1973 Ford Pinto Hatchback with the 1600cc 'Kent' pushrod engine. My wife chose it because she liked the color.

The car would not exceed 70 mph, and top speed was even less into a headwind. The primitive leaf spring solid axle rear suspension wouldn't keep the wheels on the ground on a washboard road, and the car would chatter its way into the nearest ditch. When making a panic stop, the rear axle would hop up and down, with the rear tires going "squawksquawksquawk", and leaving a trail of black dots on the pavement. Fortunately, no one ever rear-ended us. It was about 1 1/2 years old when we both tired of it and sold it to a hapless soul!

BTW, I'm mightilly impressed that the Cimarron owners are willing to fess up to the fact. Shows great strength of character!

 

1996 Range Rover! Had not only the obligatory electrical problems (all of them) but managed to leak oil from places I never knew had oil in them!! I was sure the service dept. had a billing schedule that started at $1000 and went up from there. Traded it for a '03ML and was never so happy to see a vehicle go away!!

 

Well, I said this before, but here it goes again. You know why the British don't make any computers? Because they don't know how to make them leak oil!

Some truth to that!

Steve

 

1985 Mercedes-Benz 300D Turbo.

 

My worst car was a 1976 Volvo Station Wagon I bought new when living in London for a couple of years. It was reasonably comfortable but had many problems over the entire period we owned it. Exhaust systems replaced three times about every 30,000 miles (once had to replace the exhaust headers as well as all mufflers and tail piples) Rotors replaced twice for front brakes. Radiator replaced. It had the lousy steel belted Firestone500 Radials--one of which failed while my wife was driving on the freeway causing a drive shaft balance problem and replacement of all four tires (eventually reimbursed for the tires but not the drive shaft rebalance) It had a maunual transmission with an electric overdrive switch, and the transmission had to be taken apart many times to permit proper engagement of the overdrive. Alternater failed twice. Speedometer drive gear failed and they charged $97 for a part and $25 to replace it while my wife was on a trip. I replaced one myself on our stick shift Ford Econoline van at about the same time for a cost of under $5. The parts cost for the Volvo were very high and I was NOT impressed by any of the dealers we used over the years. I also thought their engineering design quality was terrible. I gave the car to one of my daughters when it had about 80K miles and she put another 40K on it before dumping it. I never bought another Volvo after that bad experience and felt they were over rated. The new ones look nice but I'd still be leery of getting one.

I might add, my best vehicle was that 1969 Ford Econoline 300 van we owned for the entire time we had the lousy Volvo and several years after. We put 180K miles on it and never had a major problem. It was a heavy duty camper conversion van with a pop top. The original brakes lasted over 120K miles. Never replaced the clutch and had no transmission, drive train or engine problems. I did most of the maintainence on it myself. I sold it for $1500 in 1987 to a country club we belonged to in New York at time we moved to California. When we visited there in 1999, they were still driving it. We had it in all of the lower 48 states, most of the Canadian provinces and throughout most of the UK-England, Wales, Scotland but not Ireland. We used it for skiing, hunting and camping trips for seven years while living in Colorado. It never let us down!!

 

hah, worst car i ever had was definitely Range Rover, 1996 edition too! we share something in common, benzboy! leaking everywhere. electronic climate control stopped functioning every few months. suspension broke at every series of potholes (and it was air-suspension, revolutionary for the time!) hell and it was supposed to go off-road! never dared to try it, since it couldn't even perform on poorly surfaced roads. i loved it, it was smart, it was handsome, it was so cool and comfortable when it worked. kept it for 2 years (it was probably in the garage for at least half that time), but in the end, it just didn't add up.

i have a string of very bad dubious cars to choose from (Proton Waja, Perodua Kancil), but the Range Rover still takes the cigar great ideas, horrible execution.

 

A tie:

1966 VW Squareback

1988 M-B 300TE

 

worst is 95 Opel Astra. Best is 93 Toyota Camry with 485,000 miles and 97 Lexus Es

 

3 CYLINDER ENGINE!!!

I was at an auction in 1999 and bought then 6-year-old Metro on impulse, it was only $400, I figure what the heck, put it on my Visa card.

It actually scooted around urban narrow streets great, but that's the only positive comment, besides actually achieved 50 miles per gallon.

Downside: weak cylinder head. Blew head gasket and I fixed it. Put car for sale, timing belt broke when guy was test driving it. My asking price for the car: $500.00, also in 1999.

Towed home, parked on street near my home. Sat broken 3 months until neighbor crashed into it. THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU!!!!

INSURANCE TOTALLED THE POS AND I GOT $1100.00

 

That's hilarious. And I thought automobiles are not supposed to be an investment.

 

My worst car was a 1979 Ford Pinto 4 speed. Silver, with cheap red vinyl seats and red carpet. My father gave it to me for my college years. It had a 2.3L 4 cyl with a defective engine management system; quite often the engine would miss and run on two or three cylinders, sending enough unburned fuel down to the catalyst to heat it up to a bright orange glow. I only know about the glowing catalyst because at night other drivers would point this out, thinking I had a fancy light underneath the car. Amazing the car never caught fire. The silver paint was as thin as hair spray and started to peel within 6 months. Only an AM radio, no A/C. Top speed was about 80mph before violent front end shaking would make you come to your senses and slow down.

On the plus side when the car did run properly, with rear wheel drive and the 4-speed I was able to perform spectacular burnouts with those agile Montgomery-Ward A78-13" bias ply whitewalls!

 

97 540i.. this POS broke down so many times. I experienced power steering fluid leak, various electrical problems, and problems with the cooling system. First it was the water pump and a cracked coolant reservoir which sent the car onto a flat-bed. This happened right in front of the Venetian at Las Vegas. And then 1 month after those were fixed, the radiator end tank cracked which required sending the car onto a flat-bed again!

 

I didn't own this car, but it was a rental. A 2000-1 Jaguar XJ. Had it as a rental in Vegas. Car was falling apart inside with pieces falling off, and the glove box would only occasionally open. The radio would go in and out, and generally just felt weird driving. Was parked in front of Fatburger, and the thing just wouldn't do anything. Coulnd't start it, got no real indication that the power was going through anything. Called Hertz and they had to flatbed it away. The guy had to break the glove box door in order to get some stuff that we had stored in it. Replacement XJ was much better.

 

Worst car I have ever owned is a tie between 1994 Accord EX and 2000 TL.

1994 Accord EX- Burned A/C compressor twice, failed ABS module, dash was falling apart, warped brakes, rust on both rear door due to improper assembly of two rear door, damaged sunroof track due to improperly aligned sunroof, stuck power antennae.

2000TL- warped brakes, broken center console, tons of rattles, transmission issues, bubbling of window plastic trims.

However the worst car that I have ever driven was 1990 Ford Taurus that belonged to my mother. By 1995, the car has unfixable power steering issue (it would go from normal operation to sudden loss of all power steering), unfixable brakes (again sometime is would loss all brakes), paint defect. Overall the worst car in the family.

 

1989 Lotus Esprit. Bought it as an investment since price was good. Throttle cable broke in the middle of freeway during rush hour. Constant oil leaks (if leak stopped, it means add more oil to engine). Couldn't find a reliable mechanic to work on it and had extreme difficulties getting parts. Sold it to the stealer who "tried" to do my repairs. Did break even on the purchase though.

 

1993 Cadillac Seville STS. Problems would create a thick novel. Spent more time on the hook behind a tow truck than on its own 4 wheels. Worst possible dealer service also. Swore me off of any GM car.

 

brown 1982 Datsun Maxima...

 

a 1981 Cadillace Seville with the horrendous 8-6-4 engine.

 

My most worst car is this W211 E240, I have never seen a brand new car with so many problems( even the wipers are so damn noisy that cannot be fixed).
Come on , guys, be honest ! I know some of you have such a lousy MB like me..... :v

 

E240?? do you mean C240?

 

He's in Hong Kong. They (and most of the rest of the world) can choose an E240. In the UK they can even choose an E200. How does the thought of an 1800 cc E-class with a stick shift grab you?

http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/cont...re_models.html

To answer his question, if anyone else has a W211 they think is lousy, it isn't me. Honestly.

 

Here in Hong Kong, we can select a W211 from : E200 Compressor, E240, E320 ( Now E350),E500 and E55.

 

1987 MB 300E, after 2 years until the time I sold it in 1998, that car was in the shop 3-5 times per year. (sometimes more)

it cost me 2000-4000$ per year, @$##$!# oxygen sensors, a transmission, 3 water pumps, 2 exausts in 3 years, fuel distributor, A/C like 6 times; good god. Nice car, pleasure to drive but WTF!?!

the 1983 300D I had before that was awesome, no one problem. The transmission acted up, but after a fluid and filter change, bingo good to go. I sold that thing because I was sick of the damn diesel not startingunless I left it plugged in. When it did start, hirosihima in the drive-way. Underpowered as well.
It was a big mistake, me selling that car and getting the 300E, very big mistake.

 

Not only was this the worst car ever built ( except for maybe the Chevrolet Chevette) but not even trained Ford mechanics could figure out how to fix it.I spent over $6000 on repairs,ect within 18 months and then just sold it for $2500 to get rid of it.

 

Which model? Old one? (to 1998) -- the best one? (1999-2004) -- the new one? (2005 - present..probably not this one.)