American cars are not "unreliable"

Why does everyone and their sperm think that American cars are unreliable?

I owned a 2004 Impala from 06 to 16, 10 years, the car was 12/13 years old, and put on 185,000 miles. It was my daily driver, and I drove it across Canada and across the US, snow, rain, summer heat, everything.

Only things I had to change was a head gasket, which was actually under warranty for 7 years, but my first mechanic lied and made me pay to do it. They also did a shitty job and it happened again 5 years later.

Another problem I faced was my alternator broke down, about mid 2013. Left me stranded but it wasn't "a big deal".

Another problem, in 2014, my power steering pump failed. Replaced it with a 2007 - 2013 Impala pump (the fleet model) and it worked fine.

> The only 3 times I was "left stranded" with it was with the head gasket twice, and the alternator.

Anyways, point is, I bought the vehicle used, with like 25,000 miles, and it lasted me all the way until 185,000 miles (I got into a car accident, the car was barely damaged, but it was worth nothing, so it was a write off).

I changed the brake rotors and pads when required, changed the tires when required, did all the fluid work, kept the vehicle rust proofed (the gas cap still rusted though) and did pretty much all the preventative maintenance.

The car never let me down, it kept trudging along, and it kept me totally safe with no injuries in a 60 mph highway accident where I spun out into a ditch after being rammed 2 times by another vehicle.

Is this "not reliable"?

Car could have gone until 250,000 - 300,000 miles before I junked it.

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>two headgaskets in 185k
>"only" left stranded 3 times

Head gaskets x2?
baka

> The only 3 times I was "left stranded" with it was with the head gasket twice, and the alternator.
>The car never let me down,
WAT

you're right, it's a very shitty thing, but it didn't leave me hating my car and wanting to buy a toyota now did it?

:(

It didn't, I loved that car, and it's why I want to buy another Impala soon

They're generally unreliable but there are some gems out there. I see tons of those Impalas on the road every single day so I have no doubts that they're reliable as fuck. Especially since most of the owners are basketball americans that drive them into the ground yet they keep going. On the other hand, my co-workers fifth gen Chevy Malibu seems to have a new issue every week or so.

Even the newest Malibus with the 1.5 turbo are eating pistons left and right with only 20k miles.

youtube.com/watch?v=5JZzPz9nnW0

My parents used to own an 04 impala they bought it dirt cheap because of salvage title(some dealer guy got in minor accident fucked up hood and accidental airbag deployment.

Car was repaired and was mechanically fine in every way

We kept it for 100 k miles and it gave us no major issues, was a great comfy car.

Yeah, these new American cars with tiny engines really have me feeling some type of way. I don't understand the need to save one or two MPGs. Are people really that broke that they can't afford maybe $20 more a month on gas? They're getting a larger, safer, and more reliable car, simply because the engine won''t need to work as hard as a 1.5L Turbo would to do the same thing

Also been seeing the new gen impalas around and was really imlike their look. Been tempted into getting one

We bought ours for $10k, could have sold it for $1000 maybe $1500 (had all service records, car was babied, etc). Insurance ended up giving us around $2.5k after the accident though.

Anyways, these things are tanks, they just keep going, it's no wonder why they were fleet vehicles. Lots of room to work inside the engine, lots of parts are interchangeable between models, a breeze for cheap labor.

>On the other hand, my co-workers fifth gen Chevy Malibu seems to have a new issue every week or so.

5th gen was worst car ever. I can't imagine anyone taking one for a test drive and saying, "yeah, that's the car I want."

sounds awful to me

aunt had a 2004 SS and it was a piece of shit too

will never buy an American car as long as I live

Beautiful car, the rear is weird, but with the two exhaust cutouts it's not so bad

I love it in Red or the Midnight Black scheme

Keep in mind, this car was driven into the ground, for 13 years. It was not leased for 4 years and traded in for something new.

No American car will give you issues for the first 5 years, and you'll have to do some work for year 6-7. After that, if you didn't do preventative maintenance, they require work, but after you change a few things, they run fine for another few years.

Yeah this trend of "let's put tiny engines with turbos in EVERYTHING" is getting pretty stupid. It made sense back in the 80's with Kei cars. They weren't nearly as stressed.

Yeah every time something breaks on it I'm wondering why. Apparently has a lot of cardboard gaskets and pulleys are a wear item on that engine?

>other co-worker driving his mid 90's Camry with over 300k miles
>keeps pissing oil
>pretty much stopped pouring oil in it
>still fucking going
>pretty much doing it as an experiment with nothing to lose

Holy shit Toyota.

I gotta agree it's one of the best looking new GM's that isn't a muscle car.

>185k miles

is that supposed to be a lot of miles?

Let me know when a Chevy Impala hits 1mil miles.

Close enough

youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4VEJ-O5PM

Why do people not realize by now that every manufacturer has turds and gems? Ranger? It'll last hundreds of thousands of miles. DCT Focus? Not so much. Manual 90s civic? It'll run til it rusts in half. Auto 90s civic? Trans shits the bed early in its life.

>im okay with my car being a piece of shit, therefore it isn't actually piece of shit

I have a '98 Explorer that only left me stranded once when the fuel injectors desolved because of ethanol in the fuel.
Other than that it's been the perfect car

>Yeah this trend of "let's put tiny engines with turbos in EVERYTHING
That "trend" is how the manufacturers game Euro VI emissions requirements along with US CAFE regulations. Now that the Euros are onto the fact that their emissions regs don't do shit for the real world perhaps they'll change the rules to something where larger engines can also be viable. CAFE's going to be a problem though. Good luck getting a political coalition together that makes the targets lower since the optics on that would be only slightly better than endorsing child molestation.

Have a 12 year old Cavalier I've owned for close to 6 years now, only issues were bad timing chain guides and wonky wiring done by whoever rebuilt it. Left me stranded twice, once when the ignition wiring melted through, and once when snow got into the alternator belt while driving and killed the battery. Outside of that, two wheel bearings and regular maintenance is all it needed in the 60k miles I've had it.

On the other hand, I also have a brand new Fiesta, which I've owned for 4 months and about 6k miles, and one of the vent actuators already broke.

Some cars are good, others are shit. I'm just hoping the newer stuff by Ford isn't complete garbage.

>will never buy an American car as long as I live

It's not American but GM that's the problem. Example of GM quality: Friend buys new Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais sedan in 1990. Within two years the paint started peeling. When the car hit 60k miles it would break on a weekly basis. Everything from overheating to fluid leaks to stalling-you name it. She ended up selling it in 1997 for $600 to a mechanic as it was too unreliable to serve as a daily driver. I have many more stories like this of GM nigger grade engineering.

OP you didn't do your story any favors by admitting you replaced the head gasket twice within 185k miles. My old Ford has 272k miles and the head gasket was never touched.

GM v6s can go 400k if and only if you do all the gaskets with felpro ones

Yeah the engine itself might you'll replace everything else on the car, like the transmission, many times over. The fact they can not make a durable head gasket says everything.

I thought the newer Impalas looked pretty nice too, until I saw the new Malibu. I dont know why, just the all round look is very pleasing to me.

I had an 08 Impala I used as my company car. I had to do a lot of traveling and after 300k miles the only thing I had to fix or replace besides the normal maintenance things was the alternator at 280k.

I got a new car and now that same company uses it as the errand car and its still going strong. The previous retired company car that became the errand car was a 96 Lumina that an employee bought and is still driving.

>Why does everyone and their sperm think that American cars are unreliable?
Because there's a large number of underage yuropoor posters here who's only knowledge about cars comes from top gear and cartoons

Trump will save us.

The 70s and 80s happened.

>you're right, it's a very shitty thing, but it didn't leave me hating my car and wanting to buy a toyota now did it?
That's because you have Stockholm syndrome as a result of your Impala.