worst car ever owned

A '03 Cobra. I guess I just had a bad one. But it must have seen 25 trips back to the dealer in less then 15 months. I sold it on the 16th month.

No more Fords for me....

 

Ford Bronco 2..............It was the biggest POS of all time.

 

Yugo GVHL Twin Turbo Convertible

 

LandRover - RangeRover - absolute biggest POS of all time...something new and expensive breaks every freakin' day

 

1999 VW Passat. Actually the only car ive ever owned I didnt like.

 

1952 VW Bug...

No turn signals (it had 'flippers')

No gas gauge... when you ran out, you turned a handle under the dash to go the the VERY NEXT gas station

and, worst of all, 25 hp...that's it...25...

Oh, and impossible to get original parts for...and I was in Berlin, Germany (1980-1983)

But, at the same time, it was a great conversation piece...it was first year they didn't have a split rear window...it had a small oval window.

Ach du lieber!

Mike in Kuwait

 

1987 Chevette. It replaced my Yugo that got smashed -- and the Yugo was a LOT better car.

 

I had an 82 Chevette, with a diesel engine. They did not offer a/c because it would bog the engine. The car was supposed to save the planet with its 52 mpg. It was loud, stunk and was all covered with an oil film.

Another bad one was a 62 Nova with holes in the floor. One slushy morning driving to work, ice built up under the carpet. I was unaware until I came to a country road 90 degree turn. The carpet was pushed up against the brake pedal and would not move. Now I know how Jan Opperman got around a dirt track.

 

Life's too short to drive a bad car.

 

2002 Chevy Traiblazer

ball joints every 4 months
bearings every 6 months
rattled like crazy

 

2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac.....tranny problems that could never get fixed right....Ford took it the POS back and I bought a 2008 Hyundai Azera (best daily I have had).

 

1977 Ford Pinto in baby blue. It only ran on 3.5 cylinders, leaky radiator and reverse was out. Only paid 75 bucks for it and drove it for about 6 months. Sold it for 75.00 and it blew up a week later.

 

1974 MBG. Purple with a yellowish interior (I kid you not). I got it cheap with only 6K on the clock.

It was so slow, I had a stop light drag race against a beat up VW beetle and LOST badly. I went through 3 alternators and 4 fuel pumps in 2 years. Those ridiculous twin 6 volt batteries lasted only a year and you would have to tap and drill a screws in the electrodes to attach the cable connectors. Once, one of the carburators leaked and gas poured out of the engine in a flowing stream (luckily, no fire by some miracle). Sometimes the car would start to run rough. If you looked under the hood you could see the SU carburators had vibrated the plastic top oil caps off.

The exhaust and intake manifolds would break because the car ran on so much when it was turned off, it would shake the engine violently back and forth before finally stopping. No matter how much you waxed it, the paint would come off in your hand if you rubbed it over the surface. The wire wheel spokes broke from rush. The top leaked and broke your figures to latch it. To put the top up, you had to snap these silly hidden clips near the back window that usually broke or wore out. The heater controls were ON and OFF. And, don't tell me about rust. I learned the meaning of rust from the MGB -- while living in ARIZONA!

Without question, the worst thing "British Leyland" did was to send these pieces of junk to unsuspecting American buyers. The only thing that was well engineered was the emergency lights. I suppose they figured it would break down so often, you might need to use them a lot. I never bought British again after the MGB. I still have shakes if I see one going down the street.

I cleaned the MGB up as best I could and traded it in for a used 1973 Alfa Spider. That's when I learned what a good sports car could be.

 

2002 Jetta. Was constantly in the shop.

 

The worst car was a VW 2002 Passat wagon Blown motor at 129,000 miles with oil sludge problem. I used sythetic oil Mobil 1 and it still locked up most of these 1.8T motors sludged up at 35,000 miles and VW replaced some of them but not mine. 2002 Audi A6 was next motor failed at 80,000 miles. Both cars had water leaks and lots of electrical problems. The end of my German car experience. I will never by another German car again.

 

Interesting that a lot of the cars here are VWs and Fords...

I had an '06 Mustang GT that is the only car I regret buying.

Also had an '02 Jetta that was a nice little car but broke a lot.

 

1979 Firebird,,, New car delivered with the following "defects"....

Leaking wheel (porosity in casting caused tire to deflate every two days)... Trunk lid didn't fit, hinges were distorted by a gorilla on assy line cramming it to get it closed the first time, holes for hinge mounting were "out of position". Every time you put it into reverse the fuse for all of the lights on the back of the car blew... Dealer simply put in a new fuse and didn't find the short in the backup light circuit for three trips back for repair. Weather stripping on drivers door was slashed open. Gas gage didn't work. Transmission leaked. Radio didn't work.... And finally, the hood release didn't work. When I asked the manager of the service department if they did a pre-delivery inspection and opened the hood, he assured me that they did (at least they got paid by the factory to do one). You shoulda seen the look on his face when I told him that they couldn't have looked under the hood, because they woulda found the hood release didn't work if they had... That was just the start, after the tranny blew for the second time, (the first time the car only had 300 miles on it) it was almost out of warranty so I got rid of it... Obvious why GM went down the tubes...

OTOH, the best car we ever had was my wife's Saturn VUE, other than consumeables (fluid changes, front brake pads, tires and a battery) over 120,000 trouble free miles. So I guess GM has really improved.

 

My Jetta was a POS. And the service departments weren't much better. I took it to get an oil change at the dealer. Pulling out of the service area, I hear a big "thud". It was the rear driver's side window, it had fallen completely down into the door. Service Tech runs up and says "oh yeah there is a TSB about that". Then, next oil change, I pay them $40 or so to rotate and balance the tires. One of the wheels had a little curb rash. It was on the front. Yep, it hadn't budged. After that I took it to another dealer. Same kind of issues. VW was just a real Mickey Mouse outfit from top to bottom.

Here are some more issues:
Even after the TSB fix the rear windows fell off the track a few more times.
Same with the front windows.
Check engine light came on every couple thousand miles, some kind of hose that came off its mount.
Key ate batteries.
Transmission failed at 80,000 miles. Sealed unit, built to last only 100,000 miles. We scavenged one for a few hundred $ and put it in and I got rid of the car.

They built that thing in Mexico, I seriously think that is why it was so unreliable.

 

My Passat was built in Germany and it was a POS. VW and Audi dealer and service dept. are the worst in the industry. I was at a black tie event and they sat me at the same table as the then pres of Audi NA. I told him of my experience with the cars and he could have cared less. I then asked to be seated at another table because I was about to lose it. What a bunch of fools.

 

98 Ford F-150 4X4, it was a total POS. The 4.6l engine was gutless and would ping even with 91 octane in the tank. The transfer case puked its guts out all over the middle of the Mohave Desert. Every Ford dealer i talked to refused to fix it under warranty. Ford talked an AAMCO shop into repairing it but it never worked right after that.

Then the truck was stolen and it took the body shop 4 months to repair it as Ford was back ordered on door handles and steering column parts. I got rid of it shortly after i got it back and it pulled under braking.

 

My Uncle had a new Passat and after a year of constantly being the shop he got rid of it and went back to BMW.
I have a 93 and 94 BMW 5 series (E34) and couldn't be happier. Nearly bullet proof, driven 300 to 400 miles a week.
The Germans got it right on these. From here it seems the engineering started going down hill (mostly electrical).

 

Wow, not much love for VW. I actually had a good one -- '85 GTI that went 80,000 miles needing nothing till the heater core failed. I sold it soon after that.

Quality-wise, probably my worst car was my Fiat X1/9. It was rusty around the windscreen after 4 years in Ohio, the clutch slave failed at 33K miles and leaked all over my foot, door lock corroded beyond use, needed 3 wheel bearings replaced over a two-year span; airflow sensor failed causing it to stall and it had wheel leakage issues leading to frequent flats.

OTOH, it had a cool backward-spinning Veglia tach, a square shift knob and functional side ducts. In some ways, I liked it anyway.

 

didn't own it but drove it: Mom's Chevy Monza.

 

'79 Fiat X1/9. I'd love to own a nice one, but I hear those are rare. I managed to get 150 miles on it in my my year and a half of ownership. It only had 47k miles on it, but it just wouldn't stay together.