[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.