If you often made the mistake of slamming the door closed with the windows up after you got inside I will need to remember to talk louder if we ever meet up. 
(The damn things were fantastic in snow though. Another old girlfriend (lets face it – I was a tramp in my younger days) had a Beetleboard.)
Yeah, it is. MGs are great cars, but you do have to keep on top of them.
I said none of my cars have been POSs. That doesn’t mean they didn’t have problems.
The hand-me-down '66 MGB was pretty much trouble-free. The springs were weak on the driver’s side, so I’d often hit the muffler if I went over a speed bump. Dad changed the oil once, before I drove to Colorado for a science fiction convention. It had a canister-type oil filter. That is, there is a non-disposable canister, in which the filter resides. There’s an O-ring at the top. Dad didn’t get the O-ring seated right, and the edge of the canister cut it. I leaked oil all the way from SoCal to Denver and back. On the way to work one day, the right-front axle broke. The biggest issue was that I lived in the Mojave Desert, and the engine-driven radiator fan wasn’t always up to the task of cooling the engine. There were times in Summer where I drove with the heater on to help cool the engine.
I had two '77 MGBs. One was trouble-free. The other one developed a problem where the electric radiator fan would not shut off. A friend and I drove it to a science fiction convention, and discovered a dead battery a couple of times. Another bizarre thing that happened was that it would die at stop signs and stop lights. After a minute, it would start right up and run fine until the next stop. Dad and I tried to figure out what was wrong. I noticed that one of the doughnut-shaped gaskets on the exhaust manifold was cracked. With the ‘bonnet’ closed or when the car was stopped, the engine bay would fill up with exhaust gasses. With the bonnet up or when the car was moving, there was enough air to keep it running.
I mentioned the Porsche 924. Never did figure out why the windshield wipers kept turning on.
The Chevy Sprints were fine, if underpowered.
The Porsche 911SC was a great car. One of the steering components broke one day, so that was an irritating and expensive repair. Other than that one time, it never let me down.
The Jeep Cherokee just keeps on running.
My current 2005 Toyota Prius has been good. I do keep up on the routine maintenance. A cell in the hybrid battery failed last Spring, and it cost $1,500 to rebuild the battery. But the car had 250,000 miles on it, so…
The current '66 MGB has had broken fan belts twice. I keep an ear open for impending failure whenever I drive it. I have all of the tools I need to fix it, and I’ve tightened the belt twice. I think I can put a new on on when the belt breaks. The more annoying problem is that it’s a '66 with the engine-driven cooling fan. It hates heavy traffic. When it gets too hot, the electronic ignition (I retrofitted) fails and the car stalls. I have a new Pertronix coil in the ‘boot’ in case it gets annoying enough.
So yeah, I’ve had some car troubles. But look how old some of those cars were, and when I had them. In the '70s and '80s, it’s just how cars were – especially when you were driving a '60s car. Nowadays, some of these problems would be unacceptable. But in context, none of the problems I’ve had made the car a POS.
The other thread is car/motorcycle, so I’m going to answer about a motorcycle.
I bought a 1992 Kawasaki Vulcan 750 in 2005 or so. I think it had about 5000 miles, but my guess is that 3-4000 of those were in the first two years, and so it did only a 1000 miles in the next 10 years. It initially seemed fine, as it probably sat in a garage, but over the course of the next few thousand miles years of neglect came back to bite me:
Every piece of rubber (except the tires) needed to be replaced.
The turn signals only worked when the handle bars were pointed to one side, due to a failed repair of the wiring in the headlight bucket.
The entire bike died when I went over speed bump. It turned out to be the primary fuse, but I never did figure out what caused the fuse to blow.
And worst of all, many, many fueling problems. Initially the carbs needed cleaning and adjustment. Then it ran much better, then the carbs got clogged again, and it would barely run. For a fix, the dealer installed inline fuel filters, but on the gravity fed fuel system, there wasn’t enough pressure so at anything below half a tank, it “ran out of gas.” After a series of higher flow filters, rerouting fuel lines, and rebuilding the petcock I finally found the root cause of the problem was that the in-tank fuel filters had fallen out of the pickup holes. That meant any bit of crud or grit in the tank would get sucked in. The fueling issues were finally mostly fixed when I reinstalled the in-tank filters, and ripped out the others.
The transmission would get stuck in neutral, mostly between first and second, but could hit a false neutral between other gears. Kawasaki uses a ball bearing system so that at a stop going up from first goes to neutral, but when the transmission is spinning, going up from first should go to second. I’m convinced something was sticking, but repairing it was an engine out procedure, and just not worth the effort.
It got to the point that I had no confidence it would be able to complete any trip. Fortunately it only ever stranded me in town.
I still think the Vulcan 750 is an underrated bike, as it is more powerful and better handling than its Honda and Suzuki competitors, and is much cheaper than a Harley Sportster 883.
I had 2. The first was a 1980 Ford Fairmont. It was only 4 years old when I bought it but I found the area between the dash and wipers was completely rusted out. I junked that car with only 48,000 mile on it.
The next car after that was a year old 84 Dodge Omni. When it ran it was fun to drive. But it liked to die at random times due to electrical issues. When it did die, I would wait 5 to 10 minutes, it would start up and off I would go. After I sold it I found out the issue that caused it to die all the time was the electric choke on the carburetor.
Buick 1972 Opal Kadett.
A import from Germany that my dad bought. AC never properly cooled the car. I got it after turning 16. It threw the timing chain within two months. Next the generator went out. Hard to start. Mechanic (my uncle’s shop) thought the aluminum carb had warped from engine block heat.
It was sold soon after.
1986 Dodge Charger. It was my first car. Bought it new.
In the first two weeks, the A/C broke down (in July, of course) and the glove box door fell off. Those were covered by warranty. But after the 10,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty ran out, (but within the first 20,000 miles) the EGR (exhaust gas recycler) valve had to be replaced, one of the struts started leaking, and the catalytic converted failed (the last one, fortunately, covered by government-mandated warranty).
Next to go was a relay which shut off the fan which ran for five minutes after shutting off the engine (needed to cool the aluminum block). I found out about this after several instances of finding the battery dead, because the fan had kept running and drained the battery. That was a real pain to figure out–I happened to be walking by the car 20 minutes after parking it, and realized the fan should have already shut off. Oh, and the ridiculously expensive replacement relay came with a cute little disclaimer that basically said the dealer had no responsibility for the part. If I had opened the box and found it contained a marble, I would have to go to Chrysler to straighten it out.
I kept the car until a little over 100,000 miles, by which time the engine had drastically reduced power, and took several seconds to even accelerate at all. When I bought my next car (a 1993 Honda Civic hatchback) I planned to keep the Charger for a while, to save mileage on the new car. I quickly decided against this. After driving a roadworthy car a few times, I no longer felt safe in the Dodge atrocity.
On the bright side: as a first-time car owner, I learned pretty much everything that can go wrong with a car.
the first car of my dad’s I remember: an AMC gremlin he bought it used because it was described as a “gearheads dream” all that meant was "if you like working on or rebuilding a a car every weekend well this is for you " … everything that they said could go wrong with it did at some point … but I loved the car (i was 3- 4 I was the only one who would go anywhere outside of town in it )… even when trying to go uphill it stalled out… if you wanted to go on a long trip you gave it a “tune-up” before you went and a few times even that didn’t help …
my favorite repair was some of the wires to something had the ends melted off and it just started to stall out so dad pulled it over in an McD’s parking lot halfway between indy and Kokomo and the manager came over asked dad what was up and when he told her she said " oh well I know how to fix that one ! " she went back inside came out chewing a somewhat large wad of gum with a cup of ice and stretched out the gum and reconnected the wires rubbed the gum down with ice so it would harden and invited us in for lunch on her since she said wed have to wait about 45 minutes or so
After lunch, we went back out and it started and ran even better than it had in months and her final words before she waved goodbye was "try to hurry home at that will only last 3 hours tops "
Since baby brother 3 was on the way mom made him sell it… we saw it around Indiana off and on for years
no one ever remembered exactly why I insisted on having the kingsize pack of juicy fruit in the glove compartment in any car I rode in as a kid for years until dad happened to stop at the same McD’s(about 10 years ago) and remembered the last time he was there and found out the manager who helped us ended up owning that one and a few others and actually went very far in the company her granddaughter who was the manager said she’d mention that story every time someone brought up gremlins and it was nice to know it actually happened as she said …
They are. Easiest the best ride I’ve ever had involved a topless midget howling on the back roads around WallaWalla. I think they’re like having a crazy spouse: Unparalleled excitement for brief periods, followed by damage control. It didn’t help that the car was my only transportation. Had I the room in the garage today I might be tempted.
My first car was a 1969 Volkswagon Karmann Ghia. It had about 50,000 miles on it when acquired it. Cold and drafty even before the Ohio winters had their way with it.
I was changing a right rear flat one day…there was a recess in the running board/frame area where the business end of the Volkswagon jack went. I was talking to my dad as I was jacking up the car…not paying attention…until my dad noticed the flat tire wasn’t coming off the ground. The jack was going up, all right. Right through the frame and body of the car. I was literally cutting the rusted out POS in half with the jack.
I’ve always been a careful purchaser of cars, aiming for reliability and other sensible features (safety, fuel economy) and hence almost always chose Japanese. I’ve had Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota. But then I tried something completely different, and it is my entry:
2004 Land Rover Discovery II
Pros: Looks awesome.
Cons…
I finally sold it after some further fixes–this time the driver window motor–last summer, after I realized that the rate of problems popping up was getting higher than my ability to fix it. Shop fixes for this beast are VERY expensive, and I just couldn’t afford it. The cost to fix everything was going to be on the order of $30,000, but I had paid just $5k for it.
My dad bought his “little red sports car,” an MG Midget when he was about 30, and it sat unused in his garage for about 20 of the remaining 38 years of his life. Always had electrical problems…
I am going to guess there was a certain mushiness to the ride, compared to an un-rusted car? I’ve begun to notice this on older cars. Very un-nerving.
Hoping you don’t mind my third post in a row, but this entry is on behalf of my Grandma:
Chevy Corvair (year unknown)
She had a great story, that is probably true, thanks to her being known as a serious person. Driving down the road one day, there was this tremendous BUMP and grinding sounds and the car rolled to a stop. She checked behind her, and there was the engine lying in the road.
My mother had that one as well in the 70’s… I won’t get into the details, but I thought we were talking about cars… Pandas don’t qualify IMO.
My worst experience was in the 80’s a Mercedes /8 190D, officially the W114-W115 series. I bought it from a policeman and I did not check enough its condition (so much for trusting a cop). It was so rusty that when I had to change a wheel the carjack bore itself up through the frame, so that after taking the punctured wheel off, the new one could not get in because the car was so much lower! I pulled the jack up fast as I could and mounted the wheel in a hurry, then looked at the underbelly of the beast. The rear axle was eating itself into the body of the car, I guess it could have fallen off at any bump in the road. I hardly dared to ride it very slowly and carefully straight to the scrapyard. And I was so proud to own a mercedes… And of course a 190D, the smallest diesel mercedes made at that time, never had any power for the nearly two tons of junk it had to move (no, accelerate is not he word I am looking for), the engine swallowed about 1 liter of oil every 1000 km and smoked in accordance (the advantage being that you never had to *change *the oil, you only had to keep on filling it up), the steering wobbled like they drive in the ols B/W movies, and it was loud as a tractor. I could go on, spare me the memories.
1972 Chevy Vega. Bought it brand new, with fond memories of Dad’s '57 Chevy that I had driven as a teenager, and fonder memories of my '69 Camaro, the first car I ever bought new (had to sell it within a year because the insurance premiums were astronomical for an irresponsible 19 year old male with a terrible driving record).
Suffice it to say the difference in quality between the Camaro and the Vega was night and day. The Vega was a piece of junk for all the well-known reasons. I swear you could HEAR it rusting.
Outch! 
Somewhat related to this thread, the website Curbside Classic ran a post a few days ago discussing some of the cars The Price is Right gave away as prizes in the early years of the show. It seems like they gave away a lot of Vegas back in the day. Having the benefit of hindsight, I’m not sure if a Vega is really much of a prize.
Bob Barker: “Joan, you win a new Chevrolet Vega! Mary, as our runner-up, you’ll be receiving a copy of the home version of The Price Is Right.”
Joan, to Mary: “Wanna trade?”
Wait, what!?!?! Your uncle came all the way to fetch you (it was some distance away, right? Otherwise, your post makes no sense), drove by several petrol stations and did not buy a rope on the way to tow you? :eek: Then he decided to push you with his car, bumping with his frontside on your backside instead of driving you home in his darn car while the broken 1959 Dodge got repaired wherever that was that you were stranded, and your father agreed to that? :eek: The damage done to both cars (and the tempers you mention yourself) would have been worth a taxi back to fetch the repaired car weeks later! :smack: If you could be pushed the distance at a snail’s pace I infer you could have gotten a taxi both ways, once to get home, once to collect the repaired car, and got to work and back home on another taxi every day for weeks and it would still have been cheaper and less stressful! What were the adults thinking of? 
BTW: Bumping into other cars on purpose (for miles and miles!) is forbidden where I live, even if both parties agree to do it: the cops call it something like “risky manouvres” or “blöder als die Polizei erlaubt”.
You make feel like I have had a very unenentful life.
My dad owned a '74 Valiant (same car as the Dart) which was an utter POS. Died at the first stop sign every morning, and it seems to me that he was always messing with the carburetor, trying to get it not to die when turning corners.
Its replacement was one of the first K-cars, which had the same amount of interior space as the Valiant, but was about 3 feet shorter. He didn’t like it, but I never figured out why; I thought it was a pleasant and well-designed car.
After that, he became a Japanese car convert and he never bought another American car: Toyota pickup, Datsun Nissan Pulsar NX, Toyota Camry (an '89–there is, I think, a strong argument to be made that at that time, the Camry was the best car in the entire world), Nissan hardbody pickup. We inherited the Camry, and let Littlest R drive it; I remember once she got a ticket for going 85 in a 60 zone. :eek:
I’m actually a bit surprised to see the Valiant/Dart mentioned in this thread. I’d always heard that those cars were some of the most reliable American cars of that era, at least with the Slant Six engine. Perhaps that applies more to the earlier per-emissions models, but supposedly they were kind of like Corollas in that a Dart or Valiant with a Slant Six was considered a safe but boring choice if you were buying a used car in the 1970s.