Some winners You know, I pretty much liked each of my cars in some way. Some lowlights do include: -1964 Rambler Classic in a light blue aqua color. Got it for $25. Rebuilt the engine with ONE cylinder bored .030 over. Idled like it had a cam in it. The real bummer was there was an option where the bench seat folded flat to meet the rear seat. Talk about a date-mobile. Mine didn't have it. -1977 Mercedes 300D. Lots of body work to stop the cancer. It still grew... It had vacuum door locks and you needed to move the door lock up to just the right position to get enough vacuum in the leaky old system to pull the fuel valve closed and stop the motor. This always drew interesting looks. -1984 Nissan sentra. This was the wife's care when we got married. Did I say I liked each in some way? Forget it, this car had no redeeeming value. -1987 Blazer. Bought it brand new. It had a 2.8l six that screamed and wheezed to get the car going. Blew the engine at 59,000 miles. Blew the tranny at 62,000 miles. Blew the transfer case at 80,000 miles. I still have the blown case. Anyone want it??
It'd be a tie between our 1986 Taurus, and the 1984 Fiero. The taurus had one of those V-6's with the coated pistons so after 10,000 miles, the coating wore off and they knocked. Naturally, it was after the warranty had expired. Every interior piece that was screwed down was overtightened and cracked the first summer we had it, the paint was crap, it was misaligned from the factory and ate through 3 sets of tires(and 4 alignment shops) before it was fixed. the Fiero, we bought because we had to. The guy blew up the engine and we sold him a new longblock for it. He stiffed us the $1,000 and was gonna go to jail. We said, give us the car and we'll call it even. A rear caliper was stuck because the pads had fused themselves to the caliper and he jacked a pair of vise grips to clamp it off, then wrapped them in electrical tape, so we got our vice grips back. Teh red paint was all faded out and the seats had rips. He turned the bass up too high and the front speakers crackled and fuzzed so we had to use just the speakers in the headrests. The shifter had no feel to it and was mushy, it took an entire friggin afternoon to replace the shifter wire because it went under the carpet on the console. ugh. All of the plastic was puckered and pulled away from each other, then it cracked. The AC and heater didn't work, the radio would only get FM, it would wander on the road and hydroplane on it's wide-ass tires. Also, it was the only car that I ever drove that tired out. When it was driven for a while, it would act tired, have less power and not as good a response. I blame the cruddy EFI. Meh. The best car is my dad's 83 CJ. 258 straight AMC 6, T-10 tranny, manual locking hubs up front, limited slip out back. No options but AM/FM/tape deck and upgraded speakers. Thing ran like a top till 96 when the engine developed a rod knock on #4 and we swapped it out for another 258. First engine I rebuilt. runs like a top, but the body is getting severe rust. I'm still proud about that engine, after sitting for a month, pump the gas twice, then half to the floor and crank. After 15 seconds or so, it'll fire right up and get to 1500 RPM in choke. wonderful. A bit of lifter tick when it bleeds down after a month, but they pump up quickly enough. I would have no qualms about driving it to california and back tomorrow. The one thing I don't like about it is that it is rev specific. My dad's Aspire will start in 3rd gear if you slip the clutch enough. This thing hates it if you are in the wrong gear at any time, and it doesn't like to go over 2400 RPM's, so 65 MPH is about it's top for an average cruise speed. Get's plenty of looks aorund town, tho. It's up to about 140,000 miles by now.
worst car 1975 datsun 710 2 dr hardtop . piece of shite . at 28000 miles, needed guides & seals - burned a quart of oil a week . rear serback cover splict right down the middle (no one ever sat in the back seat) . just out of warranty - no help from datsun . on the way to have the guides & seals replaced at my cousins engine ship, i stopped at the local chevy/olds dealer to pick up some parts for a friend. there in the used car lot, i saw & purchased a 78 olds omega brougham , 305 v8 , at,pdb..... great car .
By far the worst car I have ever owned is a 1989 Chrysler lebaron turbo GTC. It had the intercooled turbo and a 5-speed so it was sorta fun to drive but what a maintenence whore! I now happily drive a 1988 chev Beretta with a 2.8 V6 and a 5-speed. It's very boring but also pretty low maintenence. Just perfect for the winters around here. Junky enough that you don't have to care too much about it, but still reliable enough to get to work and back. (so I can fix other peoples junk) I have to admit though, I am looking at a certain 1995 park ave ultra right now. It's fully loaded with leather and very well taken care of. Could get the car for a song and a dance 'cause it's higher mileage and the blower is bad. That one part is worth more than the rest of the car so we'll see how cheap I can get the car.:grin:
worst car...1971 audi 100Ls....nice looking car,but...spent most of the time with its hood up or front end off the ground...in shops always getting repaired..mostly electrical nightmares..and expensive parts.....havnt seen one of them in 20 some years..... ** best and most reliable and fun 2 drive....even though it was the neighborhood up for grabs car ..was a 1972 bmw 2002...5 different people had keys for it...it just ran and ran....no breakdowns or repairs..just oil change and regular tune ups...operated for 6 years till a drunk tow truck driver smashed into it while it was parked...
worst cars I ever owned my worst car I bought in 1976 was my first car 1970 super beetle no heat heater ducks rotted, Body rotted, broke ever bolt on that car. Had to carry a hand full of fuses poor wiring. Seemed every weekend had to pull the motor to do anything on it of course only broke in winter months. Did get good at pulling the motor seems to me I got it down to around 20 minutes. A close second was my Wife's car when we got married a 1983 Dodge Charger 2+2 she could drive it a month and never had anything go wrong I would drive it something would blow or break. Have to call her for a ride and she would say "what are you doing to my car" and don't even think of driving it when it was damp out that's if you got it started at all. Finally I was driving it to work one day and the spot welds in the strut towers broke towed it home it sat at our apartment till the complex towed it away. Best vehicle was a 1987 ford ranger 4cyl 5 spd bought it with 13,000 miles sold it after 8yr with 150,000. Had the original hoses, clutch, starter, alternator. Probably still is on the road somewhere.
I once owned a 93 Mazda 626 for 4 years, absolutely the worst car I ever had!! My wife loved her little Mazda, so she made me keep it. First of all, since day one, it had this strange grinding noise on cold starts on days below 40* It would grind for a few minutes then would go away. I tried every kind of oil and no mechanic could figure out what this was ou: The transmission would do this shimmy/shaking thing on the 2-3 shift, everyone told me this was normal. Once it took me 6 hours to change the alternatoruzzled: Who puts the alternator on the back underside of the engine, I had to dissassemble half of the engine to get it off. Once broke 3 craftsman wrenches trying to change a cv joint! I finally convinced her to get rid of the thing, so we sold it to her brother:laugh: It is now "out of order" sitting in his yard. Good ridance!!! -Chris
Almost a tie! Runner up, a 1960 VW beetle: no power, no heat in the winter, no redeeming features except too slow to get a speeding ticket, unlike the 1956 Ford with T-bird 292 and "rocket-tone glass- packs" it replaced! And, the winner...drum roll!!!...a 1979 pumpkin-orange Fiat Strada, NO redeeming features, a rust bucket when 3 years old with 50,000 miles, last seen abandoned in Maryland near I-95 in 1982! Nailhead
1973 vega!!!!!!1 How about a nice 74 chevy vega???????????? Just add a 455 and 400 trans and you spell FUN!!!!!!!!ou: This was a project between the Buick boys in Wilson. I think I had it last. It never ran faster than low 8's in the 1/8 mile and kept breaking windshields. Alan made some tractions bars one night and Tim and I test drove it in Food Lane parking lot and when the trans shifted into 2nd the lower control arms folded up and the pinion went up and almost pulled the driveshaft out of the trans. The fluid came out the rear seal and sprayed the exhaust, smoke everywhere! Alan probably still has pictures. Memories. And I hope they stay that way. Jimmy Dinosaur Race Team
my worst Was an 88 Chevy Blazer K5. The day I put plates on it (owned a month) the trans blew. Got it rebuilt and front seal started leaking immediatly. After messing with it several times including a new flywheel we discovered that the engine was a junkyard jewel that had been droped on its crank at the back of the motor. I took a hit on my credit rating and took the pos back to the dealerand gave it back to them with the trans and transfer case in the back. I owned this truck for 2 months and put 3 transmissions in it.Like heck i was going to put a motor in it two.
Ok, I'll jump in here. WORST CAR: 1987 Volkswagen Scirocco 16V. Got this when I was 18. Damn that thing was fast but I poured so much money into it. The timing belt went 2 days after I bought it and it bent 2 valves. Went through a 4 month long small claims case with the shady dealer, and finally won but the guy defaulted and skipped town. Got the car fixed finally. Decided it would be a good idea to drive it from CA to MA even though I only had $200 to my name(I'd like to think I'm not that stupid anymore). By New Mexico the fuel pump went, the distributor was shot and it started to slip out of 5th gear. Got that fixed in NM (luckilly my mom wired me a few bucks) and by Kansas both front axles started to go-- man it made an awful racket! And I had to tie a rope from the shifter to the glove box to keep it in fifth. ou: At that point, I was already half way accross the country and totally pissed that I decided to just drive the car into the ground and hopefully it would make it all the way across. By NY, I thought the tranny was going to fall out... it wouldn't stay in 5th anymore, and started to slip out of 4th. Any little bump made it sound like the front end would fall off. By that point I was so pissed and stressed out that I drove the thing as fast as I could in 3rd the rest of the way back to MA. I hope that car burns in hell. Yes, the crappiest car I've ever had. BEST CAR: 1986 Chevy Nova (basically a Toyota Corolla). This car just kept on going. I wish I still had it. I bought it for $800, racked up 60k miles and sold it when it had 200k. I think I only spent $400 on repairs-- new tires and brakes. What a deal!
Sorry Guys but it was a Buick! 1983 Deuce and a quarter with - wait for it - the knock knock DIESEL POS "power plant". This car had a really bad habit - it wouldn't start cold, and the starter solenoid would weld in and the motor would keep cranking with the key off!! Once I was saved by the battery terminal MELTING OFF!! Eventually I put a Ford style solenoid in line with the hot wire to the starter. This thing burned oil, split torque convertors from vibration, and stank. I finally peddled it in trade for a Dodge Shadow (remember those?) and I still think I got a good deal!
OK... I have one too. 84 ford mustang.... 4 cyl 2dr with a trunk... was white and looked like a dalmation with all the rust spots, darn thing dog tracked so bad down the road it would take a left corner on its own... Probable due to the fact that the right rear lower control arm was held up by 6ga. speaker and a coat hangerou: ou: The control arm eventually fell off and the city cleaned it off the road after a week for me...lol.
Ours was a 1994 Nissan Altima, bought it in '95 with about 19k on it. I was really impressed with the car when we got it. Back then 150hp was quite a bit of punch for a four (and it's a double timing chain, instead of a belt). My wife really liked it. Three weeks into it, the fuel pump went out. Later, the A/C (twice - the brilliant engineers ran the high pressure line right by the battery so that acid could easily get to it), the struts, two engine oil leaks, a window motor, ... finally, it left us stranded for its last time at 60,000 miles when the distributor went out. Fortunately, Nissan footed the bill for all but the distributor. Traded it for a new Tahoe. Really like the Tahoe. I had a 1990 S-10 Blazer for many years. Fortunately, it had the 4.3Vortec which was much torquier than the weak 2.8. It always needed something worked on, but it was always easy to do and parts were cheap. Overall, I still have yet to find anything that's as much a joy to drive and own as my '72 Centurion!!!!! - Not to mention the fact that the original 455 runs just fine.
1990 Eagle Premier. This car was sort of a cross between a Ramber and a Peugeot. The car was very comfortable and decent when running. After owning it for abouit 2 months the ex-spouse fired it up in the garage and bent the valves. Then we had to wait six months for parts to come in from france. Thermostat on the thing cost $38 from napa. Lights would not work when temp went below 60. What a POS. Our 86 Nissan Maxima grocery getter is slowly giving the Eagle a run for its money (I mean my money). Rack and pinion seems to be always wearing out and a/c evaporator decided to take a dump. Plus it is a pukey brownish cream color. The wife has taken to calling it mister peanut.
haha Funny stuff in this thread! :laugh: I seriously can't think of a car or truck I had that I didn't like. Of course, they all had their quirks, but nothing that really bothered me. I guess I'm lucky.... or smart.... no ...must be lucky. :gt: If I had to choose a worst... it would be my "70-something" Super Beetle, I had about 10+ years ago. But I bought it to beat around in the fields with, and we certainly beat the crap out of it. Never even got the title switched to my name, or put plates on it. Just totally beat the crap out of it in the fields and woods. Lots of problems...but we caused them all. So I can't complain. o No:
A 72 Lincoln Continental. It was 1985, I was 20 and the crank started knocking in my 68 GTO just a few months after I put a Ram Air III cam in it. I couldn't afford to fix it and I needed a running car to get to work. A mechanic "friend" traded me the Lincoln for the "Goat" and dropped a junkyard 400 2 barrel into my beloved car. He didn't even swap my new cam and the four barrel carb and manifold. That's ok though. His wife ran it into a guardrail in the SNOW a few months later. The Lincoln was the biggest PILE I've ever driven, let alone owned. Six months later I dumped it for junk money and bought my first Buick...a 78 Electra Limited that was seven years old at the time, but was like brand new and optioned to the hilt. A Buick lover was born. :beer That was the last Ford product I will EVER own. Didn't like 'em then, still don't like 'em now.
