bad cars

hitcher

worst car you ever driven? name it?

JHMEG

VW Golf CL and Renault Fuego 1.6 Turbo.

mike65

In totality Mk 3 Escort 1.3 CVH engined horror, the auto choke was a continual frustration for my dad until he ripped it out! The ride and handling were sh-i-te, in top it turned over 1000 revs per 16 mph so it was noisy too.

Mike.

colm_mcm

Tata Safari, this one is brand new, but has been sitting in Dublin for years waiting for some sod to buy it.
In a last ditch attempt to sell it, it's being converted to a commercial. spotted it recently outside a conversion company!

bazz26

1999 Opel Vectra. Pile of crap.

CJhaughey

Austin Maestro.
Dog ugly, gutless and bad brakes.

KidCapree

Fiat Ritmo, had it brand new, by the time we were finished with it, had to push it to start, back doors with tied together to keep them from opening and it overheated... often!

Guy:Incognito

KidCapree wrote: »

Fiat Ritmo, had it brand new, by the time we were finished with it, had to push it to start, back doors with tied together to keep them from opening and it overheated... often!

That all just sounds like you really didnt look after it.:)

Ours was grand.

JHMEG

KidCapree wrote: »

Fiat Ritmo, had it brand new, by the time we were finished with it, had to push it to start, back doors with tied together to keep them from opening and it overheated... often!

I believe rust got them all in the end anyway.

colm_mcm

An abarth model like that has retro cool, and novelty value!

JoeA3

I don't think there are many or even any truely horrendous cars on sale here anymore. Even the stuff from Korea seems ok-ish for what they are, not that I'd be queuing up to buy one.
On a recent visit to the States, I experienced a couple of awful contraptions, both of which seemed very popular with the locals! One was a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Over-sized steering wheel, banging off your knees, no height adjustment for seat, the turning circle of a 747, gutless. Felt like it was built down to a price.

The second was a Pontiac "Grand Prix". Up there with Mitsubishi Charisma on inappropriately named cars! Mostly the same irritants as the Chrysler, and an unforgivably cheap crappola squeaky dashboard.

mike65

Seeing that image once was bad enough.

Mike.

colm_mcm

The Hyundai Atoz is pretty dire. forgot about that!
They brought it out in the late 90's, pulled it cos it wasnt selling, then last year they reintroduced it, with virtually no updates! not even a passenger airbag!

Captain Slow IRL

JoeA3

lots of mid-range hatches / saloons were rubbish in the early to mid '90's! E.g. the Escort / Orion from early '90's. Ford got their act together in a big way since then!

jayok

land9 wrote: »

Seconded. Though the one I drove was a convertable... and even bigger piece of sh1te

Cosmo K

Worst car I've ever driven? Thats easy

A lot of people still say...or there are sooooo cute, a piece of history and so on.....but there were just rubbish:cool:

junkyard

Fiat 127 and a Renault Megane, truly HORRIBLE cars! Each and every one of them.

vectra

1981 Alfa Sud. :mad:
Bought it with 21k on the clock in 1986
I wondered why there was only 21k on it after 5 years.
It didnt take long to find out
Bloody thing kept breaking down
Had it from February to November
Full brake overhaul
3 engines
3 gearboxes
and to top it off
a full respray to cover up the rust that broke out on it
Paid £2600
Spent a fortune to try keep it running
Got £700 for it

Niall1234

An old 1.3 Ford Orion.

It used to go 50 mpg. Appauling down on power.

Pherekydes

First car I had was an '81 Austin Metro.

I learned to drive in that car. I also learned to drive without a clutch, without brakes. The final drive even went (the splined shaft that delivers engine power to the roadwheels), so every time I went over a bump or a hump it would lose all power). The alternator failed soon after I bought it and the battery died as a consequence. Then the clutch began to slip badly. What a heap of sh1te. It was a hideous looking car, too.



Same colour. Documentation said silver; I say grey.

itarumaa

Ford Escort van, year maybe 88?

Lot of noise, no grip, afwul rear suspension etc

and second on is Toyota Lite-Ace, year 1985,

1.3l petrol, 18 mpg / 13/100km in the city:)

Handling was really interesting:)

Well at least it did never seem to broke down.

Cookie_Monster

Had one in the household, always something breaking in it, engine, windows, seals, lights, bits falling off. POS

EDIT: Fiat Marea

PaddyFagan

Got one of these as rental in Portugal two years ago - it was brand new (5k km on the clock) - awful.... The gear box was utter ****e, vague and soft - impossible to tell if you where in gear at all - my wife made one attempt to drive it spent 5 minutes trying to find first and gave up - (she's been driving 10 years and this is the only time I've seen her give up on a car.)



Paddy

PS My parents owned a long line of Fiats - I've driven several of them, nothing as bad as that rubbish....

Fizman

KidCapree wrote: »

Fiat Ritmo, had it brand new, by the time we were finished with it, had to push it to start, back doors with tied together to keep them from opening and it overheated... often!

Wow, those back doors are tied together so well that it looks like you had no back doors at all.

vectra

itarumaa wrote: »

Ford Escort van, year maybe 88?

Lot of noise, no grip, afwul rear suspension etc

Handling was really interesting:)

Well at least it did never seem to broke down.

I had one of those that literally robbed me on petrol.13mpg driving the $hit3 out of it
Dropped a 2 litre OHC engine out of a Capri into it along with auto box.
made some job of it.. Then the Handling became very interesting

cjt156

Daewoo Lanos Automatic hire car in Israel; must have been all of 20bhp at the roadwheel.

Me and another engineer (30stone combined) 2 suitcases, 2 laptop bags & 2 rollalong toolboxes; up hill wasn't feasible.

Hyundai Accent; another hire car in NI - the steering felt like it utilised a chewing-gum coupling. The brakes and accelerator seemed not to be on speaking terms with the wheels. The only car simultaneously too slow to drive while being too fast to stop. And why are the wipers and indicators swapped over!!!???

SuperGrover

1981 Ford Fiesta...



Weighed a ton, took forever to warm up, drove like a bag of snots.

will1977

cjt156 wrote: »

Daewoo Lanos Automatic hire car in Israel; must have been all of 20bhp at the roadwheel.

Me and another engineer (30stone combined) 2 suitcases, 2 laptop bags & 2 rollalong toolboxes; up hill wasn't feasible.

Hyundai Accent; another hire car in NI - the steering felt like it utilised a chewing-gum coupling. The brakes and accelerator seemed not to be on speaking terms with the wheels. The only car simultaneously too slow to drive while being too fast to stop. And why are the wipers and indicators swapped over!!!???

Without a shadow of a boubt !

Biro

Stekelly wrote: »

That all just sounds like you really didnt look after it.:)

Ours was grand.

True, I know a few people who had more than one of them, never a problem in many, many miles!
I'm always intrigued at the amount of people who judge a car solely on it's reliability. I don't consider anyone who does that to be a car enthusiast. It's kind of like saying "Angelina Jolie is always late for everything, sometimes she doesn't even show up... therefore she's obviously no good in the sack!".
The worst car I drove based on dynamic ability, or lack thereof, is the Chrysler Neon. (Surprise surprise - an American car!). The dullest car was probably a 96-ish Astra saloon, 1.4.

Biro

cjt156 wrote: »

And why are the wipers and indicators swapped over!!!???

They are that way on all Jap/Korean cars. Jap swapped over for the European market in around 96 (with Mitsubishi about 3 years later).
In actual fact, the indicator was always supposed to be the opposite side to the gear stick, so that you could change gear with one hand and indicate while manovering with the other. It's the European car manufacturers who wouldn't change theirs around for right hand drive models! I remember VW's with the wiper blades on the opposite way around on a RHD model back in the 80's!

JoeA3

Biro wrote: »

I remember VW's with the wiper blades on the opposite way around on a RHD model back in the 80's!

And to this day BMW still do that on the 5-series! And the Peugeot 206 had the wipers backwards too (not sure if the 207 does?)

Eoin

I had a go in a Daihatsu Terios (old shape) once. Possibly the most pointless car I've seen. Awful to drive - 1.3 with an auto box.

It doesn't look too bad from that picture, but when you see it front on, it is very narrow. Not even a pretend middle seat in the back. Probably not as bad as a car as some of the ones listed here.

blackbox

Toyota Cressida in 1982 - handling so bad I can still remember it. Felt like it had rear wheel steering.

Also a Mk1 Micra (rwd) on a bumpy road is something to remember.

cjt156

Biro wrote: »

They are that way on all Jap/Korean cars. Jap swapped over for the European market in around 96 (with Mitsubishi about 3 years later).
In actual fact, the indicator was always supposed to be the opposite side to the gear stick, so that you could change gear with one hand and indicate while manovering with the other. It's the European car manufacturers who wouldn't change theirs around for right hand drive models! I remember VW's with the wiper blades on the opposite way around on a RHD model back in the 80's!

I've driven in Asia, North America, the Middle East and all over Europe and the only car I ever saw this on was that Accent.

Max_Damage

Daewoo Matiz.

Badly built, absolutely gutless, it had a dodge clutch pedal that kept jamming down, bad handling, and the gearbox was loose and hard to find gears.

Max_Damage

blackbox wrote: »

Also a Mk1 Micra (rwd) on a bumpy road is something to remember.

The Micra MK1 (K10) was FWD. Do you mean the Starlet MK1, which were RWD?

Cookie_Monster

cjt156 wrote: »

I've driven in Asia, North America, the Middle East and all over Europe and the only car I ever saw this on was that Accent.

my old charade (97) and my mothers grand vitara (02) both like this

R.O.R

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

my old charade (97) and my mothers grand vitara (02) both like this

Ditto my 2006 Pajero Sport and I'm pretty damn sure the Sorrento I drove last week (Brand Spanking New) was like that as I turned the windscreen wipers on entering a roundabout

Once you get used to it it's a better system than the european one.

Biro

cjt156 wrote: »

I've driven in Asia, North America, the Middle East and all over Europe and the only car I ever saw this on was that Accent.

Just to be clear, are you talking about the indicator stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel and the wiper stalk on the left?
If so, then all Honda, Toyota and Nissan had them that way until around 96. After that they changed to the European method. Actually, might have been 97 when Toyota changed. Mitsubishi changed later than that.

cjt156

Biro wrote: »

Just to be clear, are you talking about the indicator stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel and the wiper stalk on the left?
If so, then all Honda, Toyota and Nissan had them that way until around 96. After that they changed to the European method. Actually, might have been 97 when Toyota changed. Mitsubishi changed later than that.

Just exactly that. Its beginning to dawn on me that in 20 years of driving I've studiously avoided driving Japanese and Korean cars...funny that...:D

JoeA3

Yeah, my mother in law had a 02 Mitsubishi Colt (the previous generation model with that pointless spoiler ) and the stalks were the wrong way round.

worded

Micras not all bad.

I was in one being driven at about 80 miles per hour. In the distance we could see a large shadowy object on the road and a car with a trailer parked in the hard shoulder.

As we got closer and it was too late to brake we realised there was a double matrice on our side of the road. We hit it and the car sprung into the air, all four wheels spinning. Thankfully we landed ok a few yards later.

The fellow driving the car was asking us if we were ok. His pall the owner of the matrice was gutted with two wheel marks where we hit it. So funny.

I know its unrelated to worst car but when I saw Micras being mentioned I had to spring to their defense

maidhc

Biro wrote: »

Just to be clear, are you talking about the indicator stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel and the wiper stalk on the left?
If so, then all Honda, Toyota and Nissan had them that way until around 96. After that they changed to the European method. Actually, might have been 97 when Toyota changed. Mitsubishi changed later than that.

My 1974 Ford Capri has the indicator stalk on the right! It makes much more sense!

Cookie_Monster

worded wrote: »

Micras not all bad.

I was in one being driven at about 80 miles per hour. In the distance we could see a large shadowy object on the road and a car with a trailer parked in the hard shoulder.

As we got closer and it was too late to brake we realised there was a double matrice on our side of the road. We hit it and the car sprung into the air, all four wheels spinning. Thankfully we landed ok a few yards later.

The fellow driving the car was asking us if we were ok. His pall the owner of the matrice was gutted with two wheel marks where we hit it. So funny.

I know its unrelated to worst car but when I saw Micras being mentioned I had to spring to their defense

Whats a Matrice, do you mean mattress?
or this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrice

(CH3)2CHOH

Ford Escort Diesel...

Biro

maidhc wrote: »

My 1974 Ford Capri has the indicator stalk on the right! It makes much more sense!

Definately does!

monster1

Biro wrote: »

Just to be clear, are you talking about the indicator stalk on the right hand side of the steering wheel and the wiper stalk on the left?
If so, then all Honda, Toyota and Nissan had them that way until around 96. After that they changed to the European method. Actually, might have been 97 when Toyota changed. Mitsubishi changed later than that.

my girlfriends 97 starlet has the indicators on the right, as does my 95 silvia.

bitemybanger

A 98 Fiat punto that i kept for all of about 2 weeks.

coolbeans

Ssangyong/Daewoo Musso. Total heap of ****e!
My father owned both Ssangyong and Daewoo Mussos and both were equally unreliable from new...don't ask me why he bought another, I think he was trying to piss me off!

Anyway there were literally too many faults to list, but i'll give it a go.
Here goes:
seat belt socket fell off one day when I was attempting to buckle up,
Paint peeling off a week after delivery,
4wd transfer case kept breaking on both vehicles hence no 4wd for lifetime of the cars,
heater broke,
central locking failed,
diesel injectors replaced,
lacquer peeled off alloys in carwash,
radio died,
constantly leaks oil & diesel,
driveshaft came loose wrecking the clutch,
bull bar fell off (admittedly a dealer fit option),
rev-counter broken,
glove box handle broke,
signs of premature rust,
windscreen washer broke,
failed to start many times although this was never diagnosed,
seat belt socket fell off!!,
gearbox linkage failed.
In addition there was the usual litany of rattles and squeaks we never bothered complaining about.

The Musso is a badly built, unreliable, cheaply finished POS. The warranty ran out before the flaws did.

Overall such quality issues are totally unacceptable and the people building these cars should be ashamed of the product that they send around the world destroying the hard won reputation of the Korean car industry. I think Kias/Hyundais are great cars for example. The Cee'd for example is as good as any equivalent Focus or Corolla and you can't argue with a seven year warranty.

Captain Slow IRL

monster1 wrote: »

my girlfriends 97 starlet has the indicators on the right, as does my 95 silvia.

are they jap imports?!