dma001

Well, my civic is in the body shop getting the rear bumper replaced (thanks mucho to the fella behind me who didn't notice that the light had turned red), and I am in a rental for a couple of days. It's a 2004 Chevy (*heave*) Cavalier, and what a piece o' crap it is. I hate everything about this car! The engine sounds like a leaf blower (and has about as much pickup), the transmission shifts roughly, body lean is VERY pronounced, and it rides like a barcalounger balanced on a shopping cart.

Fit and finish - and I use the term loosely - is very poor. The interior looks like it was designed by Mattel. The seats are extremely uncomfortable and unsupportive; the seating position is terrible, too - I'm 6' 1", and I felt like I was almost laying down while driving.

I could go on and on, but it's not my car, thank God. It's made me REALLY appreciate what I have, though. Believe me, when I get my Honda back, I'm givin' her a big ol' kiss on the nose!

skipbarber

iTrader: (34)

you think thats bad? my rental was a bright red ford escort when my car was in the shop. Ford...the only company that decided to put the radio AND a/c controls in the same unit..

PoorCollegeBoy

iTrader: (2)

Hah, Ill never forget the Cavalier that I drove that had ice scraper style brush around the auto shifter, or the ZX3 that had a hard plastic shift boot. We really do have the best car for the money.

Al Gore FTW

iTrader: (19)

dude, theres this one girl that works at a restaurant my parents own...she bought a 2003 cav over a 99 civic ex coupe...for like 500 dollars more, and she has nothing but problems with it. its great.

and the interior is a true piece of ****, take a look at the door panels, they are made out of cardboard with fabric on it.

MishBallzEM2

iTrader: (4)

cavaliers =

ex_03

Detroit makes me feel depressed, But then all the domestic garbage comes from here, hehe

dma001

Shutting the doors on this car gives a loud *CLONK* sound, like metal-on-metal; my Civic doors shut with a nice, solid "thoomp" sound.

God, I miss her...

jcem

iTrader: (2)

Don't the new Accords do this too?

Al Gore FTW

iTrader: (19)

yes they do, but its an accord not a ford escort lol

jcem

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, I had to fly back home for a funeral and had to borrow vehicles- a choice between a '93 Lumina and an '04 Taurus. The Taurus was comically bad. It was like the auto tranny didn't know when it was supposed to shift...

slvrcivic

iTrader: (1)

I feel your pain.

I had to drive someones car not long ago ( a 2003 cavalier ) and I wanted to cry. Your description of the interrior, seats, plastic is perfect. The car shifted soooo bad, I honestly couldn't believe it. It was an auto and the engine really sounded like a leaf blower or a broken blender under heavy throttle.

The doors just sound terrible when you close them. TERRIBLE

It made me realize how much nicer the honda is built.

02fpcivic

yea my GF had a sunfire(same thing as a cav). You had to lay down to fit your head in and then you couldnt reach the steering wheel. The clutch felt non-existent and talk about rattles, it sounded like there were ball bearings in the heater box or something. After 20k miles the driver door was sagging about an inch and the spotwelds that hold the trunk latch on broke from fatigue and it FELL off. The throttle cable rattled on the intake manifold so bad at 2500-2700 I duct taped it down. The fan housing rubbed the ac hose and they both wore into each other. The car randomly stalled at lights and sometimes it wouldnt even turn over, when it did this the lights would go off at night. HMMMM could it be an electrical short maybe. According to three dealerships there was nothing wrong. One dealership said it needed a flywheel and an a/c compressor. WTF did that have to do with anything lol. We let them change it even though it didnt help just to humor them. Why would I spend any of my hard earned money to buy something that can't even last till the warantee was up. I have lost my faith in almost all cars but Honda's. We traded her sunfire in for an 01 accord taking a major beating on it but its better than waiting 6 more months for it to die of off warantee.

CivicsRdBest

bwahahaha... My friends Cav was a pos. I'm wondering why he bought it. Horrible. I mean, its supposed to be a car that will inspire you to move up through the ranks. If thats whats supposed to entice you, I wonder what nasty surprises are in the Impala/Malibu.

civic21

lol yes i am glad i have my civic!!

slvrcivic

iTrader: (1)

lost the story
+rep

deciuss

that sucks man hope you get your car back soon

Al Gore FTW

iTrader: (19)

yeah, my civic (so far) is gonna have me buying hondas for a long time. toyotas though if im lookin for a truck.

jcem

iTrader: (2)

My last car was the next step up (?) the ladder - a Grand Am. Not much more than a stretched j-body with a lousy pushrod V-6. Note the HUGE improvements over the sunfire/cav:
-horrible understeer and massive body roll (no rear sway bar)
-fit and finish was a joke. There were gaps between door trim panels you could lose small animals in
-a v6 with less horsepower than most 4bangers, but a lot more weight.
-disposable alternators
-lower intake manifold gaskets that get dissolved by their "long life" coolant. It only took them about 10 years to fix that problem.

Needless to say, I LOVE MY CIVIC!!!!!

Metallica454

iTrader: (1)

I'm not to suprised to find biased people on this forum, but let me give you my experiences. I posted this once already.

My first car was a 94 Ranger. I bought it in 99 with only 26K on it. I put over 87K miles on her with ZERO problems except for a broken tie rod which was my fault anyways. I joined the service in 2002 and gave my truck to my brother. 2 weeks later he traded it in for a 97 Eclipse GS with 67K on it. A few months, a leaky exhaust and a blown head gasket later he trades it in for a Focus. He had the Focus for 2 years with no problems. Until an F250 rear ended him. Now he drives a 97 Metro (pos). My wifes 03 Focus sedan has held up better than my 03 Civic's rattles, leaky sunroof, leaky radiator, replaced clutch (going bad again), 2 bad slave cylinders, and rocking driver's seat. So, at least within my family domestic cars have been holding up better than the japamese cars (my parents drive european).

I bought my Civic because of Honda's alleged quality and reliability. Well, my vic didnt live up to the hype. The truth of the matter is, domestic or imports, all have problems and depending on what car or manufacturer some more than others, even imports. I dont know why but domestics have caught such a bad rap. If domestic cars were really as horrible as you biased import lover say, then dont you think there would be a lot less on the road? You needn't get caught up in names and manufacturers. No matter who makes it, a good car is a good car, people just get too caught up on names and @$$holes like Consumer Reports, who only know vacuums and toasters. Have any of you actually read reviews on some of the new american cars? Freestyle, 300C, Malibu, Mustang, Five Hundred, all have been praised for quality, and for being excellent cars. All I see being named are the junkers of domestics, and then with the bad performance of a few domestics assume all are crap. Can I safely assume all imports are crap because of my experience? All I know, is I can't wait until my Civic is paid off, so I can buy American again.

ViNRoCk8

iTrader: (2)

damn sounds like crap

ex_03

Im 32 and have owned at least 8 domestics ranging from 80 buick regal,93 ford probe,92 chevy astro van,95 dodge avenger, and like I said in another forum with exception to the buick regal, the rest were money pits. But my honda never a prob. I agree that at some point all cars will have something break that will require spending but it seems that amercian made cars have costed me more, and I have friends that have owned nothing but imports with no problems. But you got to understand there is allways going to be biased opinions of domestics here, were honda lovers!
ps. I driving a 94 ranger for the winter that my brother gave me, and its falling apart lol.its got about 73,000 on it. I'll take pics on sat, and post sun.

02fpcivic

Actually I was a domestic freak b4 I tried out my civic. All cars have their issues but there is no denying the stats, resale value, and reviews. The quality and fitment in alot of the low budget domestics is really horrible. If you have ever ridden in a cav you cant deny that a civic for the same or less money is a better quality car. Look at the fit and finnish. Not even close. The fuel economy sucks. The engine falls flat on its face above 3700 or so. The gearshift feels like someone unbolted it hehe. Im not saying its the same for all domestic cars. Bottom line is that in my experience I have had better luck with 3 hondas than I have had with of the lesser priced domestics. Im not saying anyone is right or wrong because I am basing my opinion on my experiences which my be far different than someone elses. Dollar for Dollar I would put my money on a Honda any day of the week.

slvrcivic

iTrader: (1)

I've owned 9 cars. All domestic up until my honda.

Every one has been a constant money pit except my 02 saturn sc2. It was fine for almost 2 years. I don't bash just american cars, japanese, european, etc.

I just named 1 car in my post. It was the cavalier that I drove. I never said all american cars are trash. But I've owned 9 previous to my vic, and like I said, they were all full of issues in no time.

Why do you see so many domestics on the road? If you even have to think about that question, there is a problem. I used to work as a car salesman for a while. One of the biggest things I hated to do was give them a quote on their trade in.

DOMESTIC CAR VALUE on trade in is a joke. People get such large rebates, cash incentives, 0% financing for 6 years, on and on. Do you see that on hondas, toyotas, etc? You don't, and you won't. American cars drop in value so hard their first year I hated my job as a salesman. People would bring in a cavalier with 12k miles on it, 1 year old, and they would do the price lookup. The manager would come back to me, and say - it's worth 5k, go tell them.

How do you think that made me feel? People were always 5-8k dollars upside down in their payments after trying to trade in an american car. Yes all cars lose value, but american cars take a much larger hit.

BUT THEY ARE EASIER TO BUY. ... cheaper than a japanese.

I can't even compare the fit and finish of the honda to the other american cars out there on the road today. Go sit in a malabu, saturn, neon, taurus, and tell me the interrior is the same quality as the civic. If you think so, then by all means, buy those cars. I personally can't equate those interriors to the civic, rsx, tsx, or whatever.

as far as your car.... I'm not quite sure what to say. I've had a front strut go out in my car (seems common). Nothing more to speak of.

you said:
"03 Civic's rattles, leaky sunroof, leaky radiator, replaced clutch (going bad again), 2 bad slave cylinders, and rocking driver's seat."


so you should be under warranty, - get the sunroof, and radiator fixed. I have heard other people say their seat rocks. I don't personally understand this. I've had my seats in and out multiple times for doing stereo work (running wires). All the seat is held on by is 4 bolts. Tighten them if it rocks. I don't see what the issues are.... loose bolt?

How many miles do you have on your civic... did you buy it new?

Metallica454

iTrader: (1)

Well that's all nice, but its too bad my Honda is falling apart while my Ranger was holding together. All I can go off of is what I see and experience. Not to mention, a car is going to last as long as you take care of it no matter what the brand. I baby my Civic just like I babied my Ranger, its just the Ranger was less of a hassle.

Metallica454

iTrader: (1)

All were fixed under warranty. My clutch is going bad again, more rattles are surfacing, and my driver seat is rocking again. The seat was the bushings. There's a TSB on it. As there is on the sunroof and slave cylinder. The only Japanese car I owned and it's crapping out already.

slvrcivic

iTrader: (1)

again... did you buy the car new, or how many miles etc, did it have when you bought it? Did you learn stick on this car? Race a lot, or dump the clutch often?

jcem

iTrader: (2)

If domestic cars were really as horrible as you biased import lover say, then dont you think there would be a lot less on the road? You needn't get caught up in names and manufacturers. No matter who makes it, a good car is a good car, people just get too caught up on names and @$$holes like Consumer Reports, who only know vacuums and toasters. Have any of you actually read reviews on some of the new american cars? Freestyle, 300C, Malibu, Mustang, Five Hundred, all have been praised for quality, and for being excellent cars. All I see being named are the junkers of domestics, and then with the bad performance of a few domestics assume all are crap. Can I safely assume all imports are crap because of my experience? All I know, is I can't wait until my Civic is paid off, so I can buy American again.[/QUOTE]

Cut rate financing & incentives = domestic sales

Long term reliability has yet to be determined on the new models. The initial build quality and fit and finish has definitely improved on the new domestics.
I hope that the "big 3" can rectify their problems for the sake of the car industry as a whole, but there is a reason domestic car companies and the japanese auto makers are moving in opposite directions financially. If The domestic companies didn't make good trucks, I don't know if 2 of the companies would have survived this long.

And yes, I have owned vehicles by all 3 domestic companies.

02fpcivic

I dont know why we are so biased if we have owned both import and domestic. You say that we are caught up in BRANDS and such. When I bought my Civic I test drove 15+ cars Import and Domestic. I chose Honda because it was a better made, driving, and more economical car. Since then I have thrown the economy out the window and went for performance. Well I can say one thing for sure. If you double the horsepower of a car on stock internals/ tranny like my friends and I do on a regular basis AND drive them to work for well over 100k miles, you can't argue that they arent relyable out of the box. I just sold my 88 hatchback with a gazillion miles on it, other than some minor rust it runs and drives flawless. It even still had the factory clutch despite the beatings it took.
BTW I dunno about you guys but I can't afford to take a 4500 dollar loss every time I want a new car.

02fpcivic

PS I do have a GMC truck that is pretty nice. I must say that GMC has very nice trucks. Spend the extra few hundred over the Chevy, its well worth it.

tinman

We still have our 77 Eldorado coupe. That tank has been so reliable, I count what went wrong with it over the last 28 Years on one hand. That does not include the wear items like brakes, battery and such, but even I am amazed just how well that cast iron boat is built. Now the ford I had years ago is another story. 5 transmissions in 6 years, all failed without any warning. Just would not go into gear one morning. The interior fell apart, the body rusted BADLY. The only thing that really sang in that POS was the V8 engine. It purred like a kitten all the way to the scrapyard.

Then I have owned several rotary mazdas, and all were great cars until the Cali smog regulations made them too hard to keep. Fantastic cars in all other respects. My last 2 Hondas, 77 and 82 Accord Hatches, were very good. The 77 ran til 2002. The 82 I gave away with 160k running perfectly. I really had new car fever, there was NOTHING wrong with the 82 Accord. So now we have the civics (01 and 02), an 04 Accord coupe, an 85 Nissan truck (immortal, it'll run forever) and the 77 Eldorado. It uses so much gas, it's kinda parked lately. But everything in it including the clock STILL works. While I personally prefer imports because they are just wayyy more fun to drive, and generally more reliable, Detroit DID make some good domestics. Well, in the 70's they did. Kinda dates me, but who cares