car you've ever owned? For me it was a very satanic 1990 Dodge Grand Caravan. In the first 25k, it had major engine and transmission problems. Within 4 yrs, almost anything you can imagine went bad on it including the paint. That was my first domestic car in many years and my last since.

For me it's a tie between my 1991 Ford Escort GT & 2002 VW Passat GLS 1.8T.

The Ford went through 2 transmissions in only 35k miles. It also had horrible brake problems (VERY easily warped rotors).

The Passat was great until it hit around 10k miles and then everything started going wrong (e.g. burnt out headlights every few thousand miles, 3 bad oxygen sensors, defective turn signal relay, defective stereo headunit, seized door ajar sensor, multiple coilpack failures, peeling paint in the wheel wells, etc.)

This post has been edited by jwaters943: Jun 14 2008, 09:07 AM

A 1994 Mercury Sable, 3.8L V6. Water pump went out and the car overheated, leaving me stranded. Dealer replaced the water pump and never checked anything else on the car. Turned out the headgaskets were leaking too and the car still ran hot even with a new water pump. The only answer I could get from the dealer was "It's supposed to run like that". After numerous trips and complaints to the dealer, more rent cars than I can count and after many miles of coolant mixing with oil, the engine eating the bearings, with no satisfaction, we finally went to another dealer and got a decent tech that looked at the car and said he was NOT putting that engine back together. We got a reman engine put in it at the dealer's expense.

It was the worst vehicle ownership experience I've ever had.

I love my Hyundai...

This would be a great "New Topic"!!!

Well......Believe it or not, They would all be German cars. Two Mercedes, one Audi and a VW Cabrio. The Mercs both burned very expensive valves at low mileage and the Audi stranded me for the first time in my driving life(electrical). The Cabrio had wiring, that for some reason, attracted squirrels. They chewed through the wiring THREE times and even ate the window washing reservoir! We have not bought a German car since 1995 and I assume they've improved. However, they seem to get uglier and uglier, styling wise, every year. Love the "wallowing" Azera.

The most problems I ever had with a single car was my new-off-the-lot '02 Buick Regal - during the 2 or 3 years when Buick was rivaling Lexus for fewest problems per 100 cars. Headliner pulled away from sunroof requiring new headliner (the dealer also broke the sun visor mounts to get it off and had to order replacements). Cruise control stopped working requiring new switch stalk. Overheating buttons/lights in steering wheel controls, hot enough to burn your fingers, had to be replaced. There was always a rattle in the passenger seat. The driver's seat motors didn't run smoothly over the tracks, creaked and groaned and bumped. All relatively minor stuff and I still think it was a good car, had to sell it for financial reasons. I'd have been very happy to still be driving it today.

My '96 XJ6 got rust in the fuel tank and I ended up scrubbing the tank, replacing the in-tank fuel filter, replacing the pump, flushing the lines, and replacing the injectors with good used ones - but that was because a prior owner had let water leak in to the tank. The tank actually didn't rust, just the fasteners inside the tank (that mounted the pump, filter, return basket & lines in place). Other than that work, it was a spectacular car, sold with 97K miles on it and just BARELY broken in. I put new upper & lower ball joints on the front steering knuckles and that thing was rock solid and precise. Felt like it had just driven off the lot.

I'm glad I never had to go through something like a blown Nikasil block or a blown-out $1400 active shock out of warranty... I guess I've been lucky. Never been stranded.

I, too, vote Mopar. My first new car ever, a 1979 Plymouth Horizon 4-door hatch.

They copied it bolt-for-bolt from the Rabbit, but cheaped out every component even further. The driver's door latch mechanism would freeze up in the cold; one morning I had to tie the door shut with clothes line to get to work. Another time, the shifter suddenly popped out and flopped around limply like a spoon in mashed potatoes. My beloved mechanic waved his cigarette butt in the air for emphasis and proclaimed, "Pin broke at the base of the shifter. %(&*%^ing piece of pot metal... IT'LL BREAK AGAIN."

Then at 2/1-2 years and 30,000 miles, the piece de resistance: the engine literally fell out as I was driving and came to transverse rest against the firewall. Defectively welded motor mount. Everyone at Chrysler right up to corporate told me to bleep off, since the 12/12 warranty was over. I got the motor mount fixed and, with the steering starting to make an ominous squeaky-plastic noise, traded it in on a real Rabbit (yeah I know, a glutton for punishment). I did learn eventually, though -- the next one was a Nissan I still own.

My 88 Ford Escort. It was my first car and it crapped out before I could even get a month out of it!

Brand new 1971 Pontiac Grandville. Built two days before the longest GM strike in history.

Car was missing engine mounts, dashboard mounts, out of balance tires, 400 C.I. engine averaging 9 mpg, seat mounts loose and missing bolts, windshield leaked and many problems I cannot remember.

Factory gave me a loaner and allowed me to have a 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix that listed for $3,000 more. The car wasn't even out yet so I was allowed to keep the loaner for a couple of months. Car came in two weeks prior to 1972 autos were to be introduced. Received it immediately.

No money ever had to exchange hands.

Have times changed or what? Now the customer is always wrong.

David <><

1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse....what a piece of junk !

My worst was a '75 Ford Granada with I-6, automatic transmission etc. It had great gas mileage in the beginning (22mpg.) but at 12K miles it dropped to 12 and never got any better. Then it started having electrical system problems - blower for heat or AC would cut out whenever it felt like it. Starter went out at 15K miles. Headlights started cutting out whenever they felt like it during night driving. I got rid of the car at 18K miles.

Next worst was a 79 Datsun 1.4L station wagon with 4-cyl. engine and 5-speed manual transmission. It had after-market AC installed by dealer. It developed loping idle and would die at stop lights and be hard to start. No amount of carburetor work corrected it. Many small items went bad and were expensive to repair/replace. I always had to down-shift going up hills with my family on board. AC would freeze up after 30 minutes - had to re-design and modify the AC system and then the heat load was too much for the engine (began to overheat with AC on).

Best car was a '68 Dodge Polara sedan with 383 c.i. engine with 2-barrel carb. It got 29 mpg. consistently on the highway with AC running at 70+ mph. It was a very solid car with good handling and no rattles ever

Joe.

Forgot to mention my 1985 Dodge 600 convertible. On the door sill, was a metal plate saying"Quality engineered by Chrysler Corporation". The plate started peeling away on one end at 5000 miles. I 'instant glued' it back on and at 6000 miles. the other end came up. The dealer said the door plate was not covered by the warrentee. The car(expensive to me at the time)also didn't have a trip odometer! Last Chrysler for me, even under the MB banner.

The worst built Car always seems to be Mopar, if in just name plate only. :trophy:

1986 Dodge Plymouth MITSUBISHI Turbo Colt. I loved that Car, and put

thousands of dollars in Warranty Claims on it. Plus a lot of my own money.

Somehow it mysteriously Blew Up :whistling:

1998 Isuzu Rodeo.

We bought it used at 60,000 miles. The engine oil started burning and the tranny began acting up after 5000 miles we bought it. Finally, it was totalled due to an accident. No wonder we do not see Isuzu's these days.

In 1976 I bought a used 1972 Chevy Vega. It had no power and used a lot of oil. It was already starting to rust and always seemed to run hot. Sold it after 6 month, and the engine blew on the new owner about a month later.

For me, 1979 Subaru Brat...Bought it brand new..$7100. Owned it for 4 years almost to the day. Required 3 front diff's, 1 set of heads, and rust..oh my. I had it rust proofed by Zeibart, which at the time was supposed to be the best. Well, if it did anything really well, it was holding water at every body panel junction. They refused to come through..said it came from the outside in. The thing literally rotted out. Actually on a quiet night, I'm sure I could hear it rust. I painted it after 3 years with Imron which again was supposed to be the best stuff out there at the time. Now keep in mind, I drove the tar outa this thing in town using it for business which required about 50-60K klms per yr in the city. But I also changed oil religously monthly. Dealer maintained for the big stuff. Tune ups, brakes etc I did. I had 188,000 klms on this POS when I called the dealer with another front diff explosion(the 3rd) and got $500 for it from them. Good bye you piece of junk..lol :rant2:

This post has been edited by Rob_b: Aug 2 2008, 10:20 PM

I have 2 worst cars.

My first car was a 1995 Ford Fiesta 1.1 and it was possibly the worst piece of poo I've ever owned, it had so many prblems, brakes, gears, steering. It got smashed into fortuantely. :P

Next was a 1994 Renualt Clio whcih I bought for £275 and was told the engine was perfect. After waiting 3 weeks to save up nd insure it the engine blew up after about 2 hours of driving!

Thank god for Hyundai Scoupes, at least the engine works the best!

only really owned 3 cars.. worst of the 3 was my last car.. '98 Ford Escort ZX2.. bought for $10k (back in 2000 with 30k miles).. within a year of owning it, had to have the Cam Solenoid replaced.. $1,500 repair.. having said that, i did drive it until 162k miles... before that was my '88 Beretta, drove that to 182k miles before it finally rusted out from the bottom (think Fred Flinstone car).. now I have the Sonata.. I just hope i can drive this one for 160k+ miles... (currently at 47k)...

I've never really had any 'bad' cars.

The worst of the bunch is my '71 MGB that's had all kinds of problems, but a lot of those can be traced back to a hard life, little maintenance, and half-assed repairs. Most of them (but far from all!) happened before the car fell under my watch. On the plus side, I've had the car for 20 years and still have it now, so it can't be all that bad.