Cars to avoid.

[Bob225]

Nissan now have a large Renault influence, I had a E11 note for 7 years a practical car and it suited my needs, the E12 2013-2017 is a under powered, over priced Renault Clio in drag, electric gremlins will write this car off at the 5-7 year mark, deprecation from new is anything up to 60% as they where heavily discounted from new

I replace My E11 note in February for a Vauxhall Mokka 1.4 SE with all the toys (bar the sat nav) back to the Vauxhall fold

[Grendel]

duel mass flywheels packing in seem to be a big problem on the mondeo,costs a good few quid to replace.

According to a friend of mine these flywheels come in for a lot of criticism on the caravaning forums , eveidently not the best option for a towing vehicle (?).

[fitzy]

I think any car/brand is going to have it's good points and bad points and no car is ever maintenance free, they are just too complicated for that.

This is kind of what I was getting at in my original post. Everyone has their least favourite car, but that car could provide trouble free motoring to someone else.

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[Grendel]

Yes I know what you mean by that. I've got a transit which some say "great motors , go on forever" then mine suffers a turbo failure at less than 40,000 miles. My sister in lard on the other hand has an Mg which she has just spent six thousand on but she still loves the car.

[idkhow2diy]

Some cars are just over complicated. We had a Scenic which was fine while under warranty but after that ran out 'simple' repairs were damn expensive. Like the time the car would not start because the steering lock computer refused to let the immobiliser computer tell the engine management that it's ok to start! What? 400 quid. The car allegedly had two CPUs per door to control the locking and the windows... and when I came to change a headlamp bulb the Haynes book simply said take it to the dealer. (when changing car, car sales staff were somewhat bemused at our later insistence that they show us under the bonnet so we could see how easy the bulbs were to change!)

I miss the old days when you could fix the car by swearing at it an applying a hammer - none of this modern safety stuff, air bags, ABS, door bars, headrests... hmmm.

Mind you I was surprised to find that the current Hyundai's trackrod ends were covered under warranty. It (i30) is the first car that I would have another of.

[Rorschach]

I drive a ford, when I got my mechanic said "it's a working mans car, cos you're always workin' on it!" He was joking around of course, I have not had to do any more maintenance than any other car, but what is noticeable is that most things are pretty straightforward to work on. Some are silly, like needing torx bits to change a bulb, but as long as you have the bits with you, it's not very hard to do (I keep a set in the boot) In general though, with a basic toolkit I can do a lot of work myself and things are not too hard to access. Now compare that with some of the comments earlier about the renaults their infamous headlamp changes and it looks like a good car to have.

One way to tell a good car, look at what your mechanic is driving and ask him if he likes it. Usually mechanics hate working on their own cars so tend to choose those that are reliable, my old mechanic drove skodas and VW's so take from that what you will.

[Ant74]

I have driven mainly VW brand over the last 17 years and due to my annual mileage, i've had a few!!

I've not had any serious issues and other than standard maintenance haven't needed to shell out significant money. That being said, if comes done to undertaking reactive maintainence as per the schedule. If the car needs a service every 10k miles, do it at 9k. If the cam belt needs changing at 90k mile intervals, change it at 80-85k.

Don't buy a Nissan Navara. A friend had his 2005 diesel twin cab bought back by Nissan after the chassis rails snapped at 30mph!

[village idiot]

Don't buy a Nissan Navara. A friend had his 2005 diesel twin cab bought back by Nissan after the chassis rails snapped at 30mph!

This is the second Navara I've heard with cracked chassis rails

[Ant74]

He had just filled the tank at a local petrol station, started to join the motorway and the chassis gave way. Thankfully he managed to get it onto the hard shoulder, he didn't have breakdown recovery so i had to collect him.

[Nos]

When we moved to France I bought the wife a new Renault Twingo top of the range as she needed an auto, picked it up Tuesday teatime took back Thursday morning, what a load of crap, all the dealers were the same, had to keep it two years otherwise would have lost too much, we did lose about 6k on it but traded it in for a new Hilux, kept it three years, just swapped for latest auto model, at the side of my L200 which was unbreakable, it is light years ahead, IMHO the best vehicle we have owned. We looked at all the other trucks, and quickly crossed off the Navara lots of issues with chassis and gearbox. I remember a while back a car program tried to destroy a Hilux, they couldn't do it!

[fitzy]

When we moved to France I bought the wife a new Renault Twingo top of the range as she needed an auto, picked it up Tuesday teatime took back Thursday morning, what a load of crap, all the dealers were the same, had to keep it two years otherwise would have lost too much, we did lose about 6k on it but traded it in for a new Hilux, kept it three years, just swapped for latest auto model, at the side of my L200 which was unbreakable, it is light years ahead, IMHO the best vehicle we have owned. We looked at all the other trucks, and quickly crossed off the Navara lots of issues with chassis and gearbox. I remember a while back a car program tried to destroy a Hilux, they couldn't do it!

My brother has a hilux invincible. Lovely motor. Full leather, sat nav etc etc.

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[Job and Knock]

Personally I will not touch anything French (French diesels are another matter tho as there in everything these days )

Hmmmm. Xantia 1.9T did 155k before I sold it, Xantia 2.0Hdi did 160k before I sold it, two Berlh werer both sold at around 130k. All diesel, all French, all Citroen - all reliable........

[fitzy]

Personally I will not touch anything French (French diesels are another matter tho as there in everything these days )

Hmmmm. Xantia 1.9T did 155k before I sold it, Xantia 2.0Hdi did 160k before I sold it, two Berlh werer both sold at around 130k. All diesel, all French, all Citroen - all reliable........

Yeah must say I've had two citroen vans and a Peugeot estate that were trouble free.

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[gildasd]

A friend of mine was offered a petrol 1.6 Toyota Camry with 150 000km on the clock.
It was goign for next to nothing as it was smoking and making noises.
But all the bit and bobs (radio, windows, airco) worked fine, he being a retired electronics repair man, buys it on a hunch.

His idea was to have it as a disposable auto to drive from Paris to the Riviera until it died.
He changed the fluids, the filters, brake pads, battery, plugs etc by himself.
Smoking and noises stopped. Last time I checked it had 280 000Km and it's 10 years latter - it's still going strong - and he does NOTHING except fluids and filters!

He might have gotten lucky, but still, what a car.


Car to avoid: Fiat Diesel Multiair engines (I think that's the name). They have EGR problems in cold weather. It would be easy to fix: open module, clean sensor, put together... But nooo, the thing is sealed and to whole EGR module needs to be changed. So after one 800€ repair to fix a 5€ sensor that could be cleaned with WD40 and a rag, I sold it (in summer - for export to Africa, they like them there!).

[multiman]

If you want reliability then I would say Japanese are at the top. Yes always owned jap car low maintenance and cheap to repair. How do I know this asked a few recovery companies which make they get least call outs to and japenese cars were mentioned hope that help currently I have a honda accord tourer

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