What shitty luck have you had with cars?

[rantingYoof]

I spotted my 825 Sterling lurking on a dealer's forecourt in a local village, in late March 2007.

 

It had just arrived in part exchange, and when the dealer spotted me snooping, he recognised me (SnrYoof had just bought a car from him - I owned that too, it's the silver OMGa in my sig).

 

The dealer said, "If you are happy to take that as it is, you can have it for £700."

 

Well, how could I refuse?

 

It was a near-immaculate Sterling model, with six-way electrically adjustable red-piped heated-leather seats. It had nearly every conceivable extra you could fit into a car of that era - even the rear passenger seats were electrically adjustable! It had a wonderfully throaty 2.5 V6 engine. It was a land-yacht - the second largest car I've ever owned.

 

I only owned it for a few months, and in that short time it FINANCIALLY RUINED ME.

 

It had a short MOT when I picked it up - MOTed in June 2006 at 61,000 miles, whereupon it passed after having a handbrake adjustment.

 

I only put it through one MOT, on June 11th 2007, with the car showing just over 67,000 miles. Between me picking it up in late March and this date, the car developed an ABS fault.

 

Thusly, it failed the MOT, and for having a non-existent hand-brake.

 

The total cost to get it through the MOT was around £350 or £400, because the ABS fault was a complicated ABS sensor located in an awkward position and made out of unobtanium.

 

In late July or early August there was another fault, and this cost me around £250-£300 to have fixed. I think this was engine-related - I cannot remember now.

 

Then, in early September, I had spent a bit of money booking a B&B room near a track called Llandow in the south of Wales. I was heading to a track day!

 

I made it as far as THE OTHER SIDE of the River Severn (yes, I'd just paid to make it across) when I noticed steam, and a rocketing temperature gauge, and my heart simply stopped beating.

 

I made it to the services just t'other side, and realised the car was undriveable. No tracking for me.

 

Fortunately, there was a convenient AA van and the guy was on his lunchbreak. I approached him and he kindly called the job in for me.

 

And so, around six hours later, I ended up being dropped off at Tescos, having been towed all the way back from just-Wales to Northamptonshire.

 

A week later I had a diagnosis. Head gasket failure.

 

I sold the car for £190 on eBay. It was flat-bedded away, and presumably stripped of its interior, wheels, audio system and anything else of value, and then fragged - the tax I put on it in May 2007 was the last it ever enjoyed.

 

If only it'd been the 827....

[D Spares & Tyres]

It seems to me what seals a cars fate is for it to be given a full valet inside and out then filled with fuel.

 

2 cars of mine have died in accidents this way, and one was seized by the cops for no insurance even though it had insurance.... (  got that one back though )

 

All this bad fortune happened within hours of a refill and a valet.......

[forddeliveryboy]

Christ, this makes me realise buying high mileage 15 year old Alfas and Citroens back in the late 90s and early 00s was the very definition of reliability. Saab turbo was the only fail - an exhaust fannimold gasket. Why the hell do people persist with all this modern stuff? Too many bits which are a pain to access. And they break more often than they orto.

[Captain Slow]

 

SAAB 9000 2.3 Turbo. Bought December 2013. 111342 miles. £800.

• Heater fan resistors resoldered to give me all fan speeds back
• Wastegate actuator rod fell off at one end
• Coolant hose let go 50 miles from home. And it was the one straight out of the block to the heater, so much steam ensued.
• Kept dropping into limp home mode, partly cured by renewing full vacuum system
• Both rear arches built prior to MoT in June 2014. Not rebuilt, there was no metal left. Also minor cosmetics. Bill: £500
• MoT failed on front balljoints, both replaced.
• Handbrake rebuilt three times.
• Bent alloy - straightened
• Coil pack died, causing me to cut out at inopportune moments such as the middle lane of the M62. Replaced.
• Alternator was intermittent.
• Replaced twisted front bumper with NOS item.
• Rear wiper broke 6mths into ownership, never investigated
• Cruise never worked.
• Neither rear interior door handle worked
• Headlining sagged 3 months after re-covering.
• Radio decided it couldn't be arsed playing tapes or displaying any station info
• Radio also decided it wanted the code every time you turned the car on
• Needed welding to exhaust manifold for June 2015 MoT.
• Windscreen leaked
• Boot leaked
• Steering column wouldn't lock in place
• Constant gearbox whine in fourth, later spread to third.
• Gearbox started jumping out of second
• Gearbox jammed in first.

 

Sold January 2016, 125009 miles - 13667 miles in 25 months. £275 jammed in first gear. During this time it spent November 2014-June 2015 and September 2015-date off the road, broken - so by my reckoning it spent 14 months on the road in total with me. I'm also sure I've missed some of the shit off the list. I haven't mentioned the set of tyres it chewed through because they're a consumable, for instance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I replaced it in February 2015 with a Volvo V70 T5 SE.

 

This came off the road in June 2015 when the turbo blew. Because the job has fought me at every stage and I've had other things to do, it went back on the road this week. Don't judge me, I got distracted with other cars and with work.

 

It needed a new driveshaft because the old one wouldn't go back in (Yes, it has to be removed to get to the turbo), the track rod end fell off on the first testdrive and needs replacing, and en route to get it cleaned for some For Sale pics yesterday the track control arm sheared off completely. It's now back on my drive and broken. Sensing a constant here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Volvo's gone, I am DONE with Swedish cars. I'll stick to reliable BL and Citroen chod.

 

[nisfan]

As has been said before,

 

Peugeot 307

[Ghosty]

About 20 years ago, Old Man had a job done on the diff of his then Capri Laser.

 

Garage didn't refill the diff oil and it locked up on his commute along the M60 (or as it was then, M63/66/60/whatever). 

 

Old Man is an advocate of home maintenance these days.

[Richard]

Arguably the worst ford of all time. [1995-2001 Escort]

 

Just like a politician - no redeeming features whatsoever.

 

At the time the motoring press were gushing about this model, saying that everything bad about the Mk5 had been fixed. You'd think they were getting paid to say stuff or something.

[cms206]

I nearly bought a 66k-mile 02-plate Avensis with a dented door.

 

That was a lucky escape I can tell you.

[xtriple]

Citroen CX Reflex or some other late ltd edition. Not the cars fault but it blew up in grand style about 25 miles after purchase. I bought it in the rain, didn't see/ mistook the smoke for steam/condensation - rookie error (and I was no fookin rookie!) Couldn't get an engine for it so discovered the basic block was the same as in the Fuego (and other Renault models) and bought a mint, low mile engine out of a womans garage. Spent much time (probably a week) converting one to the other which involved taking an angle grinder to the block to cut off a bracket/mounting that fouled - that was scary!

 

It ended up with the Citroen head on the Fuegos block (modified) and it worked perfectly and was a good car.

 

Bought an XJ6 from the auctions that put a rod through the block on the drive home...

 

The Bentley was a bad purchase... but I wanted it! It does seem to be unfortunate that most things on it need doing twice and it has seemed like constant hassle and grief but (touch every bit of wood in the room)  I 'think' we are getting there with it.

[flat4alfa]

I've had Alfas for the last 26 years but nothing was as desperately unreliable and disappointing to drive as the Avantime.

 

Managed just 1200 miles with me and Wife before getting rid (a relief) at half the price paid.

[rainagain]

I posted a while back about the fun I had with the Megane convertible I got for my OH. My OH had always wanted a 'nice' car, the Stilo she had, was bought with a duff head gasket as we were skint and it was all we could afford at the time, but once fixed ran perfectly. I came into a little bit of money so we decided we would buy her something a bit more interesting than a Stilo. She found a Megance DCi convertible, she had two weeks of fun driving around with the top down, until whilst on the way to Edinburgh airport to pick up her brother the engine started seriously knocking on the motorway and then refused to restart. 

 

I drained the oil to find it looked rather sparkly, I paid out £550 for a 'low mileage, honest guv' engine, as soon as the guy dropped it off the truck I knew the mileage claim was rubbish. The coolant system was full of rust and the small bearing in the centre of the crank was worn whilst the one in our engine that had done 80,000 miles was still tight. I cracked on regardless and once the old engine was out I found I had to change the clutch as well, more money. luckily we hadn't sold the faithful Stilo so my OH still had transport

 

The engine swap took quite some time as I was really busy at work, during this time my OH found out she was pregnant, once the car was finished she found thanks to the bump she couldn't mange to get our oldest strapped in the back. I ended up selling it for £2,300 after paying £2,500 for it originally then £550 for an engine, ~£80 for a clutch and about the same for the Renault software/interface to program in the new injectors.

 

The worst bit was I stripped down the failed engine and found I had been done up like a kipper, the bolts on the sump were all loose and the shells had different part numbers, obviously someone had bought it cheap with the engine knocking rubbed, some emery paper round the crank and shoved on new shells. The seller swore to me it was the person he bought it off that did this as he hadn't put many miles on it between buying it and then selling it to me as he had been asked to buy it for someone who changed their mind about wanting it leaving him stuck with it. Whether this was a pile of shite or not I will never know.