What vehicle did you absolutely loathe driving?

We need another thread with "loathe" in the title.

What is the car you hated driving the most, and why?

For me- 1991 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.

A four-door barge with La-z-boy quality seating, a 4.5L fwd V-8 with ALL the torque steer, super plush suspension, and a digital dash. 

I've never felt so disconnected from the road and the world around me. Some people might like them, but I felt like I was driving around encased in egg-crate foam. Rapid change of direction? Only if you didn't mind heeling over like a boat under full sail.

Blergh.

1995 Chevrolet Lumina - just E36 M3ty seats 

1980 Chevrolet Chevette

I think there's an expectations vs reality ratio that has to be in effect.  One doesn't expect much from a trashed '90 Lumina.

For me, it was the Viper.  The pedal position felt like the clutch pedal was in the oncoming lane, and the engine didn't accelerate at all.  It felt like the flywheel weighed 500lb and you accelerated the car by upshifting, forcing the car to bend to the engine's will.  Not a ride that invokes enthusiasm, it felt more like I was on my way to Home Depot to pick up a load of mulch.

And then there was the fact that I was driving someone else's car that was worth more than my house, on the road with people who drive lifted trucks and think 5ft is a good following distance because being polite is for the weak.

Chevy Spark. Rental.The traction control tried to get me killed in the snow. Twice. Cutting acceleration because of wheel slip (slipping wheels in snow? No E36 M3?) while oncoming traffic is barreling at you? Perfection. berkeley that car.

It's definitely about expectations vs reality.

I kinda hated driving the Rice Rod. Nothing that low on bias plies will ever drive exceptionally well, but my expectations were too high given how much time and work I put into it. I was always worried about it being perfect and obsessing over every little detail. Selling it was a relief. 

Ford Aspire that I got as a loaner car many, many years ago.

Toyota Echo hatch. Despite being perfect on paper, I've always driven little E36 M3box hatches, there was just something about the car I hated, and I really hated it. I sold it to my apprentice, a die hard Toyota guy who also hated it, and sold it... for significantly more than he paid me for it.

We had a rental once that was probably the worst driving vehicle I've ever set foot in. I wish I'd recalled that before I bought mine.

2004 Chevy Malibu.  This was my elderly mothers car and I had to drive several times; beyond being sole sucking it had a horrible seat, nonexistent  handling even for a driving appliance. 

Never have I taken so much pity as I have on someone as I did the poor engineers who had to work on this thing. I'm sure they felt dead inside.

In reply to Appleseed :

There's a button to shut that off, and it works.

EDIT: We're only a few posts in and I've owned, and quite enjoyed, two of the cars already mentioned.

My girlfriend's hybrid Pacifica minivan. 

The seats are wide and uncomfortable, the powertrain tip-in calibration is horrible, nonlinear, laggy, and exhausting, brake tip in is abrupt combined with a super light pedal and a weird overlap between regen and service brakes, I don't understand how a vehicle can have so little steering feel, and it makes noises that, to anyone mechanically minded, makes you just faintly concerned that something mechanical isn't quite right. The wipers are also ALWAYS too fast, even on the slowest setting, you can't keep the high beams on because every little reflection triggers the auto-highs to turn off, the interior materials get scuffed and show dirt easily, and if you don't use the plug in feature, the gas mileage isn't actually that good. At least the safety warning stuff works okay, and there are big buttons to turn off things like the lane keep assist, which does a great job of following expansion joints and asphalt snakes instead of road lines. 

I'm annoyed just thinking about that stupid thing, and happily pay to drive my 12 mpg Suburban instead. 

1995 geo tracker.  Rode like complete crap.  Had no power.  It's terminal velocity was about 75 mph.  It wasn't out of gas pedal but all it would do was make more noise.  Got crappy gas mileage and really bad traction since it was light and 2wd 

Tom1200 said:

2004 Chevy Malibu.  This was my elderly mothers car and I had to drive several times; beyond being sole sucking it had a horrible seat, nonexistent  handling even for a driving appliance. 

Never have I taken so much pity as I have on someone as I did the poor engineers who had to work on this thing. I'm sure they felt dead inside.

May I present to you the trackday Malibu

1983 Nissan Stanza. 

What a POS. Constant problems. Extremely difficult to work on. I still have the 4 custom-bent wrenches it took to pull the carburetor. 

What a hateful vehicle. 

I didn't buy another Nissan product for almost 30 years. 

A few years back I had to use a loaner car from the Subaru dealer. My Hyundai Sante Fe had lunched an engine from crank flashing or some such stuff. Luckily they replaced it all under warranty. Anyway the loaner they gave me while waiting on the engine replacement was a new Outback or similar. I hated it so much I forgot what model it was. The lane assist thing dinged constantly. The eyes on the road thing was also beeping at me every few minutes. Half the time I was taking my eyes off the road because it made so many noises I wanted to know what it was. I tried shutting off the quirky features but the center console was a massive tablet with a million sub menus that had to be re-done every time I drove it.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

I think there's an expectations vs reality ratio that has to be in effect.  One doesn't expect much from a trashed '90 Lumina.

For me, it was the Viper.  The pedal position felt like the clutch pedal was in the oncoming lane, and the engine didn't accelerate at all.  It felt like the flywheel weighed 500lb and you accelerated the car by upshifting, forcing the car to bend to the engine's will.  Not a ride that invokes enthusiasm, it felt more like I was on my way to Home Depot to pick up a load of mulch.

 

And then there was the fact that I was driving someone else's car that was worth more than my house, on the road with people who drive lifted trucks and think 5ft is a good following distance because being polite is for the weak.

 

 

 

This bonding with Vipers is hard, bonding with other people's Vipers is really hard because .0001% over bond is backwards in (best case) the opposing lane trying to figure out what the hell happened. It's a truck until it becomes a world class sports car, it's a world class sports car until it becomes a thrill ride, immediately after the thrill ride part it's expensive. Add compressed air to make it significantly scarier/worse/better. Add good shocks to make it confusing 

In reply to Byrneon27 :

I've seen Christopher Titus's description of driving his Viper at a track day 

That was the general impression that I got, that the car was going to be unfun until you got up to some significant percentage of its capabilities.  I wasn't about to test that impression on a 1/2 mile surface street road test loop, and I'm sure the vehicle's owner appreciates that.

All the same, the other impression I had was that the engine needed to be about half the displacement, with a quarter the rotating mass, and then it'd be real fun.  But then again, engines that zing when you tap the accelerator, and decelerate just as quickly when you release the throttle, are what tickle my giblets.

Of "modern era" cars:

Circa probably 2015 or so I had a rental Jeep Patriot. It was the giantest pile of poo I'd driven from the current era. Good god, it was dreadful: No power, it would get stuck in damp grass, the interior was awful, and it was uncomfortable. 

I rented a Toyota Aygo in Iceland. God that was a terrible car. It was manual, but way to quiet to be able to tell when to shift and didn't have a tach. It was so gutless it was tough to get off the line even on flat ground. Controls felt rubbery and disconnected. 1L 71hp car with a 0-100kph of 12.6s.

1998(?) Daewoo Cielo. Boring at best, pretty slow, notably weak brakes, broke down all the time.

Honorable mention to anything made in the last few years with a goofy whiz-bang weirdo shifter and electric handbrake (or now "parking brake") that the car uses to decide when you're allowed to drive. A lot of these things won't let you go into gear until you've closed your door and buckled your seatbelt, that'll be fun when the seatbelt and/or door switch breaks...modern Mercs have a weirdo column shifter but at least it's standardized within their brand...but then they also have an extra weird backwards electronic handbrake (push-on/pull-off), and a lot of them have godawful pressure-sensitive seat controls too.

Smart Fortwo

That transmission took so long to upshift it pretty much needed to downshift when it got there 

Toyota tundra. Wanted to love it. Ended up hating about every bit of it. 

I spent a year chauffeuring my dad around in his Ford Flex.

I had always considered myself a Ford Guy, but there were enough hateful, generic Ford things in that vehicle that I wouldn't even consider a new Mustang or F150 at this point.

The mere sound of a Ford's door chime, turn signal, or seat belt warning makes my skin crawl.  I don't even like parking next to them. 

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. With a manual transmission even.  It didn't just lack acceleration; it refused to even hint at it. With a manual transmission even. Did I mention it was a MANUAL?

Hands down the worst, and most terrifying, driving experience I ever had was in my friend's AMC Matador coupe. Let me set the stage:  six cylinder. Automatic. Manual brakes and steering. Bench seat. And in this color scheme, but with poverty caps instead of rally wheels.

It couldn't accelerate. Or stop. Or turn. The bench seat had zero grip, so you'd slide across the upholstery until you impacted the door panel. Ok if it was a right turn; not so great if it was a left turn. It was a low mileage car owned by a friend's grandpa before my other friend bought it. It was the very definition of horrible. Worst car, ever. 

Biggest disappointment. 1965 Buick Riviera GS. Floated around like an unflushable turd.

But every single time I drive any of the short wheelbase 4X4 things, The J40 Land cruiser particularly, I am baffled at how any one can spend more than a few minutes driving one and think "I want to own this" or worse yet "I should put a lift kit on this and make it exponentially worse!"