After talking to a buddy who has been desperately trying to chase down an oil burning problem with his motor, I got to thinking about some of the cars I have owned in the past (or present) and what my level of frustrated anger was with any of them. I would like nothing more than to set fire to the awful Chrysler Pacifica that currently serves as my wife’s car. Just a couple of months ago I along with my father in law, spent a few hours replacing the damned parking brake shoes because the lining had fallen off the stock ones. Luckily, after all the work involved with that job, the problem of the parking brake not working was somehow related to the cable. I wanted 5 gallons of gas, a getaway plan, and a road flare.
In terms of other vehicles that I have owned which pushed me toward the brink, a diesel powered Ford pickup spent more time heading back to the dealership for recall and warranty repairs than it did actually transporting me to work (DO NOT BUY AN EARLY RUN 6.0L PSD!). I remember clearly one day looking out my office window to see a massive flood of coolant running down right between the front tires of the truck and wondering how on Earth I could buy a grenade launcher on the sly. Amazingly, when I traded that truck in on another car I ended up getting more than I actually paid for it in the first place as dealers were selling anything with a diesel engine for an amazing mint at the time. The next guy who owned it probably jumped off a bridge or ran the ‘Stroke at full throttle without oil to finish it off. Ugly.
Those are two of my experiences with vehicles that would be better served as tracer round targets than actual transportation, now you share some of yours! I’m holding my temples like the Amazing Karnak and feel as though a Vega may be maligned in the comment section at some point today.
Question of the Day: Have You Ever Owned a Car You Wanted to Set on Fire Out of Frustration?
1965 T-Bird was the bane of my existence.
1981 Trans Am – money was tight and finally I could afford something, to bad I passed on a solid 1969 Superbee for what at the time I thought was a cool 4 speed Trans Am. To this day I really really kick myself for that decision and I hated the car.
It’s really funny but at the same time it’s really not, but the hatchback version of the one in the pic. That darn Honda Accord, was nice for a few years then it started getting intermitent problems, anything intermittent will make you want to kill it.
I also had a Chevrolet Beretta before that Accord that I wanted to kill until I changed the engine on it because of another intermittent problem (2 cylinders on the V6 would just stop working for a while and magically come back sometimes a half hour, sometimes 2 days and everything in between).
My own example that I wanted to burn was a 1995 Honda Civic that left me stranded about four or five times in the one year I owned it.
A lifetime ago, bought an ’83 Olds Ciera. Went to the shop on a weekly basis for a month. Finally, threw the keys and the payment book at the dealer and walked out. Amazingly enough, they were able to find and fix the problem then. It was still a piece of crap………
1982 Chevy Cavalier. Such a piece of shit that it’s the reason I won’t buy red vehicles anymore. Everything under the hood(except the engine) had to be replaced before it turned 18,000 miles, including the computer module. Traded it in for a 1986 Dodge Charger 2.2. Sold that at 126,000 miles to a friend. Only things replaced on the Dodge in that time was the clutch and the heater core.
Mid 90s Buick La Sabre. Doughy suspension, underpowered and developed an impossible to find random electrical problem every time I had to catch a flight
94 VW Golf 2.0 5sp.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that I spent more time working on it than driving it in the 4 months it was on the road. Paper thin sheet metal that looked more like swiss cheese from all the rust. Very temperamental engine management system. Of course the famous VW electrical gremlins, things would work and then stop working all the time. We lovingly nicknamed it Hitler’s Revenge.
no loved all my cars that had a few i had to fix other tha n they were great
Have I ever owned a car I wanted to set fire to ? No …. but I’ve rented one . A 2010 Cadillac SRX for some ten days . By the end of the rental the debate was to either burn it to the ground or drive it off a cliff so no one else would have to put up with the POS .
A 1986 Mazda 323 “island beater” replaced more head gaskets than it was worth, I gave it to a friend and replaced it with a higher mileage Olds Ciera.
The Crown Vic is well on it’s way. I’ve officially spent more money fixing it than I did buying it. I have to park on the street at night and sometimes I wish a drunk driver would just fly by at a few hundred miles per hour and put it out of it’s misery. Every other car I’ve owned has been a good marriage, at least for awhile, this car never has been. Maybe that’s why I hate dumping money into it.
199??? Jeep Cherokee, bought new. Drive down the road and parts would just fall off. The last straw, pulled up to a toll booth, tried to roll down the window, it fell into the door and shattered, in February, in Pennsylvania. Very cold. Biggest piece of crap ever built. Bought a $400 Geo Metro to replace it and drove the hell out of it for 4 years without a problem.
1988 cavalier. random no start. fuel related, pump, tbi injector, fuel filters kept clogging, hit like five different gas stations, every fillup it would clog solid. left me stranded every third time i tried to start it. last straw was at my soon to be daughters sonogram. sat in the hospital parking lot for an hour. got it to start , it would surge with my foot off the pedal, and bog under acceleration. the damn dash started smoking and we had it towed. man i hated that thing.
very nice and good work, keep it up, thanks
Used Cars in Middle East
2004 Honda accord…. this car never really gave me any problems, I bought it put it on the road and the very first time I drove it (to work) on the way home I stopped at the bestfriends house and her uncle todd just ask troy is that your new car? “yea y?” whys it smoking? litteraly caught it on fire in her driveway lol