Whats the worst vehicle you ever had?

[flyenby]

A 1965 Renault Daphne, had a crank to start it with when battery was dead, four door rear engine junk

[Willem Fick]

My dad's marriage proposal to my mother included that she had to get rid of her Renault Daphne...

[asphaltgambler]

!973 (Buick) Opel Cadet. Honest-to God the predecessor of the YUGO. That thing had the thinnest sheet metal I've ever seen. Lean on it and the fender would dent.

It had the BIG 1.9 that constantly leaked, burned and spat oil-no power and the carb either starved for fuel or leaked all over the intake.

[Brillo]

Originally posted by Jared Fenton
I had an 85 S-10 Blazer, that thing was built like a tank. Survived two head on collisions which should have killed it, and got over 450,000 miles on it before the cam lobes wore flat. Funny, my S-10 had the 2.8L V6 with a carburetor, not fuel injection.

Still have my '87 S10 Blazer 4x4 something less than 140K miles. Same 2.8. Best vehicle I have ever own. It has seen plenty of offroad dirt as well. Don't drive it much the last few years...too many cars, but just can't bring myself to let it go.

[Erakad]

Sigh...my first car was a 1969 Opel Kadette Ralley...also with that 1.9L engine....try as I could, I couldn't kill it...damn, still have fond memories of that one. Must be like your first girl friend.

[Flatbutt1]

worst POS? 1980 Wagoneer, new $10,000 3 years later sold it for $2000. After two transmission repairs, three clutches, two carburators and an electrical glitch that was never fixed.

So far my 1993 Explorer with 180K is still with me. A little cranky, looks like hell, but starts every time and goes where I need it to. 'course i don't push hard and stay within 40 miles of home with it !

[LeeH]

Out of the >40 cars I've had only one stands out in my mind and that was our '86 Dodge Neon, but not all the problems were the car's fault.

We bought the Neon new. A few weeks later there was a microburst nearby and the car got pelted with parts of the roof of our warehouse. Insurance paid $2400 in repairs.

A few thousand miles later a guy turned left in front of my wife. $6000 in repairs and 6 months later the car was back on the road. It should have been totalled, but since it was so new they fixed it. It took forever as the bodyshop (which had a great reputation) put it's least skilled people on the car. It's just a Neon, right?

Got it to Arizona and the transmission started to go. The dealer said it was "within specs" when my wife couldn't shift from first to second. We went through several visits to the dealer and finally called Chrysler customer service who suggested we try another dealer. They immediately replaced the entire tranny. At that point we sold it.

Last year out of the blue we got a $1600 check from State Farm. Some class action law suit regarding diminished value. Uhmm.... OK!

[Peter T.]

1973 BMW 2002... way over-rated, expensive to maintain, and IMO- ugly. Only bought it 'cuz girl friend liked it.
SOLD after 12 months. Dumped her a short time later...!

[Noah930]

I'm young enough (32) and fortunate enough never to have had a total POS car. I've also only had 3 cars (other than the P-car) in my adult life. But I do remember the early-70's Olds Cutlass Supreme that my dad had. Not that it was a nightmare car, but I do vaguely recall him having to wring the neck of the starter to get the engine fired up in the morning, and ironically his inability to turn off the motor once he got home from work. Kinda like Chevy Chase in Vacation, when he brings the station wagon home from the dealer. "Clark, why's the car still running?" That was the last American car we've ever bought.

[CamB]

Jaguar XJ6 - a series 2. Lovely ride, but it frequently had stuff wrong and didn't like daily use (neither did my wallet). Kept on rusting right up till when I sold it. Presumably still rusting in someone else's driveway.

BMW 02's aren't so bad. Sure, they rust, and aren't that fast, and bits are expensive, and, and, and...

[rrpjr]

I've been lucky. Never had a truly terrible car. Went through the obligatory teenager cheapo rust-buckets but they all started and got me where I had to go. Otherwise the worst car I remember was my brother's 69 MGC roadster. This was MG's first straight-6, I think, with a Rover engine. Not a day went by something didn't break, fall-off or malfunction. A total calamity. He finally traded it in for an orange VW bug, which I inherited, drove all through high school and college, twice across the country, and which our family even used to pull the hay cutters on our farm. After 200k miles, New England road salt claimed its life, and tears were shed.

[campbellcj]

Booger green 1972 Chevy Vega...

[oldE]

Guys! Where are the stories of 2 nd generation Chrysler minivans that ate transmissions? Friends of mine at one time had 2 of these things in their yard (purchased new) and, thats right, both of them had replacement transmissions within a year. Before they managed to 'get out from under' one vehicle was on its second replacement. Thank heavens for warranty!
Where are the Chev Luminas (and Olds Cutlasses) that ate rear disc brakes? Or was that an east coast phenomenon?
Maybe guys on this board are too smart to have bought those cars!
I once had a Renault 17 which died all-at-once at 135,000 miles. The engine, transmission, brakes, clutch and subframe all packed it in at once. I thought that was awfully decent of the POS to do that. I probably saved hundreds of dollars!
Les

[yellowline]

Originally posted by oldE
Guys! Where are the stories of 2 nd generation Chrysler minivans that ate transmissions? Friends of mine at one time had 2 of these things in their yard (purchased new) and, thats right, both of them had replacement transmissions within a year. Before they managed to 'get out from under' one vehicle was on its second replacement. Thank heavens for warranty!
Where are the Chev Luminas (and Olds Cutlasses) that ate rear disc brakes? Or was that an east coast phenomenon?
Les

And the Lexus LS-es that drop transmissions, and the 996 RMS problem, and the Toyota engine sludge, and the (in)famous MB M-class wiring, and the dealers for these brands who act like their cars are perfect, so the owners get treated like idiots...Worst of all, many of the cars I just mentioned are considerably more expensive (and newer) than the vehicles you mention, which are probably 10 years old.

Nothing's perfect, not even German products. Get over it.

[jfw834]

Originally posted by LeeH
Out of the >40 cars I've had only one stands out in my mind and that was our '86 Dodge Neon, but not all the problems were the car's fault.

did you mean a '96 Neon? had one of those as the first car I drove, the day I got my license....yes i'm young.

as for me i am also lucky that I haven't owned any crappy cars. my dad, however, worked for chrysler for 35 years and had a new car just about every year. We had a whole slew of minivans from every generation for my mom, and my dad had everything from jeeps to neons, omni GLHs (my favorite!) to chrysler seebrings.....and on and on. He now drives a brand new durango that has 3000 miles on it and will be turning that one in for another in a few months. he barely even breaks his cars in! and ironically, in the 18 years of my childhood riding around in 80's and 90's chrysler products, i can't really remember many problems with our cars.

(my dad is a die hard dodge brother though, and he might have not told me the car needed fixing on the way to the dealer to make sure that I would be loyal to his company when I get a car. oops....guess that didn't work!)

[tobster1911]

Originally posted by yellowline
Nothing's perfect, not even German products. Get over it.

Agreed!
For those whining about "look at all the American cars", please do an actual count of the breakout (US, EU, Asia) and let us know if this holds water. My perception is that the US does not lead the pack for bad cars.

Of course if you count the "my bug is cold, will not start, and catches fire but I love it" as a positive vote for the EU cars......

P.S. My roommate has a 1995 Ford Explorer V8 with over 300k original miles. No major repairs at all. Not even water pump or altinator.

[jkarolyi]

Yep, my family has had great luck with American iron too. Recently sold their '99 Chevy Astro with 105K with absolutely NOTHING replaced...even had the original battery! They still have a '97 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 with almost 200K and only a broken power window, one battery, and a wheel bearing replaced.

Then there's the '85 Mercedes 190E we had, it was on its third engine (broken timing chain problem) and third auto transmission when we sold it at 150K.

Good and bad cars can come from anywhere. (England may be an exception to this rule)

[oldE]

I'm sorry I gave the impression I was bashing American iron. As I mentioned, the Dodge minivans were new when the trannies went tango uniform. The GM fwd cars I mentioned were notorious here in the salt belt for their rear brake appetite when new, ("they all do that.")
I was very happy with my '88 Chev 1/2 ton (over 350,000 km when traded), and currently have a low milage F 150 in its place, a vehicle which seemed to experience dragging front calipers when they got hot. Solution: replace with aftermarket calipers at 40,000 km. Hmmm.
I have to shake my head when I talk to a friend who is a VW mechanic. Things like rear suspension bushings failing at 50,000 kilometers or windshield wiper mechanisms having to be removed and lubed after two years so they'll run at regular speed make me wonder what has happened to quality control.
I suppose if they built perfect cars, nobody could afford them.
Les

[Ned nyna 11]

Had a 412 VW wagon, early 70's vintage, got it free from a cousin.

The battery was under the passenger seat and it sank through the rusted floor to the ground, still connected.

The kids noticed it before I did and wanted to know what was hanging beneath the car!!

Ned

[stv951]

One of the worst (I call them unreliable) was a 924 turbo I had when I was a student (some 15 years ago). Broke the transmission 3 times, broke the turbocharger, had to rebuild the cylinder head, and was constantly left by the road due to a problematic starter motor. As expected I was always with a girl each time this happened.

It was so bad, that I recently bought 2 (yes 2) to keep me in trouble....!!!! Iam a weirdo I know !

One of the recent dissapointments was a used Alfa Romeo 156 I got for a while as a company car. Was happy that I changed it with an Audi A4 Turbo