'95 Daewoo Cielo. Was a hand-me-down from my mom who bought it by walking into a dealership and asking for the cheapest car.
Broke down on most drives, was slower than hell, couldn't turn or stop worth a damn either (brakes were just scary-bad) and I think it did permanent damage to my sex life.
My '88 325is. That car has pretty much been a nightmare since the day I bought it. Three years of utter automotive hell... I'm stuck with the POS for at least another few months, but I'll be incredibly happy to see those tail lights for the last time. The ex-g/f's '97 M3 had me gunshy of BMW's before... and this car could make swear them off forever and go back to fiddling with MINI's, which I find much easier to work on.
2000 or 2001 Nissan Maxima that had been in a rental fleet. Had to replace a coil pack every 2-3 months. Bought the car on a whim after we got pregnant with first kid and decided an Eclipse wasn't big enough. Kept it for 2 years before trading for the best car ever owned, 2003 Mazda MPV.
1989 Jeep Comanche Eliminator.
I knew lots of guys that had great luck with these trucks and their SUV bretheren.
I managed to get the one built at beer-o-clock on a Friday.
It was broken more than it was fixed, had major electrical gremlins and Renix fuel injection sucks donkey balls.
At least it was fast.
Shawn
The ones I owned were all pretty good, for the most part, but I was never so glad to see a car sold as when my F-I-L traded in his 2000 Buick Century. Worst built car I've ever seen. I still remember getting bloody knuckles trying to change the spark plugs because the firewall had sheet metal screws through it from the inside with the points facing toward the engine.
2000 Chevy Blazer. Absolute garbage. Traded it in during the cash-for-clunkers. I was thrilled to know that p.o.s. was getting crushed.
Hmm...I've either been lucky, or just have really low expectations. 
I owned a '93 Corrado and didn't have any issues other than a failed TPS and broken sunroof - but it was broken when I got the car.
I blew the head gasket on a 260,000 mile Volvo 740 cruising down the interstate in FL on a hot summer day. But I can't really say the car was bad.
That predicament led me to buy an Audi 4000 Quattro in an attempt to get back home. The car ended up being more problematic than I had time/funds to deal with & I sold it shortly afterwards - but I'd love to find another one!
I was disappointed by my '03 Protege. It wasn't junk, just a very lackluster car that no amount of modification seemed to help.
On the other hand, my '07 Accent has proven to be an adorable little E36 M3box.
'88 Celica All-Trac. Wasn't a bad car, just got hacked by the PO's and Toyota's electronics are the biggest mind boggle I've ever touched.
Saying that, I will say that '96 Civic Coupe I had before this Accord was an utter pile of dog crap. I'l never own another Civic. If I had to buy something small-chassis Honda again, it'd be an Integra, hands down. Even that beater Olds wagon I had was better than that Civic.
A Ford Bronco II.
I'm not even sure why I bought it. It had the most anemic v6 ever made. The clutch and shifter were like wet noodles. It never ran right. It almost tipped over emergency braking on the highway and rode like an F-350 for no good reason.
100% POS.
in 2001 i sold my wife's 1988 Acura Legend coupe with 100k miles on it.
at that time it was leaking EVERY fluid it contained. Brake fluid. Trans fluid. Steering fluid. Anti-freeze. Oil. And worst of all, Gas.
all the ball joints were toast.
it was also rusting everywhere you look. the jacking points were all soft. there were holes in the rear quarters and the bottoms of the front fenders were swiss cheese.
My worst car, dynamically and ergonomically, was a Cutlass Calais i got for free. I would still be willing to own a 442 version.
1975 Pontiac Accordian (a variant of the Chevrolet Shove-it).
Inherited from the wife's deceased grandfather, that paragon of automotive decrepitude ran a wheezing 1600 cc version of what was actually a very good engine (SOHC 200 Pinto) in the 1972 Cortinas we'd owned (you guys in the US never got the Mk 3 Cortina).
The car could be driven foot to the floor and no one really noticed you. Our dog at the time suffered some sort of brain fart while shut up in it for a half hour or so, perhaps when he discovered he couldn't fit through the gaps at the top of the windows, and applied himself to totally shredding every scrap of carpet in the car.
Shortly after that, my wife managed to spill a quart (this was premetrification, which shows how long ago it was) of milk in the car on the way to a weekend away, and she parked the car in the hot sun over the weekend. It was hot, and the milk 'ripened' to the extent that when she returned and opened the door, people several cars away reeled and seagulls fell from the sky.
We then decided to sell the carpetless lactic reeking hulk and actually found an elderly gentleman that had apparently lost his sense of smell (I didn't say anything about the milky pong, nor did he, but I'd have given a lot to be standing by when he made his first pick up of a relative or lady friend in his new car and opened the door for them....
'91 Daytona Shelby Z turdblow......
2011 Hyundai Sonata Limited with 2.0 TGDI engine, purchased brand new. Transmission leaked fluid from day one. Dealer opens and re-seals the case. Still leaks. Dealer installs rebuilt transmission. Transmission spontaneously downshifts 4 gears at highway speed. Dealer replaces parts. It happens again. Dealer re-programs transmission. From new, car felt mis-aligned. Dealer performed repair. Steering slightly improved, still vague. Interior build quality mediocre, with gaps and rattles. Dealer unable to fix. "Smart key" system fails to start car after brake switch failure stranding wife and kids. Car traded on new v6 Accord. Happiness ensues. The Accord has been perfect.
Define worst. If you use repair time vs. driving, then I have two that come to mind.
'67 Triumph TR4-A. I owned this in college and it is the only car I've owned where pieces would randomly fall off. Somewhere there's a pair of wipers still laying beside the road. They left the car in unison one rainy evening never to be seen again. I had to carry spare voltage regulators, fuel pumps, head gaskets, etc. with me at all times, and all were changed on the side of the road if needed. But I would own another one in a heart beat. So define worst.
'97 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Only owned it for a short time. Bought from my dad who bought it new. Never ran when I had it because it kept going through fuel pumps. Also had a trans failure, water pump, tire rods, leaking injector, and more. Oh, and it wasn't at 70k miles yet.
Ironically, none of my Italian cars were as bad as the Jeep.
'95 E36
Random things would break on that POS every month or two - cooling system, coils, sensors, bushings, limp modes etc etc
$7k worth of repairs in 2 years. Thankfully all under warranty - minus all the towing costs and having to rent a replacement when it was in the shop.
I don't own it, but the '95 Sentra my girlfriend owns would certainly be in the running.
jdbuilder wrote: I swore off chevy for ever! (Then bought a Cts-V a year later! Lol!)
That's because the CTS-V is Opel by way of Caddy, while the Aveo was Opel by way of Daewoo.
I've never met a Korean car that wasn't crap.
My worst car was actually two cars:
I had an 86 Saab 900 that was just terrible and my wife had a 2001 VW CABRIO that was even worse! The Saab broke in aggravating ways, and at inopportune moments (ex: shift lever broke off in the middle of an illegal U-turn in Boston traffic), and the VW was just possessed by the devil. The CEL meant it was running. We spent thousands trying to turn that berkeleying light off, to no avail. But, at least, unlike the Saab, the VW never stranded us.
I wish I could bookmark some of these cars to ever keep me from wanting to buy one.
My worst car was the 72 Vega I've mentioned before. It didn't break a lot, it was just such a poorly conceived and executed car it defies description.
1986 Mercedes 190E quote from the dealer "this is our entry level car and we expect more problems with it" after they had replaced the trans 3x and the climate control system 2x plus the other costs of operation. All within 9 months of purchase.
Turdbota Scumlander. Repost from my last rant about that abortion of a vehicle.
Worst automotive mistake of my life. Spousal unit needed a new car. I was pushing for an E46, B6 Audi or C class Wagon. We were close, but she decided she wanted an SUV. I favored a Honda Pilot or Explorer, but she want a Toyota coz you know Toyota are reliable!!! I loathed and hated that POS from the moment we got it until the moment it was gone. Reliability and quality! Ha, non existent.
• The headlights melted, yes really. They tried to accuse us of fitting higher output bulbs (no we hadn’t).
• steering intermediate shaft failed
• Brake master cyl leaked
• Rear wheel bearing failed
• Heater control unit in the dash failed (that was going to be $1k for parts and a nightmare to change, managed to trade it with the busted one)
• Drive shaft center bearing failed. Needed to change that, but the whole drive shaft and bearing come as a unit at some astronomical cost, so I thought I’d get a used one. I called numerous junk yards who claimed to have one, but when I asked them to check the center bearing, they were all worn/loose. I finally found a local place that had 3 and claimed they were all good. Drove out there and sure enough, all on their way out so I picked the best and put that on to trade it.
There was also a ton of less serious stuff.
• The floor mats were so thin and E36 M3ty they wore through in less than a year.
• The crappy (sorry quality) soft touch trim started wearing though within a year so you could see the base plastic underneath in a different color.
• The paint!!! The paint was so thin I think it had a negative thickness. I’ve never had a car with paint that scratched and faded so quickly, if you sat down in a chair and watched it you could see it deteriorate in front of your eyes. I’ve never see paint age so quickly or scratch so easily in my life, even when I was a teen and painting cars with lacquer paint.
Now, if the car had had some redeeming characters in its driving dynamics I might have been able to stomach the worst quality and reliability of any car I’ve ever known, but no it was so bland boring dull, dumbed down that I developed a serious caffeine habit trying to stay awake while driving it further than my driveway. I got confused unloading grocery’s sometimes and start putting them back in the car mistaking it for the fridge as a dull appliance.
Only listing the Highlander (or Turdbota Scumlander as I not so affectionately refer to them) is a move in the right direction. I’m trying had to leave my hatred of all things Toyota behind and remind myself of the amazing vehicles they’ve produced in the past, and give them credit for the Toybaru twins now, which really are cool.
Unfortunately my dd 87 325e. Mostly because the po thought his "mechanic" son knew what he ws doing service wise. Tranny was installed empty during his clutch replacement and spun the shaft bearings on the way home. Ac compressor was held on with one bolt, gas line immediately develped a leak (over the exhaust manifold... Yay). Plastic radiator broke dumping all my coolant in rush hour frying my head gasket. Tires were leaking air so bad that one was flat the day after I brought it home. Another went a week later. The passenger window eats motors monthly. The ac has never worked and the blower fan sounds like someone put a baseball card on bicycle spokes. It is the polar opposite of the $500 86 325 I am tracking. But it is down to the ac and window motor issues now so maybe I crossed the hump! God I love that car!
In reply to M030: You know you miss that cabrio! I knew it was you before I looked at the avatar. lol
'95 S-10 Blazer purchased 2006 or 2007 if I remember. Problems from day one including the test drive. Bought for $2500 from a Chevy dealer with a check engine light on, they wouldn't read the code for me (??) and on the test drive we stopped at Autozone. Supposedly just needed minor adjustment/repair.
Should have walked away when the dealer wouldn't read the code himself (said something about his service dept charging for it or something). Ended up about ~$800 in repairs right after purchase, but having come down from $3500 I thought I was ok.
Every day I wondered if it would start when I started it, and keep running until I shut it off. Many times it didn't do either. Worst was when it died in the left lane of I-75 at 65mph, luckily Cincinnati is stupid enough to have left lane exits & I coasted thru the exit and long overpass, and almost made it to the end of the ramp...
I totaled it Dec 2008 and except for some bruising and sore ribs, I was very happy that day.
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