What’s the worst car you ever owned? Why was it so bad?
From unreliable money pits to underpowered crapcans, we’d love to hear your story.
What’s the worst car you ever owned? Why was it so bad?
From unreliable money pits to underpowered crapcans, we’d love to hear your story.
Man, This is a tough one because I always bought pretty awesome cars. I would have to say it was the Volvo C30 we had which I actually found for sale again.
The brakes were just garbage on it. Like scary so. The pedal went to the floor on me twice. It would randomly display werewolf of london as the song text on the radio just out of the blue. I so wanted to really like that car but it just didn't do it for me.
A close second would be my first and last Subaru: 2008 Forester XT:
Repeated problems with a poorly designed emissions system that I had to basically program the ECU to ignore. Tonka Toy interior. Tons of issues would randomly pop up. Was happy the day that one disappeared.
Worst car I've owned was a '77 F100, with a straight 6. So very much rust.... But it did haul stuff to the dump.
Second worst car was an '88 Honda CRX HF. Which was a great car.
1981 Audi 4000 5+5, which meant the five-cylinder engine and five-speed manual as high-end options. FWD only; 1982 brought the Quattro.
This was 1987 and I wanted to be a yuppie, so this was a nice little status car that offered good handling, speed, and panache. In reality, I'm still not sure if this particular vehicle was an awful mistreated lemon or if the design was just the very worst. Two nadir moments I remember:
1) Tapping the brakes to gently slow a little on a snowy evening while going down a wide, moderately steep descent. Whoosh and the car did a 180 and now I'm sliding down the hill backwards. Fortunately, no contact though I assume I had to change my underwear and sleep with a nightlight. Honestly, I was driving prudently.
2) Making a left turn onto aside street, again with very light snow, and the whole car just plowed across two or three and tagged the curb.
I'm sure they were crap tires and also sure there were more issues beyond the crap tires. I remain not an Audi fan, which is helped by their high maintenance needs, audible depreciation, and battles with BMW to have the most shiny happy drivers. (loved all my VWs and BMW 2002 variants, so my distaste is Audi-specific.)
1989 Jeep Comanche Eliminator
Fastest compact truck you could buy, because the Sy/Ty twins weren't out yet.
I had friends who raved about their cherokees and how good they were.
Mine must have been built at beer-thirty on the Friday before a union strike.
Weird electrical gremlins that only got worse when the clutch master cylinder failed and filled the fuse panel that was directly below it full of DOT3.
Garbage Renix fuel injection that needed a renix specific diagnostic tool.
2wd truck with terrible 4wd suspension, they just used a beam axle in front instead of a differential.
Wonky Peugeot transmission that rattled like a couple cheese graters fornicating in a garbage can.
Some misalignment in the drive train made it eat a universal joint once a year.
Death wobble.
Blowby
AMC
The only reason I kept it as long as I did was, when it was running, it was pretty darn fast.
1) 2012 CT200h- slow, oil leaks, low quality. Bought new, drove 28k miles, replaced it with TSX wagon
2) 2016 WRX Limited- never aligned properly, leaking sunroof- dealer couldn't fix. 3rd tier junk Japanese car. Bought new. Sold after 800 miles, tons of problems . Replaced with RC-F.
I'm sure some will see this coming, but my stupid Subaru Baja. I bought it because I always thought they were neat. It turns out there's a reason they sold like garbage.
I always joked that it was the worst of both worlds: Fuel efficiency of a truck, cargo capacity and ground clearance of a car.
Mine also had 140k miles on it, and it had not aged well. The rocker panels and doglegs had been completely vaporized into rust. The clutch was original, I'm pretty sure, and so it was even slower, because if you drove it hard, the clutch slipped like crazy. Climbing hills was always a second gear affair with gentle throttle. The e-brake cables, rear backing plates, rear e-brake shoes and hardware were all MIA when I got it, and I sure wasn't going to try and replace all that, so that was always a hassle.
It ultimately made me completely abandon Subaru as a brand, after years of wanting a WRX or STi. I followed that up with my 2010 Toyota Yaris, which is a car that I absolutely love.
This POS was by far the worst I’ve ever owned
seriously, berkeley that car.
Sensing a pattern here so adding to it.
2017 STI. The worst assembled car I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Sold after 3000 miles and already rattling, already been to the dealer twice for small stupid issue. Ate a set of tires 70% of the way through in that time while using it to commute. Just terrible in every single way at being transport of anything I have ever owned.
My worst car was also my first car, a hand-me-down Daewoo Cielo sedan, just like this one:
Not sold in the US due to failing US safety regs. My mom got it many years prior by walking into a dealership and asking for their cheapest new car, she got a deal on it that included a gas stovetop being thrown in for some reason? It's never a good sign when they have to throw in a home appliance to get someone to take a car...
Being a miserable soulless appliance with hardly enough power to get out of its own way was bad enough in itself, but even though it was well-maintained and only used for ordinary street driving, it was also very unreliable, it seemed to have gremlins that no mechanic could hunt down. I'm not sure if something was wrong with the brakes, but they were notably weak as well. I had plenty of roadside breakdowns with this, on the last one the little "jock strap" emblem popped off when I closed the hood and hit me in the junk. It was sold and the money went towards my AE92, which I still have. I saw my old car on the road many years later....in the parking lot of the dealership's parts department, of course.
Girlfriend (now wife) ordered a 1986 Pontiac Grand Am SE on her dad's GM employee discount - 6 months as GM had issues with blue paint adhering to the aluminum wheels so she changed it to white.
Car arrives with rear quarter panel dent - dealer sketchy on why she's not notified. Might've tried to fix and not say anything. They painted it only to flake off after 3 years.
Car leaks trans fluid on day one - new car back to dealer.
Multiple issues with the dash and relays.
Trans dies at 50,000 miles - I pay to have rebuilt.
Car rusts heavily after 4th Chicago winter. Looks awful after 8 years.
Wheels sucked to clean with a ton of grooves.
My brother drove a 1999 (I think) Mercury Cougar while he was in highschool. Seemed like a neat car, but kept having electrical issues.
2005 New Beetle convertible. My wife loved it, I wanted to burn it to the ground. I bought an extended warranty on it and came out ahead. Constant stupid crap breaking. The last straw was it eating the transmission at 61k. Apparently VW machined the valve body from parmesan cheese because the solenoids would wallow out the bores leading to sloppy shifting and hard down shifts. By the time this happened the rest of the transmission was already damaged. VW had a recall on the same exact transmission in other cars, but not this one so they blew me off. I sold it for what we owed and laughed like a mad man as the new sucker drove off.
wearymicrobe said:Sensing a pattern here so adding to it.
2017 STI. The worst assembled car I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Sold after 3000 miles and already rattling, already been to the dealer twice for small stupid issue. Ate a set of tires 70% of the way through in that time while using it to commute. Just terrible in every single way at being transport of anything I have ever owned.
Funny thing, I always regreted my 16 WRX purchase. Was thinking, should have gotten the STI. But didn't want to deal with Ringlands and old motor, instead preferring the FA. But reading your posts, sounds like either my decision or yours was wrong.
Pattern is definitely there. Interestingly having owned a 81 DL Wagon, 90 Loyale Sedan, 91 Justy, and 01 Outback - those were all good. But I have sworn off the brand 7 years ago, and won't take a free POS Subaru ever again.
Mid-90's Camaro Z28, LT1 engine, 6-sp manual, owned from new.
The good: Great engine, great transmission, handled well, and was surprisingly balanced for such a big heavy car.
The bad: Tire life. I took it to exactly one autocross practice event. With no drifting or smokey burnouts, that practice cost me $500 in tire wear. Sticky tires are the way manufacturers these days make heavy cars handle, and taking one on-track quickly shows the cost of that. This isn't the fault of the car per se, but rather the consequence of doing unnatural things with a heavy car.
No, the worst thing was its impressively bad reliability. In the five years I owned it (from new), it racked up around $10K in warranty repairs. The two most expensive ones were an ABS system failure, and the water pump, conveniently located directly above the cam-operated distributor, which caused all sorts of problems and expense.
Summary: Great fun to drive, terrible to own. Haven't bought GM since.
Lotta Subarus on the list, which is no surprise. Mine was probably my Jag XKR. ABS and Trac lights came on during the drive home, new dash light every time I drove it, I've owned close to 100 cars and that was the only one that's ever stranded me on the side of the road.
I've had a few. Some of the worst:
1. VW Fox. Bought brand new in 1990. Started falling apart 2 years into ownership. Literal falling apart: lost the exhaust on the FDR Drive. Started smoking and burning oil at 30k miles and was off to the scrap yard not long after that. The fact that you stopped seeing them on the road by 1995 says something.
2. BMW E90 335xi. This one gives me chills. Bought CPO with 18k on the clock. The problems started at 20k. Non stop trouble. Never knew when it would decide to just not start one morning or kick into limp home mode for no discernible reason. Constant need to replace components at thousands of dollars a pop. And WTF even is a "footwell module" anyway?
95 Suzuki Sidekick. Top was just there for looks. It had the worst transmission ever. Bought with 21K miles, shifted a little hard. By 30K the syncros were gone. Warranty trans rebuild lasted till 35K, and syncros were gone. Rebuilt again, passed to my sister, 48K, syncros gone. Traded in as they wouldn't warranty their garbage anymore.
1978 Fiat 128 Sport Coup. Purchased new when returning from an overseas tour. Very overrated.
I'd have to say my current project, the C4 Corvette. I do like it for a few reasons, but what a cheesy car. It wasn't GMs best work for sure. Digital doo-dads and needless complexity coupled with late 80s electronics.
Whereas, a GMT400 truck of the same year model as the Vette was some of GMs best work.
checked hplp for leaks
checks pressure of low pressure and high pressure pumps
cleaned carbon
set cam timing
tested evaporation valves
4 new injectors replaced
8 injectors cleaned and calibrated
replaced ONE high pressure fuel pressure sensor.
fixed steering leak with new pipe
tran fluid 9 quarts and filter and gasket
replaced 4 wheel sensors-- the magnetic rings apparently are okay
fixed PT CAN Bus -- the connectors under the rear left seat were corroded soldered in 120 Ohm resistor. and the connector under the passenger front carpet -- cut out and soldered.
checked bus resistance, and 60 Ohms from EMF to ACC in wiring , and less than 1 ohm for wiring resistance .
bled brakes with ISTA setup. worked fine
bled/ replaced fluid in ARS / steering system.
NEW -->
2 swing arms front
strut bellows
abs wheel sensor -4
high pressure fuel sensor -- bank B ?
oil and filter
steering fluid
gasket oil pan
cam cover gaskets --2
cam sensors -2
eccentric cam sensor
pcv valves
plugs NGK
piston ring and disseciant on air pump for air springs
shock on back
brake light sensor
3 new coils ( not necessary )
JUNKYARD-->
SZL steering sensor
SIM module
yaw sensor . lateral accel sensor
EDC module
EMF
ACC
VVT
engine power module
cd player
4 rims
4 tires
STILL DOES NOT PASS EMISSIONS!@!@#$!!
Used 78 Ford Fairmont Wagon looking just like this photo. I thought, heck, it's just a four door wagon Mustang. Wrong! Wifey was pregnant and shortly after getting it, reverse went out and she had to be very careful not to get into a situation to have to back up. She screwed up only once and as she was trying to push it back, a kind gentleman ran out of his house and helped her get it into a position where she could get going again. Replaced it quickly with a Volvo 245 4 speed with electric OD wagon which was a billion times better. Both cars cost $500
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