Worst car you have owned

[Ewe Ram]

A 2011 Fiesta delivery miles only. First service it dumped oil all over my drive. TCH paid to get it professionally cleaned. A couple of weeks later a tractor flicked up a stone and it cracked my windscreen. Had that repaired then within weeks same thing happened and it had to be replaced. 
trying to park it I creased the bumper in a car park. Cost me £500 to fix, next day a woman ran into the back of me at a roundabout in Chaddesden. She went to pull over but when I got out of said Fiesta she put her foot down and sped off. 

that was it, traded it in. It was the most unlucky car ever. 

[richinspain]

1 hour ago, Ewe Ram said:

A 2011 Fiesta delivery miles only. First service it dumped oil all over my drive. TCH paid to get it professionally cleaned. A couple of weeks later a tractor flicked up a stone and it cracked my windscreen. Had that repaired then within weeks same thing happened and it had to be replaced. 
trying to park it I creased the bumper in a car park. Cost me £500 to fix, next day a woman ran into the back of me at a roundabout in Chaddesden. She went to pull over but when I got out of said Fiesta she put her foot down and sped off. 

that was it, traded it in. It was the most unlucky car ever. 

Did it look anything like this?

 

[FindernRam]

1 hour ago, Ewe Ram said:

when I got out of said Fiesta she put her foot down and sped off

Maybe it was the jack handle in your hand put her off!

[RadioactiveWaste]

It wasn't my car, but I do remember someone in the sith form at school had an old fiat uno after passing his test and he gave me a lift in it once. get in, he starts the engine and vroom vroom that's a meaty sound, so i says "what engine is in this?" "oh, 900cc, the manifold's loose."

[Elwood P Dowd]

11 hours ago, JoetheRam said:

Reminds me of the "OLO - One Lady Owner" tag often applied to used car ads under some pretense that such a label might indicate a car in good condition.

In my experience that means it's mostly been driven short distances and sat on the driveway for extended periods, top gear has never been used, speed bumps have been barrelled over, servicing has only been carried out when there's stuff leaking from underneath, the paint on the offside is scratched to s*** because it's been driven too close to the kerb, wiper blades are original and the interior has been used as a bin for 95% of it's life.

My mate once had a car that the boot didn't lock and you could use a spoon to start in the absence of a key. Either that or a Dodge Caravan are the worst cars I've experienced.

Don’t forget the OCO “one careful owner” the car has had one careful owner……………the other 7 owners were out and out B*****ds. ?????

Edited November 14, 2022 by Elwood P Dowd

[Grumpy Git]

8 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

It wasn't my car, but I do remember someone in the sith form at school had an old fiat uno after passing his test and he gave me a lift in it once. get in, he starts the engine and vroom vroom that's a meaty sound, so i says "what engine is in this?" "oh, 900cc, the manifold's loose."

That wasn’t a Fiat Uno, it was a Tie Fighter.

[ramit]

A Skoda 120l.  It wasn't so much that the car was bad, it was i who was bad. 

It drove pretty well, engine in the back, fairly easy to fix, could even tighten the hand brake from inside the car by opening a panel between the back seats.  Well, after a few months things started breaking down a bit, as they do and i didn't bother with the tough stuff, just did enough to keep it running.  Winter came and i was still on my Yul Brynner tires, but nah, too expensive to buy new ones and i was a really good driver, or so i believed.  i wasn't happy with how it was running and kept fiddling with the thingy that adjusts the timing on the whatchamacallit but never got it right until in a fit of rage i adjusted it to where it refused to be and i forced it with threats to run.  It sounded like a Sherman tank roaring down the roads for a few days but finally it gave in and ran like a purring pussy cat.  At the yearly required car inspection i was told by a bemused mechanic that i had broken the record of lowest exhaust output of something or other, but i remember the number, 0.02.  i promised to get new tires.  i lied.

The battery was weak at best in summer so winter did it no favors.  i got to know every fellow in the neighborhood who owned starter cables, some would speed off when seeing me coming.  Luckily i lived on a hill, so that took care of some mornings.  The windshield wipers gave out, so i adjusted and learned to see the world through rain drops.  When it snowed i had a side window and an arm.  Now things started getting serious, the brakes were giving out, but i still had a handbrake, until i didn't.  i started to teach myself to plan traffic movements for miles ahead and gearing down to stop the car, kinda and shortly thereafter i broke the first gear to bits and then i broke the reverse gear into bits and for some strange reason the third gear also broke to bits.  Luckily it was the snowiest winter in ages, so i started using snow banks on the side of the road for emergency stops.

Alas, the day arrived when it refused any further movement and so a friend of mine pulled me to the junkyard to offer it to them, but after looking the Skoda and me over a few times with a grimace they refused to take it.  We came back in the evening and left it on their driveway.

Kinda miss that car, it had character.  To this day, i rarely use brakes and i see everything around me and can read the little signs of what other drivers are about to do.

[Mucker1884]

15 minutes ago, ramit said:

A Skoda 120l.  It wasn't so much that the car was bad, it was i who was bad. 

It drove pretty well, engine in the back, fairly easy to fix, could even tighten the hand brake from inside the car by opening a panel between the back seats.  Well, after a few months things started breaking down a bit, as they do and i didn't bother with the tough stuff, just did enough to keep it running.  Winter came and i was still on my Yul Brynner tires, but nah, too expensive to buy new ones and i was a really good driver, or so i believed.  i wasn't happy with how it was running and kept fiddling with the thingy that adjusts the timing on the whatchamacallit but never got it right until in a fit of rage i adjusted it to where it refused to be and i forced it with threats to run.  It sounded like a Sherman tank roaring down the roads for a few days but finally it gave in and ran like a purring pussy cat.  At the yearly required car inspection i was told by a bemused mechanic that i had broken the record of lowest exhaust output of something or other, but i remember the number, 0.02.  i promised to get new tires.  i lied.

The battery was weak at best in summer so winter did it no favors.  i got to know every fellow in the neighborhood who owned starter cables, some would speed off when seeing me coming.  Luckily i lived on a hill, so that took care of some mornings.  The windshield wipers gave out, so i adjusted and learned to see the world through rain drops.  When it snowed i had a side window and an arm.  Now things started getting serious, the brakes were giving out, but i still had a handbrake, until i didn't.  i started to teach myself to plan traffic movements for miles ahead and gearing down to stop the car, kinda and shortly thereafter i broke the first gear to bits and then i broke the reverse gear into bits and for some strange reason the third gear also broke to bits.  Luckily it was the snowiest winter in ages, so i started using snow banks on the side of the road for emergency stops.

Alas, the day arrived when it refused any further movement and so a friend of mine pulled me to the junkyard to offer it to them, but after looking the Skoda and me over a few times with a grimace they refused to take it.  We came back in the evening and left it on their driveway.

Kinda miss that car, it had character.  To this day, i rarely use brakes and i see everything around me and can read the little signs of what other drivers are about to do.

 

You sir,  are a menace and a threat to humankind.  

 

 

 

 

... However, that was a thoroughly entertaining read, so what the hell...  I gave you a positive emoji-wotsit.

[BaaLocks]

Toyota 1000 - bought it for £200, the accelerator used to stick down so you literally had to drive it with your foot on the brake. Sold it two years later to a scrap dealer for £15 and bought a CD - Billy Ocean's Greatest Hits iirc - for my then girlfriend.

For those who don't know, this is a Toyota 1000 - mine wasn't baby vomit green but this one is now selling for €6.5k if you want it.

[Crewton]

I've never had a truly bad car, but I once hired a battered old Yugo Zastava in Greece. That was masterpiece of communist engineering, a Fiat 128 without any bells and whistles, rickety and unsafe. It was the last car I ever drove which didn't have working seatbelts. To be fair though, it didn't break down. 

[hintonsboots]

12 hours ago, BaaLocks said:

Sold it two years later to a scrap dealer for £15 and bought a CD - Billy Ocean's Greatest Hits iirc - for my then girlfriend.

Should have hung onto it mate, when the going gets tough...... 

[ramsbottom]

Depends on how you define bad.  A bad driving car, or an unreliable one?  Most of the cars I've owned were frustratingly unreliable at some point, but were always good drivers when they were running right.

Most unreliable - Renault Megane - Had an issue for months where it wouldn't start once it'd got warm.  In the end turned out to be a faulty ECU.  There were a number of electrical faults on it due to the fuses being located in front of the drivers wheel which would always become saturated once it'd rained because some bright spark designer decided the best way to change a front light bulb was through a tiny hole, big enough for a toddlers hand, on the inside of the wheel arch!  And the garage decided to not put them back on when they swapped them out.  In the end we had to get rid of it as the Mrs rear-ended a Volvo one morning.  Fair dues though, when it was spot on, on a dry B road it was great fun.

Worst to drive - It wasn't mine but I'd sometimes borrow my Dad's Rover 216 company car.  What an appalling piece of camel turd that was.  No power, crap handling, and you had to change gear whilst revving to about 4 grand or you'd practically come to a halt.  Abysmal.

[Rev]

4 hours ago, hintonsboots said:

Should have hung onto it mate, when the going gets tough...... 

Hard to keep a car when every red light spells danger!

[FlyBritishMidland]

On 16/11/2022 at 08:54, ramit said:

A Skoda 120l.  It wasn't so much that the car was bad, it was i who was bad. 

It drove pretty well, engine in the back, fairly easy to fix, could even tighten the hand brake from inside the car by opening a panel between the back seats.  Well, after a few months things started breaking down a bit, as they do and i didn't bother with the tough stuff, just did enough to keep it running.  Winter came and i was still on my Yul Brynner tires, but nah, too expensive to buy new ones and i was a really good driver, or so i believed.  i wasn't happy with how it was running and kept fiddling with the thingy that adjusts the timing on the whatchamacallit but never got it right until in a fit of rage i adjusted it to where it refused to be and i forced it with threats to run.  It sounded like a Sherman tank roaring down the roads for a few days but finally it gave in and ran like a purring pussy cat.  At the yearly required car inspection i was told by a bemused mechanic that i had broken the record of lowest exhaust output of something or other, but i remember the number, 0.02.  i promised to get new tires.  i lied.

The battery was weak at best in summer so winter did it no favors.  i got to know every fellow in the neighborhood who owned starter cables, some would speed off when seeing me coming.  Luckily i lived on a hill, so that took care of some mornings.  The windshield wipers gave out, so i adjusted and learned to see the world through rain drops.  When it snowed i had a side window and an arm.  Now things started getting serious, the brakes were giving out, but i still had a handbrake, until i didn't.  i started to teach myself to plan traffic movements for miles ahead and gearing down to stop the car, kinda and shortly thereafter i broke the first gear to bits and then i broke the reverse gear into bits and for some strange reason the third gear also broke to bits.  Luckily it was the snowiest winter in ages, so i started using snow banks on the side of the road for emergency stops.

Alas, the day arrived when it refused any further movement and so a friend of mine pulled me to the junkyard to offer it to them, but after looking the Skoda and me over a few times with a grimace they refused to take it.  We came back in the evening and left it on their driveway.

Kinda miss that car, it had character.  To this day, i rarely use brakes and i see everything around me and can read the little signs of what other drivers are about to do.

My dad had one of them.  The only brand new car he ever owned.  Bought it as I turned 17 and started learning to drive.  The choke was a lever next to the handbrake and I could never get the hang of it.  I remember the fuel gauge used to move when you went up or down hills showing your fuel levels going up and down!!

[GboroRam]

Dad had a Lada Riva. The previous owner did that hilarious thing of changing the steering wheel for a little sports steering wheel.

You needed arms like Garth to get around a corner in that thing.

Spun it into some person's rose bed at about 20 miles an hour and he leaned out of his window and asked, "were you driving like a maniac?" and I said "It's a Lada Riva". He shrugged his shoulders and went back inside.

[ramit]

9 hours ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

My dad had one of them.  The only brand new car he ever owned.  Bought it as I turned 17 and started learning to drive.  The choke was a lever next to the handbrake and I could never get the hang of it.  I remember the fuel gauge used to move when you went up or down hills showing your fuel levels going up and down!!

Hah, yeah, the little details are coming back to me now.  i was harsh to mine, only gave it minimum choke or none at all, it got used to it, in summer that is.  i stuffed a double thick spring mattress into it and squeezed into the drivers seat, my face pressed against the steering wheel, while moving house.  No cops around fortunately.

[FlyBritishMidland]

10 minutes ago, ramit said:

Hah, yeah, the little details are coming back to me now.  i was harsh to mine, only gave it minimum choke or none at all, it got used to it, in summer that is.  i stuffed a double thick spring mattress into it and squeezed into the drivers seat, my face pressed against the steering wheel, while moving house.  No cops around fortunately.

There was that much room in them you could have lived in one!!  On top of having the experience of driving one of them, my driving instructor had a Yugo.  They had this weird spring loaded gear stick that if you were in 3rd you had push it to the left and then down into 4th.  I think the Skoda might have been the same.  It probably helped me pass first time as the examiner must have thought “I’m not getting in that again”.  There’s a book about the Yugo being the worst car in history!!

[Van der MoodHoover]

On 17/11/2022 at 08:13, Crewton said:

I've never had a truly bad car, but I once hired a battered old Yugo Zastava in Greece. That was masterpiece of communist engineering, a Fiat 128 without any bells and whistles, rickety and unsafe. It was the last car I ever drove which didn't have working seatbelts. To be fair though, it didn't break down. 

My driving instructor turned up in one of those for one of my lessons once. 

We went out on the A1...... 

Terrifying.... ?

[Frogram]

Fiat Stilo , Fiat well known for having dodgy electrics , the headlights would go out if you hit a bump or rough patch at night , then come back on a second or two later . It made for an interesting driving experience .

Edited November 24, 2022 by Frogram
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