Cars you have had with a love/hate relationship

Parent Cafe
1

This is a bit more of a silly thread, about cars you have owned that you both loved and hated.

Mine was a 1971 Alfa Romeo Spyder, that I learned to drive on, kept running with my own two hands and some ingenuity (when it already had >100k miles on it, on roads using salt…), had a lot of fun with, had it in the garage for years with the idea of ‘restoring it’ (engine was done, rough bodywork done, never got beyond that).

When it ran, it was a beautiful car, lot of fun to drive, but it also was like the high maintainence S.O, spent other times trying to kill me. Alfa’s were legendary for rust, as they said on one program, you could hear them rusting when it rained, and mechanically they could be, well, temperamental (as another program said, you should own 10 or 11 of them, so one would be working at all times). The guy on Top Gear, the nasty guy (Jeremy I think) hit the nail on the head, that Alfa owners are waiting for that perfect half hour when the car runs as it should, and spend the rest of the time dreaming of that half hour lol.

Car tried to kill me several times, tried to run me over when I was doing the exhaust (broken wrist), loved to break down on busy roads, couple of times did a 360 on wet roads (well, the car, and the fact that my tires were of rather unique vintage), but it (I use it because if I said she, I would accused of being sexist, though I would tell anyone that car was a true high maintainence girlfriend experience:) also taught me a lot, too, and to this day I miss it (my wife, eminently practical, pointed out the car was in the garage, that she was driving my son daily to school and back and all over the place, and it would be nice to have the car in the garage, get in warm and dry, and not have to clear ice, snow, etc from it). The day I rolled it out of the garage to the waiting flatbed, it gave me its final salute, I turned the steering wheel as I was pushing it out of the garage, and the steering box literally tored apart, like a watchspring uncoiling…

2

We had a college pal in 1980s with An Alfa Romeo. It spent the northern NY winter parked in the dorm lot. Friends referred to by two nicknames - “Alfa roll over and die” and “the blue snowbank”.

3

My car when it works it drives beautifully. I hate it when I have to take it to the shop and have to pay for repairs. They are always costly.

4

LOL.

My Saab Turbo Why I bought that thing I’ll never know. But it’s ridiculous ignition lock system probably saved my life…

5

My Volvos…I’ve loved them all and hated them all. For decades no matter which model i’ve been driving or what year it was i’ve battled plastic parts that fall off, plastic clips that break and the inevitable electrical switch issues but the engines and go and go and go and go…and I love them. I’m on my last one and will be switching to something different and every day that day comes closer and it makes me a touch sad. I’m closing in on 900,000 miles of driving in my adult life in different Volvos that all look remarkably the same. i swear they have all the issues that our boats have had but all the good memories of the little and then the bigger kids, the dogs (all big) and the trips on both the boats and in those darn Volvos (along with all the problems) are eerily similar. My husband, sad to say, has hated all my Volvos…which has it’s benefits because they are and were all mine and I never, ever have to make seat adjustments.

6

We also love and hate Volvos. H has been driving them most of our married life of several decades. When they work well, he’s a happy man, but repairs are costly and we know the mechanic much more than we’d like to. We’ve replaced wires harnesses when the insulation crumbled, had flaky electrical issues, especially with tail lights, trunk that sometimes wants to pop open, but it is a safe car that just goes and goes. H loves the power of the motors and great turning radius. Still, when it needs servicing, it’s tends to be $1000+ and it needs servicing more than the Honda and Toyota combined, or any of our prior US vehicles.

That said, H is considering buying another Volvo. S wants us to go to Sweden to pick it up! We shall see.

7

1968 Fiat Spyder 124: the most beautiful car I ever owned, and I had plenty of time to admire it during its frequent episodes of disappearing electricity as it sat by the side of the road.

1962 MGA Mark II: second only to the Fiat in aesthetics, and it ran great until the engine seized and the crankshaft broke midway between Evanston, Wyoming, and Little America. You haven’t lived unless you’ve tried to get an English sports car repaired in Wyoming in the early 70s.

8

My H owns a Fiat Spider it’s either a 73 or 76. He loves it, I hate it. He drives it several days a week to the beach and to the tennis court. Both are only few miles from our house. It only goes out into the real world a few times a yr for gas and if it needs to go to the mechanic. He has been lucky to find 2 different mechanics who are willing to work on it. It’s temperamental and he carries a battery starter in the trunk but for the most part it runs once you get it started.

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^I could have written the above post but in my case it’s a 78 Datsun 280Z that my H loves and I hate. It’s currently taking up space in our garage and I don’t even want to think about the $$$$ we’ve spent at the “Z Specialists” over the years. Not to mention the car is a death trap being so low to the ground that it can’t be seen and would be squashed by the ginormous SUVs and pickup trucks people drive around here. Oh, and it’s total lack of safety features, no such thing as an air bag in 1978. And for the record, like the Fiat above, it is also temperamental…did I mention that I hate it? :-q

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Ah, old home week. Besides the alfa spyder I had, my family had a Fiat 124 and even better, a Fiat 850 (the whole production run was recalled by Fiat because rusting was so bad). FIAT being called “Fix It Again Tony” was the truth, quirkly as hell.

I also had a volvo, a volvo 142 C 1973 model. They had these plastic clips to hold the headlights in place, that used to break easily and each one was like 15 bucks…and the electrical system was what eventually doomed it, the wiring harness used to short all the time.

Glad someone mentioned british cars. I didn’t own one,but friends did. The biggest love/hate was the electrical system, the infamous Lucas electrics, aka the “Prince of Darkness”. Friend of mine had an MGB, used to burn fuel pumps and alternators, dad finally replaced them with a high capacity Delco fuel pump and alternator, still used to burn out…and only car in the points days that used to burn out the condensors as well. They also had quirky suspensions (and MGB in a turn was to be 45 degrees to the road at times, I swear!), but they were incredibly fun to drive. Saw a 1959 Morgan the other day, with the wooden sub frame, wonder what it is like to own a car that doesn’t rust but gets termite damage;).