The absolute worst car that you have ever owned.

[El Presidente]

I had a cracking email this morning about a member with a JK Jeep. Let's just say we shared similar experiences.........and I loved that car as much as I hated it. 

Look back. The absolute worst car that you have ever owned?.......and why. Pictures are a bonus 

[NSXCIGAR]

1985 Mercury Cougar. Bought it for $700 when I was 18. 15 miles later the engine seized.

Yes, I got my money back. 

Don't forget we had this thread a while back:

 

[Tdm_86]

Worst car, that’s a tough one. I haven’t owned any real bad ones (touch wood). But the one that left me ‘stranded’ a couple of times was a BMW E30 325i touring I used to own. The starter got hot after long drives when the engine bay got heat soaked and it would only crank after letting it cool down for about 45 mins to an hour. Then finally the timing belt snapped for no reason, wasn’t due for a change until 60k more kms. 

This picture is not the one I owned, as I don’t have any. But this was the exact spec I had it in.

[El Presidente]

33 minutes ago, Tdm_86 said:

 

 

 

That's not a bad looking car at all......which makes it all the more frusrating!

[Tdm_86]

52 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

 

 

That's not a bad looking car at all......which makes it all the more frusrating!

It did serve me well for about 100k km before that, it wasn’t a bad car at all. Just the one that gave me some trouble in the end. 

[GavLew79]

Fiat Brava. My first car. Needed after graduation to get to my first job 120 miles away. The engine design was so poor the cams were starved of oil and eventually wore down to almost nothing. 

The actual block split, my old man restored it with 'chemical metal'. All 4 coil springs broke. Exhaust fell off. Sounded like a tractor for 3 days waiting for parts. 

Wthin the first 3 days the thermostat went. Electrics were terrible. Wipers siezed. Used to chew through headlight bulbs like they were snacks. 

All in all a real shit box. It cost my parents a fortune to fix. I had no money. Took a loan out to buy the damn thing. 

 

[El Presidente]

16 minutes ago, GavLew79 said:

Fiat

Ahhh....Fiat's. Millions of lads around the world cut their teeth on them as a first car. 

Fix It Again Tony. 

[GavLew79]

11 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Ahhh....Fiat's. Millions of lads around the world cut their teeth on them as a first car. 

Fix It Again Tony. 

Sounds about right! 😂

[Meesterjojo]

Abarth 124 Spider. And I still own it.

Trading it in a few months from now I think. I'll never buy anything from fca or stellantis again, including a jeep. Horrible. Transmission went out in first year and a half 20 miles over their coverage limit. In the shop for 5 months.

My first car was a black and chromed up 86 Olds cutlass Supreme. Red interior. Pimpmobile. So good. 

[Fosgate]

1972 Chevy Nova with an inline 6 cylinder and 2 speed, studded rear snow tires. It was worse than my brothers binge drinking orange urine colored 1977 Datsun B210 Honey Bee. 

It was my first car at age 14. My father had bought it for my sister after work one night, for $500, in the dark. My sister was to embarrassed to be seen in it and rarely drove it so when I got my license it became mine.

1. Exterior, While the image below shares about the same color, the quality of the finish was clearly John Deer tractor paint with no clear coat with a rough orange peel finish on the back 1/4 panels as they had no idea how to blend the paint in more than a 3ft sweep of the length of their arms. It wound up being a Matt green finish and I recall waxing it a couple times to a shiny finish only to rub my hand across it and looking at my hand with a heavy chalky green powder residue clinging to my hand and within an hour it was dull again. 

2. Interior. Dark Green vomit interior with slick vinyl green bench seats that you would have to hold onto any stationary object to keep from sliding across the seat. Though handy if any girl willing to be seen in the car could simply be slide across the seat to my side by an innocent right hand turn. Radio was AM only with sound quality of a 1960's hand held weather warning radio. The steering wheel was a skinny, in style chrome steering wheel with foam outside. That was the only thing "cool" about the car. 

3. Performance, absolutely atrocious. It had a high pitch whine off a Pete Jackson gearbox but none of the performance. Top speed was 88mph if you dared to go that fast. At 80mph the car would shimmy so bad I one would have a Doc Brown expression half expecting sparks to start flying as they reach the space time continuum. The only way I could leave a black mark on pavement was to Jam on the breaks at 55 and swoop into a quick left hand turn. Gravel was the only surface I could break the year round studded snow tires loose. 

4. Maintenance- Usually required a welder and a trash can. I recall once a front bearing went out. It would not come off with a bearing puller and it took us two days having to resort to penetrating oil, and eventually had to haul it to a shop to cut it off with a cutting torch to remove it. Often difficult to start in the summer and impossible in the winter. 

Overall impressions. Absolute death trap. It was so unreliable that my mother actually protested to my father after which we sold it and my father bought me a 73 Plymouth GoldDuster with a snakeskin vinyl patter top for $750 (Second picture is the actual car and me my senior year)

 

[Fuzz AI]

51 minutes ago, Fosgate said:

That pic just screams 1980s.

[helix]

Fiat , making kids walk since the 1950's.

[BrightonCorgi]

1985 Brown Mercury Topaz. Engine parts went down to the month the engine was manufactured.  Too many repairs and rust to go with it.

 

[DanWil84]

I have only owned 2 cars in the 18 years I own a car and both were great, a Citroën Saxo (was this brand ever sold outside of Europe?) and I now drive a '11 Ford Focus which I bought new. Both treated me well, the Citroën had some work after a few years on the brakes, distribution belt and exhaust, the focus gets the distribution belt work right now. But further more no major breakdowns.

My dad had a Opel (mainland europe Vauxhall) Kadett version 3 (also named Ka-death) of which they always said they allready had rust on them in the catalog and indeed it rusted very fast. My father in law had a Simca (French brand, doesn't exist anymore), he was a engineer for power plants. They were building a power plant near the sea, the salt in the air made his car from newish to a Flintstone car with extra holes for the feet to paddle along after the build was complete.

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[SpecialK]

11 minutes ago, DanWil84 said:

I have only owned 2 cars in the 18 years I own a car and both were great, a Citroën Saxo (was this brand ever sold outside of Europe?) and I now drive a '11 Ford Focus which I bought new. Both treated me well, the Citroën had some work after a few years on the brakes, distribution belt and exhaust, the focus gets the distribution belt work right now. But further more no major breakdowns.

My dad had a Opel (mainland europe Vauxhall) Kadett version 3 (also named Ka-death) of which they always said they allready had rust on them in the catalog and indeed it rusted very fast. My father in law had a Simca (French brand, doesn't exist anymore), he was a engineer for power plants. They were building a power plant near the sea, the salt in the air made his car from newish to a Flintstone car with extra holes for the feet to paddle along after the build was complete.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn VOG-L29 met Tapatalk
 

Family owned a Simca when I grew up in the Canal Zone (Panama) ... The used car market was mainly buying from people who were shipping back to the states..  My Dad bought it and decided we should put aftermarket AC on it.... It made an already bad car even worse 😄  . I believe they were sold through Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth at one time in the states ?

[Paladin865]

My worse car was a 75 AMC pacer, bought it for 75 dollars as a winter beater. It lasted a month

[Chibearsv]

For sure the 1972 VW 3 speed auto-shift Beetle I drove to Colorado in 1980.  Engine threw rods just outside of Des Moines, IA and seized up completely.  I flew the rest of the way to Denver.  Had to fly back to Des Moines a month later to pick up the repaired car and drive it back to Boulder.  Uphill it had zero power in 3rd gear so 40-45 max speed and redline on the odometer while shifting up and down 1,2,3,2,3,2,3,2,3,2,3,2 - you get the idea.  I worked in Boulder (5800ish feet above sea level) and I lived at 9600ish feet so that up down shifting was every day.  Downhill was no picnic either with lousy brakes, no true clutch, and crappy steering.  I drove it back to Illinois to visit the family and the engine seized up again right after I got home thankfully.  One of my dad's mechanics bought it and replaced the engine.  He drove it for less than a year before it seized up again.  Terrible car.  Looked just like this one below:

[Frozen North]

My worst car(so far) was a 1980 Corvette. What a pile of junk.

[Tstew75]

88 Pontiac Fiero Formula

[Atomic Z06]

My worst car(so far) was a 1980 Corvette. What a pile of junk.

haha, why was that?

my best car so far is my 2009 Z06. it's just so good in every way

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[Chibearsv]

1 hour ago, Tstew75 said:

88 Pontiac Fiero Formula

At least you survived!  You needed a fire suit to drive those things. 

 

49 minutes ago, Atomic Z06 said:

haha, why was that?

my best car so far is my 2009 Z06. it's just so good in every way

@Frozen North  80 Corvette; bet it drove like a tilt a whirl. Left turn, touch the gas, and we’re spinning!  Hated mine too but I can’t say it wasn’t exciting. 

 

2 hours ago, njpinette said:

My worse car was a 75 AMC pacer, bought it for 75 dollars as a winter beater. It lasted a month

Great visibility though 😂

[BTWheezy]

6 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

1985 Brown Mercury Topaz. Engine parts went down to the month the engine was manufactured.  Too many repairs and rust to go with it.

 

Dude…were you in the NE when you owned this??  How’d it handle in the snow?  😂

[Baccy]

haha, why was that?

my best car so far is my 2009 Z06. it's just so good in every way

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I had an 09 Z06 and it was a sweet ride but that 6 speed manual clutch was so stiff that it wasn't even fun to drive.

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[BrightonCorgi]

44 minutes ago, BTWheezy said:

Dude…were you in the NE when you owned this??  How’d it handle in the snow?  😂

No crashes.  The car had to be running to make it through the winters.  My mom bought it match our golden retriever in the interior.

[Fosgate]

5 hours ago, Tstew75 said:

88 Pontiac Fiero Formula

Those were a cool looking car though....right up until they got a wrap for catching on fire and at the time the company slogan was, "Pontiac, We build excitement."