QOTD: What's the Most Reliable Car You've Ever Owned?
Back in January, we asked you B&B to tell us about the least reliable car you’d ever owned. The stories poured in, amounting to a shocking 240+ comments. It took us days to emotionally recover from the sad tales expressed in your replies.
But today will not be a day of tears. We want to know: what’s the most reliable car you’ve ever owned?
Much like unreliability, reliability is not always a surprise occurrence. Some cars can be picked from whichever particular crop is being shopped and provide the owner with reliability. It’s their nature. The most basic of upkeep, and one can enjoy thousands of miles of carefree driving.
Other times, you might discover you’ve “picked a good one,” realizing much better reliability than others who purchased the exact same ride as you. It’s not hard to find an Internet Person with a 1994 Cadillac DeVille who has not once experienced a gasket issue with their Northstar, even after 25 years and 180,000 miles. Likewise, there’s an owner of a 1998 Land Rover Discovery who has never had an electrical or water leakage issue. Miracles happen!
Your author’s most reliable ride falls squarely in the unsurprising category. A 1997 Infiniti I30. Pearl white paint, tan leather, wood tone, all propelled forward by the VQ30. It was purchased in the summer of 2005 to replace the ’93 Audi 90S (that white one up there) that was getting on its owner’s nerves. At time of purchase, the I30 had something like 120,000 miles on it, and was on its second owner, who purchased it off lease. $3,900 left my bank account, and multi-spoke alloys decorated the street in front of my parent’s house (where it got hit by a Wrangler in the door, and repaired).
In over three years, I experienced nary a mechanical issue. Oil changes and checking tire pressures sufficed for maintenance. I did fix one thing — a rattling center console lid. It was down to the clip which held it closed being slightly too worn to function. Eight dollars and five minutes, and all was well. I kept the I30 through the rest of college, until I was forced to sell it in September of 2008, shortly before fleeing The America to avoid the big unemployment.
Whichever side of the reliability coin you’ve found yourself on, today’s your chance to spill it. What was your readily reliable ride?
[Images: Corey Lewis, Infiniti]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Most reliable was easily the 2008 Honda Accord I got as a hand-me-down from my father-in-law. Got it in 2013 with 135,000 on it and traded it in 2016 with 165,000 on it for something that would legally seat 4 adults + 2 kids. Only thing I did was replace some bulbs in the climate control unit. Reliable, but so boring.
My 2009 Toyota Yaris. 2-door. 5-speed. Equipped it with wide wheels from a Mazda MX-3 GS, performance tires and a rear anti-roll bar to get rid of the understeer. Drove it more than 200,000 miles, trouble-free. Didn't even need to change the spark plugs. Did track days with it. Pulled a good-size downed tree back up without burning up the clutch. Consistent 37 mpg with mix of highway at 80 mpg and local driving in stop and go traffic.