2016 Chevrolet Spark

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by bentjazz

I'm a Japanese car snob. If I never own another American car, that'd be
just fine by me. Throw VW in there, too. VW sucks even worse. I've had
my Yaris since Dec. 2010. Zero problems. I had to literally take my POS
VW in every two months to get something fixed. The American cars I've
owned sucked donkey balls and weren't much better. Who needs reliability headaches. Not me. I don't care if the car is cool and trendy, looks good, has a rad engine, and
all that other crap that other people drool over. I don't give a rat's ass about
any of that nonsense, BUT THAT'S JUST ME. Good gas mileage and sound
reliability is what matters to this grump.....

I was a diehard VW owner in the 70s. No longer. They build trash (reliability wise) and the public laps it up.

Also was a diehard BMW motorcycle owner. No longer. Ditto trash and ditto people digging it. A recent CR report had HArley owners with 25% of them having significant problems the first 4 years. Not surprising.

FOURTY PERCENT of BMW motorcycle owners reported problems!

Ten years ago on a BMW motorcycle owners forum I got banned for talking about BMW problems....

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by NYC-SE

VW is on my $#!+ list also. Every 2 months for another problem to pop up seems about right, at least from my experience as well.

I'm not as down on American cars though. I had a 1987 Plymouth Reliant that lasted 13 years. Only stranded me once. Also a 2000 Dodge Caravan for another 13 years. Never a problem and still going strong for the guy I sold it to. I know Chrysler is usually thought of as a low quality make but in my experience I found that untrue.

BTW my first car was a 1964 Dodge Dart with a slant six that belonged to my grandfather originally. Finally gave up the ghost in 1990. Died on the side of the road. Went to get help and when I came back hours later it was gone. Never found it. I imagine someone saw it got it started and drove off and it lived for another day. If my Yaris lasts half that long I'll be happy.

I have a friend whose son in law gives him his company Dodge Caravan every so often with like 100k on it. It goes another 100k usually.

The Dark Side does make a few good cars!

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

When I think about 60s VWs, the first one that comes to mind is an OLD one a friend of mine had in college. It was a 66 Bug, the end of the line with the 6 volt electrical system. We used to give him a hard time about it. We called it 'The Candlepower Bug' . Those headlights were pretty dim .

66 was the last year for 6v. Imagine trying to start one at 20 below which my friend with the 65 had to do! Almost no way to jump one either....all the other batteries are 12V!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

66 was the last year for 6v. Imagine trying to start one at 20 below which my friend with the 65 had to do! Almost no way to jump one either....all the other batteries are 12V!

I remember the no jumping thing being an issue for my friend as well. IIRC, we'd get a couple of guys behind the car and push him...still able to compression start. Never at 20 below though....this was near the beach in Southern California.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Ten years ago on a BMW motorcycle owners forum I got banned for talking about BMW problems....

Sad. SMH.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

The Dark Side does make a few good cars!

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

I remember the no jumping thing being an issue for my friend as well. IIRC, we'd get a couple of guys behind the car and push him...still able to compression start. Never at 20 below though....this was near the beach in Southern California.

Yes one good thing about starting the 6v VW was there were lots of hills where we lived!

BTW I used to start cars with automatic transmission by pushing them to ~25 mph using the old tire thing between the bumpers....

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Yes one good thing about starting the 6v VW was there were lots of hills where we lived!

BTW I used to start cars with automatic transmission by pushing them to ~25 mph using the old tire thing between the bumpers....

. I've long heard that the same could be done at a higher speed with an automatic.....but I've never tried to do that.

[attrapereves]

I bought a 2013 Chevy Sonic new, but actually ended up trading it for a used model Yaris. Main reason is that I was tired of the payment. I wasn't really impressed with the build quality of the Chevy. I considered the Spark, but the Sonic was only 1500 more and was bigger and had more features.

Overall, the interior felt about the same in the Sonic compared to the Yaris. You know, the cheap plastic everything that the Yaris has. However, the Yaris feels like it was assembled well. The driver door on my Sonic was dragging from day one. It eventually stopped after being opened and closed about 100 times.

I'm sticking with Japanese cars from now on. Maybe I'll venture out and try a Korean make one day.

[Kalispel]

I grew-up during a time when American (and Korean) brands were crap, and it just sticks with you. Every car I have ever owned has been some sort of manual Honda/Acura, but even they have lost their halo for me, and have been building sporadically problematic cars for the last 10-15 year. Plus, their latest designs have been horrible - especially the latest Civic coupe/sedan, Fit, and CR-Z (the size classes that I prefer to buy cars in).

[Thirty-Nine]

Of the eight cars I've owned, all were Japanese except one: My 2001 Ford Focus ZX3. While it drove well and performed admirably, it was always in the shop for something. I traded it in on a used 1998 Civic. Financially, one of the stupider things I've done as I lost a lot on that one.

My wife did have a '94 VW Jetta III, and it all kinds of issues.

Since I drive a lot of different cars, I do feel the American and Korean cars have come up as lot. However, it's the long-term quality that I'm unsure of.