Your Worst Car?

[RansomEli]

I've had two bad car mistakes:

• 1963 Fiat Roadster. My commuter car while going to college. Great fun but not reliable. All sorts of niggling problems, and when you bought a factory replacement part, half the time it didn't fit (bless those Fiat factory workers). The car finally blew up after 18 months of ownership (just after getting a valve job) and I bought a 1970 AMC Hornet, which lasted forever.
   
• 1956 Ford pickup. The car from Hades. Every moving part on the truck broke: rear axle, transmission, steering column, etc. Replaced the engine and the new engine blew up within 25 miles; mechanic claimed it was my fault. He eventually replaced the engine. Two weeks later I took the truck to another mechanic for some wiring work; that mechanic dropped a bolt down the carb and didn't tell me. Destroyed a piston. Had to take that mechanic to Small Claims Court to get $$ for a new engine. 

 

From then on, I've stuck to AMCs, Toyotas and Franklins. Have had no problems.

 

[CarlLaFong]

No doubt about it, Renault Dauphine

 

[Guest]

V-12 Jaguar.

[Mark Huston]

1961 Nash Metropolitan   

[Matt Harwood]

I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I can assure you with the utmost confidence that this is the worst car possible:

 

[JV Puleo]

Ford Pinto. At least I didn't buy it...it was given to me. The only car I've ever had that threw a rod.

[John348]

#1 1988 Ford LTD Station Wagon Bought New Oil pan rotted out, and the rest of the car fell apart from the inside out (sorry guys it really was a POS)

#2 1992 Buick Roadmaster Station Wagon Bought New to replace the POS Ford $2800 transmissions every 37,000 miles, looked great, (sorry another POS) 

 

[Bhigdog]

Late 60's or early 70's Buick station wagon. What a POS, a real load. I'd had enough when I opened the tail gate and it fell on the ground. That or the firsr year Durango I had. I knew the service Dept's phone number by heart and when they answered and I said "Hi Tony" Tony would say "Hey Bob. Whats up?"............Bob

[John Byrd]

The absolute worse vehicle I ever bought NEW was a  Dodge Dakota. Even the dealer wouldn't take it back or offer me a decent trade. It was an extreme P.O.S.   (Imagine the word "extreme" in letters flame red and tall as a skyscraper)

 

My worst used car buy that I tried to use as a daily driver was a 55 Ford truck with the most perfect body I had ever seen in unrestored condition. ( the pic below is after I painted it )  Unfortunately it had a complete 472 Cadillac running gear and interior in it. You cannot name any of the Caddy components that did not tear up. ( a for instance is one day the steering wheel burst into flames ) The day I took it to our annual swap meet in Nashville, I told my wife I'd call her from however far up the road I got to come get me, (we lived about 15 miles from the meet) but was going to leave the keys and a signed title on the seat when it stranded me again.. I made it, sold it to a gentleman at the swap meet who didn't even want or keep the matching trailer full of extra parts I had with it, warned him to tow it and not try to drive it, gave him 3 full legal size pages of what all had went wrong that I had fixed, and made him promise to call me to let me know how far he got since he said he was going to drive it. 2 days later he called me from Wisconsin and said he was really in love and had ZERO trouble. Guess it just hated me, ha !.

[Pfeil]

 Very simple answer. 1963 Plymouth Valiant 225 six, three speed stick. Had to have been at least .005+ on the mains and rods. Wife broke the counter gear in the trans in half (that's a solid billet with a machined hole in it for the steel countershaft) along with the countershaft itself and cracked the case! The engine (about 70K on it) was so noisy it took 60W aircraft oil to settle it down so I could sell it. And that ubiquitous noise from the starter- tire, tier, tier, tier, the famous Chrysler starter noise!  

[Grimy]

7 minutes ago, Pfeil said:

 Very simple answer. 1963 Plymouth Valiant 225 six, three speed stick. Had to have been at least .005+ on the mains and rods. Wife broke the counter gear in the trans in half (that's a solid billet with a machined hole in it for the steel countershaft) along with the countershaft itself and cracked the case! The engine (about 70K on it) was so noisy it took 60W aircraft oil to settle it down so I could sell it. And that ubiquitous noise from the starter- tire, tier, tier, tier, the famous Chrysler starter noise!  

How about the plastic impeller on the water pump?  Did that come loose from the steel shaft like mine did?

[Fossil]

1996 Chrysler Cirrus. They worked on every thing forward of the firewall including the wipers in the time we had it. I have never owned a vehicle with so many things that broke. Twice it dumped it's complete charge of Freon in a huge cloud of vapor. My wife finally cut a cow in half with it and saved us from anymore grief. Luckily she only had a couple scratches. She did a lot better picking out the next car. A 2000 Pontiac Bonneville. A wonderful vehicle. 

[Harold]

There is one that comes to mind....

1970 Pontiac LeMans:  Confiscated car that I bought from a federal sealed-bid sale.   The only time I ever 'upped' my own sealed bid in order to get a car.  Bad move!  Something broke every week or two.  It even caught itself on fire in front of a gas station.  The positive battery cable was routed (from the factory) through a tube in the exhaust manifold and the insulation wore through causing the fire (great job, Pontiac!).  I was actually kind of happy (the car was insured) but that was short-lived because the gas station owner came running over with a fire extinguisher.   The guy fixed the car very reasonably and I wound up selling it to a kid.  I saw the car about 2 months later in the local junk yard because the motor blew.

[Pfeil]

2 hours ago, Grimy said:

How about the plastic impeller on the water pump?  Did that come loose from the steel shaft like mine did?

Never had it long enough for that to happen. The next vehicle was a new 1973 Datsun PL620 P/U. That truck proved to me that someone could build a vehicle that would never leak a drop of oil-or anything. My New 1976 Olds rear main from the get-go leaked, and I still have the car and it still leaks a few drops after every shut down. 

[Frank DuVal]

Hey Matt, I guess every company can make a lemon, and that picture is of a SC 2, but our 98 Saturn SW2 is going strong at 200k miles. Sure, not the most comfortable, nor quietest, but gets around town. I guess I should shine up the leather interior and get it ready for an AACA show soon!😆

 

John, my 94 Chevrolet wagon (same same the Roadmaster except for trim) had 65 K miles on it when I got it, and my mechanic friend looked and said it appeared the transmission has been out at some point. But, 270 K on it now and I've never had an issue with the transmission. Sounds like the first transmission repair guy forgot to put the updated parts inside.....😉

[36humpback]

A 1980's Yugo.

[plymouthcranbrook]

1988 Eagle Premier.   Biggest automotive mistake I ever made.

[hidden_hunter]

Honestly haven’t had a bad car

 

1994 Honda Integra 

2008 Honda Accord Euro gen 1 (Acura TSX for you guys) and was a manual 

2013 BMW 125i

2020 VW Golf R Wagon 

 

[nickelroadster]

My worst car as far as reliability would be a 1964 Triumph TR4.  It was okay because I really liked to work on it anyway.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

This topic has made rounds here at least once before.

 

Worst car for me, 73 Chevy monte carlo.

Great at rusting and super thin GM paint.

Leaky sunroof.

350 with power of a lawn tractor.

Self disintegrating vinyl top

Wire wheelcovers rattled from day one to the bitter end.

Lots of mechanical issues. 

71 Camaro it replaced was as dependable as an anvil compared to this POS.

 

 

[TAKerry]

13 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

Ford Pinto. At least I didn't buy it...it was given to me. The only car I've ever had that threw a rod.

My brother in law bought one brand new in '72 and my sister had a '74 model. BIL drove that car everywhere with no problems and I took my dl test with my sisters. They were both great cars for what they were.

 

I dont think I have ever had a bad car. A couple that come to mind are my work vehicles though. We had a mid 70's econoline van that would not run if someone spilled a glass of water in front of it. Seriously though, if it was a rainy day that thing would not start. Lots of stuff done to it, new dist. new wires, etc. and nothing seemed to work. Then I had a '83 f-100 with a 4 speed v6. About once a month like clockwork, it would start fine, run for 10 minutes then engine would overheat and die. Let it cool for about 15 minutes it would start right up and run great for another month!

 

My brother bought a Triumph spitfire brand new around 80/81. It was nothing but a POS.

[jrbartlett]

1966 Volkswagon Beetle -- Bought brand new. Totally obsolete technology, had to manually adjust brakes and valves every 3,000 miles, which goes by fast when you drive in Texas. A gust of wind would blow you over a lane, and it was totally worn out at 50,000 miles. Every few weeks it would just quit running and I'd coast over to the side of the road. It would not restart. After sitting a day, it would fire right up until the next time.

 

1983 Buick Skyhawk -- Bought new by my wife before I met her. Also worn out at 50,000 miles.

[zepher]

Back in the 90's my wife fell in love with a maroon 1995 Ford Escort.

I told her I didn't think it was a good idea but she loved the paint color.

That car was a pain from day one.

Check Engine light would come on for no reason at all.  Really, I bought a very nice code reader and it would come up with a 'No Definition' for the code number it would throw. Often, the light would go out by itself and no code would be stored in memory.

And to change the spark plugs you had to remove the alternator since it covered the #1 plug completely.

 

I was thrilled when she had also had enough and agreed to get rid of the car.

[rocketraider]

1997 Olds Bravada. That Blazer in drag had all of the S Blazer/Jimmy issues plus the Bravada AWD.

 

It was in the shop constantly for things that shouldn't have broken. 80k miles had to rebuild the front end from the control arm bushings out. Five A/C compressors. HVAC control head failure. Complete ignition switch failure when I was 350 miles from home. AWD transfer case chain. 4.3 intake coolant leaks starting around 40k miles. And on and on.

 

GM shut down the dealer I bought it from in mid 1997 and gave their Olds and Cadillac franchises to the Chevy dealer, who gave me a lot of hassle on warranty work because they didn't sell it new.

 

For what that thing cost it should have been flawless. Put it this way- it broke me from ever again owning a new GM product, or even one built since 1990.

[Dave Gray]

17 hours ago, CarlLaFong said:

No doubt about it, Renault Dauphine

 

I concur with you 100%.   I have owned several hundred vehicles in my life and

the Renault stands out as the worst.

[BobinVirginia]

I’ve been very lucky. Usually the failures weren’t the cars fault. Most of my car failures were caused by a heavy right foot and youthful enthusiasm. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by BobinVirginia (see edit history)

[Mark Huston]

1 hour ago, zepher said:

Back in the 90's my wife fell in love with a maroon 1995 Ford Escort.

I told her I didn't think it was a good idea but she loved the paint color.

That car was a pain from day one.

Check Engine light would come on for no reason at all.  Really, I bought a very nice code reader and it would come up with a 'No Definition' for the code number it would throw. Often, the light would go out by itself and no code would be stored in memory.

And to change the spark plugs you had to remove the alternator since it covered the #1 plug completely.

 

I was thrilled when she had also had enough and agreed to get rid of the car.

One of my worst cars I bought new was a 1984 Ford Escort.  It was my very first new car purchase.   I was a college student, at the time, so I bought a stripped down Escort, two door hatchback, with standard transmission.  Happy as a clam I drove the car home, about 25 miles, from the dealership.  The next morning, when I was leaving for work the car had absolutely no brake peddle.  Brake pedal went straight to the floor with no resistance.   I called the dealership service department and was told that I had to pay to  have car towed into the dealership for warranty repair, however, the warranty didn't cover the tow truck.   I was a broke college student who could barely afford to buy the car and now I was being told to pay to have a tow truck haul my car 25 miles at my cost.  No way.  I argued with the service manager and finally told him to clear the path to the service bay door because I am driving the car in with no brakes and there better not be anything in my way when I hit their lot.  I did drive the car into the dealership by down shifting, anticipating stops, and using the parking brake located between the front bucket seats.   The dealership had my car for over two weeks trying to fix the brakes.   Coincidently, the car was totaled out six months later in an accident. In the accident, I wasn't wearing a seat belt (no law back then) and my head bounced off of the steering wheel.  I am hard headed so there was no significant damage to my head.    I couldn't blame the brakes for the accident, but who knows, maybe?

[Billy Kingsley]

My family has had nothing but problems with Mopars. 

 

My dad was a lifelong mechanic, did it professionally for the USPS, the only cars he ever gave up on was a 78 Chrysler Cordoba and an 86 Plymouth Reliant (K-Car). 

Our 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee also caused all kinds of problems. It got to the point we would only take it as far as we could walk home from, because we had to do that several times. It would just stop running whenever it felt like it. 

 

We don't plan to get any more Mopars...have two Fords currently. 

[Andy J]

An '84 Chevy Silverado bought new.At 75k miles,it was "fill it up with oil and check the gas."When it was 4 years old the paint started peeling off in pieces as big as my hand.Funny thing though,the interior was perfect and it rode like a dream,no rattles or squeaks anywhere.

[Taylormade]

Absolutely the worst car ever.  The clutch cable broke six times over the two years I owned this pile of junk - and I bought it new.  It must have felt the hate as it tried to kill me late one night when I was driving home.  I had the radio up full blast as I was tired and feared falling asleep.  Then, you guessed it, the radio went out - dead.  A few minutes later I fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into the back of a trailer at seventy miles an hour.  Crushed breastbone and broken ribs.  The car was totaled.  My only regret - other than buying the thing - was that I wasn't able to see it go into the crusher.

 

[John348]

I had a Ford Tempo that I tried to forget about, that was the first new car I bought for my wife, that was pretty bad. Head gasket at 39,000 went I went to remove the bolts three of them were just rotted away, and were spinning free. 

[zepher]

9 minutes ago, Taylormade said:

Absolutely the worst car ever.  The clutch cable broke six times over the two years I owned this pile of junk - and I bought it new.  It must have felt the hate as it tried to kill me late one night when I was driving home.  I had the radio up full blast as I was tired and feared falling asleep.  Then, you guessed it, the radio went out - dead.  A few minutes later I fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into the back of a trailer at seventy miles an hour.  Crushed breastbone and broken ribs.  The car was totaled.  My only regret - other than buying the thing - was that I wasn't able to see it go into the crusher.

 

 

That left front tire being low on air may have contributed to your issues. 

[Taylormade]

Just now, zepher said:

 

That left front tire being low on air may have contributed to your issues. 

Not my car, I hated mine enough to never take a photo of it.  Just a reference photo, although the color is correct. 😄

[auburnseeker]

18 hours ago, John Byrd said:

The absolute worse vehicle I ever bought NEW was a  Dodge Dakota.

Did yours have the factory oil burning option? Only vehicle I have ever owned that used a quart of oil every 60 miles and yet never smoked or leaked any.  Should have looked like a smudge pot going down the road.  I liked it otherwise as it was only a couple years old and a sharp little 4x4 for a Highschool kid.  The marina I worked for at the time had the same truck and it had the same problem.  Seems like standard procedure was to check the oil every morning,  and that was for a truck that rarely drove more than 10 miles a day.

[rocketraider]

1 hour ago, Taylormade said:

Absolutely the worst car ever.  The clutch cable broke six times over the two years I owned this pile of junk - and I bought it new.  It must have felt the hate as it tried to kill me late one night when I was driving home.  I had the radio up full blast as I was tired and feared falling asleep.  Then, you guessed it, the radio went out - dead.  A few minutes later I fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into the back of a trailer at seventy miles an hour.  Crushed breastbone and broken ribs.  The car was totaled.  My only regret - other than buying the thing - was that I wasn't able to see it go into the crusher.

 

Honda made a big deal about quality and reliability even back then. 

 

If one broke down and had to be towed the local dealer preferred to send a rollback to collect it after dark, and even then would cover the Honda so no one could see what vehicle was being hauled. That dealership also contracted with a local tow company, preferring not to have a tow truck in its own dealership livery.

 

One of my buddies drove for them... to this day he won't own a Honda. He hauled enough of them.

[John348]

13 minutes ago, rocketraider said:

Honda made a big deal about quality and reliability even back then. 

All you have to do is be more reliable then the competition, which was a pretty low bar

[cutlasguy]

My 1968 Ford Fairlane Fastback! Beautiful looking car but lousy mechanics! I had it three weeks when the doors froze shut! It took the dealership's mechanic three hours to open them. This problem persisted every winter for the two years I owned it! It couldn't hold alignment and burned up a set of tires every 10,000 miles. When I encountered a incline on the Interstate, I couldn't go faster than 35 mph. The accelerator was floored almost all the time or it wouldn't move. I traded it in on a 1970 Dodge Super Bee and on the way to the Auction, the dealer told me the engine blew! A few years back, someone was selling another just like it at Carlisle. I got in and started it up. Then it all came back to me! The mushy gag pedal again. I shut it down, gave the keys back to him. and walked away!

[John Byrd]

2 hours ago, auburnseeker said:

Did yours have the factory oil burning option? Only vehicle I have ever owned that used a quart of oil every 60 miles and yet never smoked or leaked any.  Should have looked like a smudge pot going down the road.  I liked it otherwise as it was only a couple years old and a sharp little 4x4 for a Highschool kid.  The marina I worked for at the time had the same truck and it had the same problem.  Seems like standard procedure was to check the oil every morning,  and that was for a truck that rarely drove more than 10 miles a day.

Auburnseeker, mine was the V-6 that I assumed was a cut down 318... and 318's can't be bad, can they ? Ha ! No sir, mine used some oil, but we only kept the P.O.S. for 5 months and tried not to have to drive it any more than we had to, and traded it for a Mazda pick-up. (Possibly one of our BEST vehicles !)  Funny story: I tried giving it or trading it back to the original dealer...( I won't say what we called him ). We had paid 13 something thousand for it, he offered us 4500, and after going around to different places, my pal that owned the Ford/ Mazda place offered me 5K. He said, "Johnny, what ever made you buy a Chrysler product, you know better than that !"  I said, "Ron,are you promising me you'll honor this deal we've just shook hands on ?" and when he said yes, I asked him "whatever makes you trade for a Chrysler product", and he said, "Oh, I send 'em up North to auction, they don't last long  enough up there in the salt for folks to realize how bad they are", ha !

[DrData]

I thought it was the 1973 Maverick, then I was given a new 1975 Mercury Monarch as a company car. Woof! After a month, bad rattle in front suspension…the power steering pump leaked and the fluid ate away the bushings! Took six weeks for the dealer to get a new PS pump from the factory.

 

One winter morning it actually stalled 13 times ( after warming up while scraping the windows), every few feet. Finally left it where it sat in my apartment lot. Got in my 59 Healey, pulled the choke and started right up and drove away.  Company had a whole fleet of them and all were dogs.

[Walt G]

My uncle bought a 1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans 2 door hardtop new and we got it when he bought a new car with fairly now miles and only a few years old. It was 4 cylinder and had a flexible drive shaft. I drove the car mostly and the car was very peppy and a pleasure to drive but we had to have that flexible driveshaft replaced at least 3 times by the local Pontiac dealer on Hillside Avenue in New Hyde Park on long island. The paint on the car looked great after many miles and many years seemed to be scratch proof, interior was great too. I liked the car as did my parents but that drive shaft was just a real pain . The dealership kept a supply in stock to replace the ones that broke .