New car for me.?.?. UPDATED 2012 Volvo C30 R-design

[101lifts2]

Originally Posted by Dave

.....german cars blow dicks for reliability. most fun thing about em is trying to guess whats going to fall off next. ...

Eh...you're living in the past. VW reliablity is almost as good as Toyota nowadays. 5 years ago..no...but in 2008 and higher..yes.

BMW makes the most reliable European car, but the MB engines are built to last longer. Transmissions are pretty much a wash. Germans give you consistently good build materials, Japan cheapens out every year.

The 2010 Golf I have walks any Japanese car in terms of material quality and solidity. They don't even come close...and the steering, chassis and braking are far better than any car in it's price range (I leased mine, but the price was 16,100). Not to mention the interior rocks and feels like its going to last 50 years. No issues yet, but its only a year old with 13k miles.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by 101lifts2

Eh...your living in the past. VW reliablity is almost as good as Toyota nowadays. 5 years ago..no...but in 2008 and higher..yes.

BMW makes the most reliable European car, but the MB engines are built to last longer. Transmissions are pretty much a wash. Germans give you consistently good build materials, Japan cheapens out every year.

The 2010 Golf I have walks any Japanese car in terms of material quality and solidity. They don't even come close...and the steering, chassis and braking are far better than any car in it's price range (I leased mine, but the price was 16,100). Not to mention the interior rocks and feels like its going to last 50 years. No issues yet, but its only a year old with 13k miles.

we had parts literally falling off the motors on our fleet bmws before they got binned. our audis have what could only be kindly referred to as an oil addiction and toyota makes some amazingly boneheaded designs. like for example the prius gas bladder and the fuel guess gauge. never drove one i actually liked

[derf]

Originally Posted by Dave

ferrari...no. not even close. you might get in the door on someone who is desperate with a 40 year old 308 but parts and service will eat you alive.

You can find a mid 80s Mondial for less than 20k easily, and find an old seven, elise, spirt, and even the post 2002 US imported elises are staring to hit the sub 20k range.

Originally Posted by Dave

we had parts literally falling off the motors on our fleet bmws before they got binned. our audis have what could only be kindly referred to as an oil addiction and toyota makes some amazingly boneheaded designs. like for example the prius gas bladder and the fuel guess gauge. never drove one i actually liked

You are talking about basically a rental fleet, people abuse those cars worse than anything else, I give your opinion no consideration whatsoever.

[Particle Man]

Originally Posted by derf

You are talking about basically a rental fleet, people abuse those cars worse than anything else, I give your opinion no consideration whatsoever.

I'm the opposite - I figure if a car can go through that it can go through anything I could possibly throw at it.

[derf]

Originally Posted by Particle Man

I'm the opposite - I figure if a car can go through that it can go through anything I could possibly throw at it.

When was the last time you saw a rental car with more than 40 or 50k miles? Or more than a few years old? You dont because companies realize that as rentals the cars start costing more in maintenance at that point than they would be to replace with a newer model. It doesnt matter what kind of car it is dropping from N to D with the engine spinning at 6k will destroy it.

incidently I was extremely scared to drive the last cobalt I rented, it made noises that I never would have expected to hear come out of a car.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by derf

incidently I was extremely scared to drive the last cobalt I rented, it made noises that I never would have expected to hear come out of a car.

lol...

One thing that's very common with GM FWD cars is a "hollow" noise when driving over bumps. Makes you think a control arm is about to fall off.

[derf]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

lol...

One thing that's very common with GM FWD cars is a "hollow" noise when driving over bumps. Makes you think a control arm is about to fall off.

No, I mean that when I started it up there was a small clacking sound that got worse after 5 minutes. The clacking turned into a steady stream of metallic clanking sounds. The only way that I can really describe the sound is that it was like a thousand really tiny garden gnomes wearing steel condoms where anally raping the engine to the tune of old mcdonald. I wound up bringing the car back because I really thought that it would leave me on the side of the road. The car had less than 10k on it.

The hollow wurring suspension noise is normal for FWD GM.

[101lifts2]

Originally Posted by derf

When was the last time you saw a rental car with more than 40 or 50k miles? Or more than a few years old? You dont because companies realize that as rentals the cars start costing more in maintenance at that point than they would be to replace with a newer model.....

It's more to do with residual value, then maintenance. Most cars today will go 100k miles before any services are needed and and most fleets will replace only the front tires and never rotate them to save replacing the rear.

[101lifts2]

Originally Posted by Dave

we had parts literally falling off the motors on our fleet bmws before they got binned.....

What parts? Very very rare to see anything "fall off an engine" that is production intent.