Last year, I had to say goodbye to my Scion tC. I was pretty upset by the whole situation, as the car was owned, it was solid, never had a single problem with it, and it was a 2 door! They don't make cars, let alone 2-door cars, at all anymore. Sure, I know high end sports cars, or the such, but nothing in the price bracket, and reliability bracket, I'm looking at.
The 2016 Nissan Juke I purchased with the Insurance Money I got from the write-off didn't even come close to comparing to the Scion tC.
Let's go over some very key differences between the two vehicles, and some of the issues I've had with the Juke, vs the tC.
Problems with the tC
- Oil Sending Unit (Pressure sensor) started leaking, which is a common issue. It took me a whole of 2 seconds to diagnose, and just required the replacement of the sensor, although I probably could have tefloned the threads and it likely would have solved the issue.
- Front brake caliper had failed, so I had to replace that.
- Front wheel bearings had failed, so I replaced those
- Front sway bar links failed, so I replaced those too. Even made a video which did terrible on my channel, but that's okay.
- Battery failed
- Input Shaft Bearing was very noisy, which was a very common thing on these old tCs
- Air Conditioning Refrigerant was under filled
Everything, honestly, that failed on the tC was basically just wear and tear items, ones you do expect to fail, especially considering that everything was still original on the car, save for the tires, and the brakes. I had flushed all the fluids, from brakes, coolant, even my transmission oil was changed. Upgraded the headlights from dim, dull, Halogen, to Ultra Clear HID LED bulbs, which lit up the night so much better.
Nothing failed until well after 200,000KM on it (or 125,000 miles), and the first thing to fail on it, well, was the sway bar links. They made a little bit of noise going over bumps, so I replaced them. It was a very simple job, but holy hell Rust kicked my arse on it!
Now let's see, what about the Juke? Honestly, this first thing should have been a red flag.
The day I bought it, the intake runner sensor had failed, and threw a CEL. In fact, that happened during the test drive on it, which was interesting... BUT I ignored it, considering I am a mechanic that doesn't mind getting my hands dirty.
But I did force the dealership to replace it at THEIR cost. There's no reason that shouldn't have been fixed under SAFETY considering IT'S THE ENGINE FFS! I guess if the car doesn't drive, it's perfectly safe hahaha!
Nonetheless, they fixed it, and problems never occurred again, right?
Wrong.... One I blame on myself for it, which was a big mistake.
Let's start off the top; What failed
Nothing failed until well after 200,000KM on it (or 125,000 miles), and the first thing to fail on it, well, was the sway bar links. They made a little bit of noise going over bumps, so I replaced them. It was a very simple job, but holy hell Rust kicked my arse on it!
Now let's see, what about the Juke? Honestly, this first thing should have been a red flag.
The day I bought it, the intake runner sensor had failed, and threw a CEL. In fact, that happened during the test drive on it, which was interesting... BUT I ignored it, considering I am a mechanic that doesn't mind getting my hands dirty.
But I did force the dealership to replace it at THEIR cost. There's no reason that shouldn't have been fixed under SAFETY considering IT'S THE ENGINE FFS! I guess if the car doesn't drive, it's perfectly safe hahaha!
Nonetheless, they fixed it, and problems never occurred again, right?
Wrong.... One I blame on myself for it, which was a big mistake.
Let's start off the top; What failed
- Intake Runner - Requiring replacement of the ENTIRE INTAKE MANIFOLD
- Front Main Seal (Leaking)
- Timing Cover (Leaking)
- Left Front Axle Seal (Leaking)
- Oil Plug Drain Plug (Leaking)
- Rear Brakes (Wear Item)
Those are not wear and tear items (save for the brakes), and the car has less than 72,000 miles on it (115,000KM). Those things started failing around 110,000km (68,000mi). The drain plug I entirely blame on myself for not doing my own oil, just once. That's all it took. I didn't do it because the weather was absolutely terrible (a foot of snow was just more than I thought I should be working in on my car) so I had it taken in for me.
They replaced the oil drain bolt, likely because they fucked it up, and sure enough... The car leaks. I wish I had sooner than I did so I could go after them, but it's too late now. Hopefully it doesn't mean I'm replacing my oil pan, because that'll suck!
It's amazing how one vehicle literally had zero problems for more than 200,000km before the first non-wear and tear item failed (Oil Pressure Sensor) is a real testament to Toyota build quality, at least back when they built good cars, vs Nissan, who can't seem to make a good car at all anymore.
The only advantage to the Juke I owned, vs the average Run of the Mill Juke, was the Manual Gear Box. Having a manual transmission means that the Juke *IS* capable or racking up hundreds of thousands of KMs without too much of a hiccup, unlike the CVT, which WILL blow up and fail. Not "may" fail, but *WILL* fail. They're horrible transmissions.
Aside from the Manual gear box, let me get into a proper dialogue with it.
The car itself isn't terrible. It really isn't. It's fairly sporty, it's fun to drive, it's comfortable, for such a cheap car, has a good smooth drive, has some nice road feedback thru the wheel, and is pretty nimble, for a vehicle with as much ground clearance as it has.
They replaced the oil drain bolt, likely because they fucked it up, and sure enough... The car leaks. I wish I had sooner than I did so I could go after them, but it's too late now. Hopefully it doesn't mean I'm replacing my oil pan, because that'll suck!
It's amazing how one vehicle literally had zero problems for more than 200,000km before the first non-wear and tear item failed (Oil Pressure Sensor) is a real testament to Toyota build quality, at least back when they built good cars, vs Nissan, who can't seem to make a good car at all anymore.
The only advantage to the Juke I owned, vs the average Run of the Mill Juke, was the Manual Gear Box. Having a manual transmission means that the Juke *IS* capable or racking up hundreds of thousands of KMs without too much of a hiccup, unlike the CVT, which WILL blow up and fail. Not "may" fail, but *WILL* fail. They're horrible transmissions.
Aside from the Manual gear box, let me get into a proper dialogue with it.
The car itself isn't terrible. It really isn't. It's fairly sporty, it's fun to drive, it's comfortable, for such a cheap car, has a good smooth drive, has some nice road feedback thru the wheel, and is pretty nimble, for a vehicle with as much ground clearance as it has.
It's sort of like a oversized Nissan Versa (which I think it pretty much is a Versa on stilts).
The 1.6TGDi engine is underpowered for the vehicle, and it would do a lot better with a 2.5L Naturally aspirated i4 instead of the Turbo-Charged 1.6L Gasoline Direct Injection. Port injection, granted yes, it does provide slightly less power, and slightly less fuel economy, but it delivers better performance, by requiring significantly less maintenance, as there'll be less carbon buildup on the valves, and a lot less carbon deposits in the tailpipe. Seems like GDI engines, especially Turbocharged ones, like to dump a fair amount of carbon deposits on the tailpipe. And that's usually indicative that it's likely burning a little bit of oil. NOT a good thing to be doing. If you're unsure and looking at a car that you want to know if it's burning oil, just run your finger on the inside of the tailpipe, and see what colour it comes back. If it is all sooty, with really thick dark, charcoal like material, or even feels a bit slippery, it's burning oil. Stay away from it! Maybe buy a nice old used Volvo?
The other issue I have with the car is cargo room. It has none.
If I do not fold the seats down, I basically have absolutely no cargo room, save for a handful of groceries. I think the Smart Car had a similar amount of cargo room. The Juke has about 10.5 CuFt of cargo room with the rear seats up.
Meanwhile the Smart Car Fortwo has 7.8CuFt of cargo space to the top of the seats, or 12CuFt when filled to the roof of the car, making it have MORE cargo space.
However, yes, with the seats folded, the Juke has triple the amount of room as the Smart Fortwo. That said, you can now no longer carry any passengers, save for one, with the Juke. It was made for 5 (four sort of comfortably) people, and the Fortwo was literally made FOR TWO.
The 1.6TGDi engine is underpowered for the vehicle, and it would do a lot better with a 2.5L Naturally aspirated i4 instead of the Turbo-Charged 1.6L Gasoline Direct Injection. Port injection, granted yes, it does provide slightly less power, and slightly less fuel economy, but it delivers better performance, by requiring significantly less maintenance, as there'll be less carbon buildup on the valves, and a lot less carbon deposits in the tailpipe. Seems like GDI engines, especially Turbocharged ones, like to dump a fair amount of carbon deposits on the tailpipe. And that's usually indicative that it's likely burning a little bit of oil. NOT a good thing to be doing. If you're unsure and looking at a car that you want to know if it's burning oil, just run your finger on the inside of the tailpipe, and see what colour it comes back. If it is all sooty, with really thick dark, charcoal like material, or even feels a bit slippery, it's burning oil. Stay away from it! Maybe buy a nice old used Volvo?
The other issue I have with the car is cargo room. It has none.
If I do not fold the seats down, I basically have absolutely no cargo room, save for a handful of groceries. I think the Smart Car had a similar amount of cargo room. The Juke has about 10.5 CuFt of cargo room with the rear seats up.
Meanwhile the Smart Car Fortwo has 7.8CuFt of cargo space to the top of the seats, or 12CuFt when filled to the roof of the car, making it have MORE cargo space.
However, yes, with the seats folded, the Juke has triple the amount of room as the Smart Fortwo. That said, you can now no longer carry any passengers, save for one, with the Juke. It was made for 5 (four sort of comfortably) people, and the Fortwo was literally made FOR TWO.
The Scion tC have 14.7CuFt of cargo room with the rear seats up, and roughly the same as the Juke with the Rear Seats down, meaning you had a fair amount more room in the Coupe vs the CUV.
BUT There are some silver linings here, such as the amount of visibility in the car. It has good visibility, big windows, and even easy to see out the rear window. The car has buttons, switches, and dials, without any touch screens, comes with heated seats, and the Air Conditioning was working out of the box, unlike the 3 year older Scion tC, however the AC on the tC was refilled and never had an issue for the almost 4 years I had the vehicle, which is normal, as the refrigerant on all cars slowly leaks out at the compressor seals.
BUT There are some silver linings here, such as the amount of visibility in the car. It has good visibility, big windows, and even easy to see out the rear window. The car has buttons, switches, and dials, without any touch screens, comes with heated seats, and the Air Conditioning was working out of the box, unlike the 3 year older Scion tC, however the AC on the tC was refilled and never had an issue for the almost 4 years I had the vehicle, which is normal, as the refrigerant on all cars slowly leaks out at the compressor seals.
The car is pretty comfortable, even on long drives, as I've spent many hours in that car, including an entire day of driving around South Central Ontario. It was a lot of fun!
The sound system isn't terrible at all, it is OKAY, but you'd expect on a vehicle named "JUKE" it would at least have a great sound system, which it simply doesn't. But it is okay. The Bluetooth sucks, as it has a .5s-1s delay on all audio, which is annoying, as it even does that with phone calls.
Plus allowing it access to your Text messages means that every time you get one, it would auto-Reply "I'm Driving!"
It was extremely annoying, as some spam texts that came thru it would respond showing that it's an active number.. Blah! I had to disable that.
Would I recommend a Juke?
No. I honestly would not recomment a Juke. There's no reason that there should be an axle seal failing at less than 100,000 miles. The Timing cover should not be leaking, and the front crank seal should DEFINITELY not be leaking.
Even the Rear Brakes shouldn't be as low as they are at 100,000km, as the rear brakes honestly don't do much braking at all. They should last about 2 to 3 times longer than your front brakes, unless they're dragging, as the front brakes do about 75% of the braking for your car.
The sound system isn't terrible at all, it is OKAY, but you'd expect on a vehicle named "JUKE" it would at least have a great sound system, which it simply doesn't. But it is okay. The Bluetooth sucks, as it has a .5s-1s delay on all audio, which is annoying, as it even does that with phone calls.
Plus allowing it access to your Text messages means that every time you get one, it would auto-Reply "I'm Driving!"
It was extremely annoying, as some spam texts that came thru it would respond showing that it's an active number.. Blah! I had to disable that.
Would I recommend a Juke?
No. I honestly would not recomment a Juke. There's no reason that there should be an axle seal failing at less than 100,000 miles. The Timing cover should not be leaking, and the front crank seal should DEFINITELY not be leaking.
Even the Rear Brakes shouldn't be as low as they are at 100,000km, as the rear brakes honestly don't do much braking at all. They should last about 2 to 3 times longer than your front brakes, unless they're dragging, as the front brakes do about 75% of the braking for your car.
In fact, I'd go as far as telling people to stay far away from the Juke, or any Nissan in general. The engines are French engines, which are not known for their reliability or longevity, and if you get an Automatic CVT transmission, you're guaranteed to have the transmission fail. Nissans are really terrible vehicles, probably easily on par, if not even worse, than Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep, Kia/Hyundai, Tesla.
They are truly shitty bad vehicles.
So I'm actively trying to sell my Juke to be rid of it, and I'll be moving to something a little more reliable, and something a little bit bigger.
Heck, I'd even prefer a Ford Taurus Wagon over the Juke!
Until next time guys,
They are truly shitty bad vehicles.
So I'm actively trying to sell my Juke to be rid of it, and I'll be moving to something a little more reliable, and something a little bit bigger.
Heck, I'd even prefer a Ford Taurus Wagon over the Juke!
Until next time guys,
Stay Tuned.....
No comments:
Post a Comment