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What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

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John Thomas8
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What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#1

Post by John Thomas8 »

I've owned a number over the past 45 or so years, and mine have all failed, some in spectacularly stupid ways.

I do maintenance like regular oil changes and PMCS (preventative maintenance checks and services for you non-US Army folks) like regularly checking tire pressure and coolant, etc.

But they always do something stupid. Owned a 1987 Chevrolet Spectrum (KIA I-Mark with a Chevy badge on it) and at 46,000 or so miles the turbocharger let go at highway speed, distributing its parts and most of its exhaust all over rush hour traffic. Or my last one, a Mitsubishi Diamate, who's A/C failed and I was stuck driving it for two North Carolina summers. Or my current star, a Nissan Pathfinder, which decided to blow a head gasket after only 132,000 miles on an engine with one of the cleanest defect records in the industry.

I want a pair of horses, one of each flavour, so I can stop paying for gas and my transportation can make its own replacement.

Sigh.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#2

Post by Foggy »

Horses are slower. :smoking:
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#3

Post by Maybenaut »

Did the blown head gasket cause other damage? Changing it out isn’t necessarily a job for the owner, but for a mechanic it shouldn’t be that difficult.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#4

Post by Slim Cognito »

I think of cars as a necessary evil, unless you live in the city. I've never lived anywhere where there was decent public transportation, although it's not as bad here as other places I've been.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#5

Post by John Thomas8 »

Maybenaut wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:00 am Did the blown head gasket cause other damage? Changing it out isn’t necessarily a job for the owner, but for a mechanic it shouldn’t be that difficult.
Not at this point. I have a "car guy" (certified in HVAC, Cloud computing, welding, ASE mechanic) who's gone over it and says I stopped it soon enough to not spread the damage.

Replacing a head gasket (or both in a V-6/V-8 engine) isn't hard pre-1970 cars, that's mostly just having a good torque wrench to get the heads back on correctly. But the engines now, post year 2000, while being "engineering marvels", are incredibly stupidly laid out and in the case of the Pathfinder it takes multiple chicken sacrifices accompanied by taking 90% of everything above the engine block off to get at the heads. Parts are less than $500, labor approaches the national debit due to the amount of time it takes to get at the heads to change the gaskets.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#6

Post by Lani »

I'm considering not being a car owner when I move to Honolulu. Because of covid, there are options that will not end when/if the pandemic ends. Home delivery in particular. I'll have reduced bus fare if I want to wander about somewhere and can bring my dog with me.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#7

Post by Foggy »

Jeez, I think of cars as a miracle. For a hundred thousand years we didn't have any. Now we can drive 80 mph on a freeway and go anywhere in this great land of ours in a way that would - at least initially - scare the crap out of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, who never moved faster than a galloping horsie could carry them.

On horseback, my local grocery store is easily a half hour ride each way, instead of 5 minutes. I'm very lucky to live in the age of the automobile. I can jump in my car and go visit my dad in Bathyshpere (or wherever it is) in about 5 hours. It's 285 miles from here. In the early days of the republic, when North Carolina was one of the least developed states in the Union, that trip would take several weeks, and be quite dangerous. For me it's 5 hours in comfort and luxury, with music or news from all across the planet, with literally hundreds of different restaurants available, on a mostly scenic route.

Amazingly, it doesn't really save time to fly to Bathyshpere. By the time you drive to the airport, park, go through security procedures, eventually board your flight, etc., it still takes 5 hours door-to-door from my house to my dad's place. But if I fly, I don't have my own car when I get there. I like having my own car.

Having said all that, I do love horsies, and I would like to have a horse. :lovestruck:
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#8

Post by Slim Cognito »

If I were young again, but knew everything I know now, I'd move to the city and use public transport. My step-sis lives in Manhattan and, for years, owned a car but she paid hundreds every month to park it. (it may have been thousands, you guys tell me) She finally sold it, joined a car co-op, so when she needs one, she just has to make a call then go pick it up. That would work for me. As for trips, I'd rather fly and have Uber drive me around. Maybe it has to do with my blind left eye and lack of depth perception, but I just don't like to drive if I can avoid it.

I fly back to KC a lot. I used to drive mom's car, which now belongs to my teenage niece. I'm going back in December and I'll give her $150 to let me drive her car for the long weekend. She's thrilled and I get a deal on a rental car.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#9

Post by bill_g »

I think the phrase "own a car" is misleading. You can never own a car. You can only rent it. Whether you rent it from the bank, the auto parts store, the mechanic, or all of the above, you are always paying someone for the privilege of operating one specific machine until it dies or you sell it. You don't own it. It owns you.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#10

Post by Slim Cognito »

bill_g wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:35 am I think the phrase "own a car" is misleading. You can never own a car. You can only rent it. Whether you rent it from the bank, the auto parts store, the mechanic, or all of the above, you are always paying someone for the privilege of operating one specific machine until it dies or you sell it. You don't own it. It owns you.
and don't get us started on boats.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#11

Post by bill_g »

Slim Cognito wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:37 am
bill_g wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:35 am I think the phrase "own a car" is misleading. You can never own a car. You can only rent it. Whether you rent it from the bank, the auto parts store, the mechanic, or all of the above, you are always paying someone for the privilege of operating one specific machine until it dies or you sell it. You don't own it. It owns you.
and don't get us started on boats.
Boats are holes in the water that you pour money into.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#12

Post by John Thomas8 »

Boats? There's two great days involved in boat ownership: the day you buy it and, even better, the day you sell it. In between involves idiocy.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

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Post by MsDaisy »

I liked my little Subaru Impreza until it got totaled by a work truck, now I have a 2021 Subaru Outback and I love the car, it has LOTS of room and a backup camera :thumbsup:. But where the radio and temp controls are supposed to be is a touch screen computer. I still have to pull over sometimes to look and see what I'm doing rather than just hitting a button! :?
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#14

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

My first new vehicle was an end-of-model-year 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager, bought fresh out of college (that was the year they dropped the Plymouth brand in the middle of the model year). It was a great workhorse for me, but people kept getting the idea that it would also be a great workhorse for them. I was working in Detroit at the time, and it was stolen three times, at least twice to haul stolen goods. I got it back all three times, but the third time was just too much for it, and for Dr. Vicklund, who demanded that I get a job elsewhere (I was already looking). I limped it along for a few more months, and got a new job, paying 50% more than I had been making at the time the van was stolen for the third time. By the time I was able to secure a replacement, I had to put a quart of transmission fluid in it just to drive short distances. I had it just shy of 14 years, and put 296,000 miles on it. Won't get nearly the miles on the new van. I've had it seven years and due to Covid, am still shy of 100,000 miles.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#15

Post by neeneko »

Heh.. and here I am thinking about how much more expensive it would be to own and operate a horse or two.

But yeah, I am also in the camp that would love to get rid of my car, either replacing it with another or something else. I lack the skill, tools, or facilities to properly maintain it, own a car (a VW Passat B6) that is apparently difficult to work on in the first place, but live in an area where getting around without it, or even getting it to a shop and then getting to/from the shop without it are a huge pain in the ass. I was hoping to outright replace it, but pandemic car prices have really shot up.

Right now I am trying to figure out what to do about water getting into the passenger side and am so tempted by the 'whenever i had a problem id throw a molotov cocktail at it... and right away id have a whole DIFFERENT problem" route.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#16

Post by Foggy »

My 2006 Town & Country van has 213,000 miles on it and I still love it SO MUCH I am going to marry it as soon as it's legal in North Carolina.

That's the van that took us out West in 2015, and it's still running strong. Everything in that car works properly. Every single thing. I love that car (and my mechanic swears he's going to keep it going until at least 300,000 miles). ❤️
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#17

Post by Estiveo »

I feel the same way about my 2005 Element. It's only got 117k on it, and I intend to be buried in it. With its cabana attachment fully deployed.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#18

Post by Phoenix520 »

I’ve had some favorite cars:
Mazda RX7 aka The Batmobile. Ash loved riding in it when he was little. Sometimes when he came to stay the weekend he’d wear his Batman costume the whole time. Our garage was the Batcave.😊 We were the middle car in a 45mph rear ending by an unregistered 66 Mustang. It wasn’t even the driver’s car, he was a mechanic restoring it. :shock: The other car, a new Taurus station wagon, was also totaled. Ours was the only car that could drive away but it was totaled.

‘86 Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro, used. Do you remember the law suit brought against Audi by a class of drivers who claimed their cars had unintended acceleration? Yeah mine was one of those. Audi blamed the hundreds of accidents on ‘driver error’.

First, the accelerator cable snapped in rush hour traffic on the 210W. I was going up a medium grade between the 2Fwy entrance and exit ramps. I had to navigate across three streaming lanes with no power.

Second disaster, I was on the 10Fwy heading to Santa Monica. Not quite rush hour but slowing in places already. This time, the cruise control servo got stuck wide open - I wasn’t using CC at the time, had never used it - and I found myself roaring thru increasingly slow traffic, honking madly. Brakes did NOTHING. Thru my rising panic I heard a voice in my head say ‘Turn the engine off’ so I did, and moved to the shoulder.

After my second disaster I sold it. Next was a 2000 Xterra we still drive on river trips. Great car but no power steering.

The car love of my life was my 2006 Lexus RX 400H, their first hybrid. The engine finally died at 230,000. It was reliable, powerful, and emotionally satisfying to drive. We took it everywhere - long trips & off-road - it performed perfectly. Once mice ate the wiring harness but it was easy to replace.

I have another Lexus now but not a hybrid. I like it but don’t love it. It’s reliable but not as powerful as the 400h.

I love driving, not cars. Cars are too expensive and polluting. Most cities don’t offer excellent public transportation.

ETA
pretty detailed account of Audi suits here if interested.
https://www.autosafety.org/audi-sudden-acceleration/
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#19

Post by filly »

MsDaisy wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:43 am I liked my little Subaru Impreza until it got totaled by a work truck, now I have a 2021 Subaru Outback and I love the car, it has LOTS of room and a backup camera :thumbsup:. But where the radio and temp controls are supposed to be is a touch screen computer. I still have to pull over sometimes to look and see what I'm doing rather than just hitting a button! :?
A bit of practice and it becomes second nature. I have two 2021 Outbacks, love them both!
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#20

Post by Notaperson »

Quite a few years ago my dad gifted me a mid-80's Ford Escort. Then years later I read somewhere that this is considered one of the worst damn cars ever made. I believe it. Over about 5 years of ownership, that thing stalled in traffic and wouldn't restart at least three times. An utter nightmare.

Since then, I've only owned Toyotas. I've loved them all, at least partly because they never stalled.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#21

Post by MsDaisy »

filly wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:25 pm
MsDaisy wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:43 am I liked my little Subaru Impreza until it got totaled by a work truck, now I have a 2021 Subaru Outback and I love the car, it has LOTS of room and a backup camera :thumbsup:. But where the radio and temp controls are supposed to be is a touch screen computer. I still have to pull over sometimes to look and see what I'm doing rather than just hitting a button! :?
A bit of practice and it becomes second nature. I have two 2021 Outbacks, love them both!
What colors? Mine is pearly white and I love it. My first white car. :lovestruck:

MrD drives a blue Forrester.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#22

Post by filly »

Both are black. One is the Touring which is awesome. The other is a limited which is also fine.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#23

Post by Foggy »

I heard that one reason the Neanderthals died off was because we wouldn't let them drive cars.

:blackeye:
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#24

Post by Reddog »

I always hated the shopping/negotiating. That changed after I got the A-plan from Ford.
One time we bought a car and they talked us into getting rustproofing/Ming finish, when it rusted ( where they drilled access holes) in the rocker panel, to put in the rustproofing chemicals) they refused to cover it.
A few years later we were buying another car that had rustproofing on the itemized list, I didn’t want it they said it was already done. I said “Not only that I didn’t want it but wouldn’t have a car with it even if it was free”. As I was walking out miraculously it really hadn’t been done. That was a Mazda 626, and turned out to be one of the best cars we ever owned. Last I heard (after we sold it)it ended up with a million miles on it.
Another time, (before I worked at Ford), I bought a 98 Ranger. They assured me it was the lowest price they could offer. I was happy, until the next day when they ran an ad in the newspaper for an identically equipped vehicle for $1,000 less than I paid. I voiced my opinion to them. Haven’t been back there. I ended up putting a quarter of a million miles on it before I sold it.

We started buying Subarus a few years ago, (even though I still have the A-plan) the dealer seems fair, and we like the ride and features. First car with adaptive cruise, and I like it.
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Re: What Do You Hate About Owning A Motor Vehicle?

#25

Post by keith »

John Thomas8 wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:07 am :snippity:

Replacing a head gasket (or both in a V-6/V-8 engine) isn't hard pre-1970 cars, that's mostly just having a good torque wrench to get the heads back on correctly. But the engines now, post year 2000, while being "engineering marvels", are incredibly stupidly laid out and in the case of the Pathfinder it takes multiple chicken sacrifices accompanied by taking 90% of everything above the engine block off to get at the heads. Parts are less than $500, labor approaches the national debit due to the amount of time it takes to get at the heads to change the gaskets.
I agree with you 100%.

The last car I owned in the USA was a 1972 Fiat X1/9. The X1/9 was a mid-engine, rear wheel drive, targa top, sports car. I loved it. Its far and away the most fun to drive car I have ever owned, a bit under powered, but FUN.

The only problem with it (not including the mechanic that actually cut the brake line in an attempt to kill me get more repair work money out of me) was the engine compartment layout and that was due solely to the lazy way they built the darn thing. They started with a front engine, front wheel drive Fiat 124. Then they took the engine out of the front and shifted it back to just behind the passenger compartment but ahead of the rear wheels. On the 124 the engine compartment was well designed, with the engine pretty much over the drive wheels, and every thing readily accessible for maintenance - in particular the spark plugs were right up front. When they shifted the engine to the back they DID NOT turn it around, they just plonked it down vaguely in front of the rear drive wheels so they could call it 'mid-engine' and then tilt it farther forward so they could justify 'mid-engine' just that little bit more. In so doing the engine was right up as close to the firewall as they could possibly get it .

Can you picture that result folks? The spark plugs were now almost butting up against the fire wall - I'm sure they designed the shape of the firewall to that there was some chance you could get access to the electrode boots. Oh, yeah, did I mention that they had to route the throttle cables up and over the engine? So to get at the spark plugs, you had to practically dismantle the whole top of the engine compartment. You had to take off the air cleaner, detach the throttle cable, and a couple other things I can't remember off hand. THEN you could climb over and reach down with the spark plug wrench that barely fit and take some bark off your knuckles just for good measure.
Has everybody heard about the bird?
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