| Click to Post a New Message!
Page | [ 2 ] | | |
| | |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
Here's one: My 1976 Dodge Power Wagon 4X4. It was an absolute piece of junk. IMHO, the 70's were the height of arrogance of the US car industry. They all made a pretty lousy product. But Dodge was the worst by a long shot. This was also a time when Dodge was cutting all kinds of corners before their ills and near total collapse became publically known.
This vehicle had too many problems, malfunctions, breakdowns to mention but the all-time favorite come apart was as follows:
I was going down the road about 60 mph and the rearend was whining more than usual. At that point, I just didn't care what noise it was making, I had just decided to drive it until the wheels came off. Well, they did.....at 60 mph! The entire rear axle came detached from the frame....wheels and all. I looked in my drivers mirror to see the axle with wheels attached gaining on me. Off course by this time the frame had dropped on the pavement, and I was slowing rapidly....and noisely. The rear axle and wheels went whipping by me on the drivers side (luckily there was no oncoming traffic) and veered off into the borrow pit. Anyone else call the ditch along side the road the borrow pit? The reason was in early days they "borrowed" dirt from the side of the road to make the road bed....but I digress. The axle, wheels and all hit a barb wire fence along side the road and proceeded to wrap about 100 yards of barb wire in an incredible mess all around the axle.
The Brown Dog as we called the Power Wagon came to rest along the side of the road and I had it towed home and had to come back and fix the poor guys fence. I cut off some of the wire but took wire, axle and all back to the dealer to prove what had happened, because I didn't think he would believe it. He believed it, because this wasn't the first axle that had come loose....but this one was the most dramatic he said. I guess the the differential just totally froze up and at my speed and weight, as it was loaded with lumber, the wheel friction on the pavement totally tore the whole axle loose from the frame.
That story is the gosh honest truth. It was also the last Dodge or Chrysler product I ever owned and will ever own!
|
|
 Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
Frank your comment on the "K" car seems funny to me. I had a 1984 Plymouth Reliant and had no trouble with it. It was a stripped down version 2 door with 4 cylinder and 4 speed stick. I only had the car for 5 years and 70,000 miles but heard from the people that bought it from me. It got almost 200,000 miles on it. My brother-in-law still has my deceased mother-in-laws 1985 Dodge Aries. He still drives it, but it now is a total piece of crap. He prides himself in his $450.00 Suburbans that he buys. (ie. doors are held shut with rope and the dog has dug a hole in the right front cushion). Red Green could learn something from him.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
Yoperpete; I agree ther must have been exceptions at both ends of the scale not only with "K" cars but most any brand. The one we had should have never been built, but a friend still has his mothers "K" car that he drives to work. Our Son in law in northern Minnesota buys up some rust bucket Suburbans in the summer then sells them for snow beaters in the fall. Claims he makes a few bucks doing it. Frank.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
I've never owned a car or truck I regretted buying or owning.
I have, however, been stuck with some pretty pathetic excuses for cars as rentals, usually becuase my reservation got screwed up, or they over-booked.
Two stand out in particular.
One was the aforementioned K-car. After driving it for 2 days I came to the conclusion that passing gear was NOT in the TX, it was in the stereo, it only made more noise, not more speed.
The other was a Chevette, 4 cyl. auto. with A/C, thought I was going to die getting onto the Interstate. A/C off, foot to the floor, and I ran out of merge lane (on a downhill on-ramp), looked down and I was only doing 52 mph!!! Took it back to Dollar and told the clerk to either give me another car, or get in it and we'd go for a little cruise on the Interstate. I left in a Cadillac in about 2 minutes.
Best of luck.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
Murf, I remember when I did crewing for race teams. Rental cars were fun for us especially when you had two or more to play with. I feel sorry for the people that got them after us. Getting them airborn on the entrance to hotels was popular, speed bumps were fun at 30 mph, etc. We won't even mention the hand parking brake. Good memories...
We even had 1 guy ride in the trunk due to lack of space. He volunteered and never did it again after the speed bumps, spin-outs, curbs, etc. That's what happens when you try to fit 7 crew dogs in one Pontiac Grand Am.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
My staff got into a heated debate about the "best off-road vehicle" at the company picnic one year.
I ended the discussion when they asked my opinion. "Simple," I said "rental cars.".
The conversation ended right there in a big roar of laughter........
Best of luck.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
I've been trying to think of a car I've owned that was bad, and I can't think of one either. I do have to stick up for the poor maligned K car. My mother bought one when she had just turned 65 yrs old. She made the mistake of taking my older brother who used to be really cheap along to order it. Somehow he talked her into an 81 Dodge Aries with NO OPTIONS. Actually, the auto trans must have been an option. It had no power steering, no power brakes and of course, no power. It was all the poor woman could do to turn the wheel.
She gave it to me when she bought a new '90 Buick. This time she went shopping with my brother's wife.  I drove it for another 5 years and gave it to my daughter who drove it 2 more years. It still ran when she had the junkyard pick it up, said it was too embarrassing to drive. While it wasn't a really good car, it wasn't a bad car either. Plus the K car saved Chrysler in the eighties. Remember the govt loan guarantees?
Dave
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
My negative purchases were two cars my wife wanted and a GMC Jimmy that I wanted.
1. 1975 Chevy Vega GT wagon. This was a good looking car but basically a piece of junk, brought it new for $4K and sold it a year later for $3K.
2. 1969 Volkswagon bug, brought it used in 1974, the wife wanted it, as it was a stick shift automatic. Paid about $1300 replaced the transaxle and sold it for $1000, kept it about 6 months. Then we got the Vega.
3. I brought a used 1983 GMC Jimmy. I kept this for about three years and used it to pull the ski boat. I had to replace the camshaft and when I traded it, the front main seal was leaking.
My favorite all time was my second, car a 1963 white Chevy super sport with red interior. It was a good chick car. I brought it the summer before my sophomore year in college.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
1986 Ford Escort L. Very surprised no one else has mentioned this one yet. They seemed to be as common as cockroaches back then and about as ugly. It's anemic 4 banger was only good for about 60K-80K miles before it started burning more oil than gas.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
The Car You Wish You Never Bought
The mention of a Vega brings back some wild memories. One of my former college room mates had one when we graduated. His was a Vega GT. Actually it went pretty fast for mid-70's vintage cars and did handle well. After a long tough night of partying, we woke up and looked at his poor car. In mid August we did a bunch of crop touring in corn fields. The hood was all dented and grille was broken from the cobs. The under carriage by the shock towers had corn stalks hanging everywhere. We were making crop circles before it got popular and mysterious.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
Page | [ 2 ] | | |
Thread 121187 Filter by Poster:
1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
|
()
Picture of the Day
RANCHER24
Unanswered Questions
Active Subjects
Hot Topics
Featured Suppliers
|
Gas Generator Weather Protecti
12-18-2005, 19:43 
Pics
Reply
Digg It 
Del.icio.us 
