128 replies to this topic

[Harry P.]

Trabant.

[cobraman]

For cars I have owned it would be the Austin America that I bought years ago. Still today if you asked me why I bought that thing I couldn't tell you. But including cars I have not owned I would have to say it would probably be the Yugo. ( You don't go ? )

[fredgsanford]

I have a few friends who work on jaguars , they both have told me to never get one.

[my name is nobody]

Mine personally was a Pontiac Fiero..........

When I was serving in the military, my XO (executive officer) bought a new '84 Pontiac Fiero.
rightfully proud of his new purchase, after our morning formation he decided to show off his new car.
I remember walking around the thing, admiring the rubber body panels and looking at the mid-engine design, listening to
the Captain telling us all the cool features.

Then when he went to start it up.....................nothing..........dead as could be.

what a POS. brand new car, less than 500 miles on it. if I remember correctly it was gone within a month.
and the XO bought a new Camaro.

[jas1957]

I remember in the '70s seeing Volare/Aspins less than 2 years old with the front fenders almost completely rusted off. I purchased a '95 Neon in 2000 with about 70,000 on it when I got rid of it 2 years later with 82,000. The AC didn't work, fuel tank was leaking, & it had a wrist pin knocking. That doesn't count the long list of things I fixed in that 2 years. Such a bad memory that my wife won't let me even look at a Mopar today.

[Mercman]

Dodge Dipolmat with a slant 6 engine. Plugs on the slanted side towards the fender well, and a upside down oil filter.

[mrmike]

I once worked with a kid who owned a Yugo. It stopped running and he pushed it into the backyard and gave it to his dog as a doghouse. Yugos are junk!

[Ace-Garageguy]

....never had any of the 3 Pintos I owned explode. What was I missing? Maybe not panic-stopping in front of a semi on the interstate had something to do with it........

...also, I maintainrd a fleet of 60 Mitsubishi pickups in the mid '80s (same as a Dodge D50), and amazingly, not one had cylinder head cracking issues. Of course, part of the maintenence program was to check the water in the cooling system......


Trabants though....... now there's a really poor excuse for an automobile...anemic, smoking 2-stroke engine, phenol resin / cotton fiber body.....but it's kind of a cult car now.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy, 27 October 2012 - 06:40 AM.

[Badluck 13]

I love the Ford Pinto but I couldn't resist.....

[CadillacPat]

Loved my Pinto, 3 speed on the floor and bucket seats,

Drove a Fairmont doing contract work between Houston and Mississippi, what a piece of garbage, the Fairmont, not Mississippi.

Next would be the Reliant, what were they thinking??

CadillacPat

[imatt88]

I would have to say Yugos. I freind of mine bought one brand new when we stationed in England back in the 80's, and it was constantly breaking down and parts kept falling off, Junk

Cheers, Ian

[Draggon]

From personal experience I would say the Pinto, and the Triumph Spitfire a very close second. My 71 2-liter Pinto wore the camshaft out before 50,000 miles, not to mention the thousands of squeaks and rattles that were un-fixable. The wife had a 71 Triuimph Spitfire through the early 80's. Almost every weekend I was working on it, and parts were incredibly hard to find. We ended up buying a second one just for parts. Paid less for the car than a new set of carbs. At least it was fun to drive. I was overjoyed when the wife failed to ck the oil and blew up the motor.

[sjordan2]

I nominate the 1970s for the Hall of Shame, during which only a few brands around the world made anything but junk. Barrett-Jackson bidders may disagree, but the muscle cars from then are much better in today's restored condition than they were new. It's like the entire car industry was scrambling so hard to deal with a global fuel shortage and US emission and safety regulations that quality was put on the back burner.

Edited by sjordan2, 27 October 2012 - 08:01 AM.

[Lownslow]

I nominate the 1970s for the Hall of Shame, during which only a few brands around the world made anything but junk. Barrett-Jackson bidders may disagree, but the muscle cars from then are much better in today's restored condition than they were new. It's like the entire car industry was scrambling so hard to deal with a global fuel shortage and US emission and safety regulations that quality was put on the back burner.

i nominate the 90s for the hall of shame

[dartman]

The renault douphine (sp).

[sjordan2]

i nominate the 90s for the hall of shame

Good choice, too. The beginning of an era so loaded with unreliable, obsolescent computer technology that those and today's cars will be nearly impossible to maintain or restore. I couldn't even get body and trim parts from GM for my '93 Corvette in 2006 because they'd been discontinued. Imagine trying to replace the "Master Control" computer in any car made today in the next ten years.

Edited by sjordan2, 27 October 2012 - 10:30 AM.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Good choice, too. The beginning of an era so loaded with unreliable, obsolescent computer technology that those and today's cars will be nearly impossible to maintain or restore. I couldn't even get body and trim parts from GM for my '93 Corvette in 2006 because they'd been discontinued. Imagine trying to replace the "Master Control" computer in any car made today in the next ten years.

Yup.

[DR JAY]

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?

[disabled modeler]

Chevy Citation....can you say Lemons?

[MicroNitro]

Aztek