What was your worse car you ever had?

[hakuna matata]

My wife and I dropped our truck off today for a tuneup and oil change and were commenting on what a good truck it has been for us and how all of our cars we have had lately have been good vehicles. We own three vehicles and they are all in good shape and I foresee long lifes ahead for them all. All of them we paid cash for, all are at least 6-15 years old, all are in good condition, etc.

But it did make me think of the worse cars we have owned. Mine was a Ford Pinto I had to buy right out of school. I had just graduated from Architecture school and had moved to DC and needed a car. I had zero money but had to find some car to get me to and from my first job out of school. I was able to find this Pinto for $500 that this guy had 'refurbed'..what a piece of junk. He had spray painted the dash but had overspray on the side windows! It lasted 6 months before the brakes finally completely gave out!

My wife was telling me about a Chevy Chevette that she owned that had holes in the floor board and so she put down Birch bark to block the water from coming in!

So what was the worse car you ever owned (or do you still have it!).

 

[FinanceDude]

1975 Gremlin...........

 

[Packman]

My worst car was actually a new car I bought when I was going to college. a 1974 AMC Gremlin. After about 2 years the fenders started to rust and when I drove in water or snow, it would shoot up through the fender tops. It kind of looked like a jet-ski does today. But I drove that thing for 100,000 miles over 7 years before I junked it. I guess it wasn't so bad after all when you consider the car cost me $35/month over it's life.

 

[fisherman]

Every GM product I have owned but one was bad. The last one a truck was the best by far. The others were two Novas and a Camaro. The truck actually made it over 100,000 miles before I traded it. The others all died long expensive deaths before 100,000 miles.

 

[bbbamI]

I've had some clunkers, but I think the worst was a 1996 Pontiac Grand Am. I gave my car to my momma and daddy and took their Grand Am as I knew it was difficult for them to get in and out of it. Little did I know what they had been putting up with....

The gas gauge worked backwards...the longer I drove it, the gauge would make its way to 'full'. The doors squeaked and the driver's side window wouldn't work half the time. When I turned the motor off, it sounded like a jet plane landing, then would eventually make a hissing noise that slowly faded away. Once when I was getting off duty at the police department, I got in the car, pulled out of the parking space and made my way to the street. When I stepped on the brakes, a sound came out from underneath the car that sounded like a bomb.

Several officers ran to me with guns drawn....they just knew something horrible had happened.

I drove that POS for a year....I didn't want to buy another car, but I just couldn't take it any longer.

 

[Ronstar]

It's a tie between my 79 Buick Regal and 82 Chevy S-10 pickup. The regal had a cracked block when I bought it and needed a new engine. Then the transmission went out at 25k miles. I traded it for the truck. The side moldings and stick shift fell off the truck. I had to shift using the stump sticking out of the transmission boot. That truck went through hell building my first house, but it lasted until 1986.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Renault Alliance, mid 1980s, Renault and AMC. What a piece of crap. It would stall whenever it felt like it, on the Interstate going 80, in the driveway, wherever, and mechanics could find no reason for it. Traded it in for a basic clunky Dodge minivan which in comparison was a lean mean high performance machine.

 

[Moemg]

Mine was definitely an AMC hornet but the runner up was my favorite car & yet the worst . My VW Carmen Khia .I bought the Carmen Khia used with high mileage and it had endless problems but I loved it . I took it to a local place that was filled with local hippies but they did great work . They were eventually shut down for a huge Cocaine bust so I sold the car to a collector . I loved that car .

 

[Bestwifeever]

Mine was definitely an AMC hornet but the runner up was my favorite car & yet the worst . My VW Carmen Khia .I bought the Carmen Khia used with high mileage and it had endless problems but I loved it . I took it to a local place that was filled with local hippies but they did great work . They were eventually shut down for a huge Cocaine bust so I sold the car to a collector . I loved that car .

Moe, DH never had one but he loved your favorite car. It really was a one-of-a-kind.

 

[Rambler]

Worst ever was a 1998 Ford Windstar. What a POS that was. We owned it for 3-4 years as a vehicle to get us back and forth to the airport when visiting from Japan, and for the kids to use as a practice car for their driver license training. We got it when it was 3 or 4 years old and had maybe 40k miles on it. By the time I traded it in, it had about 60k miles on it, the engine was barely running, the passengers side window would only open when it wanted to, and the air conditioning would only go on when it wanted to. Usually the air conditioning would come on in the winter but not the summer, and the window would come down in the winter, but not the summer. Both didn't usually happen at the same time. When both did happen, at the same time, on a 100F day in the summer, I threw in the towel (summer 2007). We had already bought a new Honda Odyssey in 2005 for DW and the kids to use in the summers while they were on school vacation and I was working in Tokyo.

About the Ford Pinto, I had a 1974 Pinto Wagon from 1982-85 that I really enjoyed at the time, and served my brothers and sisters well for several years after I was thru with it. I never had any engine, body, tranny, or brake problems with it at all.

R

 

[nafddur1]

Mine was definitely an AMC hornet but the runner up was my favorite car & yet the worst . My VW Carmen Khia.

I too had a Karman Ghia - a 64 for a couple years in the early 70's. It was a fun car (a friend and myself drove it from upstate NY to Indiana for the Indy 500 in 72). But that car and a few old VW's I had about the same time (my first was a 57 bug and second was a 56 convertible) while I was putting myself through college, are what got me into doing my own car maintenance. 40 years later, I still like doing lots of my own car work.

 

[FIREd]

My worst car was also my first car: 1989 Ford Taurus.

 

[check6]

Worst car mechanically was a new '84 Corvette. In the first 2K miles both power windows failed, as well as the a/c, and the digital dash. Best car was a '73 VW Super Beetle. Totally trouble free. Sold it for what I paid for it 3.5 yrs later.

 

[Ally]

Worst was a 1983 VW Rabbit. It kept catching fire when I was driving. I hated it.

 

[Mmm Rrr]

Mine too was the first car I had, a brand new 1972 Fiat 128. Voted car of the year, it looked like a great buy. Three years later, the mechanic said, "just get rid of it." And I did.

 

[haha]

I have had almost all good cars, but if I have to pick a worst it was a 1958 VW bug. Not too terrible on the flat, but Lord help you if you encounter a hill. Unfortunately there were plenty hills where I lived. I later had a 1966 Citroen DS 21 Pallas which was a marvelous car but not the easiest thing to maintain. It sure was beautiful, and it always made me feel like I was on my way to a meeting with Peter Lorre in Casablanca. A lot of romance for not too much money, and the engine was indestructible.

In my whole life I have had a couple American pickups which were good, and a 1988 Taurus which was excellent. All my other cars besides the Citroen were Swedish or German or more recently Japanese, and except for the VW mentioned above were all excellent cars in their day. But every year cars get better.

Ha

 

[Walt34]

Worst for me was a 1964 Ford Fairlane. Bought used, I only had it for about two years and drove it to the academy.

It had some sort of leak between the transmission and engine oil pan, so the transmission fluid slowly drained into the engine. When I started it in the parking lot, it would emit a huge cloud of white smoke, so thick you couldn't see the other side of the parking lot, and I heard a lot of jokes about that. I had to put a quart of transmission fluid it in about once a month or so.

It was replaced by a 1970 Plymouth Duster that I bought from my mother when my father passed away. I kept that car for another 13 years, selling only because the floor was rotting out. It was a bright lime green color, known as "the green lunger" (don't ask where that came from).

 

[rescueme]

1971 Chevy Vega (lime green ). Purchased used; traded in my '62 T-Bird for it which had some minor problems but not as much as the Vega, which leaked oil caused by the aluminum engine block, which had to be replaced.

A fun car to drive but not to maintain. Then again, it was 40 years ago...

 

[brewer12345]

1980 dodge diplomat. It was tired when I got it in the early 90s and stalled about half the times I drove the damn thing. But miracke of miracles, it behaved the day I drove it to the dealer to trade it in for a 1995 escort wagon. That was definately the cheap seats, but it ran like a top for 10 years ultil I sold it to my sister. She ran it for another 5. Last I heard it was still tooling around the streets of Brooklyn.

 

[RunningBum]

Saabs. They fooled me twice, so shame on me. First a used 99, later a new 900. Both of them left me stranded once, the only cars I've owned to do so, and those weren't the only problems.

 

[mystang52]

1972 Corolla, bought new. Leaked oil from the get-go, clutch wore out after 40,000 miles, and numerous other big and small problems 'til I got rid of it 4 years later.

 

[Dawg52]

Volvo 240. First 4 years were OK, but all hell broke loose after that! Mainly electrical problems.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

My worst car wasn't so bad. The auto transmission on my 2000 Mazda 626 died shortly after the warranty expired. Cost me about $3k. The replacement started making the same 'I'm about to die' noises and shudders when it had the same miles on it as the original. Quickly donated the car to charity and claimed Blue Book value, which happened to be the last year the IRS allowed such things.

 

[REWahoo]

1977 Plymouth Volare wagon. Had a nasty habit of stalling and the engine dying 2-3 seconds after stepping on the gas, usually in the middle of a busy intersection...

 

[donheff]

When I was about 18 my brother and I bought an old Dodge of some sort from a used car dealer. We barely got it home and the steering went out -- literally, we were driving down the block in front of our house and the steering wheel started spinning free with no connection to the wheels. The dealer came out and towed it and made "repairs." We took it home and the same thing occurred the next time we took it out -- thank goodness it again happened on our own street at low speed. At least the dealer gave us our money back.