Worst car you have ever owned?

[heymisterk]

Just a good thread for some horror stories.

 

I have been lucky, probably because I have owned all Toyotas and Hondas , BUT...growing up, my family had a 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon that was the biggest piece of sh*t ever; couldn't take it 30 miles without something blowing up or melting down.

 

Almost as bad as the first car I remember riding in: a '72 AMC Javelin that had no heat and stalled every time it rained...

 

Let loose!

[The Green Hornet]

1976 AMC Pacer.

 

Did not work well for crime fighting, so I restored the Black Beauty.

[Big Bill]

1980 Chevy Monza Spider. I will never owned a GM product again

 

[Jeff-7]

Early 90's Pontiac Grand AM, what a piece.

[heymisterk]

Early 90's Pontiac Grand AM, what a piece.

 

Oh, man...a guy I work with used to own one of those. I remember he had to take it to the shop so often that he always had a rental car at work.

 

"New car, Joe?" (Snicker, snicker...)

[Riffster]

My 1980 Rabbitt, ugh.

[bonzoboy]

I had a 1993 Taurus Sport which was a cross between the SHO and the Police Interceptor.It had the suspension and the 4 wheel anti-lock disc brakes of the SHO but also had the High Output Police Interceptor engine.The car could go like stink and handled like it was on rails. There wasn't much on the road outside of big money sports cars that could out accelerate it or keep up with it.The problem with it was that during the last year we had it,it spent more time on the back of a tow truck.There was always something giving out and she used to eat brake pads.When she started to cost more for repairs than the payments were we had to sell her and lose a bundle on her. It almost broke my heart to get rid of her because she was definitely the best performing big car that I had ever driven.

 

We had another vehicle that tied with the Taurus for being problematic,that was surprisingly a Toyota Fourrunner,although these vehicles are usually bullet proof this vehicle was atrocious in just about every way.We bought it at the car dealership of a cousin of mine and besides that it had been owned by a doctor that I was acquainted with.It had less than 40,000 miles on it as the doctor only used it in winter and only then when he was on call-he was a cardiologist-hence the low mileage on a 4 year old truck.This rig too started to spend an inordinate amount of time behind tow trucks and this too had to be sold at a loss when on top of the mechanical and electrical problems it started to rust through almost overnight.

 

Strangely enough the cheapest new vehicle that I ever bought-A '91 Suzuki Samurai-was the most dependable vehicle that I ever had.This little brute could go just about anywhere a quad could and could go through just about any depth of snow or bog.We put almost 250,000 km on it in the 11 years that we had it.We finally had to let her go because of bad body rust,even though everything else was operating like new.

[feldkeen4]

1984 Dodge Aries. Nothing more needs to said.

 

The best was a 1991 Toyota Previa, put 270,000 miles on it, and still got $4,500 for it with the cash for clunkers program.

[milod]

A 1959 low-end six-banger Plymouth. The engine was indestructible and ran in any weather whatever; the clutch was shot, though, and you didn't really need to use it if you did things right. The front end was a disaster and the rear end was about as bad. Dad had the higher-end version with an 8 and auto tranny that was really nice. This wasn't.

 

m

 

EDIT: Come to think of it, although I didn't have as exciting a disaster with it as with the Plymouth at one point, my company Chevy Vega was utterly shot at about 15,000 road miles.

[geeterpicker]

1979 Ford Granada. What a pig.

[Tman]

Not me my parents: 77 Ford Granada. P O S.

I've only owned toyotas and always have been great.

[Buxom]

 

Strangely enough the cheapest new vehicle that I ever bought-A '91 Suzuki Samurai-was the most dependable vehicle that I ever had.This little brute could go just about anywhere a quad could and could go through just about any depth of snow or bog.We put almost 250,000 km on it in the 11 years that we had it.We finally had to let her go because of bad body rust,even though everything else was operating like new.

 

 

I actually want a Samurai. Or a Honda CRX.

[The Green Hornet]

A 1959 low-end six-banger Plymouth. The engine was indestructible and ran in any weather whatever; the clutch was shot, though, and you didn't really need to use it if you did things right. The front end was a disaster and the rear end was about as bad. Dad had the higher-end version with an 8 and auto tranny that was really nice. This wasn't.

 

m

 

EDIT: Come to think of it, although I didn't have as exciting a disaster with it as with the Plymouth at one point, my company Chevy Vega was utterly shot at about 15,000 road miles.

 

Love those slant six's with the 3 on the tree! I owned a 64 Plymouth Savoy, my 1st car.

[MrNylon]

A 1967 Chrysler Europe's division Simca. It was a rolling bomb.

[stein]

Dang. You guys have had some buckets.

 

I guess I have been pretty lucky. I suppose the "worst" car I had was a Fiat spider. I broke just about every part on that car, until finally, the motor had a catastrophic coolant leak through the head gasket.

 

To be fair though, it WAS a real fun car, and really should not be used for a daily driver. They really weren't meant to be reliable.

[rocketman]

I've only owned 3 cars in my entire life: '85 Camaro, '93 Camaro and '06 BMW. My wife has owned some clunkers in her time. I think the worst was a '89 Nissan Sentra. It had no air conditioner and the heater broke. Of course when we got married guess who got the Sentra (with no heat) and guess who got the Camaro?

 

So one day I'm driving on the BWI parkway when the motor went in her car. It happened to be the coldest day in DC (figures, right?). I pull the car over on the side and hitched a ride to the nearest gas station. I told them to tow it back and that the car was between the 197 and 198 exits. He comes back after an hour and says "was it dark blue or light blue?" to which I said "how many '89 Sentras are there between those exits!?!" He said "two" to my amazement. Turns out he picked up the wrong one! I couldn't help but laugh.

 

Wow that brings back memories. Just got the wife a brand new BMW X3. How far we've come.

[Dave J]

Ford Exploder!!!!!

 

Davej

[duluthdan]

Mid 90s used VW Passat. Replacement tires cost more than I spent on the car. No rear brakes, the lines were crimped off, and the rear drums were actually just not there. Who in their right flippin mind would do that? But it had a killer sound system in it.

[jaxson50]

I can beat all of your stories, at one point in life I was so down and out, a friend gave me a car, well, it had four wheels and something the made noise under the hood. A Mercury Capri, the key was shuck in the ignition and couldn't be removed, the motor mounts were shot, the u joints chattered, if you sat at a stop light you has to leave it in neutral because the slave piston would leak and the clutch would engage, the exhaust leaked into the car, so you has to keep the windows down and there was only one key so you couldn't lock it, one night the car was stolen, the theirs drove about two blocks before abandoning it in the middle of a intersection. I was also the victim of several VWs. Never again..

[Izzy]

I use the same cars repeatedly so I never have issues.

Have had ceveral Buik Centuries and now I stick to Hyundai. They all make it to 100k without more than maintenance and a belt or two.

 

This thread is informative, that Spider Bill had is so pretty I may have bought one

[Buxom]

in DC

 

You're in the DC area?

[Tman5293]

Worst car I've ever owned was my 1996 Dodge Stratus ES. That thing was a piece of junk. When I got my Mustang that I drive now, it was like a night and day change.

[btoth76]

Working in automotive industry all I can say: never buy anything that's made (glued together) in Europe. They are three times as expensive as an american car of the same level and are junk! Awful, really awful vehicles. I have access to technical drawings of most automobile company's products, and what is evident, they are all built to fail intentionally. They do not earn profit on selling the car. It's the aftermarket which makes it profitable for them. After three years all these cars start to become very-very expensive for the owner, thus producing great incomes for the factories. Unfortunately I can't go deeper in this subject, because of confidentiality issues...Buy american or japanese cars.

 

I drive an 1997 Dodge Avenger ES Sport. Some rust on the rocker panels, nothing else. Reliable car. Not very strong, but comfortable and handles well. It's made of real material, unlike european cars with 0.6mm sheet metal body components.

 

We do have DOT inspection every 2 years here (stupid burocrats!). They always mess with me for not having ECE-standard headlights on it - that's the only thing that bugs me. It wasn't made for the european market anyways...

 

I mostly owned US cars, my Dad used to have mostly German ones. After purchasing His first US vehicle, He never looked back...

 

Cheers... Bence

[pippy]

I, too, have only owned three cars in my life and none of them has been really 'bad'...

 

I suppose the '59 rag-top Beetle would get the bad-car 'prize' as it broke down the most often.

The great thing about it, though, was it was such a simple design it could always - and I really mean always - be fixed, by myself, at the roadside with the most basic of tools.

I had it ten years and the only time it had to be towed was after a very bizarre short-circuit casued the battery acid to boil over - killing the battery (and almost doing the same to the passengers...).

 

But that really was the only occasion it failed to get me home. On one occasion it holed a piston. On another it ran a main engine bearing. Both times it got me back under it's own steam (smoke?) and each time, after I rebuilt the engine, it ran as sweet as a nut.

 

Best car (as in most comfortable, most reliable, most well-appointed, fastest etc.) is my current '97() Mazda 323 V6. Other than a new clutch plate at around 100,000 miles it's cost me next to nothing in all the years I've owned it.

 

P.

[btoth76]

... at around 100,000 miles it's cost me next to nothing in all the years I've owned it.

 

P.

 

Same here with the Dodge. This spring I am going to fix those rust issues, and I really hope it will last for one more decade at least! I'd never buy a car brand-new. It is the worst investment one can make. Too risky to have an asset that costs 20 grands (less or more) running on the road among a crowd of "Fittipaldis".

 

Cheers... Bence