[Kolyan2k]

Chrysler 300m

[TonM3]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

I love Volvo's, my wife has one and it's so well built. Details like the brake lines are copper nickel and even with salt and snow the car has zero rust. The Honda's I owned were all very good mechanically but they rusted.
The resale price on Subaru's is way to high IMO.

I traded in a low mileage 6 year old Subaru outback in 2014 for 64% of what I paid for it. I couldn't believe it.
It was an ok car, the transmission shifted so poorly though for a car with 40,000 miles.

[mecheng77]

Originally Posted by TonM3

I traded in a low mileage 6 year old Subaru outback in 2014 for 64% of what I paid for it. I couldn't believe it.
It was an ok car, the transmission shifted so poorly though for a car with 40,000 miles.

Originally Posted by TonM3

I traded in a low mileage 6 year old Subaru outback in 2014 for 64% of what I paid for it. I couldn't believe it.
It was an ok car, the transmission shifted so poorly though for a car with 40,000 miles.

I think Subaru's are seen as hip now even though I personally think they are bland and kinda ugly

[TonM3]

It was my wife's car and we traded it in for a Mazda5 minivan which was much sportier.

[srasulov]

2010 Mercedes c63

[BetweenTheWheels]

All of these examples of reasonably cool cars... I'm jealous. My worst was a 1983 Oldsmobile 98 that had perforated exhaust and burned so much oil I had to run a rubber hose down the length of the car so the smoke wouldn't suffocate me inside the car.

Cool part was I looked like the video game Spy Hunter when I took off (well, chugged forward at turtle-like speed) from a stoplight and left the car behind me in a cloud!

[Hapbob]

My first car a 69 Volkswagen bug. Ran ok I thought. No power,no heat in winter, and no fun. It never left me stranded but I took it on a 150 mile trip. When I returned I decided to trade it in on a new 1975 nova ss $2800. The salesman called me literally 2 days later and said they sold the bug and it blew the engine on way home from dealer. So I felt both bad and fortunate. I wish I still had that 75 nova.
I am new to BMW and this m240 is such a nice car I can’t stand it.
Hap

[Sportstick]

Originally Posted by Hapbob

I am new to BMW and this m240 is such a nice car I can’t stand it.
Hap

Please, by all means, have a seat!

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Hapbob

My first car a 69 Volkswagen bug. Ran ok I thought. No power,no heat in winter, and no fun.

I had a 59 convertible, and when the top leaked in the winter the rear passenger footwells filled with water. I could hear it sloshing back and forth when I went around corners. It was pretty clapped-out, but it still worked as basic transportation in town.

Thinking about it now, that's the one car I don't know what I ended up doing with it. I know how I got it, though. I traded my Worst Car Ever 59 Bugeye Sprite for it – talk about a big win! .

[TonyRosa]

A tie

A new 79 Cutlass Supreme broke down the first time driving through the Lincoln Tunnel.

Second, a 2007 Chevy Tahoe, whose brake lines snapped, while exiting the Verrazano Bridge, nearly killed my family (downshifted and squeezed the emergency brake on the helix).

No more GM for me, ever.

[TrboMike]

My dad was sick of me saying I couldnt get a job because I didnt have a car. And I wasnt car shopping. So he "found" me a car. I paid $500 he paid $500 it was a lime green Dodge Aries (Chrysler K car) with vinyl top (which was a different shade of green) and roof racks. It had an AM only radio with one speaker in the dashboard (center speaker problem even back then??).

We pick it up and start driving it home. I was a new driver and it has NO brakes, I rear ended my own father. The steel/fake chrome bumper really fucked up the back of his car nice. Then (after much screaming on the side of the road) we get back in the cars. I go over some railroad tracks (very slow becaue I have almost nobrakes) and blow two tires.

That was one hour after owning it. It didnt get much better until it finally died a few months later. I did have some FANTASTIC memories made in that car tho. Not becauise the car wasnt a total lump of crap, just because a 17yo getting his first car is like an angel getting its wings.

[Rocky58]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Yours is an instructive post.

....

Clearly, the internet has helped in this regard. At the same time, the complexity of the new cars on offer today suggests that we may never catch up to the manufacturers.

Reminds me of my first car, a '66 Ford Falcon. You could drop a screwdriver when under the hood and just pick it up off the ground when it fell through. I once jerry-rigged the distributor with a piece of duct tape to get me to the shop, the exhaust that rusted in two with a stick till I got home. Heck, I pulled out the back seat without tools and replaced them with one from the junkyard. That thing ran for 19 years and I could actually work on it without much knowledge.

[Rollo`]

1978 powder blue chevy chevette. Much like this one. AM radio and 1 speaker, which I upgraded to an aftermarket radio powering some old home stereo speakers I threw in the hatch. 4 speed manual, body made entirely of cast iron, rear wheel drive made it fun to slide around in the snow but that was the only thing fun about it--0 to 60 took about 2 minutes. I used to tell girls I had a powder blue 'vette. In those days some girls cared about the car you drove--an alien concept to my 19 yo son.

[shovell242]

1995 Saturn SL2 5 speed. This was my beater when I had an S2000. I don't think anything comes close to this POS. Brakes went out on me while driving, sunroof stayed open one time and wouldn't close, could never seal properly and every time it rained it would get puddles in the back. Left me stranded several times, alternator failures...

[H2O_Doc]

Originally Posted by TrboMike

My dad was sick of me saying I couldnt get a job because I didnt have a car. And I wasnt car shopping. So he "found" me a car. I paid $500 he paid $500 it was a lime green Dodge Aries (Chrysler K car) with vinyl top (which was a different shade of green) and roof racks. It had an AM only radio with one speaker in the dashboard (center speaker problem even back then??).

We pick it up and start driving it home. I was a new driver and it has NO brakes, I rear ended my own father. The steel/fake chrome bumper really fucked up the back of his car nice. Then (after much screaming on the side of the road) we get back in the cars. I go over some railroad tracks (very slow becaue I have almost nobrakes) and blow two tires.

That was one hour after owning it. It didnt get much better until it finally died a few months later. I did have some FANTASTIC memories made in that car tho. Not becauise the car wasnt a total lump of crap, just because a 17yo getting his first car is like an angel getting its wings.

That is a mobile contraceptive.

[H2O_Doc]

Originally Posted by Rollo`

1978 powder blue chevy chevette. Much like this one. AM radio and 1 speaker, which I upgraded to an aftermarket radio powering some old home stereo speakers I threw in the hatch. 4 speed manual, body made entirely of cast iron, rear wheel drive made it fun to slide around in the snow but that was the only thing fun about it--0 to 60 took about 2 minutes. I used to tell girls I had a powder blue 'vette. In those days some girls cared about the car you drove--an alien concept to my 19 yo son.

This, too, is a mobile contraceptive. Where boners go to die.

[jv92red]

Here was my hand me down when I was 16: 1979 Ford Mustang



My car was white. So your sayin, not a bad first car - a Mustang. But this thing had a 2.3L 4 banger that pumped out a whopping 91hp. And the problem was everyone with a muscle car wanted to race me thinking It was a V8. I told them it was a 4 banger and just got laughed at.

One morning at a stop light it's warming up and suddenly runs very rough like I just lost a cylynder. Limped it home, had a buddy pull the vavle cover off and saw one of the rocker arms layin there it somehow came off the cam! Buddy took a screwdriver and compressed the spring using the cam as a fulcrum and put the rocker arm back on, he then laughed and said "sell it"

[Unicorn123]

Worst car...hmmmm

Well, out of the 4-5 dozen in ~40 years one stands above the rest...a 1982 Renault Fuego Turbo.

I'd attach a photo but it would likely give me night sweats and visions of exploding 5 speed transmissions.

I purchased it from the original owner and thankfully, it came with a 5 year 100K mile bumper to bumper warranty. At the end of the day, the warranty paid out more than the original purchase price for the car in repairs. Virtually everything broke, except the engine, which apparently was bulletproof. Ironically, despite the name, the car never actually caught fire, which would have been a blessing for both the car and myself.

It was very pleasant to drive when operating properly, despite the typically French car body roll, which means it drove like a weeble. Brings back great and frightening memories. Thank you OP for starting this thread. Great reading!

[RPM90]

Hmm...worst? But worst in what way?

The car that was the 'worst' at being reliable was a 1981 Audi 5000 Turbo. I bought is used after graduating college in 1987. Turbo seized, cost me around $1200 in 1987-88 dollars. A couple of months later the AT shift cable broke on very cold deep winter evening leaving a club. Cost to repair about $500. About a month after that the steering rack became severely incontinent leaking power steering fluid all over the place. Cost to repair/rebuild the rack, $1500. Nope. No thanks. I bought that car for only $2000 at an auto auction. Sold it to a fellow for $1200. He said he knew how to fix the rack. Great. Have at it friend, it's all yours.

However, that Audi was not the 'worst' car I ever owned in terms of how it drove. For the time, I could cruise at 85-90mph effortlessly, and it always felt stable and secure at any speed, especially at high speed. It didn't have much acceleration power off the line, but oddly, at high speed it felt more powerful when passing other cars. The leather seats were fantastic. The leather was sturdy and thick and felt like a nicely worn leather jacket. Plenty of room for hauling friends around, and the ladies really liked it too.

As for the 'worst' car/vehicle I had that was the WORST at performing as a vehicle, that would be one car and one truck, I had the pleasure of experiencing what I don't like or want in my future cars. I had an old, I mean OLD looking, 1971 Chevy Biscayne 4-door, that had an inline-6 with a 1 barrel carb. It was my first car and it was a shine-less gray that my friends dubbed, the "Gray Ghost". The steering was so vague and worn that when making a turn I just turned the wheel to the right and waited for the car to decide at what angle it would go right. There was no on-center "dead spot". NO. The whole steering system was a DEAD spot. LOL!

Still, I have very found memories of that car as I worked on that car just to learn how it worked. I took it to high school auto shop class and it was may automotive cadaver willingly allowing me to take things apart and figure out and learn how to put them back together again. Overall, that car was quite reliable for the short time I had it.

The other WORST vehicle I had, that should have never been approved to be on public roads, was an old 1985 Ford F-150 pickup, MT of course. It was very reliable truck from new. I used it for a couple of months in between cars. The overall drive and handling was as soft and vague as sitting in and driving a marshmallow with gummy bear tires. And Ford designed it that way, and sold a LOT of them. I've never wanted any kind of truck or SUV since then.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by Unicorn123

Worst car...hmmmm

Well, out of the 4-5 dozen in ~40 years one stands above the rest...a 1982 Renault Fuego Turbo.

I'd attach a photo but it would likely give me night sweats and visions of exploding 5 speed transmissions.

I purchased it from the original owner and thankfully, it came with a 5 year 100K mile bumper to bumper warranty. At the end of the day, the warranty paid out more than the original purchase price for the car in repairs. Virtually everything broke, except the engine, which apparently was bulletproof. Ironically, despite the name, the car never actually caught fire, which would have been a blessing for both the car and myself.

It was very pleasant to drive when operating properly, despite the typically French car body roll, which means it drove like a weeble. Brings back great and frightening memories. Thank you OP for starting this thread. Great reading!

Oh wow! I remember those. Hey, at least you had the turbo.

[jzeiler4]

1978 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Handled like cr_p, had coolant leaks only kept it one year and it was brand new.

[Xavier Seynave]

Ha! good post! It feels like self therapy, or a what-the-f-was-I-thinking-at-that-time anonymous session. I have not owned many cars (M240 is my 6th and only 2 of them were new), and I have to go back to my first.

Actually I should call it my number 0 because, well, anyone should have the right to make a bad decision once in his life without it being held against him. Like a break-in period for humans... It was a '92 Civic dx hatchback, bought in 2001. I tend to think that I have always been car-savvy but I am also a bit naive as a buyer and that purchase may have been worth a gold medal. It was a former red, black, rebuilt little car, coming with quite a few delicacies like:
- summer tyres worn down to the plies (I only saw the extent of it when I switched to winter tyres);
- an O2 sensor that died after 2 months of ownership;
- a clutch master cylinder that died after 5 months of ownership;
- a destroyed rear wiper support;
- a hatch window too heavy for its supporting arms;
- an apetite for oil that came out of the closet after 10 months of ownership;
- a rusted bonnet which, by the time I had a look at it, was way past the point of redemption;
- a pierced silencer that I had to replace after 3 months of ownership.
I eventually gave it to a nephew-by-law who kept it long enough to witness a car falling into pieces transforming into a car falling in two pieces. The chassis gave way under the weight of the car the first time he jacked it with a hydraulic lift...

I replaced it with a Toyota Echo sedan coming back from an aborted lease and learned to appreciate the little joys of life like reliability and durability.