Jump to content
Site Offline 11/25/24 starting 10:00 AM PST ×

Worst car you've ever owned


P15Mike

Recommended Posts

Curious to hear some of the horror stories . Mine was a 87 buick Grand National . It ran like a raped ape but i had more turbo issues with that thing than you could shake a stick at . Had it to the dealer about 7 times and could never fix it , from replacing the turbo to ...well almost everything . Later sold it ...guess it became someone else's problem :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 92
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hands down it had to be the 85 Plymouth I bought new. Was a 5 speed. From day one it didn't want to go into second gear. They rebuilt the transmission several times, rebuilt the clutch several times and it was still not right. The last time the dealer rebuilt the transmission it leaked after they did it. Had that car in the shop 17 times in 30 days to get the leak stopped. Then the clutch still wasn't right. Finally gave up on the dealer fixing the clutch and took it to the shop down the street. They rebuilt it and never had another problem with it. Did get a refund from Chrysler for the parts on that rebuild.

After that, the temperature sensor went out in the car. Had that repaired, then the radiator blew, so had to replace it too.

Only had that car for about 1 1/2 years, and only put about 45,000 miles on it before trading it in. By then I had a file of repair tickets (warranty and those paid by me) that was over 3 inches thick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2001 Honda Civic. Yeah all the people told me that HONDAS are great cars. I found out that 2001-2005 have transmission issues, I went thru two and of course, they lasted as long as the one year warranty. as soon as it ran out of warranty the tranny would go within a few weeks. . .:mad: I am looking for an American made car right now, while I can still buy one. . .:eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had an 87 turbo myself. The Turbor was totally unforgiving on dirty oil, 2000 miles and either change the oil or the turbor and it did NOT like synthetic oil.

My current 95 Chrysler Cirrus is probably our most disappointing car. Got to remove the front tire to replace the battery, cannot reach the back three spark plugs, new tranny, new AC, and numerous little things. Beside that it's not that great on mileage. It has the large V-6 with 24 valves so it scoots if you push it down. Got 165000 on it so that is good, get another 40,000 and then start looking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The two worst ones were a '63 Lincoln Continental and a '70 Pontiac LeMans. Neither one could go for more than a couple of weeks before needing a repair. The Lincoln had the added bonus of being hard to work on....three different shops refused to install a watrer pump so we ended-up doing it ourselves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Early Mazda, 1971(?) Model 616, the RX2 body with a 1600 CC OHC motor. Every rubber part in the car failed within 2 years, that includes every brake component, hydraulic clutch, etc. Front end could not be aligned, cam lobe went flat, a total piece of junk that the dealer could not repair. Never again on that brand. Traded it in on a new 74 Corolla that was a teriffic car.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't say I've ever had a bad one. I had a 89 and then a 95 century. Both used cars that served me well for about a year each. Then I got dads old 94 dakota. Its still serving me well. Just turned to 180K this week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My current 95 Chrysler Cirrus is probably our most disappointing car. Got to remove the front tire to replace the battery, cannot reach the back three spark plugs, new tranny, new AC, and numerous little things. Beside that it's not that great on mileage. It has the large V-6 with 24 valves so it scoots if you push it down. Got 165000 on it so that is good, get another 40,000 and then start looking.

I'm not disappointed in the service my 95 Lumina APV has given me. But....I do have the same problem with the 3 spark plugs on the backside of the engine. You have to loosen the motor mounts and tilt the engine forward just to get at those three. As for the battery, you have to remove the fender brace and also move the windshield washer tank out of the way to change to change the battery. That said, the batteries are getting harder to get out of a lot of new cars today, simply because there is no room under the hood. In fact, if you look at the Chevy Colbalt, the battery is in the wheel well of the trunk. It would really be a pain to get out too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1997 Chevy Blazer without a doubt. Recalls on about six different components. Look at it wrong and it develops an electrical problem. I have an 87 Toyota pickup I've had for 20 years and it has never given me a problem. Its been through tires, brakes, and oil, but it's amazing how that thing just keeps on running. It has no fancy crap in it. No electrical anything. Just a bare bones truck. When it dies I want to get a Willys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

87 Mustang, I should of known it was a bad car when it had a dead battery the day we went to pick it up. (New) 3 MAP sensors, 2 radiators, & 1 head gasket in 3 years. It had to be a Monday or Friday car.

Dennis:cool:

I forgot about our 2000 GMC Sierra Extended Cab P-U. The Windows in the extended cab kept blowing out at a speed above 50 mph. Owned the truck for 8 months and had the window replaced 10 times. GMC bought the truck back under the Lemon Law and gave us a 2001 Yukon for the same price as the truck. We got a call from GMC 3 monthe later telling us that they found that the truck had been dropped off of the delivery truck and bent the frame.

Dennis:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Worst I ever had was a used Chevette that I bought for my wife. The dealer where I bought it had a 10 day, no questions asked, return policy. I brought it back on the tenth day and got my money back and went down the street and bought her a Plymouth Duster and it turned out to be one of the best cars we ever had.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like Ford really does stand for fix or repair daily. Of all my cars (100 or so) I could not choose one out of the all because most of them were just fixer uppers to begin with. Guess I'm lucky because of the few new cars I have had I have had good luck with. My dad did have a Brand New Linclon 1961 and the rear end went out of it at about 10,000 miles. Most underpowered car I ever owned was a 61 Falcon with an automatic , what a dog.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'91 GMC Suburban... over the 5 years I owned it, it averaged about $500 a month in repair bills. And that was parts at cost and reduced labor rate at my brother's shop... replaced ever single mechanical part on the rig but the engine block and rear axle. And the rear axle was full of pitted and howling gears. Had bad engine vibrations and never would steer straight down the road no matter what. Swore I'd never own another... Now I'm going through lots of the same BS with a 2002 Tahoe...

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anybody see a pattern here?

The only pattern I detect is, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of car you buy. You get good ones and you get bad ones in every make and model. It's just the luck of the draw.

When talking about the worst cars owned, I don't count used cars. That's simply because you never really know how the previous owner took care of the car, so any problem it has may not be the manufacturers fault.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Curious to hear some of the horror stories . Mine was a 87 buick Grand National . It ran like a raped ape but i had more turbo issues with that thing than you could shake a stick at . Had it to the dealer about 7 times and could never fix it , from replacing the turbo to ...well almost everything . Later sold it ...guess it became someone else's problem :)

Did you let her cool down before you shut her down each time?? By rule you need to let them sit and idle so that the oil can cool down inside the turbo. If not then the hot oil sits inside the flaming hot turbo and bascially boils and cokes up into hard pieces. This in turn gets into the bearing and the result is a turbo failure. This is a big issue with aircraft that have turbo's, a lot of pilots just land, cruise on up the the gate and just shut them down with no cool down period.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my current truck, a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 turbo diesel. I've had it in the shop back and forth since it had 1k miles on it to replace injectors. it continues to run great for about 6 months until another injector fails. Right now I think I'm driving around with two bad injectors. I'll never buy another Ram with the cummins diesel engine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't think of any cars I've had that were really bad.

The 72 VW beetle sucked in a couple valves and needed an engine

rebuild......I understand that's fairly common for them......too much

bother to have to worry about that......sold it.

Didn't much like a Mercury Topaz I bought from an older lady customer

here at work.....was real tinny, and had that seat belt on a track that

would motor across in front of you when you got in the car. You had

to kind of dodge it when getting in. Was a real clean car, and it sold

in about half a day when I parked it in front of the office.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Terms of Use