# The worst, most useless, frustrating car you've ever owned. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 25, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287 "2019-10-25T17:00:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/21 "2019-10-25T23:18:08Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > 1978 Mustang II. I was young and dumb and it had been beautifully repainted by the previous owner. I fell for the deep red paint and the fact that it had a working heater (was driving a rusty Beetle at the time) and just had to have it. > > GARBAGE IN EVERY WAY. Some stuff was Ford’s fault, like the fact that it was just straight up a piece of shit, some was the previous owner’s fault, like the too-wide aftermarket wheels that caused the rear tires to get chewed up by bolt heads in the rear wheelwells when carrying rear passengers. > > Some of it was my fault, like when I left it running in the driveway one cold winter morning despite knowing that the parking brake was questionable. I knew I was in trouble when I saw it trundle past the kitchen window, bouncing off several trees on the way down a ravine. > > I was overjoyed to deliver that bastard to the junk yard, running on two cylinders and covered in spray paint. The 50 dollars they gave me for the tires was the happiest deal I ever made. Mine was a 1976 Mustang II. They were pieces of excrement that year, too. I moved to California in 1982 in that car. It broke down three times along the way, none of them cheap repairs. I was moving for a job right out of college, and as soon as I saved up enough cash for a down payment, out it went. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/22 "2019-10-25T23:18:36Z")
1987 Chrysler LeBaron. Not [an unattractive car](http://momentcar.com/images/chrysler-lebaron-1987-3.jpg), but a maintenance nightmare. I bought it, used, in late '89. I had 3 engine control computers fail on me in 18 months (including one that failed 30 minutes after installation). The trunk leaked, from an unidentified location. It was from the era in which onboard computers with voices were popular (“A door is ajar!”), and whenever I’d start the car when the temperature was below freezing, the computer would announce, “the rear hatch is ajar” – it was a coupe, it had no rear hatch. :smack: And, in said cold weather, sometimes the heater would decide to not blow hot air. When it also started leaking oil, and the turbocharger started to go, I dumped it as soon as I was no longer under water on the loan I’d taken out to buy it. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/23 "2019-10-25T23:25:46Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Some of it was my fault, like when I left it running in the driveway one cold winter morning despite knowing that the parking brake was questionable. I knew I was in trouble when I saw it trundle past the kitchen window, bouncing off several trees on the way down a ravine. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I knew it was a mistake when I was driving it home for the first time and it stalled. On railroad tracks. I don’t have any entries for this thread, but I just wanted to give a tip of the old hat to some of the posts that made me laugh out loud. (When I was a kid we had a 197\_? Plymouth Valiant–we mostly just called it The Green Car–which I guess _was_ kind of a brave automobile, or at any rate audacious, on account of its habit of stalling in the middle of left turns. I was too young to ever drive it, though, and basically too young to truly appreciate just how much of a PITA that car probably was for my parents.) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/24 "2019-10-25T23:35:51Z")
I’m noticing a lot of 1970s and early 1980s American cars in this thread. I suppose I’m lucky that as a Millennial (Ok, on the very old end of Millennials) by the time I became of driving age most of the crap Detroit made in that era was mostly gone. Like Johnny L.A., I can’t say any of the cars I’ve had were particularly bad. Actually I haven’t had all that many cars in the first place since I tend to keep them a long time before I replace them. [ul] [li]At age 16 my parents bought me a 1988 Buick Park Avenue. That’s pretty much the last car any teenager would choose, but it was a car. It was extremely comfortable, I’ll give it that. And it was so roomy everyone wanted to carpool with me to school and I actually probably made a small profit collecting gas money from them. It was reasonably reliable; I’ve heard that 3.8L V6 it had was one of the better engines GM made. The only big annoyance was that towards end of the time I had it the A/C compressor went, and I was too cheap to fix it so I had no A/C until I got rid of it. Leather seats and no A/C is kind of an annoying combo. [/li][li]After that I got a 1995 Saturn SL1. While nowhere near as comfortable as the Buick (when the A/C worked), it got very good fuel economy. It never had and really serious problems, just a lot of minor stuff broke, like the cassette player didn’t work, and the “fasten seat belt” light stayed on all the time even though I was buckled up, and eventually the dome light fell down and just dangled by the wires, and I had to periodically add oil. But the biggest annoyance was after I moved to California, it almost always failed the emissions test on the first try, and I kept having to fix various emissions related stuff. That was the most frustrating part, and I eventually decided that the next time it failed emissions I would take advantage of CA’s vehicle retirement program (similar to “Cash for Clunkers”)[/li][li]I got a 2009 Corolla after that. It had no problems until it had a Very Big Problem. On a trip to San Francisco it somehow lost all its coolant, overheated, and destroyed the engine before I noticed anything was wrong.[/li][li]So I decided to have some fun after that and bought a 2019 Miata. The only thing about that car that could be described as “useless” or “frustrating” is the absolutely tiny trunk on the rare occasions I need to carry anything big. Otherwise it’s great.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/25 "2019-10-26T00:51:02Z")
Easy answer, 1975 Pontiac Astre. Pontiac version of the Chevrolet Vega. POS! ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/26 "2019-10-26T01:17:55Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > I don’t have any entries for this thread, but I just wanted to give a tip of the old hat to some of the posts that made me laugh out loud. You may then enjoy [this photo of my Mustang](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=97436972175&set=a.43310427175&type=3&sfns=mo), aka the Disgustang, aka the Thunderbolt Greaseslapper. This was well the post-backyard tree pinball, enough such that the day-glo spray paint was starting to fade. Note the bull horns duct taped onto the hood. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/27 "2019-10-26T01:18:20Z")
We still have the biggest POS I’ve ever owned - a 2005 Dodge Caravan. The transmission went out at about 35,000 miles and that’s only the beginning of everything that’s been wrong with it. I should have taken it as a sign when we’d only had the thing two weeks and I went to tilt the sun visor to the side and the whole thing came off in my hand. Currently the right side sliding door needs to be opened manually (it won’t open remotely any more) and we leave the radio off because if you leave it on when you park the vehicle, it will drain the battery. Thankfully it’s not a daily driver because there’s no telling if you will be making it to your destination or not - we only use it for Home Depot runs these days. One more thing goes wrong with it and I’m pushing it into the lake … (no, not really, but a girl can dream). ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/28 "2019-10-26T01:47:39Z")
Chevy Vega POS ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/29 "2019-10-26T04:03:34Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > Although my father’s immediate family had always bought GM cars, Dad’s Uncle Norman worked at a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and convinced Dad’s sister Karen to buy a first-year (1976) Plymouth Volare. That car was the epitome of a lemon, and broke down so many times that Chrysler finally sent a representative of its “Man in Detroit Team” to Cleveland to check the vehicle out. Even he was stumped as to why the Volare had so many problems. I was just going to post about this exact make/model/year. My mom and sister picked it out because they thought it looked good. It wasn’t bad looking for the time… a dark green two door with a white vinyl top from the doors back and a white interior. In addition to being way under powered it had a wonderful feature of stalling every time you turned left while accelerating. So, pretty much every time you wanted to merge into traffic you had to shift into park in the middle of the intersection so you could re-start it and let the other people stop honking. Fun times. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/30 "2019-10-26T04:18:08Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > (When I was a kid we had a 197\_? Plymouth Valiant–we mostly just called it The Green Car–which I guess _was_ kind of a brave automobile, or at any rate audacious, on account of its habit of stalling in the middle of left turns. I was too young to ever drive it, though, and basically too young to truly appreciate just how much of a PITA that car probably was for my parents.) > [@Sternvogel](#): > > Although my father’s immediate family had always bought GM cars, Dad’s Uncle Norman worked at a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and convinced Dad’s sister Karen to buy a first-year (1976) Plymouth Volare. > [@Spud](#): > > I was just going to post about this exact make/model/year… > > In addition to being way under powered it had a wonderful feature of stalling every time you turned left while accelerating. So, pretty much every time you wanted to merge into traffic you had to shift into park in the middle of the intersection so you could re-start it and let the other people stop honking. Fun times. Apparently a standard feature on Plymouth V\_\_\_\_\_ of that era! It’s no wonder my parents drive a Toyota these days. And I drive a Honda Civic. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/31 "2019-10-26T04:27:43Z")
I’ve had issues with mine, but nothing useless. Old, needing repairs, and such? Sure. But none of the lemons like some have posted. The worst was an old Mercury Topaz with the three-speed automatic transmission and 2.3L engine (I don’t remember the model year, late 80s or early 90s) my grandmother tried to give me (I think the thought was that I could take it college). She meant well, and the car was in okay shape, but it had all the problems of that line of Ford cars. I couldn’t find a comfortable seating position, every time I tried to look back to my left all I could see was the B pillar, and frankly I preferred the 1980 Volvo wagon my parents had bought me when I got my license. But the car had been driven cross-country from her house to my parents and might as well be put to some use, so Mom wound up using it as a commuter car instead of the Windstar they had. I actually wound up not having a car at college until basically my senior year. I mean, I understand people liked the Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz. I probably wasn’t as grateful to Grandmother as I should have been. And I probably didn’t give it enough of a chance. But man, I did not like anything about driving that car. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/32 "2019-10-26T04:31:01Z")
I hardly dare contribute here because none of my cars over the last 55 years have quite been terrible. Some clunkers I bought for a couple hundred bucks each may not have been gems but I managed to run everything into the ground before they soaked up repair bucks or died unnaturally. The weakest was maybe a 10-year-old '62 Pontiac Tempest 4-banger with a 2-speed trans-axle, the 2 speeds being slow and slower. I _will_ whine about our newest little RV, a 2017 Thor Citation 25-foot class-C on an economical 2016 Mercedes Sprinter platform. The vehicle runs fine. The coach sucks, with many leaky, faulty, missing, or misrepresented items. This rig spent most of its first year in the shop awaiting parts and correct installation. AVOID NEW THOR RV’s!! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/33 "2019-10-26T05:05:01Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Hmm. Not sure if I would call it useless. But I once owned a 1997 **Jeep Wrangler** with soft top and 5-speed transmission… And shifting was a workout. I had a 1990 Jeep YJ (what the Wrangler was called here in Canada), with a manual transmission. Shifting was indeed a workout; a few months after taking delivery, my right arm looked like Schwartzeneggar’s. My left arm looked like–well, mine, and I’ve never been a Schwartzeneggar. It wasn’t a bad vehicle, but it did require a lot of maintenance after about five or six years. Still, I drove it for maybe ten or eleven years, when I got tired of something going wrong and needing repair every two weeks. > [@Spud](#): > > I was just going to post about this exact make/model/year. [1976 Plymouth Volare] … > > In addition to being way under powered it had a wonderful feature of stalling every time you turned left while accelerating. So, pretty much every time you wanted to merge into traffic you had to shift into park in the middle of the intersection so you could re-start it and let the other people stop honking. Fun times. Our family had the same car, and it did indeed stall when you turned left while accelerating. It didn’t always happen, but it happened often enough that I got very good at shifting into Neutral (thus allowing the car to continue moving through the intersection with what little momentum had been built up), cranking the starter, getting the engine going again, throwing the transmission into Drive, and continuing. That solved the problem, but became, as you can imagine, quite tiresome. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/34 "2019-10-26T06:13:15Z")
Had an '84 CJ7 rag top. Did pretty well as a jeep. Though the right rear axle bearing kept going out. This is not a good vehicle to take a first date to a dress up party in a blizzard. We got there though. Never did get a second date. Didn’t even ask. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/35 "2019-10-26T08:08:42Z")
'77 Olds sedan that my SO’s brother found in a barn and gave to us. Rear bumper was off some truck, one door was pretty much all Bondo over wire mesh, leaky gas tank and leaky brake lines. We basically junked it right after we got home. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/36 "2019-10-26T11:56:12Z")
**Mrs. FtG** went thru a series of Blue Bomber station wagons. There was the Chevy that smoked a ton on startup (but sold well despite it’s age since it was rust free). A Nissan Sentra that eventually just wore out. And there was the … Saturn Wagon. What a piece of garbage. Didn’t have it as long as the others due to someone running a red light and totaling it. Not nearly as upset about it as if it were one of the others. We then gave up on station wagons. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/37 "2019-10-26T14:14:18Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > It was a serious Spy Hunter smoke screen car. I’m happy to note that I am glad I am not alone in thinking this exact thought when I see a car out on the road emitting vast quantities of smoke! ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/38 "2019-10-26T14:57:31Z")
Low hanging fruit, but the 1972 MG Midget. Spent more time under it than in it. But owning an MG is like cheating, in this thread. So let’s go with the 1999 Toyota Rav4 2WD. Gutless, no interior space, and the shifter seemed somehow more exposed than usual and was always getting bumped into neutral. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/39 "2019-10-26T16:12:18Z")
1958 Edsel Pacer with the Teletouch tranny in it. Look, basically it wasn’t a bad car but the one I started with I had to dig out of the ground; it had been parked in 1962 under a tree and sat there until I rescued it in something like 1974. Edsel put every tech they could come up with in it and a lot simply didn’t work. Take the Teletouch ------ please; I hated the damn thing. The entire thing was electrical and if your shifting motor died you were screwed – you had to replace it. And since it would usually die in park somewhere and since there were like 24,983 wires to connect (well, not that many but still ----) to swap one out it was like doing brain surgery in a parking lot. The issue was the weight of the car; even with the emergency/parking brake set it would sometimes settle into park and blow the motor trying to get itself into drive. And unlike any of the other push-button shifters made there was no mechanical linkage you could reach and tickle to at least get yourself home. After the second time I swapped shift motors ---- parking was on level ground only until I sold it. And I still set the brake with BOTH feet. :smack: Don’t get me wrong; I would love to do another 58. But before I ever consider it the aftermarket manual transmission and shifter will be in my basement waiting. Fool me once, shame on you – fool me twice and I must be a total asshole. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287/40 "2019-10-26T16:36:12Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I’m noticing a lot of 1970s and early 1980s American cars in this thread. When I saw the thread title - **The worst, most useless, frustrating car you’ve ever owned** - I wanted to answer with “ **ANY of the American made cars my family had back in the 70s** ”. To a car, they were rotten. Always breaking down, overheating, not starting, or leaking (something). All the time. Some claim to have been surprised when the Japanese car invasion began in the early-70s and soon came to dominate the market. They stood in awe at Japanese manufacturing strategies and the country’s vaunted ‘corporate-labor relations’ seeking to understand its success. But they didn’t need to look at the Japanese, they needed to look at Detroit (ideally on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-most-useless-frustrating-car-youve-ever-owned/842287.md?page=3)