Team-BHP - The most & least troublesome cars you have owned in India

I was not at all happy with Indica DLS 2003 diesel. It had multiple issues
- Stuck gear (use to get locked in 2nd gear) - for couple of months I use to shift to 3rd gear from 1st, TML was useless, FNG guy fixed it, something called as "gear guchha" was to be replaced
- Head gasket and coolant issues
- AC compressor failure
- Steering column failure
- Engine mounts going bad (multiple times)
- Wheel bearings making noise (replaced multiple times)
- Perpetual issues with AC Facia plate (I believe I got it replaced 5 or 6 times over 10 years)
- Starting issue when engine is hot (most frustrating problem - my wife use to stay away from driving because of this problem, again got it fixed through authorised TVS workshop, TML was unable to assist)

I am absolutely happy with both Hyundai Verna (1st Generation, the car was with me for 8 years and I have only got regular service done, not even a blub replaced) and Fiat Punto MJD 75 hp, had got clutch replaced at 93k kms and nothing else.

My first post on here, and I thought this to be a good thread. :Cheering:

I have been lucky with the cars I have owned so far I can't seem to put any under the least reliable bucket.

2003 Honda City Vtec - Still own this and is completely stock. It is an absolute gem of a car. Like GTO mentioned, no frills, basic car that just runs and fun while at it. The only issue I had with it was the O2 sensor malfunctioning at around 80K kms, and the Honda service centres did not know how to diagnose this leading to idling issues. This has car has clocked around 160K kms and still runs smooth never missing a beat.

2015 Grand Cherokee - This is also my current drive/daily, although not in India. I have clocked a little over 112K kms on this and haven't had a single issue contrary to the reliability issues that has plagued the Jeeps.

2012 XUV 500: Had picked this up when XUV was first launched. Had this for about a year and clocked around 15K kms on this. Being from the first lot that was sold, this had the initial Mahindra niggles around the brakes. Had to sell it due to relocating, so can't really include in the list.

I have owned till date 7 cars and 3 of them are still with me.

Most Reliable :

Maruti Suzuki Swift VDI 2013 model, never faced any issues of my ownerahip of 7.5 year's did nunerous trips on the rough terrains of Northeast finally had to part with it in 2021 after I met with an accident and the car was declared total loss by tge insurance co. citing low IDV.

Maruti Suzuki Ritz VDI 2013 model bought used post the Swift gone owned it for about an year but not faced any issues build quality was better than the Swift and the driving position was very comfortable. Exchanged it to purchase Nissan Kicks in Jan 2022.

Nissan Kicks 1.5 XV Awesome car and quite VFM good offroad capability with segment best GC, suspension. Have done close to 15000 kms and taken it on very rough roads very happy with the car.

Mahindra Thar CRDE 2017 Model bought used with only 27300 kms on the odo awesome vehicle with great offroading capabilities. Did Guwahati Ladakh trip in 2021 and not once did the vehicle gave any problem. Infact use it for all the hills trips in all the 7 states of Northeast.

Maruti Suzuki Wagon R 2010 model bought used last year for my wife for her office commute but was lucky to get it with only 57000 kms on the odo genuine, no issues faced yet or never has the car left my wife stranded. Did change the front suspension, being an old Maruti and it was rattling.

Maruti Suzuki Alto 2008 Model my first car bought brand new owned it for 7 year's after I exchanged iy for the Swift VDI. Very reliable did 93000 kms on the car and took it to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on numerous trips was a very special car being my first car.

Least Reliable :

Mahindra MM550 Army auction, I procured from a damp and built it completely with replacing the Puegot engine with DI Turbo always had electronic failures, alternator failure, etc. Had got me stranded on a no of ocassions between some of my major trips. Still completed all the trips by repairing it. Once I had to drive back to Guwahati from Arunachal on 1st, 2nd and top 3rd gear as one of the clutch cylinders failed.

Most Reliable:
2014 Honda Mobilio iVtec manual: That car JUST DIDNT GIVE UP!! Used mainly as a city car for school and tuition and was chauffer driven. Main issue was completely worn clutch but that was at 90k Kms. Was sold at 94k Kms for a handsome ~3.8L rupees

2017 Honda Brio iVtec Auto: The car my mom abuses... sorry drives(Sorry mom but even you know its true :p). Banged up almost everywhere :crying but major issue only lose oil sealant (ring?) which was replaced. Will be replaced within 6-12 months.

Pretty reliable:
2014 W205 Merc C200 CBU: 1.3L kms and the car still FLIES in sport and sport+!! Has been maintained immaculately as till 2019 80% use was Highway. Issues being complete suspension overhall with rear being replaced under warranty and front out of pocket and coolant pump issue but was fixed at a trusty garage for under 1L! Small issues being with window switches and speaker but they rarely happened.. Otherwise has never stranded us on Road! Will be replaced by Taycan 4S by the end of the year

Piece Of S*** reliability:
2022 MG ZS EV: Delivered in March 2022(recently finished 28k Kms), first 2-3 months, absolutely perfect. After that the horror started. Have had the car given for wheel balancing and alignment ATLEAST SIX times not counting the times they did it during service. We have NEVER had to do this to ANY of our cars listed above except for during tyre changing(The chauffer who drives this car 70% of the time has driven the Merc for 30K kms, Brio for 10-15K kms and Mobilio for 35K kms so it definitely wasn't a driving style issue). Out of this only one time was due to a puncture! The infotainment takes a minute to start and sometimes wont even start until you've stopped again and restarted the car. They most idiotic thing was once opening the sunroof and the ENTIRE car CREAKING on the smallest of undulations!! On a car which was LESS THAN 9 MONTHS OLD at the time! The service person blamed it on the grease drying up and told me that I would have to open the entire sunroof atleast once everyday! Oh and also around the one year mark, it randomly showed RearDrive Assist failure which it resolved by itself in around 12 hrs. This is why I would never EVER recommend MG to ANYBODY! or any other chinese brands for that matter.

Most reliable and troublefree-

Maruti 800 EX (2000-2009)- Used it for 9.5 years and about 1L + kms. Never gave any trouble whatsoever! It was only after 8 years of ownership, my dad installed an aftermarket LPG kit which was a shoddy affair. Even then there were just few troubles here and there. The current owner whom we sold the car is an office colleague of my dad, and he still uses it. No issues till date!

Chevy U-VA (2009-2013)- Again this was a good car with no issues. Chevy's service packages were very affordable as well. Sold this only because of low mileage, extremely underpowered engine and our increase annual running.

Ford Ecosport S TDCI( 2020-Present)- Bought this car pre owned (2018 manufactured). Absolutely 0 issues with the car. There's no rattles till date. Aftersales remains spectacular. Hope the love affair continues.

Kia Sonet HTX iMT (Feb 2021-Present)- Bought it pre owned. Sample size is small, but the car has been a fill it, shut it and forget it affair. After sales has been great. Hope the iMT doesn't throw any tantrums as the car ages.

Reliable but not trouble Free-

Honda Amaze S IDTEC (2013-2020)- Mechanically the car was great. Excellent FE (delivered 26 kmpl on it's last drive), fantastic steering, awesome drive-ability and a reliable motor. However, there were few suspension related issues (replaced rear suspension twice), air con cooling related issues (solved this aftermarket, since the Honda ASS brushed it off as normal :( ), and extremely hard clutch pedal as the car became older. I calculated the overall maintenance cost which came out to an average of 30K per year ( including replacements), which was a bit on the higher side. Sold it off after nearly 7 years and 1,05,000 kms on the clock.

Least troublesome (apart from routine scheduled services & maintenance as specified by OEM, but did not face any breakdowns on the road):

1) 1987 Maruti Van - sold at 45,000 kms. Not a single issue.

2) 1991 Maruti 800 - Carburettor, 4-sp, non AC. Sold at 60,000 kms. Zero issues

3) 1996 Maruti Zen - carburettor. Sold at 130,000 kms. Nothing failed.

4) 2006 Maruti Swift 1st Gen G13B - Still running like clockwork at 112,000kms

5) 2016 Tata Nano GenX AMT - now at 40,000kms+. No issues. This bug has done 3sets of Kolkata-Chennai round trips, including a 16 hour continuous run from Vishakhapatnam to Kolkata at the peak of summer in the lockdown of 2020 with a solo stop for petrol at Bhubaneswar.

6) 2019 Tata Nexon, Petrol, Manual - presently at 30,000kms+. No issues.

7) 2019 Tata Tiago, Petrol, Manual - at 20,000kms+ now. No issues.

Most troublesome cars: (here i take into account vehicle being off road and unable to use due to some issues, despite adhering to periodic maintenance schedules)

1) 1951 Vauxhall Velox - owned by my grandfather. Left the family stranded on numerous occasions due to a plethora of failures. Major one's were engine oil leaks, clutch cable snapping, gearbox failures, rear axle snapping, propshaft coming adrift etc.

2) 1969 FIAT 1100 Delite - ignition related issues. particularly the distributor contact breaker and condensor used to fail. The distributor was made by Magnetti-Marelli and the contact breaker points used to accumulate "sulfate" build up which caused the vehicle to stall without any rhyme or reason. FIAT's of this genre were notorious for their exhaust muffler or "silencer-box" rotting away and we had to repair/replace the (large) muffler multiple number of times. Body rusting was also a major issue.

3) 1979 Standard Herald 4-door - Rear swing axle issues. This was a perennial Herald problem. The rear diff used to be bolted to the chassis with the rear half-shafts connecting the diff to the wheels at each respective end. These half-shafts used to be held by bolts. The bolt holes used to develop "ovality" with unerring regularity and you would then hear a "ghudd-ghudd" sound from the rear with the rear shimmying a bit under cornering. The entire rear axle had to be worked on then and the bolt-holes re-threaded again. The Herald also had ground clearance issues and with four onboard with luggage it used to scrape every speedbreaker Calcutta had then. The stock exhaust sound was very nice though!

4) 1985 Premier 118NE - Corrosion, corrosion and corrosion. Brilliant engine and the slickest of manual gearboxes attached to a body which just fell apart. When the left front suspension top mount collapsed due to rusting of its innards and decided to take the wheel and the knuckle assembly with it, when Dad was entering into a right hander; that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. This vehicle was scrapped.

5) 1979 Hindustan Ambassador Mark-3
Regular overflow issues, ignition timing problems, rear diff crown wheel failure, propshaft disloding from tail pinion end, gearbox failure, numerous electrical problems.

OFFBEAT
1992 Kinetic Honda Scooter
I was in college then. Used it for five years and close to 65,000 kms. I abused it like hell, took it to rallies, highways, hill stations, rutted roads, gravel roads, no roads. It was used regularly used as a "rally recce" bike. After i got my first job - as a battery sales boy for Standard Furukawa batteries - i used to stack 8 batteries on the flat floorboard and ride it to the distributors from Calcutta to Burdwan, (130 odd kms, mind you there was no GQ then, it was being built), through teeming rain and it never ever conked out on me.
It was quite a "chick magnet" in college as well :) Because of the low seating, self starter and the CVT - almost all the girls in our department wanted to take it for a ride, much to the envy of all the hulking, testosterone dripping, bulging muscled owners of the RX-100, KB-100 RTZ and one or two Bullett 350 brigade! :Cheering:

Most unreliable
Palio 1.9 D which I owned from 2004 to 2009. It had two engine overhauls, 1 suspension overhaul and 1 steering rack overhaul.
I had a lemon on my hands, and was glad to be rid of it when I did.

Moderately reliable
Scorpio S10 4WD. It had its share of failures documented ad-nauseam in my ownership thread - but from memory the most striking failures were that of
An ECU failing
and Accelerator pedal position sensor fail

Making the ownership experience , a little more exciting were
Myriad times that the fuel tank level sensor failed
Several times that the ICE behaved badly and replaced

As well as a clutch failure (documented here) and a timing belt seal failure (not documented here as I am lazy)
Oh and did I mention the AC system has been overhauled twice due to refrigerant leakage twice in the past 8 years.

But I still grade it a moderately reliable car because of the superlative customer service.

Very Reliable
2003 Santro AT which I sold in 2015.
2009 Innova Vx which I sold in 2019
2019 Glanza Z (currently owned)

None of these cars have given me grief - ever. I mean it's so bad that they don't break down - that I have forgotten the faces of the dealer workshop guys!

Even though the topic is on cars, i will be adding my two wheelers in the list since the count of my car ownership is just 3.

Most troublesome : 1972 Bullet which i had from my uncle for 2 years was the most troublesome piece of machinery i ever used. It took lot of money and my time to keep it in shape

Moderately troublesome:

Premier Padmini
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Owned it for 6 years, had got it pre-owned from my cousin sister.
I would not call it troublesome since whenever there was work to be done on it i was very excited as i loved spending time with mechs when the work was done.

But in today's terms it was moderately troublesome.

Boringly reliable
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Tata Nano - Only AC compressor failure in initial 2years which was replaced under warranty, nothing else apart from this.

Baleno - Steering rack started making slight noise after 5 years, was replaced, apart from this nothing else.

CD100 - After 26 years had to scrap it since we already had a Wego at home and i had not paid greentax since long. Would still be running solidly somewhere in rural areas unknown to me.

Wego - Just the usual service related stuff, nothing else worth mentioning.