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Back in the stone ages of 1972 I bought a brand new Mercury Comet. I was just under 18 years old. The first night my sister and I went out the car stalled and wouldn't start again. Turns out the gas gauge was broken so even though it showed 1/4 tank it was actually empty. They fixed that and two days later we get stranded again! The tank being empty apparently messed up the carburetor (remember those) so back to the shop it went.
After that it was great and I eventually traded it in for a brand 1977 red Mustang. A few months later I moved from Florida to Long Island. It was March of 1978. Had the car serviced and checked over before the trip. Get to Georgia and realize no hot air is coming out of the heater. Since I lived in Florida I hadn't really used the heat much. We froze our behinds off driving from GA to Long Island. The windshield kept fogging up and we had to open the windows occasionally to get it to clear up which just let more freezing cold air in.
Needless to say I have driven foreign cars ever since without a single problem.
I had a 30 day old '95 BMW fail to start due to a defect in the 'smart key'. It happened again a year later but by then I was smart enough to carry a spare key. BMW claimed it was my fault because I was too 'tough' on the key. That was the last BMW I owned or will own.
2014 Toyota Venza. At 10k miles, the panoramic roof exploded (literally) driving down the interstate. The car could still physically drive, but with the roof lying on the headliner in a million pieces it was too dangerous to attempt it.
2004 Lincoln LS - Valve cover O-rings leaked so badly by 40k miles that it would cause misfires minutes after installing new coil packs. Because of the design of the 3.9L V8 and how it was shoehorned in the engine bay, couldn't just swap them on the side of the road and the car misfired so badly that it would barely run.
2010 Chevy Tahoe - Fuel pump burnt out at 50k miles and left me stranded 100 miles from home.
2003 Mitsubishi Galant - Pouring coolant in the floorboard and all of the O2 sensors failed at the same time. 35k miles. Had to get it towed to the dealership to be repaired.
In almost 20 years of driving, only 1 time has a car failed me and required me to get a tow.
3 months ago. 2006 Infiniti G35 with nearly 200K miles. I bought this car new, and it ran great with routine maintenance up until the front driveshaft on the AWD system fell off...at 80MPH. Needless to say, I wasn't fixing that one on the side of the road.
Other than that, everything else I've owned has never let me down when I needed to go somewhere. Most of the car's I've owned have been Fords
Only one, my dad's '83 Mitsubishi Tredia. It was a good reliable car that had been sitting for a while and endured several Boston winters. The timing belt had totally glazed over and it finally shredded itself. Lesson learned in deferred maintenance.
Culprit? No spare, and a sidewall blowout that ruled out the fix a flat can that comes with the car in place of a spare.
Lesson learned? No one carries a 185/55/15 tire in stock. Extra credit? Limped to dealer, got loaner and they ordered a tire for next day install. They decided to do software update (recall issue), which screwed up the radio and steering wheel controls. Lost function on both after update. Sloppy dealer didn't wash car and left update dongle in USB port, which I noticed after I left.
Scheduled for fix this Friday. I doubt it'll get fixed on first try.
Newest car was a 79 Plymouth Horizon, maybe 20K miles on it. Just wouldn't start outside of a Chinese take out joint. Right across from Plymouth dealer. Module in distributor went.
Newest vehicle 2001 BMW motorcycle, under 50 miles, fuel injector return line came off, had fuel pouring out all over the place. Towed back to dealers, then at 29K miles the final drive went, 3 months out of warranty on the other side of the country. They say BMW stands for "Bring My Wallet".
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