Unreliable cars I have owned
basil | 3/2/2005 | 9:31 am
Vauxhall Corsa SXI at Lower Broadheath, Worcester.
In 2001 a another Corsa was purchased despite being a little dissatisfied with the previous model.
The slightly more luxurious SXI. Has several extra’s over standard model.
This car has power steering and handles much better than older version, the bodywork fits and rattles are less, economy is excellent and tyre wear is negligible.
Bad points:
The micky mouse door mirrors protrude far too much, making fine judgement essential when driving in and out of the garage.
On this car during wet weather, the rear of the car and rear screen gets filthy quickly, filling the small washer container every few days can be a bit of a bind.
Just after purchase the car developed an oil leak, but the local dealer quickly rectified this.
Another small fault was an indicator switch that failed to cancel but our friendly dealer who also loaned a car during replacement replaced this.
A warning light came on; this involved another trip to the supplier, who again put this minor problem right at no cost to me.
7/8/05 a front spring has broken, the part fled off the car, making a loud noise. Although vehicle is less than four years old, the dealer was not interested in helping with replacement, even a telephone call to Vauxhall customer assistance failed to get any help, despite broken spring affecting handling.
This is the last Vauxhall I shall be buying, this model still has it’s problems.
Reliable Cars.
Another car I would consider as reliable is a Hillman Minx 1500cc I used this car during the seventies and found it utterly reliable.
I did about 30000 miles with no replacements being necessary other than usual service parts.
Although corrosion was starting to appear, around rear spring hangers the rest of the car was completly rustfree .
It was a bit of a plodder lacked performance, and a bit heavy on fuel, but proved to be an excellent buy.
An Austin Maxi was my transport for about ten thousand miles. This solid old car was almost completely reliable during the time I owned it.
The only replacements required during this time was a couple of suspension mountings and replacement of a gasket to cure an oil leak.
Corrosion was not evident during my ownership.
The vehicle was a bit on the heavy side and lacked performance and economy but still could be classed as reliable.
A Chrysler Alpine I owned could also be considered as quite reliable, apart from oil and filter changes and a set of disc pads nothing was replaced during 15000 miles.
A small fault with this car was the tappets, which regularly became noisy after two thousand miles, but this was easily rectified.
Corrosion was not a problem as the vehicle had been rustproofed from new.
The car had good performance, and reasonably good on fuel
A Vauxhall Astra 1.3 purchased new in 1989 also proved to be a good buy, during 50000 miles and fifteen years apart from usual servicing, I have had one new battery and four new tyres, (two tyres were replaced 15/6/05 at 48000 miles), also one part of exhaust system. The automatic choke has been changed to manual type, and I recently had to fork out for two expensive gas filled tailgate supports.
Rust has begun to appear at the rear of offside sill and wheel arch but apart from that the car is rust free.
The Astra still has good performance, but is not exceptionally economical.
Express Factors can supply any part for any car. The Worcester firm can be contacted on 01905 616611
