Almost the last straw - Page 3 - Ford Forums

Dellboy999 · 10-07-2004, 19:29

Cars get old they break, only gettting every service done on time, every time, and replacing parts at the time needed will give you a relatively trouble free car, but then it comes down to cost verse return on your money, so there is no way to win, but to spend money, and be happy it will get you from A to B when needed.

Arv · 10-07-2004, 19:35

Troutman: regarding the Laser, lets not forget how much (or rather little) you paid for it, so you shouldn;t expect it to be 100%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troutman

It's utterly unfair to compare a pampered sports car to an abused ex-fleet car

Understandable statement, but you still have no explaination to Bindi's $900 odd Corolla, my mates old Corolla or even your folks Corolla's reliablilty.

Those Camry's are reliable. I have a friend with a '90 model and it runs well. I'll keep going. My b ball team mates gf had an '85 Barina (rebadged Suzuki Swift) which was also running well.

My old 2ic has a '91 Corolla Seca which has been perfect...

Do I have to give any more examples or are you all convinced now?

Also there's some truth to cars being unreliable at certain points but, some are less reliable than others.

Troutman · 10-07-2004, 19:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arv

Understandable statement, but you still have no explaination to Bindi's $900 odd Corolla, my mates old Corolla or even your folks Corolla's reliablilty.

Those Camry's are reliable. I have a friend with a '90 model and it runs well. I'll keep going. My b ball team mates gf had an '85 Barina (rebadged Suzuki Swift) which was also running well.

My old 2ic has a '91 Corolla Seca which has been perfect...

Do I have to give any more examples or are you all convinced now?

Also there's some truth to cars being unreliable at certain points but, some are less reliable than others.

I've no idea how much has been spent on the Corolla, but it did a head gasket a couple of years ago at around 250,000 kms and is always having weird idle problems, is very difficult to start in the morning etc. But it certainly keeps on going. By comparison, the EA pretty much always ran perfectly, but little parts like thermostats, hoses etc bring the whole car to a halt, which never seem to affect the other cars.

The original Australian Camry will be tough and reliable if reasonably looked after, but many have not been. How can anyone honestly stereotype any 20 year old car as being 'reliable' when in truth, it will be determined almost 100% by the service history of the car?

And let's face it, German cars are often outright lemons when they are older (with the exception of the '60s and '70s ones, but then how readily available are parts for them?).

The moral of the story is that no car is perfect. And people with new cars can snigger, but they are the ones spending as much as 10s of thousands of dollars in lost resale.

Cars suck.

Arv · 10-08-2004, 00:11

I'm sorry to say that I don;t think that you can bring your EA into this comparison due to the fact that it's never been used as a daily driver until now.
Older European cars can cause headaches in terms of costs, parts and knowledge which is why I'd avoid them unless the person is an enthusiast who can do some repairs themselves.

I guess the best compromise is to buy a used car that's no older than 4 years to have a better chance of reliability.

This is a good option for you Ford guys as the big Aussie's have cr@p resale value and there're plenty to choose from, so it's a buyers market. Problem is that it'll be difficult to offload your current ride.

As for me, I'll get something that's no more than4 years old and minimise the risks. I don't want to spend more than 20k as there are other things that are more important than cars, like property for instance.

4.9 EF Futura · 10-08-2004, 00:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dellboy999

Cars get old they break, only gettting every service done on time, every time, and replacing parts at the time needed will give you a relatively trouble free car, but then it comes down to cost verse return on your money, so there is no way to win, but to spend money, and be happy it will get you from A to B when needed.

Well put! Troutman also with a great point - personally i'd prefer the occasional engine-stopping problem such as a coolant hose as opposed to a car that wont start on cold morning, bits falling off everywhere.

And (i say this with no intention of starting a TQE vs FQE battle) i have to say there's very few V8 drivers here stepping up and saying they're sick of their Falcon.....

Moral of the story: It's a mug's game.

But I have to ask - how much enjoyment can be derived from a Corolla? I bought the Falcon coz it's comfortable, big, roomy, stylish (in my opinion) and has torque until next Wednesday. I'll do/pay whatever it takes to keep it on the road, coz at the end of the day I want to drive a big V8 Falcon, not a little 4 cyl.

Hell, its almost 10 years old and ive only just gotten started on the engine, lol.

Arv · 10-08-2004, 00:16

depends on the corolla. If you get a Sportivo model, then they're fun.
If you get the current shape base model for example, it's a solid an refined little car that'll be trouble free providing that it's maintained.

Most cars have a sporty/fun variant. I.e. Suzuki Ignis Sport

SPHELL · 10-08-2004, 00:19

Ah I've been through this many times where things have stuffed up and I've just felt like selling the piece of sh*t EA. But seriously, although they might have more problems than Jap cars, most of the time it's just small sh*t like hoses, belts and thermostats which cost bugger all to replace and with a bit of mechanical knowlegde you can do most of the work yourself. Hell, I changed my headgasket last weekend and it cost me $23 (trade price on a gasket) and that's it. Try doing that on a Jap car!

IMO, you can't go past the E-series for how easy they are to work on and how cheap parts are. If you want another example, my mate pulled out infront of another car 3 weeks ago in his 96 model Hyundai Excel. Both doors and the B-pillar got crunched in. He was quoted thousands to get that fixed.....second hand doors were $800 each, then you have to pay for stipping and painting on top! Sunny went down to the auctions the other day and saw a damage free EA go for $285.

IMO you can go and buy a 'more reliable' Jap car but it will end up costing you more in the long run anyway through the higher purchase price, higher insurance rates, and much higher cost of parts when something does go wrong. After all, it all comes down to how you maintain your car. If you neglect any car it's going to break down eventually no matter what brand it is. If Ford's are so un-reliable why do they use them as taxi's?

juarez · 10-08-2004, 01:39

Thanks to everyone for the uplifting comments :)

I was just VERY pissed yesterday, cause the throttle cable is such a stupid insignificant thing, but because of where I was, I HAD to get it towed, then I HAD to get it done by a mechanic, cost too much for such a simple job..

You're all right of course.. if a jap car breaks down 1/10th as much as a Falcon, you're probably STILL paying as much or more in parts + labour, because everything is so expensive.. I'll stick with the EA till I can get an XR6T, and then just keep both cars so when ones broke I can use the other :)

On a positive note, the new throttle cable makes it go HARD. Revs out to 5000rpm happily, and has torque the whole way up.. this is very strange given it still leans out so early on LPG..

On another note, I tested the cable about 2-3 months ago.. brick on the pedal, and I couldn't move the throttle (under the bonnet) at all.. so it seems that even that test doesn't prove anything.. everyone should just replace their throttle cables asap.. much cheaper to do by yourself, and you should be right for another 10 years :)

MightyEFGhia · 10-08-2004, 01:44

Yeah, I can feel your pain... All my cars seem to be buggering up. I mean every E-Series Car I have been involved with has something wrong with it major... I've replaced entire motors in some (read: My NA Fairlane, Walkies EA GL and Monty's EBII GLi) all because their motors shat themselves...

I KNOW I will never own an E-Series after this one goes, and if I do, it will only be a complete stocker. But in saying all this, how many complete stockers do you see issues with? All these issues come after modifying our cars!! My Dad's ED GLi wagon, it was built late 94 and we bought it in early 96 with 35,000kms on the clock and have had it ever since! It is now at 198,000kms and the worst things to go wrong have been a blown head gasket at 174,000kms and a blown rear trans seal. That is it! Not too bad for a car thats 10 years old, and remained stock apart from a cat back sports exhaust. Now, compare that to my car that I bought with 133,000kms and now has 161,000kms on it, and it has had no end to major issues. In the year and a bit I've owned it I've had to replace the headgasket, and get the head totally reconditioned because it sheered headbolts which caused the leak (**** knows how that happened), after I thought that was sorted, my lifters started playing up to a point where I had to replace ALL the lifters!!! Then this weekend my transmission has blown up!

Basically the moral here is, if you modify and make a car do what it isn't intended do, it wont last. Simple as that. I have no doubt if my EF was left completely stock it wouldn't have had these issues with exception to the head gasket. Its just a fact of owning cars that are modified. Modified cars are not reliable, never have been, never will be!

But to go from 4.9 EF Futura has said, you don't hear alot of these issues from the V8 guys, probably because they 302 Windsor is as old as the hills, so you would expect reliability from these very robust engines. Needless to say, I will never own an E-Series 6 cylinder again.

bindi · 10-08-2004, 14:40

Arv,

This is a rolla rant so if you want to, skip it!

I still have the occasional problem with my rolla, but what I meant was that even if it is dying it will keep driving. I replaced the engine with a reco one about 3 years ago and since then it has survived on basic oil changes and a bit of water when I remember!

The body has done nearly 500,00km and was driven by my mother-in-law. She was the original owner and it did hard k's from 100,000 (when she bought it) to over 400,000 (when she gave it to me). In that time she managed to put a conrod through the side of the original engine, changed two timing belts, needed brakes, suspension, and regular servicing. She replaced said engine with a second hand one which was her biggest mistake, because when I got it it was already blowing the blue smoke of death.

But it kept going for another 70,000km with the engine on its way out!

Now she was a CRAP manual driver. I remember driving with her and worried and fretted as she put her car around a roundabout in 5th... then it would start dying and then she'd change the poor thing to 4th and it would struggle round... So my darling car did it tough until it came to its mum!

Now it is reaching that half a million mark and because I have a good idea of its history I think it's done extremely well. It now needs front suspension and the brakes done, but I know it will keep going no matter what. It hasn't broken down on the side of the road with me more than one or two times, and then it was easy to fix!