What worst car have you bought ever?

[robortwillys]

Hi to all,

I bought this one. Just look at this.



‘It’s a fun-size Audi TT! Only without the fun! In fact it was dreadful to drive – utterly gutless. But the worst thing was you felt such a prat driving it. When I went to drive it, I really did feel like Noddy and Big Ears.

[Frog]

'73 Ford maverick
It was practically new.
I've owned lots of clunkers. Between 1981 and 1996, I spent maybe 2000 buying cars.
They ran until it cost more to fix them than to buy another clunker.
Favorite was a really beat up '71 olds cutlass. No shocks to speak of but boy was the ride soft. It was my land yacht.

[mwfanelli2]

No hesitation: a 1998 4WD Chevy S10 pickup. A fantastic vehicle except for one problem: it fell apart from day one. In a bit less than 50K miles, it had three alternators, upper and lower ball joints replaced, an oil leak, a transmission leak, an electrical short that required a new wiring harness...

I never had problems with any of my foreign cars (Isuzu, Subaru). My current Subaru is on year 11 and still going strong. This Chevy was an absolute disaster. Dumped it at that 50K mark and never looked at another Chevy, Ford, or Chrysler again.

[mjs1973]

Not a car, but a motorcycle. It was a Honda NX125. It was an on/off road bike that Honda came out with after they stopped making the XL series of bikes. Not enough power and the valves rattled constantly. The front fender sat low on the front tire like a street bike, not up high like a dirt bike should be. While going through some mud one day, so much mud got stuck between the tire and the fender that the tire would no longer turn. It would just slide through the mud. I eventually blew up the motor and had it rebuilt under warranty. I was hoping the rebuild would also fix the noisy valves but it didn't.

I eventually traded it in on a Suzuki DR350s. Now that was a real on/off road bike. It was more of a street legal dirt bike than a road bike that could go off road if that makes sense. I wish I still had that one.

[Canuck935]

I've only bought one car so far so I guess it's the worst car I ever bought. 2001 Ford ZX2. I bought it exactly 8 years, 3 months, and 2 days ago. In that time I had to replace the alternator once. The battery died last year. Had to replace the thermostat housing earlier this year. PCV valve hose had to be replaced. That's all I can think of.

[CaptainPenguin]

Mini Clubman the original and after about 6 months the floor fell out

[SmartWombat]

I've not had too much luck:
Second hand Ford Escort, holed piston after 6 months.
Second hand Ford Cortina, prop shaft failed after 2 years (while driving)
Second hand Renault 4, after a year the suspension mounts rusted through.
Second hand Reliant Scimitar, engine mounts failed, ripped off overdrive switches, chassis rotted - lasted 3 years though!
Second hand Austin Princess, door rotted, distributor failed, trim all fell off.

I think of them all, the Cortina was the most embarrassing when it failed...

[drg]

There have been a few of notable family clunkers.

A new 1984/85 model year Ford Tempo. When the recall repairs exceeded the original cost of the car it was definitely time to trade it in!
Repairs/problems included
- faulty non-working cruise control.
- bad struts that leaked from day one.
- fuel injectors that clogged (recall).
- steering column prone to failure (recall).
- fuel tank filler safety issue (recall).
- firewall recall (I don't want to know what this one was for).
This one was my Mom's new car that replaced one of the much beloved sports cars that finally died.

About the same time I came into possession of a brand new Mazda RX-7 that the body was incorrectly welded/attached to the frame/rear suspension and had to be 'returned'. That took a while to sort out the legalities. I replaced it with an Audi 5000 that was fine.

The Second Audi 5000 had serious electrically problems, but it was used. I should have known not to tempt fate after Dad's original Audi Fox (a little bit of a car in the 70's) had caught fire sitting in the driveway! Electrical issues. It, the Fox, may have been the worst car in the family.

1998 Chevrolet Pickup that wouldn't reliably start.
2000 Buick (Dad's) that the trim starting falling off and the interior just did not wear well at all. After a year it looked awful. The paint didn't flake or wear, just faded . . .

And one more quirky car, a Triumph Tr-8 that the body flexed so much that if you parked it on a hill, slope actually in this area, the doors would not open or it took much force to get them to move!

[GB1]

Used I won't comment on since there's too many variables, but I've bought 3 new cars in my life and the worst was the '03 Saturn L300. I owned a '98 Saturn SC2 before that and it was outstanding, hardly a thing went wrong with it and it got incredible gas mileage. But the L300 just had poor reliability, such as

- Leaking head gasket after 11,000 miles. Fixed under warranty.

- Bad steering rack after 21,000 miles. Replaced under warranty. Dealership said it would have been an $1800 repair.

- Wacko auto climate control system that would turn itself on sometimes. Replaced under warranty at about 30,000 miles though it still did it sometimes. It also continuously blew lukewarm air on you in the wintertime (!) which Saturn weaseled out of by claiming it operated as designed. Good thing I don't live in a cold climate.

- Radiator leaked and was replaced under warranty at 35,000 miles, just 1000 before warranty expired.

- Battery leaked and destroyed battery cable at about 40,000 miles. New battery and cable was $400.

- Steering rack whined again at about 50,000 miles but a $250 fix took care of it.

At this pt I gave it to my mother as a gift with a warning, but oddly she has had great luck with it since .. hardly a thing has gone wrong.

The Jeep Patriot I have now is a pretty solid vehicle.

[Greg McCary]

1985 Ford Thunderbird. You name it and I had it fixed. But the worst was when I had it painted and two weeks later the serpentine belt broke, it got wrapped up in the pulley and beat knots in the freshly painted hood. I was driving down the road when it happened and paint chips were flying over the wind shield.

[SmartWombat]

Oh if you want new cars, Peugeot 1007
Fully electronic, computer controlled
Doors shut, then open again
Gearbox fails to stay in gear - goes BANG and "Gearbox fault" on central display
Gearbox fails at slow speed - clutch dips in and "Gearbox fault" on central display

Parts department said: Poxy Engine, Useless Gearbox, Every One's Trouble is what PEUGEOT stands for.
Shame the salesman didn't tell us that!

Problems now sorted with:
New clutch controller, new sensors in gearbox (didn't fix it) and new SOFTWARE upload to the car computer which now goes "beep beep beep" and displays Gearbox Fault but keeps on going by ignoring the fault !!

[xystren]

Worst? 1991 Cutlass Supreme International Series - Had less than 30,000 KM on it. Was a business 5yr lease return. Had it checked out, and everything looked pristine. Purchased used in 1996 with the extended all inclusive 2 year warranty with it. Thank goodness I did, I made excellent use of it.

In the period of a month, the following happened:

Driver side rear bearings seized - replaced under warranty
Parking brake cable snapped - replaced under warranty
Passenger side rear bearing seized - replaced under warranty
Both rear brakes seized - replaced under warranty

That all happened in less than a month of one another when the warranty was about 6 months out:

Steering column seized, pooched the rack and pinion, locked the key in the start position when I started the car - ended up having to pulling the battery and stalling the car - part of the electrical got system got fried in the process... Repaired under the last 2 weeks of warranty. Got rid of this POS. Swore I would never buy a domestic vehicle again. And yes, I am aware of the irony in that statement.

Turned around, and bought a '99 Nissan Pathfinder.. Undoubtedly my favorite vehicle of all time. Unfortunately I had to get rid of it after about 2.5 years after the ex and I split. With child support payments, couldn't afford to keep it.

[Franglais]

Oh if you want new cars, Peugeot 1007
Fully electronic, computer controlled
Doors shut, then open again
Gearbox fails to stay in gear - goes BANG and "Gearbox fault" on central display
Gearbox fails at slow speed - clutch dips in and "Gearbox fault" on central display

Parts department said: Poxy Engine, Useless Gearbox, Every One's Trouble is what PEUGEOT stands for.
Shame the salesman didn't tell us that!

Problems now sorted with:
New clutch controller, new sensors in gearbox (didn't fix it) and new SOFTWARE upload to the car computer which now goes "beep beep beep" and displays Gearbox Fault but keeps on going by ignoring the fault !!

The 1007 is based on the same platform as my Citroen C2 - same computer-controlled sequential gearbox controlled by paddles on either side of the steering wheel. It's been my best car ever, even after almost 6 years. Reverse gear is sometimes slow to engage. I believe that the robotised gearbox is an adaptation of a mechanical design which is replaced by a new 4-speed design in the DS3.

The worst is easy - my Austin Minis.

The first was already old when I bought it in 1975. When one of the rear shock absorbers broke I discovered that to change it I had to take the fuel tank out and someone had glued the fuel tank into place.

The second was a second-hand Innocenti Mini Cooper that I bought in Paris. It was great in the city, especially on the rollercoaster roads in hilly Montmartre. But every time I took it out of the city it would break down. The worst experience was coming back one Christmas on a snowy freeway and having the engine cut out at 70mph when I was overtaking two lorries - water spray short-circuited the distributor, a common event. When I got out with the can of WD40 I discovered that the front of the car was covered in ice and I couldn't get the hood open..

[straightarm]

Not cars that I owned, but two Vauxhall (GM) Vecta company cars

The first a 96 1.8 petrol engined car had:

a tendency to cut out when changing down

a tendency to warp its brake discs

broke its hand brake

had the cam belt seize. The dashboard lit up like a Xmas tree and smoke billowd from under the bonnet. When I called the AA for a tow, the operator optimistically told me that they fixed most cars at the roadside. It took the patrol man all of 10 seconds to realise that he would not be able to fix this one!

It finally left on the back of a recovery lorry having dropped a valve into the piston crown which then punched the sparking plug out of the cylinder head!

The replacement for that was a 2.0 diesel Vecta. It was a CDX model, so all the bells and whistles. Sadly it was just Vauxhall trying to polish a turd.

It was gutless, which made overtaking quite a challenge, the exhaust manifold gasket blew, which reduced power even further and produced a large cloud of black smoke. It wore out the seals on the power steering and on the day it was due to be returned, it developed fuel problem that meant it too had to be returned on the back of a recovery lorry. Apparently the leasing company chose to sell it as a non runner rather than repair it!

I replaced it with a Honda Accord (Accura TSX for our American cousins) Totally reliable, not a problem in 92,000 miles! and such a sweet engine. Now on my second Golf GTI and love them

[adina]

hands down, 2001 Isuzu Rodeo. Spent as much, if not more, on repairs over the 7 yrs we had it. bought it new, and if, after taking it in for an oil change, repairs were under $2000, i was thrilled.

totalled it in 2008 tho, and am driving a little car now. hate. i miss my suv.

[JETA]

A 1976 Plymouth Arrow. Pure crap.