ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:Both the car and the dealerships I tried were horrific. I lost count of the number of times the transfer box shaft oil seals were replaced. They just always leaked. If the car went in for warranty repair with three faults (it often did), sometimes they were fixed. But there would be at least three more new faults to discover.
Friends of mine bought a new Jeep with all the bells and whistles, and everything electric you could possibly imagine. Just about every damn motor failed during the six years they had had it, and there were few parts of the harness that didn't go open circuit at one time or another. Which was a problem because they had a severely disabled son, for whom roadside breakdowns could turn into '
situations' in double-quick time. They would start saving up three months before the annual MOT was due. And yes, it had rusted through by its fifth birthday.
My bro-in-law had a "special edition" diesel Jeep (2003) which was rarely out of the garage with overheating problems. I forget exactly what went so catastrophically wrong with cylinders 2 and 3, but during one stripdown the dealer called him in and told him that he was varying his speed too often. His engine (I kid you not) had been designed for marine use, not for cars, and it was built for long distances at long lazy speeds, and unfortunately that just wasn't how Wales was designed.
Bro-in-law did tend to drive rancho-style, though, and his cars did hit a lot of rocks in their lives. But his ex-army Land-Rover (with proper bullet holes
) soaked up the punishment while the gee-whiz kid from across the water basically folded up, one panel at a time.
Eventually he gave up and bought an old petrol Grand Cherokee for £800, which was a gamble since it had (allegedly) started life at £48K. And it lasted him for several years, thus proving that not everybody can be unlucky all of the time. When scrappy time finally came, he got £800 for the number plate. No, it hadn't fallen off. Yet.
BJ