What's the Worst Car You Ever Had?

[Mike C.]

6 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

Thanks for that GNARLY '80s flashback, duuuuude!

80s were the greaties! 😎

[jaftygas]

On 4/5/2022 at 7:57 AM, iamsuperdan said:

I've had exactly one vehicle that was troublesome.

1990 Jeep YJ Islander. 4.2L inline-6, 5-speed manual.

 

Bought it in early 2005 with only 165,000km on it. One owner vehicle, and he gave me all of the service records for it. A little rusty, but very well maintained. Figured this would make a good vehicle to bomb around in for a while. 

Well, that didn't go quite as planned. About a week into owning it, the brake lights and rear turn signals stopped working. Very strange, as it passed the required insurance inspection the day after I bought it. 

So fixed that. Then put a decent head unit in it, cleaned it up so looked a little better.

About a month into owning it, it had to get towed for the first time. Just stopped running. Felt like it ran out of gas and would not restart. Carb issues. Dealer said they fixed it. Two weeks later, tow number 2. Different dealer could not diagnose any issues. 

 

Ran fine for a couple of months, then it was constant non-start or stalling issues. Every time, felt the same, like it was out of gas. Took it to a third dealer, and they said it was definitely the carb, but that they couldn't fix it. Apparently, Chrysler's Gold Star program or whatever it was called had a separate certification for carburetors, and none of their techs were certified, so they were not allowed to fix it. I was not amused.   Had a chat with the service manager and dealer principal. How could a Jeep dealer not be able to fix a Jeep? By this time, it was September, winter was coming, I was frustrated and fed up with this, and needed something reliable to drive. Turns out, Jeep was having their employee pricing sale, and had a new 2005 TJ Sport, in my preferred colours and spec. Spoke with the dealer principal again and the sales manager. They gave me a trade on the old YJ that was more than I paid for it in the first place and covered almost all fo the repairs I had spent on it over the previous few months. Plus employee pricing on the new Jeep. 

 

So the story ended well.

This is my least favored vehicle! The X wife and I had a Sahara edition of this POS! Worst thing ever built. JEEP stands for Junk in Each and Every Part!

[atomicholiday]

Hands down worst for me was an ‘89 Ford Escort GT.  Ran great as long as the weather was good.  Once it got below 10 degrees F, it would buck really hard while driving.  Just what you don’t want on icy roads.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I really don’t have a heck of a lot to add to this topic, as I’ve owned basically nothing but Hondas and Acuras since about 1987, and every one of them has been just as trouble free and a joy to own and drive as the last.

During this time period, we’ve owned 2 Preludes, 3 Accords, a Civic, 3 Pilots, a CRV and an S-2000 for Honda’s, as well as several Acura MDX and RDX models.

I can’t think of a single major, or for that matter, really any minor issues with any of them.

The only other vehicles that we had during that time period was an ‘87 Buick Century that we traded our first Prelude for because we needed more family space, and a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer that my wife bought because she wanted an SUV and Honda didn’t have anything of comparable size at the time.

Both of these had their fair share of issues, cementing our faith in our beloved Honda’s.

The Buick blew a head gasket, (either that or the head was cracked) I didn’t wait to find out, I just dumped it.

And the Mercury, which was brand new when purchased, first fell prey to the Firestone recall, and then a main computer went out, causing a bunch of problems.

The final straw was when it started leaking oil all over my garage floor, and all of this with less than 30,000 miles.

Since then, and since we’ve owned nothing but Honda’s and Acura’s, I have yet to have one in the shop for anything other than standard wear and tear items, like tires, brakes, exhaust, etc.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Bucky]

My worst car ever was a '79 Pontiac Trans Am. It had a 403 engine and ran like a wild animal, but I couldn't keep everything else from falling apart on the car. I kept it for six months, traded it for a Chevette, and the dealer sold the T/A the next day. Two days later, the new owner of the Pontiac threw a rod through the block! Glad I traded for that Chevette! It turned out to be a decent car.

[Bronzekeg]

had a 86 chevette that was junk, had a 81 chevette that was a nice car.

[NYLIBUD]

I might have already posted an answer here before,but if not,I would have to say the worst car(s),i have owned,and I have to say cars,plural,is because it’s a tie between an 82 Cougar/Fairmont,6cyl,a mid 90s Cutlass Ciera,and a Pontiac 6000. Pure garbage cars that were given to me by

father,when he was done with them.But the Cougar was the worst.It was a small four door sedan.An Almond color,front bench,6ci.It leaked oil like it was going out of style.No power at all.Just pure crappola..I think it also had a really bad knock.Make a good security guard car.

[Bills72sj]

I have been driving and owning cars for 46 years. I cannot say I have ever had a bad one. I spent more time modifying them than I ever did fixing them. I have had my last Grand Prix for 24-25 years and my wife's Durango for 18 years. It pays to take care of and garage them. Weather seems to be the biggest car killer.

[StevenGuthmiller]

11 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

 Weather seems to be the biggest car killer.

I disagree.

"Design" is the biggest car killer.

Some are designed to last, and some are just poorly designed.

 

It takes me back to some folks that I have known over the years who have talked incessantly about how some POS car that they've owned had 250,000 miles on it, and how great it had been.

Invariably, when you dig a little below the surface, you almost always find that the car has had all kinds of repairs over that time period.

 

A truly well designed car will go 250,000 miles "without" replacing the alternator, the water pump, etc, etc, etc.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[iamsuperdan]

On 6/10/2023 at 9:50 AM, jaftygas said:

This is my least favored vehicle! The X wife and I had a Sahara edition of this POS! Worst thing ever built. JEEP stands for Junk in Each and Every Part!

It's weird, because I've had multiple Jeeps over the years, and that's the only one that gave me problems.

Had a 1993 Cherokee Sport. Drove that to 440,000km with almost nothing but routine maintenance. Took a rock at about 350,000km that punctured the radiator, so had to replace that. And the starter went about a week before I sold it. 

Also had a 2005 TJ Sport, 2008 Wrangler Sahara, 2025 Wrangler Sahara. Combined for about 400,000km and all were completely trouble-free with nothing but routine maintenance.

[Chuck Most]

Probably the worst was one I'm still fond of ... 1984 Jeep Cherokee Pioneer. Most of it's issues revolved around the GM 2.5 four cylinder. Made no power, got lousy mileage, leaked from everywhere. At one time the carburetor studs had backed out so far that when you went to lift off the air filter housing the carb kinda wanted to go with it.  Hmmm... That explains why it wasn't idling...

At one point the clutch master cylinder saw the engine leaking and thought "hey... I can do that too", resulting in a brake fluid soaked fuse box. This led to quite a few electrical woes until I figured out what was going on. Basically one day the clutch wasn't working and I noticed the firewall under the dash was wet, and I kinda put two and two together. New cylinder, junkyard fuse block, and a box of new fuses fixed that up.

I can't even remember how many times the exhaust fell off, how many times the transfer case lever jammed, or how many times I would hit a particularly sharp bump and completely lose electronics for a couple of seconds ... Both before and after the fuse box was replaced.

Despite that, for 17 year old me it was an easy to fix vehicle, and the hodge podge of AMC, GM, Ford and Peugeot parts mostly worked in harmony.

It only ever left me stranded once, fortunately within a mile of home, and the interior was something to behold. Tan vinyl with plaid cloth inserts is a look I would be okay with coming back. 🤣

Worst worst would probably be my 1975 El Camino but my therapist says I'm not ready to get into that quite yet...

[mikemodeler]

I had a company car for 5 years when I was caught up in a downsizing. I needed a car and luckily found a job that was about 4 miles from home so I was looking for a cheap car that could also hold my kids (2 & 6 at the time). A friend had a 90 Olds Custom Cruiser wagon that had been owned by a floral shop and was used for deliveries for 10 years. It looked nice but later found out why they got rid of it- bad carb! After a month of owning it I noticed I was getting about 8 miles to the gallon. At first I thought someone was siphoning gas out of it but a trip to the local repair shop confirmed what I feared- an expensive repair! Luckily I found another job that provided a company car and I was able to off load it onto some unsuspecting soul. Only vehicle I have owned that I would consider a bad vehicle in 42 years of car ownership!

[StevenGuthmiller]

I do have a horrible car story, though not one that I personally owned.

At one point I worked for a Midwest grocery store chain driving a delivery van for their home shopping department.

Some time in the early 2000s the store that I worked at bought 2 brand new Chevy Uplander mini-vans to be used by the home shopping, kitchen, floral and bakery departments for their deliveries.

Within a matter of weeks the extremely poor quality of these cars became very evident with broken plastic parts everywhere, busted tail gate latches, side doors that wouldn’t open or close properly, broken glove box doors, etc, etc, etc.

It was literally amazing how terribly these cars were put together.

As icing on the cake, by the time the cars were 2 years old, and both with less than 100,000 miles, they were both sitting in the back 40 of our overflow parking area with roasted transmissions.

Granted, these cars were not babied, but I have honestly never driven anything so bad in my entire life.

 

 

Steve

[gbdolfans]

The worst car I had was a 77 Grand Prix. Bought it used. Ran fine for a year or so, then started having problems. It would just stop running while driving it. I was on I-95 in Miami and it just stopped. Luckly, I was in the right lane and able to get it off. Had it towed to a dealer. They took off the gas tank and checked the fuel lines and electrical. They could not find a cause. I drove it to a Dodge dealer and got a great deal on a Charger 2.2 Demo. Ran it for 22 years and over 155K miles on it. What a great little car.

[jaftygas]

12 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

It's weird, because I've had multiple Jeeps over the years, and that's the only one that gave me problems.

Had a 1993 Cherokee Sport. Drove that to 440,000km with almost nothing but routine maintenance. Took a rock at about 350,000km that punctured the radiator, so had to replace that. And the starter went about a week before I sold it. 

Also had a 2005 TJ Sport, 2008 Wrangler Sahara, 2025 Wrangler Sahara. Combined for about 400,000km and all were completely trouble-free with nothing but routine maintenance.

Yep ours was a 94. Went thought two rear ends one create motor then two timing chains. One tranny peugoit pos! 
4.2 liter, it’s a great vehicle they said tuff as nails they said! However, I had a lot of good look back moments with my bride traveling with that jeep.

Edited June 14, 2023 by jaftygas

[Mike C]

My Dad and I each had one of these, 1989 Merkur Scorpio. His was black and mine was white just like the one I found in this photo. My Dad had transmission problems, mine had suspension alignment problems.

[redscampi]

2007 F150. Technically not terrible, but just try and change the stupid spark plugs on the 5.4 V8. They would break in a variety of ways, sometimes dropping pieces into the cylinder. This was a known issue, so much so that you could rent an extraction tool specifically for this task at any auto parts store.