Worst car you ever had

[brick]

My worst car was, ironically, probably the "nicest." That was a 98 Volvo S70. On the one hand it was a beautiful ride: powerful 5-cylinder engine, stick shift, clean black paint, drove like a European car should. On the other hand it was sort of a FrankenFord built in a time when Ford didn't earn the sort of respect they do now. It had all sorts of electrical problems including a headlight switch that broke down once a year even if you didn't touch it. The clutch blew itself apart at 68k miles due to spring fingers that collapsed for no apparent reason. And I'm pretty sure the episode with the clutch damaged the tranny because it never did shift right after that. The best mileage I ever got out of it was about 25mpg. I had never heard of hypermiling but I have never been an aggressive driver, either. One day the rear view mirror just fell off and I said "**** this thing, it's going away." That's when I bought the 2002 Accord coupe, which was a nice but impractical car.

[SD3_Driver]

i don't think i can say my cars were bad at all, but here it goes,
74 Dodge Dart SS
79 Oldsmobile Delta 88
05 Dodge SRT4
the 74 had a strange noise within the valve cover, never knew what the heck was..
the 79 had a an overhaul, cylinder head and piston rings...
the 05 had a belt replaced once and the spark plugs 3 times, for some reason, the harder i drive, the faster it has to be replaced..

[WriConsult]

I've had over a dozen cars. Most have treated me well, though a couple of otherwise decent cars have given me some headaches. But one stands out above all the others:

96 Saturn SW1, bought new. Delivery was delayed several weeks due to a strike, and my car was finally built the first Monday after the strike ended. Not a good omen.

I ended up taking my Saturn back to the dealer 10 times for repairs in the first year. Mostly minor stuff: both the dome light and the rear cargo light detached themselves from the headliner on separate occasions. External trim pieces came loose. Nasty squeaks and rattles emanated from under the dash. But there were also the brakes that repeatedly warped themselves, and the engine knock on shifting that would not go away.

These problems didn't cost me anything (other than the hassle of repeatedly dropping the car off at the dealer), but with such a bad start I had no confidence that I wouldn't have worse problems as the car emerged from the warranty period. I sold it after just over a year.

[St. Mushroom]

2002 VW Golf GL. Based on the grapevine, I decided VW was a reasonably reliable choice. A lot of my friends were driving older VWs at the time, and of course they raved about them.

The day I drove it home I had a check engine light go off. Ominous.

The first year was uneventful. I really enjoyed the spunky ride. Then followed expensive, semi-quarterly visits to the shop for various failing parts and oddball issues.

I remember, one time VW sent me a part in the mail that I was supposed to install, something to do with child safety seats. And one time VW sent me some other dude's car registration, I don't know why. It wasn't like they even handled my registration.

At 65k it was hemorrhaging cash. Which sucked, because it was my original intention to drive it into the ground, per family tradition. And it seemed to give up the spunk at this point, too. Ignition coils kept going bad. That's probably where the spunk went. Apparently the mark had sludge issues, may or may not have been an issue with the car, never found out.

Airflow sensors, multiple catalytic converters, and it was sucking down a can of special synthetic once a month. Autozone loved me.

I don't think I ever had all the headlights and taillights working at once, just kept burning them out. And one would think airbags do not wear out unless deployed, but this was not the case with this car. Told dealers that were giving it the once over for a trade in that, yes, I would replace the airbags before I brought it in.

It's too bad, because it was an elegant hatchback, fun-to-drive, an excellent college hauler, and it's interior impressed everyone, probably equivalent to an entry-level A3.

Luckily, the trade in value was OK, due to the yuppie-appeal. My condolences to whoever bought it from the Honda dealer I unloaded it on.

[some_other_dave]

My worst car is also my favorite: My 914. Many (most?) of the problems have been owner-induced...

-soD

[phoebeisis]

Hmmm, guess I will pass on the 1996 Passat TDI wagon 5 speed MT- that was selling for $2500 on CL. Of course the 285,000 miles kinda gave me pause despite the owners assurance"it drives like it has just 100,000 miles on it." Apparently 100,000 can be a heck of a lot of miles on a VW of that vintage!

[raveneon]

Cadillac Catera

The original owner traded it in after putting 17k miles on it in 18 months. I purchased for half price of new (17k) and thought I got a great deal. After driving it for 9mos the oil cooler/heat exchanger went out. When it did it mixed oil with antifreeze. What a stupid design. After calling all around the state to find a dealer who would perform the repair I paid for towing over a hundred miles away. The mechanic explained to me that this piece was located under the intake manifold and is held in by some type of caulk or glue which of course goes bad every few years. The cost of this repair was $1600 out of pocket because my warranty was out. After the repair the car continued to overheat and I took it into the shop again. I was told that it needed it's coolant flushed because of the former repair. Shouldn't this already have been done? 3 months later the alternator quit working and that was a grand. While in the shop they told me that the air ride system needed replaced at a cost of $5500. I refused the repar and traded it in the next morning at the local ford dealer and was offered a a little below book value (4k) because of the necessary repairs. I took it and ran. So the total cost of owning this beauty for about a year was just over 15k. You couldn't give me one of those cars.

If you ever know anyone considering a Caddy tell them to buy the best extended warranty possible.

[WriConsult]

Originally Posted by raveneon

Cadillac Catera ... So the total cost of owning this beauty for about a year was just over 15k.

Gaa! That is the worst I've heard. Instead of calling it "the Caddy that zigs" they should have called it "the Caddy that digs ... into your wallet." No wonder I never see those things on the road anymore.

[drimportracing]

I got a Toyota tercel for "free" from a gf. Spent somewhere close to $1200 in repairs over a year trying to fix the overheating problems and misc safety issues, never got it running safely, it caught fire from the catalytic converter to the interior the one time I drove it 40 miles. I happily gave it away with a lot of new parts and warnings.

Lesson: Free isn't always a good deal. - Dale