Ever Had A Car That Scared you, For Whatever Reason.

[jbz2079]

A Marina that you never knew where it was going next.

 

An Allaggro that you never knew if it would start.

 

But recently a C5 05 reg 2.2 HDI Auto.

Lovely car only 35000 miles full history, nice colour. drove really nice.

It's appatite for fuel was unbelivable.

 

I kept it for a year then seen the price of tyres, plus Swinton's wanted a second mortgage to insure it.

Nothing serious broke or went wrong with it, but you always had the feeling it was going to.

 

Swapped it for a C3 1.4 HDI 07 Reg,

At least I can afford to use and keep this.

 

[Cavcraft]

Chrysler New Stalker.

[Ghosty]

You have a C3? Surely you should be scared of random pieces falling off with no prior warning...

[STUNO]

Yes,

my sort-of-current 1990 Audi 200 Quattro turbo

What scares me about It ?.

Anything that goes wrong ! touch wood nothing serious yet.

 

But I am away from home until February and although it is in the best possible of care I think of the cost of repairs and things that it needs done which all cost $$$$.

And I am LOVING my UK drive, a CORSA which is cheap to run and reliable.

[overrun]

My mates Bay Window Camper is the scariest thing I have ever driven - the swivel pin had became detached from the main axle tube.

 

GR2 4 turning right. The damn thing felt like it was on ice, and had my arse going like a rabbits nose when attempting a slight downhill section of straight road, and the steering wheel needing constant adjustment from full lock.

 

I was only trying to return it to his house.

[dollywobbler]

Chaps - endless discussions are boring. Can we enliven these things with some actual pics? Or, PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN if you prefer.

 

I'll chuck this one in again.

 

I know Junkman hates them, but I really like CXs. Now. At first, they're terrifying! Super-direct, powered-self-centering steering is bloody odd at first, and you end up weaving all over the road like a drunkard until you adjust to it. Then there are the terrifyingly powerful brakes that respond to a gnat's sneeze by locking all four wheels. Oh, and mine overheated on the way back after buying it and I thought it was going to die in spectacular fashion.

 

It didn't though. I soon loved wafting around in it and got over my fear. They're great. Whatever Junkman says.

 

My Discovery scared me only on Friday, when it randomly locked a wheel as I was driving along. Quite quickly.

 

I do agree that a C3 is a disaster waiting to happen.

[londonm]

I really liked my 1984 VW Polo C breadvan, apart from when you had to stop it. Braking down from 30 mph took about half a mile. A mile in the wet. The brakes were in good nick too.

[Junkman]

My Citroen CX was the ONLY car that ever scared me, simply on the grounds that it almost succeeded in killing me.

Mind you, I've driven a lot of scary stuff, badass hopped up yanks, hot rods, rally, Stockcars, a Top Fuel Funnycar and I rode a lot of two wheeled stuff that shouldn't be ridden at all at insane speeds in areas where they should be ridden slow. What I want to say is that I am certainly not one of the easily scared OMGHERFNSERFTY caitiffs.

But a CX wins in the frightening department with not a narrow margin.

[Pillock]

My G40 Polo. Performance after a few upgrades began to greatly outweigh talent, and after narrowly escaping a pull by the plod who witnessed a rather silly chase with a CRX I got rid. It also used to scare the crap out of me due to oil surge, corner too hard and the insanely loud oil buzzer goes off. Oh, and the brakes. The brakes were useless. I sold that car 10 years ago or more, and to this day I still brake 100 metres early for every junction.

 

My 1303S with a steering UJ so worn you could steer right whilst going round a left hand bend. Once changed, the mechanic showed me how worn it was by putting it in a vice and using a very small screwdriver to twist it till it sheared.

[dollywobbler]

Really? I'm keen to know more. Did something fail in spectacular fashion?

 

Pre-war cars are good for scaring. Discovering a 1930s Morris Oxford Six had a freewheel as I hurtled downhill towards a junction was fairly alarming. Especially as it had the pedals in the wrong order and hopeless brakes. An Austin Seven provided similar 'entertainment' due to the fact it had an SU carburettor, but still had uncoupled brakes. Pressing the pedal seemed to do absolute nothing so you had to use the handbrake as well. Exciting!

[STUNO]

dollywobbler, that story needs video not pictures !

[dollywobbler]

Sadly, I don't even have that many pictures of the Austin Seven. I was so shaken up that when taking photos, I failed to notice that I'd somehow knocked my camera onto the lowest resolution setting. Embarrassingly, the car was owned by a friend - she and her sisters had learnt to drive in that car! Should be compulsory.

[D-Dubya]

a Mk2 fiesta pop that every so often only had brakes on one side. if you had to brake hard, and it decided that today was going to be one of those days, you didn't know where you'd end up!

[vulgalour]

I miss this car immensely.  However, it terrified me when I accidentally joined the M1 in it and had to drive for 3 whole junctions before I could escape.  I felt completey invisible to other road users and really, really tiny.  Lorry wheel nuts were about level with my roof line!

 

 

None of my other cars have ever scared me, but they've all been much, much slower.

[wuvvum]

My CX GTi Turbo was getting scary towards the end of my ownership.  It had a slow LHM leak that I hadn't spotted until the "OMG STOP!!!!!" light came on when I was miles from home.  By the time I got home the level had got so low that air had got into the system.  This meant that not only did it take ages for the suspension to decide to come up, but there was a half-second pause between touching the brake pedal and the brakes coming on.  At the speeds a GTi Turbo is capable of, 1/2 second is a bloody long time.

 

Then there was the Ford D-Series beavertail lorry which only had one working brake (the nearside front).  That made stopping in a hurry "interesting", especially with a car on the back.

 

Then there was the 2-seater Morris special I bought off a mate.  I knew the seats weren't bolted down; I knew the steering wheel wasn't bolted on; and I knew the footbrake didn't work.  What I didn't know is that the clutch had a sticky slave cylinder.  I recovered it back from my mate's, then offloaded it and started it up to manoeuvre it into its parking space.  Clutch down, into first, ease off the clutch pedal.  No bite, so ease off a bit further.  Then fully off the pedal.  Then the slave lets go, the clutch comes in with a bump, the car leaps forward, the driver's seat tips over backward with me sat in it, the steering wheel comes off in my hands, and I'm driving across the car park on my back with my legs in the air, with no way of steering or stopping the fugging thing.  I managed to regain control before I hit anything, but it did sh*t me up at the time.  Was probably amusing for anyone watching though.

[vulgalour]

I did an actual LOL at that Morris story.

[Junkman]

I know Junkman hates them, but I really like CXs. Now. At first, they're terrifying!

 

Not at first, no. They are terrifyng at the end!

At the beginning they are just cumbersome, but everybody with half a brain gets used to the pointlessly odd controls quite quickly.

Then you start realising that that stupid suspension system is not only overhyped, but to what extend it is overhyped.

 

However, most people believe that these cars have a hydropneumatic suspension system, but this is an unbelievably deceptive lie!

The truth is, that they have a hydraulic system operating at 180 bar pressure, which feeds the suspension, the steering, and the brakes.

Now, if this system fails, you are consequently left without what?

 

Correct!

 

You have no suspension, no steering, and no brakes and all of that in one instant. All you have left is a huge rectangular red light with 'STOP' written on it (good joke, hahaha, although a tad cynical) and hope.

To make matters worse, they allegedly have an emergency pressure reservoir and a manual gear that overrides the DIRAVI, both of which would probably even work had the Germans made them, however, this is unfortunately not the case.

 

It happended when I drove on the Autobahn in Germany at about 100, then slowed to about 85 for the next exit. I did as I did it hundreds of times before and exactly how I learned it in the driving lessons I had taken, you indicate, switch to the deceleration lane, then brake for the actual exit, instead of slamming the brakes in the main carriageway like it is customary in Britain.

 

I came as far as switching to the deceleration lane and the moment I tabbed onto that mushroom that is there in place of a brake pedal. The last thing I really can remember is the red rectangular STOP lamp and that there was no noticeable deceleration happening, nor was I able to swerve back onto the main Autobahn and just coast to a halt in a relatively straight line on the hard shoulder, because the steering wheel suddenly couldn't be turned at all.

One week later they woke me up from the artificial coma they put me in and told me had I not at the last moment aimed for the little forest, people would have got killed.

 

Please be aware that at that time this wasn't a clapped out heap held together with gaffer tape. This was a barely three year old 33000 mile 2400 break that was previusly owned by a catering service and it had an absolutely impeccable service history from a Citroen main dealership that had been in business since the 1920s.

 

Anyway, after this debacle, I took the insurance payout, went to said Citroen dealership and bought a brand new CX25GTI. Half a year later it vomited the innards of it's engine onto the Autobahn near Frankfurt, thus terminating a career of becoming the record holder for being the car with the most garage visits in the shortest possible time - a whopping 38 times until then.

 

Citroen Deutschland then offered me a new CX GTI Turbo with nothing forgotten free of charge. I just told them to fugg off and bought a three year old Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, which was bigger, had a vastly superior suspension, was reliable like a Swiss watch and needed less petrol.

[warren t claim]

I had to drive a Mercedes Actros that had recently been bodged after an accident, the brakes took a second to release and the steering shook at any speed over 50 like Michael J Fox trying to drive an Avenger in a bath of ice.

[Vince70]

I had a Mk1 Astra GTE a few years back which seemed to tramline quite bad and wander from time to time but after driving in it for 9 months it seemed normal to me.

 

My brother who doesn't drive was in the car with me saying that it sounds like the car is making a funny creaking noise as we're driving along the M25 so on the way back home I thought it may be best to take it around a friends garage and give it a new mot just to be on the safe side and have it checked over.

 

He wouldn't let me take the car away as it looked like the car I bought must have has a very dodgy mot as the bulkhead was split on both sides (no rust) so when I turned the wheels the front wings kind of moved with the steering and was amazed I drove it from my house let alone been doing over 40 miles a day for months on end down the motorway.

 

Lucky for me I had a good friend who was a fantastic welder and to do the job the engine and box was supposed to come out but he managed to strip the engine down enough and somehow get around the back to weld up the bulkhead again and strengthen it better than it would have been originally.

 

Bloody thin gauge vauxhalls

[pompei]

Fuggin hell, Junkman!  That is a scary story indeed.  

 

My CX was just cumbersome, though I loved it.  I just put it down to the car's eccentricity and its not inconsiderable mass.  

 

Drifting off topic slightly, are DS's similar to drive?

[purplebargeken]

Bastard Smart fortwo that suddenly filled with smoke whilst doing 60 along a country road, couldn't see fuck all, had to stick my head out the window to find a place to pull over.

 

Being towed on a shoelace at 50mph in a GT6 with knackered brakes and in the dark. The steering wheel had grip marks in it. 

[wuvvum]

Drifting off topic slightly, are DS's similar to drive?

They're not dissimilar, but they don't have the self-centring steering and the suspension is even more floaty.

[Junkman]

They're not dissimilar, but they don't have the self-centring steering and the suspension is even more floaty.

 

I haven't driven a DS yet, based on my childhood memories of them making me travel sick the moment they are in motion.

So yes, its suspension is floaty, something the CX suspension is not the least bit.

It is correct that most DSes do not yet have the DIRAVI, only some very late examples and even those only in case the appropriate box on the order sheet was ticked, so most of them would be at least steerable when the hydraulics PHALE.

[Mr Livered]

My Transit DI used to try to kill me regularly, that was pretty scary. It tramlined really badly especially on motorways, and used to leap to one side or another without warning, often into the path of something that was trying to overtake me.

 

Fantastic image in my head having read that Morris story, cheers Wuvvum.

[beko1987]

 

As much as I love it, it does scare me in the back of my mind! Will I spring a leak? Will the engine blow up? Will the wheel wobble turn into something more serious? What's that new sound? Why is the rear bouncing up and down? Why has it sunk down overnight (not a sinker), Why did the EML light flash on and off 3 times when I scraped the underside on a kerb trying to reverse off the M40 on ramp last night etc

 

Still fooking love the old chunker though!

[cms206]

Had a Wartburg 353 Tourist on 30 year old Commie crossplys which was fucking terrifying.

 

Being a former bus driver I've driven some woesome bags of shite; the 2001 Dennis Dart SLF with a 6-pot 210bhp Cummins truck engine in place of the usual 130bhp mill, an on/off throttle, no retarder and drums all round was a particular highlight as it'd do 0-30mph in about 6 seconds and onwards to an indicated 76mph.

[Richard]

Is it the Dennis Dart that keeps bursting into flames?

 

The scariest car we've ever had was my wife's Mazda 626. It had virtually no brakes, for some reason it always gave good readings on the MOT test but that didn't translate to stopping power on the road. It was dangerously slow, but still went too fast for the chassis. Single figure mpg too- all this from a relatively new car with full dealer service history.

[cms206]

Is it the Dennis Dart that keeps bursting into flames?

 

Mercedes Citaros are particularly fireprone, though IIRC the only Dennises with that habit were the Falcon V and the Trident.

[barefoot]

Audi 200T that used to kick down at 50mph not to second as you'd expect, but first.

In the wet this was particularly exciting as the front wheels would spin viciously and the car would leap to the right.

As one fought to control this surprising event, it would change up into second and leap back to the left.

[Brent_Crude]

A very poorly maintained 1.3 Maestro. Not mine, but I had use of it for a time and it genuinely terrified me. Joining motorways and travelling up or down any incline put the fear of God into you. Selecting gear was always a lottery and to say the steering was 'vague' is a huge understatement. You always felt that if you were going die in a fireball, it would be in that thing. An '83 Metro I had for a time was equally scary as it loved to randomly cut out, often when on the motorway.

 

Proper shite