The car/vehicle that you most regret buying/leasing
- Thread starter Doughbelly
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I couldn't get the white rims here.
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Things like seals in water pumps and boots on CV joints tend to get bad over time, it doesn't matter if they've only got 1 mile or 88,000 miles on them. Rubber does have a tendency to go bad over time, just like belts, hoses, etc.
Cherdawg
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Damn it brother that sucks!
They're not something id recommend thats for sure.
We get them here in aus too.
lol. I thought I'd hold off on mentioning it till later in the thread, but my daily driver is this, right down to the stripes:
Only I've got black rims.
This is (hopefully) the last time I choose style over substance.
Its not the 'S' model is it?
I generally stay away from british cars.
Im a mopar man and that made me laugh lol.
Turbo or non turbo?
Regardless the vg30dett was a nightmare to work on.
Overheated?
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2003 ford mustang - ran good for about a year and half then started going bonkers on me.
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That sucks Dough. I remember when you bought that car and how excited you were.
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It`s not the seal on the waterpump, it`s the cheap impeller blades and sorry, the cv joints shouldn`t break that easily. It`s the horrible turning radius that causes it.
OTOH you seem like just the fine chap who could take over the "routine maintenance" that can keep it running strong. It`s got a sunroof and the 1.8 T is pretty sweet. $1200 and it`s yours. I just bought a tl and am moving in a couple weeks anyway
245,000 on mine and still runs fine. Haven't had a thing wrong with it.
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Yeah. I've always got the same advice from friends and family or decades, but I figured that this car was built in Austria and MINI is now a BMW subsidiary so I was safe. Nope.
And yeah, it's an S. 50% more HP than the base. The non turbo model is completely gutless.
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How long have you owned it? Because BMW has owned MINI for a long time.I believe early 2000's. But no its still manufactured by the same brits.
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Well, I ended up leasing a new one.
Also, my employers refused to cosign for a car "beneath my station" so that limited my choices, esp since I don't like big cars here in Asia.
Basically my boss told me that for the university to sign or me, I had to choose a vehicle between 40-45k USD so it came down to the BMW 3 series, Audi A3/4, Volvo C30 and maybe the Genesis Coupe. All price are roughly 30% higher than US prices.
Since there are so many generic Audis and BMWs here, (can't spit without hitting one) I chose something different and have been regretting it ever since.
If the Toyota FT86 had been available here a year and a half ago, would have probably gone for that.
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Well I don't really regret this but I was a dumb ass to buy it so here is the story anyway.
I bought a turbocharged 05 350z with like 5k miles. The car was a show car before I bought it but I had a nissan mechanic look at it before the purchase. He said mechanically its good to go but had some electrical problems. At one point it had lambo doors on it. Well they decided to change it back to regular doors before they sold it. So after the test drive I pretty much didn't care about the electrical stuff. The thing was fun and quick as hell, kept a ear to ear grin on my face the whole time. I had to have it.
So after purchasing I decided to go get the electrical shit done. I found out that when they took the doors off they just cut all the wiring and half ass spliced to together... Took a dude like 4 hours to sort it out and fix everything. It also had a nitrous express kit mocked up in it. It wasn't 100% hooked up but probably 95% and I knew that but the way they did it was a pain in the ass to remove. It also had a sound system that wasn't properly wired and they also didn't bolt the sub box down in the back so it would just fly around from time to time.
So basically a month after buying it I spent $2000 to get all the wiring fixed and all the other shit done. I sold the NX kit for like $300 so I recovered a little bit.
6 months later I have an issue with something in the turbo pluming. Some bolt fell out and thank god my neighbor had a lift and I got it up there to find the little bolt with carbon on it stuck between some sit. I found the hole where it came loose about 5 mins later. If I didn't find that it would have taken forever to diagnose and fix the problem. So that cost like $3 for a new bolt and like 1 hour to try to put that fucker in, everything was so tight and getting a wrench on it was extremely difficult.
3 months later the middle of summer in AZ hits I am driving my car and all the sudden white smoke is coming from the engine compartment. Fuck.... so I think wtf the car still was driving great didn't feel any issues but then the ac was out. Luckily I was 10 mins away from my shop so I took it over. The turbo melted the ac line... Boom $600 for a custom line. I guess it is a common problem with the turbonetics kit on that car.
When I picked it up I was planning on hanging out with a friend of mine. So when entering his neighborhood I hit a bump and all the sudden I lost all power. No steering, engine shut off etc. Well my mechanic forgot to tighten one of the turbo pipe brackets and a pipe came loose... Luckily no damage happened and I just put it back in place and tightened the bracket and was good to go.
So time to get my car passed through emissions, well it didn't have a cat so I had to get a cat and get it put in place. For the straight pipe cut out and the cat it cost like $600. Passed emissions and swapped the cat out for the straight pipe.
I had someone trying to steal my cool carbon fiber low profile antenna, they broke it(only like $40) and it also broke the internal antenna so that was like $400 to replace and fix.
There was some other little shit that I can't remember.
No real problems for about a year and I sold it.
But all in all it cost about $4000 extra to own over the 2 1/2 years I owned it. I don't really regret it because the thing was an absolute blast to drive. It was pretty stupid of me to buy it without having it more thoroughly checked out, the test drive foolishly had me sold. I couldn't make an intelligent decision after driving it, I just had to have it. Pretty dumb move but it all worked out and it was an awesome car to drive. I did learn an important lesson from that and it is to not get overly excited when buying something and to make smart decisions when buying shit.
I bought a turbocharged 05 350z with like 5k miles. The car was a show car before I bought it but I had a nissan mechanic look at it before the purchase. He said mechanically its good to go but had some electrical problems. At one point it had lambo doors on it. Well they decided to change it back to regular doors before they sold it. So after the test drive I pretty much didn't care about the electrical stuff. The thing was fun and quick as hell, kept a ear to ear grin on my face the whole time. I had to have it.
So after purchasing I decided to go get the electrical shit done. I found out that when they took the doors off they just cut all the wiring and half ass spliced to together... Took a dude like 4 hours to sort it out and fix everything. It also had a nitrous express kit mocked up in it. It wasn't 100% hooked up but probably 95% and I knew that but the way they did it was a pain in the ass to remove. It also had a sound system that wasn't properly wired and they also didn't bolt the sub box down in the back so it would just fly around from time to time.
So basically a month after buying it I spent $2000 to get all the wiring fixed and all the other shit done. I sold the NX kit for like $300 so I recovered a little bit.
6 months later I have an issue with something in the turbo pluming. Some bolt fell out and thank god my neighbor had a lift and I got it up there to find the little bolt with carbon on it stuck between some sit. I found the hole where it came loose about 5 mins later. If I didn't find that it would have taken forever to diagnose and fix the problem. So that cost like $3 for a new bolt and like 1 hour to try to put that fucker in, everything was so tight and getting a wrench on it was extremely difficult.
3 months later the middle of summer in AZ hits I am driving my car and all the sudden white smoke is coming from the engine compartment. Fuck.... so I think wtf the car still was driving great didn't feel any issues but then the ac was out. Luckily I was 10 mins away from my shop so I took it over. The turbo melted the ac line... Boom $600 for a custom line. I guess it is a common problem with the turbonetics kit on that car.
When I picked it up I was planning on hanging out with a friend of mine. So when entering his neighborhood I hit a bump and all the sudden I lost all power. No steering, engine shut off etc. Well my mechanic forgot to tighten one of the turbo pipe brackets and a pipe came loose... Luckily no damage happened and I just put it back in place and tightened the bracket and was good to go.
So time to get my car passed through emissions, well it didn't have a cat so I had to get a cat and get it put in place. For the straight pipe cut out and the cat it cost like $600. Passed emissions and swapped the cat out for the straight pipe.
I had someone trying to steal my cool carbon fiber low profile antenna, they broke it(only like $40) and it also broke the internal antenna so that was like $400 to replace and fix.
There was some other little shit that I can't remember.
No real problems for about a year and I sold it.
But all in all it cost about $4000 extra to own over the 2 1/2 years I owned it. I don't really regret it because the thing was an absolute blast to drive. It was pretty stupid of me to buy it without having it more thoroughly checked out, the test drive foolishly had me sold. I couldn't make an intelligent decision after driving it, I just had to have it. Pretty dumb move but it all worked out and it was an awesome car to drive. I did learn an important lesson from that and it is to not get overly excited when buying something and to make smart decisions when buying shit.
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No, the Countryman is manufactured at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria.
This goes back to my theory that good manufacturing can't beat bad design.
Anyway, had it for about a year and a half. Can't go more than two months without a major problem.
IceAndFire**
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Audi A4........DON'T GET ONE! It's overrated and overpriced and will give you nothing but headaches.
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Ah ic it has changed with the countryman. And changed again. Now they are made in India.
Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't have more problems. You boost a car like that and your just asking for trouble. It sounds like most of your problems weren't turbo related. Seeing as how the previous owners half-assed other things, I wouldn't be surprised if they half-assed that. Your lucky it was tuned right and all that.
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First car was a Chevy Corsica. The paint peels off of them after a few years. Mine wasn't this bad, but it's common to see this on any older Corsica models driving around.
At a glance it looks like its Camo.
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Integra Type-R. That fugger got stolen like 3 times, had to replace the wheels because all the teenie boppers loved the original rims, and had to buy a new system when those ***gy teenie bopper stole my system. Don't buy rice rockets!
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Well the mechanical and turbo aspect is what I focused on when I had the inspection done. Didn't really give a damn about the other stuff at the time. He said whoever did it did it right. It drove fantastic and had a safe boost level. I think the original owner did everything correct but the place that bought it from them and changed it from a show car back into a regular car without all the lambo doors and all the other shit on it didn't know what they were doing.
