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Worst vehicles you've driven and owned

  1. MRC Apr 27, 2020

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    Worst driven is a toss-up between boss's wife's 1970s Ford station wagon that steered like an oil tanker (slowly and needed planning) and my dad's Ford Cortina that steered like a herd of cows (left a bit, not so much, right, right, RIGHT!).

    1134px-1969_Ford_LTD_Country_Squire.jpg
    By Michael Spiller from Halifax, UK,cropped and altered by uploader Mr.choppers - Ford Country Squire, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24287891


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    Worst owned was a (oh no, not another Ford :p ) Transit Luton that I used as a racing car transporter and overnight accommodation at the tracks. Five hours driving this thing for a 15 minute race -- arrrrgggghhh.

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    None of these are the actual vehicle, why waste film at the time?
     
  2. Canuck Apr 27, 2020

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    1977 American Motors Pacer wagon was the worst. Second worst was a 1989 Mercury Sable wagon. Third was a 1967 Volvo 122S wagon. if I had pictures of any of those cars, I would have burned them. My late father bought a new 1952 Ford Customline sedan that he only put 3,200 miles on before he dumped it.
     
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  3. Larry S Color Commentator for the Hyperbole. Apr 27, 2020

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    1985 Mitsubishi Cordia...Mine was Silver. Could not get out of its own way, Dealer installed sunroof just lifted off and flew away one night, (they replaced it), engine went critical at 60K(Cam Shaft). I bought it after golf and about five beers one afternoon, because the Toyota SR5 i was driving was on its last legs... Never do that..... Irony? The Toyota was still on the road long after I'd dumped this for a new Accord.

    Cordia.jpg
     
    Edited Apr 27, 2020
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  4. vbrad26 Apr 27, 2020

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    Hah now this is a fun one.
    Worst car I have driven? Plenty "bad" cars come to mind. But If I had to pick one that is pretty fresh in my memory it would be one of our company issued GMC Terrain's

    [​IMG]

    It is ungodly slow. Like, sketchy pulling out into traffic slow. Handles like a boat. Crappy interior. But I'm picky.

    Now for the worst car I've owned I am going to say my 2004 Mazda RX-8* that I had from early '08 to late '09.

    [​IMG]3879660470_2b237e66fe_o by Vance Braddock, on Flickr

    *I actually loved this car but it had the WORST fuel mileage and it was tragically under powered. And if my wife had to vote, this one would be it lol (she was still just my girlfriend when I had this car).
    They also get a lot of negative attention because the motors are prone to failure (for example my particular car had 4 motors in 4 years before my ownership).
     
  5. Evitzee Apr 27, 2020

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    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.
     
    Edited Apr 27, 2020
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  6. Jantar Apr 27, 2020

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    Oh that’s easy. No pics, that’s how bad they sucked. As much as I love cars I can’t think of much positive to say about the yellow ‘74 Super Beatle with a Canadian block that tried to kill me. That was the worst I owned.

    Worst I’ve driven was a Fiat 500 rental. What a POS. Probably was not the death trap it felt like but it was slow, loud, rattled, was made of cheap material, and handled about as good as my friend’s tired Moto Guzzi Ambassador.
     
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  7. MRC Apr 27, 2020

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    Damnit! I'd forgotten my dad's new 1965 Ford Corsair (no, no. I'm not biased honest) in which I was learning to drive. Top of the steering box came off so when you turned the wheel the front wheels didn't turn but the steering wheel moved back & forth. Ha! Mercedes GP team eat your hearts out, Ford invented it first :whistling:. Then the main dealer's mechanic left the oil cap off so all the oil came out and the engine seized. Six months that PoC lasted from new and then he went for an Austin 1800. Truth be told, BMC cars were not a lot better overall, but the Landcrab was OK.
     
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  8. ZIELSZIEK Apr 27, 2020

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    My dad's 87 1.6 Escort MK4. This thing went bust during our family vacations more than once. The alarm made sure to drain your battery if you dared to leave the car sitting for more than three days, it had a carburetted engine and the carb was a pain in the rear and it got bad gas mileage. However, I still have fond memories of it as on that car I learned how to do basic maintenance and some electrical work. My dad went to replace it with a much better 93 Audi 80 2.3 inline 5 . Pic from the net. The one my dad owned was painted a metallic green reminiscent of the British racing green. 1280px-Ford_Escort_MK4_front_20081215.jpg

    But the Ford was bested by our finest domestic motor from back in the day, The Dacia 1310, a.k.a the salaryman's car. No wonder communism failed. The plastics inside are horrible and they smell like death, the whole dashboard rattles like there are a bunch of crickets stuck in it and you'll get it over 120km/h if you have the wind blowing from behind. It's sort of like a Yugo, but a tad better. Also, as a side note, many of the first generation ones had non-working heaters straight from the factory :) Pic from the net as well. 6695655031_0a92a57bbd_o.jpg
    Edit: I forgot to say I have only driven the Dacia, no long term contact with it.
     
    Edited Apr 27, 2020
  9. Fritz genuflects before the mighty quartzophobe Apr 27, 2020

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    I had a Dacia 1310, i bought used because i needed a car for 1 year to drive around the city. For that it was”acceptable”... just... as long as you didn’t mind tinkering with it to keep it running. It was cheap to buy and cheap to run, and it lasted the year which is all i wanted of it. Where else can you get a 1 year old car with 34000 km on it for 1500 bucks! On the last day i owned it it ran perfectly all the way to the scrapper.

    but the worse thing i ever drove, bar none, was a brand new Yugo. I drove one at a Jag dealer who was considering picking them up as a sideline. He asked me to try it out for him as he knew i had an open mind about these things. What a piece of shit! There is simply no excuse for turning out a car that bad.
     
  10. kip595 Apr 27, 2020

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    My ex-gf had a black Ford Fiesta, an '09 I believe...maybe it was sentient like in the book/movie Christine (though that was a MUCH cooler looking Plymouth Fury), but good lord that thing hated me and I hated it. It was still fairly new when we started dating in '11. Freeway driving was terrifying between terrible acceleration and the slow transmission; felt like trying to get an electric golf cart up to highway speeds. When it had to go to the shop for the 7th unexpected major repair service in 6 months, even she was convinced to trade it.

    Biggest irony? Three years later I was working at a Ford dealership. :rolleyes:
     
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  11. MMMD unaffiliated curmudgeonly absurdist & polyologist Apr 27, 2020

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    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.
    BACA7E80-7DC3-4D0D-B5AC-02842995148D.jpeg
     
  12. Badwolf Apr 27, 2020

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    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.

    6ACCC5BB-B607-4199-BD81-6F0CF1A88D7F.jpeg
     
  13. abrod520 Apr 27, 2020

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    Excellent idea for a post :D

    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:

    [​IMG]

    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.
     
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  14. Larry S Color Commentator for the Hyperbole. Apr 27, 2020

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    My buddy had one of those Mustang 2’s. He named all his cars, this was “Cinnamon Girl”. His car developed a clank in the engine. I made the mistake of recommending our family mechanic, Dave (who on any given day, had an array of spectacular foreign dream cars on the lot). Anyway the thing needed a new engine block, my friend was not happy with this news and I wound up playing mediator... It was during the Iran hostage crisis and my buddy would call me and say, “Cinnamon Girl...DAY 20!”. We are still friends and Dave finally agreed to cut him a break on the cost. Those faux Mustangs were a disaster.
     
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  15. Donn Chambers Apr 27, 2020

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    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!
     
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  16. rob#1 Apr 27, 2020

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    A couple of dodgy people movers from me:

    The Mitsubishi Nimbus would be right at the top of my list, as it was spectacularly unattractive. To be honest though, it was fairly reliable when we needed it to be, but the day I traded it in I was petrified it would blow up before I got the keys to the new car.

    6013E8E3-18D4-4922-AC51-EAB2088C5276.png

    Top of the worst tree though was the Kia Carnival - I should have known it was a lemon when I found out it had a Rover engine. This thing sucked and blew up all over the place.

    9D779426-FBC0-40C0-AB99-D533AA9AEC63.png
     
  17. Observer I know nothing! Apr 27, 2020

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    I had a '72 VW bus and swore I'd never own another. Someone did me the favor of stealing it in Southern California, but then a friend offered me another with a split front window that was decent, but I sold it soon after.

    For those with no more common sense than I had, let me advise you against driving a van with an air cooled engine across the desert on an extremely hot day. That cost me an engine replacement.
     
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  18. Jantar Apr 27, 2020

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    Oh I tried that once in a VW bus. East coast to Mexico. Somewhere along the way my buddy parked it but didn’t put it in gear. E-Brake failed and it rolled down a small hill into a retaining wall and the engine fell out.

    Me and VWs just don’t get along.

    I thought of another I didn’t own or drive but I rode around in. Same friend had a Vette, a Che-vette and it was terrible. Right up there with the Pontiac T1000. It’s a good thing muscle cars were cheap in high school cause the new cars they were putting out were no bueno.
     
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  19. studeb Apr 27, 2020

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    1974 Pinto Station Wagon, white with fake wood trim.
    Nope no pics of that car.
    Ever.
     
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  20. Kiwibloke Apr 27, 2020

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    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...

    1994-Buick-Century-Front_BUCNT943_375x241.jpg

    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...)
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