What was your biggest POS car ever?

[cantdrv55]

My first car was a ‘Vette. A Chevette. POS 4 speed stick but I learned to drive a manual on that thing. It used to break down monthly but I never worked on it. My stepdad’s brother just kept patching it up until it finally croaked for good. I lost my virginity in that car. It was a chick magnet, believe or not.

[WPOZZZ]

1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. My first SUV and I loved the utility of it. 360 V8 had no guts, brakes totally sucked. But boy, it could carry a lot of stuff!

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

My first car was a ‘Vette. A Chevette. POS 4 speed stick but I learned to drive a manual on that thing. It used to break down monthly but I never worked on it. My stepdad’s brother just kept patching it up until it finally croaked for good. I lost my virginity in that car. It was a chick magnet, believe or not.

Yep... even worse than my used '92 POS S10 Blazer ... it was my gf's used 'vette in the late 80s that I drove for 4 weeks (with my clutch leg in a full cast) ... it was NOT the new Supra Turbo I let her use instead

Even worse than '74 Pintos!

[oldE]

I looked back over this thread to see if I had mentioned the Renault 17, but upon reflection, recall the '73 Torino my Dad bought new and was sold for scrap in '79. While I was in possession of the car, it would not go through three inches of water without the ignition system requiring a "time out". I had to replace the muffler with less than two years on the car. One day I was following an old truck and mentioned to my wife,"That poor guy has a radiator leak. I can smell coolant." Except the poor guy was me. The carb heating block corroded and leaked. The carb had actually iced up on a drive home one Christmas. I did manage to get the thing off the highway to a garage before it choked itself to death. This was also the car that had the throttle linkage stick wide open one cold day. The seats could have been registered as torture devices. Aside from pick up trucks, that was the last 'domestic ' vehicle I have owned. The Renault 17 was a close 2nd, though.

[KNS]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

2001 BMW 330i...all kinds of electrical gremlins. Headlights going out every 3 months, crankshaft position sensors multiple times on both intake and exhaust sides, sometimes within months. Arrgghh!

E46s seem hit or miss. I have a 2004 325i with 254,000 miles (I'm original owner). It's freaky reliable. Never had an issue with headlights or any electrical gremlins. In fact every single light bulb, inside and out, is still the original, unchanged bulb.

As far as worst car - my 1982 Honda Prelude, it wasn't horrible but not super reliable. I hated it. Contrast that with my 1989 Prelude which I loved and still wish I had.

[gchappel]

I had a 1975 Vega while living in Pa.
I could hear it rust. I think the tires rusted.
When I pulled into a gas station and said fill it up- I meant oil.
Car survived until 1979- much of the electric system rewired with speaker wire- that is all I had available.
I bought a Fiat 1979 Spyder- it was actually much better. My mechanic actually wrecked it during a test drive.

BUT- by far my worst car-- Jeep Grand Cherokee 2024. It has been in the shop for the last 14 weeks this trip. All kind of electrical glitches they have no idea how to fix.

gary

[red-beard]

1993 Saturn SC2. I drove it for 2 weeks. Compared to the Honda I was driving it was all over the road, handled like crap. I had a 55 mile commute so this was not going to work. They had a 1 month return policy and I did. I ended up with a 1993 Honda Accord I drove 230,000 miles.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Baz

Maybe my first Vega ( I had two) - although once I got the engine repaired it was OK, really.

My Vega had the aluminum head or block I don't remember which. But it cracked and Chevy just shrugged it off. I had an independent shop do the repair then sold it

[yellowline]

1996 SL500 that I stuck with for ten years/100,000 miles.

Take a car designed in the mid-80s, then graft on OBDII and an early CANBUS so nothing really communicates well. Throw in a mfr and dealer network who was thoroughly indifferent to supporting their “timeless” product, an owner community that preferred to let others deal with repairs, extremely clunky diagnostic tools involving a multiplexer and a laptop with a serial port, etc.

Between initial purchase of a good 70,000 mile example, parts, sweat equity, and the loss I took in the final selling price, a 911 would’ve been comparably expensive and much more fun to own.

Never putting my own money into another MB.

[unclebilly]

2003 dodge 2500 HD diesel

[VINMAN]

'95 BMW 320! What a crappy built pos. Always has issues with it.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. My first SUV and I loved the utility of it. 360 V8 had no guts, brakes totally sucked. But boy, it could carry a lot of stuff!

I guess the reason I hadn't posted in this thread yet is because I've owned so many vehicles that I can't remember them all. I'm like a compulsive pet rescue person but with vehicles...always trying to save them from the junkyard.

But still, even after probably 100 cars and trucks, (many that I've forgotten), the one that really stands out was a Jeep Wagoneer from the late '70s or early '80s, before they started calling them "Grand Wagoneer." They had to do that because they stupidly decided to use the Wagoneer name on one of the smaller Cherokees and then reintroduced the big one but oops, we gave its name away. Who does that? A company built on schit-for-brains. The name Jeep only still exists due to the incredible, (I mean that literally), popularity of the CJ and Wrangler products.

Anyhow...it actually had a couple of good qualities, namely that it was unstoppable in deep snow and carried 4 or 5 people fairly comfortably. I remember the heat working well. So why was it such a POS? It got 7-8 mpg no matter how you drove it. For 7-8 mpg, I want a vehicle that performs like a modern Hellcat Durango. Something that does wheelies and melts the tires on command. Something that cops don't want to chase because it goes 200 mph uphill. This Wagoneer was slower than pig slop and seemed like it was built by auto workers on hunger strike who could barely lift their arms. Some of the parts were pre-rusted from the factory. The fasteners were bought in bulk from some country where they did not yet have running water.

It's amazing how much better vehicles got in subsequent years. Even unreliable ones that are on this list/thread drove ok when they were running and had decent power, for the most part. The late '70s was truly a dark time for domestic manufacturers.

[Rtrorkt]

Tr6

[monoflo]

1984 Ford Tempo

[p911dad]

Biggest POS for me was my 1998 Chrysler Concorde. Driver seat back collapsed while under way, it was thrilling holding onto the wheel to support my body! Then the front disc rotors shattered going down a steep hill, loosing the brakes. On a trip into the mountains of northern PA the left rear suspension locating link fractured cleanly, letting the rear suspension loose, the car just started wandering (luckily at a low speed). Then the electrical system shorted out and that was (thankfully) the smoky end of it. Swore off Chryslers forever after that thing!

[wdfifteen]

I’ve had so many POS cars and trucks, it’s hard to choose. My tolerance for POS vehicles was high when I was younger and I liked and drove them anyway.
Objectively, I’d say my ‘53 Henry J was the worst (it was the 4 cylinder version). My ‘62 VW bus was in good condition but it was underpowered and handled horribly. I liked it though. My ‘60 VW beetle was likewise underpowered and poor handling but I loved that car.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by p911dad

Biggest POS for me was my 1998 Chrysler Concorde. Driver seat back collapsed while under way, it was thrilling holding onto the wheel to support my body! Then the front disc rotors shattered going down a steep hill, loosing the brakes. On a trip into the mountains of northern PA the left rear suspension locating link fractured cleanly, letting the rear suspension loose, the car just started wandering (luckily at a low speed). Then the electrical system shorted out and that was (thankfully) the smoky end of it. Swore off Chryslers forever after that thing!

Don’t take this wrong but how much do you weigh?

[WPOZZZ]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

My first car was a ‘Vette. A Chevette. POS 4 speed stick but I learned to drive a manual on that thing. It used to break down monthly but I never worked on it. My stepdad’s brother just kept patching it up until it finally croaked for good. I lost my virginity in that car. It was a chick magnet, believe or not.

My friend had one in high school. We gave it a worse nickname, Shetvette.

[Skip Newsom]

1989 Ford Ranger, V6 and automatic transmission, the transmission was a Mitsubishi unit that was waaay too light duty for a truck.

First time the transmission "automatically" let go I'd been moving materials to put in a yard, but not overloading it. It was still under warranty so back it went to the dealer and 5 pages of parts were replaced. That lasted anther couple years and it let go driving up a Mountain pass with nothing but my son and I and a couple backpacks in it (no, we don't weigh that much).

A very expensive tow bill and long visit to a local transmission shop where the mechanic said- Ah another one of these, I know just how to fix them and "upgrade" a few components-

I kept it another year and sold it with full disclosure of it's prior issues and suggested not putting much of a load in it, ever.

The brakes were crappy too, panic stops were leisurely at best.

I swore off Fords after that and have had a couple of Dodge trucks since.

I currently own a 2013 I picked up used in 2015 and have had a fantastic experience with it, very anti-POS, no transmission issues, great brakes, a good strong motor and very comfortable even on long trips

[thingmon]

2014 Dodge 5.7L top end (cam, lifters, etc....) went at ~150k. Pretty common problem. Then the rack and pinion. Good truck otherwise.