decrepit said..
I remember now, worst car we had was a 2013 I20.
We wanted a manual, but the salesman had an auto going cheap.
He reckoned modern autos were really good and talked us into it.
BIG mistake. felt like it only had 2.5 gears. This gearbox may have worked in a grunty V8 but a 1.3l No Way.
Just going up a small hill would slow down, easing the go pedal down had little effect. It had to be stabbed to the floor to induce a change down, then you got up the hill OK but engine revving it's head off.
The other bad thing was the consumption read out. It agreed almost exactly with the specifications, 5.8l/100km. However we were putting more petrol in than that.
So I started a record, distance traveled, fuel used, display l/100km.
When the display said 6 we actually used 7.
Took this into the dealers and got the runaround, all sorts of excuses, anything they could dream up. They did put it through a thorough tune up but that made no difference.

So my real beef, is the consumption display was rigged to show the claimed figure, not the actual.
I'll never buy another Hyundai again,

This MG I had was a 1.5L and went surprisingly well for such a small capacity. I am guessing it had a many speed auto to allow this to work.

I have been looking at Volvos recently and they have pretty much gone to 2.0 4 cylinders with 8 speed auto gearboxes. Plus a turbo or turbo and supercharger to get decent power out of it.

I think a lot of manufacturers have gone this way in order to get the efficiency levels up. Still, without the turbo I would wonder how much fun they would be to drive.

decrepit said..
The commodore is 2l turbo charged, lots of fun to drive.
It's very hard to feel gear changes, you have to watch the rev counter.
Goes into 9th just under 100km/hr sits on 1.5k revs at 110.
Plant your foot at this speed, and I'm not sure how many gears it jumps down, I'm too busy hanging on.
Start going up a slight hill, and it will drop back into 8th without you noticing it.

I love it, but wish it was RWD.

I think Holden made a big mistake calling it a commodore! 2l, 4 pots, front wheel drive.
Way off the normal user base.

I think they called it commodore to try and keep some customers, but it's not as if it would have appealed to their normal customer base.

Maybe they should have stuck with a euro name?

One of my fwd cars handles very well but when you give it too much you find fwd just doesn't have enough traction. Up until that point you might not notice it's fwd.

The Volvo is a similar car but is AWD and it just gives you as much traction as you want.

I wonder if kids will follow cars as much in the future as they all become just different shapes but very similar drivetrains?

I,m really surprised no one has mentioned Alfa Romeo yet. I have never owned one but my brother had one we spent more time fixing it that he did driving it. A friend had a Alfasud, you could almost actually see it rust away in front of you. They are great cars to drive, on the odd time they are running right.

To the Guy how mention how hard it is to the nose of his i30 car from the drivers seat, you have obviously never driven a V12 E Type Jaguar. The bonnet is so long and the central bulge so big you think the nose of the car is always at the horizon.

As for the guys how like restomod cars. I think you are completely missing the point. The driving experience is the fun in owning them a classic.

Mark _australia said..
Anyway FNova have you decided what car to buy yet

Hah! TBH I probably wouldn't base anyone's annectdotes on here to select a car, including my own. It was just interesting to hear who thought what cars were bad and which weren't.

I have far too many cars at the moment and I need to sell some, so I am not looking for another.

I think my inspiration for this topic was my Volvo. It was made when Ford owned Volvo and they tried to bring costs down for themselves and Volvo by sharing parts across the Focus model. Its not a bad idea as some things are better as a Volvo and you get economies of scale from Ford.

The upshot of this is that these cars and the Focus that share the same platform are bad for having coolant leaks. The coolant leaks because they used a lot of plastic fittings in the coolant system and they last through the warranty and become a challenge after this. I don't mind so much as I do a lot of the work myself but if I didn't I wouldn't touch one of these cars.

Interestingly when people sell these cars they say 'full service history' which really doesn't mean much at all as Volvo (and Ford) just replace the bits that break with bits that will break in the future, charge you an arm and a leg and then wait for the next time if the car lasts that long.

To add some more input, I had a mate once buy the same 2nd hand car as me. His experience was spending a fair bit of money on it. Mine was running it cheaply. The only difference I could see was that I do my own work on cars. Is one person's lemon another person's classic car?

fangman said..
I was watching a video about cars to avoid at auction in Aus. Unsurprisingly the Holden Craptiva was on the list. "...The Craptiva has seven seats which is pointless because if you own one of these you haven't got six friends"

My father, a bit of a die-hard Ford fan, went to an auction once looking for a Territory and came back with a Captiva. He couldn't go past the features he was getting for the price... but had he had done some research he would have found that they were suffering from timing chain problems which outside of warranty are almost as much as the car is worth. I think the same year commodores suffered from the same problem.

From what I saw it was a good car for him up until the timing chain problem reared its head a few years later.

But unless you are told, how would you know that the car you are looking for has a nasty surprise?

I was looking at a nice Volvo recently and thought it looked good for the price. Then I found that the Ford Powershift gearbox they shipped with were a bit of a worry, and you just don't know if you are going to be unlucky or lucky. Who would think that car manufacturers are still hitting major problems, but it does happen, unless you buy a 2025 landcruiser that looks like a 1979 landcruiser.

Mark these are really fun to drive, though very expensive. You have to pay for quality

www.mercedes-amg.com/en/cla-shooting-brake

IanR said..
If your budget doesn't go that far have a look at the Skoda Octavia wagons. I have been very happy with my Skoda.
One nice feature on both the Merc's and Skoda's is the front assist gets triggered by the radar used by the police and the camera traps the contractors use and just automatically gives the brakes a little tap, it doesn't lock the brake just slows you down a little . Unfortunately the new overhead traps that check mobile use and everything else must be on a different frequency or are laser

www.skoda.com.au/models/octavia-family/octavia-select-wagon

If you are worried about speeding why not get a HUD as in my post!
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/General-Discussion/Chat/Reworked-post-Head-Up-Display-would-this-be-sensible-in-every-car-?page=1

Sorry to agree with myself that probably what makes an "unreliable car" is the owner!

I bought two 18yo cars (pardon the pun) around a year back,

Both owners stood with me face to face and stated there was nothing wrong with the vehicles !

Note , rego cost and govt. Charges are not accounted in this

1. Subaru Outback 2.5L natural aspirated 5 speed DR manual AWD UP91. PRICE 4500
* ticking of CV joints when turning at full lock
* Perished engine mounts
* Perished rear transmission mounts
* click noise from engine, probably hydraulic tensioner
* missing forward transmission mount bracket
* clutch slips going up steep hills
* DR gearbox sloppy diff , 1st stiff , reverse gear fight to get into
* had to put the new front brake pads in myself
$2400 repairs DIY parts only
(Bought gearbox DR to suit 600 , bought HD clutch and flywheel 800 , hydraulic tensioner to be done, missing forward transmission mount to be done , estimate $400 parts to be done)

[ I need to get around to swapping to the gearbox I acquired at the same time I can replace the clutch , the old gearbox-diff definitely has something worse in it than simply the 1st and Reverse gears, possibly a bad main bearing or (conventional) diff bearing]
Estimate transport and information infrastructure approx. $200

Final total $3000 (forgot +250 75w-85 LSD oil)

Previous owner declared
.."good as gold, register it tomorrow"...

I stated to him, the reason people sell 18 yo cars is because they are starting to fail an consistently require repairs.
He didn't like that , he became almost defensive. Original asking price in the adv was 5500!
My exact words to him when getting it down to 4500 was ..."it's a rolling cage"...
He's stuffed the drive train because it cannot do under 20kmh without riding the clutch because of the mounts being perished or broken.
Same problem occurs in 3rd but most 2nd and 1st gears at intersections downshifting, a huge bucking of power back and forth through the drive train parts.
Could possibly require eventually all the drive train and engine-big end replaced!

To be as fair as I can, , after replacing front brake pads , CV shafts and replacing engine-transmission mounts it passed rego by a squeeze this year ( it originally had 8 months rego do price considered could be said 3500-4000 except it could only be driven short distances until better repaired , took most of the rego time to save the money) !

---------------------------
2. The Captiva

This guy couldn't understand his brakes were failing and he also should worry his automatic transmission would not use 4th gear.

2. Holden Chevrolet Captiva 2.0 CG SX automatic diesel AWD. PRICE 2500

* brake master cylinder failure (brake pedal sinks to the floor when not sponge)
* Transmission maintenance failure (almost no fluid)
* probably never been serviced (from examination)

Replaced master cylinder and oils fluids, filters checked brakes, fully serviced, after repair DIY it passed rego a few months after I bought it ).
Final total with the infrastructure of information and transport
$ 500

It's not the car is unreliable, it's the owner/operator!

nice photos
I'm not worried about speeding both cars have adaptive cruse control that can be bumped up and down in one KPH increments so once you have figure out you speedometers error margin you can go at the true speed limit. Some times they do creep 1 KPH over the limit and it nice to know the car will help. It's just something that I found interesting, Some even try and let the car do all the thinking. You need to pay attention still.

HUD's I find distracting because it is in your eye line all the time and also can be hard to see in certain light conditions. I also find you end up ignoring them.

Many people buy cars that have great features but don't figure out how they work, or listen to others and don't bother to try them for themselves.

You start to become elderly when you stop learning, and don't play with things and figure out the parameters of how they function.

Owned my prado for about 5 years before noticing the little buttons on the rear door. Realised they could unlock the door if you had the key in your pocket. Can't believe it took me that long to spot that, handy when your arms are full of shopping.

Newer prado has radar cruise control so it just follows the car in front. Still find it hard to trust and have it set at the maximum distance think it's 3 car lengths or something. But when on the highway can be great following someone who can't seem to keep a constant speed. Don't really notice unless you look down and see your going a bit slower than the cruise is set to.

Weird thing is it picks up the speed limit by reading the signs so when you are in the bush and stop it doesn't know the speed limit until it sees a sign. Even though it has a map and gps.

Have had 4 prados over 20+ years. Before that had a Toyota t18. Think I might have had 2 breakdowns in that time. To be fair the Holden commodore and Kingswoods i had as rust traps didn't break down either.

IanR said..
...
I think if the police wanted to reduce deaths on the road they should start enforcing two second rule.

www.wa.gov.au/organisation/road-safety-commission/road-rules-explained

I thought it was meant to be 3 seconds, but either way most people don't leave much space anyway let alone 2 seconds.

Would this really affect road deaths though? I have seen plenty of accidents where someone has run up the back of another person in heavy traffic, but I doubt anyone has died because of this.

It's like when they say they want to reduce speed limits to reduce fatalities, but the reality is that the person in the accident didn't care about the speed limit or was doing something stupid that caused it.

I do agree though that more police presence on the road would reduce the number of people doing crazy things on the road. Now people think they can get away with almost anything unless they are going past a camera.

IanR said..
Yes FN a person who spend most of their time on metropolitan roads only see's minor rear end. There are a lot of incident's of fatalities on country roads due to rear end crashes.
I'm sure you have had this happen, your traveling along on a country road at 100 KPH and you see a large SUV lets say a RAM in the distance in your rear view mirror and before you can get to a overtaking lane to move left the only things you can see is the word RAM in the mirror as the car is so close. These drivers tend see if they can get so close so as to intimidate you into speeding.

I am currently living in what could be described as a retirement community and it is obvious that many do not keep up with road regulations

I would like to the government force people to Do PDA's (Practical Driving Assessments) every 10 years until 65 then every 5 years after that

Yeah, I have seen people sit too close on country roads too. I agree that seems to happen a lot when you are overtaking and some idiot's realised that they were going slower than they thought. But is that something the police could reliably catch as its only for an instant? It bugs me that people do this but I am not sure its something they can police easily unless they just happen to be there at the time and they don't seem to be around enough.

I agree with you on the need to do a practical. If nothing else it might knock off some of the rough bits, but idiots will still be idiots.

I was watching a dash camera clip recently where someone slowed down for some idiot doing a last minute u-turn on a highway. They didn't seem to be slowing down dramatically though. Then a commodore runs up the back of them. I am sure that they weren't too close, but they weren't paying attention either. How do you stop that?

One of my other grips here in WA is no annual road worthy checks.

Nick Campo's death is classic example the 4x4 he was traveling in had been modified sway bars removed ext.
www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/shocking-details-of-how-nick-campo-died-in-high-speed-north-lake-crash-revealed-20250407-p5lpvk.html

www.tiktok.com/@9newsperth/video/7410711345022160133

Of coarse it does hilly.
As it also has do do with the driver having traces of benzodiazepines, cocaine and THC in his system.
But the fact is it was a unroadworthy vehicle was a major factor contributing factor to his death

Tell me why you are so opposed to annual roadworthy checks for vehicles over 5 years old like in NSW

Look from 50 seconds on

IanR said..

But the fact is it was a unroadworthy vehicle was a major factor contributing factor to his death

Tell me why you are so opposed to annual roadworthy checks for vehicles over 5 years old like in NSW

I hope I can answer with some useful input for a change on this. I used to live in NSW where we had annual rego checks. They were easy to pass as long as you had a roadworthy car and sometimes you would be surprised when the mechanic picked up things you didn't expect. Tyres and lights were always checked as well as a braking test.

But the cars were generally good and if only for having your brakes checked, they were a good idea.

I have now had to take 5 cars over the pits here in WA in the 5 years I have lived here. The checks are far more rigorous and they really go over your car in far more detail than they do in NSW (at least compared to the annual checks in NSW). Probably the same for the pit inspections.

It is harder to pass the initial pit inspection in WA than the yearly ones in NSW. I actually think the yearly ones in NSW are better. You can only go for so long with an unroadworthy car in NSW before you have to fix it up or get rid of it.

In WA you could ride around on bald tyres, no working lights, poor brakes, and as long as you aren't pulled over by the cops and make a scene, you could probably drive like that for a long time. Not in NSW.

I know I don't want annual inspections, but I think I also do. Go figure.

FormulaNova said..

IanR said..

But the fact is it was a unroadworthy vehicle was a major factor contributing factor to his death

Tell me why you are so opposed to annual roadworthy checks for vehicles over 5 years old like in NSW

I hope I can answer with some useful input for a change on this. I used to live in NSW where we had annual rego checks. They were easy to pass as long as you had a roadworthy car and sometimes you would be surprised when the mechanic picked up things you didn't expect. Tyres and lights were always checked as well as a braking test.

But the cars were generally good and if only for having your brakes checked, they were a good idea.

I have now had to take 5 cars over the pits here in WA in the 5 years I have lived here. The checks are far more rigorous and they really go over your car in far more detail than they do in NSW (at least compared to the annual checks in NSW). Probably the same for the pit inspections.

It is harder to pass the initial pit inspection in WA than the yearly ones in NSW. I actually think the yearly ones in NSW are better. You can only go for so long with an unroadworthy car in NSW before you have to fix it up or get rid of it.

In WA you could ride around on bald tyres, no working lights, poor brakes, and as long as you aren't pulled over by the cops and make a scene, you could probably drive like that for a long time. Not in NSW.

I know I don't want annual inspections, but I think I also do. Go figure.

NSW were never that slack, I had an HT six and an HG six in the mid 1980s, also parents had a1967 HK powerglide six (no assistances brakes or steering) AM only and printed dials, all Speedos MPH.
Easy at that time to get parts for, often tie Rod end ball joints, tie rods, column linkage, king pins, wheel bearings, diff universal links to prop ... e.t.c. all common parts needing replace each rego, just weren't catalytic converter except on some extremely new cars , very little emission standard requirements.
Pink slip and blue slip system in NSW, cannot say NSW ever were slack on rego. Everything checked in mid 1980s over the pit in NSW, only difference is emission testing with today 2025!
Never heard of anything that slack ever!