What was your worst car?

[Andi]

Following on from a resurgence of "What was your first car" post

I feel it only fair to ask 

"What was your worst car you have actually owned and why?"

 

My hands down winner was a FIAT uno, Jeez it was crap, it really was a Fix It Again Tomorrow car. It was a nasty little rust bucket that did  0-60 in 30 odd seconds. Clutch went after trying this. Power steering went, coil springs, engine everything went wrong on it at some point and I only had it for 3 months or so.

More than that, it was just so boring to drive. In fact even as I type this I can feel my blood pressure going up. If you had to rely on it for a job, you would have been catching a bus to the jobcentre very quickly.

[LeicJim3a]

I can defiantly taking some bragging rights on this one a few years back I was given a company Ssang Yong pick up truck to drive it was the most unstable rear end wagging piece of rubbish I have ever had the displeasure of driving nearly killed me on many occasions !  

[Bob Tucker]

I had one car that was simultaneously the best and worst car.
It was a Vauxhall FB VX 4/90. Very plush interior, leather seats, velour trim on all doors, stunning paint in creamy white with a red flash along both sides.
It was a 1964 model I bought in 1968. It went like stink. 90 bhp back then was a lot. Twin solex carbs, ally head, larger valves than standard, 4 branch exhaust, all standard from the factory.

BUT it was based on the standard Victor that had a column change. So they fitted a convoluted linkage to a floor mounted gear lever. Bushings wore out, linkages came undone, rods broke, always at the most inconvenient time leaving you stuck in gear. Including driving to Cornwall on honeymoon. The clutch was a similar design, all rods and linkages that had the same issues. My old mans welding gear never got so much use.

It was so close to being a brilliant car, but it let me down so often, I only kept it for a year.

 

[nelmo]

Strictly, my kit is the worst car I've ever owned; had a few breakdowns, stuff fallen off, leaks, noisy, uncomfortable etc. Unfortunately, complaining to the manufacturer hasn't helped 

Otherwise, I've been lucky to never have a bad car IMO; slow (most of them), dull (Honda Stream), ugly (old Hyundai Santa Fe) but never bad. I've normally avoided the main manufacturers (Ford, Vauxhall, Citroen, Peugot etc) and mostly had Japanese, which may be the secret...

[Sparepart]

An early MGB roadster, bought as a project, everything I did to make it good brought more grief. Me towing it home with dad piloting it, he started the engine, to get heat from the heater, who knows what happened, but the next time I ran it, the big end bearings were grumbling and the oil pressure low. Replacing the bearings from below, engine in situ, sump off, one of the pistons dropped past the rings in the bore. Rear weel arches were replaced, this was expected, what was not was that going over a sleeping policeman both rear shock absorbers, the type with an arm, twisted up the chassis mounting point rather that move the arm, leaving them hanging in the air and the car bouncing down the road. Even though I had the clutch replaced, a little while later the slave cylinder rubbers burst and deposited all the fluid under the car leaving me stranded. Then as you might expect the main bearings started to rumble. The Twin SUs were never in balance for more than a week. There's lots more.  Eventually I was surprised that a garage took it in part exchange for a  Mk1 Ford Capri, what a relief.

[Smig380]

Went from a 1967 GT6 to a 1980's Metro, due to family pressures. Horrible thing, knackered hydraulic suspension, blowing oil out the exhaust, then had to replace clutch and head gasket in the end. Spent more time trying to fix it than the GT6 ! Ended up replacing it with an ex-driving school Vauxhall Nova that'd done twice the mileage but lasted us forever.

[SteveMWalker]

When I was starting my first, permanent work in 1990, I had a week to get hold of a car to be able to get there and back. I didn't have much money and I ended up with a Yugo 45.

If that was not bad enough, the tailgate was rusty, the clutch was slipping, a CV joint was on the way out, the accelerator cable was frayed and needed to be released by pulling the pedal up with the top of my shoe (an interesting ride home) and the bottom engine mount was split. It was only four years old, but had had a very hard life as a driving school car.

The good side was that I paid £500, replaced the clutch myself, sorted the cable, tidied up the tailgate and fitted an engine mount from a scrapyard - I left the CV joint alone - and 6 months later, I traded it in for £500, against a 2-year old Sierra. Definitely the best value for money car I owned, but awful from the start.

[laurat]

Ah, the dreaded “worst car” stories – always good for a laugh (or a headache if you're reliving it). My worst? A Peugeot 206 that was basically a rolling collection of bad decisions. It wasn’t just that it looked like it hated me; it behaved like it did too.

First off, the wheel bearings—oh, they had a short, dramatic life. I had to replace them twice in the same year because they seemed to crumble at the mere thought of a pothole. Every time I hit 50 mph, the car sounded like a blender full of rocks.

Edited December 14, 2024 by laurat

[Peter Bell]

Probably a 5 year old Capri Mk I  1100 I inherited from my father in law. It looked the part, red with black vinyl roof but rotten front wings, and rust appearing in various places. It was so underpowered, brakes were terrible, tiny front disks, didn’t keep it long but can’t remember what happened to it.