A car that makes you cry "Uncle!"

Ok, list the cars you've just flat given up on and either sold for pennies on the dollar, or flat sold for scrap. I only ask because I have just added another to my list today. The '96 SL2 I inherited, that my sister beat to within an inch of it's life before piloting it off the road into a telephone pole guide wire. The thing flat doesn't want to be repaired at all. It fought me every step of the way on an axle change today, and I fought back, right up until I was putting everything back together and a CV joint boot clamp popped off. So that sucked, I may have lost my temper and smashed a sideview mirror off. Next, during the idler pulley replacement, I rounded off the bolt holding the old pulley on. So that's berkeleyed now too. The car has also fought me on the front quarter-panel replacement, engine temp sensor connector replacement, and various other seemingly simple tasks. So, UNCLE!

My list: '93 Nissan Maxima GXE '96 Saturn SL2

May they burn in the worst version of automotive hell.

Mine are a 1992 Camaro, a 1992 Nissan Truck, and a 1988 Honda Accord. We clunkered the Camaro, I sold the Nissan for its motor, and let the Honda go for $50.

ONE !

1991 Dodge Dakota 3.9 V6 :

Six (yes 6) worn out taps (not broken)

Twelve worn out drill bits (not broken)

Two completely empty Heilcoile kits

After all of this and more broken parts than I can (or care to) remember I sold the truck for a loss, but I made up for it when I delivered it across town (made $33)

Good berkeleying riddance !!

Paul B

At least a dozen P71, Panther bodied cars, CV, GM and Town Cars.

Damn things wear out after only 300K on average, doing 1000 miles a week.

usually source of parts before being sold for scrap.

Stupid 91 Eagle talon TSi AWD. It beat the crap outta me! ^ this was it's weekly position...

Car was mint but everything underhood was cracked and brittle from the heat and then my Transfer case seized taking the rear end with it. And the leaks, the thing was a toxic mess. NEVER AGAIN! My 944 is a dream in comparison!

I'm sure it broke every week over the course of a year. I still got $2000 for it, but after what I put into it, it was pennies on the dollar.....

Only one, my old 1965 Impala SS. Sold it to a yard for $50 after the engine unexpectedly died back in 1994. I knew next to nothing about cars at the time and had even less money to fix it.

'78 Monza wagon. (Non Iron Duke) 4 cyl started knocking. I was an car-ignorant 18 year old and took i to a shop. "Bearings are going" Decide to sell the car - friend's bro-in-law bought it for $100. Two months later, after knock had been getting worse, the guy went to leave for work and the car wouldn't move. Mechanic friend looked at it- every torque converter bolt was missing. They replaced the bolts and the car drove fine.

Oh, and the knock went away............

I had no freaking clue what a torque wrench was in those days and a few months earlier had pulled the engine to put in a new oil pump.

Mine was an 83 Escort that a friend gave me after he gave up half way through an engine swap. Things would stop working one day and the next they would be fine. The headlights failed one night and then came back on as soon as I stopped. When I shut it off at night I would have to roll start it in the morning. The brakes failed one day, and the next day when I went to move it, they had plenty of pressure. Thats when I gave up and gave it back.

A 1993 Taurus.

I didn't even bother trying to fight it. I forfeited like i was the biggest Bob Costas on earth.

Sold to the junkyard (still running and driving with cold a/c) for $140.

A co-worker sold me his '66 Impala wagon for a few hundred dollars. I was paying in installments but gave it back after paying only 50% because it wouldn't pass the local inspection. Problem? The water pump was leaking like a sieve....but I didn't know that, I thought it had a cracked block. He got his car back, with new tires that the local gas station told me they had a heck of a time putting on the wheels and a few hundred dollars. It was a sweet running 283 & PowerGlide.

only two so far:
88 528e: broken thermostat, trans mounts, first and second gear (something in there, lol), everything electrical, and I believe it was having a fuel problem as well (all this in a matter of a couple of days). Ignorant at the time, let it go for $500.
should have kept it for a shell and just completely stripped it and converted it to manual. Day I called my friend to ask if he wanted to sell it back (he started fixing things, which created new problems) he sold it to some guy for 500. guy had it running again in a week (so he said, but he was an a-hole and tried to make both of us feel like idiots when i met him to sign the title over finally.)
93 cavalier: blown headgasket, not even close to worth fixing. sold to a friend for 150. He put a gasket on there and it somehow ran for about 50k more miles. actually, it may still be running today.

You didn't expect this, but my answer is the universal: Miata.

Thought I got a good buy on a low-miles '96. Everything electrical failed one-by-one. Every light bulb. The battery. Both cooling fans. Fuel pump.

Evil. Pure evil. I paid $4500 and traded it in 9 months later for my Scion xB. I got $2500 :(

Short of having a shaman or priest exorcize the demons from the vehicle when it reaches critical stage... I sell it at a loss.

'98 Altima. R "n R'd an engine. Tried to come out the top, after unbolting trans. Had to bolt em back together, get the thing on jackstands, and come out the bottom. Got it all together, would NOT fire. towed to a couple a shops, turns out nissans often don't have the "it only fits one wat" feature on their wiring harnesses. I HATE Altimas.

typo. way, not wat-ha ha, the altima got me again.

none. ever. i always win.

the closest i ever came to getting pwnt by a car was the V8Vair at the $2003 Challenge: every time i moved the car, something broke.

but if the question is "what auto repair kicked your ass?" the answer is "timing belt on '96 probe gt." i'd rather do a clutch on a 944 turbo.

AngryCorvair wrote: none. ever. i always win. the closest i ever came to getting pwnt by a car was the V8Vair at the $2003 Challenge: every time i moved the car, something broke. but if the question is "what auto repair kicked your ass?" the answer is "timing belt on '96 probe gt." i'd rather do a clutch on a 944 turbo.

Step 1: Remove motor.

Alternatively: Step 1: Throw away car.

In reply to Twin_Cam:

1993 Merc Villager 1991 Acura Legend

johnnytorque wrote: Stupid 91 Eagle talon TSi AWD. It beat the crap outta me! ^ this was it's weekly position... Car was mint but everything underhood was cracked and brittle from the heat and then my Transfer case seized taking the rear end with it. And the leaks, the thing was a toxic mess. NEVER AGAIN! My 944 is a dream in comparison! I'm sure it broke every week over the course of a year. I still got $2000 for it, but after what I put into it, it was pennies on the dollar.....

Ahahahaha I had the same affliction with a DSM. Except I finally gave up after it threw a rod AND toasted the clutch at the same time, and then got hit by a drunkard while the pig was parked. I told the tow guy to keep it I was so mad at it.

I buy all cars high and sell low!! Sell it at a loss and make it up on volume is my policy!

Sadly my wife has pointed out this isn't far from the truth. My problem is I won't not disclose things thar are wrong with a car and I buy it thinking it's a gem. After a few months/years I get to know it better and when I sell it it's because I'm fed up with the things that are wrong with it.

My list.. 1996 Volvo 850T, 1990 Olds Custom Cruiser, 1989 Dodge Caravan 5-speed (non turbo).. There may be others that were at a loss..

'93 VW Corrado SLC. Only owned it 10 months and it just about put me in the poor house.

My current LS1 powered 951 seriously tried my patience. I spent over a year and WAY too much money to finally get it running right. News flash! If the shop that does the PPI is incompetent, you might as well just burn the money you pay them with.

'86 Audi 4000 csq. Mechanically excellent, was working on the interior other stuff. A deer t-boned me and destroyed the right side of the car. I gave up on it.

'84 Audi 4000 quattro. Impulse buy and shouldn't have bought it. It wouldn't rev past 4000 rpm. Found rust that had been sprayed over with under coating and a rear strut was starting to rust through. UNCLE!

'71 Valiant (electrical nightmare)

I scrapped a few Saturns over the years, not because I couldn't fix them though, just because it wasn't worth my time.

I got a miata as a 2nd car a few years back. Drove it for 3 years and put about 50k miles on it or so. mostly just did oil changes and brakes. It was starting to smoke out the tailpipe occasionally, stupidly had a shop rebuild only the head. I should have just sourced a donor motor and I would probably still have the car.

got the car back, runs great for a few weeks, but the newfound compression must have blown out the rings, starts consuming oil at a nearly alarming rate.

Do an oil and coolant change, start the car up and its knocking. fml. I had a friend that wanted a miata and just blew the diff in his daily s2k. He really wanted to test drive it. All the while its knocking, I am telling him everythign wrong with it. He is convinced he can fix it. The radiator blew on the test drive also. He STILL wants the car so I sell it to him for 1300, way less than I had into the car over the years. just that year it had a like new top put on, new brakes, new wheels and tires, that stupid rebuild. had aftermarket shocks springs and sways on it.

Calls me a week later telling me I need to split the cost of a replacement motor with him, I tell him no chance, I practically tried to talk you out of buying the car off me.

a 1969 Volvo 144... it had an emissions based type of SU carb that I could never get right. We paid $400 for the car, and I sold it for $100