Of all the things we want our cars to be, “reliable” is always way up at the top of the list. No matter how narrowly focused a car may otherwise be as an off-roader or street carver or luxurious cruiser or something else, the one thing we’d all like the machine to do is start, run, and return us home (or to the finish line or trailhead) without breaking down or failing to start in the first place.
And when it comes to daily drivers and work vehicles, nothing trumps reliability. No one can afford to be late or miss a job with any regularity. Everyone needs reliable transportation, and a reputation for reliability can only be earned. No amount of marketing can spin a car that lets customers down into one they can count on.
For a lot of buyers, that means Honda and Toyota top their preferred brands list, though they aren’t the only reliability stars. Getting more granular, specific models like Civic, Corolla, Accord, and Camry are singled out for bulletproofness. More knowledgeable car buyers might advise budget-conscious shoppers to look for anything with a Buick 3800 V6 for day-in, day-out infallible transpo.
No matter what advice you’ve gotten or like to give about which cars can be counted on and which to avoid, there are always surprises. A low-mile Corolla that somehow becomes the bane of your motoring existence. The high-mileage luxury European car everyone told you not to buy has, incredibly, never let you down. And so, today we’re asking What Supposedly Super-Reliable Car Was A Lemon For You (And Vice Versa)?Â
Says Matt,
People always complain about old German luxury cars, but my 240k-mile BMW is great. I treat it like a Honda Civic and, other than a flare up here or there, it acts like a Honda Civic. I realize by saying this I’m dooming myself.
I fully expect that Matt’s BMW, now jinxed, will strand him within a fortnight. (Yeah, I say “fortnight” now.)
David, meanwhile, had a terrible experience with what shoulda been a no-worries ride:
I bought a 1995 Honda Accord; it was, to this day, the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever owned. Everything broke at once, and it wasn’t that easy to fix. I loathed it. And the fifth gear synchro didn’t work. Could it have been abused? Sure. But that doesn’t excuse it abusing me.
Matt piped in:
Between a Honda Accord and Saturn Vue, I would not have picked the Vue as the reliable daily. Who would?
Stephen also hated an Accord. Am I taking crazy pills?
One of my most-difficult to own/fix was one that ha sa reputation for not breaking. ’08 Honda Accord Sedan, I bought it off of a local door guy that had just gotten in a RF fender-bender (with accompanying DUI) and hit the local Pick n Pull to piece it back together. Fender, headlight, bumper cover, fender skirt, brackets, etc. Once it was back together and painted, I kept getting an transmission shifting issue that pointed towards the speed sensor. Popped a new one in, same issue. The part I purchased had the same dimensions and connections as the one it replaced, so I figured there must be some other internal issue with that transmission. Sold the car for cheap with the concern. Later, I learned that Honda uses both an input and output speed sensor on that transmission that both use the exact-same pigtail connector and are identical! Of course the sensor that I had swapped out was The Good One (Input) and all the next owner had to do was swap out the Output sensor. A solid learning experience.
Your turn! What Supposedly Super-Reliable Car Was A Lemon For You (And Vice Versa)?
Top graphic: Toyota
Toyota problems here. Had an FJ60 with endless problems. Called it my $100 car–every time I drove it, I shelled out at least $100 in gas, constant repairs and maintenance on a slow, stinky, rusty truck.
Also had a Tacoma that got horrific MPG, speedo whined, e-brake snapped, U-joints gave up, AC crapped out, and on and on. Glad to be rid of both.
Not me, but my parents ‘07 Civic. Bought used in ‘08 with about 10000 miles on it, scrapped in 2023 with about 100k on it. In that time, it ate several sets of rear struts, at least one starter, multiple headlights (which were a bear to replace), before the block split due to a manufacturing error (there was a recall but their car was out of the recall period). What a pile. Interior was cheap, NVH was surprisingly bad, the handbrake lever was at a very uncomfortable position and consistently dug in to taller drivers’ legs. I have family that swears by Honda, but I’d never again buy one personally (except an S2K).
I know vans don’t compare apples-to-apples to cars because of suspension geometry, doghouses, and other varied reasons, but I had been under the impression Econolines/E-series were supposed to be okay.
Of course mine found every stupid reason to break. The vapor can vent valve clogged twice and that’s a drop-the-gas-tank job.
The filler hose rotted through and left a nice puddle at a gas station.
The rear climate fan fuse holder melted at some point.
The serpentine belt snapped.
And even of its regular maintenance, the upper and lower ball joints were painful to pay for, let alone the more-frequent-than-average brake pad replacements.
The killing blow for it was one of the catalytic converters starting to go bad and rattle…3 years after it had been replaced…with a 2-year warranty. (The other converter was the original one, roughly 22 years old at that point, and fine.)
Ironically, for the ~60,000 miles we had that van, the engine and transmission were among the few parts that never gave us an issue.
A ’76 (I think) Honda wagon. Over the years it had head leak/warp issues, brake issues, trans issues, engine issues, and more. The local dealer managed to get everything covered under either a warranty or a recall. Including the bent rod when my sibling drove too fast through a puddle, sucked water into the head, and thus bent a rod or two. Somehow the dealer (a motorcycle dealer stepping into cars) covered it.
My ’64 VW bus was utterly reliable even though the max speed was 54 MPH.
I hated my ’67 VW bus that broke every time I drove it.
My ’64 F100 coach-built crew cab. Original 292 engine and automatic transmission and 9″ rear end are now at 350k miles. During the first two decades of it’s life dad had a 8 foot exended overcab (custom built by Safari campers) on it that weighed 3/4 ton dry. Add in five or six people and gear travelling all over the western mountains. Brakes and starter motors and batteries we went through a lot of them though! Still runs strong. Not bad for a vehicle built at a time when 60-80k miles was about all that could be expected.
I have had pretty traditional luck with my vehicles – nothing out of the ordinary as it relates to expected reliability. My cheap beaters have acted like cheap beaters. My nicer, lower mileage cars have acted like nicer, lower mileage cars. I guess the closest outlier was my first (of many) second-gen Ford Explorer that I bought for a few hundred bucks after it sat for years. A new IAC, new fluids and filters, some new not-flat-spotted tires, and an A/C recharge and it drove great for several more years. It wasn’t a model particularly known for unreliability, but it far surpassed what I expected for a couple hundred buck purchase.
I had a 1997 Buick Lesabre with the 3800. It was only 2 years old when I got it but it had like 80,000 miles and a bunch of hail damage, so I got it for $5,000. They were supposed to be one of the most dependable vehicle at the time, but after a few years it developed an electrical problem where it would just randomly turn off and sometimes wouldn’t restart for 10-20 minutes. Sometimes it would go 2 weeks between happening, and sometime it would happen multiple times in a day.
Noone could figure it out. I ended up trading it in on another car.
Side post battery terminal screws are a good culprit. They wear out and are an intermittent issue. They also wore down the threads in the battery. I had that happen on a 1999 LeSabre. Replaced those buggers along with a new battery and it didn’t happen again.
My girlfriend’s parents in the early to mid 1980’s had the same Toyota Camry you have pictured for the article. This one was white with blue cloth interior but had the same wheels.
That thing had so many problems that the stealership claimed to “bring down the expert from Toyota” to fix it. And even that guy couldn’t fix it. So the car sat with its various problems and the stealership offered them some petty amount of money for it. At some point it was gone. I don’t know teh details because I was more interested in the girlfriend, not her parents car.
Very much a vice-versa for me. Despite quality being Job <whatever> at Ford, my 2018 Fiesta ST purchased new has been completely trouble free for over six and a half years. Nothing but routine maintenance and consumables (I hooned through a set of tires and brakes in about 25k miles, but that’s completely on me). Note: I have a manual and not the infamous Powershi(f)t.
Despite how much I love my Suburban, the fact that I bought a high mileage and well-used one cheap and I use it hard means I’m regularly dropping money for repairs. Nonetheless, it still makes sense compared to the cost of replacing it. Given that everyone knows you can keep 2000s era GM products running in a state of semi-repair forever, this should be no surprise.
2001 Jeep Cherokee (XJ). Supposedly bombproof engine and supposedly Jeep finally got the cooling system sorted out and fixed the manifold cracking problem. We got a low miles one just out of warranty in great shape. POS was in the shop every 2 months, the fueling system constantly threw errors and the dealer never could figure it out; it was in a half dozen times for that alone. Everything bolted to the engine was junk, every single accessory in the engine bay failed at least once. Even the paint failed; every horizontal surface looked like smashed glass, Jeep stripped and repainted the entire car outside of warranty because they found the paint was twice as thick as it should have been. The vinyl on the sides of the seats and the piping cracked, the dash seams opened up and rattled or creaked like mad.
No one believes me when I tell them about it – and all this is just what I can remember. That XJ was in the shop more in 2 years than our FJ80 was in 20 (and we had that Land Cruiser so many miles we wore grooves in the axle shafts from the seals).
I’ve had my 2000 for 22 years now and it has the supposedly bad head. That thing has never broken down even once since Ive had it. The friggen alternator is original and so is the fuel pump. The AC wasnt touched until last summer when I finally topped off the freon. It blows colder than both of my new cars.
I always wonder how vehicles that are so similar can have such different track records. Maybe mine was built on Wednesday and yours was put together on Friday afternoon? Bad batch of parts? The interns were training that day?
You aren’t the only one I’ve heard of though. There were definitely lemon XJs out there.
I have a 2012 Ford Fiesta with the infamous DCT.
I’m now at 210k miles and the transmission has never been serviced or touched, and still works perfectly. I have never had any of the issues described by others. (Shuddering, harsh shifting, jerking, etc.)
It’s honestly been one the most reliable and bulletproof cars I’ve ever owned.
2013 Dodge Avenger. Had over 200k low maintenance miles and would have kept going had the Jeep parked next to it at Home Depot not caught fire!
I face this dichotomy when comparing my old 1999 Grand Cherokee 4.0L and current 2005 Acura MDX.
The Jeep needed 1 transmission rebuild, significant front end work (ball joints, wheel bearings, tie rod ends), AC compressor, it ate cooling fan relays, multiple electrical components and rusted like the devil.
The MCX has needed a timing belt (water pump), a radiator (installed trans cooler), AC compressor, and much less rust repair. It’s due for front struts.
I’m not counting brakes, shocks and consumables in my tally. I almost feel I’ve done more work on the Honda, yet has seemed less intense.
Once again, there is more confidence the Acura will start and run every time.
As the saying goes, “Miata is always the answer”. Mine was an electrical nightmare. I had to replace virtually every electrical component one-by-one. Battery, e-fans, blower motor, just about every light bulb, alternator, and even the horn!
Not mine, but I saw a Yugo in Trinidad, CO at a grocery store ~25 years ago. As I was admiring it, the owner (~60ish woman) arrived and she said it was the most reliable car she ever owned. Just basic maintenance and oil changes.
As far as reliable cars, our family had terrible luck – our Caprice Classic Brougham, Horizon, and Tempo were all pieces of garbage, spent more time on tow trucks than on the road
As far as unreliable – GM’s dustbuster vans were supposed to be terrible in that regard, but the worst our Lumina APV ever had was that the windshield wipers would sometimes randomly stop working. Which, yeah, they shouldn’t do that, but at least it didn’t leave you stranded, we just kept the windshield coated in Rain-X
I also had a Volvo 940 Turbo that would refuse to start when hot about 25-50% of the time, and a Cadillac Fleetwood that was just one failure after another at 10 years old
On the other hand, I now also have a 61 year old Chevy that, over the past 4 years, has only needed oil changes and routine maintenance. Granted, I’ve driven it less than 20,000 miles in that time, but that’s included a couple of 1,000+ mile weekend road trips and heavy use on weekends outside of salt season, honestly expected a lot more nickle and diming than I’ve had, sort of surprising for the age.
Oh no you don’t. It’s running fine at the moment, I don’t dare.
I guess I’ll say our Forester, whole family on both sides has Subarus, they all love them, we get a 2014, got it used but southern car with low miles and having a similar experience as Matt had, headlight bulbs, battery, front control arms, rear bushings, the led 3rd brake light??? how tf does that fail? Nothing even related to the boxer 4 or cvt, just weird crap, and still not even 100k on it!
My ’84 Cherokee had to take the ride of shame three times in a year thanks to overheating issues that could not be exorcised, and got fired by the family. Conversely, I’ve had two LeCars and they were rock solid including multiple long road trips.
The first was a 1987 Chevy Nova “Toyota Corolla “ that blew a head gasket at 16k,ate tires like they were free,and was rusty within 3 years.The second was a 1999 Sentra that loved new wheel bearings,control arm bushings,and all the air bag sensors were replaced 2x under warranty because the dealer couldn’t pinpoint which one kept setting the warning off,then Nissan sends an extended warranty card for the CVT and yes,both were purchased new.
I had a used first year ’88 W-body Regal during college with a MPFI 2.8L. That much maligned engine was bulletproof for me, unfortunately rest of the car broke around it. Needed a transmission rebuild, the rear disk brakes lasted a year at most before freezing, coils, electrical issues… the list goes on. There was always a problem, that needed attention NOW. Changing spark plugs involved rotating the engine forward, the alternator was a nightmare to replace due to access. The body was solid, these were well rustproofed. I swore off GM after that disaster, in part due the maintainability issues; everything was twice as hard as it should have been.
A few years later had a ’94 Taurus SHO 5 speed and a ’96 Thunderbird, 4.6L. Both of those were near dead nuts reliable. Neither broke down, left me stranded or needed much beyond routine maintenance. I never needed a clutch or other expensive, possibly shop repair. I performed the SHO timing belt and valve lash adjustment myself over a weekend, as well as replacing a radiator at some point. I did most repairs myself when I could and neither car seemed to suffer.
I think the difference is doing maintenance on my schedule, not the cars. I will gladly schedule or perform anything required with notice. Being stranded pisses me off.
Vice Versa: 2003 Dodge Dakota V6. Conventional wisdom of Chrysler quality meant it should have been a nightmare. That thing was truly bulletproof, absolutely nothing outside of regular maintenance. I put about 150k miles on it, donated to my brother, who put on another 100k. Remains the gold standard in my family for problem-free driving, above some Japanese cars. I just assume I used up all my luck though, as I haven’t bought an American brand since!
Chrysler has an interesting duality where when they build a good one it’s as good as anything, but they have more than their fair share of lemons and it’s usually completely random rather than a case of “get this engine, avoid that transmission”.
I call it the Mopar Quality Lottery.
For the surprisingly reliable side, my 1997 Hyundai Elantra wagon with a manual transmission. This was when Hyundai was thought of as being a cheap car that broke if you so much as looked at them wrong, but it was also the time when they were finally pulling their act together and producing better engines and cars.
My parents got it used in 2000 with 50,000 miles and I bought it from them in 2004 during college. That thing went through a lot with us. Lots of long road trips in AZ and NM and we never had a breakdown. I did have to replace the clutch in 2009 mostly due to my then BF being an absolute shit driver with one. Only twice did I have something happen that left me stranded. Once the positive battery cable had broken inside the insulation so it wasn’t obvious so it would not start. Another time the alternator died while I was driving through Pittsburgh so I had to get a tow, but once that was fixed I was golden. Otherwise it was all basically maintenance to keep that car going.
The one extra weird repair was in 2016 the plastic disc that was on the back of the clutch pedal that pushed in the switch on the floor to let the starter motor run cracked in half, but I was able to source a similar one and fix it within a day.
I finally sent it to the scrapyard in 2019 with 228000 miles on it and a clutch that was starting to slip, and that was only because I inherited my late FIL’s Jeep Wrangler and we didn’t have the space for 3 cars.
I had a similar experience with a 1999. Great little car.
2014 Toyota Camry. Only good thing on that car was the engine, it was a strong running, clean burning engine. The rest of the car was crap.
-torque converter was going out at the time I sold it
-paint would chip if you looked at it funny
-came out one morning to find that the bumper broke itself
-various squeaks and rattles through the dash and headliner, depending on temperature
Sold the car with 141k on it, bought a Jeep Renegade. Which was completely reliable, oddly enough.
Huh, my daily is a 2014 Camry hybrid with 241,000k. The paint still looks good (ungaraged) aside from stone chips. It is rattle free and solid as new, most surfaces look as new too. These are durable, not necessarily luxurious.