Unpopular Motoring Opinion Thread

[MikeR]

I must get my dangly dice out of the garage and into my car , people will love to see them ......

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I think the general standard of driving has improved in the last 30 years.

[Matty]

3 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Buying a sports/performance car with an automatic transmission is like marrying a supermodel and cutting your dick off.

Yes man!!!!

[junkyarddog]

German cars are overrated and not very reliable.

[twosmoke300]

Japanese cars aren’t maintenance free !

[St.Jude]

The best car Ford has ever made has been the Transit van. The rest are fucking dogshite, or rot away before they have chance to turn white like the dogshit of old used to do.

Can’t agree with @twosmoke300 enough. Reliable does not mean maintenance free.

The Rover K Series was 20 years ahead of its time. Any engine can (and does) suffer OMGHGF at any age. The materials and techniques at the time though, along with garages treating all aluminium engines the same as old cast iron ones, gave it a bad name. Power to weight etc, along with the techniques used, didn’t get matched for 20 years after its introduction.

The most fun anyone can have driving is driving a Peugeot 107 at 60mph down twisting B roads.

Colin McRae is more famous for crashing than driving ability.

on that note: Anyone with a “If in doubt flat out” or “Dude I almost had you” sticker from McRae or Paul Walker on their car deserves having it crushed. Along with their testicles.

[twosmoke300]

3d or bubble plates look shit 

[wuvvum]

4 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

3d or bubble plates look shit 

I don't think that's a particularly unpopular opinion...

[yes oui si]

11 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

 

Colin McRae killed two adults and two children showing off in an aircraft he wasn't licenced to fly, and was a habitual drug user. He is not any form of role model just because he drove some cars. 

 

Efa. 

[DaveAspley]

The skoda octavia is the modern do-it-all street furniture vehicle like a cortina or Sierra was as a kid .

[quicksilver]

Vauxhall Zafiras are actually okay and perfectly good as an car.

[St.Jude]

6 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Vauxhall Zafiras are actually okay and perfectly good as an car.

Great heaters in them too, especially on a cold morning. Pity they only warm up once.

[myglaren]

5 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Love IMPs, me... 🥳😉

 

 

🚙💨

I had a yellow one like that, hand painted with Tekaloid, yellow to piss off the directors of the company I worked for as it had to be parked round the back of the building as it was 'socially unacceptable'.

 

Until they needed me to drop everything and go to a dinner to take photo's of Henry Cooper.  No company cars available so they had to insure the Imp for company use.

[Sigmund Fraud]

1 hour ago, twosmoke300 said:

Japanese cars aren’t maintenance free !

And, despite their reputation, some japanese cars are total bastards to work on.

[Mrcento]

I'll add a +1 to Japanese cars, the small gain there 'may' be in reliability is more than cancelled out by the complexity and expense of repairing most of them.

Far too much 'Has to come from Japan M8' bits on cars that were even fucking built by them in the UK. As a result, i shit you not, things like Civics and CRV's have multiple near unobtanium parts on them that end up more expensive to replace than the equivalent part on a Lamborghini. And that's with the Lambo tax added on top of the VAG base price of the part.

And also, for whatever reason, Japanese manufacturers cannot, for the life of them, make brake calipers. Every single MOT = another siezed caliper somewhere.

[Asimo]

4 hours ago, Cheggers said:

Diesel ALL  convertibles are just wrong.

E.F.A.

[Sham]

You don't need cross climates.

[loserone]

3 minutes ago, Sham said:

You don't need cross climates when you live in the south or by the sea or both.

My unpopular motoring opinion is that having good tyres appropriate for the local climate and conditions is a good idea.

[yes oui si]

Cars are silly things which shouldn't be taken seriously, and certainly shouldn't be made precious. 

[twosmoke300]

48 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

I'll add a +1 to Japanese cars, the small gain there 'may' be in reliability is more than cancelled out by the complexity and expense of repairing most of them.

Far too much 'Has to come from Japan M8' bits on cars that were even fucking built by them in the UK. As a result, i shit you not, things like Civics and CRV's have multiple near unobtanium parts on them that end up more expensive to replace than the equivalent part on a Lamborghini. And that's with the Lambo tax added on top of the VAG base price of the part.

And also, for whatever reason, Japanese manufacturers cannot, for the life of them, make brake calipers. Every single MOT = another siezed caliper somewhere.

See also - all VAG group cars 

[tooSavvy]

9 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

Cars are silly things which shouldn't be taken seriously, and certainly shouldn't be made precious. 

... of precious metals

🚙💨

[Markeh]

00s Renaults weren't that unreliable or bad. Aside from the electric window issues (and I guess maybe the electric steering lock that went on mine - most of the competitors of the time wouldn't have had that), anything that went wrong on my Megane II could and in all honesty would have gone wrong on most cars of a similar age and mileage, and it was a damn sight better equipped, better handling and comfier than an equivalent Astra or similar - and in my opinion better looking. 

The Chrysler PT Cruiser does not deserve the hate it gets. It was a reasonably comfortable and well specced family car with different styling which I think didn't look all too bad. Not exactly dynamic handling or good economy, mind - it drove like an armchair. Some of the mods you see out there are horrific but there are some tastefully modified examples out there - I recall a very nice purple one on chrome hubcaps and whitewalls taking my fancy many years ago.

[twosmoke300]

4 minutes ago, Markeh said:

00s Renaults weren't that unreliable or bad. Aside from the electric window issues (and I guess maybe the electric steering lock that went on mine - most of the competitors of the time wouldn't have had that), anything that went wrong on my Megane II could and in all honesty would have gone wrong on most cars of a similar age and mileage, and it was a damn sight better equipped, better handling and comfier than an equivalent Astra or similar - and in my opinion better looking. 

The Chrysler PT Cruiser does not deserve the hate it gets. It was a reasonably comfortable and well specced family car with different styling which I think didn't look all too bad. Not exactly dynamic handling or good economy, mind - it drove like an armchair. Some of the mods you see out there are horrific but there are some tastefully modified examples out there - I recall a very nice purple one on chrome hubcaps and whitewalls taking my fancy many years ago.

They seem to attract the same calibre of owners as mildly sporty fords tho 

[Barry Cade]

Fiat's are actually very reliable and tough cars which don't really rust.  

There is so much crap talked about the K Series engine. The OMGHGF is caused by poor maintenence or misdiagnosis.and the "cures" are bolox.

BMWs are dangerous twitchy poor handling over rated piles of crap.

VTEC is shit.

Sierra Cosworths are shite.

As Saab used to say. 250BHP is the max for FWD cars.

 

[RoverFolkUs]

PD engines are dogshite. 

Now, before anyone jumps down my throat, hear me out:

Shit design - injector bore wear and camshaft wear. 

Refinement? Ha! Noisy pieces of shite. At least Ford were coming out with the 1.8 TDCI, and Vauxhall with the 1.7 CDTI ... Oh wait ... 🫣

My point is that they do not deserve being referred to as bulletproof because they really are not.

There are the "good" engine codes, such as the AWX 130, but it still suffers from the normal PD foibles.. 

Yes they have their good points as well, I know, but this is a thread for unpopular opinions so here's mine

[RoverFolkUs]

3 hours ago, Mrcento said:

I have a few belters....

The Mk1 Focus is overrated. It just came at what had been a bit of a low point for Ford in that sector with the Escort, and was so bold design wise that the improvements it brought was overhyped.

Don't get me wrong, decent car, but fuck me, all this talk about how incredible they are to drive is bizarre.

Nice, certainly up at the sharp end for its class at the time, but does nothing outstandingly. You'd think it moved the game on lightyears, it didn't. It wasn't even the best handling car in the class around that generation. The Peugeot 306 (actually from a generation before the Focus) was. And it had a better ride to boot. The Focus was always just that little bit too firm at low speed. It was sharp, but really wasn't much beyond standard FWD fare.

And the engines were... largely, garbage. The 1.4 petrol was a boat anchor. The 1.6 was better but ran out of puff too readily for the revvy nature, the 1.8 was quite flat at low RPM and too thirsty around town. The original Diesel was the 1.8 td, again, outdated and too agricultural. Miles and miles off the French and VW offerings of the time.

I don't know if this is another unpopular opinion branching off your comments about the MK1 Focus, but I have always considered the MK2 to be so much better than the MK1 was. 

No, it was nowhere near as "cutting edge" as the MK1, but it doesn't need to be. The MK2 is a comfortable, capable and reliable form of transport with many upgrades over the MK1 

They're not inspiring to drive, if you wanted something inspiring then you wouldn't buy a bog standard Focus surely! So I also agree I don't know where the idea of the MK1 Focus being so incredible to drive came from either. 

[RoverFolkUs]

I'm going to say it....

The K-Series is a good engine, blighted by misunderstood or poor preventative maintenance/repairs. 

Let me expand, OMGHGF didn't always occur out of the blue. Just like any other engine, if you cook it, then it's prone to OMGHGF. 

It's just the K-Series is particularly sensitive.

2 types of gaskets, if a gasket replacement is done right it will last the life of the engine. If it hasn't been done as thoroughly as it should, or the wrong gasket has been used for the measurements taken, or indeed the block and head measurements not taken at all, then it will always be likely to fail again and be cursed as an unreliable engine. Simple as that. 

[Barry Cade]

29 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I'm going to say it....

The K-Series is a good engine, blighted by misunderstood or poor preventative maintenance/repairs. 

Let me expand, OMGHGF didn't always occur out of the blue. Just like any other engine, if you cook it, then it's prone to OMGHGF. 

It's just the K-Series is particularly sensitive.

2 types of gaskets, if a gasket replacement is done right it will last the life of the engine. If it hasn't been done as thoroughly as it should, or the wrong gasket has been used for the measurements taken, or indeed the block and head measurements not taken at all, then it will always be likely to fail again and be cursed as an unreliable engine. Simple as that. 

Unpopular opinion but all mine based on having pretty much served my time on them.

80% of HGF diagnosis was actually a split inlet manifold gasket at no4 . Same symptoms. Using water, misfire when cold and steam out the exhaust.  They are replaced as part of head gasket kit rep so problem solved...... if it wasnt caught early, the as the K had a small coolant capacity and an odd location of the thermostat it would lead to HGF. The crappy temp gauge calibration didnt help. If  liner heights weren't checked and made good during a real HGF, then it'd happen again and again.. wrong clamping force on the fire rings.

The original type gasket and plastic dowels allowed for a little movement as was expected on a "sandwich" engine. The MLS gasket  steel dowels and land rover "ladder" was ,in my opinion, a poor answer to a problem that was much overblown. 

The MGF suffered from thermal shock and incorrect bleeding and the stupid jiggle valve made those a bit more likely to go full HGF. K was a powerful,light,efficient engine that was miles ahead of the competition at the time.

I always said treat your K's like you would treat an Alfa Romeo.. use quality fluids, check levels very regularly,  warm up gently and drive it hard.

[yes oui si]

The cars with K-series engines I've driven have all been nippy and responsive, and you can see why so many engine tuners love them... But it doesn't matter how good the engineering is if you're going to let brummies build them. 

[eddyramrod]

Diesel does not belong in the private car at all.  It shouldn't be in anything smaller than a Transit.

FWD is a completely superfluous layer of complication forced on us by the manufacturers and absolutely, totally should not be in anything bigger than a Fiesta or equivalent.

There are far too many cars on the road.  I say that as a lifelong lover and advocate of the whole concept.