I bought a Chevy Citation on either the first or second year they were made. Only kept it for 2 years - which is not my usual pattern of keeping vehicles for at least 10 years. But what to do with a car that often was nearly impossible to shift with the three on the tree, and a clutch that was stiff, and either was fully engaged or not engaged at all. But the crowning glory was its ability to leak oil from the crankcase - a problem that the dealer tried to fix 3 times in the first 6 months of ownership. And to top it off, the car was a dull greenish gold color which actually matched its character.
Mrs. Cretin and I bought a NEW 1972 Chevy Vega. It was as bad as all the horror stories about them. Worst POS I’ve ever owned. As Click and Clack said, you could HEAR it rusting. Rather than list its multitude of defects,
I’ll give it one bit of praise: fresh out of High School I had bought a new '68 Camaro (which the insurance premiums compelled me to sell after less than a year); The Vega cornered/handled nearly as well as the Camaro, but was absurdly inferior in every other regard.
Does it count if I didn’t own it? I had a summer job where I put a few thousand miles on the company’s Chevy Chevette (the 'vette, as the boss referred to it).
The radio didn’t work, and there was no AC, in Texas, in the summer. I did learn to drive a stick on it. Made my 86 Toyota truck seem sporty.
When the Chevette was broken I’d get to drive my bosses Dodge Diplomat. Working AC and radio were nice, but still a terrible car.
Wish I still had that truck.
Amen to that. Our '81 Toyota 4x4 pickup was one of the two best vehicles we’ve ever owned.
I had an '89 Cavalier, the Z24 with the 2.8L 6cyl engine, 5 sp manual, a factory moonroof and distinctly aftermarket bulletholes. Slidy little front wheel drive death trap. Bought her not running for a hunnert bucks and was getting her tarted up over time, had a 3.1L low mileage engine to swap out but she got kilt by a Waste Management truck. She was like a bitchy mistress but so much fun to drive. I called her Firefly.
My wife had a 1987 Renault Alliance, bought new. I told her and told her those cars were no good but she thought it was cute :rolleyes: and pouted until I bought it for her. She’s a spoiled brat and it’s my fault. I just can’t say no to her. But this time I should have.
Car was a POS. Drove like shit in the winter. Horribly under powered. In constant need of repair. Had the horn on the steering column. I didn’t even drive it very often but I hated it all the same.
The engine block froze or something one winter and cracked or something. Who cares? That ended 77000 miles of misery.
Chrysler K-car convertible. 1983 I think. The power top worked flawlessly. Nothing else worked at all. Sold after 6 months. Replaced with an early 70s Buick deuce-and-a-quarter which ran like a dream thru most of the US.
My husband had a Miata for a while - I really hated that car. I was so glad when we traded it. Not that I loved all the other cars we’ve had over the years, but I wish we’d never gotten the Miata.
My second car, a '75 Malibu Classic Coupe, was probably my worst. It wasn’t terrible, but it was all stock like that pic, with the stock wheels and hubcaps. It was an ugly gray color with a burgundy vinyl roof. Worst of all, even though it was an 8-banger, it had terrible pickup. The compression must have been shot. I think it did burn a lot of oil, but I might be confusing that with my first car, a '73 Gran Torino, which was a terrible oil burner. Like ‘James Bond getaway trick’ clouds of oily smoke. But being my first car I’ll always have a soft spot for the old Torinos.
'77 Olds sedan that someone literally found in a barn and gave to us. That thing was dangerous! Our mechanic took one look at it and was like, “Nope! Get that off our lot!” Brakes failed when we did.
1974 Plymouth Cricket. Made in England and imported to the US. My sister bought it used, all it did was continually break down on her. She drove it to our mother’s house one day and it barely made it. I had recently bought a 72 Chevelle and put another transmission in it. I was going to flip the Chevy to make some money. I ended up trading the Chevelle for the Cricket. My sister drove the Chevelle for years. I drove the Cricket for a bit then parked it. Ended up scrapping the car when it was 4 years old.
A 1987 Chrysler LeBaron. I bought it, as a 3-year-old used car, soon after I started my first job. It wasn’t a bad-looking car for that era, and it was affordable, but man, it was lousy.
The quality, particularly in the electronics, was terrible – I found myself, twice, stranded on the side of the road, when one of the control chips for the engine suddenly went toes-up, and the car simply ceased to operate. It had one of those talking control panels on the dashboard (giving “helpful” alert messages, in a synthesized female voice, like “a door is ajar”), which would start spouting random messages on cold mornings.
And, the trunk developed a leak, which the mechanic could not locate, but which made the trunk mildewy and stinky.
I owned it for less than two years; I traded it in the moment I was no longer underwater on the auto loan on it.
It looked like this:
I have a 2002 Miata. It’s a well-made car. The only problem is that it’s very loud on the highway. The wind noise is so loud that you can’t carry on a conversation.
Let me add to it. Before opening this thread, I was going to say my Jeep Wrangler. I think it was an 86, which I bought new.
It had all kinds of mechanical problems, literally from the day I bought it to the day I traded it in three years later (I replaced it as soon as I paid it off which I have never done for any other car).
Meanwhile, I’ve driven nothing but Jeep Wranglers the past 20 or so years. I love them and enjoy the ride.
My worst car was an acura integra. It had a removable glass roof insert that I’d take out and leave at home. It seemed like every damned time I did that it would rain, even though the forecast was 0% chance of precipitation.
Mine was an '86 and it was by far the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever owned.
My wife and I rented a house immediately before we got married. Abandoned on the property was a early 70’s GMC pickup:
I talked to the landlord and he told me I could have it, he even found the title and signed it over to me. The body and interior were in good shape but it didn’t run. I’m not much of a mechanic and really, I just wanted it out of the back yard. So I traded the pickup to my idiot brother for the Chrysler, which actually ran.
Well, it barely ran. The transmission was shit and the heat didn’t work. I bought a hairdryer and one of those power inverter boxes so I could defrost the windshield in winter. There was moss growing around the inside of the rear windows and the whole thing smelled vaguely like a wet dog. The stereo didn’t work and the doors didn’t lock – not that anyone would try stealing it. The interior was covered in that fake plasticky leather in mustard yellow. Ugly and completely worthless. Maybe I should be more charitable: it did get me to work and back for a year so I guess it had some value in that. I got rid of it as soon as I could, literally giving it away to someone who was warned about its problems. Two weeks later they called me and bitched me out because the transmission had finally blown up on them. I told them they had been warned it was POS and hung up.
I should’ve kept the pickup and had it repaired. At least that would have had some resale value.
With a sample size of two, I think we can now confidently state that the LeBaron’s ability to grow vegetation in its back was an intentional feature. 
My first car was a '71 Ford Torino. It was painted a green not found in nature, and was so ugly my friends called it “The Butt”. It barely ran- due to an electrical issue, the battery would die within a week. It got 8 miles to the gallon, and had no AC (this was in Houston, TX).
On the plus side, it only cost me $550.
My cars were, in order:
- 1981 Chevy Caprice Classic (used, hand me down from my folks)
- 1989 Honda Accord Hatchback
- 1997 Saturn SW2
- 2004 Subaru Outback
- 2010 Subaru Outback (bought used)
Nothing particularly inspiring or awful in the group. The Caprice was probably the worst of the lot but I got a lot of good use out of it. Next least favorite probably would have been the Saturn, only because it turned out to be pretty awful in snow.
I’m not sure the last 4 of those put together weighed quite as much as the first one.