BS: Bad Car Thread

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST,Ian
Date: 02 Nov 15 - 03:24 PM

We had a Talbot Sunbeam in the early 80s it was a horrendous car. Valves burnt out after 30000 miles.

I also bought a second hand mark 1 golf Gti. It went like shit off a shovel, but broke down every 3 days. Every time it was a special GTi part costing a fortune. It was made worse by everyone saying they were reall reliable. Ours was a real Friday afternoon car.

We followed it with a Volvo estate that was automatic and felt like a tank by comparison. I got my only ever speeding ticket just after we bought it. It didn't feel fast enough to break the speed limit.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Nov 15 - 04:17 AM

Heheh. Anyone old enough to remember double declutching?
Yeh! the Morris Minor (1000 actually) was a bugger getting into first. I found it went in sweet as a nut if you were rolling backwards, not forwards! go figure. Angle of the gear teeth?

I only realised what a dog gear was when I looked over the Baughan sidecar (Stroud 1920/1930s) it drove the sidecar wheel to win motorcycle trials. It was banned so they fitted a retractable dog gear. The best way to describe it is a lot like a chunky screw driver blade and screw slot (slotted types).

I drive a Toyota Yarris and it will never go into reverse standing still (well almost never) without a lot of grinding. Double de-clutching is mandatory, revving or not in between makes the probability about exactly the same.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 07:35 PM

Sorry have to claim the 100 - tho' never guilty of "doing the ton"!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 07:29 PM

And I remember when my Dad got his first ever car radio: despite wanting to keep up with the cricket scores, he would never have it on while driving - "in case it distracts my concentration" - a lesson in that?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 07:02 PM

I can still double-clutch. The ancient army truck in which I learned to drive (built in the year of my birth) had manual everything, not even a synchromesh gearbox, so you had to learn to double-clutch if you were ever to get it into third gear.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST,Ed TTHi
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 12:03 PM

If I recall correctly, some early Chryslers had a rather rugged manual, fluid drive transmission It seemed to be one of the early attempts at developing an automatic. I recollect that it merged some elements of an automatic and a manual tranny.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: EBarnacle
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 09:44 AM

The old SAABs used to have what was called a freewheel mode on their manual transmissions. When actually driving the vehicle, ie, when your foot was on the gas, it operated like a normal vehicle. When your foot was off the gas you were in freewheel/coasting mode. It also made it easy to do clutchless shifting.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 08:13 AM

I've just remembered my old Ford Anglia's. On one, actually a Thames Van, the seat was held in place by an old rat tail file across a hole in the floor. On the second one the starter motor would frequently jam onto the ring gear and needed a nudge with a hammer to release it.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 08:08 AM

I had a 1965 Mustang, 289 as a young buck, that I used to speed shift frequently (clutchless shifting, like on a motorcycle).

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST,BobL sans cookie
Date: 01 Nov 15 - 05:13 AM

Oh yes - my first two cars had sliding-dog clutches, and one had previously broken a gearbox shaft so I figured there would be no harm in learning the technique. Later on I had a succession of geriatric vehicles (all I could afford) and occasionally had to drive without functional clutch cables / hydraulics. Took me years to unlearn the habit after it was no longer needed.

I think the best trick I learned was starting on a steep hill with a gearbox that needed a firm hold on the stick to keep it in 1st, and a handbrake accessible only by the same hand. Heel-and-toe start, anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Oct 15 - 08:50 PM

Heheh. Anyone old enough to remember double declutching?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 15 - 03:39 PM

I recall driving manuals in heavy hilly traffic with a foot operated emergency brake versus a hand operated one- I suspect my clutch did not like it:(

Remember the steering post gear shift of the 50s-60s. I suspect no vehicle offers them today.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Oct 15 - 02:19 PM

Because we like 'em, simple as that!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 15 - 12:40 AM

& why does anyone still drive a gearshift car?

Push start

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Oct 15 - 05:37 AM

I think if you think the VW thing through you can see where it came from.

What the software is doing is polling all available events and looking for things like if the wheels are turning, steering changing, etc. Which if ain'ta movin' you would like the engine to idle in the most efficient way. It is a leap from there to recognise the signature of emission tests and modify performance to suit. The latter is the crime.

In which case they should be looking at BMWs - I have seen some pretty black stuff coming out of them under fierce acceleration. All modern diesels will now be suspect.

When I see a hybrid SUV claiming 156 mpg you know they are being less than economical with the truth. But fashion never had anything to do with function or truth. MPG figure are prescribed by governments and are far from representative of idiot driving.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 15 - 12:01 AM

 & why does anyone still drive a gearshift car?

2nd gear scratch

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 06:45 PM

Very surprised - unless I missed it - that no-one has yet mentioned the ultimate REALLY BAD car - the VW diesel! (and a few related brands with the EA189 engine such as some Skodas and Audis).
Much crap talked about "emissions" - confusions between CO2 emissions, upon which UK Road Fund Tax is based, and NO2 emissions, which is actually what the scandal is really about.
My husband is a VW afficionado: bought our first Passat in the late 1970s and stuck with them ever since - nearly all diesels after the first one, because of the spectacularly better mpg (hadn't even heard of particulates then!) After a continuous string of VW Passats, his last purchase was a Tiguan - which I hate with a venom because of its very bumpy ride ( the so-called "sports" suspension!)
So, in the absence of any other info from VW, I Googled "VW emissions" and was directed to the VW website, where you could enter the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to find out if yours was one of the "affected" vehicles. GREAT - we're in the clear. YAY!!
BUT - a few days later - a letter from VW to say that my husband's vehicle IS one of the really naughty affected vehicles, and will be recalled, sometime in 2016 for modification - so no panic then! In the meantime don't breathe while anywhere near it!
The interesting thing is that when Googling, the FIRST thing to come up was all the legal firms offering to pursue claims against VW! Can't you just trust the lawyers to get in there quick!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 11:37 AM

I particularly like my manual transmission car for driving in hilly, rough country -- think your traditional private road in cottage country, pitched at a 25-degree angle and featuring deep ruts and potholes, large intruding rocks and tree roots. Perhaps that's because I learned to drive in an army truck on the Ponderosa training range at CFB Borden, where the objective was to prepare young soldiers to drive logistics vehicles and gun-tractors across country without benefit of roads.

However, I have also done time as a taxi driver, and I agree that someone who spends hours at the wheel in city traffic, especially in a hilly town like Halifax, has good reason to prefer an automatic transmission.

When I was in my mid-30s, many long years ago, I smashed the bones of my left ankle into little tiny pieces. Four years later, I did it again, with the right foot. (Ottawa. January. Ice. Both times.) The left ankle literally took years to heal completely, and for the first two of those years I did not drive at all because I could not work the clutch of my awful old Rabbit, and I was too poor (and too stingy) to buy another car. I moved downtown and learned to love public transit. The right ankle fracture was not quite as drastic as the left, but it nevertheless grounded me for another year just as the left side of my undercarriage was finally returning to normal capability. By that time, I had inherited my Dad's 1986 diesel Golf (an excellent car then only eight years old), so I put it up on blocks and committed myself to physiotherapy.

Oddly, it never occurred to me to sell the Golf and buy a car with an automatic gearbox. Fixed in my ways, I guess -- or perhaps as stiff in the neck as I was in the ankles.

Anyway, the ankles eventually recovered as completely as really nasty joint fractures ever do, and I am pretty well convinced that working the clutch was a positive factor.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 10:26 AM

Driven manuals in heavy traffic all my life and never had overheating problems unless there was also a coolant issue. Apart from the Reliant Supervan III. Now, there WAS a car...


:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 06:22 AM

My mother had a Hillman Imp. She accused me of using all the petrol until we discovered that the oil was running very thin. The automatic choke didn't automate, just dumped excess petrol into the sump.
The manual choke was easy to get fitted, there was a kit that made a lot of money for the makers.
Front tyres were another bovver. They wore on one side, even had them turned on the rime to get full value. 10 years ago I worked with a car designer who worked at the Paisley factory and told me the reason was that Roots group decided late to market the car in the US and the easiest way to raise the headlamps to meet the regulations was to alter the suspension. Thanks Peter! The later models got it sorted.
The engine was popular with sidecar motorcycle racers because it was all aluminium, and racy. And easy to find.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 05:52 AM

No, Busterrr, dat Ah sure-as-hell ain't!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Oct 15 - 04:01 PM

Ach, Michael, you're talking like a yank!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Oct 15 - 03:31 PM

... and apart from the worry about overheating, manual driving in heavy nose-to-tail traffic is hell on the ankles and heels with the constant necessity for clutch-control. With blessed auto-trans, you don't even have a bloody stinking clutch. Nothing would get me back into loathsome manual driving, for that reason alone if no other.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST,HuwG at work
Date: 28 Oct 15 - 03:01 PM

"G" reg Rover 216S (circa 1989). Had a weird "HIF" (Horizontal Integral Float) carburettor. It never matched its official performance and fuel economy figures and for some reason it never liked trips to the seaside, to wit, Pembrokeshire where my parents lived.

Heading back home, it gave advance warning of its intentions by stalling on the hill a quarter of a mile from Ma and Pa's house. After I had been lulled into a false sense of security, it stalled again, violently, while pulling away from traffic lights in Monmouth; so violently in fact that the cars behind nearly cannoned off my back bumper, lots of language usually represented as "%&@£!" directed at me. Once on the M6, it once again bided its time until I pulled off onto the A56. Then, as I took my foot off the throttle, there was an over-fed gurgle from the exhaust and the car ACCELERATED very rapidly up the slip road. With the roundabout looming large, I had to hit the clutch, brakes, handbrake and ignition key all at once.

The garage cleaned out the carburettor. Then my mother fell ill two months later, so I had to go back down to Pembrokeshire. The scenario above was repeated almost exactly.

Someone later took the car for a joyride and did me a favour by causing so much damage bypassing the alarm and steering lock that it had to go, for one pound in part-exchange for a much better Rover 420 (fuel injection, no carburettors to object to healthy seaside air).

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Oct 15 - 04:49 AM

Indeed, as Ed T implies above, the advantages of automatic, as distinct from manual, really emerge in hilly country; or, particularly, in stop-start nose-to-tail heavy traffic, where the constant changing up & down in low gear produces a real fear of overheating in manual, which is not even a necessary consideration with auto-transmission.


≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Oct 15 - 09:48 PM

"Well here's a health warning for all owners and prospective owners of Ford Focuses. Tomorrow, mine is going into the garage for the STUPIDEST repair imaginable, and it's going to cost me £250. Basically, I can no longer open the bonnet. The mechanism uses the ignition key from outside the car, and the locking mechanism has seized. The best body shop man and the best mechanic in Bude, both mates of mine, couldn't get in. We've already smashed the grill for better access, to no avail. I'm bloody hopping mad. That lock has probably been turned fewer than sixty times since new. Disgusting. It's a known issue. I'm determined that Ford will reimburse me for this."

Well, it's sorted, and I got the buggers down to £142, paid under protest. Still not happy. Ford are hearing from me.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Ed T
Date: 26 Oct 15 - 04:36 PM

I have owned many manual transmisdion vehicles. But, since I drive mostly in an urban area, with hills, I prefer an automatic. As noted, the fuel saving, once significant, is now small. However,I normally purchase low km used vehicles, and I am meticulous about researching the history of the vehicle I select, as to transmission and other problems. Fortunately, with tge internet, potential problems are easier to determine. My understanding is some of the former issues on some vehicles have been minimized with the newer cvt transmission versions. But, I remain cautious.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Ed T
Date: 26 Oct 15 - 04:27 PM

Subaru cars are very well built, except fir the boxer engines. The early 2.0 engines were quite good. Head gasket problems plagued the 2.5 engine vehicle owners, until about 2010, 2011, depending on the model. The redesigned 2.5 (and the 2.0 in smaller versions) have potential piston ring issues, in addition to excessive oil consumption-there is a USA class action law suit). The 6 cylendar (mainly in the Trebeca) seems quite good , but gas consumption in urban driving is not great. Considering the problems, they are quite an expebsive vehicle choice.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Oct 15 - 04:06 PM

Well here's a health warning for all owners and prospective owners of Ford Focuses. Tomorrow, mine is going into the garage for the STUPIDEST repair imaginable, and it's going to cost me £250. Basically, I can no longer open the bonnet. The mechanism uses the ignition key from outside the car, and the locking mechanism has seized. The best body shop man and the best mechanic in Bude, both mates of mine, couldn't get in. We've already smashed the grill for better access, to no avail. I'm bloody hopping mad. That lock has probably been turned fewer than sixty times since new. Disgusting. It's a known issue. I'm determined that Ford will reimburse me for this.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Penny S.
Date: 26 Oct 15 - 03:54 PM

I had two Hillman Imps - well, one was a Singer Chamois, and I liked driving them. Except when, for some reason, they decided to unload the contents of the radiator header tank on the forecourt of service stations. It was like having a horse. The Chamois needed a bit of bodywork, which I could cope with. I could do the sort of maintenance it required (though I did nearly take a finger off replacing the fan belt on the side of the Maidstone bypass.) The Imp was much flimsier, thinner metal, less sturdy. It died after a low speed rear end impact from a Volvo pushed the tow bar into places it didn't belong.

I heard a joke on the radio once, about car prospectors going out to search for veins and seams of vehicles. One came in claiming to have found a deposit of Hillman Imps. "Them's not Hillman Imps," said one of the old timers. "Them's fools' Hillman's Imps." Pause. "There's only fools' Hillman Imps."

But they are still about.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Oct 15 - 08:46 PM

Fuel economy is not, actually, my primary reason for preferring a manual transmission -- I am, after all, Canadian, and thus spared the burden of British or European fuel prices. But, as is also traditional in a Canadian, I am stingy, unwilling to pay the thousand bucks an automatic gearbox adds to the price of a car, and unable to bring myself to pay the whopping bills that come -- as the night followeth the day -- when one must repair or replace the damnable thing.

And yeah, you do get better fuel economy. That's a nice bonus.

The automatic transmission is so pervasive here that the majority of drivers can't manage a clutch at all, and are therefore severely limited when they travel, or find themselves in an emergency involving a vehicle with a manual transmission. This has happened to me; when we needed a tow to get us out of an icy driveway, the tow-truck driver slipped and wrenched his knee so badly that he could not stand, let alone complete the task. We called an ambulance, but the tow-truck blocked the narrow road. The only person on the scene (by this point, cluttered with cops and ambulance men) who could drive the tow-truck was the plump, middle-aged lady editor -- me. So I did.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Oct 15 - 02:54 PM

Well, why not? It is obvious here that, in the metaphor so common on web forums, our mileages vary: quite literally, in this particular instance, as better mileage is one of your pleas for your differing practice innit!

Best

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Oct 15 - 02:43 PM

Sorry, Michael. I will watch my metaphors in future.

I like to drive on the road, too. I'm just willing to use both my feet while doing so.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Oct 15 - 03:48 AM

Charmion & Dave the Gnome -- slowburn response after scanning back thru the tread:

You both used the term 'in a nutshell' in defending manual transmission against my animadversions.

Well, I don't want to drive in a bloody nutshell — I want to drive on the road!

☺〠☺~M~☺〠☺

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Oct 15 - 03:17 AM

'Orange, so affectionately known among my acquaintance as "the baked bean"... [Having to give it up was] Great grief to me. Mind you, my present P-reg Vauxhall is (kindly, considering) not jealous of my nostalgia'

...I wrote in a tribute post a bit back about a former much-loved vehicle. As the faithful Vauxhall which has replaced it to this day is green, I wonder why I never thought till now to continue the tradition by dubbing it "the green bean".

I hereby so publicly designate it, & am about to go out and break a plastic bottle of sparkling mineral water over its hatchback boot to mark this momentous event!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: EBarnacle
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 10:38 AM

One of my favorite names for the Citroen 2CV was the Thrashwell Snailbee, adopted from a cartoon I once saw. Same engine as the Ami.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 10:34 AM

That reminds me of a friend back in the 70's who bought a Wartberg 353. Driving down the East Lancs Road one day a wheel passed him , he made some comment to his passenger about crap cars just a millisecond before his front end nose-dived into the tarmac.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 10:19 AM

Clockwork Rat!

I love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Paul Burke
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 08:06 AM

I had a Citroen Ami 8 estate. Same chassis and engine as a 2CV, but with a bigger, heavier body. 0 to 50 in a quarter of an hour. We called it the Clockwork Rat. Everything rusted, a wing fell off on the M1 (getting me my one-and-only driving conviction so far). The windscreen wipers suddenly decided to cross each other and jam solid. It was a relief when the engine seized.

Best car? Saab 9000.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 10:35 AM

I like a manual gearshift. Using it properly and smoothly is a very nice skill to acquire and makes you a more active participant in controlling the car. I did hire an auto once (by accident) and it was a cinch once I remembered that it wasn't a manual box and I stopped throwing my passengers through the windscreen. But it did drink petrol (not an issue for yanks, of course, who pay next to nothing for fuel, sadly for the planet) and they are expensive to buy. No point!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 08:34 AM

In another nutshell, Michael, people still drive cars with manual transmissions because they prefer to spend less on vehicle maintenance. In my experience, an automatic transmission is a large, expensive thing that tends to break -- expensively.

The most expensive thing I have ever had to repair on the transmission of a manual car was the clutch cable on my wretched 1980 Rabbit -- $150 plus the cost of the tow -- after it snapped in heavy traffic. Thank God, I had it in neutral at the moment of separation or really bad things could have happened.

When Himself and I got married, he owned a Ford Taurus station wagon that was already on its second automatic transmission. When we began to hear the dreaded grinding of a dying transmission AGAIN, I insisted that we should not repair it, but rid ourselves of the dratted thing, take the loss, and never look back.

Over 40 years of driving, I have found that the gearbox of a car with a manual transmission is the component least likely to present maintenance problems. When you do your driving in eastern Ontario, where winters are long and icy and the roads are frequently salted, the rest of the car will give you more than enough angst to be going on with.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: EBarnacle
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 08:33 AM

I once had a Volvo 244. Generally, not a bad car except for chronic electrical problem. Service cost about $250 monthly to replace a chip. the mechanic could never quite figure out why the same chip kept failing after about a month. Finally dumped it on someone else after the A/C pump froze solid and destroyed its drive belt.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 04:31 AM

Bugger I put this on the wrong thread a few minutes ago

"I know Volvo drivers in particular come in for a lot of stick, I've owned 3 including a very nice C70 convertible in White. Never had any problems on the road with that. People seemed to presume it was a cop car and got out of the way ... quickly. The other two were 240 estates. Brilliant cars, fire up the engine, select your gear for the DAY and off you go"

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 04:19 AM

In a nutshell, Michael, manual transmission (MT)cars use less fuel and give you more control over the car but are less convenient, while automatic transmissions (AT) burn (a little) more gas, provide less control but they are easier to use.

Taken from the article Manual Versus Automatic Transmission.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 06:04 PM

Just to drift for a moment, as that's the way the colloquy seems to be tending, to the opposite of this thread's title --

Best car I ever had:

A Volvo Saloon -- not estate -- Registration N at the end; which meant it was 1974. Got it from a friend, who had exchanged up; my first automatic transmission*. Orange, so affectionately known among my acquaintance as "the baked bean". It was 26 years old when I had to let it go, as couldn't get spare parts any more. Great grief to me. Mind you, my present P-reg Vauxhall is (kindly, considering) not jealous of my nostalgia. 18 years old -- I have had it 15 of those, since the Volvo departed -- and going on nicely. I am kind to my cars so they love me: just like my pussicat.

≈M≈


*Further drift -- & why does anyone still drive a gearshift car? -- seems to me might just as well light the house with candles!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 05:46 PM

In the 50',s and 60's BMW made a lot of indifferent and bad cars. When the 2002 came out one of Car and Driver's columnists [I believe it was David E. Davis.] wrote "Open your hymnals to 2002 and go Hmmm." The 2002 saved the company.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 05:26 PM

"Some years back on one occasion BMW made a bad car.
The opposite can be said of some other car brands."

Yeah but why is it that as soon as anyone gets into a BMW to drive it they automatically become a complete tosser? As with Volvo estates, Range Rovers and larger Audis? Explain THAT one then!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 05:14 PM

never had a bad car, or perfect one. I loved the Fiat motorcaravan we had. Being so small it did good fuel consumption and I silenced every doubter when I told them it was a sports car. They laughed (inevitably) & I pointed-out it depended on their sport. The conversation immediately turned to convenience and holidays. I had a permanent holiday with it. Went to a lot of MotoX and while everyone queued to leave we made coffee and ate. Then the queue was non-existent.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 05:07 PM

Some years back on one occasion BMW made a bad car.
The opposite can be said of some other car brands.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad Car Thread
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Oct 15 - 05:49 PM

My husband bought a Hillman Imp from a friend (car salesman) who promptly emigrated to Australia (I wonder why?) The engine blew up soon after: my husband's students christened it the "Hillman Limp"!