What Was the WORST Car You Every Owned?

[CO Liberal]

For me it was a 1976 Chevy Monza that I bought in the mid-'80s for $125 as a second car. A few months later, I sent it too the junkyard, as everything fell apart.


Source: http://mclellansautomotive.com/

[tekriter]

1. 1974 AMC Gremlin

POS

[MrPrax]

5. Bingo!!

Fools Think Alike...

Mine was a Gremlin X 3 Speed Manual Trans...

Worst deal I ever made and I got a Maverick for 65 bucks once...ran a year or more with only a change of oil...

I feel your pain!!!

[Jim Sagle]

19. Would you believe, 1974 AMC Hornet?

At the end, I was living my life to support the car. It had ten repairs in six months.

[gpandas]

2. what did you expect from a $125 car? n/t

[CO Liberal]

16. At Least a Few Month's Use!!

After all, I paid 80 bucks for my first car (a '58 Hillman) and it lasted almost two years.

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. 1989 Volkswagen Golf GL

Bought it brand new. Repairs averaged 200 bucks a month for the one year I owned it. undiagnosed bad engine ground caused the following repairs, all outside the dreadful warranty:

Cabon build up in fuel injection system caused injector pump failure (six times in six months)

Carbon buildup in oil pan caused ridiculous oil pressure problems cracking the cylinder head.

Carbon buildup in cylinders scored pistons and cylinders, requiring a second upper engine replacement.

other problems not related to engine ground:

Door handled seized, six times drivers side, four times passenger. In all cases handles needed replacement.

Waxed car once, wax would not come off plastic bumper cover and facia so car always had swirl marks.

Driver seat torn in three places

Driver's seat handle snapped off

Gas cap cover snapped off

Windshieled wipers flew off car in storm. Lock washer not used to secure wipers to stem.

CV joints and boots replaced, four times driver's side, four times passenger.

Car would not hold alignment.

Placement of stereo was above heading duct so stereo would overheat in winter. Melted cassette tape ruined cassette mechanism.

In the end I turned it over to the bank and let them deal with it.

Never, ever will I buy a VW again.

[spinbaby]

14. One of the best I ever had was a VW

It was one of those $1995 beetles they sold in the late '60s and early '70s.

Worst I ever had was a '93 Volvo 850. The doors fell off. Literally. The welds holding the door hinges on the front doors weren't quite strong enough and eventually they gave way. Both front doors. The guy at the body shop said they all did it eventually. Oh, and there was the transmission, the AC, the weird smell that took six trips to the shop to diagnose...

[Fenris]

50. Well advised

VW has a bad, bad track record on their lower end models. Jettas are particularly poorly built these days. If I were to buy a VW it would have to be a high-end Passat. And even then it's a gamble.

Consequently, my father's worst car was a first year model VW Rabbit, which was the original name given to Golfs sold in America. He bought it without my mother knowing. He paid dearly for that. The thing was a brand new lemon.

[HuckleB]

65. Yes. Stay away from VW.

The old Bugs you could fix yourself. But they're the most overrated, most repaired vehicles on the road.

[flaminbats]

70. that was my first choice!

the second worse car I had was a Rabbit. Never try to drive one in July south of the Mason-Dixon line!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. 1994 Dodge Intrepid

Total trash.

[bif]

6. Datsun B210

What a piece of shit that car was. I couldn't wait to unload it. Nothing but problems, and all the parts were expensive.

[Wapsie B]

7. Toss-up between

the '77 Chevelle and the '77 LTD. Spent way too much money on both trying to keep them on the road. Both POS. And some wonder why people started to buy rice-grinders in the 70's. Thanks to people like Roger Smith car companies put out a lot of junk in the late 70's.

[gpandas]

that's what no competition did to automakers,

or,imho, any busines enterprise

[Estel]

8. 1974 Pinto...

I still can't believe how stupid I used to be

[CO Liberal]

17. Don't Feel Bad - I Also Had a '73 Vega

:-)

[donco6]

21. I had a '71 Pinto.

The original firebomb mobile!

I drove it for years and years, smoking engine and all.

Darn thing leaked every fluid it consumed, but it started even in the coldest Nebraska winter.

Finally died one day, I was almost sad to see it go.

[arbusto_baboso]

59. I had a '74 Mustang II, which was pretty much the same thing..

I used to do my own car repairs when I was younger.

THAT car made me give up on it. Some of the components were made in Germany, others in the US, so I'd need both metric and imperial measure tool sets with me whenever I did anything on that POS. Gads what a frickin' nightmare!

[Cybergata]

68. My 1974 Pinto was a lemon out of an over all Lemon series of vehicles

My father gave me my 1974 Pinto when I graduated from college The electrical part of the car was always malfunctioning. The car would just suddenly stop for no reason. I would quickly jump out because I was sure someone would hit me from behind & the gas tank would explode. I hated that car, I hated the car company that made it. Ford finally mailed me a recall of the vehicle due to its exploding gas tanks two years after I sold it for literally nothing. I was glad to be rid of it. 30 years later, and still haven't forgiven Ford for that piece of crap car.

:hippie:

[LWolf]

77. Yes, the '74 pinto!

The worst piece of machinery I've ever dealt with.

[MissMillie]

9. Mercury Tracer

4 years and looking for its 3rd engine...... what a nightmare.

[bif]

35. I had one for 9 years

And put over 100,000 miles on it. Never had a problem with it. Just unloaded it for $1900!

[Nite Owl]

10. Harder to pick the worse

unfortunately. We had a Volvo '98 Cross County wagon that had so many things wrong I couldn't even list them all. The battery would die, loss of power, door locks wouldn't work, the trun signals shorted out.
It was the year that Consumer's Reports took Volvo off their list of reccommended cars. We also had an Audi S4, '00, that spent way too much time in the shop.

[PCIntern]

11. 1980 chevy monza new...

what a schmuck...I had to get a...get this..tank repairman (as in Abrams)...to place a ground strap so the clutch wouldn't keep burning out due to electrical current running thru the housing. No joke. It worked.

Got rid of it on a trade for a 82 Celica that ran like a dream.

[southpaw]

12. Triumph TR7

The Shape of Things to Suck!

[AlCzervik]

13. 1979 cutless supreme brougham in old lady blue

it burned oil and handled like shit. I used to put Gunk in it and buy the cheapest oil i could find by the case. Thankfully a woman driving a 1972 Pontic Grand Safari Station wagon hit it and it was all over for the oldsmobile.

[lefty_mcduff]

15. British Leyland TR7

"The Wedge". Great car to drive, easy on the eyes and with it's two-seater exotic look, the ladies loved it. When it was operational and on the road. About 5% of the time.

My father advised me strongly against buying this piece of crap, a second hand sports car ("someone else's headache that they;ve driven the snot out of"). I ignored him. As usual. He was right. As usual (Damn!).

[southpaw]

18. See my post (#14) above...

Brings back bad memories, eh?

[lefty_mcduff]

32. Nice on the eyes.

VERY bad on the pocketbook (and any plans that I ever made that required this as transportation).
Nice looking wheels though...

[Cybergata]

69. All of British Leyland's cars were crap!

As a friend who had one always said. British Leyland made cars that were running screaming dog shit! We use to push it more often than we rode in it. In fact, every sprite or TR I've ridden in, at one point or another, I ended pushing.
:hippie:

[RobinA]

75. Had a TR6

that I pushed through countless intersections. Learned more about fixing cars than a girl has a right to know. I bought it and drove it solely for the looks of the thing, I loved it. The rear wheel fell off once, luckily on my street. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I bought a slightly used '81 Honda Accord, one of the best cars ever. Been with Honda ever since except for a brief foray into Jetta-land.

The Jetta actually wasn't bad at all, mechanically, but I gave up on VW when the various rubber side moldings kept falling off and the dealership WOULD NOT admit it was their problem and pay to replace them, they kept charging me $100+ dollars to replace them until I just used superglue - which worked better than the factory workmanship.

[TNDemo]

20. Ever see Car Talk's Worst Car of the Millenium contest?

http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/Worst-Cars/index.html

My husband and I were crying we were laughing so hard reading it.

[bullimiami]

26. Hack and Clack can go cheney themselves silly

My 68 vw bus is still on the road. 36 years and going strong.

Worst car ever was a 87 sentra. after 2 transmissions and premature timing belt that ate the valves I let the wreckers tow it off for nothing.

[SaveElmer]

22. 1985 Ford Escort

Bought it new...what a POS...Get near 55 mph it would start coughing and wheezing...I took it into the dealer innumerable times to no avail...

[Commendatori]

23. 1981 Camaro

It was the first year of that 267 with the experimental computerized carburetor. I had more problems with that piece of shit than I can remember.

[joshdawg]

24. 1976 Chrysler Cordoba

Was a butterscotch color, but should have been painted bright yellow. Lemon through and through. Everything went wrong with it.

[southpaw]

28. But... but...

What about the "Reeech Coreeeenthian Laythur?"

[Mr. McD]

25. 1955 Rambler

I bought for $25.00 and managed to keep running for about 6 months.

[TX-RAT]

27. 99 Chrysler LHS

Spent most of it's time in the shop. My wife traded it in on a 03 Oldsmobile Aurora V8.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

29. Without a doubt

it was a Fiat 128 Sedan. The worst of it is, I sold my VW bug to buy that piece of crap. Now I still see VW's of that vintage on the road (1972). But a Fiat? They are all in the junkyards most likely.
No wonder the acronym Fix It Again Tony was invented!

[southpaw]

39. I've heard that FIAT stands for...

Failure In Automotive Technology

[CO Liberal]

44. or "Fix It Again, Tony"

:-)

[RetroLounge]

30. An 1986 VW Golf Diesel

Fucker broke down constantly.

55 mpg, but so what if it ain't running...

RL

[frylock]

31. 1984 chrysler laser turbo..

I hated that piece of krap.

[yellowcanine]

53. Actually my daughter has a Plymouth Laser Turbo and it is a pretty good

car. Tons of fun to drive - takes off like a bat out of hell and has all wheel drive - it is the best car I have ever driven in snow or on wet roads. I did put a clutch in it at about 90,000 miles which seemed a little premature to me and she had to get the computer rebuilt - but that is about it. The clutch could probably be explained by the amount of city driving done with the car. The black paint is oxidizing and peeling also.

[VOX]

33. I've been lucky. But my dad's 1974 Ford Maverick was *the* suckmobile...

That rattletrap POS had all the design savvy of a buckboard. When you rolled down the windows (no power options for dad), you inevitably skinned your knuckles on the sharp metal surrounding the door handles below.

And the flat-'n-flush wheel covers allowed the tire valve-stems to protrude a couple of inches at least, thereby allowing you to knock them off every time you brushed against a high curb. I've never seen tires empty out so quickly and completely.

Looking under the hood, the thing had all the pick-up of an anvil.

It was an out-and-out piece of all-American junk. My day was finally in a fender-bender in that thing, which mercifully gave him a good excuse to buy a Toyota hatchback, which was a major, major step up in reliability, safety and durability.

[noonwitch]

34. 1976 Mercury Bobcat (fancy Pinto)

I drove it in college, bought from my brother. It was held together with bondo and duct tape, and had a 8 track player. After driving it for a few months, it died.

1st runner up-1978 Plymouth Horizon. I hit a bump and broke an axel. Got the axel replaced, bought a new car and gave the Ho' to grandpa so he could fix it up for my little sister. He got it to his place, found that the new axel had broke and ended up designing his own part because he said that the chrysler part was poorly made. It died shortly after my sister got it, because she never checked the oil.

[UTUSN]

36. Oh. Thought It Said "Cat" n/t

[XNASA]

37. 1970 Avocado Green Dodge Monaco

Like this one, but in green

[The Flaming Red Head]

38. Renault Alliance

Don’t remember what year.
Aluminum heads and an improperly designed cooling system = cracked block no matter what you do.

[Red State Rebel]

46. I had one that liked to die when I was pulling into traffic

made the drive to and from work interesting....

[The Flaming Red Head]

48. The engineering was flawed on those

the hoses were improperly placed so they couldn't cool the engine and the aluminum heads were no good.

[Red State Rebel]

49. I believe it, mine was back in the shop the first week...

I almost got them on the lemon law before they finally fixed the problem I had.

[The Flaming Red Head]

54. certain years were all lemons

because of the bad design.

[tsakshaug]

76. the alliance

replaced cv joints several times, lost 5th gear while doing 70 one day. The cruse control would turn on by itself and cause rapid acceleration.
parked it near a tree for a hurricane.
the tree fell the other direction.

[Best_man23]

79. I used to work on Renaults

I used to say "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Renaults are POS."

[DS1]

40. I've found something enjoyable in all my cars *shrug*

Some were better than others, but I never bought a car that didn't treat me well.

My Fiat Spyder in Hawaii dropped half its carburetor once, but I managed to limp it home by keeping the revs up - duct taped over the hole and it ran fine afterwards :shrug:

[Angelus]

41. A 1989 Chevy Celebrity Station Wagon.

The car was a piece of shit with 250,000 miles, which I bought for $200.

I had to pay the junkyard $25 to get rid of it.

[Westegg]

42. '74 Toyota Corona...

Purchased in the early '80s for teen use. Damn thing would no start on cold days, or else took half an hour to warm up if it did start. Still, it was my first car and if I ever came across another one, I'd get goose-bumps I'm sure.

[Xithras]

43. 1975 VW Super Beetle Sport

Don't get too riled up you Beetle fans, I've owned three, but one was a total POS (that's what I get for paying $125 for a car). It drank oil, it refused to start randomly, it always had a lawnmowerish sound when running, it constantly burned out light bulbs, its struts were screwed making it impossible to drive in a straight line at high speeds, its brakes were practically unserviceable, and it finally caught fire and incinerated itself on the side of I-5 one sunny afternoon.

Watching it burn was the only happy moment I had with that car }(

[Parrcrow]

45. 1982 Chevy S-10

POS

[Mr.Green93]

47. 61 MG Midget

nice car when it ran

[yellowcanine]

51. 1976 Chevy Chevette. 1.4 liter automatic. Four timing belts in less than

90,000 miles. Piece of shit gutless wonder.

[The Flaming Red Head]

55. Shit-vette

all time worst car ever.

[bleedingedge]

52. 1980-Something Hyundai Elantra

What an utter piece of crap.

I finally garaged it at my parents (while I was still paying on it) in favor of a $365 VW Scirocco that had its issues (but at least it ran).

HA! - I did get some measure of justice in the end. I traded it in on a 94 Acura Integra (which I owned for 8 years and had in the shop for repairs a grand total of NEVER - Best.Car.Ever.). Since I wasn't driving it, the dealer took the trade sight-unseen. When I went to get it from Ma's garage, I found that mice (a whole bunch of 'em) had nested in it and the car reeked of mouse urine and feces. But I had already signed the deal, so the dealer had to take it.

[mosin]

56. 1986 Buick Somerset

A used 1986 Buick Somerset with a half-vinyl roof. That thing had more electrical problems than I could keep track of. And to add insult to injury, the half-vinyl roof developed a major leak. There's nothing like water-logged carpeted floorboards to ruin your day.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

57. 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass Diesel

The diesel engine in this car was sort of an improvised attempt by the auto maker to throw something under the hood. It was never specifically engineered for this car. I went through three engines in about eighteen months and I have since talked to others who had this early American attempt to build a diesel car, all of whom had the same problem. It's considered one of the single greatest lemons ever produced by the American automotive industry.

[baldguy]

58. Plymouth Horizon

[CO Liberal]

60. I Had TWO '81 Four Doors

First a maroon one, and then a blue one that I called "Beyond" - "Beyond, The Blue Horizon".

:-)

[Kellanved]

61. 1996 Renault Espace

I actually still have it, albeit not as only owner.
It is OK to drive and handles quite well on difficult roads, but otherwise it is one POS.
It did not pass it's bi-annual road-safety inspection once, guzzles gas and has an annual repair bill equating it's value. And don't even get me started on the transmission...

It is not really a Renault, but made by Matra. It has inherited many things (flaws?) from the infamous Matra Bagheera.

[JCMach1]

62. 1981 Chevy Chevette

What a piece of junk. It overheated on the way home from the dealer... It just went downhill from there.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

63. BMW

Old one that was a piece of shit.

[HuckleB]

64. Dodge Omni.

[guitar man]

66. 1985 olds cutlass

Something broke or fell off that POS every day I owned it.

[DemWitch]

67. 1994 Dodge Shadow

was a rolling piece of poo... Bought it brand new, litterally of the showroom floor in January of '94. Heater went two weeks later. The first of 5 stereos went. In March the drivers window went down, and wouldn't come back up. A week later opening the sunroof, it blew off and shattered onto the hood of a car following me. The AC quit for the first time of 4 total times shortly after. On a trip to DC the transmission got stuck in reverse outside of Timonium, MD on a friday night, 350 miles from home. A week later, on the way to get the transmission fixed (just don't use reverse until the new part is put in... factory defect... I was told at Timonium Dodge) while crossing some railroad tracks, the steering wheel FELL OFF, the airbag thankfully didn't deploy, but just kind of leaked out of the steering wheel into my lap. By the way, when I got to the dealer, the part wasn't in for the transmission. I finally had enough, and the next January (owned the piece of shit for a year and 5 days) traded it in on a 1990 Mercury Colony Park, ate the balance of the loan and financed it into the Mercury's loan.

[politicat]

71. funny!! That model (the buick version) was my first car.

Drove it from 16 to 24.

Great mileage (30 MPG even in town) and easy enough for me to work on, but for engine and tranny work which required strength I just don't have. Everything else, though, I could handle, and I'm supposedly incompetent when it comes to cars as I have a double x set of chromosomes.

Got it when I was 12, we refurbed it for the next 4 years - new engine, transmission, pumps, etc. Lost one transmission when it was 22 years old; nearly had to kill it because of an oil sending unit sensor, but managed to replace that.

It's dead now, unfortunately.

Mine was red.

Worst car we ever owned is a tie between the early 70s Pinto (olive green station wagon, obviously built on a Monday or Friday, everything rusted through and it would stall driving through 2 inches of mud puddle) and the Cadillac Cimarron that my mother bought cheap, not realizing it was just a bad Cavalier with a Caddy label, and the Fiero that caught fire on the way home from the dealer.

My parents had terrible luck with cars.

Pcat

[rppper]

72. 86 ford tempo gl......

gutless wonder...bought it used...only 40k miles... to drive from san diego to groton CT...

* barely made it out of san diego when i traveled up the mountains outside of town on I8...

*a/c sh*tcanned out in the middle of new mexico...

*made it to texas to give to wife while i went to CT, but the radio was playing 4 stations at once and the tape deck fried out at this point...

*shifter broke...

* upon arival to charleston SC 4 months later, the fuel injectors and engine computer started crapping out....

*started about 30% of the time and had a penchant for dieing in the middle of intersections...

*wouldn't start in park, just neutral...

*even with new plugs and wires, it seemed to never run on more than 3 to 5 cylinders at any one time...was starting to overheat with regularity at this point.

*tranny started giving out at 50k miles...actually it had a mind of it's own...would shift in and out of 2nd and 3rd gear at will...also had to shift to neutral at stop lights and rev the motor to keep it running, then throw it into gear to go when the light turned green....

*finally drove it down to a dealer in georgia after paying on it for a year...a voluntary repo...the engine caught fire twice on the drive(fuel hose kept popping off) and it was steaming when i pulled into the lot to turn it over...

bought a wonderfull dealer demo firebird formula after that...first and only new car i have owned...had no trouble with it whatsoever untill it was wrecked and totaled by my ex-wife 6 years later...i will never buy another ford again....

[RebelOne]

73. An English Ford Cortina. I forget what year, but it was

in the late 1960s. Every time it rained, the car would flood and stall. The only good thing about it was it got good gas mileage.

[curse10]

74. I had a VW Golf I paid 50 bucks for

Everytime I turned the wheel left the horn would honk! Parallel parking was a bitch!

[arwalden]

78. A 1978 Brown Chevy Van

It was a delivery van in it's previous life... but I managed to squeeze a couple of more years of life out of it. Eventually it became so unreliable that I'd only drive it around town... never more that 30 minutes from home.



-- Allen