Quote Originally Posted by chylld View Post
you have a point, but still, $30000 is a big investment for a lot of people, and with it comes certain expectations. i've owned 3 new cars before this civic: a $29k corolla, a $28k astra and a $18k getz. none of these cars had more than 2-3 problems in their entire history. then i spend $37k on a honda civic and i get 27 problems (twenty-seven).

my point is that while it is fair to only expect so much given the manufacturer's sale price / build price ratio, there does exist a limit as to how low those expectations have to be.
Well, I can tell you that we have a 2001 Astra, and it has been all big problems. We've had fuel dripping into the cylinder when the car was off (and it wouldn't start the next day), the ignition barrel failed and we couldn't turn the key. The tow truck had to DRAG the car sideways from the road side because the transmission was locked in P and the steering was locked too. Plus we have a loud knocking sound going over bumps, which sounds like a dead shock on the rear left (but the shock is still working fine!).

With cars in this price range, there are always nuggets which get out. If you want a car with 100% perfect build quality then you have to spend up. When you get to cars like BMW which cost $60,000 and you pay that $60,000 for them, you get problems again like their famous electrical faults.