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What Do You Think was the Worst Car Made?


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Just to illustrate how silly your comment is...

Every car my dad ever owned, except for his very first car (a Ford Falcon) and his very last car before he died (a Ford Taurus) was a Chrysler product. Either a Dodge or a Plymouth (never an actual "Chrysler" model). That includes lots of Dodges and Plymouths.

My very first car was my dad's '67 Belvedere, which he gave to me when he bought a new Dodge. When I got that Belvedere it was 10 years old and had 100,000 miles on it. I drove it for another trouble-free 20,000 miles before I sold it (and it was still going strong when I sold it). That car was as solid as a rock and as reliable as the sun coming up every morning.

I agree with Harry 100%. My dad has had MANY Chrysler vehicles over the years, and they were all better than the Pinto he had. His current work car is a 1990 Dodge Dynasty which has had been heavily abused , but it still manages to go every day.In my opinion,the worst car ever made is probably the Ford Pinto after what my dad told me about his. Edited by wrecker388
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I have a few friends who work on jaguars , they both have told me to never get one.

You hurt my feelings :( ....A Car is Just Another Car....But A Jaguar is a Jaguar....Well you know what they say a Jag that does not leak oil....Has no oil in it...

My Jag is my other hobby. :wub: ...always doing the Maintenance...But they are a lot of fun.... ;)

Cheers.....Don aka XJ6 B)

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I am not a mechanic, but I am close, oh so close, to sixty and my police career is currently at 32.99 years. Considering I drove a new work car nearly every other year, and have owned quite a few, I feel secure in these comments.

The 70's 80's and early 90's proved just how bad the american automotive industry had become. We literally changed makes and models mid year, every year, searching for an acceptable car. Remember we didn't always drive just one car regularly, so I can say with some experience none were all that well liked.The worst seemed to be the Ford Fairmont, and 1979 Ford LTD, not the LTD II.

My personal worst was a toss up between a 1975 Plymouth Roadrunner and a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu Classic wagon. Second was a 1999 Suburban.

G

G

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AMC Pacer, a co-worker's door fell off his Pacer in the parking lot at work, when he opened it as he was runnig out for lunch. He never did live that one down, we all laughed ourselves silly over it. Read something later about the Pacer's doors being a little on the heavy side for the hinges, well duh!

Who ever said anything Mopar, never owned or knew anyone who owned one powered by a slant 6. A buddy's mom somehow punctured the oil pan of her slant 6 powered Dart. By his guess-timate of her remembering getting a little "high centered" she drove it around without a drop of oil for more than a week. After getting the hole in the oil pan really clean we slathered it up good with JB Weld let it set up and tossed oil in it. The "repair" didn't leak and she drove the Dart around for another 5 or 6 years without a hic-up.

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Considering how badly they rolled over, I'm surprised the Bronco II and '90-early 00's Explorers aren't on the list. I've ridden in a TTB Explorer as well as a IFS Explorer that were in decent shape and at low speeds, both had more body roll that my Cherokee did when all 4 shocks were shot while taking corners in a fairly aggressive manner.

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Having worked on Peugeot's for more than 15 years i can safely say they are one MAKER who is not very good at all.So many problems even with brand new cars. More than I care to mention. I also worked on Chevettes and Citations. Awful little cars those. By comparison, Omni's, Escorts and MB 190E's were great cars with very good reliability.

My brother owned a Fiero and that was a POS in my opinion. Electrical nightmare with MAJOR reliability issues. Hit the foglamp switch, the wipers came on! When it was brand new!!!!

In its defense, it handled like a go-kart.

There is more, but my therapist has warned me against going to those dark places.

Bob

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Every GM vehicle I've ever owned was complete and total trash, except for the series of '81-'83 Delta 88s I had. But since this is asking for the worst car...

I'd have to go with the early Neons. My 96 two-door Plymouth version had a mere 74,000 when I got rid of it- by that time, it was on its second instrument cluster (both fixed for free, but a total of four days I had to find alternate transportation), near the end the engine would only run for about ten minutes at a clip before it needed a break, and the three-speed automatic (yep, three speed- Chrysler didn't offer a four-speed so they could run a passenger's side airbag) started to sound like a coffee grinder at about 70,000- not to mention the hard 1-2 upshift. And there was that weird high-speed vibration no shop could seem to track down.

And not only was it starting to fall apart rather rapidly- there was quite a bit of built-in badness. The upholstery pattern looked like a microcscope slide of some nasty bacteria, the wiring looms looked like they'd been strung by Chef Boyardee (the guy I sold it to went through said harnesses and managed to fix about half of the car's electrical ailments), and the interior of the car reeked of cheap plastic, especially on hot days.

I will say that it got fantastic gas mileage, but that's mostly due to the fact it spent so much time not running. I hear the later '96 and newer Neons were actually halfway decent cars, but I'll Never Ever Own 'Nother Neon. The '98 Tracer which replaced it (320,000 miles and counting with no significant problems, though it is obviously due for a little R&R at this point) was like some kind of starship by comparison.

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My answer's gotta be a late 70's Plymouth Volare. I had one that had been a little old lady's car. Right after I got it, the exhaust system snapped on its own while parked when I met my parents for dinner. While the slant-6 itself was indestructible, everything around it was trash. I know at one point the carburetor started coming apart, causing it to stall whenever it would come to a stop.

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I spent 25 years repairing cars for a living...my list is quite long. BUT- I have also seen Chevettes and K-Cars with over 200 000 of pure abuse still running reliably. (Luck perhaps?) Styling is subjective...what's ugly to some is beauty to others.I personally like the 61 Dart and the 62 Fury while most avert their eyes to avoid blindness. I based my choice on vehicles I have repaired in the past. (...sadly.)

Two vehicles that have always been at the top of my list were both Renaults...The Fuego and Le Car. To call them manure spreaders would be doing a disservice to farm machinery everywhere...even the finest of Russian tractors. Their styling was abysmal ,at best, but it was the mechanical aspects of these disasters that stuck in my mind. I could go on forever about them, but that would be wasting time on the same scale as actually attempting repairs on them.

Anyone remember the Chevette Diesel?

My sister-in-law had a Chevette Diesel when my brother met her. Nothing to look at & slow as sin, but it ran FOREVER & got great fuel milage. She was very sad when it finally died.
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I dunno. Nick. I've had the misfortune of actually having to work on a Yugo. At least some of the Bricklin was made with sevicable parts.

I have spoken to a owner of a running Bricklin, took a lot for him to get it to stay that way, and parts have to be sourced from other similar vehicles. I'd Sell my toolbox before I'd work on a Yugo.

Nick

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You can make a case for the ford Tempo, as many of those had a tendency to just stop and not restart for several hours. I also remember a local call-in as the mechanic show and for many years there was always someone calling in describing on 80s GM cars the steering box failing. There were lots of Quality issues with all American makes in the 80s. Big changes in a short amount of time and a huge learning curve. My least favorite? Most cars designed with sealed beam headlights but switched over to composite head lights, they usually look weird.

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