What was your WORST car ever?

97 Monte Carlo 3.1, not one redeemable quality about that car.

Easy..

1984 Volvo 760GLE. Powered by that godawful PRV V6. Whoever designed that engine should be shot with a ball of their own excrement.

Followed closely by my 1989 Jeep Comanche Eliminator. These are supposed to be great trucks, mine must have been built at beer-thirty on Friday afternoon. It was broken more than it was fixed.

Shawn

I've never really owned a car I hated. I've owned a few I should have hated, but they were so cheap I drove em til they blew up and crushed em. I think the only car I was ever familiar with enough to hate on a long term basis was the then girlfriends 2002 Honda Civic. Soulless POS, horrible seats, gutless as all hell, cheapass interior, and well, it was attached to that lovely lovely woman. Wait... did I say lovely? I'm gonna stop now.......

Oh man...

I have to go with my old 2002 VW Jetta GLS with the 8v 2.0L/5-speed combo. It was brand new, and my intro to "German Engineering" and "VW Quality". I am glad I only leased the POS.

Some of its "features":

-Would consume the entire contents of its crankcase between oil changes, dealer said this was "normal"

-At 5000 miles, the window regulator on the driver's door disintegrated, and right before a thunderstorm. Felt great having to tape a trash bag to my window hole on a practically new car. I had to wait days before getting it fixed because nearly all the other Jettas in the area had the same issue.

-Gauges would zero out at random while driving. Dealer couldn't find the issue.

-Seat heaters could not be set any higher than 2 (out of 5) because they would burn your rump.

-Made an atrocious rattling/grinding noise in any gear around 30mph. Again, dealer couldn't replicate.

-OE tires (Michelin Energy MXV4's or something like that) were dry rotted within a year. Were considered a "wear item" and warranty claim was denied.

-Exhaust was rotting off the car by 25K miles.

-Performing the most simple maintenance was a test of your wits and patience. Removing the lower splash shield to do an oil change required removing about 15 push pins and two different size fasteners, and made doing that take over an hour. My Mazda 3, an even newer car, takes me about 15 minutes to do the same thing, and that's taking my time.

-It loved to burn out light bulbs, especially tail lights.

All that, and somehow, the Check Engine Light never turned on during my time with it. I would like to think that's because the light bulb somehow burned out.

My Trans Am has had more problems, and has almost killed me a few times, but that car is over 30 years old and was formerly owned by a guy that exclusively wore teal mesh tank tops, so I don't fault it.

Are we talking about cars that were just junk, or cars that were junk due to dumb DPO's and/or neglect?

I had an '87 Trans Am that was pretty lame, and seemed to have random problems - like the trans not locking the torque converter except when the ambient temp was between 72-77(700R4), locks that quit working, and the 305 was a dog.

Then there was the '72 Roadrunner clone I bought before I knew a damn thing about cars. The 440 was a beast! But they'd cobbled together the driveshaft and u-joints(literally, they shoved different caps on opposite sides of the u-joint so it would fit the driveshaft and yolk). I discovered the frame over the left-front wheel was rusted in two and sold it. The next owner fixed it, then it burnt to the ground on him.

Or there was the '88 S-10 Blazer I bought for my ex-wife, it went through a quart of oil every 100-miles!

I owned and autocrossed a VW Corrado for several years. That probably should have been the biggest POS on the list, but actually other than a TPS sensor it didn't give me any problems. Come to think about it, the Rabbit GTIs I had would probably be considered POS's as well, but I really enjoyed them.

There was the Audi 4000 Quattro I bought to get home from FL when my Volvo 740 blew up. I made it less than 100-miles before the fuel pickup screen started clogging and killing the engine. Ended up renting a U-Haul and trailer to tow it back to IL(I would have just towed the Volvo home if I knew...).

Or the '95 Sebring vert I bought for my step-son from a "friend" a couple years ago. After it ate the 2nd transmission in 2-months, I sold it for little more than scrap just to cut my losses.

Probably more I've blocked from my memory...

1974 Pinto with an automatic. When it was cold I would spin the starter for 45 seconds while 2 cylinders fired. Finally a third cylinder would catch and it would run on its own. After warming up for 5 to 10 minutes, the final cylinder would start life working.

89 Cherokee that my ex thought would make her look good, or something. I had to fix the pile on the side of the road every time we took it on a trip- including taking the valve cover off the free the crank sensor wires somebody had trapped under it, which grounded out after I had tightened the bolts when I noticed a bunch of smoke out the back when we were climbing hills.

It was so bad, I bought a 760 Turbo Volvo that was from Montreal, had the odometer cooked, had been owned by a guy that hated it because he found out about the above issues, so he refused to maintain it till it just plain quit. (IIRC, he let the exhaust gaskets get so bad it would burn the plug wires off in about a week) The Volvo was way more comfortable on the road, so that was my excuse to leave the Cherokee at home.

SilverFleet wrote: My Trans Am has had more problems, and has almost killed me a few times, but that car is over 30 years old and was formerly owned by a guy that exclusively wore teal mesh tank tops, so I don't fault it.

This.....this right here is funny. My kids asked me what I was laughing at and I struggled to explain why teal mesh tank tops are hilarious.

1993 Mercury Sable owned by SWMBO when we first met. It was her first and it would not die despite her attempts to kill it. I found it soulless and a pain to work on, but it sold for $500 when she finally let it go so that was nice.

1963 Mini 850, it was an amazingly fun car for the 30 odd miles it actually ran. More troubles than a 20 year old kid could fix.

I still miss that miserable piece of E36 M3

Ex-GF lent me a 80s-something Cadillac Seville with the diesel that was converted to gas. We called it "Christine". It temporarily replaced a '85 GTI which might have been the best car I ever owned, 'till it was stolen...

1981 Plymouth Reliant K -- It had four wheels and an engine, but otherwise I hated pretty much everything about it.

89 Montero 3.0 4x4 auto. Bad valve stems and a random short that cut spark intermittantly that could not be fixed even though I dumped a grand into it. Sold it as for 600 bucks. It would dump fuel and load up the plugs so you would have to brake boost and floor it to keep it from stalling, all the while try not to kill yourself.

Before the spark cutting out though, it was a fun capable beater truck.

1997 Chev Cavalier. Horrible. Plus the flap I got from the service department turned me off GM for life.

Bought it new because it was "cheaper" at the time then a loan on a used car. So glad I got the extended warranty. 2 days into the extended period it paid itself 2 times over.

76 Ford Torino. When they were just starting to put emissions stuff on cars. Bought it used in 1977 with 20K miles from the local Ford dealer. Car just didn't run right(hesitation, etc.). Took it back to the dealer numerous times, tinkered with it a bunch myself.

Finally on one trip to the dealer I got to talking to the salesman (old friend) I bought it from. He clued me into the emissions stuff and suggested I take it to a local shop (owned by my neighbor). The neighbor removed a bunch of the emissions stuff and worked on it 2-3 times and still couldn't get it to run right. Finally I traded it in on a 1979 F150

1972 Triumph GT6. Worst. Car. Evar.

I inherited a rusty '74 Subaru 1400 DL automatic that was fairly awful.

The worst car that I've ever purchased new was a 1985 Chevy Cavalier Type 10. Not a good car. It was totalled by a drunk driver with insurance (not me) when it was three years old and I thanked him.

thestig99 wrote: The car that nearly made me leave Saabs... At no point during my ownership was it ever NOT broken. And every time I fixed something, at least two more would break. This car also holds the record of having the biggest oil leak of any car I've owned - 1 quart every 20 miles out the front crank seal.

I had a 94 900 SE Turbo that I spent way too much money on. Replaced the transmission (was missing reverse when I got it) and painted it from black to white. It then proceeded to munch the starter, waterpump, aircon pump, and the Electronic HVAC controls decided that on a hundred degree day, it was cold out and started pumping heat into the car.

Not to mention it's terrible handling and torque steer... I happily sold that car to the junkyard for $300

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

just the sight of this thing gives me nightmares when I'm wide awake.

1998 Jetta 2.0l 5-speed. The thing ran fine as long as it wasn't too wet outside. Or cold. Unfortunately, I lived in Wisconsin, so that happened all the time. Anytime I hit a puddle, the engine died. Anytime it got cold, the gas line froze. Once this happened on the interstate during a blizzard. One rear window stopped working, which wasn't a problem. Then, the other one fell into the door panel. Again, not an issue if it wasn't February in Wisconsin.

It had some extreme electrical problems as well, but that should've been assumed the instant I said it was a volkswagen. It needed plug wires, distributor and distributor cap, and ignition coil at the same time. When we were trying to chase down the "hit a puddle and the engine quits" problem, we took a spray bottle and misted various electronics in the engine while it was running, and if ANY of them got damp, the engine would quit. No wonder it would die from a puddle.

It drove so nice on hot, dry days, though. The A/C was great.

The exhaust also rusted off of mine, but it was around 7 years old at the time, all of which was spend in the rust belt.

I think what made it worse was that my other vehicle at the time is the best one I've ever owned (and still do). That old Econoline has yet to have those kinds of problems, despite being 26 years old. It's windows still work, and it has never died because of a puddle or a chilly day.

SVreX wrote: Fiat 128. My best car ever was probably a Yugo (a re-worked Fiat 128).

That was my first car. And my worst.

Isuzu Impulse Turbo. Full stop.

Renault Dauphine

I can't really think of any. The CIS cars (VW and Merc) always annoyed me but I just didn't want to put the effort into dealing with them. I still loved looking at them.

icaneat50eggs wrote: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! just the sight of this thing gives me nightmares when I'm wide awake.

Had to check and make sure you were far enough away that you're not the guy who sold this to my brother. Or bought it from him. He had one of these for close to two years and the only time it went anywhere was to the dealer to get worked on and then back home to sit in the barn until the next time it tried to light on fire. I've had a lot of turbo dodges that I've liked, but this one car, that car, was crap.