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For reliability, that easily goes to my current car, a 2006 Saturn Ion coupe (5 speed). Purchased with 66k in January of 2013, has almost 110k now. All I've done is basic maintenance, though the thermostat has been sticking open occasionally for a couple of months. I plan to fix that next week (I've been saying that for over a month). The serpentine belt did break around 105k, but I knew it was dry rotted, and kept putting off replacement. For the car that was the most fun to drive, that was my 1991 Acura Integra LS (automatic). Bought it cheap from a friend after he rearended a Suburban, all it needed was a new headlight, a little beating on the upper radiator support, and a fender. The interior looked brand new, the body looked brand new (except for the RF corner). It had every issue that every DA Integra (90-93) has, most of them I was able to fix (except for the drat cowl leak). Unfortunately, the friend I got it from had put an adjustable FPR on it, and had it running really lean. That, coupled with a clogged fuel filter (verified with the pressure gauge he'd left on it, blipping the throttle caused the gauge to nosedive), lead to it burning some valves and basically destroying the rings. You'd think I would have figured out something was very wrong when I managed 40 mpg on a road trip in it... it was rated 26 highway.
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Feb 19, 2015 08:41
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:29 |
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dissss posted:Definitely the first car I chose myself - a Japanese Import 1990 Integra XSi sedan. Mine also had all the normal DA issues, cowl leak, tail light leaks, rusted sunroof tray, main fuel relay, worn out shift and rear trailing arm bushings, cracked engine mounts, cracked radiator top tank but I managed to fix everything (including the cowl which was a massive pain in the arse).  That's the same color as my old Integra, with the same JDM headlights (USDM got some dim as poo poo headlights, but the JDM ones are an easy swap - just need to ditch one corner marker bulb, as the USDM model has 2 on each front lens, and swap the plug for an H4/H4H plug. Mine was a hatch though. The JDM lights lit up the road like the sun, but had a super sharp cutoff; I sat in front of it before and after, and noticed far less glare with the JDM housings. The USDM housings just threw dim light everywhere.Also H4H bulbs are pretty much impossible to find in the US. You can modify the base of an H4 bulb to fit in the JDM housings, but that's a pain in the rear end. i just kept a spare bulb with me. I gave up trying to fix the cowl leak and just put a garbage bag over the cowl whenever it was parked in the rain. It also popped the radiator (though almost every car I've owned has eventually done the same), the ICM (integrated control module) had issues with the wipers,, had HVAC issues (until I reflowed the solder on the PCB that the switches connected to), tails leaked like mad until I got new gaskets from Honda (special order, but they were available), and a lot of "lol what engine mounts, it's a thirsty gasoline powered vibrator!" bit. I meant to add the OEM side markers to the fenders (we didn't get the side markers in the US, instead they had dual bulbs in the front corner lights); in fact, I think I may still have them somewhere. I should see if I can find them, I'm sure I can sell them on G2IC for a decent amount of coin if I can find them. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Feb 19, 2015 |
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Feb 19, 2015 12:46
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Korwen posted:I'm gonna have to go with my 1995 Saturn SL2 An old friend of mine had a 99 SL1. 5 speed, a/c, same color. Drank oil and smoked a bit if you got on it, it was spitting just about every code possible without going into limp home mode, and closing in on 300k last time I saw it. A/C still blew ice cold, and it "passed" inspection (uh, her brother might have been a state inspector, and a mechanic, so....), and never left her stranded the entire time I knew her. She had a 40-50 mile commute to work that took her across 2 counties for over a year. Since me, her, and a few other people from work frequently went to a bar across the street after work, and she was kind of a lightweight, I'd often wind up driving her (and her car) back to my place (1 mile away) with someone else following in my car. It actually drove pretty good for something with so many miles. Transmission still shifted pretty smoothly, brakes were decent, handling was what you'd expect for an SL with that many miles. I wouldn't be surprised if she still has it today, though it definitely needed rings back then (the last time I saw that car was 5 years ago).
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Feb 23, 2015 08:38
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