Tell us about your worst car

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.

• The pickup bed is absolutely worthless for carrying anything
• The rear seat only seats two and only has legroom for double amputees
• It weighed 3400lbs and only had 155hp, so it was dog slow
• Transmission gearing was terrible: First gear was too high, so it felt like you were starting in Second. Fifth gear was too low, so it felt like you were going down the road in Fourth gear.
• It only got 20mpg on a bad day
• Minimal ground clearance
• Typical Subaru issues of always leaking some fluid, rust that progressed overnight, brakes were always giving fits, pain in the ass to work on..

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.