Hopefully, you’ve had a few cars that have never let you down, and today’s Ask would be better put as “Which car never let you down the most.” That’s grammatically incorrect, of course, but you get it.
As a longtime Toyota and Honda buyer, my car experiences have been overwhelmingly positive if unexciting, but if the excitement I’m being spared is the thrill of seeing how cars get loaded onto flatbeds up close and enjoying a few stories of repo shenanigans from the driver, I’m happy to keep things dull.
All my Corollas, Camrys, Civics, and RAV4s have been rock-solid, but the rock-solidest was my 1992 E-90 Corolla. It was two years old when I got it, and in very nice shape despite high miles. It was a very good new-car facsimile as far as I was concerned, and quite luxurious, what with its functional air conditioning and all. Heck, it even put my shoulder belt on for me via the motorized door-track setup mandated for non-airbag cars at the time.
That motorized seatbelt never faltered over the nearly 200,000 miles I piled onto the car, nor did anything else mechanical or electronic – and I assure you, I was not easy on the Corolla in the least. And yet, this wonderful car did not merely serve steadfastly by simply not breaking down and being metaphorically unstoppable. When it came to conquering New England snow, it proved quite literally unstoppable. My half-hour commute once took a full four hours with visibility that barely exceeded the distance from the windshield to the grille, but by golly, I got there. And then I just turned around and went home, because the office was closed. Really wish someone coulda called me, but it was pre-internet and pre-cellphones, so waddaya gonna do.
Anyway, my Corolla DX looked exactly like the Bring A Trailer example shown here. And I gotta say, it’s way more handsome than I realized when I owned it. Maybe no one realized it, as it was just basically-styled basic transpo back then, but in this designed-to-the-hilt era we live in, it looks downright classic.
Your turn:
What Car Never Let You Down?
Top graphic image: Bring a Trailer
The 1987 Rick Astley is probably the best-known vehicle for not letting anyone down.
In seriousness, I have a short list of Mazdas and Volvos that have been superb from an ownership perspective. I recognize they’re not necessarily for everyone, but they’re quite good nonetheless.
Only two cars, out of the roughly two dozen I’ve owned, have stranded me. Both BMWs. The first, a ’74 Bavaria, blew a head gasket on the way to my wedding rehearsal dinner. The second, a ’15 X5 with run-flat tires. The right rear was impaled by a piece of 3/8-inch conduit out in rural Texas. What was left of the conduit was still sticking out of the tire when we found a safe place to pull off; we were more than 50 miles from a BMW dealership that stocked that type and size of tire; and it was a Sunday, so the service department wouldn’t have been open even if we were within 50 miles and the tire wasn’t so compromised.
Oh wait. My ’01 VW TDI wouldn’t start when the injection pump failed while parked in an airport lot. Forgot about that one. It had been replaced under warranty with a rebuilt one at 59K miles (car ran poorly but still ran) and the rebuild failed at 101K. VW declined to cover that one and I have declined to consider buying any VWAG product since.
My 1974 Alfa 2000GT, I’ve had it for over 11 years now and it’s never let me down. I unfortunately let it down by ignoring the fact that’s needed a brake rebuild for the past 3 or so years so at the moment it’s parked up, but that’s my failing. It’s otherwise been the most reliable vehicle I’ve owned, and that includes my Honda Cub.
2002 Dodge Ram 1500 4×4. First year of the 3rd gen but still equipped with the good ol’ 360 Magnum V8. Ours was an SLT with every option except leather, heated seats, electronic transfer case and the ugly 20” rims. A great looking truck too IMO.
We way overloaded it regularly, drove it across Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado at its 108mph governed top speed a bunch of times(also heavily loaded), beat on it off roading in mud and sand, towed and actually used it like a truck.
My brother also ran it out of oil at least three times when it had over 150k miles and each time you’d never know without the oil light coming on and prompting us to add a couple quarts of whatever the dollar store had on clearance.
The only things that ever broke where both outside mirrors when it was brand new(factory defect fixed right away) and at over 180k miles the fan controls only worked on high or off settings. Probably an easy fix but we sold it to a hunter as his backcountry truck before getting around to it.
Sure, 10-13mpg was the norm and it maybe just barely snuck under 10 seconds to 60, but it was incredibly quiet, rode excellent for a truck and had what I consider the most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat in for long trips. It also had a surprisingly good Infinity stereo and, with a set of Pirelli Scorpion tires, was planted and predictable on the road.
I’m trying to find a good one to buy now.
All my Subarus have generally been really good,but i haven’t had cars more than a few years at most so most cars would generally be kind of trouble free over that short of a time.
My 1993 Sentra SE-R. I got it new in May 1993, and the first part failure was the starter at 180,000 miles, some time in I think the mid 2000s. It’s at 230,000 now.
You got a good one! Most of the vehicles listed here are Japanese, and Nissans, while popular, are not showing up in high numbers in the comments.
The late 80s to mid 90s was Nissan’s peak!
I’m not jinxing myself.
Basically none of my Hondas have really let me down, but the most surprisingly trouble free car I’ve ever had has been my 2016 Honda HR-V EX-L AWD. The newest, most loaded car with the most complicated drivetrain and most mileage when bought I’ve ever had. I bought it December 2020 with nearly 150,000 miles already on the clock, and basic maintenance is all I’ve done to it.
My 2007 Fit Sport never broke down or needed any major work, but I did have to put an alternator in it to fix a pulsing headlight issue. Also, I’d get a random scraping noise coming from the front from time to time. The fix? Put it in reverse, gun it briefly, put it in first, gun it briefly. Problem solved for 3-4 months. Sold it to a friend of mine 5 years ago and he’s not had any trouble with it last I checked.
I didn’t have my 1995 Civic EX Coupe long enough for it to let me down. Two years trouble free until it decided it wanted to meet face to face with a Jeep Cherokee.
And of course, my 1996 Civic CX Hatchback with a B16A2 engine swap. With a single exception, it always got me home no matter how wounded it was when it was my daily. In ten years, the only time it couldn’t get me home was thanks to a worn diff and a leak taking out the whole transmission. Wound up with a JDM Y21 transmission that’s been perfect for the last 15+ years though. Honestly, with all the shoddy work from a previous owner that I’ve had to fix over the years, it’s amazing how reliable that car has actually been.
Oddly, my Accord – a 2004 4-cylinder/5AT EX sedan that I got from my late grandfather – is, I think, the only car that has ever left me stranded. And that includes my Fiat! On a Thanksgiving trip one year the alternator started failing and it died at a rest stop. Fortunately it wasn’t a long drive and our hosts just drove 45 minutes and picked us up. Bought a new battery when we were ready to go home, put it in the car, got home on the battery, did the alternator in my garage.
My 1998 Chevy Prizm 5 speed. It won stoplight races against fox body mustangs, it could get up to 40 mpg, could carry 7 teenagers (barely) . I failed it, ultimately. Caught the shoulder in winter and rolled it into the ditch. Luckily there was 6 feet of snow, so humans were fine, but it caved the roof in and broke all the windows.
Notable that the Prizm was basically a rebadged Corolla. I wonder if they changed the gear ratios though, that thing would melt the front tires through 2nd gear easy.
AFAIK, the only thing that has broken on my 04 RX8 I pre-ordered were the right rear shock at about 18 months and 40K miles and later a heater control knob at about 10 years and 70k miles. I think I’ve replaced brake light bulbs too. On the flip side I’ve had the radiator, oil coolers, bumper, wiring harness plus probably a lot more replaced at about 20K when a truck retread flew off in front of me with nowhere to swerve.
Unexplainably I also had the trans replaced under warranty at 45K AFTER telling the dealership I track the car often, have money shifted twice from 3rd to 2nd twice, and just asked what weight / brand of oil I should switch to given I plan to continue to abuse it.
At roughly 8 years and 72k miles I ask the dealer to do a compression test as I’ve now money shifted it 3 times now and it’s hard to start unless the oil is cool. My plan was to buy a replacement engine and rebuild this one to swap into a miata after realizing the FB RX7 engine I started to rebuild had too much wrong with it to continue. To my pleasant annoyance they replaced the engine under “warranty” but refused to give or sell me back the core even at the price of the replacement one.
The car is now almost 23 years old and other than routine maintenance such as yearly fluid changes for ALL fluids and tires / rotors / pads every 15K I don’t think it’s cost me anything until I started driving it less than 2000 miles per year 6-7 years ago and now I’ve had to replace fuel pumps twice and injectors once. Fuck ethanol blended fuel.
My late, lamented Mazda B2600i 4×4 pickup. It never failed me, I failed it. By killing the battery leaving the lights on, only time I was stranded. Looked like crap, ran like a champ. Got through some rough Colorado winters. We donated it as a still running vehicle when I chose to upgrade to a newer 4×4 pickup.
1984 Corolla LE 5-speed. Blue inside and out. Bought it used with 80K, put about that much on it with just routine maintenance, then sold it to someone who drove it (almost literally) into the ground. If Northeast Ohio road salt hadn’t eaten the unibody, it would still be going…and the AC would probably still work.
2002 Mitsubishi Mirage 4 dr. I needed a commuter car and found one from Hertz car sales for $7k . Car may have had 15 k mileage on it. I proceeded to drive it for close to 300k miles ( I was driving about 150mikes a day back then for work). The only unscheduled maintenance was a broken clamp on the high pressure A/c line and a valve cover leak during my ownership. Neither stranded me and were easily fixed. The car was dead simple to work on and I religiously changed the oil every 3-5k and the trans fluid every 30k. I paid the car off the month after I bought it. I literally had no car payments for years. The car ran and drove well and was generic enough to never get noticed.