10 Cars you are glad you didnt buy...

[Fozzer]

..... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]...!

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/l ... otogallery

...or did you?.... ... ... ...!

Paul...Motorcyclist... 8-)...!

[Strategic Retreat]

Cannot really talk about American cars. Seen their average handling, here where I live, I'm glad I cannot buy them (and don't force me to talk about your cars in further posts, dear Americans. Trying strongly to be polite, here).

About European cars I can say I'm glad I never had nor took a ride on a Morris Marina, seen that it has that nasty habit to get pianos dropped on it out of the blue. That is not a car, but a paranormal phenomena on wheels.

Back in 77, when I was eight, my father took in for a prolonged test drive a NSU Prinz... a car I'd rather burn my driving license rather than own or get at the wheel of. Beside the fact that it had a mechanical reliability that could be expressed in imaginary numbers, it had probably a worse handling than even the infamous Chevrolet Corvair, because it managed to do a sudden and unprovoked 90

[DaveSims]

I actually test drove a Saturn Ion Redline edition, the supercharged racer model.  I thought it handled quite nicely and had good power, but the interior with the offset dash was off putting.  And as was typical of the Saturn's, due to their plastic dent resistant body panels, the body gaps were larger than most other cars.

[ftldave]

I drove a 1970 Ford Pinto during my high school years. Bright yellow, it looked like a big lemon on wheels. But, hey, it was fun to drive. Its rack-and-pinion steering made cornering a breeze. And, as a student on a budget, I appreciated its high mileage. By 5 years its valves were starting to click-and-clack, and my dad got rid of it soon after I left home to join the Air Force.

My ex had a Chevy Vega. Nope, it couldn't hold oil. Rust took it quickly. Not near as nice as the Pinto. I think her foot once went through the floorboard before she got rid of it.

And I remember the first time I saw the Aztec while on a business trip to Chicago. It stopped me and my partners in our tracks with a "What the hell is that?" moment. We couldn't believe our eyes that it

[Strategic Retreat]

[quote]More positive proof that people who work at big corporations often do very, very stupid things, and get paid for it.

[wifesaysno]

[quote][quote]More positive proof that people who work at big corporations often do very, very stupid things, and get paid for it.

[Brett_Henderson]

One of my first jobs out of highschool
(late 1970s), was busting tires, and doing suspension/brake inspections at a Firestone service center. I was front-n-center as things like Pintos and Vegas were racking up some miles.. against the "new-comers", like Datsun 510s, and Toyota Corollas... it wasn't pretty.. handwriting on the walls .. if it were a prize fight, it woulda been called in the first round..

[Strategic Retreat]

I am really glad my '88 Prelude is not on this list.

The Honda Prelude? The version with the 80ies through first 90ies fashionable pop-up headlights? :-?

A little too much angular for my tastes, and the bonnet goes REALLY low at its business end ([i]would not get a lot of points for pedestrian safety, nowadays... but who cares about pedestrians anyway

[wifesaysno]

I am really glad my '88 Prelude is not on this list.

The Honda Prelude? The version with the 80ies through first 90ies fashionable pop-up headlights? :-?

A little too much angular for my tastes, and the bonnet goes REALLY low at its business end ([i]would not get a lot of points for pedestrian safety, nowadays... but who cares about pedestrians anyway

[Strategic Retreat]

Yeah, I know the feeling. :-/

Had a BWM 318i year 1984 (one of the first of the second model of the 3 series) up until April 2010. Body in great shape up to the last, though I had to have it repainted about ten years ago since its paint was... not really one solid hue anymore at the times and quite ugly to look at, and very little rust... less than many other cars with half its life, actually. Problematic in the last two years of its life had been the engine that had gone through hell and back, with its WAY more than 220.000Km (136.000 miles) of my not really relaxed driving style.

That April was so soggy and rainy that it wanted to beat London's best, with the great total number of 4 days of days when rain did not fall in the whole month... and the humidity gave the last strike the old warrior into the bonnet of that great car within which I've traveled a good part of Europe ever since 1989 (the year I bought it second hand). It had been a while that it burned more lubricant oil than petrol and when the weather was humid at the start it went on three cylinders before warming up... but a morning of that April the old comrade's heart just gave up, at best working for a little while on two sole cylinders.

Since they asked me 1 grand ONLY TO DISMOUNT THE ENGINE FROM ITS MOUNTS, and then all the repairs were to be added to that sum... plus ANOTHER GRAND to remount the engine back into the car... I literally showed them the two finger salute (that here in Italy almost no one understands its a boost of the one finger salute) and, since the previous November already it gave me problems to the fuel pump, that left me in the middle of the road and had to be replaced ([i]and was not a cheap piece either... 220

[Ivan]

BMW cant build cars anymore? My saab has 210.000 km and still drives like new

And about that diesel engine... try to find a car in europe that does NOT have a Fiat built diesel...

[expat]

BMW cant build cars anymore? My saab has 210.000 km and still drives like new

And about that diesel engine... try to find a car in europe that does NOT have a Fiat built diesel...

I exchanged my BMW E39 525d it was 9 years old and had 340,000 km on the clock. It drove like the first day I picked it up. And I swapped it for........BMW E61 530d.........

As for Fiat, I am pretty sure that Mercedes diesels, Citroen, VW, Audi and of course BMW are all home grown...
http://www.toomanycars.info/CarRelation ... mage2.html

Matt

[Strategic Retreat]

BMW cant build cars anymore? My saab has 210.000 km and still drives like new

If you knew my driving style, you'd knew that 220.000Km are QUITE the achievement. Believe my word.

And about that diesel engine... try to find a car in Europe that does NOT have a Fiat built diesel...

I'll tell you a edifying story. In the last 70ies first 80ies, it was Peugeot that had the best diesel engines in Europe, and since here in Italy fuel has always been MAXXXXY taxed (a HONEST government could run the state WHOLE with only the taxes we pay on fuel here, enough said), in those years more and more people began putting their preconceptions about diesel behind them, since diesel fuel back then cost something like A HALF the price of common petrol per liter (nowadays it's merely 10 cents cheaper per liter).

And back in those days FIAT was NOT good in making diesel engines. And they KNEW it.

So the boss at FIAT polled the government, lead by Bettino Craxi (may the rotten bastard roast in the Eternal Hell until a Hell will exist) for a solution. Said boss wanted people to continue buying HIS dupe cars, and not give Peugeot the money that, by what he thought were the Word of the Lord Himself, should have gone to HIM (and then some people in forum like this gets mad at me when I say that there has never been a honest rich man and never will be... try and walk a goddamn mile in my shoes, would you?). And those so nice and honest BASTARDS in the government, to please their usually bribe-generous friend, in 1986 put a HYPER-EXTRA-SUPER-DUPER-OVER-MAXY-road tax on diesel cars adducing the excuse that diesel engines were EXTREMELY more polluting than petrol engines.

In the years when the common petrol had LEAD in it. Can you imagine a more bare-faced, cheeky, underhanded, immoral, shameless, slimy, LOW lie?

Italian politicians' honesty at its finest.

It was a BAD tax. If you had a two liters diesel car you ended up paying OVER two million old Lire per year, and some cars weren't worth even half that price TOTAL. The only ones that bought diesel cars in those years here in Italy were those who had a lot to travel to do, like traveling salesmen and the like. A HELL of a lot to travel, like 100.000Km per year or more.

Ten years after that pristine like their souls token of friendship to their rich and generous friend in FIAT had been delivered, when FIAT had recovered the technical gap, the tax was rescinded, since by then they WANTED to sell diesel cars, and nowadays they have reached quite the technological peak.

So yes, you, and I, are using engines that were born out of a LIE and the speculations of soulless BASTARDS on common people. Can do nothing about it now, but AT THE VERY LEAST do not turn any kind of blind eyes on it.

[Hestntonpms]

Ha ha , I had a Chevy Vega too !!!
I ditched the 6 cyl engine and dumped a small block 350 in that thing with a 4 speed !
That little car was a super sleeper .
I was about 16 yrs old when I had it and learned a lot about the mechanical workings of motors just because of that car so I can say easily that I loved that car , sure it wasn't much to look at but it sure was a lot of fun !

[Speed of flight]

I used to have a 1978 Mustang II. If you ever get a chance to own one, pass.
I wouldn't say zippy, but it's 302 v-8 was "peppy". At most. Downhill. With a tailwind.
It was a disaster of a car. I thoroughly recommend all of them to their nearest scrapyard.