Is there any main brand of car you simply won't buy?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

dr.fuzzenstein

padma wrote: »

Citroen..never again..money pit and for catching me once they dont deserve my money...

People can argue all they like about a certain brand having 1 or 2 good models..but in this day and age with the technology that is out there to produce cars with shoddy engines..electrics and other crap happening to them is not acceptable..

I think this is the reason people will never buy a certain brand. Pal of mine had a fiat punto brand new..nothing but hassle..he wont ever buy a fiat again..because fiat f'd up..not the punto...so he determines that they could bring out the most stylish, reliable car on planet earth..he wouldnt buy it. Simply because he felt let down by that brand.. same if we walked in to a restaurant and customer service was bad..out the door and off to a place where its good.

It would take a long time before you would want to ever darken that door again.

3rd Honda..happy customer.

Given enough time, there will soon be no car left you can buy and no restaurant you can go to.

debabyjesus

Patww79 wrote: »

Leather is the one thing that would make me walk away from a car. But each to their own I suppose, I couldn't even have a leather sofa.
Very hard to find decent other spec without it though.

Weird isnt it. Cloth just doesn't do it for me. Heated leather is great.

Henry Ford III

Kia or Hyundai. Skoda. All for cheapskates/tightwads. Most cooking Nissans or Toyotas. Renault and nearly all Peugeots. Most Citroens.

PADRAIC.M

My better half has a 00 Toyota yaris since 2001, with 120,000 miles on it now, all I have ever done to it is basic service stuff like oil changes and plugs, tyres. It just passed it's now annual NCT, In the last 14 years it has passed every time with not so much as a fail advisory, I've been trying to get her to change to a newer car but won't as this one has never cost a ounce of hassle

mickdw

imokyrok wrote: »

Anyone here have any idea which make / models are more likely to pass the NCT as they age? I've no interest in wasting money buying new. I prefer to buy old and cheap and have no car loan.

Might seem like a strange suggestion given the thread we are in but ive seen numerous rover 75 walk through the nct year after year.
Given that they are cheap to buy, you would end up with an 05 model car with a bit of luxury for the price of a 99 micra.

padma

Kaiser D wrote: »

I'm sorry, no disrespect to you, but you are talking utter, utter ****e. You sound like the guy down the pub who says Fiat and Alfa are unreliable because you know a guy who knows a guy who had one and you never had.

And your beginning to sound exactly like all the other people who say the same ****e its not the car but the owner.. there is a reliability index for a reason and the reason is some cars are reliable and others are not...end of story.

If you want to continue deluding yourself that every car is a top notch piece of reliability go on ahead.

padma

Kaiser D wrote: »

I'm sorry, no disrespect to you, but you are talking utter, utter ****e. You sound like the guy down the pub who says Fiat and Alfa are unreliable because you know a guy who knows a guy who had one and you never had.

And your beginning to sound exactly like all the other people who say the same ****e its not the car but the owner.. there is a reliability index for a reason and the reason is some cars are reliable and others are not...end of story.

If you want to continue deluding yourself that every car is a top notch piece of reliability go on ahead.

bigroad

There are only a few makes that i would consider ,Honda,the bigger volvos with their own engines and possibility an Alfa 159 because they are a tasty looker.
The rest are just not worth it anymore.Their fuel consumption figures while good does not pay a punter for fixing expensive problems.Its a bit of a mine field what you choose anyway.
I say bring back standard diesels with no turbos and other crap they put on them nowadays and whatever happened to the excitement of a nice twincam 16v petrol engine.AAA them were the days.
Simple engines and no bullsh:th.

mickdw

Have you any recollection of what diesels were like before turbos? I cant believe anyone would wish to go back to that.
I do agree that there is too much crap involved now but a basic turbo setup should be super reliable.

wandatowell

I always swore I'd never buy a Ford.

Picked up a Focus ST last month. Christ I won't buy anything else ever again!

dgt

Wow, these threads always bring out the barstool experts/b*ll****ters that like nothing more than running down stuff out of spite, with nothing better to do than ram ill informed opinions down everyone elses throat, then get thick when others stand up to them.

At least have the balls to say you wouldn't buy something because you don't like it....

As for me, I wouldn't write an entire manufacturer off completely. Every manufacturer makes stuff that doesn't appeal to me, some more so than others

bigroad

mickdw wrote: »

Have you any recollection of what diesels were like before turbos? I cant believe anyone would wish to go back to that.
I do agree that there is too much crap involved now but a basic turbo setup should be super reliable.

Yes i will take that back ,what i should have said was back to when we had turbo diesels that didnt blow their turbo every 12 months.
I cant remember old turbo diesels being so unreliable.
A merc w124 300multivalve diesel is a nice place to be and has enough power to waft along.
My first diesel was a 1.6jetta 1990 ,it only had 55bhp but still got places without a bother.

MuppetCheck

I find it hard to discount a brand. It's too general. I buy based on my use, so if I was to discount a brand it would be because it doesn't meet any of my requirements in terms of models.

I think if you look at the model history of must brands you'll find something noteworthy. Manufacturers, for the most part, these days make what will sell. They are a business. The marketplace dictates most of what you see on the road. The badge a car wears has never had so little to do with a brand as it does now either meaning many brands have lost any individuality that they once had.

_Kaiser_

At this point, anything that's not a big comfortable German saloon (not including BMW which I think are vastly overrated for what they are)

Next car will probably be an A8 3L Quattro to replace my current equivalent A6.

Also anything that doesn't have a decent automatic DSG-style gearbox.

Tail Docker

There's almost no one "Manufacturers" cars that I would point blank write-off, I'd go by models not entire ranges. 5 series upwards, I like BMWs, I like E class mercs, I think the 406 was a good car and comfortable, The Citroen Picasso eats miles and does its job well, Toyotas MR2 and Celica are great cars, their Avensis is a good lugger and the Landcruiser and Hilux are fine 4*4s. Honda has its S2000, fast civics and dependable Accords. Rovers 2.0 diesel was one of the great engines, simple and reliable. Mitsubishi has its Evo and GSR tarmac munchers, The Mondeo is a nice place to sit day to day, and so on and so forth. I'm fcuking struggling with Renault though, lol...

bazz26

After reading most of this thread I honestly thought I was over in the After Hours forum.

PurvesGrundy

wandatowell wrote: »

I always swore I'd never buy a Ford.

Picked up a Focus ST last month. Christ I won't buy anything else ever again!

Well if it's a 2006-2010 ST, the engine/gearbox in that isn't a Ford one but from a Swedish brand.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Technoprisoner

bmw
vw
ford
renault

i dont think anyone mentioned merc...so seems thats the one to go for lol

K.Flyer

mickdw wrote: »

Have you any recollection of what diesels were like before turbos?I cant believe anyone would wish to go back to that.
I do agree that there is too much crap involved now but a basic turbo setup should be super reliable.

I remember the old diesels before turbos only too well...
0 - 60mph in about... an hour:D

shedweller

padma wrote: »

People can argue all they like about a certain brand having 1 or 2 good models..but in this day and age with the technology that is out there to produce cars with shoddy engines..electrics and other crap happening to them is not acceptable..

Theres a thing that has me baffled. How is it that "some" brands are particularly prone to, say, electrical faults. Isn't there more or less one company that makes electrical parts for cars?
I mean Valeo. In any case, how is that?
How can a company consistently get electrics wrong? I dont mean always but the odds of electrical faults with a certain brand are far higher.
Of course, some previously reliable brands are making a bags of things with their dmf's and gearboxes failing.
The tides have surely turned in terms of "reliable" brands etc. Confusing as hell nowadays to find a definite reliable car. Lotta homework to do eh?

Voodoomelon

Dacia, Daewoo and Ssangyong are the only brands i'd rule out altogether, regardless of what models they produce. Purely because i'm shallow enough to be embarrassed even leaning against one.

Most other brands have some sort of model i'd be interested in or admire.

dr.fuzzenstein

K.Flyer wrote: »

I remember the old diesels before turbos only too well...
0 - 60mph in about... an hour:D

I had a 1980's Ford Escort breadvan with the non-turbo 1.6 diesel engine.
I was lucky if I did it in an hour.
And I thought that thing was slow till I bough at 1980 VW T3 transporter with, again a non-turbo, 1.6, yes you guessed it, diesel engine. I think I once had it at over 110 km/h, but that could have been in a dream.
Diesels where pretty much undrivable back then, so all the people who complain that modern diesels are waaayyyyyyy to slow and they would never drive one after their petrol, turbo, MSXLA4AMGSTGTIGTXGTOGTSSTIGmobile 3.8 V8 quatrovalve 4WS 4WD active suspension with carbon fibre filled gearbox DSG race track prepped super-duper mobile don't know that to anyone who has driven a sub 50 PS NA diesels back in the 80's/90's the current crop are like race cars.
So now I'm preparing for the usual howls by the pedril boys of "Diesels are Sh*te! DMF! DPF! Injectors! Ban Diesel! Buy a 1 liter Ford!". Yeah, yeah, fine, if that's what boils your spuds.

As for makes, can't think of one I'd rule out, maybe the Chinese, but give 'em time, remember how we laughed at the Japanese? No, you're too young. The we laughed at the Koreans. Now we're laughing at the Chinese.
So general rule of thumb: Whoever we're laughing at now, beware! Give it a few years, we won't be laughing anymore.

visual

I use to drive 2.4 hiace without turbo had a few of them and they where as quick if not quicker than cars from same period.

VW vans where always slow think the first quick one was 2.5 turbo

Alun

To echo what others have said, anything French, especially Peugeot. The garage I take our MX-5 to is also a Peugeot dealer and all their replacement cars are Peugeots. Horrible things with weird seating positions, door mirrors designed by blind people, rattly hard plastics, the list goes on.

Into The Blue

Alun wrote: »

all their replacement cars are Peugeots. Horrible things with weird seating positions, door mirrors designed by blind people, rattly hard plastics, the list goes on.

I got a 307 as a rental.. tried to talk the agent round, but she tells me everything else in that category is gone, and I'll have to pay for an upgrade.. it was a work trip, so couldn't do that.

Took a down grade instead, five days of fun in a 500

Cleveland Hot Pocket

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

peugeot and citreon not a hope

Yet you drive a PSA focus?

Turbulent Bill

FrontDoor wrote: »

Cars are the one thing people have a massive confirmation bias with.

BMW sell cars that can be extremely expensive to maintain and have some engines that are a financial time-bomb. Audi sell a gearbox that is disastrous and costs 1000s to fix. MB sell cars that are often extremely unreliable and prone to rust. Yet all 3 manufacturers can walk away from these issues and still people come back and buy their product again.

The one thing that matters above all else when buying a car is the person that is driving it.

Exactly. Most of the premium brands have had catastrophic and well-documented issues, yet it doesn't dissuade owners from buying again. The reliability is only average (or worse), but reported satisfaction is still high.

I'm delighted that people write off entire brands based on pub talk, it'll just make my next (second-hand) motor cheaper.

dr.fuzzenstein

Alun wrote: »

To echo what others have said, anything French, especially Peugeot. The garage I take our MX-5 to is also a Peugeot dealer and all their replacement cars are Peugeots. Horrible things with weird seating positions, door mirrors designed by blind people, rattly hard plastics, the list goes on.

Pugs and Citroens are not so bad.
Funny thing though, if you ask a French person, they will say the same and also add "But Renaults are built by drunk peasants, don't buy them"

Eric Cartman

renault
fiat
peugeot
citroen

luckily none of them make anything in a category that appeals to me so its a fairly safe bet.

I will revise my decision if they somehow start building reliable rwd large luxury saloon's or Large 4x4's

dacia, ssangyong - just because eughhhhh.

rizzodun

I remember having a long discussion in work about French cars.

Him: "I liked my pug"
Me: "I'd never buy one, French cars are notorious for problems, electrics, bla bla bla..."

So after a long back and forth with myself basically slating French cars (and the French in general) we changed subject slightly...

Him:" So what would you like to buy for yourself for a bit of fun?"
Me:"205 GTI or ideally a T16, or a Renault 5 Turbo..."

Needless to say he left confused...

Hachiko

Cleveland Hot Pocket wrote: »

Yet you drive a PSA focus?

leave the daysul focus boy alone, its better than a lexus and countless others remember.

John_Rambo

wandatowell wrote: »

I always swore I'd never buy a Ford.

Picked up a Focus ST last month. Christ I won't buy anything else ever again!

Never liked Fords styling. Had a Focus ST for a week and couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Such such such good fun, the orange, the burble, the aggressive grill, the pipes, the drive, the stupid stupid take off speed, the stiffness... everything.

One major flaw - they're a penalty point printer.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Cleveland Hot Pocket wrote: »

Yet you drive a PSA focus?

only the engine block itself is psa... the rest are ford components. (air flow meters, fuel pumps etc wont swap with each other)

Hachiko wrote: »

leave the daysul focus boy alone, its better than a lexus and countless others remember.

i never said ford was better than any others. to answer the question i simply would not buy a lexus/renault and others.

Hachiko

of course not, a daysul focus is up there with the rolls royce, lucky you. cheap tax too, no?

Bacchus

Will never buy VW again after my current 08 Golf. Aside from having to replace the entire engine last year after it blew up as my wife was driving it on the South Ring road in Cork, the wheel bearing at the front have had to be replaced, the air blower unit broke down (fixed myself), some fan in the engine started making weird noises and just as Summer hit this year, the air con unit broke down. By the time I'm done with this car I'll have practically replaced every part of it.

Cleveland Hot Pocket

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

only the engine block itself is psa... the rest are ford components. (air flow meters, fuel pumps etc wont swap with each other)



i never said ford was better than any others. to answer the question i simply would not buy a lexus/renault and others.

Regardless, you bought a ford focus diesel but you wouldnt buy a lexus?
That's just nonsensical tbh.

So a 1.6 diesel focus is better than an ls400 or a sc430, or the IS range?
Idiotic IMO - you should really think before you post sometimes.

Zubeneschamali

Never been even slightly tempted by anything Japanese. Or Korean. Or "premium" German.

Irishcrx

I wouldn't write any brand off completely as said there is always an exception but I wouldn't buy the following in general because I'm just not into them.

Renault
Fiat
BMW
Audi

I think it's more down to the make and models for reliability than the brand as a whole , I've had a BMW 3 series before that was never out of the garage always something up with it. There has to be value in buying a car for me as well , I always take a long time considering options before making a switch probably a couple of month's of scouting about. But the usual 'pub' talk driver will always stick to the tale 'Ah Alfa's are a heap , always breaking down , dodgy cars' etc etc I've owned a few Alfa's and maintained them well and I've only once had a problem with one. The rest have always gone straight though the NCT and been bullet proof for me.

I bought a 166 V6 earlier in the year and it cost me €1,000 over in the UK plus VRT to bring in , it has low mileage and looks brand new inside and out, anyone who's ever set foot in the car can't believe how much it cost compared to their Merc , BMW and I think it's a far better better car than them for a quarter of the price.

Joe 90

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I had a 1980's Ford Escort breadvan with the non-turbo 1.6 diesel engine.
I was lucky if I did it in an hour.
And I thought that thing was slow till I bough at 1980 VW T3 transporter with, again a non-turbo, 1.6, yes you guessed it, diesel engine. I think I once had it at over 110 km/h, but that could have been in a dream.
Diesels where pretty much undrivable back then, so all the people who complain that modern diesels are waaayyyyyyy to slow and they would never drive one after their petrol, turbo, MSXLA4AMGSTGTIGTXGTOGTSSTIGmobile 3.8 V8 quatrovalve 4WS 4WD active suspension with carbon fibre filled gearbox DSG race track prepped super-duper mobile don't know that to anyone who has driven a sub 50 PS NA diesels back in the 80's/90's the current crop are like race cars.
So now I'm preparing for the usual howls by the pedril boys of "Diesels are Sh*te! DMF! DPF! Injectors! Ban Diesel! Buy a 1 liter Ford!". Yeah, yeah, fine, if that's what boils your spuds.

As for makes, can't think of one I'd rule out, maybe the Chinese, but give 'em time, remember how we laughed at the Japanese? No, you're too young. The we laughed at the Koreans. Now we're laughing at the Chinese.
So general rule of thumb: Whoever we're laughing at now, beware! Give it a few years, we won't be laughing anymore.

Yes, Japanese cars were pretty bad when tey appeared first but they were well built compared with the rubbish that British Leyland inflicted on their customers. The cars improved to the extent that some were desirable provided that you dumped that Japanese tyres that they came with and bought some decent European tyres. These days the buikd some decent cars and some of the best tyres in the world. Wouldn't say the the Koreans have anything worthwhile yet but they will. Chines, at least a generation away.

simplybam

Fiat, Renault, Ford and Opel/Vauxhall are on the no-go-list for me.

Cars I previously owned (in no particular order) were Fiat Tempra, Citroen Xantia (had 3 of them over the years), Citroen Xsara, Peugeot 406, Renault Kangoo, BMW 3-series, Peugeot 205. Have also driven at least 2 dozen other cars over the years (friends' cars or rentals) including Subaru Legacy, Mercedes C-class, BMW 5-series, Renault Laguna, Mercedes A-class, Audi 100 (yes - I AM THAT old, lol), VW Golf, VW Passat, Hyunday Trajet, Mazda 626 and a good few more.

Drive an older E-class now and it'll be Merc all the way from now on - by far the most comfortable drive I ever experienced and my boy racer days are well and truly over.

SpaceTime

Only car brand in our household that ever gave extreme engine problems was Opel.

My mother had an Opel Astra in the 1990s when I was a kid and that had a head-gasket failure!
Then she bought another Astra which had a really serious problem with the doors.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine in Madrid bought a new Astra and the engine needed to be replaced (this is about 4 or 5 years ago).

Not sure I'd go near them as a brand after all that.

I'm not sure that the anti-French car thing is justified anymore. I'm always a little careful not to read in too much Clarcksonianism into it. The British media HATES anything French.

Riesen_Meal

SpaceTime wrote: »

Only car brand in our household that ever gave extreme engine problems was Opel.

My mother had an Opel Astra in the 1990s when I was a kid and that had a head-gasket failure!
Then she bought another Astra which had a really serious problem with the doors.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine in Madrid bought a new Astra and the engine needed to be replaced (this is about 4 or 5 years ago).

Not sure I'd go near them as a brand after all that.

I'm not sure that the anti-French car thing is justified anymore. I'm always a little careful not to read in too much Clarcksonianism into it. The British media HATES anything French.

Mad,

I had an Astra for 4 years and had feck all trouble with it....

Driving a 307 ATM and I hate Peugeot's....

Viper_JB

I don't really buy into the badge thing, I like certain cars based on my requirements and the merits of the car itself, there are plenty of car makers that don't make anything I'm interested in....but if they were to make something then I wouldn't be against driving a car with a certain badge.

I think a big problem we have in Ireland is that some people will go into a dealership and ask for the cheapest, lowest spec car that they sell so they can drive the badge, these guys have a tendency to believe that driving the badge gives them certain entitlements on the road, with these brands you need to watch how the people driving the best cars that they produce behave on the roads...not the worst...some crazy, crazy stuff being posted on this thread

SpaceTime

You also can't really base your opinion purely on brand or some kind of weird notion that the nationality of the car has an impact on the build quality either.

Mostly it's about price point and sometimes individual car makers produce dud lines of cars with a particular flaw, or go through a phase of making dud cars then they can go through a golden age too where they produce amazing stuff.

It can be down to a change of production management, or a particular design team / lead designer.

nc19

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

a focus diesel......

not saying its a good car but just the newer fords im starting to like... as with mustang etc.

Just dont try to replace the fuel filter......

nc19

Quazzie wrote: »

So you'd drive a Ford Focus but wouldn't drive a Lexus is250 because a Focus has either style or build quality or style but the Lexus is250 has neither.

No offence mate, but you're talking through your hole.

My own list would be:
Renault
Fiat
Alfa Romeo
Rover

Dont be mean to the poor Rovers!!!

218VVC is a smashing car......

Ralphdejones

I've never ever understood the whole "I will never drive a . . . . make" thing

It makes no sense to me

The model is what determines a good/bad car, not the make, and that's more true now than ever.

Granted there are some makes that have never made a model I would drive, but that's not to say they won't.

nc19

Row wrote: »

Name any make/model of car that doesnt give some sort of trouble...:rolleyes:
Tbh ask any good independent Mechanic/Garage and they'll tell you some of the horror stories of moderns cars today....:eek:....after hearing them you'll be on your bike...:D

I work in an non main dealer and by far the most common car to come in with problems would be french cars followed by german (mainly bmw) followed by fords. Couldnt tell you the last time a mazda 2/3/6 came in for anything more than a service. Lancers and Colts get rusty exhausts but thats it. Nissan micra/almera no problems really but dont get me started on the primera (newer shape) Same with kia and hyundai, minor wear and tear problems.
By a long way euro cars are junkers with bmw leading the charge.

On this note I would never by a car from Europe.

I will stick with my souless jap and korean cars ta very much