Some car myths are relatively harmless, while others can cost you money or put your safety at risk. Regardless, they have a surprising ability to hang around, getting passed down over generations before finally arriving here on this list.
We asked readers what they thought were the worst car myths. These were their answers.
Cross-drilled brake rotors stop faster/are better. This hasn’t been true since the 50’s now it’s just removing metal from a perfectly good heatsink. Sure I’ll hear arguments about unsprung weight or “but Porsche does it!”. You aren’t removing all that much and Porsche casts the holes in the rotors and cryogenically treats them. Drilled rotors suck and are asking to fail, don’t believe me go ask Stoptech.
Suggested by: DerFahrt
That you need to warm up your modern EFI car for 10 minutes before driving. Just start it, wait for the idle to stabilize then keep it below 2500rpm until it gets to operating temperature. Your transmission is still ice cold no matter how long you idle.
Suggested by: Rob Coyle (Facebook)
No. Unsafe at Any Speed came out in 1965 and didn’t even focus entirely on the Corvair. Many of its assertions were correct, but in 1964 a transverse leaf spring was added to take care of the turn-in issue and in 1965 the whole car was redesigned with a fully independent suspension. Corvairs remained in production until 1969, a full four years after Nader’s book.
The real killer was cheap gas. A Camaro could be had for the same money and as long as gas was cheap, more people went for the bigger cars with the bigger engines.
Suggested by: Sid Bridge
“Lifetime” fluids. After two attempts at changing my AWD Ford’s PTU fluid in the last 10,000 kms, there’s still a fair amount of black sludge from the previous owner’s 130,000 kms on the factory fluid. It’s in the manual so you can’t really blame them.
Suggested by: Quintan Neville (Facebook)
Everyone still thinks it’s related to idiot drivers and floor mats instead of a giant corporation lying about a software defect only to eventually be caught. Unfortunately by the time that happened nobody cared anymore and we had committed the lie to memory. Myself included until recently.
Long after the floor mat and throttle pedal fixes, some experts believe that Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem was the result of bad code.
Suggested by: 1LE4Me
The idea that cars of the past were “higher quality” because they looked and felt more solid.
The truth is that cars today are far more reliable and durable.
Cars of the past were crap by comparison.
Suggested by: Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
Manufacturers will usually recommend a PSI lower than the maximum, mostly because it provides better traction and absorbs bumps and potholes better. Even if your tires are just a little above maximum PSI you’ll probably be fine, but you may notice worse handling in the rain, and you might run a slightly higher risk of a blowout *if* you drive over a curb or nasty pot hole. You’ll get better gas mileage and have an easier time changing lanes though.
Suggested by: microsoftsam
The lowest mileage used car is best. This is both in normal car shopping and in collector car shopping.
Normal car shopping I hear it all the time, “I want X car only under 10, 15, 20k miles.” Usually, it’s at the usual used car age of 3-ish years, so most of them are off-lease. In normal times we’ll have a range of mileages available for our popular used cars. Most often the lowest mileage ones come from NY, Chicago, NJ, somewhere that they didn’t need a car much. So they were street parked, banged up, backed into, and the inside was also trashed because likely not having a garage it’s not as easy to clean out. These dumbasses will completely pass on the car that was owned locally, by a couple out in the suburbs, kept in a garage, never street parked, and taken to the cabin on the weekends so it’s got 40k miles. One needs work, one doesn’t, I probably don’t need to tell you which is which.
In collector car shopping it’s also a myth but for a completely different reason. I’m not talking about restored stuff from decades ago, I’m talking about ‘80s and on fun desirable cars. If you buy the one that was never driven and is 20 years old with 10k miles, you’re just paying more for dried out seals, old oil and tires, and other non-use service needed. Not to say you need to buy a 100k+ mile car, but buy the 20 year old Corvette that has 50k miles over the one owned by the old guy thinking it would be a collector and only put on 5k.
Suggested by: savethemanualsbmw335ix
You can still find people who think it’s safer to drive without your seatbelt buckled because “you want to be thrown clear in an accident.”
How these people haven’t all been killed off by now is a mystery.
Suggested by: The Ghost of James Madison’s Rage Boner
The myth that cars are the best way to get anywhere has really ruined our country. Don’t get me wrong, cars are great. BUT if you design every city around the car, you are doing it wrong. Walkable neighborhoods are great. Streets that kids can actually ride bikes on are fantastic. Being able to get places without driving is wonderful.
We allowed our governments to outsource our transit and city design to the auto industry, with predictable results.
We need better infrastructure so we don’t have to drive all the time. The less we HAVE to drive, the more we GET to drive. Do you really want to drive in the snow/rain/shitty weather? No. but you have to. Which means that when you buy a car, you have to think, “I need all wheel drive, might as well buy a CUV”.
TLDR: CUVs are 100% a result of our shitty infrastructure and bad urban planning.
Suggested by: buckfiddious
No, and the only reason I can think this myth persists is that most people associate pickups with 4WD. Pickups are some of the worst vehicles in the snow because they’re so light in the rear. You can throw some weight in the back, but you’re still not as good as you would be in a Subaru with snow tires.
Suggested by: Ratchet when he’s all hopped up on synthetic energon