79 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: Cars I Have Known
|
|
date: 2022-10-02T00:00:00Z
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
I've owned a few cars by now. In chronological order of ownership:
|
|
|
|
1. ~1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88
|
|
2. ~1972 Oldsmobile Toronado
|
|
3. ~1989 Honda Prelude
|
|
4. ~1998 Subaru Legacy Wagon
|
|
5. ~1985 Volkswagon Vanagon
|
|
6. 2007 Subaru Outback
|
|
7. 2016 Tesla Model S
|
|
8. 2019 Tesla Model 3
|
|
9. 2017 Nissan LEAF
|
|
10. 2019 Chevrolet Bolt
|
|
|
|
Tesla manages to be very much in the public conciousness.
|
|
There's this persistent story that the cars are poorly built and unreliable.
|
|
That hasn't been my experience.
|
|
|
|
Reliability
|
|
----------
|
|
|
|
This next list ranks these cars from most to least reliable,
|
|
including a need for repairs,
|
|
taking into account that gas cars have a higher baseline maintenance burden.
|
|
|
|
1. ~1989 Honda Prelude: Nothing
|
|
2. 2017 Nissan LEAF: Several recalls when we first bought it
|
|
3. Tesla Model 3: Recall on a cable in the trunk
|
|
4. 2019 Chevrolet Bolt: Software updates can't happen over the air, and a battery recall that was still open when we bought it
|
|
5. ~1998 Subaru Legacy Wagon: Alternator failure made car die over train tracks!
|
|
6. Tesla Model S: Three door handle microswitch failures, all covered by warranty
|
|
7. 2007 Subaru Outback: Head gasket failed
|
|
8. ~1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88: Older car needed lots of twiddling
|
|
9. ~1972 Oldsmobile Toronado: Older front wheel drive car needed lots and lots of twiddling
|
|
10. ~1988 Volkswagon Vanagon: An endless parade of mechanical problems
|
|
|
|
Overall ownership experience
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Now including regular maintenance items,
|
|
here are the top 5 from most to least pain in the butt to own:
|
|
|
|
1. Tesla Model 3: The only shop visit has been to replace tires
|
|
2. Tesla Model S: Multiple warranty repairs all happened in our driveway
|
|
3. 2017 Nissan LEAF: One shop trip to have multiple recalls performed
|
|
4. 2019 Chevrolet Bolt: One shop trip to have recalls performed
|
|
5. ~1989 Honda Prelude: Required regular maintenance at an auto shop
|
|
6. ~1998 Subaru Legacy Wagon: Regular maintenance at shop, and alternator replacement ate 3 days from our vacation and also required body work because it fell off the tow truck
|
|
|
|
Servce Center Experience
|
|
------------------------
|
|
|
|
And in terms of best to worst service center experience,
|
|
the list is:
|
|
|
|
1. Tesla
|
|
2. Everybody else
|
|
|
|
I could write pages and pages of complaints about the dealership service center experience
|
|
for every car we've had.
|
|
I'm really hoping,
|
|
now that Tesla has illustrated how to sell and service cars without dealerships,
|
|
that other manufacturers start doing the same thing,
|
|
because the dealership experience is uniformly horrid.
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
$SPOUSE, on reading this list,
|
|
commented that if she had to buy a gas car again,
|
|
she'd want something like the Legacy wagon.
|
|
I agree with that: it was a pretty good gas car.
|
|
|
|
But we'd rather have any electric than any gas car.
|
|
They need way less regular maintenance,
|
|
which means that even the nightmare experience of dealing with a dealership is less frequent. |