The Worst Car you've ever owned

[Dannyk]

Mk1 focus 1.6 estate, speedo didn't  work, heating didn't work, aircon didn't work, heated windscreen didn't work, front fogs didn't work. Had the battery light on but had a new battery, alternator and "smart charge" wiring loom. The drivers seat was awful, forever adjusting it but it still gave me backache and weirdly ball ache??

It was asthmatic, poor on fuel, terrible handling and  pisspoor build quality. never understood why random strangers on tinternet think they're wonderful 

[big_al_granvia]

97 proton persona bought in 2000 as replacement for the 89 saga, wee spring in door locks snapped regularly so you couldnt ope the door, kept it 6 years and must have done that repair a dozen times, 2 rads as they just rusted, several exhausts and towards the end after a rad failure took out the head gasket the thing when cold under load would rarely work on 4 cylinders. fucking great doing a hill start at the train station. use to get mega condensation which froze meaning you had to scrape the inside  of the glass.... normal process after getting off train was to start car to get some heat into it, scrape and dry inside glass, have a smoke whilst it warmed up the hope you got 3 cylinders out of 4 giving power coming out of station... ran the lights on amber a few times... 

[Talbot]

I thought I had replied to this thread.. evidently not.

Worst car I have ever owned was a Renault 9 TD 1.6 diesel.  It was utter utter crap in every possible way, and even in some ways I didn't think possible.  Woefully underpowered, clattery as hell, awful gearchange, not economical, abysmal driving position, interior that was dissolving into powder, brakes from a BMX bike, damp, cold, no equipment and just utterly rubbish.  The most miserable car I've ever driven, never mind owned.

I've had less reliable cars, I've had slower cars, I've had all manner of chod that could be considered worse in some way, but as an overall package of utter misery, that was it.

To top it off, when I tried to sell it, it suddenly wouldn't stay running for more than about a mile.  The engine would die of fuel starvation.  Wait 10 minutes and it would fire up again, only to die a minute or two later.  Eventually I found a leaf in the fuel line up to the filter.  How TF a leaf got in there, I've no idea.  With that removed and it driving again, I sold it on for about £100 (as it still had MOT).  Good bloody riddance.

[Nails1979]

I'd be hard pushed to say I've ever had a car I hated, probably a P reg clio 1.9 diesel, fine in everyway apart from the worst driving position known to man, only beaten by the clio 172/182 shape which not only had the same horrible seating position, but the seat cushions were so thin/hard after an hour or so in one made me want to die.

Worst car was probably a J reg 1.7 N/A diesel cavalier, owned since new by my dads mate, dog allowed to piss inside it daily,  was probably about 14 years old when I got it, 4th and 5th had never been used in its 170,000 miles as pointed out my by dad who regularly went out in it with him.

The underneath had been coated religliuoly in used engine oil and so whilst very un-rusty, was awful to work under, the shell however made up for the rust x 1,000,000. I tried to fix it and paint it but made a right mess, it was 'remberent silver' aka jewish racing gold. the back arches were so far gone I drew a new arch line above the crust and bodge with a marker, then cut it out with a grinder and sealed the edges, it didnt look as bad as you'd think. Interior was replaced, alternator fell off pulling into work one day, managed to find all the bits in the carpark and fix it in the carpark after my shift. 

It was the slowest car ever, some steep hills I could start at the bottom at 50mph and by the top I'd be in first gear doing 4mph.

[Daviemck2006]

The worst car I owned wasnt the worst drive. It was a citroen c2 1.6vtr sensodrive. When it worked and working properly it was great fun to thrash around the country lanes using the flappy paddles. In town just pootling about in auto mode it was the slowest must frustrating thing getting lost between gears and not knowing what to do. It was also the most unreliable heap of crap I ever owned. One owner, full dealer history serviced every 10k obviously looked after which was why I bought it but the gearbox utterly ruined it, and I will never buy another citroen semi auto.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[doubleyeller]

Rover 214 SLI

Bought for £225 in 2016! “Like you say mate, these engines are known for head gaskets going, but as you can see, this one is ok, and I can tell you really want one so....”

Yeah. I didn’t actually want one, but was living in an insurance black spot with no NCD means £3k plus car insurance for a 24 year old, and Footman James used to have a policy of insuring anything as a classic providing it was 20 + years old. Which meant you just had to accept whatever 1994  horror came up for sale cheaply, warts and all!

The head gasket certainly was going, however this never caused FTP oddly enough! It used about 2 litres of water every week. The valves were also knackered, and it was getting through so much oil I ended up just getting the waste oil from changes at the local garage to put in it! 

A week after buying it, I suddenly got a flat battery while out and about. Dead alternator, £150 bill. The next week the battery also died, £60 bill!

I battled on with it for 6 months or so. The exhaust down pipe disintegrated and I ran it forever roaring like a Lancaster, never got stopped amazingly! The cunts at work kept asking me when Thunderbird One was going to be replaced by Thunderbird 2? Some knob kept leaving bricks behind the wheels and piling rubbish on the roof, altering the mirrors etc. Because yeah, someone with an old car is not a human being.....

Knowing it was on its last MOT I reluctantly replaced the down pipe for £70 odd quid, it rewarded me by getting 3 punctures in as many weeks, another £150 spent. All these costs are probably easy to reduce / avoid if you are flexible in your transport arrangements, but I needed it to get to a job with awkward location away from public transport and so just had to pay up. 

As mentioned, everyone at that workplace was a total bastard. I spotted the finance director behind me on the dual carriageway one morning and decided to just go for it. For some reason, if you got up to speed and used third to slow down with engine braking, you got the most wonderful plume of stinky blue smoke behind you. So that’s what I did for 8 miles all the way through the traffic. At work, I got a call to his office..... I opened the door and he said “I just wanted to thank you for giving me the full benefit of your oil this morning!” with a wry smile. We got on famously after this, it just goes to show that you can never tell. Maybe he looked at his Nissan Duke that morning and realised he was living someone else’s expectations? Something changed, who knows.....

With the MOT expiry looming I put it up for sale on here at £125 just to see if anyone wanted it. Without making any contact, some dimwit from Halifax turned up outside my house one morning. He claimed to be a mate of someone ‘Off Shite’. Who he was or how he got my address I will never know. He was like a cross between Selwyn Froggit and Fred West! He spent like an hour and a half looking in imo irrelevant places and asking questions like “What’s been the average rust expansion since you last drove it?”

He then decided not to buy it “Because there are better examples out there” - let’s not forget, it was £125! I offered it at £50 just to be rid, he asked me to give him £100 to take it away “And not complain about anything” !!!

 I drove it over the bridge at Arthur Brothertons that very day!

 

[Bitzer]

On 21/01/2021 at 12:04, Dannyk said:

Mk1 focus 1.6 estate, speedo didn't  work, heating didn't work, aircon didn't work, heated windscreen didn't work, front fogs didn't work. Had the battery light on but had a new battery, alternator and "smart charge" wiring loom. The drivers seat was awful, forever adjusting it but it still gave me backache and weirdly ball ache??

It was asthmatic, poor on fuel, terrible handling and  pisspoor build quality. never understood why random strangers on tinternet think they're wonderful 

Go and buy Renault Megane II.

I am sure your perspective will change VERY seriously.

Erratic windscreen heating will, no doubt, become the very last of your concerns.

1.6 Focus is the Tin Lizzy reloaded. Basic, reliable, ubiquitous no-frills method of A-B transportation.

I love it for what it is.

[TheXUDfiles]

My X308. Constantly broken and left me stranded three times. Wasn't that quick despite having a 4.0 AJ-V8 or wasn't really that comfortable. Only good thing about it was that the air-con worked, and I don't even use air-con all that much. 

Seen here being recovered from my drive to be taken away to be repaired after the output shaft fell out when I was driving home. Happened when I was in bum-buggering nowhere at 2am, with no signal. 

Managed to limp it home, but go knows how.

Cured me of Jags.

It averaged 1,000 miles between repair bills, normally at £1,000 a pop to put right. It's why my current barge is a 7 series. 

[1duck]

Shitroen Picasso, used to go into limp mode at roundabouts/at random on the motorway, snapped a front spring which went straight through a tyre(apparently tadts as the spring wasn't rated for the extra weight of a diesel engine) rear hatch release was one of those electric microswitch thingies that went wrong two or three times.  I liked it when I first got it due to its diesel van driving style, but its poorly constructed French-ness let it down. Never again. 

[Rocket88]

Bitter SC coupe.... bought blind off eBay from a dodgy bloke in Brum. Oil cooler exploded within 20 miles. Recovered to garage, who “ fixed it” by just by passing it. In the next 150 miles all the electrics failed ( melted fuse box) the fuel pump failed, and the front n/s calliper seized. Then it developed a weird fault which resulted in the exhaust manifold getting so hot it used to glow.... Sold to a Norwegian via a classic car auction....

[Spiny Norman]

There have been maybe three I could nominate but the other two (MK1 VW Jetta and Rover 600) redeemed themselves when the second examples of each I had were far better than the first, but I made the mistake of buying two of these shitheaps and they both left on the back of a scrappy's wagon after a few months ownership with the same fault.

I won't bang on again about the well known petrol 5 pot Volvo throttle module issue on the 98-04 cars but suffice to say it's a POS. A  £500 replacement for a £20 bit of Bowden cable guaranteed to fail after 100k miles that caused Volvo no end of claims outside the normal warranty period.

If you're ever considering buying one of these things and it's showing an engine light on the dash, don't believe the seller's claims that 'It's just a sensor M8', run away...

Even when they're working they're disappointing and infuriating. Good points are limited to comfy front seats and a good stereo. They're extremely heavy for the power of the engines, and the high gearing and peaky nature of the engines doesn't help either. In all but the T5 you'll be unable to shake a diseasel repmobile off your tail and if you're in one of the other ones you'll be shown the way home by a TDi Focus.
The handling's nothing to write home about and the brakes are so-so, and prone to seizing. The turning circle makes an Alfa 147 feel like a London Taxi.

Worst car Volvo ever made, without a doubt.




 

[stilo_active]

Mk2 Golf - utter shitbag of a car. I ended up nicknaming it Thrush. Allegric to starting if it was wet. Or cold. Or wet and cold. Or dry. Or warm. Or on a day ending in Y. Did everything to try and get the bastard thing to start in the morning. Swapped the Pierburg carb for the usual modification, it started perfectly but ran like shit. Swapped back so it ran ok l, just took an age to start. Things fell off, things broke. I was absolutely delighted* when the headgasket went. Not all that to drive, either. 

Ford Ka - it was a cheap runaround, but was crap. Starting issues, body panels falling off (bonnet hinge snapped), nasty Ford controls, not very nice to drive and my Seicento did everything much better. 

[Eyersey1234]

I've never had a car that I hated so I will nominate the Anglia my grandparents had for about 3 or 4 years in the 60s. AWF 155B was a green estate. It had a problem where it kept cutting out at junctions, traffic lights etc. Didnt matter if it was hot or cold it kept doing it. They never got to the bottom of why and in the end replaced it with an ex demonstrator Cortina Mk1. 

[Joey spud]

My worst car by far was a S reg Astra 2.0DTI estate in dark met green with 17''black/gold alloys.

I was actually looking to buy a late 1.7 isuzu turbo old shape one but saw this one for the same money as the older model and from day one i knew i had been a fool.

It was slow,thirsty,dripped oil,drank oil and the fucker had an annoying habit of dropping into a severe limp mode at the most inconvenient moments which meant your had to switch off and restart again to get some power back.

I tried everything to sort it out,i even went to a Vauxhall Diesel specialist who gave up on it too so i was quite pleased when her in doors run into the back of a truck with it untill the Traders insurance it was on tried to worm out of paying out and when they did pay only paid me the trade value of the car.

 

[Cooper1]

A 2006 Ford Mondeo TDCI I payed £600 for as a stop gap since my D2 shat its pants.. 

What a shitshow.. 

Being a bloke I bought it blind off of ebay after several beers, and once it turned up it looked promising. 

The PO had spent £3000 getting it up to scratch new injectors and DMF along with a remap and he was a serial Mondeo nut "not sure that was even a thing" however he wanted a more "modern" vehicle and let this piece of shit go.. 

First issue I picked up on was the handbrake which failed after 1 use then after the first 60mi in my tenure the brake line between the fuel tank ruptured after a hard prod on the brakes when coming back from work.. 

 

That was fun I had to drive 20mi with no brakes. 

Next issue was its thirst for Cam sensors which would last around 400mi each, it became such an issue I had a glovebox with 7 spare and an 8mm socket, this of course caused no end of starting issues, a new one was easy to fit however.. 

The lower rad hose also popped off after hitting a pothole, that was weird, however it just pushed back on and was fine afterwards, bastard shit design

 

After 1200mi and a very hard right turn the RH coil spring snapped and the part flew out the wing at great speed and landed in someones garden, I could only imagine what it would of done to a pedestrian of bicyclist god knows how it didn't rip a chunk off the tyre on its way to freedom 🙃 

It spent most of the time like this..... 

The straw that broke the camels back however was when overtaking a truck halfway through the overtake it lost all power and went into limp mode for whatever reason and put me in quite a dangerous situation due to the fact the car behind was overtaking  and cars were now coming in the opposite direction!! 

Needless to say I made it past, however the car got the car equivalent of the death penalty. 

I drove it home in 2nd with the rpms pegged and by the time I was at home it was making some weird noises , however when I parked it I'd no fucks to give and backed it right over a tree stump which ripped off the exhaust and bust a number off other things.. 

Fucking piece of shit.. 

I got some sort of weird satisfaction watch it steam and rattle its last... 

The automotive equivalent of being punched in the dick 

 

The good in this story is it donated all its useful parts mostly the interior to an ST220 restoration 

 

The CD132 is a fantastic driving platform however fuck me, the TDCI diesels are the dregs of satans ballsack i'd rather piss in a live electrical socket than own another diesel. 

 

Phew. 

 

 

[Andy F]

Worst car I owned either a Seat Alhambra TDi. Only had it very briefly but it was Rough, grumbly and slow, quite good on fuel though (PD). Broke front front suspension springs, various things didn't work and it a depressing VAG interior with loads of blanking plugs and zero toys. I only had it a couple of months.  The Citroen C8 I had was a far, far superior package. The other contender for worst car was the C5. Mine was a 2001, so the first year they came out. Citroen are the masters at putting something on sale that isn't quite fully developed, I've heard later ones are much better. I had all sorts go wrong on that, rear arm bearings, dual climate blew on only hot on passenger, interior trim bits rattled or fell off, DMF always had the death rattle, ate drop links but the worse thing was the CV joint failed on Frocester Hill, near Stroud. Alarming, violent shaking which then destroyed the hub. Lovely thing to waft about when it was working, so comfy and smooth, kind of makes me want to have another.

Ever since this, I've always bought a model that has been out for a few years so any issues have been ironed out or been identified as been model specific. Eg the C8, i bought a later 2007. Autos were supposedly a bit weak so I got a manual. Early 2.0 hdi 110hp  (16v and different to the early 2.0hdi 8v as found in late Xantias and early C5s) were problematic with early versions of dpf, so mine was the later more proven 2.0 hdi 138hp. It never put a foot wrong.  My Xantias have been 1999 and 2 2001 models so very late and incredibly dependable. Other manufacturers probably do enough research 

Worst car I've driven probably either VW polo, just felt very narrow and unstable or a focus which gave me ball ache. I thought it was just me but I'm sure I've read it further up the thread too.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Andy F
Changing c8 hp from 238 to 138 😂 😂 😂

[HMC]

I keep going back to this thread and not writing anything. I suspect it’s because the worst cars ive owned are ones that had significant faults and I should have been more careful buying them.  I had a b5.5 passat estate that was terrible )worn suspension, water leaks, broken door locks) but I could have bought a better one had I been more careful. It’s my fault not the cars.

Dynamically a wartburg was pretty dire but that was the fun of driving it.

[Rad_slav]

The worst car I owned would be the nissan primera sport plus with 51 plate on it. Fun fact - it would be one of the best cars if it would have a manual gearbox rather than hateful cvt. It was ruining the whole experience of driving 2l petrol sedan with some racing heritage and gearbox from moped.

I think I made another mistake by trading it for a 1.4 xsara with hidden engine fault. Lesson lived is a lesson learnt, right? 

[Bstardchild]

I can't think of one.......... Honestly

Cars always have the odd issue but I don't think I can single one out as being the worst of them all or a complete nightmare

The Mitsi FTO V6 was a PITA to fix - clearly it had packaging issues but that's being really picky and I did only pay £100 for it so it's not like I bought a minter!!!