Worst made car on the road right there. Gas milleage doesn't really mean a whole lot when you are a red smear on the highway.
Posted on 04/12/2010 8:05:57 AM PDT by throwback
If you want to drive something dependable and long-lasting, steer clear of these vehicles.
With a 22% improvement in sales last month, and despite the six-month, $4.3 billion loss it announced Wednesday, General Motors is likely to have its strongest spring and summer in years. Plus, the automaker had critically acclaimed new products at the recent New York Auto Show and the much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt is due out this fall.
More from Forbes.com:
• In Depth: Worst-Made Cars On The Road
• Navigating Your Way Through Traffic
• Cars With the Best Gas Mileage
Year-over-year sales of GM's Cadillac division alone are up almost 76%; sales in the Buick, Chevrolet and GMC divisions were each up more than 40% for March. The industry as a whole was up 24.3%.
Unfortunately just because GM's cars are selling well now doesn't mean they're the best bet for durability or value -- yet. It'll take awhile before GM's new direction shows up in tangible new products at the dealership.
Four of the seven vehicles on our list of the worst-made cars on the road come from GM brands.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I don’t know about the F-250, but I just bought an F-150 STX....that truck gets 20.5 MPG which is much better than the prior two Dodges I had. I am entirely happy with this truck - and it is not Government Made.
Worst made car on the road right there. Gas milleage doesn't really mean a whole lot when you are a red smear on the highway.
And I have a 1998 Ford Expedition SUV with 196,000 miles and still running like a charm. Conversely every GM product I have owned (Olds Cutlass, Pontiac 6000, Chev Lumina, Pontiac Grand Am) have been complete dogs. I have literally replaced the entire vehicles with major repairs & maintenance. I will never buy another GM product again, especially now that they are GM (Gubmint Motors) products.
FUBO!!!
.
It’s for people who missed their change to buy a Yugo...
It’s a golf cart with a body...
I retired my ‘94 Sururban with 262,000 miles on it. Ran it hard as a work vehicle, and it racked up a lot of miles over the couple of years before we finally moved from the Puget Sound area to the north Idaho woods. Drove over here almost every other weekend to work on the place.
The Jeep Wrangler is included. Not to cast doubt on this report but there’s only one car in the list, the Aveo. All the rest are larger vehicles which leads me to believe the test criteria is skewed towards fuel economy and safety crash tests.
Boycott all GM products. The government beast must be starved; in fact, boycott most union-made products.
I can see all the others on the list, but the F-250? I’m puzzled by that. I never owned one, but I’ve been in several and know folks who have them.
jw
I love my 2007 H3. I had a 1996 Ford Explorer that I loved as well.
I've owned two GM vehicles -- a '79 Caddy sedan and (currently) a '96 Tahoe. No problems at all with either. But I wouldn't buy anything new from them.
Maybe hydrogen is not the best thing to use.
-Captain of the Hindenberg
Maybe we should slow down with all the ice this far south.
-Captain of the Titanic
He's black! It's historic! What could go wrong?
-American voters November, 2008
When did this go electric? I thought the “Smart” car was gas powered??? The gas version is a joke. My Mercury Milan with a 5 speed and 4 cylinder gets better highway mileage thet the Smart car. I want a 2010 Ford Fusion or Milan with 4 cylinder and a 6 speed manual gearbox. I would guess it gets 40 to 42 mpg highway.
The Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan also has a great safety rating.
I was puzzled, too, until I saw that they were relying on “Consumer Reports”, an entity which I not merely do not respect, but actively hold in contempt.
Isn’t the Volt also seriously overpriced? Somewhere I read the MSRP exceeded $30K.
For less protection and speed than the Aveo, a crappy car in its own right with a 36 MPG rating, you can put 144,000 miles on an Aveo even with $5 per gallon gas and still come out ahead once the time value of money is calculated.
In a way I have to agree. Just now replacing the engine on my C2500 with 568,000 miles. Hope I get the same out of the new engine. One transmission at 370,000, about 5 alternators, and two radiators. Not too bad.
Yup....pox on CR!
Neither of my Nissan’s are on the list! Plus, they weren’t made by union thugs!
I love my GM cars and I dont care who made them or who owns the company. Flame away.
That isn’t a car designed for 20 years of use. It is a marketing plan to get Americans to give up the idea of driving a personal motor vehicle wherever they want to go.
It is a transitionary device to get people into less purposeful vehicles, carrying very little about, and eventually giving up the “headache” of a car altogether.
It’s a clown car without the costume.
Stupid Smart Cars, they look like they are going to flip sitting still.
That's discrimination against rednecks!
So: what do you do with your Prius when it has 100,000 miles on it and it needs a new $6,000 dollar battery?
“Government Motors may still have some quality issues.”
Government Motors doesn’t have to worry. If things get really bad, Obama will simply mandate that we buy their cars on grounds that the company needs its “fair share” of the market and that evil profit-maker Ford needs to have its “obscene” profits trimmed to “socially acceptable” levels.
It's hard to argue with someone who simply states an opinion without a reasoned argument or facts. It's your opinion, and you are entitled to hold it.
The visible difference in track width from front to rear is the part that I find disconcerting - it makes the Smart Car look like an enclosed grocery cart.
It would come in last in a go-cart derby.
It can be accomplished by making the older cars illegal same as they have done away with functional toilet bowls and incandescent lighting.
I suspect the rating on the F-250 has a lot to do with the 6.4L Powerstroke engine. They were very unreliable, very costly to repair and nothing at all like the previous 7.3L in terms of longevity.
You've put 90,000 miles on a truck since Obama bailed GM out?
At 6'5" and 250 pounds, I just don't fit comfortably in those tiny econo-boxes. If I'm not comfortable, I cannot drive safely
That'd be covered by the "General Welfare" reference in the Preamble, I reckon.
Actually one of the best-made cars on the road. Don’t confuse small with poorly made. It gets safety ratings the equivalent of much larger cars.
But....but....but.....test after (government-sanctioned and developed) test has shown that these compact cars are safer than 95.4% of every other vehicle on the road!
Wait....wait... "I'm a good enough driver so that I don't NEED to worry about getting turned into a red smear on the road."
Oop...wait.... "Dammit! It's my life and my prerogative, and I can risk it by driving whatever car I want to, Dammit!"
Does that about cover all of the FReeper arguments for the "smart car" thread? :-)
FWIW, I think that in a big car, the car takes the beating and in a small car, you take the beating. It's simple physics, really. But logic and reason have no place for "what car to drive" threads. :-) :-)
Never had a lick of trouble out of the 1999 until a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned giving it to my daughter when we buy a new one, then the oxygen sensor went out the very next day. I told hubby "truck is angry" (Poltergeist II movie reference), LOL! We got it fixed for less than $200 through a neighbor.
I had to replace the wheel bearings on the 2005 after 95,000 miles. Other than that, not a bit of trouble out of either vehicle. We also owned another GMC truck prior to that and never had any trouble out of it. The only Ford we have owned was a 1986 Tempo and that was a total POS.
My late Dad was a GM employee...non-union, he risked his life to cross the picket lines many times...and while I am not happy with the bailout and bankruptcy, I will continue to buy GMC trucks for their quality. Sorry, but I won't spend that much money on a vehicle that has to last me at least 5 years based on emotions.
However, I do agree with your comment "FUBO!!".
Isn’t the Escalade just a tricked up Chevy Suburban?
My ‘97 F150 has 258,000 miles and is still going strong. It’s been a workhorse.
I dunno, I've never driven either one of them. Just repeating what was said.
anything made by Land Rover since late 1980s...suck suck suck suck suck suck suck.
former owner 1995 Ranger Rover Classic, 1990 Ranger Rover Classic and 1995 land Rover Discovery
former owner 1970s Land Rover 110...that was a good off road vehicle
Best car I ever owned...2000 Toyota Land Cruiser...incredible and a 2005 Dodge MegaCab Diesel 3/4 tonne truck
No, I confess, it’s pre-Obama F-150, although it does have an anti-Obama bumper sticker on it. My truck and my dog are both right wingers. Well, I’m assuming. I haven’t heard my dog say anything good about Obama, so I assume we agree.
I agree with your asseessment of CR.
One problem with the Smart is how they introduced it in the US. In Europe it’s a 600cc turbo insted of a one-liter non-turbo here. There gas is about 50mpg, diesel about 80mpg. That’s combined mileage. Highway mileage is mostly about the aerodynamics of the car, and the smart isn’t the slipperiest mainly due to how short it is. In the city where the mass of the car matters most, the Smart gets a big help from being much lighter than almost every other car on the road.
It surprised me too that that is on the list.
All dogs are anti Obama because dogs have good sense about people. That BO dog, currently in the WH, is actually a prisoner. He would run away, if he had the chance. Remember Buddy, the Chocolate Lab? He committed suicide — just threw himself in front of a car — rather than be cooped up with Bill and all his babes.
For GM cars and trucks made before the 2009 model year, it’s a question of priorities, and I haven’t owned a GM car since my first lemon. Post-2009, it’s a question of patriotism, and I would not own a GM government motors car at any price, including for free. GM is on my permanent boycott list.
I have an 89 Chevy subdivision myself with over 300,000 miles on it. I bought it used with 148,000 miles on it over ten years ago and it is still running strong.
Back while I was still working, I had the rear springs rearched and an overload spring added. That came in handy a few years ago when I had it heavily loaded moving a complete bedroom set and some other things from Akron ohio down to Florida.
The only problem I really have with it is the poor quality sheet metal which is getting a bit rusty. The rust is what will eventually end the trucks useful life. The bolt-on parts can easily be replaced, but the sheet metal is harder to fix and after awhile becomes too expensive to bother with.
I might wind up buying another used Suburban with a good body and transplanting the good running gear from my current truck to that one just to get around the rust problem.
The Suburbans are just too good to get rid of because they really fill a niche for me in that they can carry both cargo and people in a way that no car can match.
I had a brand new Chevy one ton K30 Crew Cab pickup back when I lived in near Chicago and it started rusting out after it’s second year. That particular engine, a small block 350, was also known for bad tempering (hardening) on it’s cam shafts and was the object of a ‘consent decree’ as a resulf of a federal lawsuit. My cam shaft had to be replaced after only a few years also.
I only got about 69,000 miles on that truck before I got rid of it. On a trip to Arizona and back, it only averaged 6.8 miles per gallon while carrying a slide in camper.
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