[senior smoke]

Hello:
Did you ever own a vehicle that could be described as a lemon? I once purchased a brand new 1973 Buick Century that I kept for less than a year.

It would not start in cold or hot weather. It broke down on the expressway twice while going to work. My boss told me to get rid of the car before I lost my job.

That evening, I traded it in on a new 1974 Chevy Camaro that I only got 800 miles to a quart of oil?

So my question is, did you ever own a lemon? Please tell us the year and make and did you sell it or trade it in and what did you get to replace it?
Steve Balistreri
Wauwatosa Wisconsin

 

[AveragEd]

The closest thing to a lemon I ever owned was a 2003 AWD Saturn Vue. I worked for a GM dealership but we didn't have Saturn and GM kept that division on its own little cloud - we couldn't obtain parts or service information from GM for them - so we knew nothing of their problems. My wife, however, liked them and we had a 1996 SC-2 that gave us good service so when she wanted that Vue, I went along with it. Happy wife and all that...

By the time the odometer rolled over 100,000 miles, GM had spent $22,000 on three rebuilds and two replacements of its VTi transaxle. When it dirtied its diaper the sixth time, GM refused to come to the party again until I spent a month hounding them and meeting with the district service manager who inherited them when they closed their doors. He told me the only way to fix the problem permanently was to replace the vehicle, those things were that bad! He finally agreed to one last manufacturer-paid replacement and when the 12-month, 12,000-mile warranty on that repair expired exactly two years ago, I traded it in to my employer even though it still was operating well. Because it had over our maximum resale mileage on it, we took it to an auction.

If you own a Saturn with a non-shifting VTi automatic transaxle, be advised that the failure rate on that component is over 200% because most of them failed multiple times. You cannot prevent the failure with maintenance and there is no advance warning - one day, you put it in gear, hear a loud crack and the vehicle won't move. The repair costs $4,000 and factory remanufactured transaxles are $5,000 installed.

Ed

 

[timberfaller]

Not a lemon, but my 02 F150 SuperCrew, is worthless in the hills as a 4x4 pickup!!

Taken it back to the local Ford dealer twice, and all I get is "that's normal for a Ford"

Poor turning radius and sounds like the 4x4 is coming apart when you make any kind of turn right or left.

Its a good payment rig I guess.

It does make my list of the worst rig I've owned.

 

[Catpower]

I drive Fords so I have had no lemons LOL

 

[birdogs]

VOLVO Going away t(which it did not often do). It was the worse car I ever owned. The dealer and the regional office would not do ANYTHING to make things right. I have bought at least 15 cars since then but would NEVER consider another VOLVO.

 

[HSLDS]

Do ex-wives count??

 

[timberfaller]

I should have added, my best pickup was a 78 Ford Extended cab F150 4x4.

Maded my 02 a "lemon" in comparison!! So I stand corrected, YES I own a Lemon!!

Big Time!

 

[missemucho]

Bought a 1980 Ford F100 demo (light duty truck) with the 302 V8. I thought it would be good on gas and fine for light hauling; boy was I wrong! I got 12-14 mpg; took it on one deer hunting trip towing a light tent trailer and first it lost the auto transmission then the timing chain went out. Worst piece of crap I ever owned (and I had some auction specials when I worked for a car dealer).

To this day I won't look at a Ford and if I was thinking of buying one I would run, not walk away from their Ecoboost engines--they're just a train wreck waiting to happen.

On the other hand, I bought a '96 3/4 ton Chevy with the 5.7 and towed a 26' 5th wheel all over the country with zero issues. When that interest faded I moved to Honda's and haven't looked back.

And Steve, I personally enjoy your trips back memory lane--could be a sign of advancing age, I guess!
John

 

[Bvr Tail]

In 1974, a guy drove a Pontiac wagon into the dealership, with a huge lemon sticker in each rear side window.

He was not a regular, and explained that his dealer some 25 miles away refused to work on this car.

This was about the only time I had any real respect for this Service Manager, as he told the guy to get back in, and keep going!

We never saw him again, but did get a letter from Pontiac, and after we spoke to the area rep., he agreed with us.

Back then, GM had a policy that if your selling dealer was with 50 miles of another dealer, the second dealer could refuse the warranty work.

 

[K-GUNS]

Mine was a new 88 chev caprice wagon. Nothing but trouble from pin strip tape falling off to the trans not going into reverse for a full 5 seconds. Sold it and bought a new honda accord.Never looked back,still have a honda and toyota today.

 

[revbook]

Senior....Also had the Buick Century....needed brakes every 6 months. I can go 2 years without brakes in my Toyotas.

 

[GW22]

I had several POS GMs. The two worst were a 2001 (or so) LeSabre and a 2006 (or so) top of the line Warner Brothers Venture minivan. (Ever heard of a defect called "perforation"?) GM was my brand for 30+ years so I stayed loyal until...

Well, you know what they did to America. Anyway, 3 cars sold right after that; never again for me or anyone under my roof.

Gary

 

[twoatlow8]

Ford......All of them!
All the Mustang guys are happy up here in the North right now. With all the snow on the roads they can feel what it is like to spin the tires!

 

[senior smoke]

I guess a lemon can happen to any vehicle make and model. My father always purchased Chevys as he would say that Chevy was the working mans car.

He said he had one good Ford a 1936 Ford Coup.
Steve

 

[Harley Lekvold]

I was going to ask the same question that HSLDS asked.

 

[spritc]

Fiat 850 Spider back in the 70s. If the temp was in the 30s or lower it would not start. Traded it for a Triumph TR4 or 250, can't remember which, and the A frame rusted out at the top. Got sued over that one, but won because I disclosed " a problem" when I sold it. I had a lot of sports cars over the years, but never those two makes again.

 

[cbxchris]

1992 ford F250. 7.3 diesel had the head off by 60K. Tranny out at 65K and rear end out at 90K. Damn piece of junk

2nd place. 1977 GMC 4 wheel drive sierra. Transfer case out at 30K. Dropped a valve at 60 and if it wasn't one thing it was another. Plus is was a rust bucket

I no longer buy American cars or trucks.

 

[Brian in Oregon]

Right now my 71 Chevy pickup is a big lemon.

It has starting problems. It will just go "click" once, and not start.

New battery.

New solenoid (twice).

New starter.

New ignition switch.

New ignition switch pigtail (and it was definitely bad).

Still no start.

I'm going to replace the battery cables with 0 gauge, and run a 0 gauge ground cable from the engine to the frame.

Not sure what more can be done after that.

Engine is a 454.

Edit: I was PM'd about using a Ford solenoid. I might do that when installing the heavier cables. I have a GM service bulletin showing this being done for 454's in motorhomes, where the battery or batteries are in the middle of the chassis.

 

[Hauxfan]

In November of 70, the new models were just coming out. I bought a Plymouth Fury. A big big car.

I ordered it with the 440ci motor with a 3:23 rear end.

When I found out it was being built the day before Thanksgiving, I knew I was going to have trouble with it, because piece workers don't generally do their best work the day before a holiday. They are to busy planning what they are going to do.

Anyway, this Plymouth or POS as I will refer to it the rest of my story, would have to make a trip back to the garage every week.

The heater controls were vacuumed controlled, but I ended up replacing them at least 3 times because they would not hold the vacuum.

They put in 3 power steering pumps.

Tires, I could get 7000 miles on the front tires because they would start to cup. Of course the car people blamed the tires, and the tire people blamed the car manufacturer.

I'd buy two new ones and put them on the front and put those 7000 mile used ones on the back.

On the highway at 65-70 I would get 10-11 mpg. That car just sucked up the gas.

It had a rear defroster that couldn't clear the back window at all. Keep in mind, back then, it was just a fan blowing air on your window. That was before they started putting wire right in the glass.

It was just a horrible car.

So at 57,000 I decided to trade it off. I found me a 73 Olds Cutlass with a 455 motor, and a 2:67 rear end that would get 16 mpg at 70 and would also run like a striped ass ape.

A friend of mine out looking for a used car told me he was looking at the one I traded in.

I told him to keep on looking as I had nothing but trouble with that car and it was in the garage every week.

He just laughed and said I probably had every thing fixed in it by now.

Anyway, he ended up buying that car and when I ran into him a few years later, he said I was right. He couldn't keep that car out of the garage either.

Never bought another Chrysler product since.

But the reason I bought it. I had a bought a 66 Dodge Coronet with the 366ci motor and in over 100,000 miles with that one, I had to put in a rear seal in and rebuilt the starter. I mistakenly thought I'd get another good one from them but I was proven wrong.

Hauxfan!

 

[CalvinMD]

My biggest lemon was a 77 Jeep Cherokee Chief ..had 360 4bbl and automatic with Quadratrac...it ate trannys for lunch and strtched Xfer case chains about every 25K along with front hub spindle bearings and axle stub U-joints....but in its defense it went places no other 4x4s dared to go and I took it through some dang nasty places...including creeks high enough to open the doors so the water could rush through side to side and wash the mud out of the floor the easy way only had to winch it out twice in the Texas gumbo mud..this was longggggg ago