worst car youve owned

[DSdriver]

Vauxhall Viva HB SL90 by DSdriver, on Flickr

This car was actually a Brabham Viva with the bonnet stripes removed. It was singularly the most unreliable car I have ever owned. I think I even had my own RAC van following me around I was such a regular customer. The breakdown that really sticks in my memory was when the gear lever came off in my hand whilst trying to execute a three point turn in Hampstead High Street. I think they had used a screw cap off a one gallon oil can with a hole cut in it to hold the gear lever in place.

The photo by the way is by the excellent Jeff Bloxham, he of motor racing photography fame. He also did our wedding photos cos we had to get married in a hurry.

[Negative Creep]

Mk.2 Golf GTI. Water pump leaked on the way home, gear linkage so worn I couldn't tell what gear I was in, rust, handbrake didn't work, became very obvious the next day it had been resprayed down one side, smoked like a chimney, dash bulbs kept blowing, 3 idle control valves, 2 distributors, bad earths. Spent about £400 getting it through an MOT then sold it for £300. The only car I've owned where I genuinely hoped someone would steal it. Not that they would have gotten very far.

[John F]

OK. Latter option selected.

 

'Can I have another car please? This Vauxhall is CARRYING MY LOVE CHILD.'

 

EFA

 

No argument that individual Vauxhalls can be fucking shit - especially from the mid-90s onwards.

 

BUT enough of this "all voxalls r shit" malarkey please, it's fucking disrespectful to those of us that have Vauxhalls and have the good manners to keep shtum about our opinions of other marques... kthksbai.

[Jim Bell]

I suppose I'll chip in with French woes.

 

Pugshit 406 2.0 pez.

 

Given to me for free by my kind hearted dad.

Ended up being the most expensive car I r ever had.

 

Handbrake snapped, rolled down a hill into an unfortunate persons car. Pay for damage, buy new bumper, fogs, headlight.

Clutch cable decided it wanted to be two, shorter clutch cables instead. Resulting in a lack of shifts.

Fix that.

Then it died altogether in the Tyne Tunnel and marked the occasion by depositing fluids onto the ground. Push out fee applied.

 

Think I had it a week. Couldn't even scrap it as it still had Pops's cherished plate on.

[Pete-M]

My Wood and PIcket Range Rover Turbo was a fucking liability.

 

9 mpg was about all it'd do, it always needed something doing to it and after spending a week actually getting everything spot on I took it for a spin to Llanberis.

Where it shit first, second and reverse gears from its autobox. This was probably because I'd turned the boost up a tad and it was probably doing a fair bit more than the 280 lb ft a ZF4HP22 can handle.

Driving it the 90 odd miles back home was interesting. Box would scream its heart out in first and second until eventually selecting 3rd, then it'd be ok as long as I didn't let it drop below about 40 mph. Keanu would have been proud of the noise the gearbox made trying to pull away from the Mersey Tunnel toll booth.

[Cavcraft]

 

I didn't actually 'own' one, but you get my drift. THERE IS NO WORSE COMMERCIAL VEHICLE IN THE WORLD. FACT.

[twosmoke300]

The gear change on those ivecos is just terrible esp when cold. The engines are fantastic it's just the rest of the truck which let's it down.

[Lankytim]

It Vibrates, Everything Comes Off.

[Cavcraft]

The gear change on those ivecos is just terrible esp when cold. The engines are fantastic it's just the rest of the truck which let's it down.

 

Drive a four cylinder one and then tell me that. The six cylinder ones were still shit, just not quite as slow and they were light years away from an LDV which'd piss all over a Cargo any day of the week.

[Rocket88]

Bitter SC coupe, bought blind off ebay. When I collected it the inlet manifold was leaking, as was the exhaust. Picked it up at night. Within 20 minutes all of the gauges were reading half of the correct values. 20 minutes after that it split it's oil cooler. Two days getting that fixed. Collected from garage, within 4 miles all the lights packed up [bad fuse] 30 miles later, the fan belt snapped. Got it home, found all manner of comedy bodges, fixed what I could, and wanged it in SWVA auction, without any great hopes of anyone actually buying it. Internet bidder from Norway paid 20% over reserve price, much to my amazement.

[oman5]

The gear change on those ivecos is just terrible esp when cold. The engines are fantastic it's just the rest of the truck which let's it down.

The only time I ever drove one of these was when I hired one to move house. yes, gearchange was shit, really had to feel for the right gear. apart from that, it was fine, a 170 engine and it pulled very well.

[John F]

I was talking in the singular, about the Insignia diesel I drove which was worse than a 'high spec Lantra' (fiatdaft 2013).

 

I own a car that's technically a GM product anyway (well, part of the floorpan is from a much-bummed Vauxhall \ Opel model) so will indeed STFU. I still don't think it'll be let into Billing, like.

 

I wasn't specifically having a pop at you there, Wat - just voxall disparajurs in general 

[twosmoke300]

Cav , I meant the engines were good from a reliability point of view . The 4yl turbo was never a patch on the 6 cyl n/a version .

[cms206]

Best wagon I ever drove was a Ford Cargo 0813. Worst was an Iveco EuroCargo. It was definately another "How the fuck did the Vectra come from the Mk3 Cavalier and turn out to be a woesome bag of utter shit?" moments.

 

6-pot EuroCargo 7.5 tonners do drift beautifully, as I found out whilst crashing my third one.

[phil_lihp]

No thread like this is complete without a customary mention for my Peugeot 307 diesel - at less than 5 years old it was the newest, most expensive used car I ever bought. In 6 months it had air con failure, a snapped coil spring, a failed fuel filler sensor, shoddy brakes, flakey paint and a juddering DMF. The final straw was an anti pollution fault error which ended up being a complete failure of the DPF regeneration system.

 

I traded it in with the DPF fault still unfixed and lost over £2k in the process. The garage I sold it to spent £1000 repairing it and sold it on. Then the DPF problem happened again. Then another one they had on their forecourt developed the same fault. Then the air con died again. I wouldn't have another one even if it was free.

[Junkman]

Bitter SC coupe, bought blind off ebay. When I collected it the inlet manifold was leaking, as was the exhaust. Picked it up at night.

^^

THIS is the ONLY fuggin sensible* way to go about the purchase of a handbuilt exotic.

Is there any other forum in the world, where I can read something like this?

[twosmoke300]

307,s are pretty terrible . Heater blower looms and reostats burn out and the loom is a right dick to replace , caused by excess load on the fan due to blocked pollen filters apparantly . How close to the limit is the wiring ?

 

The hdi 90 2.0 isnt quite as bad as it has no DMF or DPF

[Keymaster]

F405 TBV - Citroen AX 1.4 TZS. I was its 14th owner in 12 years, so probably not been maintained for moons. Bought in the dark from an eccentric man in southport who had a girls voice, I went there with 2 "expert" mates and a torch, it seemed ok for £200.  On the way home it dropped all its coolant & the windscreen seal came out, flapped through the window & smacked me in the face. I filled it back up with water & stuck the seal back in with all I had to hand - chewy & superglue.  

 

In the daylight I discovered the back was pink & the front was red & it had lost its 1 remaining hubcap on the formby bypass. It drank about 3 litres of water a day, the central locking would only lock if you opened the back door & pressed the button down, the electric windows only worked when they wanted to, the clutch was slipping like a mo fo under any significant load & after a day or two I decided it needed to go. I thought my prayers had been answered one night in work when someone came in to say a drunk driver had smashed every car parked on wood street outside the bar we worked in... he was wrong. They hit every car except this sorry piece of shit, which he expertly managed to bounce around. I was stuck with it as I had no money to either fix or replace it, so my only hope was i would wake up one day and find it had been nicked. After 3 grim months I blew a hole in the block on the newferry bypass. Despite this, it soldiered on for a couple of more weeks knocking & blowing a thin mist of oil all over the engine bay

 

it didnt put me off ax's... in fact I kind of respected the fact they could take 12 years of abuse & just keep going, so I got another one not long after

[phil_lihp]

307,s are pretty terrible . Heater blower looms and reostats burn out and the loom is a right dick to replace , caused by excess load on the fan due to blocked pollen filters apparantly . How close to the limit is the wiring ?

 

The hdi 90 2.0 isnt quite as bad as it has no DMF or DPF

 

Ah, well I had the 1.6 110bhp model.  Possibly the worst combination possible, the engine pulled well and seemed very economical but all the electrical gubbins attached to it seemed to have bypassed all quality control.  This was a 1 owner, full service history car too - shows how much that's worth!

[Junkman]

Did I miss anything, or did indeed none of you ever own a Beetle?

[Spiny Norman]

Did I miss anything, or did indeed none of you ever own a Beetle?

 

I had one once, it was quite fun for what it was.

[Cavcraft]

Cav , I meant the engines were good from a reliability point of view . The 4yl turbo was never a patch on the 6 cyl n/a version .

 

I think mine had a few fuel pump moments, but to be fair they were [probably lost in a haze of tosspot electrics, fires, smoke and bits falling off. Oh, and the gearbox going. And the brake calipers. And everything that was, and most things that weren't, bolted down. And the things that worked themselves loose.

[ianmac]

Rover 213 I got from my dad. Had been 100% reliable for him, as soon as I got it it started to eat distributor caps, leads, shorted the horn so to honked when driving over bumps. Eventually rusted through its sills and died,

 

Even worse was a friends mk1 Astra, the door locks were all shot so he secured it with a system of string and pullies from the boot.

[beko1987]

Did I miss anything, or did indeed none of you ever own a Beetle?

I was a passenger in an old one once. Guy driving was a ledge, we smoked a lot of spliffs and listened to the arctic monkeys over and over again as the glove box had jammed shut so we couldn't get to the other cds.

 

happy to help!

[Vince70]

I was a passenger in an old one once. Guy driving was a ledge, we smoked a lot of spliffs and listened to the arctic monkeys over and over again as the glove box had jammed shut so we couldn't get to the other cds.

 

happy to help!

I've had a couple mine were a 1302 and a 1200 both were over 25 years old on original engines and never had a single issue.

The only snag is the heaters are crap or both mine were and had knackered heat exchangers on both so in winter the cars were freezing and I would have to use an ice scraper on the inside of the screen while driving as the interior would actually freeze while driving.

It could be why Germany lost the war in the East as they couldn't see what way to go through the windscreens of their beetles during the Russian winter.

[overrun]

I was a passenger in an old one once. Guy driving was a ledge, we smoked a lot of spliffs and listened to the arctic monkeys over and over again as the glove box had jammed shut so we couldn't get to the other cds.

happy to help!

Your choice of music has just SHATTERED the time period I was picturing.

[dollywobbler]

I've just not owned a Beetle. Not to say I wouldn't, but there are a hell of a lot of cars much higher up on my wish list. And it is quite a list...

[warren t claim]

EFA

 

No argument that individual Vauxhalls can be fucking shit - especially from the mid-90s onwards.

 

BUT enough of this "all voxalls r shit" malarkey please, it's fucking disrespectful to those of us that have Vauxhalls and have the good manners to keep shtum about our opinions of other marques... kthksbai.

You need to learn that the word Vauxhall is a collective noun for any shit GM Europe product. Any decent GM car is refered to as an Opel or occasionally Holden.

[RichardMoss]

Didn't spitting image have something to say about south Africans?

They were right, too

[beko1987]

Your choice of music has just SHATTERED the time period I was picturing.

Ha was 2006-7ish! The car itself was lovely. Not my cup of tea, but was tidy enough. Had been rebuilt I think as looked 'too' good for the year it was, of which I cant remember