cream of the crap

[8866nk]

just out of interest whats the worst car you've ever owned and why?
i've had some crap p6's but i can't name one of them as my worst car cos they're a p6.
i had a 1982 granada 2.8ghia x which was a nice car but not when i had it!
it had certain mechanical problems which lead to the ultimate embarressment of being out-dragged off a roundabout by an older lady in a diesel maestro!
it went shortly afterwards!

 

[KiwiRover]

Hmm, that's a tough one. Most of the 70 odd cars I've owned were non-running derelicts But of the ones I actually got use out of...
A '71 Vauxhall Victor 3.3 that was fairly reliable but saw me pirouetting through a hedge and almost rolling into a house while taking a gentle bend at low speed one damp evening,
an '81 Plymouth Horizon. Misguided attempt at buying an American car. Horrible, horrible thing,
'73 Triumph Toledo 1500, unbelievably unreliable. Broke down shortly after purchase and continued to do so on a weekly basis 'til it was replaced by a Dolomite,
'75 Mini 1000, numerous mechanical faults, then while the engine was being rebuilt, the body dissolved in a pile of rust,
'66 Pontiac Laurentian, car was made mostly of body filler and bodges. Lots of electrical and brake faults,
'87 Mazda 929 Luce, Mazda's flagship model. V6 auto, rwd and acres of burgundy velour! Lovely when it was going but came home on a tow truck 4 times in 18 months of ownership. Mostly minor faults but very hard to fix on the side of the road.

Funnily enough, i've had some good runs from cars that should've been crap. I inherited an '88 Lada estate with a severely blown head gasket, threw on a second hand head (and gasket ) hoping that it would get me home and drove it for a couple of years without any problems.
A '79 Marina estate 1700 automatic, also inherited with broken front trunnion and served me well for years (then broke down the day after I sold it) and a '71 Austin Maxi which was surprisingly useful and drove and handled much better than i'd expected.
Unfortunately, now most other cars feel like cheap rubbish compared to my lovely P6's so I guess i'll be sticking with them for a while.

 

[ghce]

By far the worst car I ever owned was MK IV Zephyr when I first bought it broke down 5 times out of 4 trips out :shock: all different problems each time, after initial problems it continued to break down at least once a week till its final major demise when the motor stopped with no oil pressure and 5 broken rings on the 6 pistons. When I rebuilt it there was 60 thou worth of wear in the bores they were severly oval, I had to go to the last possible piston size from the origional oem size. but even after the rebuild the engine still came back to bite me as when on its first start the oil pressurre dissapeared, stripping the engine revealed that the mains had been line bored out past standard so special bearings needed to be fitted ggrrr, by far the worst car I ever owned.

The next worst car was a Hilman Hunter, worst car ever made nuf said on that.

Most laterly was a Honda Vigour 5 cylinder which gave continual expensive problems, in my 6 years ownership I had replaced the motor, the gearbox, the differential, rebuilt steering due to seal failure, replaced radiator, water pump and had a severe engine fire when radiator failed, and numerous electrical and electronic module failures. In my 6 year ownership I must have spent in excess of 20,000 dollars in repairs it's only redeeming feature was that it drove very well and was a nice car fully optioned with leather, except for its terrible fuel consumption.

As an aside to the mk IV zephyr, I purchased a second car a MK IV Zodiak (ex police car) which I transplanted the rebuilt engine into and never had another problem, great car and a mistake when I sold it 4 years later, quite incidently when I sold the zephyr to a friend later he also had the same run of bad luck with it.
Graeme

 

[chrisyork]

I too had a Lada that ought to have been crap and wasn't. I bought it for £100 and it ran with zero maintenance for around a year. Only real INCIDENT was a petrol pipe to the carb detaching near the top of the Llanberis pass with attendant petrol on hot exhaust manifold dramas! Only took 2 mins to fix though. Then it started to drink brake fluid and ran the last couple of months mainly on the (very strong) handbrake before yielding £90 from the scrapman! I had very big biceps from the steering by then as well! The lack of financial drama made the rest of the experience quite enjoyable in a goodness gracious me sort of way!

The car that was really crap was actually one of the most reliable - an HC 1256 Viva. Absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. I was heartily glad when someone tail-ended me on the M5!

Chris

 

[quattro]

Worst of the lot was a Vauxhall Viva - what a pile of junk. There was nothing about it at all which I liked. The ride was terrible, the engine sounded like it was trying to get out and run off at anything over 50mph, it was noisy, uncomfortable, and drank like a fish. :x

I have also had a Mk 1 Granada which I loved but I would have to take the glass bowl off the pump every day or two and clean out what looked like grass from it. And a Sierra which stopped every 50 miles or so. It started again if left for a couple of minutes and went for another 50 miles.

Surprising good cars were a Fiat 131 mirafiori which went like greased weasel poo and only ever let me down once in three years. The timing belt went on it in Salisbury. I put another one on and it went well for another year until it rusted away (the car not the belt). The MOT station refused to let me drive it home :shock:

And an Austin Montego which I paid £100 for and drove for three years. Loved the shape of that one.

 

[8866nk]

i'd forgotten this one or tried to!
recently i got rid of a toyota emina lucida x which was my biggest money pit.
i got it off the docks at the auction for my ex and she promptly blew it up on the way home!
head gasket gone! (no she never knew what all the dials meant, never bothered to look!)
had new head gasket.
then a new rad, then another rad, then water pump and basically everything!
every trip was an adventure not knowing if you'd get there!
i got rear ended in weymouth but not a write off dammit!
then the end came in my driveway!
nextdoor had their bungalow painted and it covered my car in white santex!
write off i thought!
but no. many hours at the valeters grrr and then cash to compensate me.
just enough time wasted for the mot to run out!"
oh, and it got dented at its first mot!
not according to the garage that did it though.
flogged it on ebay, a total night mare but oddly i like it?

 

[Phil Robson]

Must be a Citroen Picasso! Good design etc, but felt like it was made out of (thin) cardboard, & it creaked & rattled all the time.

 

[Willy Eckerslyke]

Worst - Allegro 1500TC estate, given to us by my father-in-law. This meant I was obliged to keep it going for a couple of years while it was only good for scrap. It rusted in the most unlikely places, eg. the entire front panel + radiator coming adrift; rear suspension tube corrosion resulted in one tyre rubbing against the inner wheel arch. Dreadful mpg, but still slow. Clutch kept seizing - had to crunch it into gear to free it. Heavy car, but cramped. And it was beige.

2nd worst - VW Passat TD estate. Uncomfortable, unreliable, overpriced, awful.

Worst dead car - Austin 1100 thrown in as a freebie with a Minor I bought off eBay. I thought I could sell a few bits and make a bob or two, then spotted that the entire floor was covered in several inches of rat droppings. Shut the door quickly and weighed it in without removing any parts at all.

Gooduns - 35 pound Viva HB SL90 bought from a colleague. Scruffy on top but totally solid underneath, an excellent drive and 40mpg (sometimes).
350 pound Vauxhall Carlton 1.8 estate. Just ate up the miles and kept going regardless of zero servicing. 30mpg good for such a big barge too.

 

[quattro]

, then spotted that the entire floor was covered in several inches of rat droppings.

Did you make any ratchet screwdrivers with them?

 

[Dave3066]

Worst - Allegro 1500TC estate

I had one of those, mine was mustard colour. I paid £300 for it, ran it for 3 years and traded it in for £300

Worst has to be a 2001 Renault Laguna. This was a brand new lease car that I got after my car got nicked and I had no other option but to lease for 3 years. It was the first of the new shape and the styling was lovely, but the car was crap! Too many gadgets and buttons; it was a 1.8 petrol so it was gutless; and I found out, after changing a set of front tyres at 10K miles that the front suspension was shot :shock: I managed to nurse it to the end of the lease and give it back to the lease company just before its MOT was due

Dave

 

[V8P6B]

The worst car I ever owned was a 1976 BMW 320. I paid £200 for it, and it was a horrible, rusty, crispy, flaky heap. I used to commute from gloucestershire to heathrow every day in it, 190 mile round trip, during which it consumed 2 litres of oil, 1 litre each way. I hated it. Sold it after a couple of months. I also had a Mk2 Vauxhall cavalier 1.6D, and although the bodywork was good, the engine was terrible, from what I can make out, Vauxhall basically converted a 1.6 petrol engine. I could never, ever, in 18 months of ownership get it to start on a cold morning. I was forever changing glowplugs, batteries etc. It only had a 4 speed box too, so when I used to do the 190 mile commute, it would be absolutely flat out at 75mph, with a thick black smoke screen behind it. It'd only do about 30 mpg too. I hated it. Later on I bought a 1983 XR3i which had been well and truly thrashed by a previous owner. That too used to consume oil at an alarming rate, although it wasn't a horrible car, but I could never get the hydraulic tappets to shut up. It sounded like a bag of spanners. I spent a fortune on rebuilding the engine, rebored, new pistons, crank regrind, new big ends & mains, new camshaft and followers, etc etc, and the first time I started it up after the rebuild, the tappets rattled like a b*stard, and that was after a long crank to get the oil pressure up. It was soul destroying. Later on, I had a 1988 Ford XR2, which again used to have a thirst for oil. On a long run, the crankcase compression used to blow engine oil into the air filter pan, through the breather hose. It then used to run down the air intake onto the exhaust manifold. It did this under braking at the end of a motorway sliproad once, and caught fire. I casually lifted the bonnet, blew out the flames, dropped the bonnet, and carried on! You should have seen the looks on the other driver's faces..!

 

[V8P6B]

Worst has to be a 2001 Renault Laguna. This was a brand new lease car that I got after my car got nicked and I had no other option but to lease for 3 years. It was the first of the new shape and the styling was lovely, but the car was crap! Too many gadgets and buttons; it was a 1.8 petrol so it was gutless; and I found out, after changing a set of front tyres at 10K miles that the front suspension was shot :shock: I managed to nurse it to the end of the lease and give it back to the lease company just before its MOT was due

Dave

My missus had a 2001 Laguna 1.9TD as a company car. It had just 7 miles on the clock when she got it, but racked up 100,000 miles in 3 years :shock: During that time, most of the plastic trim fell off, the electric sunroof had to be helped shut, and the car had had 3 replacement clutches :shock: and that was on a car which spent most of its life in 6th gear on the motorway! Truly awful car

 

[quattro]

Worst has to be a 2001 Renault Laguna. This was a brand new lease car that I got after my car got nicked and I had no other option but to lease for 3 years. It was the first of the new shape and the styling was lovely, but the car was crap! Too many gadgets and buttons; it was a 1.8 petrol so it was gutless; and I found out, after changing a set of front tyres at 10K miles that the front suspension was shot :shock: I managed to nurse it to the end of the lease and give it back to the lease company just before its MOT was due

Dave

Oh I had one for a week when the Audi was having its rear end rebuilt. Boy racer didn't have the brakes he thought he had :roll:

I hated it.

The sat nav was the worst, most un-intuitive peice of crap I have ever seen. It would only ever direct me towards Aberdeen Airport, nowhere else, just there.

 

[DaveHerns]

The only car I really hated was a C Reg Escort 1.3 L I bought at auction in 1986 - one year old . It had been in an accident and handled like a fish out of water. It wore the NSR tyre out quickly , the wear being on one side.
I worked out that wheel was toeing in and put a shim in the suspension to push the wheel back a bit and then it drove better but was I glad to get rid of it. Oh yes , it had bad clutch drag as well
I had a Corsair 2000E which suffered from vapour lock
2 Mk 3 Cortinas and 2 Sierras which would let water in if it rained
A mk 4 Cortina which I think had a crack in the head as it would occasionally only fire up on 3 but then clear.
However people do question my taste as I drive a 2006 Citroen C5 estate which had a few problems to start with but is good now. I'd like a CX or an XM as a toy