Design flaws

Merrion

The GT6 has two holes in the top of the hatchback lid that allow water to pool up inside in bad weather then poor that same water into the car when you open the hatch.

(There are probably worse design flaws, but this one really annoys me..)

w124man

The Austin Allegro has one major flaw ...... it was built!

Merrion

w124man wrote: »

The Austin Allegro has one major flaw ...... it was built!

True enough - but without the Allegro the Series I Discovery would not have had a very large supply of door handles in the parts bin to raid.

Nekarsulm

The Mk3 Escort diesels had the alternator positioned so that it both collected water and crap off the road, and at the same time, had diesel dripped on it from above.

Austin Montegos came with Metric size tyres made only by Michelin. Cost nearly 100 punts a corner new, back when that was a basic weeks wage.
Many tyre changing machines at the time were not able to remove them, as they had a double lip/bead. Led to a healthy trade in complete wheels/tyres from scrappys.

timmy4u2

The Rover P6 3500 has a serious design flaw in the engine in that if you remove the oil filter while draining off the oil the oil pump will drain dry and will not build up oil pressure unless you pack the pump with vaseline

DanWall

The Peugeot 406 petrol had the MAPs sensor mounted on the bottom of the manifold instead of the top, resulting in dregs and crap draining into it and required cleaning every 5,000 miles

macplaxton

Merrion wrote: »

True enough - but without the Allegro the Series I Discovery would not have had a very large supply of door handles in the parts bin to raid.

Outside handles? Did they not first appear on the Morris Marooner?

Dades

When you drive off after filling the tank of a Porsche 924 you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd filled the back seat too with the smell of petrol.

Agricola

Dades wrote: »

When you drive off after filling the tank of a Porsche 924 you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd filled the back seat too with the smell of petrol.

Havent noticed that myself. I just get the smell of petrol under acceleration with the window down! Think its running a bit rich.

I got castigated for this on the 924 owners web site, but I mentioned that the hot start problem was a design flaw. Porsche did try to rectify the early cars for a number of years after production started because of the issue.

piston

w124man wrote: »

The Austin Allegro has one major flaw ...... it was built!

I read somewhere, not sure it's true but there is a certain point on the Allegro that if you use it as a jacking point, the back window pops out of it's rubber due to shell distortion.

Nekarsulm

And was it the Avenger, or the Morris Marina, that you were advised not to fit a sun roof, as to do so would weaken the shell to the point that the car could sag in the middle?

Austin allegro with the square steering wheel?

carchaeologist

The horrendous brakes in early Golfs and Jettas, excabarated by wear in the linkages over the years.

And the clutch cable pulling through the bulkheads on the same cars....

Nekarsulm

carchaeologist wrote: »

The horrendous brakes in early Golfs and Jettas, excabarated by wear in the linkages over the years.
....

The joys of having the pedals on one side of the car, and the master cylinder and servo on the opposite!

swarlb

carchaeologist wrote: »

The horrendous brakes in early Golfs and Jettas, excabarated by wear in the linkages over the years.

And the clutch cable pulling through the bulkheads on the same cars....

Probably less of a design fault, and more of a 'VW don't really care too much about RHD cars'

w124man

piston wrote: »

I read somewhere, not sure it's true but there is a certain point on the Allegro that if you use it as a jacking point, the back window pops out of it's rubber due to shell distortion.

Was that not the ADO 71 Austin Princess ..... come to think of it, it probably happened to the Allegro as well.

Capri

carchaeologist wrote: »

The horrendous brakes in early Golfs and Jettas, excabarated by wear in the linkages over the years.

And the clutch cable pulling through the bulkheads on the same cars....

SOMETIMES clutch cable problems are caused by wrong pressure plates being fitted - you nearly have to stand on the clutch to press it :mad:

Early Fiat 127's used to pull the anti-roll bar mountings away from the body.
Capri discs warping (3 Litre models anyway :P )

Newer yokes but 'classics' someday

Volkswagen New Beetle (automatic transmission issues and cheap interior components; diesel models with 5-speed manuals are by far the best powertrain option.)

Jaguar S-Type (Extensive transmission and engine issues on all V-6 and V-8 models. Along with Limited edition models with ungodly replacement costs.)

Land Rover Discovery (Expensive parts. Expensive powertrains. Electronics that are apparently the spawn of Beelzebub.)

Mini Cooper (Bad transmissions that are unusually expensive to replace. Cheap interior parts. Cheap hydraulics.)

Mazda CX-7 (Engine issues on these vehicles are legion with nearly a third of these vehicles sold with "Engine needs service" announcements at the auctions.)

gugleguy

The NSU Wankel car range like the Spider model. When facing each other on opposite sides of the UK roads drivers of such machines would hold out a hand sticking out the number of fingers to indicate the number of times the engine had been replaced.

Nekarsulm

how about the Ritmo, which came with such an efficient water trap in the front crossmember that it frequently rotted through and allowed the front of the car to spread, causing one driveshaft to fall out of the gearbox ? Remember helping a friend weld a strip of quarter by inch steel around the front of his car to hold it together.

ba_barabus

The wipers setup for lhd cars on the red models and vice versa