According to You: Brands with a Poor Reputation with Some, a Great One with Others

Last week’s question about brand equity really got the comments section going. And it’s always nice to see the Hagerty Community share its thoughts about brands it cares about—or not, depending on each person’s vantage point.

The reputation of a brand is something we might not consider on an automotive website, especially if the brand isn’t generally associated with automotive enthusiasts. But perhaps we should make a bigger deal about it. Let’s see what you all came up with!

Oil Brands

hyperv6: I have personally seen arguments over oil that rival politics and religion. I had two customers on the rack for oil changes and they started to argue over Quaker State. I had to put the one car on the ground so the customer could come back later. He was so mad I though he was going to hit the other guy.

DUB6: I certainly agree on the oil thing. Some folks will argue their brand to the point of becoming a shouting match. I, too, have seen this personally. And there are even two sides to the big picture: “X, Y, Z brand is best” versus “B.S. – all oils are the same.”

Filters & Exhaust Brands

Fenix97: In terms of brands, two things come to mind: oil/air filters and exhaust systems. For the filters, some people only buy the expensive brands like K&N and others will make fun of you for spending so much money when the “generic” does the exact same thing.

For exhausts, it truly is different strokes for different folks. I can’t stand the sound of a Nissan VQ but other people love it. Some people love the raspy Corsa exhausts on Coyote motors while I prefer the more throaty tones.

Land/Range Rover

Darwin: Land Rover. It’s the vehicle brand that people who have never driven/owned one love to tell people is awful. They’ll tell you they’re unreliable (sometimes true) followed by same old stories about their buddy that had one.

“Have you ever owned one?”

“Well, no, but my buddy…”

I’ve had three wonderful post-P38 model Rovers, which racked up well over 400,000 combined miles with nothing major needed than a new starter and alternator.

Will there be little things along the way? Absolutely.

Is it worth it? Oh yeah.

Bill: Zero percent of Range Rovers are still on the road. The other 10 percent made it home or were towed home. Old joke but not far off. I used to work at a dealer for them as a mechanic.

Lucas: Three Land Rovers with a combined 400,000 miles? I think I’d rather keep my one Land Cruiser approaching 400K.

The Quadrajet

TG: Two off the top of my head are the Quadrajet and the Cadillac Allanté. I will say that most of the haters in both cases have no actual experience with them.

DUB6: Ooo, Quadrajet is a great one. If you wanna get in the middle of an argument-athon, take one side or the other in a group of car guys from the ’60s or ’70s!

Mike: We called those Quadrabogs

TG: Have you ever worked on one?

Kia/Hyundai

Hoosier Daddy: I think Kia/Hyundai falls into this category.

Jim: +1, It is remarkable to compare Kia today to the Kia that comes to mind from 20 years ago.

General Motors

Paul: Chevrolet. If you buy their trucks, their big SUVs (Tahoe and Suburban), their sports cars (Corvette and Camaro), you enjoy them. If you buy their front-drive anything, it is a failure. The jury is out on their EVs.

TG: I put well north of 200K on two consecutive FWD Buicks… so we can add them to the list.

Midnight_Rider_1961: Oldsmobile. The best passenger car I ever owned. When GM killed that brand, they lost my business altogether. Brands GM had every right to kill off and did in some cases: Saturn, Pontiac, Buick, LaSalle.

Ray: I’ve had several Buicks, an Oldsmobile, and a Chevy. They made me a GM hater. Had numerous problems with all of them. Carburetors, cylinder heads, ignition, and rust.

Subaru

Scoutdude: Subaru.

Randal: We love our 2019 Subaru Outback 3.6R Touring. One of the best cars I ever owned. Had BMWs and Mercedes, but this Subaru is great.

Firehawk 544: On my fourth Outback (2019) with 80K on the clock. My son is driving a hand-me-down 2015 with 220K, and my first son just bought a new WRX (which he traded in a 2013 Impreza). My brother-in-law has an Outback, his daughter has a Forester, and my niece has a Forester.

We’re definitely drinking the KoolAid!

Jim: Got an ’06 Forester we call “old smokey” for a good reason.

Chemical Additives

Tim: I’m of the age old enough to remember STP, but too young to know why I would have ever wanted to use it. 😆

MarineBob: If you had a car to sell with a noisy valvetrain, you’d get a day or two of quiet.

DUB6: Before assembly lubes became readily available (or even a thing?), I used STP to put stuff together. It was sticky enough that it tended to keep bearings in place, etc. until I got things together and torqued. Other than that, haven’t had any real use for it for decades. However, there was not more than a handful of race cars (or any type) that didn’t have at least one STP decal on it back in the day, and even pretty much today.

Ray: My ’65 MG 1100 relied on it to keep the oil pressure in the green. Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe it was the indicator which was a bright red light on the dash.

Kelly: I’m with Ray on the STP. My good bud and I rebuilt a 283 years back. He insisted on coating every moving part with STP and torquing every nut, bolt, and screw to the specs we found. Start-up day, we could not turn the engine with the starter nor a socket and bar on the crank. After towing the car for several blocks and popping the clutch in second gear the engine finally turned over and started.

That stuff must have been like glue in there. Anyway the engine ran fine after we set the rockers and buttoned everything up. It sure was hard on the clutch and the back tires during the initial start up though. We were kids then, what did we know?

Mike: I used my 1972 Pinto to tow a 5×8-foot, fully loaded U-Haul trailer from Traverse City to San Francisco. I alternated between adding a can of STP and a quart of 30-weight motor oil at each fill-up.

U-Haul

OlyOop: U-Haul. They actually aren’t terrible now but, boy howdy, ten or 15 years ago they were just about the worst company in the world to deal with. They would happily hand out reservations to anyone who requested one, regardless of how many vehicles and trailers they had available, and it was Thunderdome rules for sorting it all out at the front desk.

Tim: U-Haul: the company that simultaneously advertises the space above the cab as “bonus space” while also using it as part of the measurement of the box. They tell you it’s a 17-foot box, but it’s really 14 feet with 3 feet of “Mom’s Attic.” The other companies don’t do that. I would never use U-Haul for a non-local rental.

wentwest: I really like U-Hail’s motorcycle trailer.

jaybird: Yep! Just used one to fetch a twin-cam 88 in Wichita, Kansas. $15 plus the insurance and tax. Who does anything for fifteen dollars anymore? We tried to figure how many times they would have to rent them before they showed a profit. Funniest part, I own a motorcycle trailer, but it’s out at the farm, so it was cheaper and easier to hit U-Haul on the way out of town.

Richard: Yes, U-Haul was, maybe still is, a shoddy operation. Rented many a truck or trailer from them and others, U-Haul was always the one with somewhat dirty truck interiors, missing hardware, sputtering engines, etc. Once, a 24-ft U-Haul I was driving decided to detach the manual shifter from the transmission. It came right out of the floor while in second gear. Pulled to the center turning lane to stop and a police car pulled in behind me. When I showed him the shifter, he laughed and said, “Start off and stay in second gear, I’ll have my lights on behind you. There’s a U-Haul depot just over the top of the hill we’re on.”

We did and that depot didn’t want to unload our truck and load another one, so they cannibalized another 24-footer and put its shifter in our truck. We were very lucky that day both with the officer and having a U-Haul depot just ahead. Only use Ryder or Penske now for rentals.

John: Several years ago I knew two young mechanics who worked at the local U-Haul location. I pity the poor investors who own individual trucks, trailers, or cars in their fleet. On a slow day the boss would call the young guys to his office and say, ”Go make some work orders,” which meant take a cat bar into the yard and start smashing windows, headlamps, grills, mirrors, etc., to drum up some work orders which get charged to the owners of those rental units. Corrupt.

Kyle Smith: To be fair, the situation you describe sounds as though it has little to do with U-Haul and a lot to do with slimy management.

DUB6: I agree with Kyle. We have two local U-Haul outfits and one has always been WAY better to deal with than the other. I’ve also dealt with one in Denver and one in Salt Lake—both were horrible, but the one in Portland was the best ever! Individual managers/employees can make or break a reputation.

Nissan

Randal: Nissan—we had one of the older “four-door sports car” Maximas and it was great! Lasted 10 years or so!

John: Nissan … never again. My Datsun pickup, less than a year old, died entering a freeway. At night. With no electrics. There is something about the culture of that company that is wonky, and has always been. Think back to the great 510 and 240Z. Then look at their ugly, undependable products today.

Oh, and that extends to the dealers. A friend with a used car lot frequently has Nissan owners upside down on their loans by a large amount (since they have terrible resale) and desperately trying to escape from them. But the dealers will get anyone with a pulse financed—and at some terrible rates.

norm1200: And on the flipside, my quite reliable ’90 Nissan truck has 450K+ miles with the original long block—untouched. Like every mass-produced product, no matter how reliable it is, there will be lemons, if only a very few.

German Brands

MrReliable: Mercedes. I used to sell them, and my customers would tell me they were the best cars they’d ever owned (as they were bringing them in MONTHLY for “preventative maintenance” on a broken part.) My recommendation would be to never own a Mercedes out of warranty.

Gary: Odds are most of the owners of a Mercedes, BMW, or Audi are a lease so they have some warranty to fall back on. Personally I’d never own one.

Scotty: I’ve been driving Audis since 1982 and have never been stranded or had anything other than normal maintenance issues. My last count is over 26 with RS, S, TT, Q, SQ, 5000, and 200 models. I’ve never leased but I do regularly scheduled maintenance. Some people could drive a rock into pebbles so just saying.

Jim: I am on my second Audi, and I’m having similar experiences, the best car that I have owned in my 75 years of life. I would still be driving the first one if my wife hadn’t totaled it by hitting a tree doing over 60. She walked away without a scratch, so a very safe car as well.



George: My brother (who owned one) said that BMW stood for Bavarian Money Waster. Our Dutch tour guide in Germany claimed that it stood for Bayerische Miste Werke (Bavarian Manure Works).

British Brands

Rick: Well, I have always been either a British or E-Type fan in my 20s and 30s but now in my 60s I still like cars that still are quality but still distinctive. Therefore my cars of choice lately have been Volvo wagons. Probably one of the best seats in the business and with their top-notch safety it’s hard to beat.


MGWrench: MG, or really any British car. I drove my MGB GT for nearly 30 years as a daily driver and it now has 433,000 miles. I think it’s great and has been totally reliable until the head cracked. I can’t tell you how many people have told me how bad SU carbs are or how bad the electrical system is. Almost everyone that I’ve really talked to has admitted they never owned an MG and they are basing their opinion on what they’ve been told by other people who haven’t owned one.

964c4: SU carburetors and Lucas electrical components. Often maligned by people that have no experience with either and are not qualified to even fix a sandwich.

Ford

Steve: I never was a Ford guy. I tried owning a brand-new 2014 Focus for the fuel mileage, but it stranded me six times in six months due to a faulty transmission. I gave up on it and went back to Chevrolet, an expensive lesson learned.

Midnight_Rider_1961: Mercury. It was not very smart of Ford to kill this brand off. I knew some folks who would not drive anything but a Mercury.

Scoutdude: I too was annoyed with the passing of Mercury and the four sitting in my driveway (one is my son’s) backs that up. However I do have a Lincoln as a daily driver.

Mike: Lincoln. Once the epitome of luxury. Now just a fancy Ford SUV.

Joe: Depends. Had our share of junk cars from several brands. Our ’90 Cougar was a maintenance nightmare, but our ’93 T-bird was great.

Kent: I owned a towing company for 35 years; for many of those years, the Ford Tempo and Aerostar Vans paid my insurance premiums.

Hand Tools

Fred: Any hand tool that is not one of the Big 3—Snap-on, Mac, and Matco. This could include older, made-in-USA Craftsman hand tools. The rest are complete junk. Waste of money to buy, unreliable, terrible fit that damages fasteners and knuckles. If you hate your car, buy the junk tools. But if your vehicle, your knuckles, and sanity mean anything (and customer vehicles for professionals), buy the best. They will last a lifetime and perform perfectly.

MarineBob: Way back, when you needed a tool, Craftsman did the job. Over the years they have always honored the lifetime replacement. As a DIYer those tools always worked for me.

skoalbandit: I’ve had many a regular socket that was used with an impact tool (or six-foot Johnson bar) replaced. Now Snap-on is a whole different kettle of busted impact sockets broken with a 3/8 rachet.

DUB6: Well, mention Coke and Pepsi and declare that one is better than the other and I think you can get a pretty robust debate going in most groups. But the ultimate brand that has a poor rep with some, but great with others? Harbor Freight (or Princess Auto for our Canadian cousins).

Toyota

mph: Toyota – corporate ethics of Satan!

Joe: Lexus RX350 and RX450h. Absolutely the most reliable and comfortable vehicles I’ve ever owned.

William: I am 100 percent sold on my Japanese cars. I’ve had my Toyota Tundra for 22 years. Other than routine maintenance I have only had to replace one oxygen sensor ($50) under the passenger seat. Had my Lexus GS350 for eight years and haven’t replaced anything. Had my Honda S2000 for 10 years. When I bought it, I needed to replace the starter and I installed a ($450) cloth top with glass.

Tesla


Old Gearhead: Tesla … the company that has had the most influence on the trend of making vehicles more like appliances than automobiles.

s2per: Tesla is polarizing for so many reasons besides Musk. Love the brand or hate it seems to be the consensus. I decided to try a Model Y Dual Motor as a daily and it is a bit of an appliance, albeit a torquey, responsive one. I can’t say I’m emotionally attached to it like my Porsches (or even my pickup) but it’s an efficient driver for short distances.

Chrysler/Stellantis

Alex: Mopar. They made the best awful cars. Stellantis carries on the tradition proudly.

MPH302: Me and my 2012 Challenger (210000 miles) would argue that. Except maybe the Stellantis part.

James: Anything made by Chrysler since 1954. Lousy styling, horrid build quality, unreliable, rust buckets. Almost as bad as anything Jaguar. If you own one, it’s best if you have your own tow truck.

Midnight_Rider_1961: Fargo. From my past research, these must have been some tough trucks. Shame on Chrysler for discontinuing that brand as well as DeSoto.

Mike: Chrysler. Who didn’t aspire to own a 300 letter car or range-topping Imperial? Now, you can choose between a Pacifica and a soon-to-be-discontinued 300.

International Trucks

Midnight_Rider_1961: International Trucks. Tough, dependable trucks. I wish they were resurrected by Case-IH and sold at their dealers.

Scoutdude: The 3 IH’s in my fleet support that sentiment too. [International] did, at one point, look at getting back into the full-size pickup game in the early ’00s.

James: Our new 1961 Scout: other than an under-achiever engine (not bad, compared to the 1927-rooted motor of a Jeep, though!) was a neat concept and worked very well. Wish I had it now! Tough, easy to work on, simple in concept and realization.

Aftermarket Brands

Greg: In the past 10 years or so have been disappointed in the quality of Standard Motor Parts electrical parts. They used to be the best, especially “Blue Streak,” but now the quality is middle of the road. Selecting quality parts is sure a challenge these days.

Sarsippis: Moog suspension parts. Used to work in auto part sales about 30 years ago. Moog was great and even better than some of the OE parts. Especially the Problem Solver line. Used many of their parts on cars that racked up tons of miles. Still have a car 30 years later with Moog suspension parts.

Nowadays I won’t use them. Had both lower ball joints start to fail within 10,000 miles in my daughter’s car. One outer tie-rod end on a friend’s car that lasted about a year or two. Sway bar links in my van that literally fell apart at the ball. Sad part is, I’m not overly confident in the other brands out there. My cars tend to be so old that OE parts are either non-existing, hard to find, or insanely expensive.

Sajeev Mehta: Let me throw in A1 Cardone into this mix … you know, right before I throw the parts I’ve ordered from them into the landfill. That’s one brand where I trust the parts to fail within a matter of months, if they don’t fail right out of the box.

Harley Davidson

Kevin: Harley-Davidson. I bought a 1979 Low Rider and it looked great but would usually break something every 100 miles or so. The electrics malfunctioned, the rear master cylinder blew out, the front forks leaked, and the speedometer quit working, all in the first six months—and, of course, it leaked oil. Later on, when I was involved in quality control in the auto industry, I learned the difference between perceived quality and engineered quality. All that shiny is not quality.

Closing Thoughts

Paul: The bigger a company gets, the worse the service and quality gets. Buy from local owned and operated businesses. Pay up, if you buy the best you will not be disappointed and you will not be buying the same item over and over, saving you money in the long run.

DUB6: I pretty much agree, Paul. Exceptions exist, to be sure, but overall, smaller, locally owned outfits care more and tend to be more flexible than the big boys. We just had furnace and A/C replaced in our ranch house. I looked at a small company in a nearby town and found tons of positive reports about responsiveness, attitude, promptness, and pricing—so I gave them a call.

I got higher-end product for less money than some big companies wanted for “off-brand” stuff, and the guys worked from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. to complete the install (there were some hiccups along the way that delayed them).

Dave: To paraphrase Will Rogers: “I never met a car I didn’t like”, notwithstanding the fact that I’ve been stranded by the best of them.

Marc: Pretty much anything you purchase has haters/lovers. My personal belief is that you can get a great lemon of any brand or item—just a matter of luck.