Worst 5 cars you ever owned....

[Jon Tilson]

Okay On the yellow ebay thread I was reminded of an old acquaintance...that I would prpbably rather have left forgottem.

So what are your worst ever 5 cars owned, driven, in your hosuehold, whatever...

Mine...

1 Ford Corsair GT automatic on a C plate
2 An awful brooklands green 1800 SDL Marina that I stupidly bought at auction with a view to selling on at profit. I did, but still hated it.
3 A jaguar 420 on an F plate. Burnt some serious oil but I still quite liked it somehow...
4. Austin/Morris 1300 GT I cant remember which....owned by my flatmate, what a heap.
5 Another automatic, this one....a Farina Mk4 Magnette.....such a disapointing car after good experiences of Z's and my Riley 4/68

Jonners

[VYO 372M]

My choices are more do to their condition than anything else. My choices are in order.

1) (T reg) Morris Marina 1300, used to be an 1800. It was very slow and leaned heavily into the corners, it was awful. To be fair it wasn't a good example at all and I'm sure a better one may have given me a very different opinion.

2) Triumph Dolomite 1500 HL. Due to me owning mainly Triumph's, several Triumph's are going to appear I'm afraid. This Dolomite was in terrible condition, had in excess of 100,000 miles on the clock with an engine that sounded so rough I thought it was going to expire at any moment.

3) Triumph Dolomite 1500 HL. Slightly better than the one above, but not much.

4) Triumph Dolomite 1500 HL, the worst engine I've had in any car this one.

5) Triumph Dolomite 1850 HL, when it ran well it was a lovely car in it's defence. Engine blew three weeks after I bought it. Should have bought a better one, but I always liked this car despite the numerous problems I had with it. Previous neglect was this cars biggest problem.

Steve

[2Toledos]

I'll just go for THE worst :-

Triumph 1500 TC - Bought as a replacement for my first car (Dolomite 1300) - Made the mistake of thinking I could drive it the same way I was used to driving the 1300.... Wrong ! It didn't last very long - Threw its big ends on the M3.... but, it was a happy ending, because:-

A representative from a well known recovery company, attended - Popped the bonnet; looked inside, and went "Mmmmm... Your head gasket's gone, mate. These old Triumphs are well known for it !" Me and my mate P'd ourselves laughing all the way home.

[NickMorgan]

1. A 1958 "rust free" ex-California Triumph TR3A. It was quite rust free, but it had a bent chassis, engine beyond repair, bits of hose pipe for suspension bushes, interior eaten by chipmunks. It was certainly good by the time I finished rebuilding it, but there wasn't much of the original car there!!
2. 1989 Renault Famous Five. The only car I have ever bought new. The most horrible cheaply put together car you could imagine.
3. 1995 Ford Escort LX. The most soulless, built to a budget car. Bought because I needed something newer for my job and I hated it.
4. 1976 Triumph 1850HL. Should have been such a great car, but it was just so unreliable! However, it was so much nicer than the Escort above that I traded it in for (only got £500)
5. 1980 Citroen GSA Club. Probably fine when new, but mine blew oil into the air filter, which reached a certain level and then pour into the carburettor, stopping the car and enveloping it in a cloud of black smoke!

Thinking about it, the two Triumphs were good cars that had been poorly maintained by previous owners. The other three were just horrible cars!!

[JPB]

From bad to worse then:

1 Austin A60, RLK361E. I'd just sold an auction-purchased, three Month old Polski-Fiat 125P (a decent thing, but sold as I was sick of people mistaking it for a Lada....) to a dealer at a profit and had the money burning a hole. That A60 used more oil than it did petrol, had bits of an old fridge for floors and a largely cardboard chassis. I was so glad when it was stolen by bangerists from outside my home.
2 Reliant kitten van, number not disclosed here as the damnable creation is still "out there" and I don't want its current owner to know why I sold it....
That van had a great engine, but both front suspension turrets were so rotten that, when an engine mount failed, the n/s/f suspension adopted an alarming amount of negative camber. The previous keeper had sold it to me with a fresh test certificate and, like the mug that I am, I'd never thought that it could be that bad.
I fitted a new chassis under it but after that it had an engine bay fire (no real damage, just a bit embarrassing) and I got in one day and my right foot went through the floor, which was so rotten that there was no resin left, just a few strands of matting covered in underseal for that MOT.
3 Datsun Sunny 120Y. GMS124S. Only an 8 year old car at the time, but the (new, I should have smelt a rat) wings used to distort as I drove because the wing rail box sections weren't there and the seller had considered Araldite a suitable alternative to fresh metal.
It went well though, mostly sideways unless the road was billiard table-smooth and dry. Gotta love those Japanese bias belted tyres....
4 Not sure whether I can count a free car, but my Honeysuckle, 2-door Toledo, although a solid car, was fresh from a barn where it had played home to a pack of wild dogs, or at least that was how the smell, and mostly eaten trim, came across to me. OK, ideally one should at least service anything that's been standing for any length of time, but I ran it for a Month and sold it to a young woman who was on my course and wanted a cheap car. She got exactly that.
5 Datsun 280C Estate. Again, relatively young as it was a '78, 'S' plate car that was only 9 years old at the time.
Paid £30 for it, ran it until the head gasket fault became so bad that it hydraulic locked itself one day when I went to start it. I kept its rather nifty Clarion separates system for my Maxi, sold the trim for double what the car had cost me, the tyres on the rims for a further £40 and weighed the shell in for £50. It was so rotten that the floor had fallen into the chassis sections, leaving some annoying channels in the footwells that would invariably trap peoples' feet.

[chris1850]

569AVJ 1962 minivan with rear windows, 8 years old, my first car. Rotten here and there, one rear radius arm bearing so bad that I packed the wheel out on about 3/8" of washers to stop the tyre rubbing on the shock absorber. Dropped out of third gear and I identified the metal plate stopping the drivers seat falling through the floor as the dizzy shield from its odd shape. Drowned in the wet until I fitted the dizzy condom kit. Never actually broke down on me, though, apart from in the rain.

363DPE 1957 A35, 16 years old. Bought in a hurry to get me to and from a holiday job. Rotten, front shockers needed EP90 to sneak through MoT and bounced freely for most of the intervening time. Front wings detached from valance to top of headlights until a few square feet of old caravan was pop rivetted on. Painted in light green hammerite! Ran it for several years, again never actually broke down.

UKX924E Herald 1200 about 15 years old. Terminally sluggish, bottom third of both doorskins was masking tape (not even duct tape) and matt black paint. Replaced the rear seat base after a new acquisition from Battersea was car sick on the way home. Sold as a runner!

??????S Kadett estate 1.2 automatic. Another stopgap. Engine so tired it wouldn't tickover unless the gearbox was in neutral. Possibly even slower than the Herald. Learnt to weld on this one.

??????F Riley Elf MkIII. More oiltin than non structural metalwork, but not to dodgy where it mattered. Had a tendency to smooth out the splines at the bottom of the steering column, resulting in a Chaplinesque moment for the missis who was (thankfully) not hurt and (not so thankfully) unamused by it. Stolen and recovered when the gearbox extension mount let go allowing the engine (which had long lost its steady bar) to smash the bottom of the carb into the bulkhead in Blackbird Leys (remember that place- interesting reputation in the 90's) . Why didn't they torch it?

Various other dodgy motors, but I think they were the worst.

[Purplebargeken]

Probably not the worst but a bit dire: white Lada estate. Useful but very tractorlike. The least precise steering in the world.

However, the worst car award has to go to: my silver/grey Smart ForTwo (or whatever) looked the dogs whatsits, very neat and clean car. It handled reasonably well and I managed to get the ESP to cut in many times during virtually every journey . It was the most unreliable car I have ever had, I had to have the transmission looked at so many times by the so called MB 'specialist technicians'.

They insisted that it was a software fault initially. I remember picking the car up after it had been 'sorted'. I started it up in the MB car park, put it in gear and the damn thing lurched so far forward I nearly went through the dealerships wall. I phoned them from the car park and suggested that their technicians might want to have another look at it. If it hadn't been in an extended warranty it would have cost me a good grand and a half to put right. They finally returned it, having broken the handbrake!! I then drove it to work along a 60mph stretch of road only to find visibility reduced to sod all 'cos the car had filled with smoke. That was on a wednesday, the car was gone on the Friday - px'd on the Amica. I will never buy another Smart as long as I live. They are crap!

Best car (apart from LD) was the freebie Volvo 940 Turbo Wentworth estate. Beautiful car. Bloody quick too. I miss it.

[scoobyh123]

My five worst cars, not in any particular order :-

1) KCE 675P Austin Maxi. On the face of it looked like a good car but it drank fuel like it was going out of fashion!! 16mpg on a good day and the suspension was so soft i got seasick in it!!

2) Escort Mk2 van or should it be Esc-ROT!! The engine was so shot it wouldn't do more than 55mph downhill with the wind behind it and you needed ear defenders above 40mph!! Also the floor was so rotten when adjusting the clutch i reached through the floor for the spanners on the seat!! It somehow managed to drink more than the Maxi as well, 12mpg on average!!

3) NVE 660M Hillman Avenger 1600GLS. Basically a nice car except for a screwdriver hole in the petrol tank where someone had nicked the petrol and a "3 piece" chassis where the O/S/F wheel was attached!! Braking did strange things to the steering!! Eventually died on the side of the A47 the day i started a new job!! Probably still there....................

4) LWL 108N Morris Marina 1.3 Besides the usual rear leaf spring breakages, it got to the point of blowing the head gasket on a daily basis. Got so i could do it in 20 mins when i got home from work each day!!

5) RJT 12R Chevette estate bought off my brother. Basically ok but the distributor drive dog had broken allowing the dizzy shaft to spin round without drive every now and then!! Went well when it felt like it which wasn't often!!

All the above cars were bought in a hurry/emergency situation as i needed transport. Bit more fussy these days!! Have to say though i struggled to find 5 truly terrible cars and last count i've owned around 200 since i started driving!!

Cheers,
Dave

[DOLLY76]

I wonder if I can come up with five, well here goes.

1. My mother's 2007 model Mitsubishi Outlander VRX. It's based on the evo platform, running the exact same undercarriage as the evo, minus the turbo (WHICH IT NEEDS, BELIEVE ME!!!) It handle like a bus, the auto shifter knob looks like a baseball, and the A pillars are so thick you can't see blind driveways, oh and rear vision is basically non-existant....

2. My Aunties old 1978 Toyota Corona she gave to me, as it held absolutely no re-sale value either privately or at the trade in. It struggled to do over 80kph and coming back from colac on a steep downhill run i was on full left lock, and drifting into the right hand lane. it overheated far too easily and smelt of a dog kennel....

3. Unfortunately.... a 1978 Triumph 2500s. My first custom car. She was fun to drive but I changed the water pump, had the radiator flushed, manualised the thermo fan switch and ran the thermo fan from a cold start and she still got hot too easily! She had 375,000km on the tacho and drank fuel like it was going out of fashion. I still have it but can't see any reason to fix it up again unless I completely re-do the wiring loom and run a BMW E30 diff, rear discs and a more powerful and reliable engine. The girls loved it though, and the backseat saw a lot of giggly moments

4. My current daily driver, a 1990 Holden Commodore VN Series 1. It is over-powered, handles like a go-kart, and is slowly falling apart around the drivetrain (which was made in America....go figure). The drivers door doesn't open, the guage lights only work when the brake is depressed, she gets far too hot on even cold days, the door locks have all broken at some stage, the headliner is sagging...... oh I wonder what will break next?

5. VX series Holden Commodore. What a gutless waste of a V6 alloy block! It was grossly underpowered, felt like it weighed a tonne and suffered ridiculous understeer the worsenned under breaking.

Best car I've driven so far, a 2001 Ford Modeo Saloon. What an amazing car! Plenty of get up and go, great fuel economy, brilliant handling and brakes, and a gearbox that didn't take more than getting bogged on the beach to kill it. Old Mondy, I will miss you. Wouldn't mind a manual version though....

Aaron.

[mbellinger]

Number 1 (and unquestionably the worst)

Saab 93 Aero Convertible

I had longed after one of these for years, and bought it brand new, the bollocks in steel grey with black leather and all the toys. The first breakdown was six minutes after leaving the dealer. The salesman's face when the car he had handed over to me two hours earlier appeared back outside on a recovery truck was quite something. I owned it for 93 days. It spent over thirty of them in Saab garages. I was recovered 17 times in two months from the M25. This must be some sort of record. It put me on first name terms with all the telephone girls at Saab Assistance. Eventually I went legal, sued Saab and got my money back.

Number 2 - (New model) Mini Cooper

The most hideously uncomfortable car, that put me under the oesteopath for three months after I sold it. Appalling space utilisation, ghastly to drive and 22 mpg. Mini, my arse.

Number 3 - Volkswagen T25 Camper Van

Don't believe the hype - these look nice but are rubbish on every level. Like a truck to drive, appalling on fuel and so underpowered they couldn't pull a Jews foreskin back. They aren't even a good camper van, with a very compromised interior layout and no storage space. If someone buys you one, be sure to set fire to it and claim on the insurance.

Number 4 - Renault 11 Turbo

A great looking car in its time, but it blew up twice and all the fancy leccy gadgets gradually stopped working. Even when it was going well, it was never as fast as the Golf GTI it replaced.

Number 5 - Triumph Spifire 1500

Of all the cars I have owned, the only one that I would say was downright dangerous in its design fundamentals. The transverse rear spring and swing axles mean camber changes on the rear wheels are extreme. Even something as inocuous as a drain cover mid corner could cause the thing to spin. Nice looking, fun in some ways, and more practical with more space than a Midget, but a death trap that the authorities should have banned.

[george]

Can't say i had or have had five worst cars but amongst the things iv'e had '''

escort estate bought to lug tools around apart from rust and crap fuel economy used it for a few years .o.k

marina van to replace the escort again for lugging things around never failed to start although on the tuner it showed the coil lead to be u/s never changed it throughout the time i had it , sold it to a mate who ran it for a few years after

apart from a rusty 18.000 ml alfasud ti which was a brill little car shame the steel was so poor sold to a friend who's grandfather tried to take off on a very steep hill and couldn't hear the engine revving to the max he caused irreprarble damage to the engine which was it's best feature

everything iv'e had had good points maybe not many but none the less still did what i bought them for

[Lewis]

I haven't really owned any horrors either - few mechanical failures but that's about it

My 1500 with Sprint powertrain was about the worst though - partly because it took about a month, 3 tries and 600 quid to get through an MOT, then still had a poor clutch, ran stupidly hot, had a stiff gearbox, crashed and banged around and was full of filler. Then there was all the shenanigans with the DVLA trying to get the taxation class changed that took about 2 months - absolutely ridiculous. Lost my rag with it at that point and sold it on - and it's still going!

....but the worst car I ever drove is still my grandparent's 1.6 Focus. Detestful little thing and all I wanted to do was drive it head-first into a wall to get the experience over with. Unfortunately I still had 120 miles to go!

[scoobyh123]

I haven't really owned any horrors either - few mechanical failures but that's about it



....but the worst car I ever drove is still my grandparent's 1.6 Focus. Detestful little thing and all I wanted to do was drive it head-first into a wall to get the experience over with. Unfortunately I still had 120 miles to go!

I've driven many Focus models, all near new/brand new/some so new they needed trade plates (not yet registered) and without a doubt, none of them would need driving into a wall!! Most of them would have done it all by themselves!! The roadholding and handling on them is absolutely abysmal!! They should have been strangled at birth, along with their designer!!

Cheers,
Dave

[SprintMWU773V]

You must have driven the reject Focus's! Find me another mass market, front wheel drive car that holds the road as well as a Focus. One knock to the suspension though and they do suffer though as they do with the wrong tyre pressures. Main stealers or Ford usually store their cars for ages and all the wind comes out of the tyres and causes hillarious understeer. Mine drives like a total hound at the moment because the dampers are worn. They are just old rather than faulty and currently cause the car to crash over bumps and generally fail to keep the wheels properly in contact with the road. Bumper roads and cornering are particularly amusing at the moment as the car struggles for grip.

[scoobyh123]

How come out of the millions of Focus's sold, i managed to get ALL the reject ones? Based on my experience, i would suggest anything would hold the road better, including a jelly!! I've also spoken to many Police drivers and those that had driven a Focus all had the same opinion as me. Bearing in mind how often police vehicles are in the garage for checks, repairs and maintenance i don't see that any of those would have had flat tyres. As a point of interest, the first time it happened to me, i returned to the supplying dealer and got them to check the tyre pressures, all were spot on so i insisted they check the front suspension too, which again was deemed spot on. So i further insisted they drove it. The verdict? They're all like that!!
What a difference to the Mondeos i'd previously picked up from the same main dealer!! They did what it said on the tin, went like stink, drank very little and stuck to the road like the proverbial on a blanket.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not slamming the Focus in general, just the ones i've had the misfortune to drive!! As most of them came direct from the main dealer, it would seem reasonable to assume that most are the same. Also a friend of mine from another forum had the loan of his brothers automatic Focus a few months ago, he also said it didn't hold the road!!

Cheers,
Dave