Faults:

Radiator punctured, causing fluid to leak out and the vehicle to overheat. The repair cost exceeded the value of the vehicle.

General Comments:

I bought my Corsica for $150. It ran and drove remarkably well for that price. I didn't spend a penny on this car, with the exception of gas to keep it running. I never even changed the oil or oil filter.

After I decided to upgrade to a decent car, I converted my hardtop Corsica into a convertible with a SawZall. After cutting the roof off, I used it as a "field car" and rally car (off-road only). After 30,000 miles without an oil change and some very, very, very hard driving in less than ideal conditions, the car still ran and drove. Eventually I drove the car through a group of small trees, which punctured the radiator. The repair would not have been worth it, so I took the car to the scrap yard and got $200 for scrap value. I actually made $50 on the car.

Faults:

Check engine stated the MAP sensor was defective... changed it and later found out it was one of my sparkplugs (was swimming in the socket).

Alternator.

E-brake came off.

Roof leaks around the windshield.

Rear brakes lock up way too easily when starting up.

AC stopped working.

General Comments:

Bought the car for $500 and put about $700 in it in the last 2 years of owning it.. I think it's a pretty fair deal considering the year of the car. Very comfortable and reliable compared to other beaters :P.

Faults:

Trans pan gasket.

Minor and various fluid leaks.

Electric cooling fan.

Cabin light eventually stayed on all the time.

Mysterious emissions system fault causing intermittent "check engine" light.

Engine occasionally took the afternoon off and wouldn't start when hot.

Transmission finally bit the dust.

General Comments:

What can I say? It's not as if I got the thing intending to keep it on the road forever - it's a cheap car which is cheaply made and it'll never fool you into thinking it's anything else.

When the engine was running properly (which was most of the time) it wasn't terribly sluggish, but it wasn't by any means fast either.

The cloth upholstery fell apart but you have to expect that after a certain time.

The cabin light surprised me since it'd never had any other electrical problems, and it seemed a more productive use of my time to just remove the bulb than try to track down as unimportant a problem as that.

The cooling fan took all of a half-hour and $10 (at the local junkyard) to replace.

I had the guys at an auto parts store read the fault code which was causing the "check engine" light and it had something to do with the evaporative emissions system... but once again, not worth the effort to track down on a car like this.

The transmission took four days to die and started by intermittently shifting into 3rd at much too high an RPM. Eventually it wouldn't shift out of second at all, then first, and shortly thereafter first let go and I had a choice of park or "neutral". While transmissions aren't that expensive to replace if you do it yourself, no way was I going to deal with the hassle of replacing one on a front-wheel-drive car, which was never really worth anything to begin with. Transmissions in rear-wheel-drive cars aren't a big deal, but it's a big enough deal on a FWD car that I wouldn't mess with it... unless we're talking about a 1st-generation Toronado, etc.

All in all, it wasn't a bad car. The heater always heated, the wipers always wiped, and the windows always... windowed? So what if the headlight/dashlight switches were arranged so that you ended up adjusting your dash lights every time you messed with the headlights. And so what if you couldn't see all of the instruments anyway because of the steering wheel and the seat belts never retracted.

If you want perfection, buy a Rolls Royce. If you want a car which won't cost you much to buy, doesn't cost much to run, and isn't as embarrassing as a Yugo... well, you might be better off with something else. In a pinch, it'll do though.