[Old Goat Racer]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

Early 700's had cases that would warp as well as 27 spline input shafts and other weak internals. '87 and up were greatly improved and hold up very well.

I didn't have them long enough to know. "Gotta know when to sell/hold em ".

[cheese country GP]

Worst car ever; 1957 Olds super 88: replaced 5 starters, 5 generators, 3 voltage reg, rear wheel bearing, radiator, carb, & an engine fire!!! got rid of it 3 weeks after I got married on a 1962 Le Mans 4 cly 4 barrel. Had that car for 10 years with 99,000 miles when it was finally too bad to keep.
B est car, 1987 Ford Ranger STX V-6 5 speed had for 28 years.

[OG68]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

Don't forget about the head bolts pulling out of the block because some brainiac engineer thought it was a good idea to screw them into an aluminum block/threads.

Same issue with Toyota four cylinders after 2000. Don't know if it was ever fixed or that Toyota is ignoring the problem

[Dick Boneske]

Originally Posted by cheese country GP

Worst car ever; 1957 Olds super 88: replaced 5 starters, 5 generators, 3 voltage reg, rear wheel bearing, radiator, carb, & an engine fire!!! got rid of it 3 weeks after I got married on a 1962 Le Mans 4 cly 4 barrel. Had that car for 10 years with 99,000 miles when it was finally too bad to keep.
B est car, 1987 Ford Ranger STX V-6 5 speed had for 28 years.

Funny--My first car was a '57 Old's Super 88. As you may know, all the '57 Old's had camshaft failures due to too much spring pressure. Needing to replace that cam and lifters is what got me started on being a car guy. I remember we pulled the pan to clean it out, but the bearings looked OK, so we buttoned it up and ran it. Put J2 on it and sold it so I could buy my '64 GTO. Loved the Old's--but not as much as the GTO!!

[geneva54]

The worst car was a 1985 Camaro Z28. It spend more time in the shop than me driving it. The best car is the one drive now. 2012 Toyota Sequoia.

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by 455Grandville

Hard to beat a big 70s GM. I had a 78 301 Bonnie that I commuted in for years. AC would freeze you out and my wife and our firstborn took many trips to TX in it in the late 90s when it was 20 years old. Even got decent gas mileage.

I agree. I have never had a POS, although I have worked on a lot of them for other people. I still have my two good cars. My '66 Pontiac Tempest wagon, and my 1974 Olds Cutlass Supreme. The 326 2 bbl in the Pontiac and ST 300 transmission went for 293,000 miles, pretty much trouble free, with nothing but a timing chain, a couple of water pumps, and wear items on the car itself, such as brakes and axle seals. That was what the odometer was at in 1987, when I purchased the Olds from an aunt, with 135,000 on it. My intention was to retire the Pontiac from daily driver status, building it into a fun weekend car, and use the well kept Olds for that. Worked out very well. The Olds accumulated even more miles than I had on the Pontiac. It ran like the energizer bunny, up to 500000 miles. At that point, in 2013, the Olds 350 was getting weak, but no knocking or smoking, so at that point, I rebuilt it. It had nothing but weak tension on the rings, and weak valve springs. Very clean inside. The TH350 has been rebuilt 3 times, and the 10 bolt axle, once, with new bearings and seals, using the original 3.08 ring and pinion. The Olds is a very comfortable cruiser, with power windows, buckets, console, ac, tilt column and 4 spoke sport steering wheel. Has a substantial feel, and I have been all over the east coast a few times with it. have had it repainted 3 times. The car still looks good, and rides like a dream. The Pontiac handles great with my suspension upgrades, and pulls strong with the 455 /TH400 transplant. In 2014, my dear Dad passed away, and I inherited my Moms 1993 Buick Regal with a 3800 from him. That car is a sleeper of a gem itself, although I am not a fan of what I consider "newer" cars, it makes a very reliable car to drive back and forth to work. It "only" has about 165000 on it. Doesn't burn oil, and drives very nice.

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Agree with you about the Northstar cars. They were ahead of their time 20+ years ago, but very hard to work on. And they leak EVERYTHING from EVERYWHERE! Since I own my own shop now, as of a couple years ago, I won't work on the engines. Brake jobs, tires, struts, sure. There is almost zero chance of having a happy customer after working on those engines now. Had a very nice lady with a 1996 Eldorado that had all the typical Northstar issues, but a beautiful, rust free, example. Metallic red, parchment leather interior, about 80K miles. She sold it for $600.00 because it needed 5K in underhood repairs.

A far cry from Cadillacs of old, with 472/500s that would run forever. Even the old 390/429s were tough engines. High nickle casting, beefy blocks, that had a lot of torque, and were low revving. Cadillac really started to go south with the 4100, and downhill from there. Such a shame. CAFE ruined them, because they rushed the 4100 out there, because the old 368 (based on the 425/472/500) was not capable of delivering fuel economy necessary to stay within regulations for 1982 and beyond.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by OG68

Same issue with Toyota four cylinders after 2000. Don't know if it was ever fixed or that Toyota is ignoring the problem

LOL! I owned an '05 Corolla that went to 247,000mi. before I sold it and a '03 Prius with 367,000mi. with the original Hybrid battery bank and neither one had a problem outside of a fuel pump and a vapor canister on the Corolla. The only reason why I didn't use either one of them as my best is because my '77 GP SJ was the best "all around" car.

[goatwgn]

Here is my 500000 mile Olds 350, back in 2013, that had never been apart, except for water pump replacement. Top picture is the same unit, rebuilt, back in the '74 Olds Cutlass. This thing is tough. I didn't "baby it" over the years, but i did keep the oil changed, and never overheated the engine. Inside was very clean, with very little wear. Valve springs and rings were weak. Some carbon buildup in the valley, where the exhaust crossover had a leak.

[carcrazy]

Worst car ever....DKW! 2 cycle, beast that couldn't handle, stop or go! Best ever.......62 Catalina 425A, 4 speed.

[jciwolf]

I have a 2003 suburban 4w/d 6.0L motor, it continually alarm codes the throttle body sensors not matching. Every dealership I have gone to says I need a new throttle body, I personally replaced them and the sensor comes with it. Within less than 1k miles it alarms again, last dealer wanted $11k to replace and reprogram, last repair shop $650.00. I now have 3 throttle bodies in my garage, (all GM products), no one seems to know the real problem. I have written nice and bad letters to GM and also have heard nothing. My wife has a '99 Tahoe that still runs with minimum maintenance beyond the typical age related items but I will not look to GM for anything new, I only respect my "70 GTO!

[camerjeff]

My Best and most reliable car I ever owned was also one of my ugliest, a 1977 Buick Century Wagon that I traded a Gallon of Captain Morgans Rum for in the Mid 1980's. It had 66,000 miles on it at the time, didn't run (bad Coil on the HEI) and had been used as a winter car by the previous owner from new. It was Turd Brown in Color, the front fenders & Rear 1/4's were rusted beyond saving when I got it. But the floorboards had been rust proofed by the leaky Buick 350! I put over 250,000 miles on the car, hauling Greyhounds up from Florida & Alabama, and as a work car & general beater. Other than the usual Brakes, Tires & Tune ups it only needed a rear seal on the TH400, 1 set of U-Joints, and the rear axle went at around 290,000 miles. Also rebuilt the front suspension at around 200,000 miles. The gas tank finally developed a leak just short of 330,000 miles and I just could not justify replacing it. Heck the A/C Still worked! It only needed a couple of lbs of R12 a year added to it.

As for the worst car we owned, had to be the 1988 AWD Mercury Topaz that came with my wife! No power, no MPG, nothing but driveshaft issues and suspension issues. Even changing the Serpentine belt (it also had 3 V Belts) was a pain as it actually went around the passenger side Motor Mount! I was glad she finally rear ended some one at a stop light (at about 5 mph) and pushed the transmission cooling lines back so hard it actually cracked the transaxle case between the 2 lines causing it to look like it was bleeding to death from the seeping fluid!, White car red fluid.

[400 4spd.]

Going through the previous postings I took notice of the experiences members have had with GM and Ford trucks and full size SUVs. Most share the same drive trains and similar chassis, and this is the rough count I came up with.

GM positive opinions at 2
GM negative opinions at 9

Ford positive opinions at 10
Ford negative opinions at 2

[455Grandville]

Originally Posted by goatwgn

I agree. I have never had a POS, although I have worked on a lot of them for other people. I still have my two good cars. My '66 Pontiac Tempest wagon, and my 1974 Olds Cutlass Supreme. The 326 2 bbl in the Pontiac and ST 300 transmission went for 293,000 miles, pretty much trouble free, with nothing but a timing chain, a couple of water pumps, and wear items on the car itself, such as brakes and axle seals. That was what the odometer was at in 1987, when I purchased the Olds from an aunt, with 135,000 on it. My intention was to retire the Pontiac from daily driver status, building it into a fun weekend car, and use the well kept Olds for that. Worked out very well. The Olds accumulated even more miles than I had on the Pontiac. It ran like the energizer bunny, up to 500000 miles. At that point, in 2013, the Olds 350 was getting weak, but no knocking or smoking, so at that point, I rebuilt it. It had nothing but weak tension on the rings, and weak valve springs. Very clean inside. The TH350 has been rebuilt 3 times, and the 10 bolt axle, once, with new bearings and seals, using the original 3.08 ring and pinion. The Olds is a very comfortable cruiser, with power windows, buckets, console, ac, tilt column and 4 spoke sport steering wheel. Has a substantial feel, and I have been all over the east coast a few times with it. have had it repainted 3 times. The car still looks good, and rides like a dream. The Pontiac handles great with my suspension upgrades, and pulls strong with the 455 /TH400 transplant. In 2014, my dear Dad passed away, and I inherited my Moms 1993 Buick Regal with a 3800 from him. That car is a sleeper of a gem itself, although I am not a fan of what I consider "newer" cars, it makes a very reliable car to drive back and forth to work. It "only" has about 165000 on it. Doesn't burn oil, and drives very nice.

My plan when I retire (hopefully in 7 years at 55) is to keep all 4 of my old GMs and just have my wife own a modern, up to date car to save money. One of these days I need to get the old Camaro road worthy.
I just feel new vehicles are simply to expensive.

Originally Posted by OG68

Same issue with Toyota four cylinders after 2000. Don't know if it was ever fixed or that Toyota is ignoring the problem

I’m calling BS on that, many late model Toyota 4 cylinder have passed 300,000 miles without being opened up,

Originally Posted by goatwgn

A far cry from Cadillacs of old, with 472/500s that would run forever. Even the old 390/429s were tough engines. High nickle casting, beefy blocks, that had a lot of torque, and were low revving. Cadillac really started to go south with the 4100, and downhill from there. Such a shame. CAFE ruined them, because they rushed the 4100 out there, because the old 368 (based on the 425/472/500) was not capable of delivering fuel economy necessary to stay within regulations for 1982 and beyond.

The V864 from that family was a good engine if you unplugged the computer. Think it was based on the 1980 368 ?

[OG68]

Take a look at the Camry forums.
73 pages worth.

https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...thread.325124/

[67droptop]

Worst.....1981...4 cylinder Chevy Citation!!!!!!

[59safaricat]

Still driving my 1999 Honda Accord I bought brand new and a 1984 Toyota SR-5 pickup that was passed down to me in the mid 1990's. Not considered "fun" vehicles by most standards but fuel efficient and reliable mechanical marvels are were they excel.

I also call B.S. on Toyota Camry head bolts problems. My folks own a 2001 Camry 4 cyl 5FSE and it's about to crest 285,000 miles with an untouched engine/trans besides regular scheduled maintenance.

[gtohunter]

Originally Posted by Dick Boneske

Funny--My first car was a '57 Old's Super 88. As you may know, all the '57 Old's had camshaft failures due to too much spring pressure. Needing to replace that cam and lifters is what got me started on being a car guy. I remember we pulled the pan to clean it out, but the bearings looked OK, so we buttoned it up and ran it. Put J2 on it and sold it so I could buy my '64 GTO. Loved the Old's--but not as much as the GTO!!

My first registered car at 16, same problem with the cams, and many other problems. Finally sent it to the crusher after spending a summer under the hood, and under the car !

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

LOL! I owned an '05 Corolla that went to 247,000mi. before I sold it and a '03 Prius with 367,000mi. with the original Hybrid battery bank and neither one had a problem outside of a fuel pump and a vapor canister on the Corolla. The only reason why I didn't use either one of them as my best is because my '77 GP SJ was the best "all around" car.

I am no big fan of the Prius as a driver's car. In fact, I have to say the many prius's I have driven as a group may be the worst driving cars ever. But as Chief says, they are damn reliable, which is amazing considering how much cutting edge technology is under the hood. The big worry was of course how the big hybrid battery would break the bank and cost more than the car was worth. That was never true. They almost always last at least 10 years, no matter how many miles and when they do need replacement, they are not that bad. I can buy good junk yard batteries for $500.00 and reconditioned ones through NAPA for less than $1500.00. All things considered, that's not terrible. I think they may be the perfect "automotive appliance".

[grandam1979]

Best, 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 bought new wife drove for first 150,000 now my work truck with 344,000 and still going. Getting rusty and a little soft suspension wise
Worst, 1985 Ford F-250 460 4 speed, leaked oil bad rebuilt engine (1990) ran great but rusted bad in the next 3-4 years. 2 leafs broke and feel out going down the road.
Worst, 1987 Ford Aerostar ( early 1990’s) don’t even ask if it could go wrong it did and rusted to the ground.
Worst, 2005 Ford Taurus (2010ish) got it with 95,000 sold it at 140,000 after putting a transmission and a heater core in it.