Personally when I looked down the list of worse and seen just about all of them was chevys and the perferred was Toyota...kinda makes you wonder. Wonder why with all of the recalls they are having with Toyota why they would be perferred.

A guy at work has a Toyota Prius and he hates it. I think he has had it in the shop more then he has driven it do to recalls or stuff breaking. Did he get a bad prius...I don't know but talking to him, he says that alot of people are having the same problems as him.

Now do our cars need more maintaince then the ave car? Depends. Most of the time if you keep it bone stock and take car of it then it should last a good long while. Where we usually start to run into problems is when we start modding it. Then the headache starts as I am finding out because buying a used car you don't know what someone did or didn't do before you.

PS...why isn't there any other w-bodies on the list?

 

um 3800 got a recall cause they catch fire, and impalas fot recalled cause they have a leak in the gas tank. colbolts got recalled cause they lose power steering on the highway. thats just a few i wastch the news every night and just casue toyota is in the spotlight right now doesnt meant that other cares dont get recalled.

personally if my car had a serious problem, id prefer that they would admit it and fix it for me instead of keeping it under wraps and me getting hurt.

 

I learned a long time ago that the consumer mags don't care much for GM. And seems the imports can do no wrong. Not saying GM is perfect and imports are piles of trash but come on.... Like Duane said I tend to look to places like Edmunds.com and the like that not only give professional reviews of the cars but also have real world people giving their own reviews. That's also why when I was looking at a newer Impala and a Cobalt I asked for opinions around here because I knew I'd get honest real world data not Consumer Reports BS

 

 

Have you ever looked here?
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...arlo&trimid=-1

Now that is for the 2007, if you go back to the 2000-2005 the rating is lower. I checked here before I purchased my 2002, I figured it was reliable enough to buy, so far I think I have put on about 6k taking the clock up to 55 or 56k and no problems. I still think this is one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated cars I have ever owned. Right now I would buy another one next, either a v8 or supercharged one next time.

 

I appreciate the feedback, everybody.

When the CR stats came out, I was crestfallen. Now I don't know what to think because CR says the car sucks, JD Power and Associates gives the car pretty good marks, and Edmunds' consumer reviews has some good and some bad.

Admittedly, those who are having problems with their vehicles feel inclined to tell the world about it, whereas people who are not experiencing trouble are just inclined to drive on in blissful silence.

Many workplace colleagues have told me to just continue doing the maintenance by the book, and "enjoy the car". I'm hoping for good years ahead because I -do- maintain it according to the manual, don't drive it hard, keep it stock, hand-wash it every two weeks, wax/detail it every three months, and even try to use a light touch when handling the controls, doors, etc.

Buying my Monte did require a bit of a leap of faith, because I had spent the last 9+ years in a '97 Civic EX sedan (absolutely incredible reliability) and wanted to get into a completely different breed of car -without- sacrificing reliability. I realize that Civic-Monte is a bit of an apples-pears comparison.

-M

 

Let them say what they want about the Monte Carlo.

I'll be driving around in my 10 year old, shiny, good looking, powerful, roomy, and reliable car that is still getting 32+ MPGs, and not burning oil while my odometer is reading over 167,000 miles.

Who cares that every spring I have to oil the ISS and every now and then I have to refresh a part or two. Better than having my clear coat peeling off the roof or hearing the screams of old belts that I constantly hear from 90s toyotas

 

Not to mention, they can't stop...

 

Consumer mags are like movie critics, they're all full of crap. My grandpa's 2000 LS hasn't had any problems with it since the day he bought it, except for the two jack asses that backed into it (both times on the front).

 

I'm going to say i've had a few problems with mine. But i'm pretty sure it's mostly because of the dealer trying to make a few extra bucks. I had brought my 05 LT in a GM dealership because my power steering pump was going bad, my speedo was all kinds of screwed up, and i had a weird front end feeling that ended up being the left front wheel bearing. Also a loss of oil.
well the stealership decided to replace the rack instead of the pump, which did nothing for me except screw up my turning radius. replaced all of my gaskets except for head gaskets, and said that i needed valve guides replaced. i'm calling big time BS on the valve guides and the rack. they just wanted extra money cause they thought they could get away with it. and they did. otherwise, i love this car. it's going on 96,000 miles and no suspension or sound system issues or anything.