A little background. My family came to the US from a country where cars were a luxury. Owning a car to people in my home country was like owning a Lamborghini. Only the rich could afford them things on four tires. There weren't even car dealerships. If you wanted one, you'd have to order overseas. The total cost was always at least twice the MSRP of a car because of import taxes and that did not include shipping costs.
The two most wanted cars in my home country were the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Ford Expedition. When my dad first arrived in the United States, guess what his first car was? A Ford Expedition. Precisely, a 2006 model. He bought it used in 2010. It started to show problems in 2012. The A/C went completely dead. In 2013, the transmission died and he had to have a new one put in. 2014, steering column problems. He had had enough of it and traded in for a Honda Odyssey. Did I forget to mention the gas consumption on the Expedition was an outrage?
2018 Ford F150 XLT Sport Crew Cab w/5.0L V8 and 10-speed transmission.
And likely will be the worst I ever own period.
oh yah . THAT story
He should have gone with the Toyota 😆
Thank you for the story though. Cars were a luxury for my parents growing up too, but it was a much smaller country and public transportation was good.
He would if he could afford a used Land Cruiser. The only choice left on his mind was the Expedition because people in my home country loved pure American muscle power. And he had close to zero car knowledge. 😥
we all did at some point. But we learn through experience. And today we have the internet and Scotty {black}:smile:
90-somethign Mercury Cougar. {black}:vomited:
It’s not necessarily the worst, but the most costly to maintain. Which I guess makes it the worst. BMW X5 2007.
the only one that we had, wasnt turrible, oldsmobile cutlass calais my wife owned when we married, struggled to make 100k, had some problem that it would turn off while stopped at a red light, would not start in park, had to shift to neutral, start it, rev the engine, drop it in drive and off you go
3 dealerships could not find the problem
Not really anything bad. The most problematic was a 1997 Corolla and it really was hassle to keep on the road but that was because of its age and poor maintenance by previous owner.
Worst car I ever had was a 2000-ish VW Jetta (I should have learned my lesson with that VW), though to be honest it was more a failure of mechanics than the car itself. I loved the car, but I started getting fuel in the oil. I took it to 4 different mechanics and they all 'fixed' it by putting in new plugs. Problem kept recurring, ended up for some reason having the top half of the engine rebuilt and then the head gasket blew. Got it fixed and gave it to a friend of mine to get it out of my yard.
2008 Mini Cooper S Convertible. We were the original owners and it was at the dealer for a part failure every three months consistently during the five years and 60,000 miles we owned it. Some parts were replaced three times and when we sold it the auto transmission was on its last breath before failure as it was slipping out of gear!
As a little kid, my parents couldn't afford much in the late 1970s, very early 1980s so we had a Chevy Chevette, Ford Pinto station wagon and a Ford Fairmont station wagon...all equally bad but they were still more reliable than the '08 Mini.
My parents had a 1983 Subaru wagon gl. Was a fun car, manual transmission, lots of chrome, it had some sort of locking mechanism incorporated into the brake or clutch, where if you were starting on a hill, it would prevent it from rolling backwards. But at about 7 or 8 years old, it had lots of rust, including rust holes. And it even had the Rusty Jones rust proofing. I think it was also burning lots of coolant and or oil near the end, too. My parents sold it to some kid around 1991, who said he was going to restore it. It probably only had around 80,000 miles on it. Maybe less.
My car issues stopped when I started getting only Hondas and Toyotas. I killed my first 3 cars in a one year period :
- 2004 Chevy Malibu V6 : owned it for only 5 months. engine went out, catalytic converter went out, and engine mounts went out all at the same time. It already had 266k miles on it anyway and I was 18 so I drove like a maniac lol
- 2013 Hyundai Sonata 2.0t : Only owned it for a month. To this day, it was my favorite car I owned with all the bells and whistles and an insane amount of power that I didn’t expect to get out of a Hyundai. It ran fine but then randomly caught on fire while I was driving down the freeway just 4 days before Christmas 2017.
- 2013 Nissan Altima SV : only had it for 7 months and the transmission started to go out at only 80,000-ish miles. I sold it while it was on its last legs and immediately bought my grandpa’s Honda Civic when my grandpa couldn’t drive anymore.
-2013 Honda Civic : at the same time, it is the best and worst car I ever owned. The best decision I ever made was buying my grandpa’s Civic with only 10k miles on the odometer. I put 100k miles on it in 2 years and that thing never ever had a single problem. Only thing was : it was the most uncomfortable, claustrophobic little car in the world. I didn’t like how sensitive the steering was and how you felt everything in the road. I gave it to my brother and I got a 2019 Camry for a much more comfortable ride and I love it. NO MORE COMPACT CARS lol. My brother is driving the Civic now and it is STILL running.
1985 Chevy Nova and 2000 Dodge Neon. Blew through head gaskets like no tomorrow.
The day I traded in that Nova, the 4th or 5th head gasket had absolutely blown up. That evening, it took me a while to get it started. After I had topped off the coolant, I sprayed starting fluid into the filter and it was able to fire it up. I then got on the road, and it started blowing literal clouds of white smoke out the tailpipe. I picked up my S/O from her work to get to the dealership, and I had to drive 25 miles down Lindbergh Blvd. in Saint Louis (Urban highway full of lights and traffic). I had to put the car in neutral and keep it over 2,200 RPM or so to keep it from stalling the head gasket so bad. I attracted so much attention... That was definitely a low point...
Anyways I glided my way down to the local Dodge dealership blowing smoke like a fog machine, and when I got to the dealer I got off the throttle and let it roll in smoke-free, and it died when I put on the brake in the dealer's front spot.
The dealer gave me something near a grand for it, which was a major mistake for them. They probably had to get a tow truck to get that thing off. I think it may have seized from the water.
The Nova also constantly had muffler problems. Whatever they made the mufflers out of, it didn't work. I got a 1 year warranty at the local muffler place, and I used it 5 times, as they gave me another year after it failed each time. They certainly lost money on me and I am probably on their blacklist by now.
Of course, I went and bought a Neon, which would have an almost identical fate in a few years.
While the Neon's trade in story was a little less dramatic, It did have a blown gasket when I traded it in. It suffered from major electrical issues most of its life because it got T-boned a in 04.
Never buy a Nova or Neon.
