Comments: 1-15, 16-20
Nothing. Just routine maintenance since it was new.
I bought this Reliant in late 1986. It s a 4 door sedan that is a red metallic color with a tan fake convertible top & red interior. This car has a lot of nice features on it like power windows, seat, locks, map lights, AM/FM cassette stereo, cruise control, tilt wheel, painted pinstripes (Tan in color), and wire wheel covers. There is also a luggage carrier on the trunk. This car has many features that most reliants of the era didn't. It is very luxurious and has a nice ride, it even looks like a much more expensive car than it is. Still runs like a top, and gets great gas mileage. I will keep this one until it drops. There is nothing new out there that is built as well as this car was. New cars just fall apart, and don't hold up like these beasts did. My only gripe is that this car doesn't have the greatest pickup, other than that, this is a high quality well built, extremely luxurious, great classic cruiser.
Sounds like you have a great car and know the importance of keeping it maintained. I have always loved the K cars, have never owned one, but still see a lot of them on the road. I have always championed the underdog cars. Happy motoring!
Calling this K-car "classic" and "luxurious" is like calling a Yugo a "sports car" because you put some racing stripes on it.
It's a K-car, the ultimate disposable car, second only to the aforementioned Yugo.
If the Reliant is a "disposable car", then how come many people have driven them past 100,000 miles? Next time don't make such silly comments.
The individual who listed the second previous comment has either never owned one of these cars or was drunk when writing this comment, these cars are the best!
Also have driven this car over 300,000 miles!
I live in California where there is essentially no rust. Therefore, the true sign of a "reliable" car is how many are on the road today. I see tons of Hondas, Toyotas, Mercedes, BMWs and so on from that era. If I see a K car it is as rare as seeing a UFO.
The K car was revolutionary for the time (early 1980's) but by the mid 1980's it was sorely outdated and severely outclassed by the foreign competition. They were truly disposable cars and only the fanatics kept them going, and obviously there weren't many fans here in California, the largest car-buying state in the country.
You see more of your precious Hondas and Toyotas in California because the populace is more prone to market brainwashing and following the fad of buying foreign, and as you said, bought more Toyotas and Hondas. Thus, there were far fewer K-cars to begin with. Rust is part of the equation as well. A Honda sitting on blocks for 20 years, with no rust, is not a sign of reliability.
A Reliant sedan with a fake convertible "ragtop": YUCK!
Oh please, now the populace is "brainwashed" into buying foreign? You must be joking. My family bought Japanese because they were sick and tired of the horrible quality of American cars. Their 1980 Buick Skylark had virtually all its major parts replaced before they sold it three years later. Funny, the Tercel they bought the SAME time had ONE problem in seven years of ownership.
And I was talking about WORKING Hondas and Toyotas, on the ROAD, actually DRIVING.
K cars were big sellers. They just all rusted or simply fell apart due to their shoddy workmanship. And there are LOTS of Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealers in California.
Unfortunately, in Montreal, where salt is used extensively in winter, these cars rusted out in a couple of years.
And yet somehow your comments on the Plymouth Reliant, which you haven't said you ever actually owned, are in real contrast to the people who have driven them well over 100,000 miles. Just go ahead and indulge your Toyota pipe-dream. Nobody cares.
What are you talking about?
My claims were based on what I SEE every day on the road, and they are NOT Reliants.
I don't doubt there are people with Reliants with 100K plus mileage, but so are those with Yugos, Edsels, and other unloved cars.
But to make the claim that there are more Reliants on the road today than Hondas or Toyotas of the same era is ludicrous.
People on this review are simply talking about good luck they have had with their Reliants. I fail to understand: 1) why you are knocking Reliants just because your mommy and daddy's 1980 Buick Skylark was junk, or 2) how the fact that your mommy and daddy's Skylark was junk means that all American cars are junk, and thus that Hondas and Toyotas are better than every American car. In short, why are you here, wasting our time? We have had good luck with our Reliants. We like them. We therefore really don't care about your parents' Skylark, or your love affair with Toyotas. We wonder why you continue to make a fool of yourself.
Just the fact you have turned to an insulting tone proves you have no case.
I have no problem with the fact there are a FEW people who have been able to keep their Reliants on the road. More power to them.
But when you go and make outrageous claims that Reliants outnumber contemporary Hondas and Toyotas and that they offer superior reliability you are in la la land.
And the "well thought out and backed by evidence" comment that Californians were brainwashed into buying foreign just speaks volumes of how defensive you people really are.
If anyone is brainwashed it's buyers of American cars. Just look at the Chevy Cavalier. By ANY measurement the car offered NO advantages over the competition, so was truly a mediocre car. HOw do I know? I was acquainted with Chevy's ad agency at the time and even they couldn't find a unique selling point. Yet the Cavalier was a consistent best seller.
If you want proof of how "reliable" American cars are just look at the reviews on this site. You will always find the same ole story - a FEW people have reliable cars, but MOST have junk because the cars are built to such low standards.
The questions still stand: why have you appointed yourself the person to tell us how much our cars suck, when you have never owned a Reliant? You are spouting about something you know nothing about. You are trying to invent an argument about how Japanese cars are better than American cars, but you have no basis from which to speak. That is why you deserve to be insulted. Perhaps you should be haunting the Buick Skylark reviews, ranting about how they are junk. When you grow up and can afford your own car, then by all means buy a Toyota and good luck to you.
Of course you'll see more 80's Hondas and Toyotas in rust-free California -- because they're leprous orange-spotted heaps anywhere there's salt.
Like Reliants.
Unlike Reliants, the doors of Toyota and Honda coupes are barely bigger than their 4-door counterparts -- seeming to forget that one purpose of a coupe is to cruise with your arm draped on the window-sill without having door-lock buttons jabbing your funny-bone, or seat-belt mechanisms in the way, etc..