Worst car you've ever owned

[greg g]

86

chevy s 10. Bought used, windshield leaked, rear window leaked, engine the 2.6 GM v6 was gutless, sucked gas, burned oil, and leaked. Brakes were problematic, heater fan only worked on high, windshield wipers only worked on high, cruise control died. front springs broke. Then it started to rust....

[Don Coatney]

86

chevy s 10. Bought used, windshield leaked, rear window leaked, engine the 2.6 GM v6 was gutless, sucked gas, burned oil, and leaked. Brakes were problematic, heater fan only worked on high, windshield wipers only worked on high, cruise control died. front springs broke. Then it started to rust....

How did you know exactly when it started to rust:confused:

[Niel Hoback]

Simple, check the build date.

[Flatie46]

I thought he told me it was a '59, maybe I misundestood. It's one of the early ones. I don't know much about them. It seems like a good deal if your into them though.

[ptwothree]

Mid-60's Corvair...It was a fun car to drive, but if you needed to use the heater, or defroster, you had to roll down the windows because there would be visible blue smoke emitted from the vents. The heater system consisted of an air duct surrounding the heads, and the engine was air-cooled. If oil leaked into the duct, (and it usually did), smoke would be introduced into the passenger compartment. Maybe Ralph Nader knew what he was talking about after all !! That car was truly a P.O.S.[/quote

Ditto.....and i've had three of these. This was what GM was countering to the "VW invasion" with. And it was pretty weak. Not enough crankcase ventilation, coupled with intense engine heat cooking the gaskets = oil leaks, lots of blow by. Also..mediocre build quility (good for GM at the time-Poor at Vw standards) BUT....they looked good in Monza trim with a 4 speed and a cool color..Honduras Maroon was my fav.

Edited January 21, 2010 by ptwothree

[bob westphal]

A '84 Ford Ranger four banger - four speed. The computer always gave trouble and cause the thing to stall on a long steep hill near home. The valves had to be reground when there was 500 miles on the odo. It was absolutely guttless!

Strangely, years later when I needed something to hall parts around I bought a '83 Ranger for $300. It had a 2.4 engine someone had stuffed in and the emmision stuff was disconnected. It was a great little truck. I towed a number of large cars that I was working on on my tow dolly with no problem. When I quite the business 4 years later I sold it for $200.

[JoelOkie]

I'd have to go with the Corvair also...beside all the oil leaks, it was a constant job to keep it going down the road ....... had to fix about everything on it at least once, including the engine, which once fell out while going down the road. Joel

[John Reddie]

I have owned two cars in the past that gave me trouble but it was because of previous neglect rather than design flaws. One was a 1946 P15 sedan. I was young (17) and had very little knowledge of cars then. This poor car had no care when I got it. I remember when I changed the oil filter, it was so caked with sludge that I had to replace the entire canister. The other was a 1952 Ford Customline flathead v8 with auto trans. This car was in nice condition except shortly after I got it, I discovered that one of the wrist pin clips had broken allowing the pin to slide out and deeply gouge the cylinder wall. I also found out a short that the previous owner" son used to drag race the car on back roads ( he ran the shi$ out it:eek:.

John R

[P-12 Tommy]

Back in '72 I bought a '64 Ferd Galaxie 500. I had the thing about 6 months then one day all of a sudden the tranny went, then the power steering and finally the starter. My friends tried to tell me about the "fix or repair daily" thing and I found out the hard way.

Tom

[michael.warshaw]

2003 mercedes benz e320 4 matic. what a pos!

[Plymouthy Adams]

it is a misjustice to comment on any vehicle you bought used as being bad...it was probably a good car/truck when the original owner took possession..and like a pit bull that was used and abused..it turned on its owner and like most owners of a problem beast on his hands..he elected to move it to a new owner..

now I know I am going to catch hang from people commenting as there are some models out there for which the lemon law was written...and comments like "Once a Vega always a Vega" regardless of the 454 sitting under hood still applies...actually the Corvair was just about refined to a decent handling car with the last Monza..sounds like I am picking on GM..well their approach to quick market a concept, drop it on the people, not fix it properly and about the time they get it close..they pull the plug..look at the Fiero..it almost makes one think theat they were made only to break to keep the service department in the black..

[JIPJOBXX]

So far so good and no problems with any of my newer cars and you can expect to have problems with older ones. Worst car built that I owned probably my present truck! 1988 Dodge Dakota it lacks power! But it does run good.

[RobertKB]

1977 Volvo. I bought it from my dad so I know it was not mistreated and was OK when I got it. Soon however, the wiper motor quit working, clutch troubles, the welding on the driver's door broke and the door fell off. Many more such wonderful occurences. You couldn't pay me to have another Swedish car. That was the biggest POS I have ever owned and really the only bad vehicle.

[Plymouthy Adams]

last decent Volvo was the P544

[knighthawk]

gotta say my worst car was a brand new , 1969 Buick GS400, as close to a lemon as ever was........ course maybe the fact that I hated it the moment it was delivered , didn't help any , plus a little encounter with a guard rail after leaving the local VFW club.................

[Dave Bohn]

Mine was a 65 VW. Sadly it was the most fun to drive. The carb leaked gas into the oil, when cold out the wipers barely moved, also when cold I had to have an ice scraper for inside the winshield. When hot it was an oven inside. It was the best for getting thru the snow - I could leave it in gear, hop out the door & push, then hop back in once I pushed the floor pan clear of the snow.

[hillbilly jack]

never had a worst car dont matter what it was i could allways get it goin again

good and bad in them all

[Flatie46]

it is a misjustice to comment on any vehicle you bought used as being bad...it was probably a good car/truck when the original owner took possession..and like a pit bull that was used and abused..it turned on its owner and like most owners of a problem beast on his hands..he elected to move it to a new owner..

now I know I am going to catch hang from people commenting as there are some models out there for which the lemon law was written...and comments like "Once a Vega always a Vega" regardless of the 454 sitting under hood still applies...actually the Corvair was just about refined to a decent handling car with the last Monza..sounds like I am picking on GM..well their approach to quick market a concept, drop it on the people, not fix it properly and about the time they get it close..they pull the plug..look at the Fiero..it almost makes one think theat they were made only to break to keep the service department in the black..

You've got me wondering Tim. Like I said in my post about that pos pathfinder I had. The previous owner had said it had been well taken care of and he did have the records. You don't think he... Surely he didn't... lie. lol.

[builtfercomfort]

Mid-60's Corvair...It was a fun car to drive, but if you needed to use the heater, or defroster, you had to roll down the windows because there would be visible blue smoke emitted from the vents. The heater system consisted of an air duct surrounding the heads, and the engine was air-cooled. If oil leaked into the duct, (and it usually did), smoke would be introduced into the passenger compartment. Maybe Ralph Nader knew what he was talking about after all !! That car was truly a P.O.S.

I had a '65 Corvair also. The pushrods leaked oil, it dripped into a pan under the cylinders. This same pan provided the hot air for the heater. Those two should be in quotes, it never got very warm. But I bought the car for $200, drove it two years, put in a quart of oil each week (leaking pushrods), and sold it to the junkyard for $40. So with low expectations, I can't complain too much.

My worst one was a 1977 Fiat 500. This is the same car the Yugo later copied. It had issues, it's actually simpler to say what worked (radio, heater) than what didn't (most everything else).

[martybose]

My worst car was a196(2? 3?) Falcon Ranchero, 260 V-8/4 speed. I was 25 and crewing on a Mustang TransAm racer, so I knew enough to fix the engine problems. What I didn't know about was stock front suspensions, or I might have known that the lower ball joint were totally wasted. One night I was driving to Laguna Seca on a twisty 2 lane highway when the front suspension somehow shifted to one side while going around a curve and the back end started to come around. I almost got it straightened out, but ran out of road when I hit a curbing while still sliding sideways at a good clip, flipping the truck onto the roof as I slid down an embankment of iceplant and flipped upright at the bottom. I undid my seatbelt, got out of the truck, looked at all of the wrinkled sheetmetal, then climbed up the iceplant to flag down someone to call the team owner. The car was sold for scrap after I had it towed to the shop.

Marty

[P15Mike]

Just in case you guy's might want to revisit past temptations .......

http://westmd.craigslist.org/cto/1563705529.html

Mike

I had a '65 Corvair also. The pushrods leaked oil, it dripped into a pan under the cylinders. This same pan provided the hot air for the heater. Those two should be in quotes, it never got very warm. But I bought the car for $200, drove it two years, put in a quart of oil each week (leaking pushrods), and sold it to the junkyard for $40. So with low expectations, I can't complain too much.

My worst one was a 1977 Fiat 500. This is the same car the Yugo later copied. It had issues, it's actually simpler to say what worked (radio, heater) than what didn't (most everything else).

[Johnny 5]

86

chevy s 10. Bought used, windshield leaked, rear window leaked, engine the 2.6 GM v6 was gutless, sucked gas, burned oil, and leaked. Brakes were problematic, heater fan only worked on high, windshield wipers only worked on high, cruise control died. front springs broke. Then it started to rust....

1999 S10 Extreme (POS that is). 2nd was a 1985 S10. They were basically the same truck, poor quality, poor handling, poor performance, the only thing good was gas mileage - when they weren't in the garage being fixed.

[Fireball]

No bad cars in my possession, ever.

(Am I the only one on the forum who can over and over fool himself to believe that the deal was great and worthy...)

[baldbusdriver]

I gotta go with the "corvair" crowd on this one... I've had 2, a 64 monza vert, and a 62 coupe. Love the way they look... HATE the design on the enigine. oil leakage, fan belts being thrown or broken, poor heater, motor mounts that suspend instead of support the motor ( real fun when they break! can we say sparks?)

best car, 1984 dodge mini cargo van, had 1,340,000 documented miles with only one engine rebuild, I bought it with 990,000 or so miles, and the only repair I ever had to do was replace both drive axles and cv joints. changed oil once a month, and drove the snot out of it, I sold it for $400 to a guy around the block from me, and he still drives this thing daily, although I think he might have put a new engine in it.

[Niel Hoback]

Fireball, I like your attitude.