What Did The Factory Get Right (And Wrong) With Your Car?

I remember reading a review of the newest Porsche 911 (at the time) and the reviewer dinged it for not having cup holders. I thought that was the dumbest quip in a review, ever. Why would you need cup holders in a 911? So, years later, I find myself with a 2006 Cayman S and it has cup holders. Really bad cup holders. I think Porsche should have ignored the reviewer and not put them in if they were going to be so passive aggressive about the cup holders that they finally put into their cars. The rest of the car is pretty much perfect.

1993 Mazda RX-7. Hard to say. From an appearance stand point, nothing. From an engineering stand point, the car could use some more cooling. So, better rad, different hood (vented), better (and double in the versions that don’t have it) oil coolers, battery in trunk and larger intercooler. Also, the sequential turbo system is amazing, but incredibly complicated. Some of it is of course due to the time the car was designed. Better surface finish on the 93 model for the dash parts.
Now, when the car runs fine (and mine always has, although at some point I have had the need to rebuild due to warn out oil control rings -22 years in), there is this force that gets applied to both sides of your mouth whenever you push it to its limits, that makes you forget everything else, even your name.

Alfa Romeo was competitive with the 912 Porsche and the BMWTii in ’69-70. Then they got blown away by the german competition when they could have build some amazing cars with great design and horsepower that would blow away those two german marques even back then. Their closest competition. Now, they’re doing the same thing. BMW and Porsche…even Ferrari are in a different stratosphere and Alfa is building SEDANS and WindUP 4C Dolls with automatics, NOT SPORTS CARS! Pathetic! I should have run the company with Carlo Chiti from AutoDelta and blown all competitions aside. Real Sad. Totally bummed. Treating an Italian car with with such a heritage with such disrespect is terrible. Thanks Marchionni thanks a lot! You belong in Canada not Italy! You messed up a prestigious automobile. Now go sell your Maseratis and Ferraris. And weaken Alfa and Lancia. Nice going! I drove a new Maserati, it handles like a heavy sedan. Even that’s no birdcage Maserati. It’s a car to take the family with grandma in tow for a weekend tow to the movies or a shopping mall.
Biggest tragedy since Alfa gave a job to Enzo as a driver.

2014 Ford Fiesta ST – The characteristics of my Fiesta that made me want to purchase it still live on, but they’re now outweighed by a serious amount of build quality woes. I bought it in 2015 with 9900 miles. Around the time the bumper to bumper warranty expired, I started noticing that the top weather stripping around the drip railing had started pulling up on the front corners. I then noticed that the same thing was happening on the back corner of the molding on the bottom of the driver’s side window. A few other things get annoying as well. The brakes have never not squeaked. The dash pad looks like a 17 year old with a drug problem installed it, the front corners where it meets the a-pillars are not squared up at all. But, it’s just a Fiesta. And boy, did they ever nail the handling and attitude on the ST chassis. Two years later, it’s still surprising me.

1970 Mercury Cougar- long term owner since I started driving it to high school in 1989. Drove it all over the place and racked up a lot of miles. Currently welding in new metal and bolting in new go parts.
What they got right:
The first year 351 Cleveland is a magnificent engine. The headlight doors and sequential turn signals were very cool touches for an upmarket car meant to be an alternative to the bread and butter Mustang, Camaro, and whatnot. The factory installed 9 inch rear was a great piece, even with the small bearing car housing. Lots of chrome badges and trim, big chrome bumpers, and a trunk that can fit 3 bodies. The longer wheelbase (by 3 inches) makes it a good road car for the then hurriedly being completed Eisenhower interstate system, or backroads. It made for a nice car to look at, sit in, and drive.
The bad:
The cowl would clog with leaves, flood the floor vents with water, and rot the floors (and cowl) which required a lot of welding and drilling of spot welds and swearing.
The 351c was the victim of bean counters at Ford, receiving substandard valves (2 piece friction welded) and rod hardware (stretch at rpm= kablooey), among other woeful choices like the el-cheapo rockers and the casting problems (porosity and core shift) since Ford was feeling its way in the dark with thin wall blocks in 1969.
No rust proofing to speak of meant the back end would rust and fall off in a few years of salt spray.
No subframe connectors meant the chassis would weeble and wobble til it fell down or you couldn’t close the doors. With Mercury pushing the Cougar as its flagship car (Mercury: at the sign of the cat!), you’d think they’d build some kind of performance that wasn’t just enough to last the model year.
When the neato headlight doors or sequentials broke, you were lucky if any mechanic within 20 miles would work on them.
The front suspension, with the stupid shock towers and ball joint eating stamped steel bits, was a half measure at best.
Driving it on the road for many years, trunk stuffed with camping and hunting gear, the sides flecked with mud and grime, I learned a lot about the car. It’s not a racing car. The Cougar is a great road car, meant to be driving down the slab at a moderate pace, or maybe doing some straight line stuff on Saturday nights. And that’s okay. I spent a lot of days with a sunburn being etched into my left arm and smile on my face thanks to that old chrome festooned boat. As you get older, you realize that everything has limitations and there will always be someone somewhere faster or quicker, but there doesn’t have to be someone having more fun than you.
The greatest compliment I can give it is that it’s a fun car, despite it’s failings and weaknesses.

1973 Ford Capri 3000
Rear disc brakes , 14″ wheels and 5 speed gearbox are definitely missing in my car. Also a standard LSD would be nice.
1973 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000
All is well, only an AC unit would be an improvement.

2007 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible: Aside from the extra weight of the convertible top, the major failures are all the cheap GM parts this otherwise nice car is stuck with. The hideous climate control system, cheap sound system and the fuel pump/tank that throws a code you can eliminate only with a $700+ replacement are the most egregious. The lack of limited slip with a torquey turbo compromises handling under power but hey, that would have cost money GM didn’t want to invest in their premium division

Every time I start engine I have to turn of anti skid control in my E46 BMW, Washing front window, allways turns of rear window wiper…

’84 Alfa GTV 6: shifter linkage is bad, there is no way to spin this as a charming feature, it’s just bad design. No car has ever needed a torque tube driveshaft more. And rust, so much rust everywhere.

’04 Volvo S60R: too early adoption to active shocks and a couple VERY weak links in the awd.

An old man who has owned almost everything – me – has decided that as time passes I have forgotten the faults and recall only the song and beauty. Maybe the only consolation to seeing that guy in the mirror.

The guys at Lancia in late 60’s Fulvia (1st series) got absolutely right the styling of the whole car and the sound mix between aspiration, engine and exhaust quiet and relaxing at low RPM but grunty and slightly intoxicating when you put your foot down.
Brakes and clutch could have been better and in fact they were uprated from second series.
The real problem with it is the corrosion on the floor and the mounting points of the engine subframe.