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

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4flats

4flats

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Mine was an '85 S-10 I bought in college to rest the Dart from the 170 mile drive back and forth to school. It was a standard cab long wheelbase with a 2.8 wheezebox and a bent frame. It looked good when I bought it, but it tracked like a sleepy hound dog, smoked like a chimney and took 2 acres to turn right. I think it had at least 1 collapsed ring because it eventually started smoking so bad, I stuck a garden hose in the valve cover vent and ran it back to the rear bumper just so I could see. Every time I put my arm up on the back of the seat, I thought I was going to break the rear window. I tried to swap in some bucket seats from an Escort, but they were too BIG! Man that thing sucked, it was cramped, it ran like crap, but at least it was ugly. I sold it to a guy who wanted the frame for a kit car, he said he didn't care if it was bent. I think I sold the whole truck to him for $150.
 
86 honda accord hatchbacks, for some reason (poor as dirt) I owned two at various points in my life.
Both were totally worthless. One the clutch was going out and the carb was fubared. The second was an automatic and the carb or fuel system was f-d, would die on the freeway all the time and then mysteriously go back to running fine ten seconds later.. Both of them looked like hell.. On both I disassembled the carb fifty times and messed with the fuel system including external fuel pumps and such, to no avail. I really wish I had them now so I could drive over them with a bulldozer then blow them to oblivion with a 30-06.
My friend had an 84 honda manual trans.
Was rusted out so bad when it rained all the rain would fall thru the moon roof..The carb on it would flip out all the time and run all kinds of different ways from lean to flooding. We took that carb appart a hundred times. One day I tried to teach this girl how to drive stick. She was jerking the car all around and the carb busted a fuel line, shot a flood of gas all over the engine. There was fuel steam boiling off the exhaust manifolds and shooting out all the seams in the hood as we drove around. I thought it was a busted rad hose until I lifted the hood and saw a jet of raw fuel shooting directly onto the exhaust manifold. I have no idea how the car did not explode.. ... Junk...
 
2001 Honda Insight

runner ups: 1971 MB 250/8 and 1995 Saab 900S Cabriolet.
 
92 ?? Mazda B2200, paid $1400 for a high km truck, but was told they run for a long time. The test drive went great, nothing went wrong. Then when driving it the next day, it would constantly die on the highway, and every time you would come to a stop, it would die. 1 week later, blew the head gasket. Turned out the guy I bought it from was a crack dealer. Anyways, drove it with a blown head gasket for a bit because I was so pissed off that I bought this garbage and how quickly it failed, that I didn't give a sh*t on fixing it. Sold it a week later for a whopping $700. Sucks that it was only half of what I spent on it, but awesome that I even got $700 for it.
 
1986 Chevy Beretta GTU - my G.M. mistake
1993 Dodge Dakota V8 4x4 extended cab...18K miles, motor shot, 19K miles trans shot, 20K miles... all the paint came off, 20K miles brake calipers locked up, 20K miles A/C compressor failed..... the list goes on.. thankful for waranty...but sent the truck packin'

-RPM
 
82 Chevy S-10, 4 cyl, long-bed, purchased new, owned 10 yrs, 40K miles. No AC, which was miserable in Atlanta summers.

First model year (bad idea), with Isuzu engine. Probably GM couldn't crank out enough 4 cylinders. It seemed every time you pulled a handle or opened something, it broke. Both mirrors fell off driving down the road. A rear brake cylinder froze at ~2 yrs, all rusted inside. I visualized an open drum of brake fluid at the GM plant with downspout water splashing in, or were they that lax? The tread on all 4 Uniroyal tires came off in chunks ~20K. The manual steering box developed 5 deg of play at 20K. The clutch throwout bearing was grinding when I sold it. That was about the worst time for engine controls too with electronic-kludged carburetors, undocumented vacuum tubes everywhere, air injection pumps plumbed to the exhaust manifold, clunky "spark/O2" control boxes, and erratic underhood connectors (before GM weatherpack style).

On the bright side, it got an amazing 39 mpg hwy and the 4 cyl was fine except a few times when towing a concrete trailer. I had my 69 Dart then and after I rebuilt the slant 6, I used it for trips, which was much nicer sitting low on the highway, with power steering, automatic, and AC. I sold the truck because I had finished house remodeling and it didn't fit the growing family. Never needed a truck since. When I remove the seats from my minivan, I have more room than a pickup bed and covered too.
 
I would probably have to say a 96 Intrepid. Good engine and tranny, lousy suspension and steering setup. Needed a new rack at 75000, just because the rubber on the mounts fell apart from being 5 inches away from the exhaust manifold. And of course, can't just buy the rubber mounts, have to buy the whole rack at $500, and another $500 to have it installed. Also probably one of the most uncomfortable cars I've had the dubious pleasure of owning, narrow seats, seat belt connector digging into the hip, seats that I swear were made out of wood. I did my best to kill the engine and tranny but it just would not give up. Finally sold it for $500 and last I heard it was down in Mexico someplace after receiving a call from the police asking if I still owned it and having to prove that I didn't.
 
'72 Nova. I was 19, living out of state, had to sell everything I owned (obviously not much) to pay for hospital bills after a bad accident. My Dad drove 500 miles, with no time to shop for a car, found this stripped puke-green 6-cyl Nova, and he replaced the exhaust-flange gasket himself. The windshield had become de-laminated and had bubbles all through it so it was like looking through rain drops. The exhaust gasket blew out again so it was loud. I hated that car, and I detested the powerglide transmission. I drove it a couple years before I literally abandoned it. Such an ungrateful, self-centered little sh*t I was at that time.
 
4flats said:
Mine was an '85 S-10 I bought in college to rest the Dart from the 170 mile drive back and forth to school. It was a standard cab long wheelbase with a 2.8 wheezebox and a bent frame. It looked good when I bought it, but it tracked like a sleepy hound dog, smoked like a chimney and took 2 acres to turn right. I think it had at least 1 collapsed ring because it eventually started smoking so bad, I stuck a garden hose in the valve cover vent and ran it back to the rear bumper just so I could see. Every time I put my arm up on the back of the seat, I thought I was going to break the rear window. I tried to swap in some bucket seats from an Escort, but they were too BIG! Man that thing sucked, it was cramped, it ran like crap, but at least it was ugly. I sold it to a guy who wanted the frame for a kit car, he said he didn't care if it was bent. I think I sold the whole truck to him for $150.
Click to expand...

This post made me laugh, thanks.


Mine was my wife's 88 Chrysler Conquest. It was great the first two years, then it owned me.
It dictated to me, what I was going to do with my time, and when.
I couldn't afford to let some tech learn on my $$, so I had to become an expert.
It had that turbo crammed under there with no room for the heat to escape. The cooling system had 3 electric fans, 5 relays and 3 sensors if I remember correctly.
First time I took it on the road, I got about 80 miles and blew a head gasket. The two puller fans had quit, and they wanted $450 for them. So I took them apart and fixed them. Every electrical system on it, was outdated by 15 years prior to it's production, and I think they all failed at least once in our 3 years of being owned by it.
I swear, Mitsubishi used some left over Japanese zero parts on it, just to get even with us.
But it looked great, it was red, and it was fun as heck to drive when it ran right.
 
`74 Dodge Colt 2000 with A/T = POS ........no power, timing chain, head gasket problems before 60K miles.

Funny thing was, we had a `71 1600 with a 4 speed that was a fantastic car, had 171K last we heard of it without any major work.
 
1988 Pontiac Firebird with the litlle orphan 2.8 six cylinder. In all fairness, the car had a blue-zillion miles on it when I got it and I only paid $500 for it and, after charging the battery and fixing an exhaust leak, I drove it 2 hours home. Actually got it for my son's first car but he was a few months shy og legal driving age so I got to drive it and work the bugs out of it. It looked great and we put a fiberglass 4'' cowl hood on it so it really did look good. However, there was Zero oil control left in the 2.8 and it would smoke like a diesel and foul a set of plugs almost overnight. I got to where I could change all six in under 30 minutes on the shoulder of the road. At night. Lotsa practice.
 
'93 Sable. Two engines, three transmissions. A minor fender bender I had to fix (not my wife's fault). A ton of suspension work and burned through wheel bearings like nobody's business. When I hit a deer at 65mph and blew both bags I almost danced a jig. If it weren't for the pain of the belt tensioner leaving a bruise against my chest I would have.
 
I suspect this thread will reach @ least 20 pages:clock: When I was a kid, I traded my stuck in first gear 55 chev for a 67 Renualt. Boy did that dude see me comeing, but I was desperate for work transpo`to my first job. I believe it locked up within a month or 2 after owning it. I blame myself cause I missed 3rd and managed 1st:angry7: The damn things you had to row way over to hit 3+4 gears. You`d set shoulder to shoulder and a passenger would learn to move their leg when I`d shift lol. Well, I did`nt learn on the 67 r-10 so I bought a 65 r-8. By now I learned the row and pray gear selection. Neat little **** boxes though, they got 50 mpg, 4 wheel disc, no center holes in the wheels, had to be broke down by hand:angry7: 3 lugnuts, and a pump by thumb windshield washer, pretty rare car even back in the late 70`s. It was funny to watch gas station attendants walk around the car tryin to find the gas cap:-D Ain`t even gonna start on my Ford, thats another story8)

65 R-8.jpg
 
80 Horizon. Broke damn near everything on that car. Handles, window tracks, steering rack, shifter, bearings, 1.7L VW garbage engine was running on two cyls. when traded in. Have to admit it was crappier than my first car - a Vega. At least that POS was expected to be crap lol..

Grant
 
1990 Dodge Ram 50.

made by Mitsubishi but said dodge on the back. it was so under powered that it would die if I turned the air on.
 
74 Ford Maverick, the thing had 53k and I traded my 72 Chevelle, (1st car at 17) 307 powered rusty oil burner for it. Every time I made a left U-turn it dumped all the power steering fluid. Before I put 1000 miles on it the left front frame rail broke in half. The late 70's were not fun for a broke teen! My next car was a 72 Duster and I never looked back. Never owned a Ford since, and only two Chevys, a 55 and 56 pickup. I would buy another one of those.
 
Colohusker said:
I would probably have to say a 96 Intrepid. Good engine and tranny, lousy suspension and steering setup. Needed a new rack at 75000, just because the rubber on the mounts fell apart from being 5 inches away from the exhaust manifold. And of course, can't just buy the rubber mounts, have to buy the whole rack at $500, and another $500 to have it installed. Also probably one of the most uncomfortable cars I've had the dubious pleasure of owning, narrow seats, seat belt connector digging into the hip, seats that I swear were made out of wood. I did my best to kill the engine and tranny but it just would not give up. Finally sold it for $500 and last I heard it was down in Mexico someplace after receiving a call from the police asking if I still owned it and having to prove that I didn't.
Click to expand...
Those bushing are available. I sold the **** out of them, along with front and rear K frame bushings.
Dude, you got a lazy parts guy.
BTW, the worst car I ever owned was a 81 Olds Cutlass Supreme with the 231 Buick engine. That thing was crap from day one. It surprised me too, the best car that had ever had up to that point was a 80 Buick Regal with the V-8. Damn near the same car. I put close to 200K miles on that car before I sold it. I was sick to death over selling it.
 
95 Ford Explorer Ltd. I bought off my brother-in-law. Affectionately and aptly named the Boob-ley Mobile (long Story). I had to repair wiring to get it started as it was parked for a while and the mice got at it. On a warm summer day it always had that slight smell of dead animal to it. Engine started knocking after about 3 months. Replaced engine. It had an awesome stereo in it. Too bad it never worked. I think one of my nephews poured a drink into it. It had the infamous "air ride system" that cost thousands $$$ to replace (yes I replaced it). I finally gave it to a friend and I think he's still driving it. I'm just glad I'm not!!!
 
I had an 84' Audi 5000 in high school that cost $2000 with the odometer stuck 189,000. I will say though, that the little 5 cylinder engine ran strong for probably another 80,000 over 5 years without fault. But every little electronic creature comfort in that car would repeatedly break. Stuck windows, climate control, and about everything that made it a "European Luxury Car" didn't work. It also saved my life when i got T-boned by truck. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all...........
 
1973 Plymouth Valiant with a 225 /6.

I bought it in high school for $200. The next day on the way to school the torsion bar dropped. 2 days later a rod went through the block; and then the oil light came on. Sad thing was the school was only 1 block from my house. That was in '88.

Next time I got up the nerve to buy another A-body was in 2005. 1972 Valiant /6 $400, and turned out to be a pretty decent car.
 
80 Lesabre V6 blew up at 60K on my father in law.
 
well wen I met my wife she had a new 89 Chevy silverado it was a good looking truck (blue & silver) it was loaded after we were married it sat.because I wont drive a GM prod.well one day it was snowing and a friend needed my help.( he lives in the mt.) 3 inches of snow and still snowing.well I wasn't going to take my 70 RR vert out and my 77 chry.had no snow tires SO agens my better judgment I took this truck 4x4 good tires what could go wrong right :angry7: get up in the mt.around 4 inches on the road this thing is starting to impress me.( ya right) I get 3mils from his house and this thing decides to remind me why I dislike GMs.it stops running wont start I have never been so mad in my life.if my zippo would have lit they could have found me from the smoke.I had it towed in 250$ bucks sold it for 1,500 bucks (3yrs old) took that money and put it on a 85 ram charger drove it 6yrs with no trouble.I have drove three GMs and two have made me walk :angry7: GM :angry7::angry7::bootysha:
 
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