The car that disappointed you

It was my first car - 1979 Fiat X1/9. Fraught with electrical issues that drained my wallet. Fun as heck to drive but not too fast as the front got light at higher speeds. If I had more time back then and money too, I'd probably still have that car. Sold it to my brother who rolled and totalled it after a few months of ownership.

My second car was a 1987 Honda CRX Si that I absolutely loved but I got so many tickets in it in such a short time that I had to sell it. I was still young and lacked self control. No fault of the car so I should say I disappointed myself. I miss my CRX.

03 Protege - That car was far more of a souless appliance than I'd expected.

97 Eclipse GSX - I'd wanted one since they were first produced, it was my "realistic" dream car. The build quality wasn't that good & I found chunks of crud in the clutch hydraulics at 75kmi.

87 T/A - My first car I bought on my own. I'd really wanted a Mustang, but this was much cheaper...that's because it was a POS. It was only 5yrs old when I got it, but it had already been respeayed. The trans would only stay in OD when the weather was nice. Things spontaneously quit working and/or fell off the car, and the 305 was completely useless. I replaced it with an Escort GT that was both a better & faster car!

'81 Charger 2.2. I drank the Iacocca Kool-Aid. What a POS. Lousy build quality, horrid shifter, and the head gasket blew. After exactly 30 days of ownership I dumped it on someone else.

Both of my Kaiser/AMC Jeeps were disasters.

'81 Mustang 4cyl sick. Just....awful. At least I looked good while driving in mysery.

My current steed - the 99 Infiniti G20...The engine is great, but with the slushbox slowly draining my will to live, I find myself less and less fond of it.

damnit I gotta find a lsd 5 spd...and about 25 other small parts required for a swap...and a buddy who knows how to help...and a week off work to do it...when my wife isnt home to yell at me for making a mess in the garage...or to yell at me for spending money to replace a perfectly good transmission....

it will never happen

Subaru XT6. All the hype, and a turbo! Took it out for a test drive. Good lord, my mothers Citation was more exciting and faster.

BMW 318is......

automatic

The '71 Dodge Charger I bought because I wanted to try a big V8 American car. It had ~70K, there were all KIND of things wrong with that car that I never dreamed possible at that mileage. Worn out ball joints, bad engine mounts, all kinds of stuff. It got awful mileage (9 around town, 11 on the highway) and handled like a shopping cart full of bowling balls. The vinyl bench seat wouldn't hold anything in place, least of all the driver. You just slid around like a pig on ice.

1997 Ford Ranger extended cab. Bought it from a customer and the next day the truck was vandalized. The damage included destroying the engine by pouring sand into the oil. (Apparently someone thought the a-hole still owned the truck) Insurance paid to repaint and replace the engine with a used one (no biggie). The day I got it back from the shop doing the repair it burnt to the ground.

Cursed.

I wanted pretty badly for the new Challenger to be fun to drive.

De-nied.

jg

I was disappointed by the Volvo C30 I had as a loaner for a few days. I like my S40 a lot, and figured lopping off some weight would be a good thing. I like the looks, too.

Somehow I just couldn't connect with it. Seemed like it was S40-sized outside, MINI-sized inside. Since it didn't drive any better than the S40, I'd rather have a real back seat and a trunk. The back hatch on the C30 is nearly useless, with a narrow, high opening into a not-very-large space.

And the more I looked at it, the more it looked like an SUV. If it were a bit smaller, lower, lighter and still retained some space/functionality inside, I'd probably like it a lot more.

I did like the turbo 5, though.

My first almost new car...a 1972 Vega. I've mentioned it a couple dozen times already.

1990 Ford Ranger pick-em-up. The gutless wonder. My father still owns it. He bought it new, sold it to me when I desperately needed transportation, and bought it back from me when I was ready to torch it. It is the slowest, most uninspiring thing I've ever driven.

2006 Honda Civic Si. Yep, I bought it new and in 6 months I didn't like it. I bought it based on the color (big mistake) and magazine writeups. At full song, it was a blast. Any other time, it's just an economobile and it was boring. And it looks like a suppository.

94 ranger with the 3.0L oil pump failed but the guage turned out to work like an idiot light...it had enough oil pressure that the guage would read in the normal range...at 24k miles it blew up....

Then to replace it I got an 89 ranger on the cheap with the 2.9, lasted till the first oil change until the heads let go....

I am not allowed to own another ranger (from my wife)

I'll second the 318i automatic. Uggh. Unbelieveable how a just a transmission can spoil a vehicle.

I really wanted a Boxster until I drove one back to back with an M Roadster, S2000 and 911. The driveline was disappointing and the handling was surgical, but not fun - the beater Miata I had at the time was much more rewarding to drive.

2000 Sonoma reg cab 2.2L 5spd. Gutless, sucked gas, had a terrible hump in the floor on the passenger side. At least it looked good.

07 350Z. Is a pig in the corners and while it feels like it's fast, it's all an illusion.

Oh boy, I've had a lot of disappointments in my car history...

• 91 Mustang 2.3 Convertible - Everything that was wrong about the fox chassis wrapped up into one convenient POS with a slushbox. You could literally outrun that car.

• 87 Merkur XR4Ti - It was just not as nice nor as fast as the Turbo Coupe's I've had, and the random stuff that broke was sooooo expensive!

• 96 Nissan 4x4 Hardbody - My 86.5 Hardbody had well over 300K and never let me down. The 96 lacked character, was crap off road, and would randomly go into safe mode with no CEL. After being hit and repaired by a crappy company it became cursed.

• 92 SHO - I bought it from the original owner with 78K miles. It left me at a little over 100K after been hit 5 times, 3rd gear no longer existed, the interior literally fell apart, and the electrics were cursed. It still tried to haunt me over a year later because the dealer I traded it to never transferred the title. He ate a nasty fine from the State on that one!

• 87-88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe - I've had a lot of these (at least one of every color except SE Red) and I did love most of them, but there were a few bad apples. I realize now that the closer to stock it was, the better I liked it.

1983 Camaro with a 2.8 V6 and T200 trans.

'98 Audi A4 Avant 2.8 V6 quattro... pretty much killed my previous love of AWD... the car was otherwise pretty nice... although the rear cargo floor being made of hard-board and unable to support any amount of weight was a really stupid design...

The R53 MINI... although I don't personally own one, my 'other' bought an '03 new so I've spent a fair amount of time it and driving it... seats are horrible and there's just something about the driving dynamics I can't wrap my head around... I want so much to love these cars... and yet everytime I drive one, I'm so happy to get back into my MkIV VW... I'm planning to test drive a R56 soon and I'm really hoping I'll like it more...

Late 80's Buick Century. Decided to go with a "reliable" but BORING car instead of the sporty cars I really wanted. This was used and sitting on a dealer's lot. The service manager was a friend of the family and declared it a bargain because it was in such great shape. Within a month or two, it needed an engine swap, and after sitting in the repair bay for a month, came out and needed a transmission, then on the way home from that month-long wait, the muffler fell off and jammed under the rear bumper...tearing it off. I drove the POS back to the shop again, and parked it in front of the only access to all of their service bays and walked away with keys in hand. Still owed money on the car and the repairs, but they never asked for anything. I think they saw the potential for going completely postal!

'05 FU...er Focus ST. It had the Cosworth/Duratec 2.3 mated to a five speed that had synchro issues by the time the odometer read 30k. It had a horrible tick upon start-up and on especially frigid days it would take 30+ seconds to start and would not idle for another 30.The keyless entry that was blabbed about as a selling point by the stealership ceased functioning within a few months and though they "tried" several time and even replaced the thing they couldn't fix it.The clutch had no feedback whatsoever and seemed to have a different engagement point for each shift.The interior had squeaks and rattles,again by 30k.I really,REALLY,hated that car.

Lexus IS250/350 - looked so promising with the new sporty look, flappy paddles, power in the 350... until you drive it...

AHHH!! IS350 has no 6 speed option, understeers like a pig on the may to the troft, can not defeat the traction control, glare on the SATNAV screen, and from what i hear with the 250s they are a nightmare with valve springs and to stay away...

I have always wanted a C4 vette since I was a kid. I'm finally at the point in my life where I can afford one as a toy. I test drove an 85 auto on the weekend and I'm still trying to figure out why reasons I would buy one. It wasn't fast in a straight line and it didn't seem to turn too well either.

That 09 Fit I had made me hate every single econobox in the world when talking about fun to drive. I loved it for the space and so on, but in terms of driving it, it would put you to sleep, even with the sport mode and imitation flappy paddles. I will never buy one for myself again, maybe for a wife or kid, if I ever come around to either one of those things.

Mk2 VW. Alot of people seem to love them, but i drove a few and i just dont see what is so great. They all run like complete crap, they either idle too fast or stall when they are cold, and randomly stall when they are warmed up. The shifter linkage is the worst i have ever seen unless it has been rebuilt (which is $100 in parts, and involves dropping the exhaust), the valve cover leaks oil and makes the clutch slip, the interior is usually falling apart, the brake pedal usually goes to the floor, handling is nothing too great, massive body roll, etc. I even drove a fixed up aba swapped gti, and it still needed alot more help, like a corado tranny, and a better interior, etc. I can see them being sorta fun, but most of the people have them say they drive them becasue they are the only car in the world that isnt complete crap, and i just dont see it. lol The ones i drove were pretty bad, but they were the worst cars i have ever driven.