What is the most unreliable vehicle you have experienced?

You were drinking oil so you could not have to drive it anymore? Unique approach..

 

Corrected...that's what I get for posting late.

 

Im assuming your last name is Boyd?

 

I helped a friend swap a Japanese spec 300zx twin turbo 6 speed manual and front clip onto his US spec non turbo automatic 300zx.


Never. Again.

 

This will sound crazy, but, my 1987 Volvo 740 Turbo was hands down the worst car I’ve owned. Though I will add that it was not the car’s fault. My 92 240 wasn’t far behind that one, but again not the car’s fault. Both had been dicked around with by previous owners, and were a little worse for wear. The 91 740 that I have now has been with me for about 7 years and has sure broken down a handful of times, but has always been fixable and has (knock on wood) never left me scratching my head for a fix. After a partial engine rebuild it starts and runs strong, every time, even after sitting dormant for months.

 

I had a Laser back in the day, AWD turbo 5spd it was really fun when it felt like running right. The kid I sold it to blew it up in less than a week lol

 

Mine was my first vehicle the 1980 F-100 Custom. Granted I didn't get the truck until 2004. My dad and I rebuilt the 302 it had, had to have the transmission rebuilt, heater didn't work at all. Worst was that at least once a month something new would have to be fixed. Looking back I wish I never sold it after high school. Sadly I don't think I have any pictures of it anymore. Attached photo is one that looks just like it did (minus the wheels) basically.

 

Newer Ford F-150s

Bought a new 2016 2.7 turbo and the engine died at 7000 miles


Replaced with a new 2016 5.0 v8 had to have the driveshaft replaced at 10k miles and at 30k miles it was losing over an inch of coolant every 2000 miles and ford said there was no leak and this was from "evaporation". My warranty would be up at 32k so I am assuming they were just feeding me bs until then


Replaced with a used 2012 f350 with 114k miles on it and had horrible problems. Had to redo basically the whole front end including both broken ujoints, rear diff seals, calipers which locked up on me in the desert, and many other things


After this I was done with ford, bought my 2016 taco with 80k miles, now sitting at 112,000 miles and haven't had to do a single thing aside from regular maintenance and still drives like new. Best truck I have had.

 

B5 > B6..... though I may be biased, the v8 can’t top the bi-turbo. Plus the timing belt in on the front of the v6 engine.

 

Yeah I love the B5 platform in general, had a B5 Passat for a while. That 2.7tt is a great motor, almost bought an allroad at one point with it but the risk of other things breaking scared me away from that. A B5 S4 Avant would be great

 

I would own an all road, but just toss the trick suspension. Give it real coils and a lift. The 2.7t just wants good oil and better diverter valves, after that it avoids a lot of the issues that people have. Parts are cheaper now, but I think the B5 cars bottomed out about 3 years ago. They are on the up swing if they are in good running order, but who knows if that will last. I’m waiting for the bubble to burst on some of the current crazy prices on things. People are acting crazy with BAT and other auction sites.

 

I had a 2002 Ford Ranger I bought brand new with a 5 speed and the 3.0 V6. Truck was an absolute piece of garbage. I remember Consumer reports rated the Ford Ranger one of the worst vehicles ever to own. I traded in after 12 years and 107,000 miles. Some of the parts that were replaced over the years were on there 3rd or 4th replacement by the time I dumped that absolute worst piece of shit I've ever owned. Very uncomfortable, had to do work every 3,000 miles oil change. I love Tacomas because all you do is gas and oil changes, not replace the same parts every 20 or 30 thousand miles. I dont do Fords anymore, I just want to drive the vehicle, not do constant repairs like with Fords

 

I have a Ford unreliable story, wasn’t my car, but my friends parents. 2000 explorer they bought new and drove for about 2k miles. We borrowed it to take on vacation because they didn’t like the idea of us taking my 83 blazer or his 91 accord to Colorado. We drove it about 500 miles. Tire let go at 75mph in Eastern Colorado mid afternoon and the thing rolled 11 or 12 times. I don’t think it made it to its first service. They made maybe 2 payments before it scattered itself across the least visited parts of CO.

I think about that car every time I cut my hair cut. I have managed pretty well in the pandemic since I have cut my own hair for 20 years. Every barber has issues with the scars and the rivets holding the plate in my head. They alway seem to hit them with the clippers. It’s like a joy buzzer in the skull....

So, kind of soured me on fords for a while....

 

I had mine about 2 months before it blew up. Previous owner told me the timing belt was serviced. As a high school kid I didnt ask for receipts, and I could not afford to fix it. Ended up with a pickup truck after.

 

That’s a real bummer! I bought My Volvo because of the reputation of reliability. The AWD computer was dead the first year.

 

Good Lord.

Was that part of the big Firestone tire recall that happened around the same time?

 

It was on August 2, 2000. I woke up in the hospital 4 am 8/3/2000 and that afternoon the national highway board opened an investigation into the roll overs.

Ford sold them the car after knowing the issues that year and I would bet I was in one of the last Firestone/explorer wrecks before all the recalls.

the rolls were fun and I didn’t loose consciousness until an hour or two later in a tiny hospital in Hugo CO. Paid for the only helicopter ride I have ever been on, don’t remember it, to the Olympic training center in CO springs and they opened my head and had a look around. I got our of bed 3 or 4 hours after surgery and was caught taking my neck brace off. Most expensive birthday ever. First thing I did as an adult was sign myself out of the hospital on day 5 and get a bill for 89 thousand dollars. Welcome to adult.

 

2000 Land Rover Discovery...I still have dreams about flying to Whitley, UK and burning Land Rover HQ to the ground.

 

Ford 6.0 van

Other than the egr (which had been deleted), it's had issues with the FICM, the HPOP, Injectors, transmission cooler sensor and general low quality ford coachwork things like locks, door handles, window motors, etc.

 

So much blame to go around on this. I know it doesn't help you but it's a hell of a story, even without getting into what happened.

Personal injury lawyers told law enforcement not to report the issues to the NHTSA because they believed it would effect individual settlement amounts going all the way back to 1996. Legal aids and law enforcement outside of Ford knowingly hid the issue to try and leverage their stake in a potential settlement four years before the NHTSA even opened an investigation. It's part of the reason laws were changed on how the NHTSA is supposed to proceed with investigations and the major reason why, just a few years later, Toyota faced such a quick and massive recall on their vehicles on the runaways recall even though it could never be replicated. Every day Ambulance chasers killed tons of people by discouraging the reporting of accidents to the proper federal authority.

Ford US knew what was going on from around 1998. They were notified of Ford Asia recalls on vehicles overseas with that model of Firestone tires as early as 1997. They should of known the problem was wider spread and started an internal audit/recall. They didn't and it cost lives.

Firestone knew their tires were susceptible to delamination. The construction of the tires and quality control was garbage. Ultimately they were "most at fault" and Ford (and a bunch of other manufacturers) doesn't even deal with them anymore. If the equivalent Goodyear tires were on every Exploder, hundreds of crashes and stories like yours could of been prevented.

Overall just a crushing story. In fact, if it wasn't for some investigative reporter in Texas (I can't remember where) Lawyers/Ford/Firestone would of got away with things for years.

What's even more shocking is that it happened again. GM got away with faulty ignitions in a similar story, perhaps worse since they knowingly lied about it to the NHTSA, in the early 2010s. Luckily a whistle blower became involved and the new laws allowed the NHTSA to force the issue with GM which lead to a massive recall, too late for about a hundred people though.