Worst cars you've owned

Post by **matthew1** » 25 Apr 2009, 11:08

Any brand, any model.

My family had a terrible 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass that couldn't break 70mph, as I related in this post.

I actually can't think of a car I've personally owned that was less than ok. All my cars have been pretty good:

1979 Plymouth Volare w/ slant 6: never broke down, solid, ugly
1978 Porsche 924: burned oil, but otherwise ok
1979 Chevy Caprice FBI car lookalike w/350: I killed the trans, sold for $85
1989 Chevy S10 Blazer: 18mpg city, torquey V6 w/ horrible top end
1990 Mazda 323: really fast little car, very quick 5-speed
1988 Honda Civic 3-door: rock solid, great handling/economy
1997 Honda Accord 2-door: pretty, reliable, soulless
1997 Volvo 850: best one yet, love her

Post by **vegasjetskier** » 25 Apr 2009, 12:41

Wow, you opened up Pandora's box with that question.

I'd have to say my 2001 S80 T6. Way more maintenance and repair problems than any other car I've owned, no help from the manufacturer in dealing with them, and they deliberately go out of their way to make it hard for you to fix it yourself. All other cars I've owned have had maintenance and shop manuals readily available so you could do your own repairs. If it weren't for the superior crash safety my car provides, I'd get rid of it in a New York second.

dan2286 · Post by **dan2286** » 25 Apr 2009, 23:00

I'm still kinda young and haven't owned many cars, but the worst one was my first one. It was a '95 Monte Carlo Z34 with the 3.4 DOHC. Of course that was the engine GM decided to use/test?? there new OBD 2 system on. Besides the engine being an extreme pain to work on, it had some electrical problems that no mechanic could figure out. Apparently GM didn't get all of the bugs worked out of the OBD 2 system. I think around 100,000 miles the trans was starting to have some minor problems but still drove good. Luckily, someone rear ended me and totaled it. That got me some money for my 2000 Grand Prix which was extremely reliable and I got like 3 or 4 years out of that, but was recently totaled. The money from that got my 850, I haven't had it long enough to make a decision about reliability yet.

GrumpyOldMan · Post by **GrumpyOldMan** » 27 Apr 2009, 05:25

2006 mazda 3.
biggest heap ever.
after almost two years of me trying to get it fixed by mazda, they couldnt/wouldnt fix any thing.
gearbox, engine, electrics, suspension.
shit car with no service or customer care.

will never ever buy another one.

turbotim2 · Post by **turbotim2** » 27 Apr 2009, 06:35

Hands down - 2001 Saturn LW2. We got it with only 15k miles, was under warranty but it was always broken down.

Other then that we have had a lot of cars, all of which have been at least decent, some excellent. Never bought a new car, and most have had many miles on them before being retired or sold. Our 850's rank in the top for "most maintenance required" but it is usually something fairly simple. I had a 97 F150 that still holds the record for best vehicle I have had in terms of low maintenance costs and low maintenance frequency. In fact I would probably still have it if it weren't for fuel costs.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 09 May 2009, 06:15

1975 Ford Mustang II with a stick. The Arabs would fight over the oil slick it left in the driveway and I broke my finger when it slammed into the dashboard going for 3rd gear and the nut on the shifter fell off.

My wife had a couple of gems as well, a '85 Plymouth Tourismo and an Audi 5000, both had sticks. At least the Tourismo was easy to work on. The Audi should have come with a credit card reader that would debit my account for $600.00 to Hans and Frans (The nickname we gave the local indy guys) and it would run again.

...Lee

lee238004 · Post by **lee238004** » 11 May 2009, 20:23

Okay guys I have a 2001 Mitsubishi eclipse Spyder that the transmission has went out four times in the last two years.It only has 100,000 on it now.Last April had it rebuilt went for almost a year and went out again.It was still under warranty and three months later out again.The worst vehicle I have ever owned.

Jaywalker · Post by **Jaywalker** » 29 May 2009, 18:20

I've owned 25 cars and each one was a good idea at the time I bought them, but one sticks out as a really bad result - a 1985 Audi 5000 Turbo. I paid $17,000 for it used, drove it 70,000 miles, paid $5,700 in repairs, and got $4,000 when I sold it. People in my office laughed when "Freddy" (the mechanic) called. "Is he wearing his hockey mask?" Damn thing did go up mountains fast, though. I may stick to new cars now, except for the 940 I want...

FCPEURO · Post by **FCPEURO** » 17 Jun 2009, 11:32

I have the most embarrassing "worst" car out of anybody I think.

For a little while I had to buy a beater car. I found a 1990 Toyota Camry with 210,000 miles on it. It ran "strong" but it's falling apart automatic transmission had to down shift twice to make it up even the slightest incline on the highway.

The great thing about it was that it basically had an automatic oil changer. Every 800 miles it would burn and leak about a quart of oil. So, every 3500-4000 miles, I'd have put 5 brand new quarts in! I figured if I changed the filter every 10k miles I wouldn't have anything to worry about.

I have no idea what color it was, it kind of looked like battleship gray, but with some kind of funky paint peeling pattern.

I ended up selling it to someone else for $500, haha.

guidowitz · Post by **guidowitz** » 21 Jun 2009, 18:08

2001 Saab 95 Aero. Way too many failures, (ignition module, throttle body, wheel bearing, too much to list and I have only 75K miles on it!

Torque beast though!