The absolute worst car you ever owned

Mine was a 65 Galaxie as well! POS! THE worse handling car I ever owned. Rad problems, broken Zbar (it was a 390 4 speed) and the engine smoked for the first 20 minutes. The left front sagged. The headlight breaker would kick in causing them to flash on and off (lots of fun when a cop is in the oncoming lane). My dad was a GM guy and he kept saying "Why the hell did you buy a Ford?"

 

I have owned somehwere between 300 and 400 cars in my life. And honestly I could not think of one single car that I thought was a POS. Each one was an experience and fun in the same way dating a girl you KNOW your not going to marry is fun for a while. Some last longer than others, but each one is fun in there own way, cars and girls.

I mean some I KNEW were not great cars like my 82 diesel cutlass coupe, but what did I expect for $150? That car was actually fun because I knew as soon as it broke down I was going to leave it right where it stopped with the title signed over on the dash and a note to the finder that they could keep it. (this was before high scrap values). Me and my friends actually had a poll going to see how many miles it would go before dying! It finally gave up the ghost in the highway in Atlatna and that's the last time I saw it.

I don't know whether I just picked out good models and never bought a hyndai or I just got real lucky, bu I've owned several of the cars on this list so far and liked each one. I'd even buy a Gremlin now if the price was right! I also never go out and hunt for a specific type of car when buying one. I wait until the best deal comes along and buy whatever car that happens to be. Anyways, I've enjoyed them all.

 

I too had a new 85 GMC Sierra Classic 4 x 4. It had a gutless gas sucking POS 350 that used oil from day one. I had it 9 years and put in 3 head gaskets (on the drivers side). The first one was at 5,000 Mi. I only had 60,000 mi on it when I traded it in

Oh yea and the blue paint started coming off in sheets after the warranty expired.

 

73 Vega GT. It was my first car. I wanted a 69 Camaro, but dad made me buy the Vega for fuel economy. It was 6 years old with 42,000 miles on it. I had to keep a case of oil in the back at all times. That aluminum engine blew so much smoke, James Bond couldn't have followed it. Unintentionally drove it in front of a drunk tractor trailer driver & survived. Used the accident as an excuse not to buy another small car. Replaced it with a 67 Chevelle. Come to think of it, that was a piece of crap too!

 

Mine was a 1988 Honda Prelude I bought when I graduated high school. It actually broke down on the way home from the dealership! I couldn't go two weeks without having to replace something, and Honda parts aren't cheap! Meanwhile, I had an 200k mile 78 Trans Am that I wound up driving half the time when the Prelude was broken.

If I wasn't too lazy to have dug a hole big enough, I would have buried that car and danced upon it's grave!

 

Leased a 1984 Jaguar XJ6 (in 1987) that was one of the first Jaguars from their Certified and Reconditioned Preowned Vehicle Program. Low miles and an absolutely beautiful car. Boy I loved that car when it ran...

How bad was it? 1984 Jaguar... Need I say more...

 

I like the way you think, but unless you're 400 years old, couldn't possibly have owned em long enough to understand if they're a piece of shit.

I have somebody else's piece of shit. A vette that went thru a series of owners with phantom no-start/shutdown problems for the last 20 years and was finally dumped at a shocking price out of desperation. Stayed real nice and unmolested since it wasn't reliable. It tried to screw me over on day 10 of ownership, by day 11, solved permanently. Man I love that POS and all it's frustrated past owners. Thanks for not driving it guys, this beatch is cherry!

 

60 Chevy Belair hard top. 6 cyl PG. I sold my 421 super duty 4 spd Catalina when I came home from Viet Nam. I needed a car so I bought my dads 60 Chevy. What a come down...421 to a slush box 6. I almost crashed a few times trying to get out in traffic. When you stepped on it all it did was go whoosh. It went the same speed no mater how hard you pressed the go pedal. What a turd! It never gave me a minutes trouble but it could not get out of it's own way.

I'm beginning to lose faith in my present 34 PU. It's really been kicking my ass lately. One thing after another. It just never ends but I'm determined to whip it. My old buddy used to say...you just have to be smarter than the truck. Right now my truck is pretty damn smart.

 

All of my POS cars were Volkswagons. Every one of them. I like Bugs. They hate me.

First was a 1966 Type III fastback that was ten years old when I bought it in 1976. Car drove great! I had it for maybe three months. I was doing 70 when the oil light flashed ONCE, then the engine exploded - literally! It grenaded and left a 6" hole in the bottom of the case. I traded the POS to a VW guy...

...For another VW POS. This was a '62 Baja that had a header, NO heater, and a radio that worked on its own terms. Oh, and the hood would fly up whenever it felt the desire. This car got stolen...and was recovered about two weeks later, about 20 miles away, with a pair of new tires on the front, and a stolen TV an a stolen pair of boots in the back seat. Oh, and the header was hanging on by just two bolts....Got the car back and traded it...for what turned out to be a stolen dirt bike. Got the car back again (the cops got the bike, of course), and promptly sold it. The buyer put a new engine in it, then wrecked it a week later.

Next POS VW I had was in Germany. I bought this '65 Bug from an Italian Air Force officer, and drove it maybe 100 miles before the engine went tits-up on it, just a half-block from the Dutch border...A buddy flat-towed me home, and we ripped the front suspension off the damn floor pan in the process! "No-rust", my ass!

I could not resist the demonic-like possession that Beetles held on me, so I figured I'd try one more. Drove it a whopping 50 klicks. Parked it in a store parking lot, where the car caught fire and burned to the ground. Have never owned another air-cooled VW since!

 

1977 Dodge van and when I was a kid a 1950 Plymouth. Needless to say I don't buy Chrysler products. Dodge van was a big turd. Had all kinds of problems. Ever had a wiper motor go bad? How about buying three and the all were bad. I phoned Lee Iacocca and told him to shove it up his ass. Not really , but went as high up the corp. ladder I could at the time. Told them what I thought of their product. Always laugh when you're about fourth in line leaving a stop light and you drive through a big cloud of blue smoke you know a Chrysler product left the light in front of you.
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Like I told the kid ,"Your music's not too loud, it just sucks and so does OKC."

 

1970 Buick Skylark, bought it new, what a POS. Can't believe I was ever that stupid.

 

1985 Pontiac 6000 STE...huge pile of crap. Bought it new, changed oil faithfully EVERY 3000 miles. Had to replace the engine bearings at 53,000 miles. went through three fuel pumps, several sensors, a broken wire in the distributor that left us stranded on the freeway. All in less then four years! I fixed the rusty body twice before I sold it...to a cop whos wife just HAD to have it. I told them both it was a piece of shit and not to bring it back if they bought it. last I saw it was sitting at a repair shop with rust holes big enough for squirrels to go though and the big yellow sick pin in the front bumper trim I put there to hold it on after it popped off. Then there was the '83 GMC truck I had; new trans, brakes, fuel pump, front end parts, cam went flat, all within 28,000 miles. Sucked gas like an Arab, slow and gutless.....then there was the '83...shit anything made in the 80's was pretty much crap, especially G.M.'s stuff...

 

'61 Ford Skyliner Ragtop I bought this at the Ford Dealer in Champaign,Ill when I got out of the Army in '67 it looked really nice red with a white top and matching seats,took it out on a test drive and it hauled ass so I bought it.I never looked it the trunk till we went grocery shopping and found a 25 gallon fuel tank in there that hooked up to the tank underneath,to the left I saw where a hole was filled in the top of the fender.Turns out this was a Illinois Highway Patrol ghost car with the Intercepter package.This car did some weird things,twice it exploded the mufflers they looked like a peeled banana,the starter caught on fire,the generator and and regulator burned up twice so I paid to have the electrical system gone thru 2 weeks later the transmission started leaking then started slipping,when I found out how much that was going to cost my temper got the best of me and I took it to the Wrecking yard,I was going thru a divorce at the time and my ex ran up a spending spree so I had to file Bankrupcy and wrote off $900 I still owed on that POS.

 

93 Ford Escort wagon. No, wait, 91 Civic -- at least the Escort tried to be domestic.

 

It's a toss up between my Audi GT coupe or the Lexus SC400. Both fell apart within 3 years. I'll never buy a German or Japanese car again.

 

'78 Mustang II

 

Alfa Romeo F12 van.

I always liked Alfa's, and this was a really rare vehicle.

But it deserved to be rare ( in fact they made too many...)

Rusty, unreliable, gas guzzling ( OK, I did soup it up...), and slow ( thanks to weird gearing in the FWD Transaxle )

 

81 citation was cheaper to buy a new car than maintain it, will admit drove great in snow when it ran.........

 

63 Corvair.Couldn't keep oil in that P.O.S.-blew out of every orifice.Marked its spot everywhere i parked it.Finally swapped it for a 57 Ford Fairlane that was a jewel.Still laughing about that trade.

 

1982 Lada 1500S. For those of you unaware of what that is, it's a Russian built piece of absolute garbage based on a 1967 Fiat sedan. Bought it on a Friday and the troubles started on Sunday. It was 11 months old, had 21,000 kilometres on it (13,000 miles) and paid $3500 for it. $3500 too much. In two and a half years it ate 5 wiper motors, 6 or 7 voltage regulators, an engine, a couple of generators (yes, not alternators), a door glass regulator, an exhaust, and too many other parts to care to remember. On its final ride home one night the motor mounts sheared and shifted my tranny sideways so I couldn't depress my clutch pedal. Had to limp home in second and bunny-hop it 'til it stalled. Sold it at 65,000 miles for $100 and was glad to get it. Last I saw of it I was doing some work on a construction site and the loader operator was getting ready to push it into a pit and cover it. I took a leak on the driver's door and gave it a few kicks with my steel toes for all the grief it caused me.

 

2003 Volkswagon eurovan m.v. weekender westfalia

I loved that van....my dogs loved that van...

ran great...super fast...handeled good

took it in for a coil recall....and my van was never right again

 

96 Dodge Intrepid, and a Chrysler LHS.
They were both $400 auction cars, so I didnt get too hurt. Electrical problems, trannys, one engine lost.
Why buy 2? When one dies its a donor for the other. Strip it and squish it.

 

when I was 19 I bought a 56 chevy Bel Air with a straight axle. giant ladder bars, 327, 4-speed, fenderwell headers... sounded like a bad assed ride. I knew the guy that owned it before me... it sounded very fast and I never bothered to race him with my GTO.

I should have, that car was a slug I bet it would have only run 16's. GTO would have dusted it without even working up a sweat. had electrical troubles, the ladder bars caused all sorts of binding in the rear, the fender lips were raised in the back, by brazing and bondo. lost 4 lug nuts driving down the street one day. busted the stock rear end more than once.

I was out cruising the strip one night and when I made my u-turn the tube axle broke at the weld. the wheel, brakes, spindel and end of the axle were hanging by the brake line. after that I really never got it back on the road. ended up selling it for $500.00 without the motor. it later ended up being dumped off at the junk yard in the middle of the night. someone picked it up and called me to get the title.

 

Oh how do I choose the worst.
Pinto
Vega
VW
Triumph Spitfire
Mercury Linx
All had seen better days when I bought em but, the worst had to be a 67 or 68 Chevy panel truck painted black with a brush. It had one bucket seat that was missing a few bolts. When you took a left turn you had to scoot the seat back behind the wheel. It had 3 on the tree with sticky linkage so you had to set the parking brake at stop signs and crawl under the truck to juggle the linkage or it wouldn't go into first gear. God I wish I had it back!

 

2002 Dodge Stratus.

 

85 saab 900s. i wanted a car i had never worked on, i had worked at many auto dealers and tire store chains. never worked on a saab. the damn belts are next to the fire wall! THE OIL PAN IS THE TOP OF THE TRANSMISSION CASE! bosch k-tronic, what a piece of turd. keys are $100, and they break about once a month. ran and handeled like an indy car, for about a month at a time, then wait a month for parts. guy was quite a sales man, sold me on the idea that this thing would be so cool with a quiver of surf boards on top headed for the coast. bull shit! jerry sienfeld can kiss my ass. best car, 89 cutlass ciera with a quad 4 made the 500 mile trek to the coast a million times and never a minutes trouble. and would dust that saab.

 

Renault Alliance Convertible...

Bought it new and it never even made it home. Quick fix at the dealer got me back on the road. A month later, the head gasket went out, 2 months after that it was the tranny. Had electrical problems out the wazoo, top mechanism got sprung when I hit a pot-hole and it leaked after that. Dealer replaced the alternator and battery twice because it would drain power overnight.

11 months after I bought it [new], I was sitting at a traffic light behind a 70's model full size buick when a Chevy van rear-ended me at about 25 mph. The car literally folded like a book! Both doors poped open, the back seat was touching the rear of the front seats [no joke] and the floor-board folded down and was touching the ground...
The Buick had a grapefruit sized dent in the bumper. The chevy needed a bumper, grille, and 1 headlight... Both the chevy and the buick DROVE home!!!!

I was VERY happy to be rid of that POS!

 

1961 Mk 2 Jaguar saloon, there's a saying among Jag owners, "If you want to drive one, you'll need two".
When it was running, it was a great car to drive, but that was only about fifty pecent of the time.

 

I've lucked out. Even worn out cars with lots of miles have been good to me, I can't really say even the POS's I've had were that bad.

But the biggest clunker was probably the '84 Buick Skylark I got for free 4 or 5 years ago. Ran, flat spot in the carb I never fixed, needed brakes. I got about a year out of it, someone put halfassed brackets on the bottom I guess for the exhaust.. knocked one off in the snow, ran over it, blew the tire, rounded off one of the lugnuts I'd cranked on after they came loose on me, and ended up having to drive it home that way. Made it home about 10 miles on snowy roads with one flat tire - and I drove it quite a while after that. Gutless, you could brew a pot of coffee between 0 and 60, leaked oil, and got me the funniest car comment ever... some little girl I brought home for a one night stand remarked on how big it was (I think because I had the seat way back so I could be comfortable in it)... to me it was like a go-kart with a top on it, the smallest car I've ever owned and driven.

I basically parked it when I got a Dodge Ramcharger cheap, which I had about three months before I got the truck I have now - an '89 Suburban - which has been mechanically dead reliable, summer, winter, cannot complain one bit. Of course I've replaced almost every body part on it - some it needed, some just to make the color match - but I haven't done anything to the engine except oil and filters.


Drove an '87 T-bird for a while, too, that had 170K on it when the rust finally killed it (trailing arm mount rotted out). Even hit a deer with it and kept on trucking.


But I can't think of any one that didn't need more than normal maintenance, or if it had big problems they were due to rust caused by road salt.


I sure wouldn't mind rounding up a diesel Cutlass or Gran Prix, either.

 

2001 STS- was in the shop more that out the first two years!