The worst car you ever owned?

The worst car my mom and dad ever had was my moms 1997 Chevy Cavalier 4 door LS. They bought it when it was a few years old from my uncle in Columbus. I remember as a kid sitting in the back seat on long trips in the winter, cold air would gush in from between the trunk space and back seats and hit my lower back. Cold air would also gush in from around the door handles on the interior.

It squeaked and rattled. Especially when driven over 65mph. My mom ended up taking her Trident gum wrappers and wedging them between the dash trim and plastic to help reduce the squeaks. The air conditioning quit working at about 40,000 miles and my parents never bothered to fix it, so it felt like I was inches away from hell in the summer time. At about 70,000 miles, the power door locks started to work when they wanted to. The drivers side switch always worked them, but the drivers side rear door always had to be locked by hand. & the passenger side door lock worked when it wanted to.

Which leads me to the radio & horn which also worked, only when they wanted to. The radio would sometimes pick up a signal and pay music, but then it would go to nothing but static and would pick up NO stations whatsoever. SO we replaced it with a CD player & then it was fine. As far as the horn goes, it would work sometimes but most of the time, no. It wasn't the actual horn, but it was a problem within the steering wheel. You could push a random spot and it would honk but then stop, and then you'd push another random spot and it would honk again and then maybe stop. It just had a mind of its own.

One day I remember my mom was dropping me off at school because I had missed the bus, and there was a line of cars behind us at the school because other kids were being dropped off too. As I got out and was walking to the door, I heard what sounded like a gun shot, so I turned back and there was black smoke pouring out of the muffler. My mom yelled to me "I HAVE TO GO HONEY! HAVE A GOOD DAY! LOVE YA!" and she accelerated off. I think she had 102,000 miles on it then.

Also, around this time, the glue from the factor holding down the airbag panel on the dash let go and the airbag panel stayed lifted up a few inches but my dad glued it back down.

At about 115,000 miles, it started misfiring too. The engine rev's would constantly bounce up and down at idle. So my dad replaced the spark plugs. That didn't do anything. He replaced the 12v battery. That did nothing. He replaced the air intake system, that did nothing. We took it to Chevy where they diagnosed the problem and said it was misfiring which we already knew, but they couldn't figure out why. So we just dealt with it.

Basically, in all, the car just aged way too fast. Faster than what any car should. The seats sagged terribly, and everything under the sun went wrong with it. It's weird because we have always taken great care of our cars. Never ever missed an oil change, always changed filters when it was due, never driven hard, it was raised in a nice environment, was washed and waxed often, it didn't have a spec of rust on it and it shined great. Even when the engine finally blew at 140,000 miles, my mom took it to the junk yard where they crush cars. The people were so surprised she wanted to have it crushed. They asked time and time again "ARE YOU SURE?" and she said "Yes." So they crushed it, and paid her $200. I was kinda sad because there were lots of memories in that car, but man, it was a POS.

 

I actually two POS cars in my past: 1975 Chevy Monza 2+2 coupe with the 4.3 ltr V8 and a 1976 Chev Impala with the 5.7 ltr V8. The Monza was absolutely the worst car I've owned, only a year old when I bought it but later discovered it was in a previous accident with frame damage. Back then there was no recourse so I didn't keep it very long and traded it for a new Ford Pinto. I know what you're going to say - what was I thinking - but the Pinto was actually a great little car! The Impala was almost 10 yrs old when I got it - cheap at only $200. A friend of the family owned it and he couldn't drive anymore, but it sat outside most of the time and had some rust. Water accumulated in the trunk, which I would wet-vac out occassionally, the A/C didn't work except on the lowest setting, and it burned a quart of oil every 600 miles. But I didn't have much of a commute to work - only 9 blocks at the time, and the car served it purpose for about a year. Those were the days.......

 

I always told my mom she seemed more like a Prius driver. I think a Prius would suit her and my dad nicely. Instead, they own a Tundra. ):< But nontheless, they love the Prius.

 

TR7? lol what a disaster of a car.
My worst car has to be a Montego, but to be fair it wasn't my choice it was a company car.
Whilst it never broke down or gave me any problems, it was by far the most boring pile of &^%$ it's ever
been my misfortune to have to drive.

Here is an example picture, note this isn't my car, why? well would you bother taking pictures of one of these? lol

 

The dreaded red X box.

 

Two cars I bought new come to mind, one a 1971 Toyota Corolla 1600, it was one of the first imported with this engine and the damned thing leaked oil like a sieve, back then Toyota tried to fix it, sent me to a different dealer and nothing they did worked, they finally waited me out and I sold the damn thing to another sucker. Two was a brand new 67 Corvette 3 speed manual. I bought it just after the new style 68 Vettes were out, got it at a good price but, it was a poorly made piece of crap with what turned out to be a faulty carb. No Chevy dealer in Los Angeles could fix it, and finally I took it to a speed shop which put in a new carb and the thing ran great until it was stolden out of my carport a week later.

 

2001 mercury sable POS for sure


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Chevy Vega. Made a left turn and the passenger door opened.

 

Door opened? Certainly that must have been the "braking system" attempting to work like an aileron on a plane (if I remember what the parts are on the wing that slows a plane down...)

Back in the Middle Ages my parents bought a 1974 Vega new. Back windows did not roll down and it was an inferno on wheels. They kept it for a short time, sold it and heard that the engine overheated and blew up on the new owner.

Like a reggae song I remember, "Piece of **** car!"

 

Those be speed brake panels, or spoilers, or "spoilerons", also used on the 1955 Mercedes Le Mans race cars: MERCEDES-BENZ AIR BRAKE | Modern Mechanix

 

Now that is a car ! Every day is an adventure.

 

The Vega was junk but I drove it to see Young Frankenstein.
I had a thing for Madeline Kahn but heck what post adolescent insecure teen didn't ?

Joke.

 

I'd forgotten how absolutely horrible the Montego was. They were all over my home town, in part because British Aerospace owned Austin-Rover at the time, and in part because a lot of retired people lived there, and they had some sort of inexplicable loyalty to Austin-Rover.

I thought I'd escaped from them when I moved to China. But no. Qingdao Etsong (formerly part of FAW and then part of SAIC, which now owns Rover) bought the manufacturing machinery for the Maestro and the Montego. So I still had to see them.

Etsong clearly decided that neither the Maestro nor the Montego were quite ugly enough, and decided to stick a Montego nose onto a Maestro, just to make it that little bit worse.







I've been in a couple. They're horrible.

You only really see them in rural areas and fourth-tier cities - no-one in the big cities will touch them.

 

I owned a Fiat X19. Now that should be reclassafied as a Go-Kart.
The best part is the removable sun roof.

 

My cousin used to race X1-9's... when he heard someone else had a Fiat, he would always reply "Oh, I'm sorry."

I had a couple of Fiat Spyders... MG's were better.

 

The town I grew up in had main office for east coast for British Leyland and also Fiat. Maserati too.
Mgb's and Gt's were every where. Those are really fun cars to drive. Eveyone had one. In the early 70's that was the car.

I had a Fiat 128 too. Really nice car. Fun to drive. Mechanical pos but was sexy.

 

I didn't own one, but sister had a Vega. And there is Vega's little sister, Chevette in diesel!