Fords
#1: The Ranger

What a pile of shat. For those of you unfamiliar, the Ford Ranger is a big 4x4 pickup. With an underpowered 2 litre engine it did 0-60 in a fortnight and the handling was shit. No word of a lie, the fucker skidded across a lane on a roundabout at the break-neck speed of 20 mph.
It drank fuel like it was going out of fashion, and was as rough as hell. Tyre pressures, water, oil, checked and double checked adjusted, fuel cleaner/additives out in nothing would make that car run smoothly.
Parking was a nightmare, I use to park at the far end of any car park as I was worried about hitting other people's car.

#2 The Ka

Thankfully not mine, I was driving my trusty Renault Laguna (a mark I) and I stopped in a bit of a hurry - the Ka behind me didn't.
The guy got quite arsey with me until I asked him about stopping distances. I pulled my car forward slightly to take some pictures for the insurance claim and started laughing.
His Ka had had its bonnet pushed up and crumpled, and his front pushed in slightly, certainly not driveable.
My Laguna had some scuffs on the bumper. I dont think it improved his temper when he saw it.
I drove off and didn't even bother claiming, but as I did he was on the phone to Mummy telling her the nasty lady had wrecked her car (I dont think she was buying it).
( VandenPlas can't think of anything clever - no change there!, Tue 27 Apr 2010, 15:07, 1 reply)

The Ranger
friend tells me he had a similar experience with a new Chrysler. It was supposed to be the performance version but it ran poorly, hard to start, guzzled fuel and all the rest. His uncle owned a garage so they waited until the warranty ran out and stripped the engine. Some of the pistons were out of specification and so were the some connecting rods. The valve gear wasn't right either, the list of assembly faults went on and on. They reassembled the thing with parts that were in specification and he said the difference was amazing. Far more power, less fuel consimption, quieter and so forth. He ended up keeping it nearly ten years.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Wed 28 Apr 2010, 11:14, closed)