Thread: Reliable vehicles

Renault 12 - not reliable
Datsun Bluebird - very reliable
Datsun 120Y - reliable, but could overheat
VW Beetle - not reliable
Toyota sprinter (AE86) - very reliable
Hyundai Lantra - very reliable
Holden Frontera V6 - reliable in the short term, but antipating auto probs
Holden VT - very reliable
Subaru H6 (initial) - very reliable
Subaru H6 (current) - very reliable
LandRover Disco TD5 - reliable... except for the bits I've played with!
LAndRover IIa ute - unreliable but very modified.

My 2 cents worth....

VW1500 beetle - very reliable, as a uni student bought it with lots of Km and it just went and went (had it regularly serviced)
Patrol G60 - bulletproof and absolutely reliable; went all over the place, including Uluru
Cortina TD 4.1L - unbelievably badly put together; bought it new and sold it before the warranty ran out, it would have sent me broke
Mini Moke - great fun but a few problems
Renault 12 Virage - magnificent car, had it for lots of Km, just went and went
Honda CRV - another reliable piece of engineering
Alfa 33 broke down on average once every 3 weeks. I was my had-to-have-an-Alfa-once-in-my-life car, and I now have it out of my system.
Morgan 4/4 Series 1 (1948) a bit dicky, but it was over 50 years old
Morgan 4/4 1981 - a sweet thing that started first time every time and brought a smile to the dial just going for a drive
Citroen CX 2400 Pallas - bought it with high mileage, and it needed fairly regular attention, but was sheer pleasure to drive. The faster it went, the better it rode and handled
....
a few others that made no real impact
....
Now have an 83 Skyline 2.4L as my daily driver - bought it for $2K as a stopgap measure, with 160K km on it, now has 263K km and it just won't die
2000 Td5 110 goes well but has oil in the harness which will need attention soon (not happy!)
BMW 323i E36 - no problems at all; beautifully engineered

So generally, I have had a variety of vehicles over 30 years and most have been reliable. I am no mechanic, and believe in preventative maintenance

Gordon

As a young lad in the RAF I was always driving up and down the country most weekends and needed something reliable..so I bought a 1967 Vauxhall Viva at an auction for 15 pounds !!..had done 20,000 miles and was an ex police car..came with 1 years tax and MOT as well.

In 3 years and about 80,000 miles later..it never let me down

Just the usual oil changes and spark plug cleaning ..and it never broke down or failed to start..even in the deep snow of a scottish winter , we'd have to dig it out and defrost the door locks ..but it would always start first time..we did start to think it might have been possessed ..sold it to an RAF mate when I got posted overseas for 25 pounds ..and it lasted another 2 years until the drivers side floorpan fell out when he was doing 50mph on the motorway....it was scrapped after that with about 130,000 miles on the clock ..he got 10 pounds from the scrappy as well..

Most unreliable has to be a 1982 Rover SD1 2600....it cost me a fortune to keep going..
Sold that to my brother and he's still not talking to me !

cheers,
Richard

Had the 85 Isuzu county for 12 years, 520,000 on clock.
Had normal bits wear out but it has never let me down. Even when I blew the transfer case bearings I still managed to limp home.
Our Rav 4 is 6 years old, and not one single thing has ever gone wrong in 130,000.

Suzuki RG250 - revved the ring out of then traded .
Suzuki RGV250 - hadnt even ran it in and some dosey cow T boned me and wrote it and me off.
EH special sedan with 179 hydramatic - paid $75 for it then robbed it for my FC sedan.
HR 186S - got it for $150 with original 186S (cast headers and 2brl carb) still have 186 in my FC.
FC sedan 58 - never been on road since i've had it- no motor when i got it.

Cortina TD 2ltr auto- cooked it, refilled rad and it kept going till i sold it.

Suzuki LJ50 3cyl 550 cc- re ringed it after i cained it.
TA23 76 Celica 2T 5spd - replaced clutch , respray,lowered 10" rebel mags.

While in the UK for 4 years i had a Fiat Strada Y reg (1983) great car ,replaced g box due to losing 5th/ reverse- cost 40 quid.

81 Rangie - bought 94' and still have, done h gaskets, clutch, heater core in 270k.

85 Rangie - bought 2002 sold 2006, 3 balancers and re sleeved M cylinder.

VFR750 - beautiful bike not 1 drama with it, i miss it .
TDI Disco- bought 21 months ago only 1 set of F pads replaced.

All in all a pretty good run,had nothing fail prematurely that wasnt self induced by me .

Most reliable...
Datsun 240K - gave it heaps and took it all
Subaru Forester - brilliant to drive and never did a thing wrong anywhere
D1 - was great but the V8 was too thirsty
NG Pajero - many will laugh but I don't have a single issue with these, started, stopped took me everywhere I wanted to go and never gave a moments trouble in 4 years - so good a mate bought it and loves it (he's camping this weekend - sod!)
D2 - aftere fixing things others ignored no - problem, no leaks, but I must do the starter motor brushes, lol!
Wrangler - well don't get much more basic these days, fuel injection and that's about it!
Mike

not that you would of heard of them....

Rover metro GTI 1.4mpi, bought with 41,000 miles on at 3 years old sold with 170,000 miles on 5 years later with £0 spent 1 radiator and 1 subframe mount replaced under warranty... wicked car that was evilly quick ex rover car that i think was 'played' with would wheel spin in 3rd gear and used to do 99mph in 3rd 120 mph in 4th before having to go into 5th! bugger in the wet tho trying to keep traction in 3rd and 4th gear.... oh also got 56mpg too at 90mph (not that i ever went over 70! )

rover 220gsi bought at 62,000 miles, sold with 250,000 miles after 1 gearbox cause i ran it for 30,000 miles with no oil in... and a head gasket that weeped oil and i was fed up of cleaning (total cost £250!) oh it got through a few tyres too... wickedly quick also and handled like it was on rails... faster you went the lower it got... always wanted a turbo one in case anyone has one for sale... im sure they came here!

now im on the td5 disco, 1 oil pump bolt during a service and the oil in the harness plus a temperamental instument cluster and 'something' wrong intermittently with the engine / turbo / egr etc etc.. still runs tho and runs well

Thanks

Steve

I had a 98 Holden Frontera for 10 years, just recently sold it. Sad to see it go as it never once let me down, in ten years it started first time every time, only spent minimal dollars on it for general service stuff. Prior to that I had a VN commondore for about 10 years and apart from 1 alternator and a fuel pump it never stopped either and I tried to kill it on numerous occassions.

However, I once owned a Rover Vandenplas (yep, just like James BOND) it used to break down even if i just looked at it. Yet I still loved it coz it was different. I've had my Disco for about 12 months, replaced the fuel pump recently but everything else seems to be going alright (touch wood - my head)...

Hucksta