Before I was able to afford new cars, starting back in about 1995, I had only (very-well-) used cars. Some of those POS's beside that Saab I mentioned on the first page:

- a 1974 Chevy Nova that was given to me when I was more down and out than usual. When I got it it had about 149k miles on it, and was completely used up. I drove it a few hundred miles until it died.

- a 1981 Nissan (Datsun?) 210 wagon that was also given to me. I had to put it out to pasture when the rot in the McPhearson strut towers was so bad that the front suspension was in danger of collapsing.

- a 1975 Plymouth Duster that was actually pretty cool. Everyone talks about how reliable the old Chrysler slant-6 was, and it was. Its just that everything else around it failed. Lets see, transmission, master cylinder, all four wheel cylinders, radiator, starter, and, on yeah, the windshield and the wiper transmission leaked through the holes in the body that left puddles in both sides of the passenger floor. The rear leaf springs were sacked so the car rode nose up for most of its life with me.

- a 1973 Olds Delta 88 that was more rust than paint. It actually ran well, though. The only thing I replaced that wasnt 'normal' maintenance was the motor mounts.

- a 1981 Cadillac Eldorado. I loved this car, but when I got it, it was on its third V6 which threw a rod on the way home one night. I sold it for parts.

New cars may be great, and technologically advanced, but the older ones were soooo easy to work on.

 

1957 Rambler Station Wagon
I bought it as a "Culture Car" in 1970.
It soon became the 'Commune Party Car".
It was a metallic brown with tan interior.
Options - AM radio, antena was a coat hangar.
6 cyl., 3 on the tree
Never had to worry about anybody stealing it.
Driving across Biscayne Bay Freeway, the entire gas tank fell off, out, under car. No fire.
Rust worms started eating rockers, hood and tailgate.
Filled holes with WSHE bumper stickers.
Military wouldn't allow it on base.
Floorboards were made of beer cans.
Got pulled over on FL Turnpike because it couldn't maintain min. speed, 40 mph.
Brings back memories of fair madiens who braved travel in the "TURD".
Donated it to the local high school auto shop class.

 

hahahahahha I'm sorry... but not to be mean but really... it just kind of reminded me of our really old tv set.... there was a point when we had to whack it for better reception... hehehehehe

 

or sometimes blow the dust out of the fins in the tuner. If all else failed, add a bit more aluminum foil and a few coat hangers to the rabbit ears!

Boy, I must be getting old!

 

LMAO! This thread is cracking me up! I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has driven bombs! Until I was in my mid 30s, every single car I drove was a complete piece of junk.

I've had two cars catch fire, had a wheel come off while driving, had cars that literally rusted apart.... I'm talking literally. Doors fell off, hatchback fell into the car, hood had to be held shut with a wirehanger threaded through a rust hole in the hood and the car's front grill, front seats had no floor and you could see the road under the car. Had to put boards on the floor so I wouldn't accidentally get my foot torn off.

The same car that rusted apart also had a clutch so bad that I could not make it up some hills unless I had built up enough speed and it also backfired so badly and loudly that my neighbors would complain that it woke them up late at night and in the morning.

That car was a late 70's datsun B210.

The ones that caught fire were a 89 ford escort GT, which is also the one that had the wheel come off while driving. The engine blew twice and by the time I finished paying off the 5 year loan all I could do was sell it to a junkyard for 150 bucks, and the other one that caught fire was one of the old style 300ZX's.

Also had a VW rabbit that was constantly overheating and somehow the steam would come out through the air vents. Every time I would stop at a light, smoke would just come pouring through the vents like crazy and to anyone looking it would look like I was doing some massive bong hits while stopped at the light. In order to keep the overheating down I would have to turn the heater on maximum.... and this was in Miami...in the middle of the summer... I'd have to drive around in 90+ degree heat with the heater running full blast. Those were the days...

I don't know if I could say that one was worse than the others... they were all bombs. If I had to pick one though, I'd say it was probably the escort GT. Like I said, two blown engines in under 5 years and by the end of the 5 years the 3rd engine was already on its way to dying. The car caught fire, a wheel fell off while driving, and it left me stranded more times than I can count.

 

or sometimes blow the dust out of the fins in the tuner. If all else failed, add a bit more aluminum foil and a few coat hangers to the rabbit ears!

Boy, I must be getting old!



-hahahahahaha I feel ya!

 

Nah, fortunately it happened as I was getting off the highway and coming up to a stoplight. I think it started with one of the tierods breaking and then the wheel turned inwards at a 90 degree angle and the whole thing broke off.

 

1978 Dodge Omni. Should never have listened to my dad (may he rest in peace) should have bought the VW Rabbit.
close 2nd 1993 Chrysler Concord (used) went through 2 transmissions in less than two years Summer problem couldn't turn off the heat

 

My 2nd "Worst Car that I Have Owned (Or will admit to owning) was a 1972 Vega GT.
Bought it NEW!
Turd Yellow with Black Stripes
My dad called it the $2,700.00 racing stripe.
The day I ordered it, UAW went on strike for 46 days.
When I went to get it at the dealership it was the wrong color (Ordered Bright Yellow), no radio, and several large scratches and bubbles in the paint.
Dealer ended up giving me almost $800.00 back.
Drove home with rattle in rear end of car.
Turned out to be 3 beer cans stuck in rear wheel well.
Picked up girlfriend, drove 400 miles that day, went to drive in movie just to prove that there was enough room for 2 consenting adults if you didn't mind doing it in the "Spoon Position".
Got 28K before 1st motor spewed oil and parts of lower end on the FL Turnpike.
Chevy replaced motor because there was recall on them.
2nd motor lasted 8K before head gasket went out in big steaming cloud.
Another free motor.
3rd motor was still going 12K later when rear end went out.
Still under warrenty.
By this time I was getting a little money saved up and wanted a convertible again.
Turd 2 was traded in on a 73 Triumph TR6.

 

DATSUN! Not surprised a bit. My dad had a very close friend who was shipped off to an office in Europe for a few years. We had a weird house: the third car garage was supposed to double as a boat port so it had front and rear doors. He dropped off his Datsun 240 and left it there until he got back. My dad and another friend of his drove it once every month or so to keep the gaskets from drying out. Out of curiosity, I sat in it a few times. I'm NO stranger to lousy cars having owned one for several years but let me tell you: to call a Datsun a piece of pure crap is being too nice! The paint was flaking off in HUGE chunks. The suspension made the car feel all wrong (I don't know how to explain it, when it was driven, you felt like the suspension had been stolen from another vehicle! Ugh.) The manual transmission was a pain to work with. One of my dad's other friends took it for a spin and said all the bad memories came back - he used to own one too. One thing to note: the friend who helped us maintain it loves Japanese brands, he only drove Mazdas and Acuras and he said the car was absolutely HORRIBLE. One day, four years later, said friend is back from Europe, he just came and drove the car off. Oddly, I never heard from him again.

 

Oh and I forgot to add: if you looked in the corners, you'd swear it had the car's version of acne: rust permeated almost every corner of the car right through the paint. Oddly, the harder I tried to maintain the car's paint, the worse it got! I agree that rust was a major hassle when stuck with a Datsun.

 

I grew up with my parents owning some turd cars. My mom had a 77 Pontiac Sunbird. At the time it was running it was great. I had the 2.5l 4 banger and it had not weight in the booty. So with a 4 speed I remember my mom more then once power sliding it around corners in Los Angles. It finally crap the bed when we moved up to the desert were I have never seen a car rust so fast. It rusted so fast that it blew out the window in the hatch. My parents also were given for no other reason but to dump their heap of a car on an Isuzu iMark. Ok, really it was an ok car until we moved to Florida and my aunt got a hold of it and pretty much killed it. When we finally passed it on to someone else when you started it you better put oil in it every 100 miles or you would run dry. Then last one and the only one my parents still own is the 72 VW Bug. It was not every really a heap of crap since it got its new trans and engine but, it is rusting away in the garage and has not been driven in 15 years. Oh one more story about the Nissan I posted in my first post. Loved how it died on me about a week of me owning it. Took me around 3 days of changing the fuel filter, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, and other stuff to finally blow out the MAF and it fired right up and never had a problem again. Well until the next the water pump literally ate itself to death.

 

Porthos, have you ever met anyone who had a GOOD experience with Isuzus? I've read hundreds of stories on this hilariously bad brand and can't believe how naive some Americans are. They think that just because it's Japanese that it's a "bulletproof" vehicle. Every story I've read makes our MINIs looks bulletproof! The only even remotely positive story was from one guy on another forum. Someone asked him how good Isuzus were. His reply: "Oh, they're great. They hold together very well. Then after exactly 60,000 miles, they fall apart." He even accused the maker of putting some kind of "self destruct" mechanism in the cars! That was the funniest story I've heard from a former Isuzu owner.

 

The question is if I have ever known someone to own an Isuzu? The answer is, no. I thought it was a one off because I know no one that owns one or has ever owned one.

 

My worst car is a bit benign in comparison to most of those posted here, most likely because I'm only 26, so I wasn't even alive when atrocities like the Gremlin (my mom owned one, and to this day seems emotionally scared by the experience) roamed the streets.

So, my worst car is a 2001 Saturn SL. In many ways, it isn't bad. It was reasonably reliable, about the same weight as a Mini despite having four doors, and okay to drive. But really, its all of this "okay" and "reasonably" that made me dislike it so.

My previous car had been a 1996 Jeep Cherokee, and before that I had a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Both were worse to drive, both received far less gas mileage, and both were unreliable, but they also had character. They were entertaining to own.

The Saturn? Nah. It did precisely what you asked of it in the least interesting way possible, and no more. It drove only okay, it was only moderately comfortable, it was only inoffensive to look at. Blah.

 

1972 Datsun B210. Check the gas, fill up the oil. Appropriate since the gas gauge did not work and the oil would be above the full mark on the dipstick at the beginning of a 2.5 hour trip from home to college and would not show on the dipstick at all when I arrived. The rear valance literally rusted completely off, from the bottom up. Once drove through a rain storm on a severely pot holed road and watched the windshield washers go back and forth across the windshield and not clear the water off. Discovered the reason why was that the water had splashed on the inside of the car windshield.

1981 Pontiac Phoenix I could add a year or two to my life if I could get back the time I spent trying to get that thing to start.

1972 BMW 2002 It wasn't that the car was unreliable, more that I didn't do a very good inspection when I bought it. Took it home and discovered the seller had used wet newspaper to simulate the wheel well, let it dry, then sprayed some rustproofing paint over it, drove it through some light mud to cover up the fresh paint. The car looked great but had terminal rust in the rear shock towers.

 

198? or 199? Dodge Neon

Was my mom's car for a short while but blech what a crap car.

 

Sorry to admit, I had two early on... a '69 Comet followed immediately thereafter by a Ford Tempo... tragic mistakes of (poorly placed) hubris of the newly licensed simply wanting a car. First (to my father's chagrin) lasted six months before dying on the freeway in a surprisingly spectacular plume of steam and blasted rods; second shutting the door and the door fell off (ok... not true, but the Tempo's transmission croaked and was too expensive to replace). It had 150K miles on it and a great stereo (the latter the singlemost important feature for any 16 year-old boy, but in the Tempo's condition I was afraid of shutting any door too hard nonetheless for fear the entire car would fall apart down to the chassis). However, I had redeemed myself at the time with a '69 Roadrunner. My MINI takes the taco, though, and will go down as the most fun car I ever owned.

 

I have two absolute worst cars. My first was a 78 Dodge Omni (Omni means ALL, all what I will never know) It was ordered at the urging of my dad. I wanted a VW Rabbit (ok it wasn't a much better choice) What did I know I was still in college and was driving a 65 Chrysler New Yorker at the time. the Omni when it ran was great 40+ mpg. but when it didn't run (more frequently) it was a disaster. My next worse car was one that my ex wife had to buy a 1994 chrysler concorde it went through transmissions like you would change your oil. She decided that when we got divorced that she would give that to me. It couldn't pass inspection without me putting more work into it than it was worth. Think it was worth 2k and needed 4k. Really looking forward to delivery of our CM 20 days and counting.

 

The worst car I ever had, was, well, the worst brand I ever had was GM. I had a Chevy Celebrity, Pontiac Grand Am and a Saturn Aura. All three tied for total pieces of JUNK. I currently own the Saturn and looking to get rid of it. I will never buy another GM again.

 

My first car was a 1991 mercury tracer handed down to me by my folks. It was in the shop as often as it was on the road...but my worst car was a 1997 dodge neon. Bought it brand new...was driving down a hill a few months later when a wave of water came out of the trunk all over the interior. That was finally fixed, but the water got into the rear lights and a few weeks after the leaky trunk was fixed the tail lights shorted out and started smoldering into piles of melted plastic. The stereo head unit had to be replaced three times and the seals in the doors were prone to flying away if the windows were down.

 

I guess I was lucky, all my cars since I was 15 were great in their own special way. None of them were boring, some were slow with an amazing 90bhp. Then I can't really say which was the best, my loaded Z71 Tahoe was great, my Lexus is great albeit the Tahoe had way better seats! My vette ranked high in cool and classic ways. I hope everyone has been able to experience that I have had.

 

First car, 85 Mercury Cougar (two-tone) leaked every fluid a car can leak and had the infamous American car saggy headliner.

 

Luxury! try 34hp. I'd hesitate to call it my worst car, maybe my least best car, I liked it, my first car was a 1987 Fiat Panda 750l with all of 34hp. I think its 0-60 time was 28sec. I did once manage to beat a Golf Gti away from the lights.

 

I would have to say this car was my worst car...its a Lancia Delta HF Evolution Integrale. It was efffin AWESOME. So if this is my WORST car....you can imagine what I think about all my other ones....