Worst vehicles you've driven and owned

Had a 1976 Ford Mustang II, 302 V8 and manual transmission. Had the worst paint job I've ever seen on a car...like the paint had grit in it when applied. A/C continually leaked onto the carpet, ruining it, couldn't keep a front end alignment at all. It came with those horrendous Firestone 500 tires that were eventually recalled. Terrible construction, in the time period when the US industry was just turning out crap. Funny thing is I still remember the name of the salesman, he walked with a severe limp and was from Oklahoma, his business card read Rod 'Crippled Indian' Edwan, but you can't use tags like that referring to race or disability these days. I swore off American made cars at that time and have had very good success with Mazda, Toyota, Subaru and Lexus vehicles. I finally bought a Ford Focus ST in 2015 after considering VW and Subaru, after almost five years have had no issues with the Focus and just change oil and rotate tires, and it has a perfect paint job.

Another terrible car was the Chrysler K-car of the early 80's, 'buy a car, get a check!'. Got one as a rental and it was the tinniest, cheapest, crappiest car I ever drove.

2002 Viggen. Maybe not the worst car I ever owned but certainly the least dependable one. I got to know (and subsidize) the local Swedish grease monkeys way better than I wanted to. A torque-steering electrical disaster with an intermittently failing ragtop mechanism that got stuck halfway up on my first date with a lovely woman who, nevertheless, decided to marry me anyway.

A Citroen BX. This car had literally nothing going for it, ugly, slow and it felt like you were driving a bowl of porridge. They managed to design a car with the side of a ruler. Still gives me nightmares.

Excellent idea for a post 😁

In college I worked as a lot attendant at a fairly sizable Toyota / Volkswagen / Scion dealership that did a good business in used cars as well. Also would take in the most horrible POS cars occasionally, if it were towards the end of the month and they had good incentives on some of the more profitable models.

One day during a not-insubstantial snowstorm, a family came in to pick up their new car, and trade-in a late 90s/2000s Dodge Caravan like this:



Think it was burgundy red but it looked OK enough from the outside. Once the deal was all finished, the salesman had me drive it from where the van was parked outside the main entrance of the dealership, to the used car lot. "The brakes are a bit worn" the guy told me. Ah well, it's literally a straight drive through the parking lot, maybe 50m, that takes perhaps 10 seconds.

It was the scariest drive of my entire life so far. Accelerating up to maybe 10 or 15mph the van was fine, but as I began to slow to pull into the used car lot the brakes did nothing. I had to absolutely stand on the brakes, literally as far as they would go, to get the van to slow down even a little bit. And in the snow, I couldn't be sure whether the wheels would lock up or not. Fortunately I got it stopped before I drove through the used car building, but man I'm never gonna forget that.

And then there was the old econobox hatchback that we nicknamed "the General" for the afternoon we had it, because the driver side door wouldn't open and you had to climb in and out through the window... It was either a Ford Festiva or a Geo Metro, one of those captive imports from the 80s or early 90s.

A 1980 Chevy Citation. It was the family car and was given to me when I went to college in 1986. It made the long drive from Amarillo, Texas to Austin, TX once, and got me around for about a year before the problems started, with less than 50k miles on it. Can’t remember them lol, but the one that finally killed it was a bent cam shaft at 60k.

You read that right. A bent cam shaft. A part that should last for hundreds of thousands of miles. The mechanic I took it too said it was a common problem and only one of many that would start showing up in the engine. I had the mechanic call my parents, and I got a new Nissan Sentra.

now that was a great car. Finally sold it at 175,000 miles in 1999 and it was still chugging along like it was new!

Having started the nicest vehicle driven and owned (an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and 1969.5 Dodge A12 Superbee respectively) - only right that should contribute here too!

Worst vehicle driven was a Buick Century which we had to tolerate for over 5,000 miles driving from Jacksonville FL to Los Angeles CA on a 3-week road trip which completed 3 years living in the 'States in the early '90's. It wasn't probably so bad in small doses but a few hundred miles every day on average was draining...



The worst vehicle that I have owned from a 'whole experience' perspective is that gracing my avatar - a 1976 Aston Martin V8. It has been a black hole for every spare cent I've been able to rustle up over the last 3 years or so, just keeps on giving (large bills), and will never really be finished... I had clearly been taken in by 007 movies as expected - not a sports car/instant throttle response like the Dodge, etc for sure - but some thing there when you put pedal to the metal. I should have thought about the weight - 1800kg or nearly 4000lb - which is just too much for the circa 310HP. She does have lovely lines though...(pictured in natural surroundings - the workshop...)