Worse cars you've ever owned.

Interesting question. Even the bad cars had some redeeiming features:

Rover SD1 probably the worst. Had 60 delivery faults. eventually caught fire and I was happy to let it burn.

Matra Rancho: terrible build quality but great for carrying our two German Shepherds.

AlfaSud: terrible rustbucket, but great car to drive: way ahead of its time

Maserati Indy: worst elctrics I've ever seen; forever blowing fuses

BMW750i: second worst electrics I've ever seen, but great V12 engine

Custodian you have had some amazing cars ( from previous threads you have mentioned them in ). I love the look of the Maserati Indy!
 
Last edited:
Ford escort xr3 in white with white wheel covers

I'm guessing 1988-90 for that ;)

My worst car ever?

Vauxhall Calibra 16V Turbo 1990.

Absolute money pit. Chopped it in for one of the BEST cars I ever owned - a Mk2 MR2 Turbo - Jap import.

And then came the kids....

Runners up?

1978 Fiat X-19. Ran for an hour between services.
1984 MG Metro. I broke that after a couple of weeks.

The one car I shouldn't have sold?

1985 Escort RS Turbo Series 1. Utterly mint. 60K miles. Totally original bar stainless exhaust. Bought it in 2004. Sold it in 2005 :( Regretted EVERY day....
 
I'm guessing 1988-90 for that ;)

My worst car ever?

Vauxhall Calibra 16V Turbo 1990.

Absolute money pit. Chopped it in for one of the BEST cars I ever owned - a Mk2 MR2 Turbo - Jap import.

And then came the kids....

Runners up?

1978 Fiat X-19. Ran for an hour between services.
1984 MG Metro. I broke that after a couple of weeks.

The one car I shouldn't have sold?

1985 Escort RS Turbo Series 1. Utterly mint. 60K miles. Totally original bar stainless exhaust. Bought it in 2004. Sold it in 2005 :( Regretted EVERY day....

It was an E reg but cant remember the plate.
Quality white wheel covers though
 
Winner: Ford Escort Mk4 Auto.
Horrid. I bought it when I was 17 because it was red, had a spoiler and 17" alloys. It was terrible in every sense and broke down within weeks so had to be sold for parts.

Runner up: VW Golf MK5 GT Sport.
It went back to VW six times in the first six months from new. It's brakes would change between solid and spongy from one junction to the next (much to the annoyance of the poor folk behind!). It's clutch pedal jammed to the floor on the M25. It rattled like a 20-year-old Fiat. It's cheap and nasty leather made your arse sweat. It had the most boring interior that must have been designed with a pencil and ruler only (all grey, all lines) and it was noisy. Very noisy.
 
It was an E reg but cant remember the plate.
Quality white wheel covers though

E reg would be '88. Nearly bought one of those having had an '81 XR3 followed by an '83 XR3i
 
Probably the worst, although the one I look back on most fondly was my first car.

A D Reg Ford Orion 1.4L. Total rust bucket and I remembering trading in sorting a guy at works PC out for a few hours whilst he welded loads of patches to the car so it could pass its MOT.

My parents had one, and I hated driving it. Horrible steering. Why they sold their MkI Golf for it, I'll never know!
 
B reg Fiat Panda, first car I ever owned just to get some cheaper insurance

Worst car I've ever driven is the Kia Rio hire car I was given last year. Absolute pile of crap to drive and the cheapest looking interior I've ever seen.
 
Ian J said:
I had a Morris Marina for a week whilst my Saab Turbo was being repaired and it's handling was about on a par with a double decker bus

My first car was a Morris Marina. Agree about the handling. It was dangerous. And it rusted so badly I could almost reach into the car through the bodywork.
 
FZR400RRSP said:
These cars taught you about car control though.
You'd no choice, there were no electronic gizmos to bail you out.

And even more often taught you basic mechanical skills in trying to keep the rust buckets from breaking down....
 
My first car was a Morris Marina. Agree about the handling. It was dangerous. And it rusted so badly I could almost reach into the car through the bodywork.

My Dad had a vomit green Morris Marina estate! It was so bad there was a hole in the back where we sat and you could almost put your foot through to the ground below.
 
Greg said:
My Dad had a vomit green Morris Marina estate! It was so bad there was a hole in the back where we sat and you could almost put your foot through to the ground below.

A mate of mine had a selection of really evil handling British cars from that era including a Marina and a Vauxhall VX 4/90 and both were scary things to be a passenger in....at least the VX had lights that worked and slightly less rust.
 
My Dad had a vomit green Morris Marina estate! It was so bad there was a hole in the back where we sat and you could almost put your foot through to the ground below.

My dad had a "Maneater Purple" Morris Marina. It smelled of petrol until he realised that the top of the fuel tank had perforated. He sealed it up with fibreglass that he used to use on his RC gliders.
 
Last edited:
Those were the days when you could do all kinds of things to cars! (so I am told as I was too young to really pay any attention :) ) There were some right heaps riding around with all kinds of Heath Robinson repairs.
 
Those were the days when you could do all kinds of things to cars! (so I am told as I was too young to really pay any attention :) ) There were some right heaps riding around with all kinds of Heath Robinson repairs.
Yeah, sliding round on the shiny, plastic back seat of a car leaking petrol fumes, I can certainly understand why survival figures are so much better these days!
 
And all that lovely shiny metal inside the car as well ....

I remember an old Ford Consul my dad owned which would have been deadly to any of us in a crash.

It was also hopelessly unreliable and hated the rain.
 
Ford Capri

Biggest pile of junk, slow, poor wallowy ride
 
Kebabhead said:
Ford Capri

Biggest pile of junk, slow, poor wallowy ride

AKA the Crappy back in the day.

The 2.8 was fun but the 1.6 was definitely not.
 
Jeep Cherokee. Whoever invented that hated the environment. I could see the petrol needle moving.
 
I loved my cherokees!

Worth car ever... 52plate Renault Laguna 1.9dci Dynamique. The most unreliable piece of junk I've ever driven. I will NEVER own a renault again as long as I live.
 
Not sure ive ever had a really bad car. Was forced to drive a Corsa for a day and that was like a death sentence, slow, rattly, awful seats, crap brakes, poor driving position etc.
Most dangerous car ive ever driven was an AStra VXR. Had driven a 400bhp Subaru on icy roads and that had significantly more grip than the vxr in the dry. First roundabout i came to i nearly put the car on its roof in the middle. Maximum respect to people who up the power in theirs, lethal.
 
2004 Peugeot 206 HDi GTI - was the biggest bag of **** i have ever had.

was fine for about a year, then it blew 2 turbo's in 2 weeks, injectors went wrong, fuel leaks, fuel pump went, fuel filter went, started going into limp mode twice a week (driving down the motorway and then suddenly all loss of power and electrics was always fun), the drivers window went tits up.

just a terrible car.
 
I've had a few bad 'uns.

In no particular order, a Peugeot 405 TD which had that many things go wrong, head gasket, gearbox and clutch, electric windows, air-con, it shed wheel trims like they were going out of fashion. In all fairness I never got any of these things repaired and it never failed to get me from A to B! It was quite fun to drive as well.

A mark 1 Ford Escort. I was never happy with the way it drove and it I ended up hitting a crash barrier, broke my knee and I still hobble 33 years later......:eek:

A Ford Sierra 4X4. It used a serious amount of fuel for not a lot of performance, wallowed and understeered like crazy, wanted to be driven at the speed it wanted to go and not the speed you wanted to drive it at. It developed a bad misfire, I sorted that problem out and sold it ASAP.

A Peugeot 306 TD Sport. I did nine miles in it and gave it back to the dealer. It was delivered incorrectly (came as a red estate rather than a blue hatchback), then re-delivered with the wrong wheels and tyres, damage to the paint on the rear quarter panel and a crack in the front spoiler.

I then had an Audi A4 TDi V6 quattro. The horror. The horror......... It was soooooo unreliable, it ended up having a complete new braking system, new engine management system, fortunately all this was done under warranty. I never had a service bill under £500, although one of these did include supplying and fitting a CD auto-changer. I don't know if it was bad luck or bad aerodynamics but the windscreen got broken several times. The drivers seat gave me a numb ass after 50 miles. In fairness I could get really good economy on a run. When I learned that the next service (the cam-belt service) was going to cost £1500 and by then it was going to be out of warranty I got shot of it............
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom