What vehicle did you absolutely loathe driving?

Because I compare all forms of IC transportation to  having to ride a bicycle as an alternative, I don't loath any of them. However, the Fiat 500  and the Toyota iQ were "bottom of the barrel" ways to move from point A to point B.

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :Toyota ruined the Tundra for me in 07. 
LOVED my 04. 
but our newest car at the moment, is an 07, and I've driven less than a dozen newer. 
Other than creature comforts, and distraction packages, none have made me want to spend that much, even if I could afford it. 

In reply to ddavidv :

Just curious; how old were y'all, "crusing" in the AMC

I drove a 74 AMX (401, stick) for a bit in 83. Tolerable car, but the driving experience was, well, definitely AMC!

2006 Ford Explorer /w the v6.  Nothing wrong with the vehicle, just over the course of owning I came to realize that I hated SUVs. 

1995 Saturn SL2 /w 4 speed automatic.  I was young and the cars I had before it were and 89 Ford Mustang 5.0L LX convertible, an 89 Acura Integra 5 speed, and after was a 94 MR2 turbo.  So between those cars the saturn was a definitive low point.  In hind sight, I didn't hate it nearly as much as the explorer i got a few years later.  

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

No need to sugar coat it. Tell us how you really feel.

I have this one nailed.

I needed a new service truck and one of my friends convinced me that he had the perfect answer for me. It was a 1986 Ford F250 with a 6.9 Diesel and a 4-speed. It was berkeleying awful. It rattled and stank while being slow and uncomfortable. It was one of those Vehicles where you want to slam your hand in the door before you turn the key so that you're prepared mentally for the journey. One day I went to look at a job that my crew was doing up a very steep driveway. The driveway went straight up from a lakefront Road, passed under a living room that was built over top of the driveway, to the neighbors property where we were working. There was a very small turn around at the top which was full of building supplies for the new home. I parked on the slope, put the handbrake on and put it in gear. My mistake here was that the handbrake was shot because the 6.9 was torquey enough that everyone would drive around with it on and not notice. My second mistake was most likely putting it in some random gear that was not bull low. I was walking around the site and I could hear this kind of rumbling noise that stopped and started. Then the rumbling noises joined into one long rumble and I looked up to see my truck in gear and motor turning going backwards down the driveway. Just before it hit one of the pillars holding up the living room it veered off into space and landed upside down on the road below. Once the shock was over and I was sure that nobody was underneath the thing I whooped and hollered and called my wife and told her what happened. One of the highlights of my driving career that day was.

I travel pretty often, so lots of rental cars. The list is large.  
 

the worst one I've ever had was a mini countryman. That car did not have a single redeeming quality. The clunks from the suspension competed with the squeaks in the interior. The gauges in the center is stupid. Even the feel of the door shutting annoyed me. 
 

The biggest letdown was a Mercedes EQE. I love Ev's, my wife's daily is an EV. Whoever spends 80k on that turd shaped turd needs their head checked. 6.4 second 0-60 in an EV is insulting. I spent more time trying to get CarPlay to work, than I did using CarPlay. 
 

Mercedes c300. A Toyota Corolla is a better car all around.  Garbage controls, tiny screen, garbage transmission. Its a car for people who want the status of owning a Mercedes I guess. 

Worst in absolute terms was a trashed Ford cargo van at my first job. The suspension was shot and the power steering was sawing back and forth with a mind of its own when you had it stopped with your hands off the wheel.

Worst car that was apparently working as intended was a 2018 Ford Escape. It somehow pulled a reverse Tardis, being much smaller on the inside than the outside. There wasn't nearly enough leg room for me. The engine was gutless and an ill-considered start/stop design would shut off the air conditioning at stoplights on scorching hot Georgia summers.

Just thought of another one. A well used 94 Chevy 1500 longbed with an auto V6. I test drove it with the wife and while it had high miles, seemed to be in decent shape for what seemed like a steal. About 10 minutes after paying the gentleman the thing started bucking like crazy. I don't remember how I figured this out, but slapping the ECU would correct the problem. I drove it like that for a few months and it was a crap shoot if it would start acting up. I hated just turning the key on the thing.  Blazing down the highway going 75 was scary because of the random bucking. Pulling into traffic could be a complete nightmare because that's when it would cut out the worst. I sold the truck to a younger kid and told him about EVERY problem it had for less than I paid. A few weeks later a gentleman knocked on my door asking me if I owned the truck before. Apparently that kid sold it to him doing a title jump. He failed to tell him about any of the problems, then screwed up the title royally. Since my information was still on the title he thought it might be worth a shot to see if I could help him out. So I kindly applied for a lost title for him and got him hooked up. I also went over everything again to make sure he understood what it needed or at least a good starting point. Just seeing the thing again gave me shivers.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I commend you for flogging it.........I would have loved to mistreat my mothers car.

Dodge Hornet.  I don't even know where to start.  Had one as a rental until, well, it didn't start.  Left us stranded.  I found nothing redeeming about it.

I'm the kind of weirdo who keeps a LIST  of every car I've ever driven. I really enjoyed my friend's Diesel Chevette. I have spent countless hours offroading Geo Trackers.

My father sold his 93 Toyota PU to one of his employees and replaced it with a barely used 2nd gen Tacoma, RCSB, 2.7, Manual, 4x4. It is by far the worst car I've ever driven and on paper it should have been as great as the PU before it.

Uncomfortable seating position
Smaller cab than the 93
Gutless
Poor gearing for 4x4 (3.55!)
Every control felt like it was connected to jello
No power whatsoever
1/2 ton handling in a 1/4 ton package
With factory sized tires the speedo was 10mph fast at 60

He replaced it with a 2nd gen Colorado that was much better in every single way.
 

1930 L29 Cord.

It's a tank, being FWD all that weight in the nose makes the steering awful. The shift linkage is vague and it's underpowered. 

I almost got it stuck going through the Tim Hortons drive through. Had to back up a couple times to get it through the tight corner.

Duesenbergs are kind of awful too. They're really big and heavy with a poor shifting transmission. You don't want to drive it unless you're specifically planning to take it out because that's the car you want to drive.

Auburns, Lincolns and Packards drive far better.

Vintage Mustangs are awful. Literally any other pony car is better.

From my perspective, driving sub- $2K piles nearly exclusively, it's kinda difficult to be disappointed as any trip completed is a triumph.



I did remember one car that was frustrating, however while I was starting to write my reply.
My first wife had a brand new 1989 Honda WagoVan when we started dating.   Not even 15,000 miles on it.  No options except automatic trans.  No A/C, no stereo, not even an antenna.   It was quick for what it was, and kinda fun, but if you had the wrong combination of windows open on the highway, the roof would beercan in and out violently, scaring the p00p out of you.   

But what made me hate it was the fact that the oil filter was on the back of the engine, and the exhaust ports were on the front.   The exhaust itself went under the oil filter so that the only way I could unscrew it was by burning my wrist/forearm on the hot exhaust pipe when changing the oil.  Before the car had 30k on it, it developed a leak at the mating surface for the filter that would drip a single drop of oil onto the exhaust at every traffic light, making you feel like you were driving an old American beater with a V8 and bad valve cover gaskets.    

We eventually traded it for a 1994 Saturn SW1 (with A/C!), and never looked back.

2021 Toyota Tacoma. On paper it's a nice truck. Crew cab, 4x4, long bed, V6, leather, sunroof, etc. Good color, and I upgraded it with wheels, tires, rack, cap, etc. Built it to be a nice camping rig. 
 

I hated it. Gutless, too much plastic on the inside, no personality. I owned it for under a month, sold it back to the dealer I bought it from and didn't lose any money. They sold it in 3 hours. I wanted it to be a nice truck, hopefully it was for the next guy, just wasn't me. 
 

Ford Aerostar - Rental. Drove horribly at any speed and was not comfortable.

nlevine said:

Ford Aerostar - Rental. Drove horribly at any speed and was not comfortable.

A friend of mine bought a cargo version off a government auction website.  It was in Mississippi.   I took a Greyhound down there from Chicago, and drove it back in an ice storm.   On summer tires.     My friend thought I was exaggerating how bad it was in the wind.   Until he drove it on a windy day.    It wasn't even raining.  He sold it soon after.

In reply to nlevine :

That would probably top my wife's list. 
And she had a used LeCar for a short bit!!!

In reply to nlevine :

That would probably top my wife's list. 
And she had a used LeCar for a short bit!!!

Worst drives: 

85 Mustang convertible with the 3.8L V6/automatic. I think it may have also had a really tall geared rear axle.  Floppy chassis, slow AF around town, numb steering, just awful. My rusty  MGB with partially missing rocker panels and out of true wire wheels felt like a seam welded track car in comparison.  

Driver's ed car which was a Ford LTD (possibly also '85ish?) , I think it had something like 5 turn lock-to-lock steering and was so slow and flabby feeling. 

Exceeded low expectations:

Late Pinto with a 2.3 and 4 speed,  Chevette with a manual (this one had a prior owner who was a mechanic, I think it may have been tweaked, the power was actually decent.) 

ShawnG said:

Vintage Mustangs are awful. Literally any other pony car is better.

Thank you for jogging my memory. I'd been thinking of my own cars, all of which had at least a few redeeming qualities, and totally forgot about my Vintage Mustang Experience. It was a '67 or '68 coupe that I was tasked with driving across town (coincidentally, the destination was next door to what is now Trent's shop). Typical Mustang motorboat stance, butt low and nose high, and it felt like I was sitting on the floor with my feet higher than my backside.

It had an automatic, and I genuinely couldn't tell whether it had two speeds or three because there were no discernable shifts - the little 200 six just groaned out the same labored, one-note NNNNAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGHHH sound no matter what I did with the throttle.

And the steering - power-assisted, light as a feather, loose as the proverbial goose, and slower than the second coming.

And the brakes. The brakes, such as they were, were terrifying. Four-wheel drums, of course, of approximately the same diameter as a Swanson pot pie and possessing approximately the same stopping power when wet. Which, of course, they were, because it was springtime in Eugene, raining heavily, and the route took us through flooded streets with puddles deep enough to drown a duck. Every time I applied the brakes, I had two seconds totally free of deceleration in which to predict which way the car would veer when whatever shoes still existed finally reached a drum. I seldom guessed correctly. It was literally all I could do to keep that thing between the lines.

It's the only car I ever drove that made me genuinely feel that I was about to die.

Hell, the Suzuki TM400 Cyclone I rode in high school was nowhere near as viscous as this Mustang.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

In their defense, there is a difference in "vintage" and  "worn out junk"

Wanted to rent a car for a long trip and wanted something fun so i reserved a Challenger, it was driving in Montana 99 percent 80mph highway so I thought it would work well.

Got a new Kia Optima instead, long story, but hateful car. Lane assist kept trying to throw me into traffic and I literally couldn't understand why anyone would willingly buy one.

Finally got the Challenger years later in Oahu. Don't get a Challenger and drive in Waikiki, you cannot believe how tight parking is

A company I worked for had a late '80s Cavalier wagon with a slushbox for "going across town" to the other plant.  It felt like a badly running VW bug anchored to an ocean liner.