82 Plymouth Horizon. AARRGHH, what a piece of crap. a box with wheels. shook if it went over 55. slowed going up hill. as an added bonus, the clutch went out every 5000 miles. i soooo don’t miss it.
The thing went through a transmission before 50,000 miles. There were 2 recall notices for minor problems. I had a short in the electrical system that made the horn honk every time I went over a bump.
Add to that no A/C, no power anything, and just a general CHEAP car.
I believe that Hyundai has improved their quality since then, but I will still NEVER buy another model ever!
Not sure what year, but it was a Volvo station wagon. Parents owned it for a year before it ‘died’. Couldn’t get the thing to go more than 2MPH. I thought I could fix it so my parents gave it to me. First chore was getting it on the ramps. It was so gutless that I had to make a running start at the ramps to get it up. Couple times I went over the other side. Oops. Finally got it up, and tinkered with it for awhile. Couldn’t get it to work.
Ended up driving it up to the school (at 2MPH), and pulling the engine during autoshop. End of the year we just signed the title to the school, and they used it for the autoshop class next year.
I bought a bilious green 1959 Plymouth station wagon while stationed on Adak, Alaska. It was one of the island bombers that had been there forever and passed through countless hands, so I guess it had earned the right to be a piece of junk. I went in with another guy and paid $300 for it. The thing was a tank in the snow, but ran on about 2 cylinders. Finally, there was just no compression left. It couldn’t make it up a gradual grade one day and I just pulled it over to the curb and abandoned it.
The other piece of crap I owned is a toss-up between a Fiat Panda and a Euro Ford. Rolling disasters, both of them.
Reliably unreliable. I bought it used and it worked pretty well for a while, and I fixed a bunch of stuff up on it. The electrical system is a nightmare, but its fun to go offroading and screwing around in.
Lately, it breaks down everytime I drive it. Something different everytime almost. It likes to chew up the distributor drive gear and cam gears. Fuel system developed problems and I replaced the pump. All little piddly-ass stuff, but something would fail every time I drove it!
I took the kid for a short ride behind the house and the shock mount busted for the second time (But in a different spot! My repair held!) and the power steering line blew.
I still have it. Probably always will, unless I find some sucker to unload it on. Actually, its pretty tricked out with goodies and I painted it, but I don’t trust it anymore to drive farther than I’m willing to walk home!
I have 8 cars and this is the only one that causes me grief.
I bought a 1980 Mercury Monarch in 1982. Six cylinder, one barrel carb, four door, dark blue with red interior. Ugh.
I needed a car quickly, and I got it at an auction, so I didn’t over pay, but it never ran right. Six cylinders was not enough to power a car that heavy, so it was always a challenge on hills. And the open road for that matter. The carberator needed constant readjusting. Every few thousand miles it would become loose, and needed to be tighted. Finally, I just used a coat hanger to clamp it down permanetly. The electrical system had shorts. The lights would often come on in the middle of the night and drain the battery. I took several visits to the mechanic to fix that.
I owned that car for eight years, but it sat in a equipment yard at a construction company I used to work for for the last six of the eight years. Then sold it to a junk yard.
197? Diesel Wabby (Rabbit). Poor thing had been both front ended and rear ended. The passenger door didn’t open more than 8", the sunroof didn’t open. It had only an AMFM radio. When it rained small swimming pools would form in the the floor areas of the back seat. The only car I’ve ever seen that required bailing.
At the time I lived in Oakland, CA, and California had reformulated Diesel fuel by taking out all the sulpher based lubricants. What this meant was that all the rubber parts would slowly disintigrate.
What it meant for the Wabby was that the O rings in the engine were starting to give, and were letting in too much oil. Diesel and Motor Oil aren’t all that different, so it would ignite both the engine fuel AND the motor oil revving Hellaciously up around 6000-7000 on the Tach. EEP!
Poor Wabby finally gave it up on a rainy day just off Highway 101 in Marin County. CHP responded to a billowing plume of acrid black smokeerupting from the hood of the poor, poor, ill used, much loved $100 wabby.
A 1980 Lincoln town car. That thing was a boat! 5.0 fuel injected engine that got about 8 mph. For some reason if I made to sharp of a left turn the front right tire would rub up against the wheel well. I went through 2 starters with that thing and I had to replace the fuel lines. I used to sleep, and do other things with my wife (then girlfriend), in the back seat of it between classes. I finally abounded it at my apartment complex when I moved out. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss that monstrosity.
A 1972 Morris Marina - recently voted “worst car of all time” in the British motoring press. I bought it for £30. The registration began “RFC”, which gave the car its nickname: Ratty Fucking Car. I suspect it had a forged MOT. The wings were so rusty that they flapped when I drove it down the road. The back bench seat wasn’t fixed to anything, and occasionally slid my passengers onto the floor. It stank like an old ashtray. It packed a 1.3-litre engine that just about allowed me to overtake old ladies on bicycles. Its steering continued to steer for several seconds after I’d returned the wheel to its centre point. One day I had it parked up on the forecourt of the garage where I worked, and a cop came in. I asked him what he’d do if he saw me driving down the road in it: “I’d pull you over and arrest you.” “Good job I never drive it on the road then,” I lied. On one memorable 2-hour drive, the gate for the gear shift went, so I had to guess where each gear was, and the water pump failed, which caused the radiator to explode. I fixed it up and drove it home, got new wings welded on, and sold it for £75. I said “it needs a bit of oil” to the new owners. Poor sods didn’t realise I meant a pint a day. It blew up on them a week later and went to its true home: the junkyard.
However, it’s not the worst car I’ve ever driven: a rented Kia Pride. What a lemon.
1988 VW Fox. Almost killed my love of Volkswagens. I bought it used from my mechanic. BIG mistake. While driving home from work one day, I hear what sounds tin cans being dragged along the pavement. I pull over and look under the car, thinking I’ve picked up something and was dragging it. Nothing. I get back in and start it up. Can’t get it into gear. The tranny was boned.
While in the parking lot of The Evil Place Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken (anyone remember my computer story from a couple of years ago?), someone slammed into the front end and crushed the grill including the hood latch support. I had to end up getting hood latches like you see on muscle cars to hold the hood down. The dash lights stopped working. FTR, the entire dashboard was controlled by a flimsy plastic circuit board. If one thing goes, you have to replace the entire module. This means removing the steering wheel and the dashboard. It ain’t cheap, either.
Finally got rid of it in favor of a 1994 Escort SW. Laugh at the Escort if you will, but it’s a freaking Ferrari by comparison.
One of the stupidest things I ever did in my entire life. The engine locked up at 20,000 miles. When I traded it in at 22,000 miles the vehicle was esstentially worthless.
198x celbaraty. The car had a solid engine and religably ran, better then any other car I’ve had but:
1 I hated how it looked (this is the most minor issue)
2 It felt ‘unstable’ to drive, meaning it took constant attention to keep it going straight down the road, like how the stelth bomber (or any flying wing) is unstable and unflyable w/o computer control, but this car didn’t have computer control. (and I did get an alignment, no help)
3 The brakeing system sucked
…3a The rear wheels would lock b-4 the front causing a fishtail when hard braking was required
…3b I found that if I didn’t use the handbrake it would be better as the rear brakes wouldn’t self ajust and have less braking force. But occationally I would have too when taking the ferry or getting an inspection which would mean crappy braking for a while.
4 Tracking was horrible
5 It had terrible seats and questionable seatbelts
I am so glad I survived long enought to get rid of it.
1980 Ford Fairmont Station Wagon. I needed some transportation and it had $600 in brand new Pirelli tires. The tires were the only good thing about the car. I had to punch holes in the floors so the water that leaked in could drain. Both front brake rotors were warped and when you turned on the radio the car would die. I had to disconnect the left rear emergency brake cable to keep it from locking up and not releasing. I parked it in some dry grass at a cousin’s house and the catalytic converter caught the grass on fire. My cousin and the fire department were not amused. The day after I sold the car it was hit by a dump truck and destroyed. Fortunately, no one was in the car at the time.
My first crappy car was a 1967 Ford XL (Galaxie). It had a 390 engine. While my mom owned it we were reared ended by a lady in a Caddy. The whole rear end was smashed up. We bought it back from the insurance company, but couldn’t afford to repair it. The following month the passenger side of the car was run into. We had to tie the door shut. I drove that thing for two years. It looked like a junker, but it ran really well. It was funny to watch the faces of guys with “fast” cars get left behind by mine. Finally it pretty much gave up the ghost and I sold it for a few hundred dollars.
I had a couple of crappy running cars after the XL, but the XL was by far the ugliest because of it being smashed up.
