What's the WORST car/truck you've owned?

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Notice that by far, they are from the big three.. :)

Mine was a Mercury Lynx...my one and only american car until I got my 'stang. I think it was either a 6 or 12 month warranty..it was worse that my MG and I know you won't believe me, my Datsun F10 Sports Wagon that had a top speed of 72 MPH going down a hill with a back wind...

Brakes..auto switch to start the radiator fan..head gasket at 45k kilometers...and on..

We have sold a Subaru and Honda civic that had over 350K Kms and our present 2005 Subaru has @ 250K Kms.. w/o problems..
 
Worst one I ever owned was a 99 Dodge Intrepid ES that I bought new. At 35,000 it threw a rod. At 50,000 the trans went. Good thing I had the extended warranty, even though the dealership was trying to weasel out of doing the work. They tried to claim lack of maintenance caused the mech problems until I plopped down a folder of all the receipts from service work done at THAT dealership!
 
grassy said:
Notice that by far, they are from the big three.. :)
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I think it's arguable how "American" any car or truck built during the last 30 years plus really is.. StrokerScamp's "Chevy" LUV? Isuzu. Another guy mentioned a first-year S10- again, Isuzu. First year Horizon/Omni- Simca chassis with a Volkwagon engine. Pinto? Yes, most of it's dangerous design was thanks to Iacocca's beancounting, but the engine? Taunus (German). And on and on.

When I was growing up, aside from Darts, Valiants, and the like- most succumbing to rust- my parents also owned a succession of cars that were +/- 5 years old, and yet, on their last legs. I remember 2 Toyota Corollas, a Datsun wagon, a Honda Civic, a Subaru- all rattletrap garbage.

But, don't get me wrong- I'm not trying to start an argument. The truth is, all cars at a certain price-point are basically junk. Also, basically all cars built between say 1974 and 1984, anywhere in the world, were junk.
 
1979 Ford LTD, what a trash can. Hope its rusting away in some junk yard, or maybe its part of this can next to me, i am gonna crush it. Kinda a long story here. Let me just say also, that i never cared about this car much.

I lived in L.A, working for McDonnell Douglas, i had a 78 Chrylser, got laid offhad to sell it to move, so i got back to Wa, and found a job and needed a car.

So.. it turns out that my wife's, boss's, husband's grandma etc, had a car for sale. Well, i lived in Seattle, car was in Spokane. No sweat, my dad flies, so he flew me over there.

We got there at about 12, the car is that Ford rust red color, 4 dr LTD, 302 (its only saving grace) So i drive it a bit, seems ok. Dad says goodbye and takes off. I start to leave, car stalls, gas puking out the carb. Stuck needle, Oh no problem the old onwer says, you can stay here over night and we can have the car fixed in the morn, Great.

So morning, cars fixed, i head out. This is August in Spokane, about 90 degrees. I stop at a light before the freeway, smoke starts coming out under the hood. Pop the hood, AC Compressor bearing has frozen and the belt is spinning on the pulley, Great.

Oh but look, in the gutter, there is a knife. Cut the belt off, all is good (ha)

Driving down the freeway through Moses Lake (another name for hell) and the Engine light comes on, great. Cars overheating, i passed a gas stating a mile back, turn around and head that way. Get there, engine locks up just as i get there. too hot. Water pump is leaking, great. let it cool down, it took 90 min to where it would take water.

Fill it up, seems ok, take off again. I left the rad cap loose so it wouldnt build pressure. Filled it up again on the top of Snoqualmie pass, and finally made it home. Replaced the water pump the next day.

Then the next week the heater core goes, On a 79 i think its the first thing they put in the car, i took everything out and still couldnt get to it. I say screw it and keep it bypassed.

That winter, of course i never put anti freeze back in it, it got cold, one morning i got out to start it, and horrible squeeling ensued. I pop the hood and the belt is spinning on the pully. Oh darn, frozen engine. Loosen the belt and let the car warm up. Everythings cool, no leaks.

This car was amazing in that it couldnt be killed, it leaked oil like a sieve, ever since i fried the engine when it over heated. I never tuned it or replaced anything, it leaked so bad, that in the rain, you could see where you had been. I finally got rid of it( gave it to my now ex father in law) It didnt have a heater since the heater core was bypassed, one cold morning i drove through someones exahust vapor, and it froze on the windshield.

If that car still exists today, i would be amazed.
 
Way to go rp23g7, somewhere there is a stabbing that goes unsolved because you ruined the evidence on the knife you found in the gutter :toothy10:

I've been fairly lucky, but...
Worst one that I've driven but not owned:
86 dodge van, delivery truck. Electrical problems from day one. ammeter would flicker all over the place, random erratic idle, funny random shifts, had the thing apart 20 times and replaced all kinds of stuff trying to track it down the strange behavior. Blown engine, trans more than once, rear end, you name it. The van eventually caught fire while driving down the hwy...

Worst one I've ever owned:
98 Ford windstar....I hated that thing
It started with some strange things, like the power windows not working, rear a/c blowing hot when set to cold, and the door ajar indicator chiming while the door was closed and driving down the road....
I'm at work when I receive a phone call from my wife. Apparently it gave up the ghost and wouldn't shift out of 1st somewhere around Clayton GA.. I'm in orlando. I had stayed behind when she went to visit her mother in TN.

A week and $3500 later and the van is fixed ( the guy at the ford dealer actually tried to talk her into buying a new one when she brought it in HAHAHAHA )
After the new trans I figured I have the POS for a while so I decided to fix 'er up. New struts, shocks, sway bar end links ( plastic by the way ), tires. 2000 miles later......
motor locks up on Christmas day 2005 while on a trip 1000 miles from home.
Have I mentioned that I hated that thing?
 
player1up said:
Way to go rp23g7, somewhere there is a stabbing that goes unsolved because you ruined the evidence on the knife you found in the gutter :toothy10:
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Oh darn, i knew i should have left that yellow tape alone:toothy10:
 
justme said:
1984 2.2 turbo lazer, had to work on it just about every other week end, what a piece of crap!
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we were just talking about those cars the other day, those Lasers and Daytona's were real popular cars, but now you never see them.
 
But, don't get me wrong- I'm not trying to start an argument

No taken.I enjoyed you post as well as others. This is what the board is all about..expressing opinions..

My dad was a banker and I remember going to see a customer's caddy that was about 6 months old and it was rusty..and then there was Ford's experiment in using recycled metal.

Hope my '75 Duster escapes that year spread....Before I rebuilt my MG engine, It used to leak a quart of oil every 1.5 hours on the road...on the positive side, it was the easiest engine to pull apart :)

I remember stories about assemblers sabotaging cars like dropping soda bottles into the doors, etc..

Ian
 
'85 Ford F250 Supercab 4x4 diesel. Bought it to just be a farm truck. Burned up the transfer case discing my field, so much for Ford tough. Replaced the transfer case and now is a yard ornament. Still have it, any one want to buy it?



Chuck
 
I pretty much agree with slantstick, the year everything went sour and got better again is a hazy gray line, and there are always exceptions, but in general I feel the same way. Anything newer than 1980 is mechanicaly beyond my abilities to troubleshoot and repair. I'm too old to learn and too young to know better.
That also pretty well sums up why Both of my daily drivers are 30+ years old. They are tough and simple (like me). The last new car I had was an '04 Taurus, not the worst by any streatch, but just after spending around $2000 to make it a little "nicer", wheels, tires, window tint, etc., the head gasket blows, taking a head and some internals with it. You do the math: $1500 new long block, $1200 installation (cheapest I could find, has to go in from UNDER the car!) and I saw a used on on the lot for $3200. I also found out that the transmissions tended to go around 120K and cost more than the engine. It's no wonder people don't try to save old cars if their only automotive experience is with this new crap!
 
oldwirebender said:
I've been thinking, maybe the Challenger was'nt the worst car I ever owned. I traded it off for a '73 Vega!
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Mine was a '73 Vega that I put a 350 with a 2 speed power glide trans in. Ran like a scalded dog but didn't stop or corner for crap... Took my life in my hands everytime I drove it but man, what a rush!...
 
The worst car I've ever owned was a 72 Fiat Spyder. That car was built in retaliation for WW2! The brakes worked ok, thats the best I can say for it. I've never owned a bad Plymouth and I've had a few. I once had a 69 Pontiac Firebird, no brakes, paint peeling off it, front end headaches from day one! I bought it new and the dealer wouldn't fix a thing till I got the area rep on his case! My 2002 pontiac is almost as bad, Rack and pinion, brakes,master cyl, fuel pump, repaired intake twice! It seems the 3.4 motor has a intake from a 1942 John Deere and they don't really match up too well so they leak like a sieve.I know why they collapsed! I had a 1980 pinto and loved it, in 70,000 miles I replaced the timing belt and a rear wheel bearing. My son totaled it! My wife had a 88 Beretta that really ran but ate alternators. The computer finally quit in it and I replaced it with a junkyard piece...no more alternator problems. My wifes 84 Ford LTD wagon had a 3.8 V-6, what a POS! The first motor wiped a cam at 24,100 miles! I bought a junkyard low mileage motor and swapped it out. That lasted about 18 months and started making strange noises. We gave it to our son..LOL He eventually traded it for a set of mags.
 
A 1979 MGB. POS right off of the delivery truck! After my first wife and I split, she took the car and being young and stupid I left it to her to change the title to her name and insure it. She didn't and 3 months later it caught fire! 2 months afterwards there was a recall due to a fire hazard under the under the hood, carb was directly over the converter, wrong pin in the carb, fuel leaked on the converter, car went boom. They wouldn't cover it and they wanted me to pay for it!! When I inquired who approved the repair I was told my wife had. My response was I no longer had a wife, put the car on the lot and sell it and what they lost the could either get it from her or eat it!! No more British POS cars for me!!! EVER!!~!!
 
..shame...I got almost 30 years of trouble free motoring with my 'bgt.. but you had to do the maintenance..I think when they went to the rubber bumper and weird emission controls ..and single carb...all forced on them by California..quality dropped..

Ian.
 
I owned a '96 Ford Taurus GL Wagon and that thing was the bane of my exsistence. First day, right out of the parking lot, the starter dies on me. 2 weeks later, it develops this terrible valve clatter that would sound like a terrible musical number performed by the tone deaf musicians assosciation of peru. Not even 4 days after that, it decides that it wants to start over heating, well, apparently, the water pump ate its own blades. Then every coolant line started to rupture. Then the heater core went all over its beige interior and i just bypassed it and toughed out the last bit of winter. It had 186k when i bought it for 1200$. I prolly had it for 2 months and it electronic brain farted on my everytime me and my gf would have a date ON THE HWY!! Somehow, it knew just what to do to piss me off. I sold it with like 200k on it for 1000$ to some guy down the road after the front end alignment decided it didnt like being dead-on anymore, the 02 sensors started bugging out, and there was unfindable coolant leak (even some other techs couldnt even find this, my shop mentor gave up on finding it after 2 days of hunting) that looked like it was leaking coolant out of the underside of the hood! I just filled it up with some coolant and sold it to the guy and flicked the POS off as it rolled off. Glad that its gone and I hope I never see it again. Though Im most sure that it is prolly in a part pull yard or crushed. Damn it and its crappy 3.0, I honestly hope homeless people are using it as a toilet right now. They need a place to poo too right? Why not a Ford Taurus Stationwagon? :finga:
 
I guess mine was a 1971 VW Bug 1st car I ever owned that I was able to register and drive. Car was a wild ride, take a corner on a rainy day at any speed over 20 MPH and you literally slid around corners. Not to mention the brakes. Oh yeah what brakes!!!! Car was a total accident waiting to happen. Semi Automatic, got stuck in 2nd gear I couldn't get it to shift out of 2nd so I removed the shifter and discovered an electrical wire which when touched to the metal dash kicked in the clutch!!!!! Was a POS, but I drove the wheels off of it. I finally wrecked it one night speeding down a dark road and failed to make a sharp left turn and ended up in a wrought iron fence. Lucky I was not killed as the windshield was 300 ft down the road and the two front wheels were folded up under the car, but the motor was still running and I tried to back it off the fence without success. I would never own another VW. Hiel Hitler!!!!
 
My ’95 Ram club cab that I bought new is still the biggest piece of junk I have ever owned. I had been buying a new Chrysler vehicle every two years since 1980 when I got the Ram.
Six days after I got the thing, it went into the shop. Then seven days after that it was back into the shop. I kept telling the service people something was wrong with the transmission. There was a shaking in the drive train whenever the torque converter locked up.
The dealer tried reflashing the ECM. That didn’t help. Then they put in an MP performance ECM. That didn’t help and I made them take it off because it required I run premium fuel but it didn’t make the truck run any better.
Then, they thought the wheels and tires were out of round. They ordered in 12 wheels and had a mechanic check the runout on each wheel in order to find four that had less than 0.025” runout. Once that was done, they put new Michelin tires on it. The vibration was still there. They replaced the torque converter. Again, same vibration. Then they said they wanted to send the truck to a tire shop to dynamically balance the tires and true them up. I told them the problem was in the transmission and if they weren’t going to replace it, then I was done with them.
So, I filed a lemon law claim. The Chrysler zone rep for this area came over from Memphis and drove the truck. That knucklehead didn’t know you could unlock the converter by holding the gas pedal steady and just barely tap the brakes. Once you let off the brakes, the converter would lock back and the vibration would start again. I told him what to do and from the passenger seat I could feel the vibration but he said he didn’t.
He told me the truck was performing as engineered. I asked if “the truck that broke all the rules” (their ad slogan at the time) had a defect engineered into it. He said, “no.” I then told him I had driven a ’96 Ram and it didn’t have the vibration, so that truck must be defective. That got him really flustered and he said the dealer had done too much to make me happy. The service manager and the sales manager were standing there and could not believe what they had just heard. I got up and started walking out when the rep asked what I was going to do. I told him he’d find out.
I went home, called the dealer and told him I wanted my money back. Now, get this, he tells me to come back up to the dealership to drive a new ’96 to see if it was smooth. It was. So, they pulled the transmission out of the ’96 and put it into my truck. And, they put my transmission into the ’96 and sold that truck as new!
But, it gets better.
About three months later, I’m going around a slight bend in the road and truck kept going straight. I eased on the brakes and that helped restore some steering. I limped it to my office and when I looked under the truck it looked like every seal in the steering box had exploded. Grease was everywhere. The dealer towed the truck in and replaced the steering box. Exactly seven days later, the steering gave out in the same curve while on my way to work. The dealer again towed the truck to their shop and called me three hours later saying it was fixed. When I got to the shop I saw the dealer’s copy of the repair ticket. It had “Silent Recall” stamped on it. They had to replace the steering shaft.
Once that was fixed, I went to another town and traded the truck in on a ’94 Volvo. That was in August ’96. I still have the Volvo. My 18 year old daughter is driving it now. It currently has 185k miles and is going strong.
But, I will never buy another new Chrysler.
 
1964 hippo said:
1984 ford bronco damn thing caught fire 2 times:angryfir:
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Thanks for reminding me, on our anniversary, I went to take my GF out for dinner and my BMW decided to melt its coolant heater, which took out the bottom of a rad hose, which sprayed coolant over everything and also caused ALL the belts to break.

Oh yeah, and the dipstick handle half melted too. UGH!
 
1990 Plymouth laser my girflriend had. It was my first year of serious heads-up racing, and despite constantly tweaking the car and blowing a couple of engines, I still managed to work on the laser more than my race car. Horrible.

I was so happy when she got rid of it that I married her!

Second worst was a BMW 330xi. Never never never never never again.
 
'85 GMC S15 2.8L I'm not saying it was a dog but a major tune up involved a parvo shot!
 
late 196 something Opel Cadet thing would run when it wanted to but most times it liked to get me about 5 miles from home then die and not restart for a couple hours. Good thing I had my $25.00 4 door Cornet to rely on!
 
Mine was an '84 olds Toronado with the GM passenger car 350 diesel motor in it. It was my company car. My good friend was a GM dealer at the time and talked me into the diesel motor. Man, was I sorry.

Well, good old Genreous Motors spent over $13,000.00 (in less than 1 year) on warranty before they came and picked it up. That POS went through 2 complete motors, 2 diesel injector pumps, 1 transmission, 3 power seat motors, 2 stereos, and a complete paint job.

When the transmission "grenaded" 100 miles from home that was the last straw. I raised so much S*** at GM they finally came and picked the car up and gave me a new non diesel Toronado. The second car was better but required a few things like paint and exhaust system before I turned it back.

sscuda
 
1988 Plymouth mini-van. My brother & I bought new mini-vans in 1988, he bought a base Dodge w/2.5 4-cyl. & I had to have the biggest engine, which was the 3.0 mitsi V-6.
I had multiple engine issues. The water pump went out when my 2nd child was on the way, I drove the wife to the hospital in my Crew Cab Long bed Dodge, try parking that in a coverd parking garage. Replaced injectors in it twice, engine went to smoking as they all do. I even disconnected the speedo & taught the wife how to drive by the tach, so I could keep the miles under the warranty. Well after 5 years & 70k miles, I unloaded it. 70k was when the warranty expired. The people I sold it to, delivered newspapers on a rural route. Something sparked a fire in the newspapers & burn it to the ground @ 5:00am in the morning, 20 miles away from a fire dept.
Oy yea, my brothers van was finnally sold @ 250k miles & survived 2 sons learning to drive.
He never had a problem with it.
Thats when I swore to never purchase another mitsi powered Mopar.
 
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