What is it about hearse-like family cars being shit?

We had one of these for a while.

Things rattled in it, and we couldnt figure out what it was. Possibly it was the poorly assembled panels of faux-wood on the dashboard, but who knows?

The driver seat, when moved all the way back, would lock into place. It was also on quite an incline so if someone of stature (like me) were to climb in and try to adjust the seat it would slam into the farthest-away position, and stay there. This annoyed my mother intensely, as she is very short, and so is her temper. Cue much screaming at me (and/or dad) when she was in a hurry somewhere and couldnt adjust the seat.

The exhaust fell off once. I wasnt there but I think it was the section from the cat and out to the muffler, that whole part just dislodged and dragged on the pavement until my dad had pulled over.

It would frequently overheat from running out of coolant, despite there definitely not being a leak anywhere. Garages were baffled. We used to drive around with big 2L bottles of water, in case we had to refill the radiator.

Strange knocking sounds came from the suspension/brakes area. Again, garages were baffled, nobody could figure it out.

Other than this, there were little things like door handles coming clean off as you pulled them, and things generally falling apart. My dad has always sworn by German cars, saying they are superiour engineering. This was obviously the exception to the rule (much like German grammar).
(tyrellsOwl, Mon 18 Jul 2011, 13:04, Reply)