My worst car ever was a new 1975 Datsun 710 2dr ht. At 14 months the rear seat material all fell apart. No warranty as only one year. At 28000 miles, i was dumping a quart of Quaker State oil into the pan every week. Valve seals shot. I was on my way to my mechanics to replace the valve seals when I stopped at the local Chev/Olds dealers and trade the pos Datsun for a one year old 1978 Olds Omega 2 dr coupe with the vinyl landau roof. V8 auto. It was a great car.
I had a 72 Datsun 510 station wagon, the engine/trans were great the body was junk. The windows would wind down during interstate driving. Sold it to a friend who drove it a long time and bought a 65 Skylark 2dr, ht with 88K miles on it for $400 and drive it to 145K miles. I put Rivera power bucket seats in it.
2010 GMC Sierra 2500HD Duramax, pulled to the left, GM and dealer could not fix, lemon lawed it, traded it in, but just found a whole envelope full of receipts and notes, shredder getting a work out!
87 Ford Taurus. Had a 4 cylinder and couldn't get out of its own way. The torque converter grenaded and took the trans with it. I put a used trans and converter in and sold it for more than it was bought.
2001 Taurus wagon bought new. Ran great until it hit 4-years and 38,000 miles (and warranty expired). Developed a bad miss that no one could find or fix. Traded it in on a 2005 Pacifica that had 18,000 miles on it, when I was married. My ex wife drove it until a year ago. At 16-years and 180,000 miles, the transmission gave up and she got rid of it. Also had a 1997 Ford F150 that had a similar issue at 80,000. Traded it in on the Taurus.
92 Ford Taurus SHO, an absolute beauty when it ran but it broke down once a month like clockwork. Subframe dropped out from its mounts, and was the only vehicle I ever owned that would launch its own spark plug wires. I ran into the next owner at a drag strip and he was curious why I superglued the wires on. 17 year old me answered it was the logical thing to do. The rest of the half running POS's Ive had were my own fault.
79 Fiat Strada, bought at a bank repo auction when it was 2 years old with under 50,000 miles. Got it for about 1/3 of wholesale book value and it was still a lousy deal.
Never had a terrible one, but my 87 S10 blazer would probably be the worst. Had a ton of fun in the little turd so it's hard to say I don't like it. But it was grossly underpowered (gutless 2.8 V6), rode rough, noisy, and would barely do 70mph downhill with a tail wind. I still had a good time with it though.
I personally have had great luck with cars, so I’ll throw in my parents’ worst car-1982 Cadillac Coupe deVille. 4.1 litre Buick sourced v6-in a 4200 pound car. It was a beautiful car, white with light blue interior and pinstripe (non-recommended color combo-dealer override required to order it). It was slow, had electrical problems from day one, overheating problems on the highway, and got a whole new rearend at 12k due to noise. The overheating was ‘repaired’ by the dealer three times. At the fourth occurence, my dad took it to our local mechanic who said ‘they been fillin’ it up with stopleak-it’s got a bad problem-head gasket, head or block’. It was the first car they owned that they didn’t keep six or seven years. Traded it in three on a Continental. Also, my brother had shifty luck-his first car was a ‘73 Vega GT (in ‘millionth Vega’ orange and white paint). It melted the engine. His third car was also a crapbox. It was a ‘7? Datsun pickup he bought from a biker chick-she cranked her dude’s chopper to show it off. In the dining room. Of their single wide trailer. Patrick
85 Hyundai Stellar (sold in Canada, not the USA). I guess it was the Sonata's predecessor. Nothing stellar about this car! Wouldn't start in winter and when it did run in more clement weather, would stall at every stop. I know 80s cheap cars weren't the best at road handling, but this POS was the worst I've owned. It was 7 or 8 years old with very low mileage when I bought it. I barely drove it and sent it to the wrecker. I couldn't have slept at night if I had tried to pass it on. Replaced with an 87 Tercel that never let me down!
AND, my wifes 2019 Honda CRV. It tells me I need to have a cup of coffee when it thinks I have wondered too much. Seat is uncomfortable and I have a hard time figuring out all the electronic stuff. We are seriously considering trading it in for a Subaru, or similar. This was a bad purchase, or I need a three unit course in how to operate the damn thing.
1974 Mustang II. 4 cylinder 4sp. Only good feature was the hatchback. No power, vibrated like crazy. Didn't keep that very long.
I had a 70's VW rabbit that would try to kill you by suddenly dropping to idle at highway speed. Wouldn't stall, just drop to idle. It was a stick, but it would still slow down so fast that your chance of being rear ended was significant. I believe Harry Chapin died in one of these and I suspect it had the same issue.
I had a 78 datson b 2 10. Ran on 3 cylnders. Was missing a front fender. I got it for 100 dollars when I was a junior in highschool 1991. I parked it around the corner from my house since was no way my folks would let me get a car while I lived under there roof. I drove it to school and did all kinds of stupid stuff for about 8 months in it before I finally got pulled over and lost it.
Don't know about the Stellar but my friend bought a 85 Pony brand new. I advised him not to buy it but he did anyways cause they were dirt cheap. He drove the piss out of it. Never knew a guy that hammered on a car so much as I was a passenger on several occasions. When I moved he hadn't done a thing to it other than replace the clutch. He had 600,000 km on it when I moved away and it was still going strong. Go figure.
I had an 87 in college with a 5 speed. It had 3.73 gears and a factory tach. The 2.8 was no powerhouse but it ran most of the time. I did put a fuel pump in at some point. Mine was very rusty but I loved it. It was the perfect size for me and I liked how the rear seat folded and the cargo area was completely flat. That was handy. Once in a while I search for one with a 4.3 and a 5 speed. The 2.8 was nothing short of awful though.. My worst car ever- hell, that's easy! My damn buick. I would have been much better off giving the seller the 1500 bucks and letting him keep the car!!
Cant really say I've ever had a "Worst car Ever" Never purchased anything truley brand new off the floor. Closest was the current 15 Fusion Hybrid. Its been in the shop a lot but for what it is not a really bad car. To much tech to break down. Had a 73 Runabout Pinto as my first car. Moms hand me down. Made me pay 75$ for it.. I drove that little rusted out **** box into the ground.. Cant say it was a bad car if it held up to a 16 yr olds abuse. U just described about 10% of my customers here in rural N Florida. Beat down single wide trailers, junk cars bikes , 4 wheelers and boats scattered in the yard. A/C unit overgrown with a tick infested jungle of weeds.. 100K worth of Harleys and Lifted pick up truck + a 70" TV in the living room blocking the T stat. Have to move the couch to find the A/C filter. Fat toothless tattooed girl braless in a wife beater T-shirt asking how quick I can fix it and how much will it cost. Livin the Life!
