What was the worst car you ever owned?

[Jim Richards]

Mine was the 1974 Triumph Spitfire (similar to the one pic'd below). My first new car. Multiple clutch throwout bearing failures, universal joint failures, under dash electrical fire, and needed a valve job...all in the first 4 years of ownership.

How about yours?

[widgeon13]

Nissan Maxima, can't remember the year.

[GH85Carrera]

I have only owned 5 cars, I still have two of them. All reliable cars. Of course I did my own maintanence and repairs. No problems.

[PorscheGAL]

2005 BMW X3. Bought Used with 50,000 miles. 1st 6 months-Radiator leak, hose from rear window washer leaked flooding entire back seat, needed new ac compressor, new o2 sensor, vacuum leak in fuel tank. Was in the shop 6 times in 6 months. Sold with 53,000 miles on odo.

[Scott R]

I've owned a ton, without a doubt my 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland.

[fingpilot]

1971 Plymouth Cricket.

No explanation needed.

[oldE]

Renault R 17
Model before the Fuego.
I used to refer to it as the "Sheep in Wolf's clothing".
Underpowered, ate brake pads like popcorn. When its time was up, everything went at once: subframe, transmission, engine, clutch and brakes. It was dead at 136K .

On the plus side, it had the neat electric canvas giant sunroof. and it looked cool.

How slow was it? It made the 79 diesel Rabbit look quick.

Les

[scottmandue]

Traded a Tandy 1000 for this, I think he got a better deal...

[968rz]

Orange 1976-? AMC Gremlin.
While it was a fun car; you could dispose of the empties trough the floor boards at speed.

[speeder]

I've owned probably 70-80 cars and I did not even have to think about this question for 2 seconds. It was my early '80s Jeep Grand Wagoneer. It got about 3 mpg and seemed like it was built by 12 year-olds on crack.

[Rapewta]

1975 El Camino. Lots of problems. Bought it used and had no history.

[onewhippedpuppy]

1995 BMW 318ti. Died on I-35 on the way home from Austin with a dead fuel pump. It went downhill from there. One of the most poorly made cars that I've ever owned, and most of the reason why I've lost my taste for BMW.

[andrew15]

Triumph TR-7 - My first car as a teenager. Shortly after purchase I had a dash fire that cut the electrics to the headlights. While driving 130km/hr on the highway. At night. Wth no moon. With a curve coming up. It sucked.

AM

[porsche4life]

1990 VW Corrado G60....

[azasadny]

Let's see...
It's a toss-up between the 1970 Ford Galaxie 500 and the 1966 Rambler Classic

[motion]

Triumph TR-7, hands down.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by andrew15

Triumph TR-7 - My first car as a teenager. Shortly after purchase I had a dash fire that cut the electrics to the headlights. While driving 130km/hr on the highway. At night. Wth no moon. With a curve coming up. It sucked.

AM

+1

Plastic wiring harness that snapped when you moved it. Coming back from LAX one night the headlights started rapidly opening and closing. I ended up pulling over on the 405 and jabbing a stick under each headlight to jam them open. Aluminum head, iron block,blew head gaskets.

[motion]

I overheated my TR-7 driving up the I-15 to Montana. Right before Beaver, UT, the thing started getting hot. We pulled over and tried to add water to the radiator, but couldn't locate a filler cap (I had just bought it the day before). Drove a bit more and it got hotter. Tried again to locate the filler cap, but no luck. Ended up blowing the head gasket and warping the head. Pushed it to a work-at-home mechanic in Beaver, where he worked on it for a month to get it running.

[seanmccafferty]

If the question is 'worst car you ever owned and you expected something better' then I'd go with a 1980s Audi 4000 and my current car 2007 BMW 335i.

The Japanese cars I've owned, Acura's and mulltiple Maxima's were very reliable.

I owned a Triumph TR6 for about 25 years but I had no illusions on what I was buying. Never leave home without a tool bag in the trunk, my cell phone and AAA/CAA membership :-)

[HHI944]

1995 jag xj that lived up to the Lucas tradition. Sold it after the third electrical fire..