Ultra reliable cars

Author
Discussion

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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This may of been done before, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss.

What cars are renowned for amazing reliability? Or maybe some that aren't renowned for it but are very reliable, or surprisingly reliable? I'll start of with possibly some of the well known ones:

Lexus LS & GS among others,
Because I own one, a c900 Saab,
Jeep Cherokee of mid ninetees vintage,
Obviously the Mercedes of a certain age - W124 etc.
Mk1 Ford Focus

RobinBanks

17,540 posts

178 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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I'm not sure that the Ford or the Mercedes were actually that good at not breaking down. They weren't bad, admittedly.

The Mercedes is known for being of generally tough and serviceable construction rather than never developing faults.

The Jeep should get a mention in straight 6 form but they do develop faults and the diesel ones had a very shoddy engine.

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
RobinBanks said:
I'm not sure that the Ford or the Mercedes were actually that good at not breaking down. They weren't bad, admittedly.

The Mercedes is known for being of generally tough and serviceable construction rather than never developing faults.

The Jeep should get a mention in straight 6 form but they do develop faults and the diesel ones had a very shoddy engine.
You do have a point, I suppose build quality and how long a car will keep going for if maintained is a bit different to General reliability..

I'm properly impressed with the old petrol jeep my colleague bought a few years ago, it's done 200,000 miles and he's had it from 120, it hasn't missed a beat

Morningside

24,110 posts

228 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Volvo 240.

cib24

1,115 posts

152 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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1990s and early 2000s Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas. Bulletproof.

Monkeylegend

26,226 posts

230 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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I have driven just over 1.2 million miles in 4 Mercedes in the last 14 years without a single breakdown and no serious issues whatsoever. That's reliability for you.

BGarside

1,564 posts

136 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Mazda 323.
Toyota Landcruiser (early models)
Mercedes 190/190E
Mazda MX5
Nissan Micra & Sunny
Toyota Hilux ('80s/'90s models)

Rumblestripe

2,916 posts

161 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Toyota Avensis (Mk1) particularly the 1.8 petrol which just goes on and on and on, the first thing to wear out is generally the driver's seat and that's at about 1/4 million miles!

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
I have driven just over 1.2 million miles in 4 Mercedes in the last 14 years without a single breakdown and no serious issues whatsoever. That's reliability for you.
That's good to hear as I've recently bought a clk500!!

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
How did I forget about some of these!

Honda Accord is also worth a mention

Monkeylegend

26,226 posts

230 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
Ghost91 said:
Monkeylegend said:
I have driven just over 1.2 million miles in 4 Mercedes in the last 14 years without a single breakdown and no serious issues whatsoever. That's reliability for you.
That's good to hear as I've recently bought a clk500!!
M'mmm, mine have all been the 220 diesel in one C and three E classes. Lovely car the clk500, hopefully it will be just as reliable.

texaxile

3,289 posts

149 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Mark 6 Escorts were pretty good, I've had a few and the only issues they tend to suffer from are rear wheel bearings and rust, but mechanically, electrically and drive train wise I think they're fairly solid. Not bad for a run of the mill mass produced shed.

E46 BMW's seem to take high mileages in their stride, as long as they are correctly serviced. There's a couple of blokes at work running 200K plus E46's, a 3 and a 5 series. Aside from a suspension issue with one they've served their owners very well.

My all time favourite reliable motor though has to be the humble Toyota Corolla, these cars rough it as Taxis on a daily basis in the worlds busiest capital cities yet keep managing to go on with questionable service history and maintenance, Manila, Bangkok, HK, KL you name it, jump in a Taxi and the chances are it'll be a 300K + KM Toyota Corolla of some description and varying trim level. My Dad had a series 1 corolla in Oman in the mid 70's. He took that thing all the way from Muscat to Salalah twice in a week and it didn't even seem to break a sweat, unlike Dad.

Alg123

98 posts

103 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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The Ford Focus surprisingly. Seems like a whole different company from the "fix or repair daily" badge.....still heaps of rust though. They have some way to go.

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
M'mmm, mine have all been the 220 diesel in one C and three E classes. Lovely car the clk500, hopefully it will be just as reliable.
I had thought about a second merc - diesel for commuting, was thinking about an older 270 as they don't have dpf apparently, but will look into the 220's closer to the time if they're alright!

Hopefully it will, from what I gather not much goes wrong but it's due a spark plug change in the not so distant future and that's going to be reasonably expensive!

JackReacher

2,118 posts

214 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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EP3 Honda civic

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
texaxile said:
Mark 6 Escorts were pretty good, I've had a few and the only issues they tend to suffer from are rear wheel bearings and rust, but mechanically, electrically and drive train wise I think they're fairly solid. Not bad for a run of the mill mass produced shed.

E46 BMW's seem to take high mileages in their stride, as long as they are correctly serviced. There's a couple of blokes at work running 200K plus E46's, a 3 and a 5 series. Aside from a suspension issue with one they've served their owners very well.

My all time favourite reliable motor though has to be the humble Toyota Corolla, these cars rough it as Taxis on a daily basis in the worlds busiest capital cities yet keep managing to go on with questionable service history and maintenance, Manila, Bangkok, HK, KL you name it, jump in a Taxi and the chances are it'll be a 300K + KM Toyota Corolla of some description and varying trim level. My Dad had a series 1 corolla in Oman in the mid 70's. He took that thing all the way from Muscat to Salalah twice in a week and it didn't even seem to break a sweat, unlike Dad.
The escorts and corollas make excellent second hand buys! I was in the market for an e46 myself but struggled to find a nice enough one, without paying loads of money for something that's quite old - it's an itch I still want to scratch at some point!

Monkeylegend

26,226 posts

230 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
Ghost91 said:
Monkeylegend said:
M'mmm, mine have all been the 220 diesel in one C and three E classes. Lovely car the clk500, hopefully it will be just as reliable.
I had thought about a second merc - diesel for commuting, was thinking about an older 270 as they don't have dpf apparently, but will look into the 220's closer to the time if they're alright!

Hopefully it will, from what I gather not much goes wrong but it's due a spark plug change in the not so distant future and that's going to be reasonably expensive!
My current E220 has a DPF, but as long as you give it a decent run every couple of weeks to allow it to reach regeneration temp they should be ok. You will notice a slight improvement in mpg compared to the 500 as well wink

Engine noise is a different matter though.




Quhet

2,409 posts

145 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Peugeot 504
Early 90s Toyota Corolla

Ghost91

Original Poster:

2,964 posts

109 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
My current E220 has a DPF, but as long as you give it a decent run every couple of weeks to allow it to reach regeneration temp they should be ok. You will notice a slight improvement in mpg compared to the 500 as well wink

Engine noise is a different matter though.
I do a fair few miles so should be okay - I suppose it's about buying one that hasn't been used for popping to the shops in, so perhaps one with a few miles on the clock is a better used buy? I bought a low mileage alfa diesel and that was a bad idea....

The noise of the 500 is very addictive I have to say!

Zerotonine

1,171 posts

173 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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cib24 said:
1990s and early 2000s Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas. Bulletproof.
This. A friend of mine has a 2000 Civic which he bought for £300 3 years ago, it is a tired old beast which is covered in scratches, interior falling apart, the front bumper is cracked where he ripped half of it off on a bush, bangs and crashes all over the place yet it passed it's third MOT with next to bugger-all maintenance. The damn thing will not die.

Honda Accord circa 2000 is also worthy of a mention, I only got rid of mine because the auto box was going, and I was given a sum of cash to get a newer car. I reckon that if it had been a manual it would have gone on forever.