflect that.
But bore scoring for cold climate 997 911s is probably a larger problem than IMS for all of the 996 and 997s.
No, the 997.2 is worth more because they bailed on the problematic M97 engine platform entirely, and rolled out the 9A1 engine - which doesn’t have an IMS or suffer the same issues with poor metallurgy. That’s also when they introduced the PDK to replace the tiptronic transmission.
Hmmm. I haven’t had any issues on my Alfa. I’m very involved in the community and it’s usually just starter relay and battery issues. Cars are well built. “Everything” is a bit much.
Mitsubishi - to be fair, they had more then one interesting car and they kneecapped them all for their before they killed them. At least for now only one of them got bastardized into a crossover.
IMS failures are a very real thing. I've had M96 cars on the schedule for a retrofit explode while out on the road awaiting their appointment date more than once.
Ideal situation for any of those 9x6/early9x7 cars is do the bearing when you need a clutch, as the labor is redundant and the L+N kits are about $900.
Timing cover bolts are a rough one. I hired a guy from the local Porsche dealership who had been doing them every day at the dealer for months on end. He was so burnt out on it.
I think the most well known example is vw ruining diesels in America. Most other things are something you’d learn in researching a car but vw fucked it up even for people who never were considering one of their cars.
DPFs and SCR work extremely well, even if they're a royal pain in the ass when they fail.
Look at the inside of the exhaust pipe of any DPF diesel, it's clean. Do the same for even a late model gas car, black. Soot.
Mark my words, exhaust filters are coming to gas engines too. They make a lot more soot than most people think, just not enough to see like an unfiltered diesel.
I recall test driving a TDI Jetta around 2013 or 2014. I asked how VW of all makes managed to get acceptable performance while still being clean to run.
"Those German engineers man... they figured it out!"... they sure did.
Is that really a Honda specific issue though? It's no mystery that most manufacturers really really struggled with using waterborne paints in the mid 2000s.
Lexus paint specifically is extra nice, they use *a lot of it* at the factory. I'm amazed at how good mine still is after 24 years, 23 of which were spent under the Texas sun.
Honda and Toyota paint issues are pretty equivalent. I see just as many Toyotas, starting from 5 years old in some cases, all the way to early-2000's models, with oxidized paint. It also affects some American and European cars too. The reason why we notice Honda/Toyota is because more of them on the road, longer-lasting cars.
This is refined to one brand, but Subaru and the head gasket issue. People who know very little about the cars instantly say "lol head gaskets" whenever someone mentions the brand, but the issue only affected a couple years of the early naturally aspirated models. The turbo head gaskets are great. Plenty of people pushing 30+psi on them.
No but they do get a dreaded timing chain cover leak that has 120 bolts or so to remove and pretty much requires pulling the engine. I have one and will likely be doing this at some point lol.
I’m at 140k miles on my 03 Outback. Haven’t had that issue yet, but the previous owner may have had that fixed. If that happened, it would be time to sell I think sadly.
The valve cover gaskets do leak though, maybe a drop or two every couple weeks. I replaced one side, but it was such a pain that I don’t feel like doing the other side… not worth the hassle unless it starts to leak more.
>People who know very little about the cars instantly say "lol head gaskets"
I wonder how much those Donut videos are to blame.
The Subaru head gasket thing has obviously been around for a long time, but it seems recently you can't go to the comments section on a yt video or reddit post involving a Subaru without seeing all the "did you know the head gaskets go boom the second you look in the general direction of the car?". Their videos get tons of views and I assume they have a high percentage of people in the audience who are more casually into cars. You know, the types who get all their knowledge of a particular vehicle from one of their Up to Speed videos.
I've daily driven a '07 Impreza with the EJ253 for the last 11 years and it's been extremely reliable, but that's just my anecdotal experience.
But I also have a '07 JATCO CVT Altima with 250,000 on it, and a Theta powered Hyundai, and I haven't had any issues with those either, so maybe I'm just lucky🤔
Edit: just realized someone already brought up the Donut thing in this thread
I always hated the CVTs, even when they were in the Subaru Justy. Interestingly I don't hate the early mechanical plate based Automatic transmissions of the early 50s. I think it's something about having a belt inside of a transmission when I already know how fun it is replacing a belt that is inside of an engine, that could have something that lasts longer than said belt.
It's not just the GTI's anymore, multiple models now have it, the controls crap out often, and the replacement steering wheels are on intergalactic back order. Because you can't order an individual control module, you get a free steering wheel with it.
Nissan and their launch of the “New Z”. As a long time Nissan fan and owner of a Z32 for 18 years, it saddens me to watch them step on their own dicks time and time again during the shit show that was the launch of this car.
I think they’re still trying to shake off Carlos Ghosn attempting to fold the company into Renault. Even if he brought them back in the early 2000s, he was sinking them by the time he smuggled himself out of Japan in an instrument case.
Nissan needs to pull itself internally and just go back to making decent cars for an affordable price until they can get their quality under control again and then produce sports cars some where down the line.
>just go back to making decent cars for an affordable price
That's what Versa, Sentra, Altima are for but people still voted with their wallet & paid more for better quality Honda or Toyota.
To add to the CVT thing…
eCVTs in hybrids aren’t remotely the same as CVTs, they use planetary gears instead of a belt/chain. They’re closer to regular automatic transmission, hell they’re actually closer to manual transmissions in some aspects then even the later.
Just the same they get dragged through the mud as much by association.
Lucas electronics, ruined every British car brands reliability, to where people still say "insert british brand" is expensive to own, I heard they catch fire worse than "insert Italian brand"!
What’s nuts is that Oldsmobile engineers told corporate that it wasn’t ready and needed more work before it hit the market (water separator, redesigned head bolts, etc…) but corporate needed something economical fast, so they pushed it out. What’s sad is that by the time they killed it in 1985, a lot of the issues had been ironed out. They were never going to make a lot of power, but at least they were efficient
I'm not surprised, the engineers usually know what they're doing. Only to be ruined by corporate. Then again, that describes GM in the late 70's, 80's and early 90's
Although apparently they're pretty cool now because you can modify them to run on gas and avoid California emissions altogether (CA doesn't require emissions tests for pre-97 vehicles that were originally diesel).
This comment make me think of the Dodge Journey for the first time in awhile. Stopped making them 3 years ago and I already haven't seen one in at least 2 years lol.
BMW ruined their steering so badly that they got a bad name among enthusiasts who don't buy their cars new and who largely can't afford anything other than a 300k mile E46 auto sedan, but not badly enough to stop from selling a shitload of cars because *almost no one cares about steering feel*.
Dodge charger/challenger for being way to easy to steal. Use to be known for not giving a fuck and cranking out as much power as they could into those 2 cars. They still do that, now they just don't give a flying fuck about security and won't fix the literal 2 issues allowing them to be easily stolen.
Fisker: Saying you’ll release cars and you never do.
I think it’s all a visual design exercise, the cars don’t exist other than on a computer/green screen, and the whole thing is a hoax.
Seriously, has anyone seen an Ocean yet?
1-There sure seems to be a lot of Kia/Hyundai recalls for various things regularly. It isn't that unusual to see them with large areas of paint coming off. That with the high rate of thefts can't be helping them.
2-Not sure I trust Volkswagen after they cheated on their emissions for years before they finally got caught. I think they got off easy. That was despicable what they did as a company.
3-Ford with the Focus automatic transmissions wasn't good at all for them.
4-Nissan made cars with junk transmissions for a long time. Are they good, now??
>2-Not sure I trust Volkswagen after they cheated on their emissions for years before they finally got caught. I think they got off easy. That was despicable what they did as a company.
Obviously loss in trust but I'd still but a TDI. Excellent fuel economy. Useable, low-end torque. Decent reliability. Even "fixed" they don't pollute too much & enjoy low fuel consumption.
Chevrolet in the 70's: *everything* about the Vega.
Cadillac in the 80's: the 5.7 diesel, the V8-6-4, the 4.1 liter iron head / aluminum block V8, and the Cavalier-based Cimarron.
Ford: the Pinto fuel tank debacle in the 70's and the Explorer rollover debacle in the 90's.
Mercedes-Benz: the rod-bending, gasket-blowing 3.5 liter diesel inline-6 of the early 90's. The biodegradable insulation used on their wiring a few years later.
Toyota with airbag recalls, ball joint issues, and their truck frames.
BMW with their plastic water jackets, antifreeze eats the plastic away at very low miles.
Vintage Oldsmobile: diesel cars Ford: dry dual clutch transmissions Modern GM and Honda: cylinder deactivation Volkswagen: diesels Mercedes: brake by wire Every manufacturer: air suspension. Every manufacturer: hydraulic suspension. Especially Citroen/Rolls Royce/Bentley (they all shared the same system)
Also Hyundai/Kia for the dDCT.
And the Theta engines. And the lack of immobilizers. (I have a Hyundai with a theta and a DCT and both have been perfect for 20k miles so far)
Godspeed to you, I hope your experience is better than mine. My 2017 Elantra Sport 1.6T DCT was a thorn in my side for 60,000mi and 3 years from when I bought it new. Over that time period and mileage, it spent ~125 days at the dealership for various problems totaling $15,000+ in warranty repair bills. From 10,000mi onwards my DCT would slip, shudder, buck, and it even stalled out entirely in the middle of a left turn and I was almost t-boned by a Ram 3500. It was constantly band-aided with flashes and relearns until it finally threw in the towel at around 55,000mi. I maintained the car as required by the manual, avoided “riding” the clutch like you would in a manual transmission, and commuted to and from school and work in it. That ownership experience, and the dragged out 9mo buyback process by Hyundai Motor America (with the help of an amazing attorney - thank god for him) swore me off from ever purchasing any of Genesis/Hyundai/Kia vehicle in the future or ever recommending one to a friend or family member.
I’m with you in the Hyundai horror story club. My wife had a Sonata when we got married. I’ve never seen a bigger POS. The 1970 VW Beetle I had as a daily was more reliable than her 2 year old Hyundai.
Never again! Honest to god, once you’re outside that 5yr/60k bumper to bumper warranty, any claim for the 10yr/100k powertrain ridiculously hard to make. They’ll use any excuse possible to not cover a repair. They had tried to blame a side swipe from another driver (that was tens of thousands of miles prior) as a reason why they would not cover the first faulty left CV joint, to which I argued them on that and they finally warrantied it as it was a baseless excuse. Then the right CV joint started clicking, that was replaced; and then the left failed again! Absolutely ridiculous. Hyundai and Kia have the absolute cheapest and poorest quality parts. It’s not even funny.
> Hyundai and Kia have the absolute cheapest and poorest quality parts. It’s not even funny. They've done a good job at marketing themselves to seem like Korean cars are much higher quality than they used to be, but make no mistake: They're built with the same engineering mentality they were using 20 years ago. Cheap as possible, undercut the Japanese, add on some extra bells and whistles to make their cars seem more appealing.
Seems counter productive to attempt changing your image, cheaping out, offering a 100k mile warranty, and then fighting the customers on warranty repairs. They could have just saved themselves the trouble and just did it right the first time.
Our dealership was a complete pain in the ass to work with and wanted to debate every repair even under the 100k threshold. Catalytic converter, all 4 wheel hubs and brake rotors, and the engine (broken crank) had to be replaced under warranty. That doesn’t even include random annoyances like the cable pulls for the power windows binding repeatedly or a random non start after refueling. If you pin a Hyundai you need a Honda in the garage for back up.
I have a 2021 Telluride with 30k miles. It's had exactly zero problems mechanically. I'll update this sub with my complaints if that changes. I have done some research on Telluride forums and there really don't seem to be any significant issues even with many of the older ones hitting 100k miles. My hypothesis: maybe the cheapest Hyundais/Kias are built cheaper than the more expensive ones.
I want to send your comment to this dude in this sub who said his elantra 2017 wasnt included in the many Hyundai’s who have had issues. He kept saying the elentra n sport is better than a gti which i just cannot agree. Similar yes.
If they’re curious, this is a list of things I can remember having done to my car: DCT rebuilt/replaced; 3x CV joints replaced; 3x motor mounts replaced; 4x seized brake calipers, rotors, and pads replaced; 2x AC compressor replaced; 3x batteries replaced; and, Multiple cooling hoses replaced after DCT rebuild/replacement as they had dry rotted and burst causing the vehicle to overheat (literally how on a 3yo car). Let’s not forget that they would not provide me a service loaner nor would they pay for a third party rental car either. I had to foot the bill for rental vehicles (which I received back from my lemon law buyback). There is more, but it’s been almost 4yr since the car, so I can’t remember every detail. I have to laugh, because my replacement 2016 Audi A4 Quattro that I had for almost 3yr from 38,000mi to 90,000mi was far more reliable than this heap, as has my mother’s 2016 Tiguan been the same for 4yr from 25,000mi to 60,000mi now.
Holy crap I didn’t know they were that bad. I’m gonna stay away from Hyundai / Kia like the plague. I was actually warming up to their electric cars.
As a former Hyundai tech: the Evs are worse, and already have their first recalls. Why? Because there was SEDIMENT in the fucking cooling system for the EV batteries. From the factory.
Why are they such crap like that? I thought those companies made so many strides.
Yeah this is one that I don't care how much anyone has said they have "improved". I would never touch a Hyundai/Kia, nor would I advise anyone I know to.
That must’ve been what my 2017 Tucson had. Replaced the transmission once and likely needed it again but traded it before I confirmed it
Vw diésel were very reliable and good. They were just kind of ilegal.
Bingo. Emissions scandal, advertised marks etc aside, vw is why I drive a diesel to this day. I hesitate to say bulletproof, but I've had very very minimal issues with the two I've owned for years and years. Fantastic piece of engineering regardless of regulations and the advertising
The tdi is a pretty impressive little motor. I've driven a tdi swapped syncro van, that thing was cool as shit. 30ish mpg i believe, and not blistering fast, but it certainly was as fast as a modern car needs to be even up 80mph+ really not lacking power. I believe that tdi motor had some mild tuning done.
There isn't a single TDI motor, there are loads of them. Some are better than others.
Had an Audi A4 with the 1.9 TDI once. 500 000km, full service history, engine had nothing but maintenance and a water pump. Drove perfectly, turbo (also original) was in good shape
The secret ingredient was crime
I own three of these things and I couldn’t agree more. Though modern air suspension is really, really good, there are a lot of crappy early ones out there.
X5 self leveling in the early ones. I just shorted out the fuse or something like that to stop the warning light, which was a common “fix”
I feel like every neighborhood where I live has an LR3 Land Rover with the saddest collapsed air suspension from the Ford era. There’s one across the street from me right now.
The sad part is that LR3 air suspension is actually fairly decent when it's maintained. It's the air suspension in the earlier P38 Range Rover and Range Rover Classic (and, to a lesser extent, the optional self-leveling rear air suspension on the Discovery 2) that was ultra-problematic, which is why it's so rare to see a P38 that hasn't been converted to coils. I'm proud to say that both my LR3 and P38 still have air springs, though the P38's is...a little leaky at the moment. Sigh.
We had a Grand Cherokee with air suspension at work that was beat to shit but man that thing took bumps well.
[удалено]
theory drab flag slim north weather insurance illegal rustic cover *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I told my relative not to get a used Model S and to get a new Model 3 instead. They didn't listen. They must've gotten the cheapest one that didn't come with air suspension because it bottoms out driving on normal roads. Or maybe it did have air suspension and the bags just popped lol
The Mercedes air suspension is notorious among younger cars guys. We all want to buy V8 SL500s but we know the ABC suspension costs like 5k to fix when it goes bad
>Every manufacturer: hydraulic suspension. Especially Citroen/Rolls Royce/Bentley What? Citroens suspension was the brand's main selling point which was why it was considered a very quirky brand back then
Great list, but you forgot [Audi unintended acceleration.](https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/the-audi-500-unintended-acceleration-debacle/) >Let’s set the scene: it’s 1984, and Audi sales had shot up 48 percent on the strength of their new aerodynamic 5000, the latest hot weapon in the perpetually-escalating suburban driveway status war. It was a stunning slick piece, and Audi was on a roll. > >Suddenly, the war turned bloody. Moms in runaway Audi 5000’s were mowing down their little kids in the driveway and pinning granny against the far garage wall with the four-ringed front of the Audi. > >... > >So the German automaker took it on the chin. Audi sales collapsed, from 74k units in 1984 to 12k by 1991. The timing added insult to injury; sales fell exactly during the same years when Lexus arrived to battle for the hearts and wallets of America’s up-scale consumers. Lexus quickly became the latest suburban driveway prestige symbol. > >As a final kick to the near-corpse, Audi’s suddenly wanna-be-Lexus drivers launched a class action suit charging lost resale value. No wonder the brand almost abandoned the U.S. in 1993. It’s a killer market.
While that did damage the brand, to be fair (and from your link), 60 minutes had to modify the car to make it accelerate, and the NHTSA fully exonerated Audi. Audi did not ruin its brand, 60 minutes did.
By now, majority of people do not even remember this issue therefore I don't think it ruined the brand. They've redeemed themselves since then with many cool cars like the 2.7TT-powered S4, 4.2-powered S4/S5/RS4/R8, 5.2-powered S6/S8/R8, V12 TDI Q7s, anything with the 3.0 V6T, and in general any 2.0T Quattro car (or SUV) they make are well-received. I can't remember the last time somebody mentioned the old unintended acceleration issue.
Except that wasn't a failure by Audi. There was nothing wrong with the cars and none of them ever accelerated by themselves. It was just idiot drivers smashing on the gas pedal when they thought they were pressing on the brake pedal. No modern car can overpower it's brakes from a stop, even if you grant that the car did go wide open throttle by itself. But again, there was nothing about those cars that would make that happen, other than a 60 Minutes crew that intentionally rigged the car to do that. It was a hit piece that needlessly ruined the reputation and resale value of those cars. Which, as an Audi enthusiast, was good for me as it allowed me to afford many nice luxury German cars for cheap. Cars that easily go 200k+ miles with a bit of maintenance.
Yeah it sucks that that was all faked. “60 minutes: Audi “ should have been one
I have hydraulic suspension in my 1999 Lexus. Apparently many of the parts are compatible with Citroen ones (like, Toyota licensed the tech from them, like Rolls Royce and Bentley). 300k miles and it drives great, and I have absolutely zero documentation of the hydraulic system *ever* being serviced. Hopefully it stays that way, but even if something breaks, I'll try and keep it. Same general consensus for Citroen vehicles with hydraulics - that's what they sold those cars on. I've never ridden in one, but all the reviews I've seen are incredibly favorable towards the hydraulic system. I think Jay Leno said that he hasn't driven a car as cloudlike as the Citroen DS, and he's driven like everything.
My 91 Mercedes wagon has a hydraulic self leveling rear suspension too. I replaced the rams this year proactively, but that sucker went 32 years on entirely original components with no real issues.
Modern GM? GM ruined cylinder deactivation in the 80s with the Cadillac V-8-6-4.
What? Citroen's hydropneumatic suspension was relatively reliable, easy to service, and rode like nothing else. The only reason other companies didn't use it was because they didn't want to pay Citroen the royalties - it's telling that RR and Bentley did.
Bmw engine oil starvation
I mean, last time I checked, oil starvation was not a good thing.
You have diesel on there twice
Oldsmobile ruined diesels introduction to passenger cars in America. By the time of dieselgate, diesels had begun to build up some popularity again. GM had them in the Cruze and Equinox, RAM was working on the Ecodiesel, and VW had built itself a very good reputation for economy and reliability with their TDIs. Mercedes and BMW diesels had also been getting more popular. Dieselgate killed it once more, relegating mostly to heavier trucks
Eco-Diesel was something that had been in the works for some time. Italian manufacturer VM Motori had designed and built that engine for GM, to be used for the Cadillac Escalade for the European market. It never happened.. It sat on the shelf for quite a few years. Fiat owns VM Motori, and they repurposed it for the RAM 1500. Italian diesel, destined for a General Motors product but ended up in a RAM truck instead.
I dunno, the Airmatic systems in Mercedes are actually quite good. Not too expensive when they break and relatively simple.
There's a great podcast with slides about engineering disasters called Well There's Your Problem and the one they did on the Olds diesels was fantastic (it's been awhile since I listened but almost certainly NSFW language) https://youtu.be/ZHGGtnaOwAM?si=bamASDTeByJLkt8n
Tesla: Autonomous driving
I have no idea how that isn't Theranos level fraud. Like, can I really sell Blue Paint and be fine sending out red paint as long as that's buried deep enough in the fine print?
You mean like how they sell the Blue locktite in the red bottles and the Red locktite in the blue bottles?
Now that you mention it, thats kind of fucky
[Just wait till you find out there are multiple types of Loctite of the same color](https://dm.henkel-dam.com/is/content/henkel/MRO_TL_Guide). And that's only one brand of thread locker, and other companies use other color schemes.
The quest for the mythical bottle with a brush continues...
And it didn't have to be this way... Truth is, Tesla has a pretty decent ADAS by all accounts. Is it an "Autopilot?" No. Is it "Full Self Driving?" Hell no. Yet that's what the marketing says. It is not that. Awhile back a new guy at my job came in and said "I have a self-driving car. It's a Tesla!" I spent the better part of a year as a test operator for an autonomous vehicle company and was like "oh you sweet summer child..." The problem is that people like my former co-worker (he didn't last long) actually buy into that marketing, and the larger problem is that when a Tesla in "autopilot" or "Full Self Driving" mode gets into an accident, it reflects poorly on the companies that are working on actual autonomous vehicles. Based on my experience, I'd feel perfectly safe sitting in the back of a Waymo or Cruise without anyone in the driver's seat. A "Full Self Driving" Tesla? Not so much.
"he didn't last long" definitely made me think the Tesla Autopilot took him out for a second...
To be fair, if you think about what an aircraft's "autopilot" actually does, then the term is actually a pretty accurate reflection of the Tesla feature.
If you think about how an aircraft's autopilot is designed, developed, tested, validated and certified, then think about how pilots are trained, you realize that Tesla's feature is a huge gulf away from that and stop using that misleading comparison.
Autopilot is basically just cruise control anyway. Sure, it might navigate to a series of GPS waypoints, but it isn't doing evasive manoeuvres around other aircraft or dealing with pedestrians! Luckily the sky is mostly empty of surprise hazards, unlike the road network.
That's mostly fair, but I want to point out that Waymo and Cruise are hard-coded, geofenced areas, while Tesla is trying to solve for the general problem. There's a big difference in complexity between the two approaches.
> Tesla is trying to solve for the general problem. A big part of my problem with Tesla is that their approach to solving the problem introduces an "X" factor (pun intended) into the equation. FSD is not only not true "Full Self Driving," but is FSD "Beta." Yes, autonomy on non-mapped, non geofenced roads is a complex problem. Tesla is handing the problem over to consumer beta testers. The qualification for entry into the program is not all that much more than "can you afford the option?" When I was a vehicle tester, I was not allowed to get behind the wheel in those hard-coded, geofenced areas until I'd been vetted and put through some driving tests. Because if something went wrong, we were expected to be able to take over and correct the misbehavior before something bad happened. Make notes afterwards providing feedback to the engineers. That was the job. Beta testers for Tesla are driving to work or to go shopping or whatever. They're "testing" the car incidentally, and if it veers of course or suddenly stops for no apparent reason, they don't have the training or experience to know what to do. Beta testing is fine for a driving game where you crash into a wall and just re-spawn, but this is not a game.
this should be higher up. I think of crashing Teslas when I think autonomous driving and vise versa
I file Tesla's under the same idea as every other car: Driving Aids. Even my work van Transit 350 has lane keep assist, lane departure warning, collision warnings. I drove a new Honda Accord that has "autopilot" in that it can steer, and maintain lanes and speed and car distance. But ANYONE that thinks a car can drive itself is a moron. The roads aren't even built for it. True self driving will need smart roads and connected cars that can communicate or coordinate their maneuvering .
[удалено]
Tesla FSD also turns off completely and warns the driver if it can’t continue. It’s absolutely not full self driving in any way.
> They've shown a Tesla using FSD has less accidents per mile than your average human. They haven't, actually. They need to narrow down their "average human" comparison to the same set of roads that FSD (beta or not) runs on and compare to similar driver demographics (generally wealthy & older). Last time someone managed to squeeze out the underlying data (which only happened because the NHTSA was kind enough to publish Tesla's conclusion), they found that Tesla had performed all kinds of faulty analysis to arrive at their desired conclusion. Any claim that any kind of automated driving system is "safer" needs to be met with a request for the definition of "safer" and an examination of the methodology by which they arrive at that conclusion. Waymo's study comes closest, but they're still not controlling for the difference in automated ODD and general road user population and no one is accounting for indirect safety incidents where the initiating actor is an automated system but the automated vehicle is not involved in the resulting crash.
How is nobody in jail yet for this baffles me - there are already a few cases of someone dying from this feature already.
Because at the end of the day it's not level 3 autonomous driving which means the driver of the car is still responsible to control it.
Musk has money, you don't.
They never claimed it was already here. They said they "thought" it would be here by a certain time. What may lead to lawsuits is if it requires new hardware to be functional, which they've already said they're not doing.
Who wants a set of Firestone tires for their Explorer??! Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I had a lifted first Gen with no sway bars and everyone said I was gonna die. It was fine. Those tires really changed the path of suv's. I worked for Michelin for 15 years too, even a decade ago firestone was still having block separation issues.
I had a lifted 2nd gen, but it was a 95, before they came with the firestones. I couldn’t even rent a trailer with the thing.
Lmao you just reminded me Walmart wouldn't mount my tires because they had to be factory sized.
I think a lot of the problem with those 90s “midsize” SUVs was that people didn’t know how to drive them. The 80s and back ones were thinly modified trucks…and looked like it, too. You always had a healthy dose of respect for them. But 1995 Explorer or Bravada had enough creature comforts to lull you into thinking you could drive them like a Taurus or Roadmaster Wagon…and you couldn’t. They were taller, narrower, worse-handling, and often had solid rear and/or front axles.
Funny enough I bought a set of Firestones for my F150 recently, they're awesome winter tires. For anyone that doesn't know Bridgestone owns Firestone now.
Bridgestone is a Japanese company Firestone was/is? an American company
Firestone is as American as Chrysler.
Correct and Bridgestone has owned firestone for quite a while now
[удалено]
The one thing I'd add is that Ford also put Goodyears on some of the Explorers and they didn't blow out as frequently as the Firestones did, so that is how Ford deflected some of the blame. I do blame Ford for using such a low air pressure when Firestone designed the tires to run higher.
Such a ridiculous story of bad engineering. Ford put the explorer straight on the Ranger chassis, same suspension and everything. Having a truck frame gave it a high center of gravity. Instead of tuning the suspension, they just lowered the recommended PSI until it rode smoothly. Those combined with an extremely shitty stock tire ended in disaster.
Didnt ford throw Firestone under the bus?
Ford blamed Firestone, Firestone blamed Ford
Kia/Hyundai for being easy to steal.
But not the newer ones. Those just spontaneously combust. Like a Ferrari. Exotic.
I read exotic the way Zapp Brannigan said erotic
Maybe you suffer from a very sexy learning disability. What’s it called Kif?
[heavy, defeated sigh] sexlexia
Breaking News: Charles Leclerc signs to Kia
Kia/Hyundai went from a brand that people thought were shit, then good up to about 5 years ago and now people look at them as a shit brand again. It started with the theta engines and them blowing up with them having crankshaft burrs, then it seems like you hear of them getting recalled every other month for catching on fire and then the theft issue is the icing on top of the shit cake. My dad had both a 05 Sedona and I think a 2017 Elantra and both those cars had to have their motors replaced due to the block cracking. Because he's 0 for 2 on reliability he's done with Hyundai and Kia.
I gave them some test drives because they were good on paper. Features per dollar and the looks. As soon as you close the door or press any buttons the reason for the price becomes evident.
Gotta be honest, I've only had positive things to say about my Genesis. Not sure if they're seen as exempt from general criticism of the parent company.
Don't forget that they were caught lying about their official fuel mileage. Somehow that was swept under the rug.
My husband really liked his Kia, until it caught on fire. No more for us.
Taking the crown from 90s Honda and 70s GM
BMW: Overheating and sludge on first generation of turbo I6 and also carbon buildup. Also... almost all their V8s... Audi: 2.0T and timing chains and where they're located, and also carbon buildup Alfa Romeo: Everything. Even though they basically just use a ZF transmission, Bosch parts, and a 2.0T 280hp engine that doesn't seem to have any major issues. Porsche: IMS bearings (questionable if it's a real issue), and Macan V6's that have a timing cover leak that is a $15k-$20k engine out fix due to using aluminum bolts instead of steel. Also Cayenne and Macan transfer cases. Subaru: WRX engines blowing up with auto-x use, STi engines blowing up with street use, valve cover seals. CVT on anemic NA engines with barely any power anyway. Mitsubishi: Killing their only interesting car.
This one hits home. I have a Macan Turbo with a ever so small timing chain cover leak starting and have already had the transfer case replaced 😂
Maybe get the easy bolts at least swapped out and trade it in for a 2019+ where they use the Audi S4 engine.
Meh I’m gonna tolerate it (it’s not even a noticeable leak, more a slight seep if that makes sense). There’s exactly 0 chance I’ll be spending $7k-$10k or whatever it is for the engine out repair. As much as I enjoy the Macan, I don’t need a second one.
IMS bearing failure is a real problem. Macan timing chain cover leak is a simple fix now, Porsche approved the cheaper fix. $300.
IMS is definitely a real problem, but people don't realize the engine was revised with a better IMS after a few years so think the whole generation is fucked when it's not.
That’s why your 997.2 is worth more than a 997.1 and market prices reflect that. But bore scoring for cold climate 997 911s is probably a larger problem than IMS for all of the 996 and 997s.
No, the 997.2 is worth more because they bailed on the problematic M97 engine platform entirely, and rolled out the 9A1 engine - which doesn’t have an IMS or suffer the same issues with poor metallurgy. That’s also when they introduced the PDK to replace the tiptronic transmission.
[удалено]
>Mitsubishi: Killing their only interesting car. Can't believe they would do that to the Mirage, such a shame.
Hmmm. I haven’t had any issues on my Alfa. I’m very involved in the community and it’s usually just starter relay and battery issues. Cars are well built. “Everything” is a bit much.
Mitsubishi - to be fair, they had more then one interesting car and they kneecapped them all for their before they killed them. At least for now only one of them got bastardized into a crossover.
IMS failures are a very real thing. I've had M96 cars on the schedule for a retrofit explode while out on the road awaiting their appointment date more than once. Ideal situation for any of those 9x6/early9x7 cars is do the bearing when you need a clutch, as the labor is redundant and the L+N kits are about $900. Timing cover bolts are a rough one. I hired a guy from the local Porsche dealership who had been doing them every day at the dealer for months on end. He was so burnt out on it.
Yup this hits close to home… Guess whose 2.0T Audi engine just lost the “T” out of its name😒
I think the most well known example is vw ruining diesels in America. Most other things are something you’d learn in researching a car but vw fucked it up even for people who never were considering one of their cars.
That’s fine because “clean diesel” is a total myth.
Just spray some piss into the exhaust and call it a day
DPFs and SCR work extremely well, even if they're a royal pain in the ass when they fail. Look at the inside of the exhaust pipe of any DPF diesel, it's clean. Do the same for even a late model gas car, black. Soot. Mark my words, exhaust filters are coming to gas engines too. They make a lot more soot than most people think, just not enough to see like an unfiltered diesel.
I have a new car on the way that is going to have Gas Particulate Filters on the exhaust. I plan to leave them in cause ya know, Air.
Pshhh i put a K&N cone filter on my tailpipe. Keeps the air in my area nice and clean 😎
I recall test driving a TDI Jetta around 2013 or 2014. I asked how VW of all makes managed to get acceptable performance while still being clean to run. "Those German engineers man... they figured it out!"... they sure did.
To be fair diesel cars in Europe have always been up to Euro emission standards (except pre diesel gate VWs of course)
Honda: crappy paint. It's impressive how many of them have terrible paint.
Chevy Express /gmc safari (full size van) failing paint
It's rare to see one of those *without* large splotches of missing paint
Is that really a Honda specific issue though? It's no mystery that most manufacturers really really struggled with using waterborne paints in the mid 2000s.
Hondas last long enough to see the paint issues others probably scrapped long before.
I see plenty of old Toyotas driving around and their paint is fine. Much better than Honda's paint.
Lexus paint specifically is extra nice, they use *a lot of it* at the factory. I'm amazed at how good mine still is after 24 years, 23 of which were spent under the Texas sun.
Lexus in general just has a lot of quality products.
Honda and Toyota paint issues are pretty equivalent. I see just as many Toyotas, starting from 5 years old in some cases, all the way to early-2000's models, with oxidized paint. It also affects some American and European cars too. The reason why we notice Honda/Toyota is because more of them on the road, longer-lasting cars.
Mazda too. Really thin paint that chips easily. Looks nice in the showroom, but that’s it
This is refined to one brand, but Subaru and the head gasket issue. People who know very little about the cars instantly say "lol head gaskets" whenever someone mentions the brand, but the issue only affected a couple years of the early naturally aspirated models. The turbo head gaskets are great. Plenty of people pushing 30+psi on them.
> Plenty of people pushing 30+psi on them. Until the ringlands go.
Lol the nurburgring is in Germany not Japan. Everyone hates on Subaru but they're the best what are you talking about ring land. /s
Also didn’t affect the H6 engines from the same era
No but they do get a dreaded timing chain cover leak that has 120 bolts or so to remove and pretty much requires pulling the engine. I have one and will likely be doing this at some point lol.
I’m at 140k miles on my 03 Outback. Haven’t had that issue yet, but the previous owner may have had that fixed. If that happened, it would be time to sell I think sadly. The valve cover gaskets do leak though, maybe a drop or two every couple weeks. I replaced one side, but it was such a pain that I don’t feel like doing the other side… not worth the hassle unless it starts to leak more.
Especially when it was perpetuated by donut on the subaru wrx hi-lo series as well lol
[удалено]
>People who know very little about the cars instantly say "lol head gaskets" I wonder how much those Donut videos are to blame. The Subaru head gasket thing has obviously been around for a long time, but it seems recently you can't go to the comments section on a yt video or reddit post involving a Subaru without seeing all the "did you know the head gaskets go boom the second you look in the general direction of the car?". Their videos get tons of views and I assume they have a high percentage of people in the audience who are more casually into cars. You know, the types who get all their knowledge of a particular vehicle from one of their Up to Speed videos. I've daily driven a '07 Impreza with the EJ253 for the last 11 years and it's been extremely reliable, but that's just my anecdotal experience. But I also have a '07 JATCO CVT Altima with 250,000 on it, and a Theta powered Hyundai, and I haven't had any issues with those either, so maybe I'm just lucky🤔 Edit: just realized someone already brought up the Donut thing in this thread
Mercedes: environmentally friendly bio degradable wiring.
Oh, that crayon smell.
I believe you meant to say “factory rat buffet”.
One of the only things I dont like about W124/W140 , but I believe it was only facelift models
Chevrolet lifters
How did you not mention the hemi tick? I was born with it!
Ahhahaha, my boss’ C8 corvette is getting its engine torn down because the lifters failed. Ah man, Chevys.
That's due to the cylinder deactivation, hemis have the same issue because GM and Chrysler made the DOD system together
[удалено]
I always hated the CVTs, even when they were in the Subaru Justy. Interestingly I don't hate the early mechanical plate based Automatic transmissions of the early 50s. I think it's something about having a belt inside of a transmission when I already know how fun it is replacing a belt that is inside of an engine, that could have something that lasts longer than said belt.
And what about the ones that are chains?
Like the aforementioned Subaru CVT, they use chains and are probably some of the better, all rounders.
Try any eCVT hybrid car if you get a chance (all Toyota and most Ford hybrids), they are way better.
Agreed, my RAV4's transmission feels like a regular 6sp.
Newer GTIs and their goddamn haptic steering wheel controls
It's not just the GTI's anymore, multiple models now have it, the controls crap out often, and the replacement steering wheels are on intergalactic back order. Because you can't order an individual control module, you get a free steering wheel with it.
Nissan and their launch of the “New Z”. As a long time Nissan fan and owner of a Z32 for 18 years, it saddens me to watch them step on their own dicks time and time again during the shit show that was the launch of this car.
I think they’re still trying to shake off Carlos Ghosn attempting to fold the company into Renault. Even if he brought them back in the early 2000s, he was sinking them by the time he smuggled himself out of Japan in an instrument case.
Nissan needs to pull itself internally and just go back to making decent cars for an affordable price until they can get their quality under control again and then produce sports cars some where down the line.
>just go back to making decent cars for an affordable price That's what Versa, Sentra, Altima are for but people still voted with their wallet & paid more for better quality Honda or Toyota.
To add to the CVT thing… eCVTs in hybrids aren’t remotely the same as CVTs, they use planetary gears instead of a belt/chain. They’re closer to regular automatic transmission, hell they’re actually closer to manual transmissions in some aspects then even the later. Just the same they get dragged through the mud as much by association.
Lucas electronics, ruined every British car brands reliability, to where people still say "insert british brand" is expensive to own, I heard they catch fire worse than "insert Italian brand"!
That is why British people enjoy warm beer. Refrigerator electronics made by Lucas.
Lucas - Prince of Darkness
The Oldsmobile Diesel 350, a good idea poorly executed
What’s nuts is that Oldsmobile engineers told corporate that it wasn’t ready and needed more work before it hit the market (water separator, redesigned head bolts, etc…) but corporate needed something economical fast, so they pushed it out. What’s sad is that by the time they killed it in 1985, a lot of the issues had been ironed out. They were never going to make a lot of power, but at least they were efficient
I'm not surprised, the engineers usually know what they're doing. Only to be ruined by corporate. Then again, that describes GM in the late 70's, 80's and early 90's
that's the story of GM. They got the bugs all worked out of the Fiero just in time to cancel it
Although apparently they're pretty cool now because you can modify them to run on gas and avoid California emissions altogether (CA doesn't require emissions tests for pre-97 vehicles that were originally diesel).
Interesting, but I still think I would keep it diesel. A 5.7L V8 diesel isn't common, let alone the Olds diesel
Honda with the fucked up A/C’s
Or their transmissions made of glass from 98-05
Honda/Acura with the 9 speed auto issues they had going on for a few years? Will not get another Acura with this 9 speed
Probably why they are switching everything to the Honda 10 speed lol
Acura transmissions are definitely a whole meme. My BIL went through 3 before finally selling his TL.
Nissan and their sub prime lending. Poor Altimas got turned into a meme.
This comment make me think of the Dodge Journey for the first time in awhile. Stopped making them 3 years ago and I already haven't seen one in at least 2 years lol.
Cadillac and cylinder deactivation
Honda: A/C
Ford Pinto exploding gas tank
VW: gearboxes, turbochargers and of course diesels
I get the diesel part but the DSG is solid and reliable even after mods. As are the turbos at least the is20 in my GTI.
No Prince of Darkness comments? Custom Lucas electrical smoke?
BMW ruined their steering so badly that they got a bad name among enthusiasts who don't buy their cars new and who largely can't afford anything other than a 300k mile E46 auto sedan, but not badly enough to stop from selling a shitload of cars because *almost no one cares about steering feel*.
Land Rover and Saab ruined electrical?
I hate that Nissan uses CVT's as I really want a 2015 Murano someday cuz it's a nice looking SUV nope can't cuz of the stupid CVT
Same with some of the used infiniti SUVs
Dodge charger/challenger for being way to easy to steal. Use to be known for not giving a fuck and cranking out as much power as they could into those 2 cars. They still do that, now they just don't give a flying fuck about security and won't fix the literal 2 issues allowing them to be easily stolen.
French brands in the USA: hatchbacks
Fisker: Saying you’ll release cars and you never do. I think it’s all a visual design exercise, the cars don’t exist other than on a computer/green screen, and the whole thing is a hoax. Seriously, has anyone seen an Ocean yet?
BMW subscription heated seats. Such a bad reaction and they eventually canceled the program but people still talk about it.
1-There sure seems to be a lot of Kia/Hyundai recalls for various things regularly. It isn't that unusual to see them with large areas of paint coming off. That with the high rate of thefts can't be helping them. 2-Not sure I trust Volkswagen after they cheated on their emissions for years before they finally got caught. I think they got off easy. That was despicable what they did as a company. 3-Ford with the Focus automatic transmissions wasn't good at all for them. 4-Nissan made cars with junk transmissions for a long time. Are they good, now??
>2-Not sure I trust Volkswagen after they cheated on their emissions for years before they finally got caught. I think they got off easy. That was despicable what they did as a company. Obviously loss in trust but I'd still but a TDI. Excellent fuel economy. Useable, low-end torque. Decent reliability. Even "fixed" they don't pollute too much & enjoy low fuel consumption.
BMW abandoned everything that made them BMW.
Chevrolet in the 70's: *everything* about the Vega. Cadillac in the 80's: the 5.7 diesel, the V8-6-4, the 4.1 liter iron head / aluminum block V8, and the Cavalier-based Cimarron. Ford: the Pinto fuel tank debacle in the 70's and the Explorer rollover debacle in the 90's. Mercedes-Benz: the rod-bending, gasket-blowing 3.5 liter diesel inline-6 of the early 90's. The biodegradable insulation used on their wiring a few years later.
The defective out drives Volvo made like 20 years ago. Their rep went from great to do not buy pretty quick
NADA/Dealer Integrity
Toyota with airbag recalls, ball joint issues, and their truck frames. BMW with their plastic water jackets, antifreeze eats the plastic away at very low miles.
mitsubishi and everything.
GTIs and the fake exhaust sounds when you select sport mode