Which car make has served you best?

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 20:28
Which car make has served you best? - barney100

After a long time motoring I got to thinking which make has given the best service. I've had Fiats, Vauxhalls, Mercs, Volvos, Datsuns, and for me the Volvo estates have been the workhorses which have eaten the miles and carried the dogs and children and all with little problem.

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 20:31
Which car make has served you best? - drd63
Ford.
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Sun 10 Mar 2019 20:33
Which car make has served you best? - Nobby Clark

I've had various cars over the years, mainly Ford's and I now have a Honda Accord.

I've been extremely lucky and I've never had any problems with any cars I've ever had.

Out of interest Barney, which models and year of Volvo's have you owned?

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 22:08
Which car make has served you best? - barney100

340 1.7, 2 x 480, 240 saloon, 740 saloon and an estate. 240 estate, 2 x V70d estates including present one @ 120k and owned for the last four years. This is in over 30 years. Daughter took over the 340, good lady had the 480,s. The 740 saloon was changed for an estate as we needed carrying capacity.

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 20:44
Which car make has served you best? - gordonbennet

Toyota and Subaru, though the one Datsun Bluebird estate was again completely reliable...might be a made in Japan theme going on here.

Mercedes by far the biggest disappointment and they were all W124's, supposedly the last of the best of the marque.

Remember apart from the one new vehicle, all of our cars have been used, had they been new cars replaced at end of warranty it might have been a different story.

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 21:09
Which car make has served you best? - csgmart

VW Polo Mk3/4.

Did 75,000 miles in one and it required nothing other than service items. Never let me down.

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 21:13
Which car make has served you best? - iFocus
Kia by far for me!
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Sun 10 Mar 2019 21:43
Which car make has served you best? - Big John

Bought an 18month oid 2003 Superb back in 2005 and ran it for 10 years and I did about 150kmiles in it taking it to over 165k miles. Very reliable indeed and was sold to a friend who has since taken it to over 230k miles. It is still on it's original clutch, battery and exhaust !

Not sure if its replacement (2014 Superb tsi bought in 2015) will be as reliable but thus far four years on and now over 70k miles nothing has gone wrong - we shall see!

We've also got a reliable 2001 Octavia family owned from new- now 18 years old and now run by my son who frequently drives Yorkshire to/from Gloucestershire

My wife had a 1984 Polo owned for 19 years from new - also reliable

Edited by Big John on 10/03/2019 at 21:44

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 22:03
Which car make has served you best? - NARU

Subaru and Mitsubishi (Shogun mk1) got me through the mud time after time in Kenya. Often miles from home. On decent tyres of course.

In the UK, Toyota (Landcruiser) stands out as the car that tackled an 'impassable' road and steep hill to rescue a family with a very poorly child. Again, on decent all season tyres. I regret selling it now.

The also-rans...

Civic 1.8 Tourer - only had it a couple of weeks. Too soon to tell.

Kia Sorento - easy to drive, does a good job. Doesn't stir the soul like the landcruiser or shogun.

MX-5 Sport-Tech - great fun, but it rattled/buzzed from new and it took the enjoyment away.

BMW 330d - loved the car, but too many expensive repairs

Mondeo mk1 (2.0 petrol) and Mondeo mk3 (2.0 diesel) - both did a good job

Saab 9-5 Aero - I never found it comfortable. Was glad to get rid.

Peugeot 406 3.0 v6. Lovely engine but the rest of the car was a bit bland

Granada 2.8 Ghia - Probably the most comfortable car I've owned. My first V6.

Plus a bunch of others too bland to mention.

Edited by NARU on 10/03/2019 at 22:03

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 23:31
Which car make has served you best? - Andrew-T

Peugeots since about 1988, with a Fiat Punto somewhere for a bit of variety. Nothing I would call a serious problem with any of them.

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Sun 10 Mar 2019 23:55
Which car make has served you best? - Avant

This may be the first and last appearance of this make in this thread, but between 1980 and 2001 I had seven big Renault company cars. I did 25,000-30,000 miles a year in them, and never had any major problems. Three of them did over 100,000 miles: none of the seven ever used a drop of oil.

This of course was before the sharp drop in build quality in the 2000s. Both fortuitously and fortunately I changed jobs in 2001 to one with a higher salary but no company car.

Since then it's been VAG nearly.all the way, and I've loved each of them. Two exceptions - Mercedes B200CDI (hated it) and Volvo V60 (respected its solid virtues but never liked it).

And a special mention for my first ever car - a 1955 Austin A50 Cambridge bought for £65 when I left university (bought in Cambridge with a Cambridge registratoin - OCE 340). It never faied to start frst time, nor ever let me down on the road. In the 1950s Austins were the best and most reliable mass-produced cars you could get, with the sort of repeat buying that this thread is asking about.

Edited by Avant on 10/03/2019 at 23:59

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 03:17
Which car make has served you best? - edlithgow

My 40 quid Mk1 Lada saloon, though an estate would probably have been more useful.

Needed a 5 quid wheel cylinder, replacement ignition leads, and a bit of (stainless, by coincidence) pipe inserted in a break in the exhaust, in 4 years.

Would certainly have lasted longer but an inherited Renault 5, arbitrary-hostile-picky MOT inspection, neighbours narking to the cops the day the tax disk ran out, and a masters thesis deadline conspired to cause its premature scrapping.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 08:13
Which car make has served you best? - nellyjak

Toyota..and then Volvo...having had the 260, 760, v70 over several years..before moving over to Toyota...where I shall probably stay.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 19:09
Which car make has served you best? - badbusdriver

My 40 quid Mk1 Lada saloon, though an estate would probably have been more useful.

Needed a 5 quid wheel cylinder, replacement ignition leads, and a bit of (stainless, by coincidence) pipe inserted in a break in the exhaust, in 4 years.

Would certainly have lasted longer but an inherited Renault 5, arbitrary-hostile-picky MOT inspection, neighbours narking to the cops the day the tax disk ran out, and a masters thesis deadline conspired to cause its premature scrapping.

I also had a Lada though mine was £10 cheaper than yours!. I didn't keep it that long (maybe 6 months) but not because of anything wrong with it. At the time, being young(!), i tended to change cars pretty regular. But looking back, i wish i'd kept it, and actually would have one again in a flash. Why?, difficult to say, it wasn't that fast (despite being the 1600), wasn't economical, didn't handle that great. But it was as tough as old nails, it had opening quarter lights (bliss!) and red velour upholstery. I also remeber the owners manual had a section which listed the maximum cruising speed of the car. I don't actually remeber what the figure was (other than that it was listed in km/h), but i do remeber it said that this was the same on paved or unpaved roads!!. Looked pretty much the same as this but with a different design of alloy wheel and no stripes,

bestcarmag.com/sites/default/files/8408935lada-02....g

I can't really say what car has served me best as i have never kept a car that long. Before i met my wife i reckon the longest i kept a car was about a year, but since then, as she gets a Motability car, she gets a new one every three years.

The cars i had before meeting my wife were as follows, 1977 Fiesta 1.1, 1985 Lada 1600, 1978 Opel Ascona, 1979 Mini 1000, 1979 Saab 99, 1986 Suzuki ST90 (van), 1984 Saab 99, 1978 Fiat 128 1100, 1985 Subaru 1800, 1980 Saab 900 GLE, 1984 Fiesta 1.6d, 1984 Nova 1.0 (2 door saloon), 1986 Capri 1.6, 1988 Renault 11 1.7, 1986 Nova 1.2 (2 door saloon again), 1980 Saab 900, 1983 VW Polo 1050 (2 door saloon!). I don't recall having any major beakdown in any of them.

When i met my wife she had just got a 1998 VW Polo 1.9d, her first Motability car, since then we've had a 2002 Peugeot Partner Combi 1.4 (petrol), 2005 Ford Fusion 1.4 (petrol), 2008 Daihatsu Sirion 1.0, 2011 Vauxhall Meriva 1.7 (diesel), 2014 Hyundai i30 1.6 (diesel) auto, and the current car, a 2017 Honda Jazz 1.3 CVT. Never had any reliability issues with any of them.

But for my work, i did have my 2006 Transit Connect 1.8TDCI from May 2010-Dec 2017. I put 70k miles on it and never had any problems, just routine servicing and consumables. I would still have it had it not been for my sliding off the road in the snow!. The van wasn't that badly damaged, but with its age and mileage would have been written off no question. I'd have fixed it myself if i had access to a garage, but i didn't. So i gave it to my brother who got it back on the road and is still using it.

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Tue 12 Mar 2019 06:19
Which car make has served you best? - edlithgow

The shiny Renault 5 that replaced the Lada spontaneously combusted one grey day in London.

There I was complaining about the big city air pollution and it turned out I was the main local source.

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Tue 12 Mar 2019 09:56
Which car make has served you best? - edlithgow

. I also remeber the owners manual had a section which listed the maximum cruising speed of the car. I don't actually remeber what the figure was (other than that it was listed in km/h), but i do remeber it said that this was the same on paved or unpaved roads!!. Looked pretty much the same as this but with a different design of alloy wheel and no stripes,

bestcarmag.com/sites/default/files/8408935lada-02....g

Yes, I often thought that if you couldn't afford a 4X4 a Mk1 Lada (perhaps fitted with twiddle brakes) might be quite an effective substitute.

That's the flashy twin headlight bigger engined version, as used by the Sovs Highway Patrol.

I saw an allegedly (and plausibly) mint one of them advertised as "free to a good home" and seriously considered making the trip, but it was in Bristol, I was in Edinburgh, and I convinced myself I didn't have the time.

Mistako.

Favorite feature: Starting handle. Only used it for real once or twice, but nice to have.

OEM toolkit also very good, though they often didn't come with a second-hand car. Was in the dealer when a part-exchange came in and the first thing they did was purloin the toolkit.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 08:46
Which car make has served you best? - SLO76
As a dealer and as a private individual it has to be a toss up between Honda and Toyota. I’ve owned and sold loads of them over the years without a single major failure, nothing beyond ordinary wear and tear and service items.

I always liked selling them from my early days as a salesman as you could relax knowing the buyer would be completely content and a likely candidate for a repeat sale a few years down the line. I also had waiting lists for certain Japanese engined models particularly Rover SD3 213’s and R8 216/416’s.

But I also grew up with a series of Volvos and more often than not as a salesman I chose to run one myself. They weren’t exactly entertaining to drive but they were comfortable, robust and had heated seats. I was usually running a 440 or 460. Still have a soft spot for them today along with the 480 Coupe. But today’s Volvos are over-complex and unlikely to give the simple long term reliability of the older generation cars.
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Mon 11 Mar 2019 10:34
Which car make has served you best? - focussed

I ran Volvo's for many years as company cars doing 40-50 k a year - a new one every 18 months.

My experience with the 240's and 360's wasn't what could be called trouble free.

I've had 240 DL's with a total clutch failure at 6 months from new, big bang and crunching noises, another one threw the front crankshaft tin pulley off on the M1, another big bang tinkle tinkle and an upwards dent in the bonnet panel.

These were Dutch built cars from Ghent.

Also seized wiper shafts, wheel bearings that were't greased from new, brake pads that didn't brake properly in cold wet conditions on a newish car - very interesting exiting the motorway when the brakes don't bite on the exit slip at 70 - change of underwear time!

A 360 GLT had a fuse box where the circuits underneath failed - not one available in the whole of Europe for 8 weeks.

Tilt and slide sunroofs that didn't shut properly on every car that had one.

My own 240 GLT estate had the loom to the rear hatch fail at no great age- no wiper or HRW - I had to fix that one myself - a pig of a job.

I agree that they are solidly built but the reliability wasn't great.

My last three private Honda's have been trouble free - the odd replacement battery etc.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 10:17
Which car make has served you best? - AKS Ryedale

Subaru, Legacy, Forester & 2 x Outback faultless over many years / miles.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 10:50
Which car make has served you best? - pyruse

Honda - they just don't go wrong, and they are nice to drive. Had a Logo, 2 x Jazz and a CRV.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 11:00
Which car make has served you best? - Falkirk Bairn

I have had some 40+ brand new cars in my 55 years driving.

Until 24 years ago they were UK/European brands & manufactured.

In 1995 I discovered a Honda & since then it has been Honda, 1 x Mazda & 1 x Nissan ( 1 x Japanese build, 1 x USA build & 3 x UK build) - all were reliable, never let me down at the roadside & I have spent maybe £3, 000 on car repairs in the last 25 years - excludes servicing, tyres, exhaust etc etc

I did buy a Mercedes in 1997 but the less said about that car the better.

To be fair I used to drive 25K/year for the bulk of my working life & now less than 10K - that said I now keep a car at least 5 years instead of 18mths/2 years when working.

Favourite Brand Honda but I doubt I will buy another - CRV too big according to SWMBO, Civic too low, Jazz too small.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 12:00
Which car make has served you best? - John F

For family use, Volkswagen. From 1984 to 2004 for intensive family use (from babyhood to their 20s) we did over 400,000 miles in two second hand Passat estates; a 1983 GL5 (£5,500) and a 1994 2.0GL (£13,000). Serviced by me and I can remember no major problems apart from a clutch cable which snapped every 30-40,000 miles.

For my work use till 1993 and pleasure till now, British Leyland. Second hand Triumph TR7 DHC, Ziebarted from new by first owner. (£4,250). Major bills - stainless steel exhaust £146 plus cost of fitting, water pump £170, clutch £300, rear brakes £150 and a full respray in 1992 £470. Was once mocked by wife of industrialist pillar of community for having such a ridiculous car. Wife, pillar and his factory now extinct. TR7 still robustly extant.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 14:03
Which car make has served you best? - skidpan

Including the cars bought by myself, wife since 1980 approx:

VAG. 3 Golfs, 1 Polo, 1 Leon 1 Superb and 1 Fabia. Owned a total of 28 years. Covered approx 308,000 miles. All cars have been good to own but the 1996 Polo was not a great car.

Breakdowns, 1 in a 1986 Golf. Caused by fuel pump, fixed under warranty. (Also affected many BMW's and Peugeots that used the same Bosch fuel pump). Warranty repairs, fuel pump (see above) and water pump. Repairs out of warranty (other than servicing) 1 back box, 1 rear caliper, 1 diff oil seal, 1 battery.

Nissan. 1 Bluebird, 2 Micras, 1 Note. Owned a total or 12 years. Covered approx 140,000 miles. All cars have been good again but at 7 years and 90,000 miles old the Bluebird was getting very tatty on the body.

Breakdowns 1 in Bluebird when reverse light switch broke and jammed car in reverse. Warranty repairs, boot release switch, antiroll bar bushes, drive shaft (failure was noisy CV joint but whole unit replaced). Repairs out of warranty, reverse light switch (see above), 1 broken front spring

Ford. 2 Escorts, 1 Mondeo, 1 Puma 1 C-Max. Owned a total of 20 years. Covered approx 190,000 miles. All good cars but we moved the Mondeo on at 3 years because of a paint issue. Ford extended the paint warranty from 1 to 5 years as a good will gesture but we were fed up with it spending 1 week in the paint shop twice a year. In the early 80's the Escorts seemed OK but the Golfs showed how poor they actually were.

Breakdowns, none. Warranty repairs, boot release on Puma and paint on Mondeo (see above), alternator and valve guides on Escort. Repairs out of warranty. Wishbone bushes and heater valve on Puma, wiper motor and back box on Escort.

Also have had a Mini Cooper S, BMW 118D and a Kia Ceed SW. All were trouble and cost free over a total of approx 100,000 miles over 15 years but we did not like the Mini, really over rated.

So the winner is VAG followed by Nissan. Fords have been fine but the paint issue should have been resolved instead of simply extending the warranty.

Edited by skidpan on 11/03/2019 at 14:08

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 21:35
Which car make has served you best? - Bromptonaut

Citroen. Two * BX which had good reliability. Not problem free but pretty good given they were worked hard and we're talking models from over a quarter century ago.

Since then had two Berlingos. First got to 100k+ miles without letting us down once, when it did it was a clutch issue - release fork failed. Second is 100% at 90k miles.

Intervening Xantia was a bit of a mixed bag. Immobilised with a cambelt issue, cable gear change problematic once. Burned out wiring harnesses * 2 and a few issues with electric windows.

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 22:26
Which car make has served you best? - Bilboman

Last two Toyotas, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

On a slight tangent, do any backroomers have anecdotes of a car that quite likely saved their lives? France's President de Gaulle and Spain's opposition leader and later Prime Minister Aznar remained fiercely loyal to Citroën and Audi respectively when attempts on their lives were thwarted by the resilience of their official cars. Nothing quite so dramatic in my case, although I did once get a short-lived but nasty bit of oversteer on a wet roundabout in my first Astra...

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Mon 11 Mar 2019 22:45
Which car make has served you best? - SLO76

Last two Toyotas, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

On a slight tangent, do any backroomers have anecdotes of a car that quite likely saved their lives? France's President de Gaulle and Spain's opposition leader and later Prime Minister Aznar remained fiercely loyal to Citroën and Audi respectively when attempts on their lives were thwarted by the resilience of their official cars. Nothing quite so dramatic in my case, although I did once get a short-lived but nasty bit of oversteer on a wet roundabout in my first Astra...

The 1989 MG Metro that served as my first wheels probably saved me several times with its ability to dig in gamely when its very inexperienced but over enthusiastic young owner over cooked it while hurtling along twisting local B roads. Had I ended up with the 1300 Jetta or Rover 213 I nearly bought id probably be dead. That said, the Jetta wouldn’t have been able to reach life threatening speeds.
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Tue 12 Mar 2019 06:15
Which car make has served you best? - edlithgow

Last two Toyotas, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

On a slight tangent, do any backroomers have anecdotes of a car that quite likely saved their lives? France's President de Gaulle and Spain's opposition leader and later Prime Minister Aznar remained fiercely loyal to Citroën and Audi respectively when attempts on their lives were thwarted by the resilience of their official cars. Nothing quite so dramatic in my case, although I did once get a short-lived but nasty bit of oversteer on a wet roundabout in my first Astra...

Nice morning. Driving downhill through a village near the university,, with the sun dancing on my dirty windscreen, maybe doing about 50. If I hadn’t to teach later I’d have been feeling pretty good.

Glance over at a nice trad house I was passing, which is slowly falling down. Didn’t have to do that, I’d seen it before. Dunno how long that took, but less than a second.

Look ahead again in time to see a scooter just finishing peeling out in front of me, dead centre in my lane and hardly moving. Yell, swerve out, and then swerve back in time to miss oncoming truck.

I’d guess this might have looked a routine manouvre to an external, (Taiwanese) observer, but it wasn’t. It was b***** close, and could easily have involved a head-on with the truck, which was going pretty fast.

I'd spun this car previously (Daihatsu Skywing) due, I think, to lift-off oversteer, and wasn't all that confident of its handling, but it was a goodún that day, though it rolled for a few cycles once it was back in its lane.

Its a small old econobox so I'd likely have fared rather badly in a head-on with a truck.

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Wed 13 Mar 2019 06:56
Which car make has served you best? - NARU

On a slight tangent, do any backroomers have anecdotes of a car that quite likely saved their lives?...

I managed to escape armed hijackings twice - in my shogun.

The second time was the worst - fortunately I'd been aware of the pickup that overtook at speed and then blocked the road before the armed thugs jumped out. I was already in reverse and heading back up the road. I was lucky - they often have a second crew who pull up behind you so you can't escape.

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Wed 13 Mar 2019 06:30
Which car make has served you best? - S40 Man

For our family it's been Ford. My wife and I 1st car was a Focus mk1 tdci, bought nearly new - Great car. We had a bad shunt in a Rover 200, but we replaced that with mk2 Focus diesel estate. This has the apparent diesel of soon 1.6 but was great for us. We took that to over 150k. She now has mk3 focus with the apparent petrol of doom 1.0 3 cyl again this is pretty sweet note on 60k.

I did have an S40 which was woeful, lots of electrical gremlins. I have a mk4 mondeo estate which is on 213k. I took it up the M1 yesterday and it's didn't miss a beat and grace 60+ mpg.

So yes Fords for us.

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Wed 13 Mar 2019 09:04
Which car make has served you best? - mlj2
I have owned Fords, one Chrysler, three Toyotas, Seat, Skoda, Citroen two Golfs and two Hondas.

The best: Toyota and Honda. The worst: VW by a distance so far it is immeasurable.
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Wed 13 Mar 2019 11:59
Which car make has served you best? - John F

This thread reveals the astonishing difference between high miler company car drivers for whom depreciation cost is presumably immaterial, and those who buy/rent from their savings or taxed income for whom minimal depreciation is paramount. In over 40yrs Mrs F and I have bought only eight cars (just one new one - Fiesta Ghia January1980) for a grand total of £55,100. We still have three of them (Audi A8, TR7, Focus), probably together worth around twelve thousand pounds. For us it's better to suffer a car's annual depreciation measured in hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.

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Wed 13 Mar 2019 12:19
Which car make has served you best? - SLO76
Agree John. I regularly see pensioners who do minimal mileages running around in Hybrids and Nissan Leafs thinking they’re saving money yet the heavy depreciation from new vastly outweighs the savings in fuel a year a low mileage user will see. Each to their own though and thank goodness they exist or there’d be no nice low mileage used cars for the rest of us to buy.
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Fri 15 Mar 2019 02:12
Which car make has served you best? - SteveLee

Jaguar, my three "modern" XJs were totally reliable - even my XJ40!

I racked up over 250K pretty-much trouble free miles in my XJR and XJ8, one wiper motor sensor was the only fault outside usual maintenance. The 70s ones I had were terrible - but wonderful when working!

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Sat 16 Mar 2019 19:45
Which car make has served you best? - Steveieb
I would give John F s MK 1 Superb the prize for the car that served the contributors to this thread best.
A truly magnificent performance which probably is continuing to this day !
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Sat 16 Mar 2019 22:36
Which car make has served you best? - Big John
I would give John F s MK 1 Superb the prize for the car that served the contributors to this thread best. A truly magnificent performance which probably is continuing to this day !

My old Superb still going strong under new ownership.

I'm not sure I've got the depreciation as low as John F above but my capital cost over 10 years was £7400 so £740/year & £62 month - not too bad for 15,000 miles /year.

Actually, the major thing that rules out many cars for me is that I am bigger than most cars "person" design size.

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Sat 16 Mar 2019 23:47
Which car make has served you best? - Avant

I think Stevie B means Big John rather than John F - but the fact that both Johns clearly look after their cars is the main reason for their long and continuing service.

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