As A Chrysler Owner, I can say, that I regret buying my Town and Country for the money I payed for it. I've had to replace the WHOLE ENTIRE ENGINE BLOCK due to A spark plug breaking off and scratching the inside of the cylinder Walls, and its been non stop drives to the mechanic's to figure out problem after problem, and the only good thing I can say about it mechanically is that it has ok acceleration, and that's about it.
It is, insurance only covered half, so I had to pay about 7 Grand for the whole engine to be replaced.
I'd say Toyota since the Toyota dealership service station where I am in the span of 1 year they said on 2 trucks "the frame is fine" to "the frame is shot, its a write off". Also one of our Toyota trucks had a factory defect of the tires falling off for some reason (this was years ago). The truck went in and they said its fine then on the way home you guessed it, a tire fell off on the highway. Because they cleared it the recall did not cover any cost.
--- Post updated --- The only experience I have with Daihatsu is through the Gran Turismo games and seeing a Daihatsu construction truck that looked like a 4 wheeled pidgeon at my school so I don't know how good or bad they are --- Post updated --- Toyota's are bulletproof or at least they have been for me, I bought my 1988 Camry station wagon for 500$ from some shady guy downtown and with only a distributor and spark plug wires it drove nearly 20,000 miles over a 1.5 year period with almost no issues and got great gas mileage, a lot of the horror stories on this thread are of dealership service, I just do it myself and save a ton of hassle and bullshit, that is also why I buy really old POS cars that I don't have to care super-a-lot about. also on the topic of Toyota, my 1987 Celica uses the same engine as my Camry and also drove 10,000 miles for me without a single issue, I know that's not a big number until you consider that both cars are 30 years old now
GM: Really let themselves go in the post-Lutz era. Advertising started out doing things I and a lot of other people don't like but that I'm probably not allowed to criticize on this forum, then went to the infamously inept (and inexplicably long-running) "focus group" ads. Styling has been all over the map, from bland to awful, and their cars have become overweight and boring (an I4/FF compact car should not weigh anywhere close to 3000 lbs, let alone over that). The only exciting things in their current lineup are the Camaro, the Corvette, some Cadillacs, and maybe the turbo Buick Regal. Well, and the trucks, if you're into that sort of thing. In any case, this a sharp contrast to the older days when a good portion of their lineup (sometimes including the trucks and SUVs) had a sports variant. They're also starting to become afflicted with downsizeitis, and are well along the Lutz-initiated process of standardizing their product lines across the world - or as we normal people would call it, building to the lowest common denominator. American and Australian designs give way to European and Korean designs, which are now going away, probably to be replaced by Chinese designs, and in all of this, the people who drive for the fun of it are forgotten. Ford: Pursues displacement downsizing with disturbing gusto, and calls their engines "EcoBoost" as if downsizing isn't uncool enough already. Cooperating with Google on autonomous car research. Allegedly has a really creepy relationship with the US government. Ruining the styling of the Mustang from 2018 on. At least they're doing worldwide product lines sort of right, though the discontinuation of their Australian operation is still disgusting. Also has a long history of shocking callousness towards their customers, starting with the self-immolating Pinto and continuing for years through defects ranging from annoying to dangerous. Fiatsler: What do you get when you mate what are probably the two least reliable manufacturers in the entire Western world? I dunno, take a guess. Their passenger-car product lines are long in the tooth and mostly very boring, the Jeep brand has developed a serious case of Land Rover envy, and the pickups, hot rods, and admittedly some Jeeps are about the only thing they do that's worthwhile. The cars also tend not to hold together very well. Low point: the morbidly obese and notably doofy-looking Dodge Dart. BMW: Went off the rails chasing every last bit of volume while trying to stay on the cutting edge of technology. Cars have become oversized, overweight, over-engineered, and overcomplicated; a far cry from the light, agile, smooth-running curve-eaters that brought them to prominence in the US. Now there's even an FF minivan with a BMW badge on it, which is simply disgusting. Mercedes: See above, but probably with more weight and possibly also with less of a canyon-carving heritage (outside of the 300SL, obviously). Also, has been playing the "make the fast ones auto only" game for years. Toyota: Sometime in the mid-2000s, decided to throw out most of its sporting heritage and try to be super green and active-lifestyley and other uncool stuff. Starting to find its way again (and even managed to make the Prius feel like a car, apparently), but hasn't gone far enough. Nissan: CVT ALL THE THINGS!
KME. It's a firetruck brand that's commonly referred to as Keeps Mechanics Employed or K-Mart Engineering by firefighters. You can obviously guess that they're pretty bad. Some of the horror stories include: Outriggers opening at 60mph Compartment doors falling off while responding Emergency lights that are actually headlights that are painted red Pumps not engaging correctly
Chrysler. Plastics and synthetics are only materials you can find on the inside of a base model Caravan
well Australia has been very shity to business weither it be the gaming industry or the auto industry. Ford has contour to the 2025 EPA regulations and their ecoboost engine, which is a direct injection engine, was researched by Ford of Europe and they are trying to put into every car, so lots of spare parts just in-case. the mustang's retro look is trying to become more areodynamic, which i don't mind all that much and if they wanted a different look, they could easily do a modern fox body. the pinto ordeal could easily be blamed on imports making a rather big impact and the oil crisis. i will not even touch the wasp nest that is the firestone tire rollover debacle.
Zastava. First off i'm excluding models such as 600, 750, and early versions of 101 and 128, because those were simple, cheap and reasonably reliable. but cars such as Koral and Florida/Sana just not well built. If they had put more effort in building quality, the cars would get a better reputation and sell very well. The Sana was also quite technologically advanced when it came out in late 80s, but it wasnt reliable and sales quickly dropped. the Yugo however, offered just a cabin with wheels for a really low price, but unfortunately built out of really cheap and badly put together materials. again, if they used a bit more money and built cars properly, it would sell like rice in asia. but i gotta say, yugo's production lasted quite respectably long. from start of 80s till 2008. with one single facelift in 2000. Incredible
Yugo was known for making the crappiest cars and selling them to America. I bet the reason is that the country they were manufactured in didn't have a lot of steel. The same thing happened to old JDM automobiles as well. They were made out of thin steel, so they rusted out a lot.
Rust protection was nowhere neat as common back then, any car which hadn't been taken care of would eventually start rusting. It's just that some cars (mostly the cheap ones) were less likely to be given attention. Rust was the least of Yugo's problems.
Toyota has started to get back to their fun car but reliable cars with the GT86 and the upcoming Supra (possible MR2 successor aswell?). But mind you they are doing a lot of partnerships (splitting the development costs as enthusiast cars aren't usually profitable)
