Only car I had personally was a '02 Ford Taurus. The powersteering pump was a serious issue. Failed three times at a cost of $300 each time. The window washer fluid pipe cracked meaning it would pour onto my engine and not my windshield. Had to replace it with some plastic tubing and zip ties which worked surprisingly well. Then the suspension coil on the rear right wheel rusted at the top, came into the wheel well and shredded the tire. Well in the excess of $1,000 total. Learned it was common on my model as the others weren't far behind it. It was my grandfather's car originally and my grandmother had the same model. Her car almost had the same problem. Luckily I told the mechanic what happened to my car and he checked it out and got it fixed.
Powersteering failed a fourth time. Didn't bother with repairs and sold her for $2,500 and the proceeds went to the Alzheimers' Society.
Drive around occasionally in my parents' cars when I'm home. 2010 Honda Odyssey. The left side sliding door will freeze up in winter meaning someone has to go through the right side and push the back of the door open. It had a recall because a fuel filter could have cracked and caused a major fire. It has proximity sensors which go off all the time in winter due to ice buildup and there's no way to adjust sensitivity. Overall, not a bad car.
Before that, it was a '02 Pontiac Montana. The most notable experience with that was when my sister was driving in the middle of nowhere and went through a puddle. Apparently the water must have gone up into the electrics because it shut down and wouldn't come back online. My stepfather had to bring out our Bonneville (more on that one later) to rescue her at which point the Montana came back online. Shortly later on, the all-wheel-drive system failed. We debated fixing that as it was a handy feature but then the transmission failed and it bit the dust as it would have cost considerably more than it was worth with more gremlins starting to show themselves.
The most notable one is the '02 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi. She's a fun one, but man does she have problems. The panels have been removed so many times to fix problems that it feels as cheaply put together as a barbie car. The heating fans have lost the majority of their effectiveness so it's mostly ambient air circulating with no force or direction you rely on to defog or defrost the car. The area under the gas cap has rusted through and we've cut out the metal and replaced it with a quasi-fibreglass substitute which is failing again. We discovered not too long ago that the frame of the car has rusted through near the driver's left foot to the point that you could feel carpet if you poked your finger through. If we crashed, it wouldn't have crumpled right which is not a good thing considering how she's driven. I once tried to adjust the lights when I punched in a panel using the slightest touch of my finger and I had to repair it. I haven't adjusted the lights since. She has several electrical gremlins that come and go as they please, including a message to check tire pressure even though the tires are fine according to the manual and the settings the computer previously liked. The seat heaters on the driver and passenger's seats have both failed. We rerouted what we could so only one quarter of the driver's seat works which means it heats up hot and fast. 30 seconds and you're already sweating.
Last and certainly not least; the cooling system almost caught the car on fire. A hose running near the back of the compartment failed and sprayed the fluid all over the cylinders. Protip; car coolant is flammable. There was a shitload of smoke to the point that I genuinely thought that was it. Smelled like burning maple syrup oddly. She didn't though. The mechanics sucked. They diagnosed her with a seriously damaged engine even though it turned out it was just a cracked hose. Went from a $3,000 repair to less than $100. That was the difference between keeping her and scrapping her. We figure all they did was see where the liquid was and did not try to deduce where it came from. Or maybe they thought they could get $3,000 from a 13-year-old rustbucket because we had modified her even though she's worth maybe $2,000 on the best day and the sun shines on her just right. Anyways, she's still with us. Built in April 2002. Let's see how long she'll go.
