Most unreliable well kept car you've ever owned?

[Acuity30]

What's the most unreliable but well kept car you've ever had? Meaning one that has been serviced on time, driven with some sympathy, never abused, yet despite your best efforts things just kept going wrong with it mostly out of poor engineering/design rather than neglect

[ClaphamGT3]

Toss up between a 2003 Audi RS6 Avant and a 1986 Bentley Mulsanne Turbo R

On balance, I think the Audi was the worst

[Drooles]

1968 Mini Cooper… granted it was old when I bought it but something broke every week

[Notsofastfrank]

A 1975 Lancia 2000 HF Coupe (No, not a Beta, like this https://cdn.classic-trader.com/I/images/1920_1920_...
It seemed to need new parts regularly, despite only being 3 years and 40,000 miles old. Headlight (reflector had rusted) Window winder motor, wiper motor, indicator stalk, then the gearbox dropped the reverse selector. Had the gearbox rebuilt and when reinstalling it noticed most of the sills had turned to dust. Only car I have ever scrapped. Shame, as it was a great drive and the roadholding was outstanding with a low-mounted flat 4.

[GordonGekko]

Landrover discovery

Absolute rubbish with every aspect feeling like it is about to break or stop working; then it does

[MustangGT]

2014 Audi A1 TFSI multi-tronic or whatever it was. Gearbox issues from day1. Brand new company car (low tax bracket), needed odd gear clutch pack at 5k miles, did not like hills, clutch slip and smell, was due even gear clutch pack when I left the company after 7 months and 11k miles. Never knew whether I was going to get to the client or not.

[Stuart70]

Jaguar XJ6 or Aston Martin Vantage V12S.

Both lovely, both spent more time in garages than with me.

[E63eeeeee...]

2010 F10 BMW 550i, full BMW service history, bought approved used on about 30k. It spent 7 weeks of the 20 months I owned it in various garages, mostly with fuel system problems. If most of it hadn't been covered by the warranty, it would have cost me getting on for 5k.

[FiF]

1989 Vauxhall Vectra. Only car in my lifetime which failed to get to journey end on five occasions. Others where had to divert to get it fixed.

Company car, 3 yrs and 100k miles it was about sorted. Though at that point it felt like a complete rebus of the suspension, new shock absorbers and was now ready for another 100k.

[Stuart70]

FiF said:

it felt like a complete rebus of the suspension, new shock absorbers and was now ready for another 100k.

It was solved, but it was murrrrrderrrrr.

[Pommy]

FiF said:

1989 Vauxhall Vectra. Only car in my lifetime which failed to get to journey end on five occasions. Others where had to divert to get it fixed.

Company car, 3 yrs and 100k miles it was about sorted. Though at that point it felt like a complete rebus of the suspension, new shock absorbers and was now ready for another 100k.

Thought the Vectra came out in 1995 and it was the Cavalier until then?

[scorcher]

BMW E36 M3 Evo saloon. 46 k , 2 owners with full supplying dealer service history. They spent about 4K on preparing it for sale and then about another 8-9 k on it in the 10 months I had it , thankfully all under warranty. Spent nearly as much time in loan cars or wandering the streets of Bath waiting as I did driving the M3.

[myvision]

A new 2009 Toyota avensis estate.
Things kept going wrong from day 1. Was a company car and I was glad to see the back of it at 3 years and 100k miles

[DirktheDaring]

Subaru Impreza STi and Subaru Legacy Spec B, both new, both built out of chocolate and terrible dealers.

[E-bmw]

Pommy said:

FiF said:

1989 Vauxhall Vectra. Only car in my lifetime which failed to get to journey end on five occasions. Others where had to divert to get it fixed.

Company car, 3 yrs and 100k miles it was about sorted. Though at that point it felt like a complete rebus of the suspension, new shock absorbers and was now ready for another 100k.

Thought the Vectra came out in 1995 and it was the Cavalier until then?

Opel called it the Vectra then, but not Vauxhall IIRC.

Just like they called the tiddler the Corsa before we did.

[swisstoni]

Sorry for the cliche but it has to be an owned from new L405 Range Rover. Beautifully put together and I treated it like a baby.
Was perfect for more than 30k miles and 3 years.

Then just started throwing up problems. I had £9k worth of work done in one year (covered mostly by warranty and goodwill fortunately).

[Griffithy]

Mercedes Viano 2.2 CDI 4matic LWB.
What a horrible experience. Horribly expensive spare parts made the bad experience even worse.
So many problems and broken parts. But having to renew headlight bulbs, emission senders and glowplugs nearly on a daily basis was a very special and annoying experience.
In addition, the supposedly galvanized vehicle was susceptible to rust and the handling was unusable.
The luxury equipment was a ridiculous joke.
The engine and the automatic transmission were unusable, fuel consumption unacceptably high.
Even the sunroof could only be opened halfway
The only good things I can remember were the perfectly functioning automatic wipers and the fantastic Thermotronic air conditioning.

[Chris Stott]

Alfa 156 Selespeed, company car from 2001-2005, maintained exactly to manufacturers requirements.

1 ECU
Engine rebuild following ‘oil pump failure’
2nd engine rebuild due to head ‘gasket failure’,… but probably something to do with st rebuild by Alfa
At least 50 gearbox issues, ranging from minor switch off/back on irritations to deciding it wasn’t going to select a gear at 8.30am in the middle of Birmingham rush hour traffic.
Flat battery if the car wasn’t started for 2 days

Had that st box for 4 years. Probably spent a year in the dealers.

[FiF]

E-bmw said:

Pommy said:

FiF said:

1989 Vauxhall Vectra. Only car in my lifetime which failed to get to journey end on five occasions. Others where had to divert to get it fixed.

Company car, 3 yrs and 100k miles it was about sorted. Though at that point it felt like a complete rebus of the suspension, new shock absorbers and was now ready for another 100k.

Thought the Vectra came out in 1995 and it was the Cavalier until then?

Opel called it the Vectra then, but not Vauxhall IIRC.

Just like they called the tiddler the Corsa before we did.

My mistake. The UK car was a VX and the identical pool car in the overseas office was a Vectra. It was the VX one that was a liability, though I did far fewer miles in the Opel.

[Smint]

One of the last Mercedes W124 coupes made, 320 version with many so called upgrades from the 4 cyl models.
Its a beautiful car but has cost a fortune over the years in upkeep, 'hewn from granite' my foot, so many things failed that shouldn't, had it gone to MB dealer for work the costs would have been several times worse, as it is i daren't total the costs.

320 W124 estate was worse if anything, had the complete full service file from the original owner, he spent as much over 10 years servicing and repairing it than the £50k he paid for it in '93, normal CHG failure occured in my ownership, they all do that sir around 100k, final straw and got shot of the thing.

In contrast the facelift Diesel W124 saloon couldn't have been more reliable, much simpler and bomb proof, the only Merc that didn't have CHG or oil cooler failure in our ownership.