I have been thinking a lot recently about whether or not to sell the Woo and get something a touch more practical. I decided against doing so.

http://bengarrido.com/2014/01/29/compromises/

What's the dumbest car you've ever daily driven?

That had to be my 1968 Triumph Spitfire with a 2 liter German Ford (Pinto) motor. Chrissakes it was FAST (blew off more than one muscle car with it) but it was as Spartan as a monk's cell. The heat was useless, it had no A/C, the hardtop had no headliner and drummed like hell in the rain, on that note the single speed wipers were pretty well useless and that's where I learned the power limits of the stock Triumph differentials. But damn it was a lot of fun!

The K-car with no heat in Michigan in the winter. Why? It was cheap and it ran and I had no girlfriend to complain and the money I saved bought me more rock climbing gear. The car was a statement to my dedication to my hobby. It kind of sucked.

The car in my avatar-- '72 SAAB 95V4. It was rusty as all hell (but I didn't know that initially), the choke didn't work, the rear interior was removed, it broke rear shocks often due to an improper conversion, etc etc. It got under 20MPG, despite being slow as all hell. I had to let it idle in my parents driveway for 10+ minutes before it would move without dying in the winter. It had heat most of the time, which was good since the heater control valve was dead. I found out that it was rusty when a friend and I were on our way to Cumberland Brews and hit a puddle of melting snow. He got soaked because the floor had broken away from the firewall (thanks, previous owner, for hiding rust well). It was awesome.

Funny thing is that this was only five or six years ago.

It was one of my favorite cars ever.

I'm proud to say I honestly can't think of a car I used as a DD where I really thought it turned out to be a stupid idea. If I had to pick one as my "least favorite" I'd have to say one of my NA Miata. As much as love them...I currently have two...they just don't always make great DDs. At the time, my commute was 30 miles almost all highway. Great on summer days, but I just didn't enjoy it in the winter.

Anything from any challenge, which is why they are awesome

My old 1990 conversion van after I sold my Audi, but before I bought the TDi. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but living 40 miles from work and driving something that gets 17 mpg on a good day was a bit nuts. Fortunately, I was spending most nights at the g/f's house who was only 15 miles from work.

My Wrangler, "death wobble" at 45-50 Mph, spring spacer lift, and DIY sway bar disconnects, so it was more like herding than steering, every tire had at least one plug, at least one tire had 3 plugs, alignment so off that the outside tread was about 4/32 and inside was near cord showing. Valve cover leaked enough that I just added oil as needed. About 50lbs of dirt/oil mix collected on top of the skid plate smoked like crazy when heated from the exhaust. A tree fell on it during an ice storm, ruined the soft top, was so cold at the time that the vinyl rear window shattered when the tree fell on it. After I got the Jeep out from under the tree I bent the spreader bars for the top back into shape by hand, but it was never quite right. I drove it an entire winter with all of the issues stated, and no rear window. 13 mpg, and when it rained I had to put my hood of my jacket on so the back of my head didn't get wet. One positive, that Jeep had an amazing heater, I wasn't terribly uncomfortable even without the rear window.

• Lee

Nothing particularly stupid, either my Corolla when the AC was dead, or my old Daewoo which had no AC or tint and broke down all the time.

Soon I'll set a new record with my Corolla with non-working AC, 4" ground clearance, 600lb+ springs and all-metal camber plates on the front, and probably wonky alignment for a while too.

I've had two.

1 1982 BMW 320is.

Completely gutted except driver's seat and dash, straight pipe exhaust, no heat, no air but it was freaking awesomeness at four o'clock in the morning.

2 1976 cutlass.

Again completely gutted, headers 3"pipes chambered mufflers with turn downs. Very freaking loud.

In reply to nicksta43:

WOW, look at the formatting. I don't know what I did there.

FRS in Canada

My open class mazda 323GTX stage rallycar. I DD'd it for 6 years. Dumb, dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb dummmmmb

1960 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite! It was fine when I had a 5 mile commute through the countyside, but when I was transferred, my commute became a 51 mile blast on the Interstate highway!

For 4 months I was blessed with warm temps, little rain and only 1 breakdown (broken axle). The big problem was the 80 mph average speed and the gawkers that would hover around to look at the little bug car.

But the short commute happened when the weather was...challenging to say the least. Heat was an empty promise and the top had this bad habit of ballooning a gap above the windshield that scooped rainwater directly to the forehead.

Then I got a job delivering pizza.

Bruce

I didn't DD it very often, but my TR-3A. No heat to speak of and a leaky top. It would make Curmudgeons Spitfire seem downright plush.

open class 1G DSM rally car. wearing a helmet when stopping for tolls, going through a drive through and best of all, getting pulled over, always makes things fun. Bonus points for being small, having piss poor visibility, spitting fireballs on up shifts, being bright yellow and having DSM reliability

Current one--99 Miata. But it isn't that bad.

captdownshift wrote: open class 1G DSM rally car. wearing a helmet when stopping for tolls, going through a drive through and best of all, getting pulled over, always makes things fun. Bonus points for being small, having piss poor visibility, spitting fireballs on up shifts, being bright yellow and having DSM reliability

I always had a blast. Not that I condone screwing around on public roads, but when it was a bit later at night... sideways around corners at intersections was fun! And the fireballs were just a bonus!

Miatas, I've had other small 2 seaters but they were all hatches and that made them practical. Miata, not so much. although I have hauled 1 square of shingles in the trunk of an na miata I also hauled a 24 ft extension ladder, the ladder only needed to move a couple of blocks and the passenger held onto it. I also hauled a 6 foot step ladder invented behind the drivers seat once.

'61 Fiat 600D. Mainly because it was so light that if you drove it in high winds, it could literally blow you over SEVERAL lanes of traffic. That and the 4 tiny drum brakes, and the 32hp barely left enough power to merge in traffic. But OMG what a fun car to drive.

In reply to nicksta43:

You sound like my kind of people.

I drove a completely gutted (no heat) 76 Nova, with a well built 350 from our stock car as my winter beater.

I also commuted for an hour in a really clean 15 year old Hyundai Pony with a huge hole in the heater core, so no heat again, through a pretty cold winter. As I was taking my insulated coveralls off at work one day, I realized that I was making enough to justify buying a new Vette, and driving the biggest POS in the whole parking lot.

So I bought a $2000 S10.

1971 caprice 2 door - rusty primer gray with primer black racing stripes and a green vinyl top/puke green interior with brown seat out of an 83 caprice. daily drove it one winter. no heat at all, power window broke partway down so i had to garbage bag it everywhere i went, cherrybombs, totally bald front tires. but it ran good and got me through while my crown vic was broken. no windshield washer either, so i had a bottle of windex i'd spray with the wipers running when i came to a stop if i had salt all over the glass.

i'm pretty sure i did not get laid because the girl i was after in college saw the car after class.

1980 Jeep CJ5. Iron Duke with 4 speed, 33s with lift, no interior padding at all except the seats. Leaky, creaky fiberglass hard top where the LF door would pull away from the roof and leave a 5" gap at anything over 50mph-this made it an excellent cold-air scoop. Top speed was 67mph on a good day. Because the top sucked I drove it with only a bikini top from April 1st (fitting) to October 1st for two years. In Connecticut (that means snow/freezing with no top). Was my only DD for one whole year.

I still miss it.

I drove a V-8 Vega throughout college. It had a stock rearend, so I always had a spare on hand - Kept it in my dorm room. They tended to last about 6 months. I got pretty good at swapping them out in the parking lot.

BTW, I never planned on building a V-8 Vega. I just happened to end up with a V-8 and a rust free Vega, so...V-8 Vega.