I bought me ONE new car in my 40 years of driving, a 2000 Monte Carlo. EVERYTHING on/in that car broke and was replaced either under warranty, or by me after the warranty, EXCEPT the 3.4 V6, the engine was a good one. Never again a new car for the wife or me, If Im going to be wrenching on vehicles to keep 'em going, Im not paying top dollar (New) for 'em. My daily is my '01 Safari AWD, its rusty, has orange rust stains on the white paint, just did another intake gasket, now doing the pressure line from the pump to hydroboost, its a greasy oily mess under there, but Im a simple guy, I dont feel the need to have the latest vehicle, and I dont care what people think seeing this rusty Safari, at least I have the talent to repair it
My 1982 Cadillac Fleetwood with the 4.1 liter V6. Not only was it a pig with 125 HP but the converter would lock and unlock constantly while driving around town. And driving in hilly terrain it wouldn't pull up even a slight grade. Couldn't wait to get rid of it.
1990 Chevy Beretta GTZ. One shop day for every 746 miles. Clutch plate collapsed, head gasket failed (had a full engine rebuild), radio failed, paint failed (full repaint), catalytic converter came apart, dash electronics failed twice (full replacement of entire unit), CV joint died, drive belt idler pulley died. That's pretty much it; and all that was covered under warranty including the engine rebuild, which occurred past normal warranty mileage but was covered by a secret warranty. I'll never buy a GM product again, because of this shitbox and because of their treatment of me.
1994 Ford Probe. The wife bought it new when she graduated from college. 60,000 miles and 4 transmissions later, it was time to trade it in on another POS... 1997 Chevy Malibu.
That’s a shame. Generally I hate front wheel drive, unibody futureboxes (and Lord knows the world hated GM cars then) but I have a very sweet spot for a few. I had an ‘88 Cavalier Z24 convertible. Bought it from my neighbor, a GM retiree who ordered it new, for $750. It was kinda quick, responsive, a little growly and very comfortable and fun. Had a great factory stereo and as long as I poured a quart of 10/30 in every week ran great. Digital dash was wonky and the oil light flickered at hot idle, but I’d buy it back in a hot minute. Patrick
My final project in chassis fab at tech school was to take my buddy's white one of those, and we swapped a 350/TH350 into it, built a floor with a trans tunnel, fabbed a long tube 4 link from scratch for maximum articulation with a ford 9", and put hydraulics on it. Those factory wheels made finding centerline of the wheel well really simple for measuring our ride height axle centerline
