What is the most unreliable vehicle you have experienced?

I can't believe all the dodge neon trouble. I had a two 97s, a 98, 03 sxt and an 05 srt4. Best cars I owned. The 97s are still on the road(sold them to friends for teenagers and they still have them as work cars) the 98 was blown up on the drag strip, the 03 and 05 were totaled.

The 1998 had a stock bottom end, upgraded valve train, cam, heavy duty clutch, running on megasquirt and an intercooled turbo set up running 14psi. That thing was a beast. I streeted it forever and hit the drag strip with it twice a month. Snapped a timing belt at 8k and ate valves making a pass. I parted out the turbo setup and junked it.

That engine will take a lot of punishment. The 5 speed is tough as long as you don't spin the tires for long periods of time. The auto 3 speed will hold a good bit of power before they let go.

The neon was the scca most popular car for auto cross and was champion in the stock class for years.

Also had a car that came from the salvage car built out of 4 cars that we dirt track raced in the fwd front wheel drive class. That thing was BEAT. We let the kids, wives, girlfriends, and anyone else who wanted to race it run it. One person left the standard in first and held it at redline for 25 laps. Car was hot exhaust manifold glowing red. It was ran next weekend

 

My parents had a '98 Olds Intrigue that went through 5 steering racks and one steering pump. They bought it in 2001 (already on it's 2nd rack) and went through a rack every year after (under warranty) until they traded it for a '04 Impala (in '05).

Another one was a ~'02 Chev Cubevan at work. It would blow 40amp fuses at random times, mostly when being driven down the road. Lots of times I could just put it in neutral, key off, key on, start, and keep going and not loose a whole lot of speed, but sometimes it wouldn't start and then I would have to pull over and call a tow truck.

 

1977 Porsche 924. I am not sure I ever went a day without something falling off. I still remember the coolant was thick enough with oil from I could stand up a wrench. Or the day that all the door locks stopped working and I couldn't get out of the car. I loved that car so much to drive but I carried a tool box with me wherever I went.

 

1958 Chevy Impala Delux?. Sat for 4 years in a barn before I got it, had a hornets nest in the back seat, even the radio and speaker still worked.. Perfect worn out shape. Lotta electrical problems. Was my first car. Wish my dad would of kept it. Carpets and seats all original. Ohh that was back in 1975 when I got it. Only had it 4 months.

Otherwise, not a lot of problems except wear and tear I guess, no lemons. I started driving in 1975.....

 

2012 Jeep Wrangler

The rear axle had a failed pinion bearing, wheel bearing, and the E-locker fragged itself and damaged the ring and pinion. Two Totally Integrated Power Modules (TIPM) also failed in less than 40,000 miles. The first time the Jeep's dashboard turned into a Christmas Tree, the speedometer showed zero, and numerous peripheral systems shut down. I had to get an eighty mile tow, waited weeks to get the part, and was blamed for its failure. The second time the TIPM only lasted about 4000 miles and I had to wait three weeks for the part to come in. The dealer also wouldn't help with a rental or loaner car, at which point I decided to buy a Tacoma. OP, would you consider adding a poll for which brand the failed vehicle came from?

 

After reading 5 pages of posts I understand how fortunate I have been.

Have owned Chevy, Ford, Plymouth, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Honda , and Toyota and have never had any serious problems with any of them. Mostly routine maintenance and wear items.

The one exception was my 2008 Sierra SLT Z71. After about 70k miles had engine missing due to 2 fouled plugs caused by active fuel management (v4/v8) problems. Took it to dealer who fixed it at half price due to being out of warranty/time. Happened again at 79500 miles and dealer said it needed 8 pistons and rings. GM paid half of that but was $1269 for my share. No longer trusted the truck for the long haul so now I am enjoying a Tacoma. According to most reports I should get better service from Toyota.

Son has 2002 Tundra with more than 205000 trouble free miles. Hope mine is as good as his.

Hope I haven't jinxed myself.

Current vehicles: 2015 Tacoma DCSB TRD Off Road, 2004 Corvette 6 speed, 2003 Yukon SLT.
All running good with newest to oldest miles: 1700, 88000, 83000. Hope nothing changes.

 

Way to go^

 

Did I just read "Neon" and "muscle car" in the same sentence?

 

It'll be your turn to suffer soon enough...

 

mercedes C class AMG 2010... tires every other day or so it seemed since you can't rotate and God forbid you hit ice (lived in North Texas at the time). Check something light every other month at least and 300 dollar oil changes but the lounge was pretty cool.... beautiful car, fast and a eye catcher but wow... never again. Good job screwing up my dream car vision Chrysler Daimler or whatever you are called now

 

Probably my 1977 VW Rabbit diesel manual

 

New black on black 1982 Mercury LN7. Head gasket. Big plans and no money. So much for my tubbed Pro Street dream.

 

German piece of shit...

 

I liked it , just wasn't exactly new or maintained hence the unreliablility

 

X10! I couldn't tell you how much money I dumped into the one I had. It probably sat in the shop for a solid month if you added up how many times I had to have some issue fixed.

 

I grew up there and never had a German car until my ex-wife wanted one...no major problems but new brakes and rotors after 24k and radiator fan was acting up when we sold it, plus I replaced 2 sensors that were faulty

 

That's good if a woman driver got 6 yrs on a set of brakes.

 

2014 ford focus, worst car I ever owned, traded it in less than a year after buying the piece of shit

 

1974 Mercury Capri here. 2000 cc, 4 speed stick. There are few objects in my life that have caused me to have blind, rage-filled hatred like that car. It was proof that Murphy's Law "Anything that can go wrong, will" really really applies. That wretched POS broke just about everything in the drive train, and came up with new things to break that were expensive (since the car was built in Germany by Ford of Europe and imported here), difficult to locate (same reason), and requiring special tools that no one seemed to have, including the local Snap-On truck (reverse star pattern head bolts, anyone?).

As soon as one thing broke, another thing would promptly take a s**t, leaving me stranded. I would wrench on the thing until 3 am so I could get to work the next day, only to have it promptly break down again in a totally unrelated area. The end for me was when the shifter snapped off in my hand (simple 2-3 shift, no power shifting, no racing, just cheap crappy German pot metal)

My friend refused to tow it up the local hill so I could push it off a cliff. I desperately wanted to watch it crash and smash and crumple into a twisted mass at the bottom of that ravine. I fervently hope that after that car went to the crusher it was recycled into either dog food cans or a steel toilet somewhere - and I would laugh every time some sweaty fat man drops a large dump on my former car. It truly deserved a special place in hell.