Thread: Non-Landy most-hated cars

Jeep j20 4x4 flat tray ute

An abomination in jandling ride quality reliability and fuel economy. The 258cuin 6 is a breathless piece of dinosaur faeces and the 'off road ' performance is woeful.

So glad to be rid of it. Traded it on a wb holden pv and an 'as traded' range rover 2door with a pile of issues. Loved that rangie which went on to be the vehicle that was used invthe 1992 aust safari .

Jc

Originally Posted by justinc

Jeep j20 4x4 flat tray ute

An abomination in jandling ride quality reliability and fuel economy. The 258cuin 6 is a breathless piece of dinosaur faeces and the 'off road ' performance is woeful.

So glad to be rid of it. Traded it on a wb holden pv and an 'as traded' range rover 2door with a pile of issues. Loved that rangie which went on to be the vehicle that was used invthe 1992 aust safari .

Jc

Yes, all true as I had a 1970 J3000 but I still love full size Jeeps!
The F100 that replaced it was a much better work truck in terms of ride, brakes, go, towing ability and operating costs as it was on gas, but the Jeep actually had better steering after I installed a Holden/Saginaw steering box.
It was a straight bolt in!

At least I never had to worry about the driveline strength of the Jeep, Warner T98 'box, Dana 60 rear diff and a 44 front.
I broke the Ford 9" housing a couple of times.

Now, this is a toss up?
Was it the Hillman Hunter GT? How the hell did that thing win the London to Sydney Rally? No wonder they didn't know if they should advertise or apologise.
Hillary was bought second hand for very little money (more than it was worth), it dropped all the clutch fluid on the way home from the purchase. Smoke poured out of the gear box into the car up any sort of hill (we lived in Toowoomba!), it blew the head, the shockers were shot, the accelerator pedal kept falling off, the exhaust fell off, it has so many leaks we never did figure out exactly how many. It finally got creamed by a drunk in a Ford LTD head on, that finished that story.


Or it could have been the Datsun 720 duel cab 4X4.

The Slug was OK, reliable, had an air con & was surprisingly good off road, but with that little 2.2 non turbo diesel it was the most terrifying thing to overtake in.
I was once trying to overtake a triple fully loaded cattle truck, down a hill, with a tail wind. Gave up after about 3 minutes just to get up to the second trailer!
She really wasn't a bad ute, just totally gutless, just to get up to 100kph took about 90 seconds.

Jonesfam

Originally Posted by jonesfam

Now, this is a toss up?
Was it the Hillman Hunter GT? How the hell did that thing win the London to Sydney Rally? No wonder they didn't know if they should advertise or apologise.
Hillary was bought second hand for very little money (more than it was worth), it dropped all the clutch fluid on the way home from the purchase. Smoke poured out of the gear box into the car up any sort of hill (we lived in Toowoomba!), it blew the head, the shockers were shot, the accelerator pedal kept falling off, the exhaust fell off, it has so many leaks we never did figure out exactly how many. It finally got creamed by a drunk in a Ford LTD head on, that finished that story.


Or it could have been the Datsun 720 duel cab 4X4.

The Slug was OK, reliable, had an air con & was surprisingly good off road, but with that little 2.2 non turbo diesel it was the most terrifying thing to overtake in.
I was once trying to overtake a triple fully loaded cattle truck, down a hill, with a tail wind. Gave up after about 3 minutes just to get up to the second trailer!
She really wasn't a bad ute, just totally gutless, just to get up to 100kph took about 90 seconds.

Jonesfam

Ah yes - an automotive place I worked at once had one as the loaner and parts runaround. Once had to use it to tow a customers car back to the workshop on a trailer. Thankfully only around 20KM as I was in second the whole time. I could make third but the slightest hill or headwind caused it to bog down.

Good little jigger apart from that.

One that actually underwhelmed in a lot of ways wasn't mine but I had the use of for a few days was an XA GT with 4V 4 dot heads, I think 780cfm Holley, HM Headers, top loader, etc, etc.
Basically just like the mysterious Phase 4, and all the bits looked factory???

My admiration for all the Touring Car drivers that punted the big Ford's in the seventies was immense after that.

Probably the worst manual gearbox I've ever had the misfortune of shifting, it was a thousand times worse than the T98 in my old Jeep.
Brakes that took a massive shove to work.
Manual steering that was the antithesis of direct, precise or light.

But by god it went once above 4000RPM, all the way to the rev limiter!
It wasn't slow below that, but with those massive ports, Holley and cam it really only came alive above 4 grand.

Fun for a short while, but a town car, or even a high speed interstate GT car it wasn't.

In my time I've owned or driven some absolute clunkers. Under-powered Pommie cars from the 50s and 60s, Holdens from EJ to HK and various pretenders from the Land of the Rising Sun.
I can honestly say that I never hated any of them, they all beat the alternative, Shanks' pony.

I previously forgot to mention a Toyota Corona I had for a while, until I palmed it off on my younger brother. Just awful to drive.

In 1965 my company car was a Landcruiser FJ45V. Mechanically, pretty much the same as the FJ45 ute or trayback, but with a completely different body from the firewall back, and a 100" wheelbase instead of 115"(?). The body soon started cracking. The rear seat folded automatically when you hit a bump. And with the long overhang and tiny rear shocks, it did not take much of a bump.

Only vehicle I have had a leaf spring break right through all leaves at the axle when it hit a clump of spinifex. Regularly broke wheel studs. Tailgate hinges collapsed when someone stood on the lowered tailgate.

Performance though was quite good by the standards of the time, but steering wandered all over the road due to a silly design of the steering relay, and fuel economy was about 12mpg at best, sometimes as low as four, since the carburettor seemed to be impossible to keep adjusted.

But I would not say I hated it - just managed to get my Landrover (S2) on the crew and mostly used it instead!