Worst car you ever owned

**renovation** · 10-24-2006, 10:39 PM

Unknown year now - 1975-78 VW Scirocco put plates and insurance on it for maybe 4 days total. drove it to work the first time and on the way there I had to pull over and toss the rear seat out of it. some how a wire burned the seat up. made it to work do. about 20 miles each way. The 2nd day I get like 1/4 of the way 5 miles and the CV joint broke. Had the car towed home, paid the bill then called up a week or two later and have the junk yard haul it away. Made enough to pay the tow bill. but lost 4-5 hundred I paid for this piece of junk and it even came with a spare motor!

Then went out and bought a brand new car-that lasted me and the wife 8 years or more!

**Airencracken** · 10-24-2006, 10:55 PM

1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon.

I fixed that piece of **** every weekend. Autozone had me by the balls.

I miss it like crazy.

**RIVERWIDOW** · 10-24-2006, 11:41 PM

1956 Plymouth station wagon. With a push button transmission!!The ugliest color brown you have ever seen. The buttons kept getting stuck. I got it when I graduated from High school in '66.

**MikeD** · 10-25-2006, 05:38 AM

I've loved all my cars, but the biggest bucket was probably either my '84 Camry or '88 Civic.

Fave all of time was my '90 Maxima. Totally blacked out with three 15" Kickers, 17" chrome trios, and 4% window tint. Damn thing was a ticket machine.

**mechmike0034** · 10-25-2006, 05:46 AM

Originally Posted by RIVERWIDOW

1956 Plymouth station wagon. With a push button transmission!!

Chrysler's pushbutton trans selector was referred to as "typewriter drive" back then. In the '60s, Plymouth and Dodge Super Stock drag racers were so successful with it that the racing community nicknamed it "Dial-a-winner"...

Pushbuttons went away for good around '65 or '66.

**mechmike0034** · 10-25-2006, 06:03 AM

The worst POS I ever owned was a 1996 Saab 900S that I bought for my wife to drive in 2000.

My family had, up to that point, owned Saab cars since the early '60s. My dad bought two 96 cars brand new (both were three-cylinder two-stroke engines...) and we restored a '72 Sonett III (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Sonett) in the early '80s. I owned two 1968 Saab 96 cars (four-stroke V4 powered) in the early '90s and bought my wife a used '89 900 sedan in about 1993 that was a great car.

The 1996 900S was traded three years ago after I put an engine in it - it spun a rod bearing at 65K miles. Even after that it had an annoying habit of coming home on the back of a wrecker every two or three weeks for something else breaking.

Never again... Though I'd take another '60s 96 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_96) if I could find one that wasn't rusty...

**johnnymk** · 10-25-2006, 06:44 AM

Even though it was a blast to drive: a 1972 Vega with a 4 speed trans. The guy before me had two engines in it and I put three engines in it. And it was a rust bucket.

Guess that's the reason you never see them on the highway.

**Markel** · 10-25-2006, 07:41 AM

Similar to mechmike - mine would be the 1976 Saab 99 that I bought in 1978. The car was great to drive, but prone to problems. Clutch would need replacing every 25,000 miles (don't say it was me - my Nissan Stanza Wagon had 120,000K on the original clutch when I got rid of it, and that included my 16-year-old daughter learning to drive on it). Transmission needed major repair twice. Many other problems. When I got rid of it, there was some major problem with the fuel injection that would flood the engine at every opportunity.

**guiseppewv** · 10-25-2006, 08:11 AM

96 Chevy Z-24. What a POS. I had problems with it from day 1 and GM was worthless. At the time I was in college and barely making ends meet, so I vowed to never ever buy another GM.

**bachviet** · 10-25-2006, 08:22 AM

1981 Audi 5000s <--- worst POS I ever owned

**DarkFury** · 10-25-2006, 08:37 AM

Although I've loved ALL of my cars (and the problems that sometimes came with them...) I'd say that there was a 3 way tie between my '78 Chevy Monza, my '89 Furd Probe, and my '99 Dodge Dakota...

The '78 Monza was about as "base" as you can get (power nothing except the engine) with a clutch that needed "Herculean force" to push in... That car left me "high and dry" on an out of town road trip and the clutch pedal physically broke away from it's mounting position on the firewall (can you say "engine freespin" in the middle of traffic.... with only brakes and steering to bring me back to safety?)

My '89 Probe had a plethora of intermittent electrical problems... therefore you were never really sure if it would crank or not. On the days of a "sucessful crank" you felt like you just won the lottery... on the non sucessful days, you felt like you just got drafted and issued papers to go to war.

My '99 Dakota had a variety of issues, all of which were never disclosed by Carfax, the dealer, or the previous owner. It was the first vehicle that I had purchased used (and probably the last...) and it ended up having to have a major engine rebuild (I came to find out that the engine had been previously blacklisted by Dodge as "unwarrantiable"... of course they never told me that when I was in the process of buying it.) and it had a major paint defect where it was going from "Deep Amethyst" (i.e. purplish blue) to white. Of course the dealer tried to tell me that this was "environmental", however other experts in the paint field challenged that assumption.

But yet and still, I did love those cars during the time that I owned them. They were just the problem children of my automotive family.

**InfiniteNothing** · 10-25-2006, 09:30 AM

I've driven one, never owned one, but I've never met a dodge neon owner that's liked their car for too long.

**brainsmile** · 10-25-2006, 09:53 AM

Ford Tempo

**ramazank2** · 10-25-2006, 10:04 AM

I ve liked all my cars:

1985 GMC Jimmy
1995 Chevy Blazer
2006 Toyota Rav4 (current)

**DarkFury** · 10-25-2006, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by InfiniteNothing

I've driven one, never owned one, but I've never met a dodge neon owner that's liked their car for too long.

Not even the folks that have the Neon SRT-4?

**InfiniteNothing** · 10-25-2006, 10:44 AM

No but my sample pool is limited. I'm sure happy Neon owners with 100K miles are out there somewhere.

**ramazank2** · 10-25-2006, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by InfiniteNothing

No but my sample pool is limited. I'm sure happy Neon owners with 100K miles are out there somewhere.

Are you really sure about that?

**Full Monty** · 10-25-2006, 12:11 PM

1985 Merkur XR4Ti. Blew the head gasket once when I got on the turbo and it had piston knocking like you wouldn't believe. Plus every time I shut the engine off, the coolant overflow tank would relieve pressure by shooting out a bunch of coolant!!!

**Dazzling** · 10-25-2006, 12:15 PM

I had a 2000 VW Jetta. It was the worst car in the world. I bought it new with less then 3 miles on it. One week later the transmission went out....since then it was in VW garage more then mine for the next 4 years!! I will never ever buy another VW!!

**dsuds** · 10-25-2006, 01:21 PM

1980 Ford Granada (aka the Grenade)

Wasn't actually that bad a car, but it had NO POWER. 200 cid straight six (rated at 96hp), single barrel carb, automatic transmission, AM radio, worn shocks, chocolate brown. It "scorched" through the quarter mile in a day and a half. I've owned stock, air-cooled VW's that were faster.

This thing was a real chick magnet..... NOT!!!

(Dis)honorable mention goes to my 1978 Plymouth Arrow, made by Mitsubishi. Car had no personality at all, none. It wasn't actually that bad to drive, but it wasn't good either. It was just BLAH.

Engine was so quiet that you never heard it. This wouldn't have been bad except that the car suffered from bad electrical grounding on the motor (design flaw, not redneck mechanic). When you'd pull up to a stop sign - the engine would just quit. And you had no clue it had stalled except the idiot lights came on.

**Markel** · 10-25-2006, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by InfiniteNothing

No but my sample pool is limited. I'm sure happy Neon owners with 100K miles are out there somewhere.

Every Neon owner I've talked with said it was the last Neon they would ever own.

**renovation** · 10-25-2006, 03:09 PM

(Dis)honorable mention goes to my 1978 Plymouth Arrow, made by Mitsubishi. Car had no personality at all, none. It wasn't actually that bad to drive, but it wasn't good either. It was just BLAH.

Engine was so quiet that you never heard it. This wouldn't have been bad except that the car suffered from bad electrical grounding on the motor (design flaw, not redneck mechanic). When you'd pull up to a stop sign - the engine would just quit. And you had no clue it had stalled except the idiot lights came on.

Had a Dodge Colt-same problem. Also finding a starter for it was a treat. They must have used/made 20 different ones for those P.O.S. but I loved that car when the hood flew up and bent the pillers. My auto insurances company totaled it and payed me $2200 and the motor had like 4 lbs of compression per cylinder.

**Thesifer** · 10-25-2006, 03:20 PM

My worst car that I have ever owned:

2001 Honda Civic. Bought brand new in 2001. It gets the worst gas mileage of any car that I have owned. Compaired to the other cars it has the worst handling and breaks down the most often.

Ok ok.. So I've never owned any other cars but this one..

**Kevster** · 10-26-2006, 08:07 AM

The worst one is probably the one I have to drive right now: a 1999 Saturn SC2. It burns a quart of oil every 1,000 miles and it started doing that at 40,000 miles or so. I'm putting a ton of mileage on it right now commuting 52 miles each way and driving from Sacramento to L.A. and back almost every weekend. Still, it rattles like hell and there's seemingly a new problem with it every 5,000 miles or so. I want my Honda Accord back damnit.

**thresher** · 10-26-2006, 04:28 PM

1985 Chevy K5 Blazer. Black w/red and white interior 4X4. I traded my favorite Toyota 4X4 (WITH NOTHING WRONG WITH IT) plus $2k for that POS. It cost me $100 a mile by the time I averaged out what I paid and sold that egobox for. I had the rear end go out in the middle of an intersection and I had to engage low 4 just to use the front diff to CRAWL out of the intersection dragging the rear end. It took me years to get ahead carwise again.

Bad topic. Bad.

**Hoser** · 10-26-2006, 07:21 PM

1979 2.3L Ford Fairmont with California emissions. This car didn't even qualify to be called a gutless wonder.

**dsuds** · 10-27-2006, 06:07 AM

I concede.

You got me there Hoser.

Since the Fairmont & Granada were basically the same car, I can't imagine how slow it must have been with Ford's terrible 2.3L engine. With the CA emission package added on it must have been a real turd. What did you use to measure quarter mile times? A sundial?

If you took that car (or my Granada) drag racing the only other vehicles in your bracket would have been diesel Rabbits and tri-cycles.

I do remember on mine when you went to pass somebody (which rarely happened), when I'd hit the gas, the only thing that changed was the sound of the motor, there was no acceleration.

**Paymaster** · 10-27-2006, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by RIVERWIDOW

1956 Plymouth station wagon. With a push button transmission!!

Based on the year, I am betting that was the two speed pushbutton automatic? You gotta point that out.

**sizemic1** · 10-29-2006, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by thresher

1985 Chevy K5 Blazer. Black w/red and white interior 4X4. I traded my favorite Toyota 4X4 (WITH NOTHING WRONG WITH IT) plus $2k for that POS. It cost me $100 a mile by the time I averaged out what I paid and sold that egobox for. I had the rear end go out in the middle of an intersection and I had to engage low 4 just to use the front diff to CRAWL out of the intersection dragging the rear end. It took me years to get ahead carwise again.

Bad topic. Bad.

HAHAHA! I'm picturing a dog dragging it's ass across the front yard.

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