The two very worst cars I ever drove were made by Renault, my Dad’s old Renault 4 and a brand new hired Megane, both death traps, mainly because of the lack of brakes when actually needed.
The best and cheapest car I’ve ever owned (of many) was my old Astra 1.4SE with the multipoint fuel injection, 450 miles a week every week, two services a year at the main dealer, nothing going wrong or wearing out that could not be fixed at a service until its first (and final) breakdown at exactly 205,000miles. Total cost of ownership, everything, was a mere 19.41p/mile (£39,785.58 from March 1994 to November 2007)
But I did modify it slightly almost immediately after I bought it “declared as new”. I painted the wheel trims to match the body colour (to stop them being nicked - cable ties not enough), and added the bulkhead heat insulator, and the splash guard in the offside front wheel arch, both normally only fitted to cars with aircon and power steering, neither of which I wanted.
I find this thread very interesting. I’ve got a 1989 Eunos Roadster that I love so much that I decided to get a PRHT NC as well. After 2 years though I’d had enough so in February, I traded it in against a Renault Zoe EV. So far, I’m so pleased I did.
All my servicing and repairs are done by my local garage and anything that needs doing, gets done.
The car was 61 reg and had around 50,000 miles on the clock. From memory, this is how my ownership of the NC went:
Failed heater control switch (around £350 to put right)
Broken front spring (covered by paid for warranty)
Problems with brakes.
More problems with brakes even including turning one disc blue.
Worn out drop links
Perished rear rubber boots (can’t remember the technical name)
Numerous paint chips on the bonnet and front valance
Serious rust developing around front side repeater
Serious rust around number plate lamps
Serous flaking on alloy wheels
Clutch was difficult and car always felt as if it was either on the point of stalling or revving twice as hard as I needed it to when pulling away from standstill.
No problems with the engine at all and no oil used between services. The car was sheer joy to drive on a clear road but no fun at all in traffic. It went really well, but seemed ill at ease when going slowly.
I do believe that the car having to live outside in a seaside environment and not getting daily use was a major factor, but overall, I was very disappointed that it didn’t “survive” better than it did during the 3500 or so miles that I drove it.
So, for now I’m sticking with “Katie”, or at least I will be once she’s taken off SORN where she’s been through the lockdown.
One of my work colleagues in the late 1970s lived in Brighton near the sea front, and his brand new Rover SD1 V8 lasted less than six months before the doors rusted through from the inside, and much of the rest of the body followed soon after. It was written off by Rover before a year was up.
The story I was told (I have no idea if generally true or not, but it was definitely the case with this one) goes that the new model went through the paint shop in half the time of the old P6, because the SD1 was not painted anywhere it could not be seen.
Its paint was a brown suspiciously close to rust colour, we said it was to hide the rapid onset of the metal disease.
Each to his own and all that, but I have owned more French cars than any other Marque, and so far I have had very few problems with any of them, in fact my current main car is an 18 reg Peugeot 208 HDi 1.6 GT line, and I love it, and even the complex Citroen XM estate was a great family car but being a 2.0 Turbo petrol it was juicy, so I traded it in for a Picasso diesel which served us well for many years.
The worse cars I’ve ever owned where a Talbot Horizon, and a Nissan Urvan, both total and utter Bast*rds that caused me no end of trouble and expense.
I will always do my best for my cars, ie service them regularly and keep them clean and waxed, but if they prove to be costly unreliable dogs, then I will quickly loose faith .
Got my first MOT coming up in August as the owner of this, my first MX5 , now my old Spitfire was a rock, maybe I was lucky,
Good god, I’d forgotten about the nissan urvan, that was a fabulous work van. We had one for delivering carpets. Remove the front passenger seat and you could get a full 4 metre roll of carpet in and then go sideways around wet roundabouts all whilst getting 50mpg and downhill nudging 100mph. For some reason we replaced it with a nissan Vanette. What a total piece of absolute rubbish that van was. We had the 2.3 diesel version. It had the benefit of being neither economical or fast. Thankfully due to it being geared like a 1 litre city car it was also really noisy at any speed. An utterly joyless experience.
Reliability is a funny thing - I’ve owned may cars in my time - German, French, Japanese, British, Italian etc. And the most reliable car I’ve owned thus far?
Me too - but it wasn’t at all really, but such is an Alfa’s pull on the heart strings that you’d forgive them anything …
My own horror stories feature a Suzuki SC 100 (engine cut out on spirited cornering ) , an AX GT (ghastly car designed for snake hipped Frenchmen , not fat b***rs , brake stuck on randomly , awful gearchange , silly gearing and Airfix kit build quality ) but nothing competes with my late dad’s Dolomite - 5 new gearboxes in year one , engine running on for up to 30 seconds after turning it off and N/S front suspension collapse at 80 mph while crossing the highest viaduct on the A1 …
Not had a horror story that bad, but my 1st Mini (proper mini!) used to make a groaning noise under heavy cornering - I thought it was the ball joints needing greasing up and didn’t investigate further (also was a skint student). Not long after I sold the car to my cousin who wanted to restore it, once stripped down it turned out that the noise was the bulkhead separating from the floor! There was only about 1/3rd of it still attached!
Way back in the late 70’s, I was assaulted by our transport manager ( I was a regional manager for Guinness) with a lovely brand new Morris Ital Estate. The P.O.S. with the kid-on O series mill which was nothing more than a tarted up B mill with an OC head.
It rarely started reliably, it’s Moggie derived suspension induced permanent under steer, the rear cart springs must have signed a contract with the Devil to jerk my face into the dash, it rattled everywhere, the tail gate had a nasty habit of opening ( on one event spilling my property over the A74), the gearbox tailshaft parted, the diff leaked, and finally in Alloa one sunny afternoon it did the decent thing and had an underbonnet fire. It was “repaired” but clearly the loom had suffered and it was beyond saving.
I managed to coax it down the Liverpool and had a meeting with said transport manager and told him I did not care anymore about what set of key he had for me…so long as it was not hell bent on killing me.
I had the keys chucked over his desk ( he was on my side over the whole thing) and words to the effect " There’s a green estate outside, pretty much new so look after it…"
Oh F I thought.
Except, it was a mint mica green “Woody” Datsun 180B estate.
What a machine. Went like the wind, got hammered for 80k trouble free miles, was comfortable and 100% reliable. Velour gin palace interior was…erm…a novelty though. Only needed a few sets of tyres, and basic servicing.
That is why the Japanese came to dominate the UK markets with stuff that actually worked.
If I could find another one that is even 90 points, I’d snap it up today.
Very true . I drove friends’ various Marinas in period and the best was the 1.3 , which was almost wieldy , and the worst the 1.8 TC which may have barked and bellowed like an MGB on steroids but had a bone jarring ride and understeered like a stuck pig. Truth be told, the 180B was a very similar recipe to the Marina - crashy ride , slow steering , old school engine but not only did it have more toys , if executed with Datsun’s then trademark style of gypsy caravan chic , the key difference was that they just kept going on and on . No rust, nothing dropped off, started first time , heater worked properly and you didn’t have to pay for ‘extras’ like a radio or a heated screen.
BL deserved everything it got for palming off its loyal customers with a succession of badly designed and /or badly built horrors -no wonder Brits ended up buying Golfs , Hondas , Toyotas and Nissans - who the ** ** would spend their own money on a Maxi or Allegro , even -the Hyacinth Bucket Vanden Plas edition ?
I do recall the steering was a bit vague John…probably recirculating ball.
The Datsun always preferred a load on to work the suspension for sure.
It did tend to axle tramp a bit in the wet if I booted it as well.
It was not a paragon of complex chassis engineering, but by 'eck it was solid.
Agricultural springs to mind.
Overall though I always knew it would do what was required. Which was a lot in all the chronic Scottish winters I used it for 3 years. I wanted to buy it off Guinness, but the system said no.
I always remember my boss buying the Austin Princess. Even from his first few days of ownership he would arrive to work and open the bonnet and poke and prod under there. Water leaked in, I remember it was always steamed up inside. Then when winter came he was nearly always late or ringing up asking for someone to pick him up. He lived barely 3 miles away and here was me having to travel 20 miles every day my junky Skoda Estelle, never missed a beat.
He was a mild mannered man and I never did hear him curse or swear but he came close many times with that car.
I had a Mk1 Astra 1.3 China Blue, one of my favourite cars. It got stolen in Leicester redecorated by some helpful hooligans! Had a full respray which someone took a dislike to and put a full scratch across the boot lid, lovely some people are!
I totally agree, its OK flying the flag and all that, but some of the old Brit cars were God awful things, my father and Brother in law were loyal Datsun fans, they Owned a Cherry and a Violet 140J, they just kept going ,and had all the toys, which often came as extras with the basic Brit cars.
That scene in Fawlty Towers where Basil thrashes that old Austin or whatever it is, with a branch, sums up what owning some of those cars was like.
Dad’s pride & joy, a Ford Cortina 1.6L bought new in spring 1980 finished in Highland Green with a chocolate brown cloth interior. It never ran right from day 1, spending a lot of time at the local Ford dealer who just used to carry out a “diagnostic check”, charge Dad for that & claim that nothing was wrong.
Always serviced on time by the main dealer & carefully driven, the problems continued (including rust from underneath the paint on the doors & bonnet before it was 12 months old) & by the time it was 2 years old with 24,000 miles on the clock it was already becoming difficult to start. It then began burning oil 6 months after that (30,000 miles) accompanied by quite a serious oil leak.
When it had its next service at 3 years old (35,000 miles) Dad again asked the Ford dealer to look at the engine - which by now was emitting a lot of blue smoke from the exhaust especially on the over-run - & was bluntly told that it had “had it” & a new engine was required. The car was quickly traded in!
I had a 1982 Cortina 1.6L in Caribbean Blue - one of the last Cortinas made, bought when three & a half years old. SKU 771Y. In comparison with Dad’s 1980 model, the two cars were like chalk & cheese, mine was so much better made with the engine still going strong at 60,000 miles (unusual for a Ford in those days!) despite mine being a relatively high mileage, ex-rep’s car hence a fairly cheap purchase.
Not as risky as it sounds, because my Uncle owned the company from which I bought it so the history of the car was known & it had been a good 'un!
Nothing like a bit of Nostalgia, my first car was a Mk1 Cortina, automatic with column gear change, used to make an almighty grinding noise on start up, someone told me it was the ring gear, anyway got rid, and got a Mk2 Cortina 1500 GT, …big smash, and no seat belt on either, sold that for spares , then bought an old Renault 5, and my Dad hated French cars, so that went down well , great little car, just met my future wife and we went everywhere in it, and had very few problems, eventually sold that and bought the Spitfire, now your talking , again hardly any probs, but when I finished Building college in 84 it was no good for my growing tool collection, hey ho
, now my old Spitfire was a rock, maybe I was lucky, 
, great little car, just met my future wife and we went everywhere in it, and had very few problems, eventually sold that and bought the Spitfire, now your talking 
