What's the worst car you ever owned?
(this may have been a past thread I didn't really look and it's worth asking again)

84 Audi 4000s ($250)
* 2 tone interior and extrior (Silver hood brown body. blue driver seat brown interior)
* Odometer and fuel gauge broken (had to guess if you need gas)
* Bought with a "bad" trany. It had been driven till the transmission fluid all leaked out. Until I swapped in a different transmission it would leak fluid on the block causing smoke to billow from the hood.
* occasionally it wouldn't start, but a few good whacks on the starter with the tire iron always got it going.
* Former owner said the AC "fell" off. I thought she was ignorant until I noticed half a compressor bracket was still bolted to the block.

 

Best and worst? My 2001 Audi allroad. I'm too embarrassed to share how much money I lost on that car within a period of 2k miles.

The silver lining for me, however, was that experience spurred me into buying a MINI. The opposite of two extremes, perhaps.

 

The worst vehicle I ever bought was a 1978 Ford Ranger Pickup Rangers were full size trucks at that time. It had the worst engine I ever owned, it didn't break down or anything but for a 351 cu in engine it had NO power. That truck couldn't pass anything including a gas station. My '66 Corvette I owned at that time got much better gas mileage than that truck. Didn't keep that thing very long.

 

Must be the 'hate on Audi' thread, as my worst car ever was also an Audi... An Audi 5000s to be exact... What a POS...

 

Well, IF we are picking on Audi, I bought my wife a 2001 A4 back in 2003, it had 37K miles on it and I was under it more than I was in it for the 6 months we had it. It was a great car, when it worked, which in our case was not very often!

 

I had an Audi 5000 too, the auto transmission went out and they wanted more to fix it than I paid for the car! I donated it to a high school auto shop. I replaced it with a Plymouth Reliant, another POS.

Dave

 

I can break the "trash Audi" spirit (I've never owned one though), with a car you'd never expect.

A 1982 Honda Civic 4-door Sedan .... I've known so MANY people who LOVE their Hondas, but mine was a lemon from the day I bought it (used, unfortunately).

It pumped oil thru the speedometer cable and dripped out under the dash, on the driver's feet. It had a five speed manual tranny. Has anyone had a modern manual tranny fail on them in normal, family driving? This one did, and when I started looking closely I realized the tranny had a GM parts sticker on it (which may have explained the failure). It wouldn't stay in gear.

There were a lot of other problems with the Honda, we got rid of it within two years and never considered another.

 

06 Mercedes E350. Had too many problems to spend time listing. The final problem happened just out of warranty (of course). The torque converter was failing and between that and another issue, it cost me $4000.

 

Just to clarify I'm not Audi Hating.

My 84 4000s was a POS but based on that car I'd say the old 4000 Audis were GREAT cars. That Audi had lived a very hard life. It kept going despite a ton of abuse and neglect. It was a very solid design and well built

I also came out of a bad accident in my 85 4000S without a scratch (My first time driving solo )

I've been temped to find an old Quattro 4000 as a winter beater...

 

2001 Mercedes SLK 320 V6...absolute WORST car & ownership experience. I'd had Mercedes before but that was the last one for me. I like the look of the new MB but not for me.

 

Ford wagon next years model was 49% better. Maybe so but what I had was very poor. Never bought a ford product since and never will again.

 

My worst car was my first one -- a used 1971 Chevy Vega. Had to put a quart of oil in it everytime I filled it with gas. Can you feel my pain? Epic POS!

 

MCSfanboy
You reminded me that there was a "Car Talk" list of worst cars with you Vega
(spoiler it's high on the list)
Car talk Worst Cars


"My Chevy Vega actually broke in half going over railroad tracks. The whole rear end came around slightly to the front, sort of like a dog wagging its tail."

 

Mine was a 76 Audi 100L. It broke down a couple of times a month and it was always something new. Left me stranded many times.

 

When I was showing Muscle Cars I met a guy whose wife talked him into trading his 1969 Camaro RS/SS for a 1973 Chevy Vega and he financed the difference. They were divorced of course but he was still bitter. Can you imagin?!?...trading a 1969 Camaro RS/SS for a Vega and paying the dealer?!?

 

Of all the cars I have owned over the past 35 years, several stand out for being unsatisfactory driving experiences:
88 Jeep Cherokee- backbreaking ride, and transmission didn't work
92 Lincoln Continental- simply stopped running ("computer failure") several times
on the highway!

Others were fabulous and fun:
86 Honda CRX Si (Loved that little car...)
90 Lexus ES 250 with manual transmission
99 BMW 540 sport

Now I drive a 10 MCS manual; this is my favorite car ever.
I would like to test drive an Alfa Romeo Giulietta some day, however...

 

67 El Camino. That car taught me that I am just NOT a american hot rod car kinda guy. In a straight line it was pretty fast though.

 

'87 Yugo. Although I really don't have any real reason to have hated it...it never once let me down in the short time I owned it (necessitated by the fact that my RX-7 got stolen, and I needed a cheap ride post-haste). As much as I wanted to hate that car, the reality is that I had more fun in that car than any other before or since...this is because it was the only car I ever had that I truly did not care about whatsoever.

The best thing was revving the little 1.1 engine to whatever rpm--it had no tach--and dumping the clutch. As the skinny, hand-width front tires would spin in anger, it was hilarious to see the look on people's faces when they realized it was a Yugo doing this!

The horn sounded so pathetic...but again, this only made it fun to use it basically all the time.

One time, I actually picked that car up...one end at a time...to put it in a tight street parking spot! While the little kids laughed in amusement, the drawback to this was that the older kids--having seen this to be possible, and eager to test their adolescent strength--would move the back-end out into the street with annoying frequency.

I even hooked up with a girl that slid through an icy intersection and almost stopped in time...but not quite...putting a football-size dent in the bottom of my door. Her car was not damaged. I wasn't interested in reporting it as an accident, getting insurance involved, or even in getting my car repaired at all. But, she DID find a way to make it right!

 

Trading a beautiful '69 Camero RS for a POS Vega? She must have wanted out of that marriage pretty bad!

 

Worst car I have ever owned was a 93 Nissan Sentra XE. What a heap. I was number I don't even know on the list of owners so when I picked it up it was well abused. In the nice lazy style of most Americans the windshield wipers were never chaned so that it etched the winshield. It had 4 hubcaps when I bought it but only 3 made it home and within a week it had none. It was a super easy to work on though but, the only problem was I was working on it all the time to include week days so that I could go to work the next day. I was selling it to a friend and while he was driving it the head gasket blew and that is when I had had it with that car. I ended up donating it to the Kidney Foundation. I should have just pretened it was stolen and lit it on fire and claimed insurance on it cause I didn't get anything out of it but, heartache and bloody knuckles. I have got stories for days on that car. When you hit a bump the radio would cut out and you would have to slap it to get it to work again. it had no heater but, the A/C worked like a champ. The warter pump ate it self to death. Shot power steering fluid like it was cool. When I seafoamed it the neighbors called the fire department cause they thought a building was on fire. There is about a million stories that go with this car and to top it off I only had it for about 8 months.

 

Another good one from my parents:
I believe they were in grad school when my grandfather died. They got his brand new Mustang II. They did the sensible thing and sold one of their cars (don't recall what. Might have been the Charger)... Huge mistake. The Mustang to goes down as their worst car and my parents list of cars includes some bad ones.

 

Either that or the Man was in love/lust! I'm thinking that goes down as one of the worst things a woman has talked a man into since Samson and Delilah <sp>

 

I traded my Jeep CJ7 for a Saab 99S. It needed a tranny, which back in 1990, was a $3000 job at Saab, or $2k at some hole-in-the-wall garage. I sold the car to a mechanic for $500.

 

1992 VW Eurovan (Westfalia - camperized). What a nightmare! Before we bought it read the Lemon-Aid guide and it showed a photo with the caption, very comfortable while waiting for the tow truck to arrive. Yes it was comfy and boy did we make use of tow trucks. Spent nearly $10,000 in 3 years on repairs and maintenance. VW was hopeless to boot. Once we sold it we talked to a few other Eurovan owners and they had similar stories to share. How can anybody make such an unreliable vehicle

 

Ford Pinto wagon. I had a lot of fun in that car, but not while driving it. It topped out at 55, and I carried a 5qt bottle of oil to top it off weekly.