What Do You Think was the Worst Car Made?

[Fabrux]

I recall some of the big Japanese companies (Nissan, Mazda, Infiniti, Honda) released a few models with active four wheel steering in the late 80's/early 90's. I'd heard those were kinda nightmarish.

I actually have one of those, a 1989 Mazda MX-6. Sadly, the system was broken when I got the car and the previous owners said it never worked for them, either. The parts to fix them are few and far between these days and those that have the parts won't sell them as they need them to maintain their own cars!

[Fat Brian]

Same thing doomed the Quad 4. Eventually they did get around to fixing its major issues, but not before it had already established its infamous reputation.

Ahh, the Quad 4, I had thought about posting about my time with the Quad 4 in here but it didn't seem fair because I got the car well after it's prime. We had a Quad 4 in a 91 Cutlass, the valvetrain was so loud at idle you had to turn it off to through a drive through. It finally met it's end under the rear wheels of a semi truck, thankfully no one was injured.

The worst vehicle I have ever personally owned was an 89 F-150 4x4. Electrical problems, the TTB front end, an aenemic 302, just poor on so many levels. I fought and fought to keep that thing in running condition and it just wouldn't have it.

[Rob Hall]

Speaking of Italian cars and gluttons for punishment, there is a guy around my 'hood that has a '70s Lancia Beta coupe and a '90s Alfa Romeo Milano sedan, both pretty worn out w/ faded paint....brave or maybe he's good at fixing Italian cars.

Not sure what the 'worst' vehicle is that I've ever owned, pretty much everything I've had has been pretty reliable and decent enough to drive. Only had 7 cars in 26 years..the '84 Ford Escort diesel and '86 Mustang LX 2.3 were pretty slow, the Bronco II a rust magnet and squirrely in cross winds. The '87 Mustang GT and '96 BMW M3 were a lot of fun, pretty reliable. My '00 Jeep Grand Cherokee has been reliable, though it's had a few expensive repairs as it's aged. The '11 Caddy STS has been great so far. I drove my sister's '84 Merc 500SEL for a while, it's quite a money pit for repairs but it has a lot of miles.

[Patrick2005]

Yugo ( For obvious reasons)

Chrysler K Cars (Had an 86 Plymouth Caravelle 2.2 non-turbo and man......what a turd)

Kia Sportage (Crappy gas mileage for a 4 cylinder, Got the same as my 91 F150. Plus the automatic hubs were notorious for going out)

Pontiac Aztek and Chrysler PT Cruiser (Again for obvious reasons)

Edited October 31, 2012 by Patrick2005

[kruleworld]

worst car i ever owned was a Subaru Leone. not only hideously ugly (seriously a 59 Dodge is less disgusting) it had constant problems with the CV joints, oil leaking, fires, rust.

http://aussiemuscle.totalnfs.net/kevcars/subaru_leone_2563.jpg

You obviously have some deep psychological issues my friend.... Or you walk with a stick & a guide dog.... If you're serious that Ferraris can EVER be on a list like this...

Dan

to be fair, ferrari don't have a spotless record. some of their forays into "econony" cars are so bad they're not even considered part of the family (disowned despite the ferrari badge). eg four banger Dino.

[blueoval92]

anything bearing the dodge or chrysler name, the ford maverick and pinto and mustang II, VW G60, hummers (except the real ones), mid 70's and up chevy el camino, chevy monza, i think thats a pretty good list.

[Aaronw]

Amazing how many economy cars are on this list. I say amazing because I'm amazed at how many people seem to expect them to be fast, sporty and sexy looking. I guess being cheap to buy, cheap to operate and relatively reliable isn't good enough for a car built to provide inexpensive transportation.

Personally it is a dream of mine to own a diesel Chevette with the license (yr of manufacture) Vette, just to irritate some Corvette owner of the same vintage who wanted that plate.

[lanesteele240]

94 4 runner 6 cly 4x4. 16 mpg. blown head gasket at 120k. 1500 to fix. 75 a month to maintain. tried to talk the guy out of buying it off me because i wanted to sleep at night. ended up talking my price down so i would feel better. never own a toy again.

[Nick Winter]

anything bearing the dodge or chrysler name, the ford maverick and pinto and mustang II, VW G60, hummers (except the real ones), mid 70's and up chevy el camino, chevy monza, i think thats a pretty good list.

Only a bit of bias................................

Nick

[Aaronw]

94 4 runner 6 cly 4x4. 16 mpg. blown head gasket at 120k. 1500 to fix. 75 a month to maintain. tried to talk the guy out of buying it off me because i wanted to sleep at night. ended up talking my price down so i would feel better. never own a toy again.

Hmmm 235,000 on an '89 Tercel, 270,000 on a '96 Tacoma and well over 200,000 on a '69 Landcruiser FJ55 (the odometer broke 14 years ago at 189,000 and I can't find any reason to fix it). The Tercel had some issues, but I think that can be largely blamed on the previous owner and me not really doing the proper maintenace. The other two have been pretty much trouble free just the usual wear items, brakes, shocks etc.

[57peppershaker]

heads up Danny, there are plenty here who insight with the comments which you've reacted to..

Be strong and ignore. you(we) with logic are seroiusly out numbered here .

Peugeot, Renault, Citroen,Simca, Talbot . have all had success in a variety of motorsport.

They share a few common trates, Comfortable. economical,style. they're dwon fall especially in the last 15 years (Simca, Talbot exempt) is electrical/electronics

ceasing the opportunity to lambaste east Geman or eastern european / Russian cars is due to the economic climate and standards they were constructed in.

My choice is the Austin Allegro

this car epitomised the final nail in the coffin of so many British build..BMC. cars. in the late 70-80's

A combination of poor build quality,poor economy shocking road holding and no motorsport success.

I gotta agree with this, though I'm shamefull to admit I owned 1 for a while. It had a square steering wheel (no, I'm not kidding) & was slow, underpowered & awfull. I lived in a pub at the time (working not drinking lol) so thankfully didnt have to use it much.

I'm sure most UK guys will agree that UK produced BL cars in the 70's were pretty awfull !

[Nitro Neil]

Fiat Uno.

As an auto mechanic I saw many poorly made and badly designed cars, but this piece of junk stole the show.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Nitro Neil

[lanesteele240]

Hmmm 235,000 on an '89 Tercel, 270,000 on a '96 Tacoma and well over 200,000 on a '69 Landcruiser FJ55 (the odometer broke 14 years ago at 189,000 and I can't find any reason to fix it). The Tercel had some issues, but I think that can be largely blamed on the previous owner and me not really doing the proper maintenace. The other two have been pretty much trouble free just the usual wear items, brakes, shocks etc.

even toyota fanboys will tell you that v6 was trash.

Hmmm 235,000 on an '89 Tercel, 270,000 on a '96 Tacoma and well over 200,000 on a '69 Landcruiser FJ55 (the odometer broke 14 years ago at 189,000 and I can't find any reason to fix it). The Tercel had some issues, but I think that can be largely blamed on the previous owner and me not really doing the proper maintenace. The other two have been pretty much trouble free just the usual wear items, brakes, shocks etc.

even toyota fanboys will tell you that v6 was trash.

[Joe Handley]

even toyota fanboys will tell you that v6 was trash.

Are you talking about the ones that would sludge up within 50k and require at least a head rebuild if the engine didn't die from oil starvation first? I remember reading about those and how Toyota would refuse to do repairs on cars that were still under warranty, going so far as to blame the owner for lack of maintenence.......even if they took it to the dealer for oil changes that might have been as late as at 3001 miles since the last one. Thought they had a 4 cylinder that had that problem too.

[Aaronw]

No experience with the Toyota 3.0 liter V6, only the inlines which are pretty much bullet proof.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Are you talking about the ones that would sludge up within 50k and require at least a head rebuild if the engine didn't die from oil starvation first? I remember reading about those and how Toyota would refuse to do repairs on cars that were still under warranty, going so far as to blame the owner for lack of maintenence.......even if they took it to the dealer for oil changes that might have been as late as at 3001 miles since the last one. Thought they had a 4 cylinder that had that problem too.

So now I'm really curious. What was causing the magical "sludging up" ? It's not a mechanical problem, unless it's maybe excessive blow-by from too-loose piston and ring clearances. It's usually caused by lots of stop-and-go driving where the engine never fully warms up, or cheap, ash-laden oil, or a too-cold thermostat. Was there some cooling system 'cold-spot' that was to blame? I'm really really curious as to the exact cause of the problem.

[Joe Handley]

So now I'm really curious. What was causing the magical "sludging up" ? It's not a mechanical problem, unless it's maybe excessive blow-by from too-loose piston and ring clearances. It's usually caused by lots of stop-and-go driving where the engine never fully warms up, or cheap, ash-laden oil, or a too-cold thermostat. Was there some cooling system 'cold-spot' that was to blame? I'm really really curious as to the exact cause of the problem.

I think it was the head design myself, Chrysler's 2.7l V-6 had similar issues and I'm wondering if the heads were designed to run hotter to try and help control emissions. Get oil hot enough it can sludge up and if that happens in the heads, the return ports can get plugged up trapping oil in the heads and aggrevate that issue and starve the rest of the engine of much needed oil.

[Junkman]

I came across this today:

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/1210_1986_cadillac_cimarron_v6/viewall.html

I worked for the US-Army PX Garage in Munich from the mid to late Eighties, so I experienced these cars first hand.

That this wasn't the brightest era for the American car industry would be an understatement of epic magnitude,

but the cars weren't nearly as bad as they try to make you believe nowadays. The only thing seriously wrong with them

is that they are just about as lacklustre as the inside of a ping pong ball.

I settled for a 1987 Plodge Granfifthlomat, mine coincidentally wore the 'Chrysler' badges.

Pretty much all American family cars were cut-and-paste jobs of one form or another back then. East Germany could

have done the same and sell the Wartburgs and Trabants with 15 different badges to have a more diverse car lineup.

It didn't look much brighter in Western Europe either, what with such colourful creations as Audi 80s and VW Passats,

for which I still struggle to come up with a single USP to this day.

Then again, I just re-read what I wrote above. I'm not convinced that it still holds true today. The idea, to park a

yellow Cimarron with those stupid 13 inchers with a narrow white band, a tan interior, a padded vinyl top and a

luggage rack on the bootlid, in a sea of silver metallic Kias and Hyundais with beer can holders,

I find oddly appealing nowadays. But that's just me I guess.

My vote for the worst car ever built goes to Australia, who gave us the Leyland P76. I was tempted to vote for something from the former East Block, but they just had to produce what the government forced them to produce and from materials the government allocated to them.

Contrary to that, the P76 was created completely voluntarily in a free free-market society with every imaginable resource available in abundance. They didn't even bother to give it a model name. Wonderful.

However, the worst experiences with cars I've owned, I had with BMWs, believe it, or not.

[CEKPETHO BCE]

Chevy Cavalier... For some reason I just cannot stand that car.

[Fat Brian]

Chevy Cavalier... For some reason I just cannot stand that car.

My company has a fleet of vehicles and in the US the government mandates that if your fleet is over a certain size that a percentage of your vehicles have to use an alternative fuel. Some of the vehicles my company bought were late ninties/early 2000's dual fuel Cavaliers that ran on gasoline and natural gas. The GM natural gas set up was really awful at the time and after a while the regulator would begin leaking gas into the intake and overnight the intake and air filter box would fill up with gas. Every morning when the drivers went to start their cars at least one of the thirty or so cars air intake tubing would literally explode. Most times it was just a little burp that would only pop apart the slip joints in the tubes but every once in a while it was a huge boom that blew apart the plastic tubes and air filter box, we even had to replace a few hoods that were pushed up from the inside by the force. Beyond this "feature", these cars were just complete garbage. We normally keep our vehicles until about 100,000 miles but these were costing us so much money to keep them going we started selling them early just to get rid of them.

[lanesteele240]

have we over looked the pontiac gran am. those things were junk. you dont see any of them on the road. not even the late model ones

have we over looked the pontiac gran am. those things were junk. you dont see any of them on the road. not even the late model ones

[Lownslow]

You obviously have some deep psychological issues my friend.... Or you walk with a stick & a guide dog.... If you're serious that Ferraris can EVER be on a list like this...

Dan

i think hes referring to the recent self immolation events of late in that case hes 100% in the right

[lanesteele240]

those flamming ferraris give me an idea for a build. just because a few of them caught fire does not mean they are junk. 116 octain gas tends to burn if there is a spark. no telling how many of them were insurance fires

Edited November 2, 2012 by lanesteele240

[ZTony8]

My vote goes to the early 80s GM E body cars(Riviera,Toronado).They leaked EVERYTHING! A story-Back in the early 80s I was still working at the Buick dealership where I started my parts career.I recall back then that one entire side of the shop was usually filled with Rivieras partly disassembled to fix fluid leaks(oil from the rear main seal and oil pan gasket,coolant from the head gaskets on the 4.1 v-6 engine,and trans fluid from the drive chain cover and transmission pan.This wasn't taking into account the cars in for air and moisture leaks at the door and window weatherstrips).During that era one of the things that was pushed was for new car sales prospects to be given a tour of the dealership to show off the facilities.The new car sales manager happened by the parts desk so I asked him how the sales staff dealt with a prospective Riviera buyer who might see the wonderful shop display of their desired car in various states of disassembly.He just said that he hoped the prospects didn't notice anything as they were quickly escorted on their tour.

Edited November 2, 2012 by ZTony8

[Lownslow]

those flamming ferraris give me an idea for a build. just because a few of them caught fire does not mean they are junk. 116 octain gas tends to burn if there is a spark. no telling how many of them were insurance fires

no they were from ferrari being full of themselves thinking that using glue to mount parts near exhaust manifolds wouldnt catch fire, they recalled the 458 over this only to do it again Edited November 2, 2012 by Lownslow