Tonight, we experienced the same issue that we did last August: while heading home, my wife's car began to jerk, the engine ran poorly, not exceeding 3000 RPM (without any warning lights on), and started stuttering. It also vibrated at idle, which makes me think it might be running on 3 cylinders. The last time this happened, we were 50km from home, but the car recovered by the time we reached our mechanic. He changed all the filters and thoroughly checked the car, but found nothing, guessing it might be due to dirty fuel.
This time, we were just 2km away, but managed to get home before turning off the car amidst the problem. Tomorrow, we'll visit the mechanic, and it might be best for him to take a look here, as I'm uncertain if it's safe to drive to his shop in this state.
Modern cars are becoming a real headache: in the last 10 years, their quality has drastically dropped, prices have skyrocketed, and despite advanced technology, it often feels like it's still in 'beta', leading to issues that don't seem to justify the advantages.
My wife's car has just over 30,000km and should be a highly reliable vehicle with an engine known for enduring high mileage without major issues. It could be an isolated incident, but why have almost all modern cars that I or my close relatives have dealt with recently experienced some problems?
I remember when regular maintenance meant trouble-free driving for years.
Is it just our bad luck, or is this a worrying trend?