My wife’s 2002 Impala has its transmission eating itself just a thousand or so miles out of warranty.  Was going to be a very expensive fix, so we dumped it. The Equinox was new to the market and she kinda liked it. I looked over the window sticker and saw a Chinese engine and Korean transmission, or vice versa, I said hell no.  We got her a Toyota, and she’s been in a Toyota or a Honda ever since.

Take to the range and shoot at it.

My ex wife called one day, when those things were new.  She says “I need a new car and it’s down to a Plymouth Neon and a GEO Prizm”.  I advised her to go buy a Toyota or a Honda, but she was determined to get one of these two.  I told her I would not own a Plymouth under any circumstances and left it at that.  She bought Prizm (actually made by Toyota) and put 250k trouble free miles on it. I used to ask her if she wished she had bought the Neon.

Anybody remember these babies?  Mid 80s Toyota mini van



Same ex wife from the above story wanted one of these when we were married.  She was convinced she needed one for our two young sons. I was an asshole because I wouldn’t buy one.

She also wanted one of these, I wouldn’t buy it either.



So, after the divorce she bought the Nissan version, like below.



Complete pile of shit, probably the worst Japanese car ever.  Nissan was in negotiations to buy it back when the electric window motor caught fire and burned it to the ground.

That’s when she was looking for either a Neon or a Geo.

1999 3/4 Ton Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel:

- Brake pull to the right
- No rear braking unless bed was loaded with 750+lbs of stuff
- Infinity stereo front right side door speaker blown (multi times in 100k)
- Dash cracking
- 2 Transmissions within 75k
- Exhaust manifold shrinking/losing issue
- Exhaust manifold crack
- Blown head gasket
- At least 1 fuel lift pump
- Fuel gauge inop
- 4wd auto locking hub issue
- Engine fan issue

& multiple other things I'm sure I've forgotten since getting rid of that total POS back in 2005.  The worst part nearly every issue I had was a known issue that either was TSB from Chrysler or was fully known to the Dodge/Cummins community, talked about on forums & often had multi aftermarket vendors making corrected parts for the faulty OEM stuff.

Chevy replaced the 5.7/350 with the 323/5.3 liter back then in the C- and K lineup. Pistons were undersized and piston clap was commonplace. So was using oil.

The 2.2 Liter ecotec is a good motor too. The 2.5 Liter is pretty damn good too. GDI with 73000 miles, valves never cleaned yet.

The Cruise 1.5 liter Turbo is a POS. Never by a car with a turbo unless you race it or it's a diesel.

And never buy a diesel.

A whole lineup of station wagons made to look like trucks.
Yuck.

It was the constant horrific death squeal of the CV transmission that made me

Haha!  My stepfather bought one of those.  Did you know you had to unbolt the motor to change the spark plugs?

I'm assuming you were a good choice for ex-husband, because she made really bad car buying choices.

Little update here

Car is all back together. All new hoses, new head and new gaskets.

P0016 and P0017. But it may have been my fault. I have been drinking heavily while putting this fucking thing back together. Forgot the oil plug, so no oil in first start.

Put everything back correct and drove it 30 miles around the block and down to the gas station. Not much over 40mph.

No issues. No rough start, no rough idle, plenty of power.

I am Guessing that it jumped a tooth on the cams?

Bought the timing adjustment kit from amazon. Should be here this week and next weekend will readjust the timing.