Worst car you've ever owned

[Reg Evans]

I'll have to say I've never had a poorly engineered car in the 45 years since I was issued a drivers license. I've owned and driven daily well over 100 cars in that time and none of them have ever left me stranded except for an occasional flat tire,dead battery or empty gas tank.

I'll have to admit that many of these cars were not in the MoPar family either.

I've always been into checking fluid levels and tire pressure and in many cases my old thirsty clunkers were always well stocked with extra oil and water. I could never get back into walking to where ever I wanted to go since I was issued a license to drive. I just takes too long !!!!

[dparksie]

I guess the only badly engineered car was a Ford Tempo that was bought brand new by my then girl friend, now wife. 3 engines and a tranny later finally gave the thing back to the dealer. All the other vehicles I bought used and beat then I beat the devil out of them :eek:for work even if they were not work trucks.

Best work trucks:

1970 Dodge and a 63 International 1 ton dump.

[JerseyHarold]

I guess the only badly engineered car was a Ford Tempo that was bought brand new by my then girl friend, now wife. 3 engines and a tranny later finally gave the thing back to the dealer.

I sold new Fords in the mid-eighties and had lots of unhappy Tempo customers. The things were really pretty bad. I had a new Tempo demo and the accelerator cable snapped a mile from my fiance's house, which was 35 miles from the dealer where I worked. Our romantic evening became very abbreviated because I had to go back to the car to wait for the tow truck.

[dparksie]

Yes, the 89 Tempo was a mess hopped up Pinto engine and more bugs than an ant hill. Will say the 84Ford 1 ton van and the 64 F350 I had LASTED. And I really did beat the devil out them like all my work trucks. So no complaints. I remember being a kid "helping" my father work on cars at the house on the side. Up until 3rd grade I thought "GDed engineers" was like open sesame. Everytime my father said it the hood went up. So made sense to me:D Worked for every car that he worked on no matter the maker though in those years imports were not that common so mostly it was the big three.

[alan32433]

A couple of years ago I bought a 1999 VW Cabrio with 85K miles for a teenage daughter. I do all my repair work and always have, not including front end alignments and so forth. The car was a mechanics nightmare. This is my only experience with German engineering so maybe I'm way off, but I couldn't believe how poorly it was designed. During the time I had it, I replaced the timing belt and idlers, water pump, AC compressor and expansion valve, and an AC hose that wore through. I bought a used hose, and it was worn almost through in exactly the same spot. Some of the repairs were preventative, like the timing belt, idler and water pump and brake job. But getting parts off and back on with the design almost required the engine to come out.

The brakes only lasted 8 months. After a year I unloaded that car.

[Frank Elder]

Teenage driver probably explains the short lived brakes, if that had been one of my girls the brake discs would have been warped too!

[bobjob55]

I've noticed that all the cars here are newer cars ... that says a lot .. my 63 chevy carryall (burb ) i've owned for over 25 years now without any problems .. and i guess that all you have a old car that is almost trouble free ... my 99 olds shiloutte van is costing me more to keep up than it will cost to re-do my chevy or my town sedan ... makes me wonder ,,,, why spend the money on the new junk when the old stuff works soo much better ??

[UKPlymouth]

Matra Simca Bagheera. It was made by the Matra factory who built the Espace (European name) MPV's. It was a stunning looking 3 seater 'sports' car built on questionable engineering and pre-emptive tin worm. A nightmare in every sense of the word. An example of the engineering is the pop up headlights. They used vacuum from the inlet manifold (yes this is a 1977 car!) which then used the back beam axle (in effect a large tube) as a reservoir. You pressed the button and a solenoid activated a pneumatic valve which pushed a lever to raise the headlights. Think about that, electrics, pneumatics and mechanics just to get the bloody headlights up! it was a mega-POS!

[DLK]

Hands down it was a 1978 Ford Fairmont. Cheap-cheap-cheap... When you went over a bumpy road the entire dash panel flexed up and down. Both of the fresh air vent brackets broke off within a year. Vaporlock was a constant problem with the 2.3L engine - I'd be crusing at 60 and the car would start to miss and eventually die. Let's face it Ford is not proud of some of the 70's vehicles they produced. I had a friend who had a 70's Maverick and Zephyr and they were equally troublesome.

[DutchEdwin]

My worst car was my wife's car when we were dating. A 1985 Hyundai Pony (Korean brand). It's a little bigger then the Honda Civic. It consumed a lot of fuel and weight almost 1.5 times the civic. Took me 1 year to figure out what the carb. problem was as the dealer couldn't. When that was fixed, I couldn't keep up on rust repairs. It was as slow as a turtle in race mode. On rainy day's it was almost impossible to drive as all windows were blinded with fog. Then fan's where blowing in the wrong direction I guess

Then I switched to GM I bought a 1985 Opel Kadett. On problem at all. Then traded it for a 1983 Opel Record as we wanted a bigger car. Loved that one, drove it for 8 years. Got rid if it when it was 20 years old. Just because we needed a bigger car, a new Ford Transit, European van. Still driving it, with great pleasure. As for some of you complaining on Ford, must be the US-branch . The European branch is very well since they introduced the Ford Mondeo. That was in 1995 I think.

[austinsailor]

My worst car was the one I liked the most. 1965 Barracuda, ordered new from the factory the way I wanted it. 273 High performance 235 hp, big 4bbl, solid cam, lots of power. Cranked out in mid '64 to compete with the Mustang. I was already a diehard MOPAR guy.

Before I ever saw it at the dealer, it was pumping oil out the back of the engine block. Factory rep said they'd left a plug out at the factory. A week and a half later, when they finally let me see it and take the car I'd paid for some time before, I took off.

High performance engine, tiny clutch. Same 4 speed as the hemi, tiny diff made for the slant 6 economy cars. Recipe for disaster, which happened often.

If I wasn't looking for new rear end gears, I was putting in another clutch. Or broken axle shafts. Ran the spider gears of the limited slip through the ring and pinion after they split in half.

Chassis wasn't supposed to need lub until 24K miles, but the front end was worn out at 22K.

Single narrow fan belt that would scream when you hit the throttle, engine revving to 6000 in a heartbeat, the alternator would eventually catch up. But I could leave the 383 full sized Plymouths in the rear view. Ran through the first radar trap I ever saw at 135 MPH. Fortunately, he was still hooking up all the wires on that antique. The radios worked a little better, they stopped me 40 miles down the road.

I'd buy another in a heartbeat if I found one.

Gene G.

[hkestes41]

Mine would have to be the early 70's Corolla I bought as a daily commuter.

My Big Block Cuda got to be toooooo much to drive every day so went looking for something to get back and forth to work with. There was nothing wrong with the Corolla mechanically, in fact I never had to do anything other than tune it up.

The problem was that you had to have a tetnus shot before you rode in it. Had more holes in it that a cheese grater. You could feel the breeze blowing through when you drove it. Plus it had a lovely plexiglass window in the passenger door. Good thing was is that the car was l beautiful turd brown color so it hid a lot of the rust from about 20 feet.

[41/53dodges]

seeing as my pilothouse is my first vehicle, i will talk about one of my lawnmowers. it was a yard-man, and it was the biggest POS i ever even saw in my life. it had a tiny starter, tiny battery, sh*tty engine, horrible trans, and was absolutely useless, even to mow the lawn.

[Brad Lustig]

The worst I've had (but also the one I wish I still had) an '82 Mazda RX-7. When I bought it, the clutch slipped a little bit so I knew it was going to be an issue in the near future. Had the clutch replaced and it ran great for about another 3 months, then it started slipping again. The mechanic that worked on it was good, knew the RX7s, but he could never get it right. Must have replaced the clutch at least 4 times but could never get it right. He was just about to replace the whole tranny when I wrecked it.

[faucet47custom]

1979 Toyota Celica Supra. Yes the first year that 'Yota had the Supra option. I should have known when my step father gave me the car and his father paid $250 to tow it to my house. Spent three months rebuilding brakes, doing engine work, and getting it road ready. It left me starnded Twice on the trip to get emissions and couldn't figure why. I sold the car to a friend for what I had spent in parts to get it to that point and nearly died on the test drive (master cylinder developed a leak). Maybe I should have complained about brake problems to Toyota, I wonder if it would be covered under their "we are fixing every Toyota on the road" recall program they just started?????

[dirty dan]

2004 Pontiac Bonneville. Anyone in the market for one?

[wallytoo]

My worst was a 1979 Firebird, 455 V8, black with the big gold chicken on the hood. It was used and the only car I cold find when the tranny on my 1983 Renault Fuego packed it in during my move to Vancouver.

surprised the few-go, err, fuego, wasn't your choice. my '84 fuego was easily the worst car i ever owned. it had the outdated 1960s vw beetle-type fuses (exterior link), which caused all sorts of electrical problems. changing a tire was a PITA because of the lug bolts, rather than having studs/nuts. the magnesium wheels mine came with would only take a specialty michelin tire. the glass hatch broke, twice, from heat. other than that, it was a great car

[DLK]

Mine would have to be the early 70's Corolla I bought as a daily commuter.

I talked my 20 year old sister into buying a 1971 Corolla new (bad move). It was such a cute car. However the heater and defroster were designed for Tokyo weather not Minnesota winters. It took forever to clear the windshield in 30 degree weather - below zero it never did.