[Rocky58]

VW Jetta diesel TDI. First week, the flashing PRND of death. Google it. The auto clutch would just disengage in traffic and shut down, leaving you without power at 60 mph. The worst part was the absolute lying scum dealer who denied there was a problem. I parked it there and refused to move it. Then the seat belt electronics malfunctioned with no repair date since they had to order the assembly from Germany. I parked it at the dealer again. Got them to buy it back from me for full price because the seat belt was a safety issue and the lemon law came to my rescue. A certified letter to the CEOs office actually did the trick. In retrospect, I was lucky. I avoided the whole emissions fraud and the HPFP implosions. What a shitty car. What a shitty company.

[Middy2000]

It's a tie for me between my 2001 Land Rover Freelander and a Nissan Duke.

Freelander
Rear diff exploded in the way to a little holiday where I planned to propose to my now wife.
It used to eat through tyres on the inside wall. It was very dull inside with agricultural type buttons.
It had an engine that was renowned for blowing heads.
Sold mine with 50k on the clock before I became a victim.

2014 Nissan Duke.
It was fully loaded but that's the issue, it tried to do too much. Blind spot awareness lights constantly flashing like a disco.
Warning lights on the dash that nissan misdiagnosed and replaced turbo pipes unnecessarily leading to compensation claim.
The car was uninspiring in every way. Alloy wheels corroded within 2 years (not covered under warranty).
The 1.5 diesel engine was flat, it made overtakes dangerous.

Before the freelander I had a 3 series coupe.
After the freelander and before the Duke I had a 3 series coupe.
After the Duke I got my 2 series coupe.
I shall break tradition and not get a shit car next and stay with a BMW.

[RoundelM3]

2001 Land Rover Freeloader or Freelander, can't remember exactly. Wife's car...wore out its front brake rotors in less than 1 year, and warranty wouldn't cover them. Dealer wanted $1200 to replace rotors & pads, then it developed numerous squeaks and other annoying interior noises. First and last Brit car I will ever own.

[chattanooga240]

Now this is a good thread, and a hard decision.

"Worst" as in slowest? 1993 Saturn SL1

"Worst" as in most nightmare to keep on the road? 1992 Honda Accord (it was mostly my fault for getting emotionally attached)

Originally Posted by TonM3

Worst car would be my 2008 Acura TL type S. So many little things made noise and flooring it from a stop was begging to hit the car to your right. Fast but not sporty at all. Just badly designed.

Me thinks you may have inherited someone's mistakes or you had a lemon. I owned 2 type S's, and the only thing that was a pain with them was the transmission pressure switches that needed to replaced from time to time due to faulty design. Sure it pulled when you floored it, it was FWD and had 280 hp...

[harma24]

Originally Posted by chattanooga240

"Worst" as in most nightmare to keep on the road? 1992 Honda Accord

I had a 1993 Accord. Good car for me until it started getting really old. Above 15 years, things that I never heard of started to fail on me.

I guess the worst car I've had (as in least reliable) was my Prelude. The damned misfire took forever to sort out, the transmission went at 7 years, brake calipers seized on a regular basis. But, I loved the car and I blame the misfires on the cheap gas I was using at the time and the brake calipers on the cheap replacements I was getting at AutoZone. First set lasted about 5 years (still not great, I know), then I replaced calipers nearly once a year. But, I did love that car!

Originally Posted by chattanooga240

Sure it pulled when you floored it, it was FWD and had 280 hp...

Gotta love torque steer! It just became instinct to turn the wheel to the right when I floored it in the Prelude.

[p912guy]

Worst car my family ever owned was easily the 1975 Audi Fox wagon. It just barely predated my 16th birthday so I never drove it, but it was terrible. It was the only car my dad didn't keep more than 4 years and 100K miles. It spent more time at the dealership getting repaired than it did in our garage. As I recall, dad traded it after 1 1/2 years of life sapping frustration with 35K miles for a 1976 Plymouth Volare' wagon. The best part of the Fox ownership experience was getting to ride in lots of fun service loaners from the Porsche Audi VW dealership while our car was being fixed.

Even after that experience, I had a 1976 Audi Fox sedan which I drove back and forth to college for 3 years before it eventually died. It was almost as bad as the Fox wagon. When my wife and I purchased our Audi Q5 a few years ago, I think dad thought we were nuts, but it has actually been a good vehicle so far.

This thread is interesting because you can tell how old many of us are based on the responses. There's no doubt, the 1970's and early 80's weren't great times for automobile manufacturers. Most had issues with quality and reliability. Cars, trucks and SUV's today have come a long way since then.

[marantjo]

'95 Chevy Lumina. So boring, so ugly, such a hideous interior, such horrible build quality. Bought it used as a winter beater and the amount of things that broke or failed for the year I had would take too long to list.

[Sportstick]

Originally Posted by p912guy

This thread is interesting because you can tell how old many of us are based on the responses. There's no doubt, the 1970's and early 80's weren't great times for automobile manufacturers. Most had issues with quality and reliability. Cars, trucks and SUV's today have come a long way since then.

I'm not sure if those who think Audi has made any progress would or would not outnumber those who do not.

[Kendapau]

It's a hard decision. Most of 35 cars I've owned since 1969 actually did their job. Lowlights include a 85 Saturn SL-1 (endless water leaks); a 75 Beetle (lousy CIS injection system); an 82 Trans Am (305 engine wiped cam lobe); A Supra (cam problems); a Toyota Corolla (barely able to stay on road in rain). But the worst of the worst was my wife's family 73 Chevy Vega. I used a sheet metal screw I found on the side of the road to lock the points in the distributor one time to rescue my wife after it crapped out for the nth time.

[albertw]

1970 Peugeot 204. Worst case of lift throttle oversteer I've seen. You had about half a second to get back on the gas or it was going around. Not a good characteristic in a first car. It made me very slow entering corners.

Plus, at temperatures below 10 degrees F the carb would ice up and kill the engine. If you disconnected the breather hose it stopped happening, but then you had to live with the smell of the crankcase gasses.

[TonM3]

Originally Posted by Sportstick

I'm not sure if those who think Audi has made any progress would or would not outnumber those who do not.

You still have to take the front bumper off on VW/Audi products to do almost any maintenance.
Even on me eGolf that has very little under the hood the factory procedure for changing the bulbs is to take off the front bumper and the lens housing.
the YouTube video describing how to change the bulbs from Philips, one of the comments is "I have the engine out, now what's the next step?"

[BenDiem]

I have fun w/this question. I purchased all of the below vehicles new. This is my personal opinion so YMMV.

1. 2003 Ford Ranger Supercab XLT: I purchased it to see what the allure is with a truck. These things are omnipresent... What a piece of sh/t! I don’t understand it’s popularity/appeal.
2. 2002 Dodge Viper GTS: I purchased shortly after 9/11 to show my proud US citizenship. I was driving a new 996 Porsche up until this purchase. Whilst driving it home, I knew I made a mistake, lol. This thing had very little ground clearance; horrendous gas mileage; horrible visibility; whale fart exhaust note, terrible brakes (no ABS)... Traded it in on a 2003 Ford Mustang Mach 1 within one year, lol.. That was actually a fun car...
3. 2018 Subaru WRX: Terrible clutch engagement, cheap body panels, flimsy trunk, garbage transmission, terrible sound system; rev hang; no power above 5k... Needed AWD DD. Traded it in for BMW in my sig within 12 months. No comparison, the BMW is twice as nice as the WRX...

[stein_325i]

2017 540i. I lived in New York when I was younger so I haven't had many cars, and when I did, they were all BMW's and I typically kept them for 8-12 years. My E46 finally gave out after 200k and I inherited my mother's G30 540. My father had driven 5-series for ages, E12 all the way to E60 and this G30 was a huge disappointment for a car sharing the historic name and badge of those cars.

Every single sport package and the car drove like a Buick. Body roll for days, sloppy numb steering and chassis, lack of grip, and a host of electrical problems. The 5er drove me to Mercedes, who I can't believe it but builds a more competent midsized luxury sports sedan, something I never thought I would ever say twenty years ago.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by jstein55

My father had driven 5-series for ages, E12 all the way to E60 and this G30

Did he keep the E12 long enough to enjoy the new head they all required at right around 60K?

When I took mine in because something was going on with it, I got the news. My mechanic, who I knew from high school and had been going to for years said "Yeah, they all do that; it's a known problem." $2K in 1982 was a fair piece of change – I was not happy.

When I sold it (post-head replacement) to a used car dealer the first thing he said was "Bring me proof the head has been replaced."

That car had a number of interesting 'issues'. I did enjoy driving it, though, enough to replace it with an E24 M6.

[Kendapau]

A couple more thoughts: not mine but my son bought a 2016 RAM pickup with the baby diesel. The Italian motor blew 200 miles over the 100K warranty. Dealer says "$14-15K" - he still owed $20K on it. With intense wrangling with Chrysler he got a new motor which took months as apparently they all implode. During the downtime he paid it down. Sold it for $18K on a trade in and broke even. He could have lost "yuuuge" on that disaster. And this is a modern car!

[stein_325i]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Did he keep the E12 long enough to enjoy the new head they all required at right around 60K?

When I took mine in because something was going on with it, I got the news. My mechanic, who I knew from high school and had been going to for years said "Yeah, they all do that; it's a known problem." $2K in 1982 was a fair piece of change – I was not happy.

When I sold it (post-head replacement) to a used car dealer the first thing he said was "Bring me proof the head has been replaced."

That car had a number of interesting 'issues'. I did enjoy driving it, though, enough to replace it with an E24 M6.

I don't think so, he didn't drive too much and its been a long time but I think he totaled his E12 and then upgraded to an E28 after, but I do remember him talking about weird little quirks going on with the car. So weird to think how long its been, that was the first car I learned to drive on.

[H2O_Doc]

Hoping the Aztek will make an appearance. Guessing no one would admit to owning one of these 4-wheeled hellcats from the planet Bad Ass.

[mecheng77]

Common thread is VW/Audi

They couldn't even make their base engine both the 1.8 and 2.0l reliable.

[TonM3]

Originally Posted by H2O_Doc

Hoping the Aztek will make an appearance. Guessing no one would admit to owning one of these 4-wheeled hellcats from the planet Bad Ass.

Still better looking than the new 4 series

[Joe T.]

My first car, a 4 cylinder 93 Mustang LX convertible that was previously my mom's. It was actually quite reliable, but just sucked in every way, especially back then when every kid wanted a 5.0.

Honorable mention to another hand me down, a 99 GMC Jimmy. The orange coolant GM used back then gunked up and caused all kinds of issues with that thing. My next car would be one of my favorites though, a 2005 e46 Touring.

[Miata13]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

Common thread is VW/Audi

They couldn't even make their base engine both the 1.8 and 2.0l reliable.

Yep..first new car I ever purchased was a '77 Rabbit; first year of fuel injection. Periodically just "quit running", leaving you stranded on the side of the road...VW dealers could never diagnose it. Wife refused to drive it any more....we moved...the Rabbit was left behind and replaced post-move with a '81 Toyota Tercel....

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

Common thread is VW/Audi

Originally Posted by Miata13

Yep..first new car I ever purchased was a '77 Rabbit; first year of fuel injection. Periodically just "quit running", leaving you stranded on the side of the road...VW dealers could never diagnose it. Wife refused to drive it any more....we moved...the Rabbit was left behind and replaced post-move with a '81 Toyota Tercel....

I had a '75 Rabbit that 90% of the time wouldn't shift into reverse unless the car was already moving. The mechanic said "Yeah, they'll do that, and there's no fix for it." I was just grateful that I was able to sell it.