Just how unreliable are our cars

[poleonpom]

Time for a bit of a rant.
I got a flat going over the Westgate and had a VicRoads van come along and follow me over. Driving on the rim buggered the tyre, so I had to stop and change it. The van driver cane over and started telling me that Range/Land Rovers were all unreliable. I asked him how many he'd attended pver his career and he told me I was the only one! I told him that mine was a flat tyre, not a breakdown, so the score was zero, however he had attended a fair few other 4x4 breakdowns. So why do our cars get rubbished so badly?

[bee utey]

Because all the average bogan knows that LR is weak pommie **** unlike those ozzie icons, the Tototas????
It's just mindless tribalism, ignore them and drive on.

[Mick_Marsh]

I had a flat on the ring road round Geelong a little over a week ago. Most of my failures are flat tyres.
About a month ago, the ignition switch fell apart. I've been plagued by flat batteries for the past few months but that was predominately because I was too tight to buy a new one.
I've been put off the road by the RTA because the old sump gasket had crazed and was leaking oil.
I destroyed my transfer case. My own fault. I used the wrong oil. It drove to the repairers.
I had to walk sixteen kilometers one night because a fuse blew.

Since buying it in 1992, using it as a daily drive until 1998, and having it parked until about three or four years ago, I've got to say it has been a really good bus. Second most reliable car I've had. The most reliable one being a VR Commodore.

Over quite a few years of car ownership and quite a few cars, I've found regular servicing, preventative maintenance, and treating the vehicles with care is the secret to a reliable car.

A mate has an old Toyota Camry. It has been through three family members. It has never broken down. That is the most reliable car I have ever seen.

[superquag]

Because they are unreliable...

Seriously, a combination of factors. (like "life", it is'nt that clear-cut...)

Reputations start somewhere, with something. I'd suggest 'British Electrics' as a good example of bad design, executed with cheap materials and in the case of Headlight beam-switches, under-specified, to be polite...
Apparantly it is common for the IGN switch mechanism to come apart on certain models.... (Or most of them).

If you own a Classic, then chances are you have already replaced window switches... and the ventilation fan speed controller. Or you WILL in the near future. Or the previous owner did.

Glorious stuff-ups like the door mechanisms - ( handles from the Morris Marina) - that demand regular adjustment.- Failure to do so will ultimately result in a snapped-off exterior handle. Classics and D1's.

If yours is an early Classic, the metal channel under your side windows is rusting out. Or has, but the glass has'nt yet popped out of it. Rain does this... as it also attacks the frame of your back window. - Which is not galvanised, or prepped properly, nor painted with a durable top-coat. My cynical guess is that the alloy used is.....

These are what can best be described as 'nuts & bolts' technology... straightforward basic stuff that the Japs invariably get 'right'.

Bottom line, the Original owner of my car paid over $95,000 back in 1995 whilst the most expensive/fully optioned Jap cars were around $60K. Check the resale value of them today.

Apologies to any Land-Rover owners getting a good run...(NONE to Solihull...) but after 8 Jap cars (4 brands) over 45+ years, as well as one German and three Aussies.... I've never had to replace a stuffed switch or had any ECU play up. But collectively I've done in 3 alternators and one starter-motor, and no rust that threatens to let go of a window. Seeing as only one was brand-new, I must have been exceptionally lucky. But I've had around a dozen flat tyres, none have been the fault of the car...

IMHO, the only thing LR got 'right' is the concept of soft spring-rates combined with enormous suspension travel. (RR Classic) The advantages gained by Spencer-King and his Engineers were slowly but surely squandered by inept management and disinterested / depressed workers...

My Classic is nice to drive for a variety of reasons, but 'fiscal responsibility' & 'reliability' are not amongst them...

[superquag]

Over quite a few years of car ownership and quite a few cars, I've found regular servicing, preventative maintenance, and treating the vehicles with care is the secret to a reliable car.

A mate has an old Toyota Camry. It has been through three family members. It has never broken down. That is the most reliable car I have ever seen.

-Agree 100%,
and,
- Lots of folk say the same thing about them...

[PaulP38a]

If you want reliable, do not buy a VZ Commodore/Crewman. The 3.6L V6 Alloytech has a dodgy cooling system and my Crewman Ute has recently developed a habit of leaving one bank of indicators on after the car is locked. I suspect a BeCM problem but cannot find a cheapish diagnostic tool to talk to it... makes my 2 P38's and Freelander look quite reliable.

I had urged my son to buy a mid 90's Camry as a cheap reliable car... instead he bought a 1991 Lexus/Toyota Soarer 2.5L twin turbo... hated it until I took it for a drive. Am now thinking that I need more parking space to make way for a Soarer (V8 or turbo) and sell one of my P38's to appease SWMBO

[alittlebitconcerned]

Least reliable car I've ever owned, no contest. I have owned many many cars and this one beats them all in terms of ongoing issues.

[Camo]

Least reliable car I've ever owned, no contest. I have owned many many cars and this one beats them all in terms of ongoing issues.

What do you have? P38? Early D2 Td5?

[rick130]

Never been stuck, but it has stopped several times but I've been able to get her going again.
Lots of silly little little niggling things, but I knew all about that before I went in to Landy ownership over ten years ago.

Our GU Patrol has been the very model of reliability so far.
One small problem under warranty, the transfer pump from the second tank failed and that was the only warranty issue, and it's done two radiators. One rad was definitely stray current and I suspect the first one was as well, and one small axle seal oil leak that weeps a touch then stops for a month or so.
Just over 400,000km now and still the original clutch too, and it's spent most of its life towing.
It would have been a vastly different story if we had the hand grenade ZD30 engine fitted instead of the TD42T though. Thankfully the ZD30 wasn't an option for the utes back in the day, and I'd been forewarned by a mate in the trade anyway. (2001)

Would I get rid of the Defender though ?

Nope, like it too much.

[30t of coolness]

All vehicles have a degree of built in (cost cutting)faults & niggly problems , you want stray voltage in the radiator get a WG Jeep Grand Cherokee (along with a hot butt from the cracked seat heaters smouldering in the seat foam) , A cracked head 300 Tdi , 3l Patrol ,Injector problems Toyota D4 or V8 diesel anything also Pathfinder / Navara diesel , Window regulators VW Golf , Disco 1. Dual mass flywheels , What a waste of time ! Particulate filters that block up due to Australian fuel & then must 'Regenerate' Blowing copious clouds of no doubt toxic crap into the air. Stuff all modern cars I will work on them , But I'll stick to my 2a thanks