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[HolyCount]

Since starting driving MANY years ago I have had numerous wrecks, but loved each one, even those that clocked up more miles being pushed than driven!

But the worst car is the skip I drive at the moment --- skoda    Yeah, I know, don't know what possessed me.

It's a 1.9 SD --- goes surprisingly well, good economy, only £90 tax. But sounds like an ancient london taxi, creaks worse than me (eats suspension bushes). Power steering assist has a mind of it's own, when brake switch fails glowplug light flashes, when windscreen fuse blows, rear wipe operate when you press front wash, electric window switches operate random windows, stereo sound swings from side to side ----- all of these problems are rife with this model, yet skoda say there's no problem.

I'll persevere and drive this one til it blows up and save for a decent motor.

[jonnycool]

Fiat X1/9 - absolute piece of shit, was scared to go through a puddle in case I didn't have a car the other side. Can't think of anything that actually worked on that car

[Mr Skrunts]

2 Cars for me

Chrysler Alpine 1.4 5 door, Twin choke webber that allways flooded the engine, ans poor performqace 84mph flat out.  The HA van it replaced did nearly 100mph.  Chrysler was just naff and uncomfortable but was white as well.  Even though it only had 14,000 miles on the clock I could not wait to get rid.


2nd was a brand fire new Astra GTE bought and delivered to my home 2 days before it was allowed on the road on Aug 1st.

Ran it in carefully etc etc, and when run it it went like the clappers.

But Suffered rust spots, condensation in the headlights, faulty sun roof, fuel tanks had a habbit of imploding due to incorrently pipe fuel ventilation, wax crayon showed under the paint, wheel paint came off in placs and the wiring loom in the engine bay went up in spoke in a petrol station of all places when I went to start it.  Oh and that tinker was white as well.

The Gte was/had that many faults it totally put me off Vx for a while.

[bluey]

Talbot Horizon.  How it won the COTY award still defeats me.  It started off as an absolute waste of £40 and went downhill from there.  Had an oval crank, no oil feeding the top end and all the shocks were knackered so it bounced like Tigger, while the steering was as direct as politician's expenses claim.  The only good things about it were it had no rust, really good paint and a mint interior.  But mechanically it was completely shagged.   

Took me a week to fix it in a corner of a workshop and cost me £80 to do it, with all the bits coming out of a local scrapyard.  After that the engine still clattered like hell (the hydraulic tappets were so noisy it made you wince), it was horrible to sit in and just annoying to drive.  Every time I set off to go somewhere I prayed an artic would ram it up the chuffer, or some urchin would torch it. Anything, please, just rid me of this poxy motor!

I did one long distance trip in it to London to see some mates over a long weekend and while there I sold it for £350.  He thought he was robbing me.  I didn't dare let him think otherwise.

Apart from that the only other one that stands out was a company car I had for a bit, which was a Mk3 Golf VR6.  Some people actually rate these useless, soggy handling, no brakes bricks. 

[pscocoa]

I had a disaster with a 1973 Austin 2200 Landcrab. Bought it from the father in law about 2 years after I married his daughter - paid £600 for it in 1976 (car not daughter) - ran well for a while but started rusting and then one dark rainy October night in 1978 with 6 week old baby - the oil light came on near Bodmin en route from Leigh, Lancs to Truro - coaxed it to Truro with large can of oil but it needed new engine - police drove me to a garage to get oil and then took me back to car - would that happen these days?. Remember writing to Leyland complaining about the piece of s**t that should do more than 50000 miles - new engine was installed in a garage set up in an old tin mine at Wheel Kitty in St.Agnes.

I had to leave family down in Truro as it took ages for engine to arrive and father in law lent me his Allegro Estate to get back up North.

It continued to rust - got rid of it in 1980 for about £450. Happy days??

[05omegav6]

1984 Granada 2.8 ghia auto. bought for £100. Had more filler in/on the roof than metal. Rad blew up during Mot on journey home from picking it up. RSO tester thanked me with a fail sheet and a bill for £400 to weld the rear crossmember back together. Somehow it lasted 7 months. Sold it for £150. Next 'owner' had it round an oval somewhere within a week. doubt he even bothered stripping it.

Next worse was probably my 55 vectra diesel. had that for a mere 6 months. Was in garage every other week for various things ranging from seized handbrake mechanism, which killed a wheel bearing, to a coked inlet manifold which shafted the egr valve. Car only had 10k on it when I bought it in 2006. Was booked in to have 2nd inlet manifold done at 31k when I stuffed it into a roundabout to put it out of its misery. Which was nice. At 35mpg it made both the 3.2 migs that I've had look almost frugal...

[sotmh]

volvo glx or some such thing, with a hatch back.
only had a few months and as pulling off tom traffic heard a great bang, looked in rear view mirror and could not see anything for a hundred yards but loads of thick black smoke.
(chernobyl springs to mind)
Other drivers just on. Can only guess at what they were thinking. .

Had a feeling something was up when the young boy and his mum buying from  could not quite get away quick enough after getting their mits on my hard earned £250.  Wasn't even worth 50p

[Chris_H]

It has to be my Cresta I'm afraid.  It was an absolute pig to start and on one occasion when I drove it to school to pick up some heavy kit, the clutch slave cylinder piston popped out and stuck at an angle requiring a tow home.  Not being taxed, MOT'd or insured that was embarrassing to say the least.  If it had some ground clearance I might have been able to diagnose it on the spot!

I then got it stuck on a VERY steep hill when it wouldn't start and I tried to do a roll 3-point turn.  That resulted in me up against a garden wall and still pointing up hill.  I had to run home with the battery (yes! You read that right) and run back with the one out of my parent's car.  All compounded by the fact that the car still wasn't supposed to be on the road.

Some would blame me, but it was definitely the car's fault.

[Marks DTM Calib]

1.1 Fiesta

A rather orrible car, the worst most noisey engine on the planet, it rattled and tapped but you could make it quiet....for about 4 weeks and then the adjustments went out again.

It didn't drive so well either

[Steve Brookman]

Mark 5 Cortina 2.0GL.
Looked good on the outside but was full of rust and only 4 years old.

Got written off by a reversing lorry-foolishly my brother bought it back as scrap and put it back on the road.

Next worse was the car I replaced it with-a 1981 Granada 2.8 Ghia-problems with timing and the autochoke-gave it to my brother who promptly blew the engine up.

Steve

[Banjax]

F reg VW Scirocco : no brakes, idled at 3000rpm - you could drive along without touching the accelerator, bulkhead collapsed once shearing all the cables, left 4 crates of beer in the boot one winter and half the bottles exploded when they froze - car smelt like a brewery (to be fair thats not the cars fault).

loved it to bits tho - still regret selling her over 20yrs ago 


actually - the worst car was an '04 Laguna diesel estate i had for 2 weeks before getting shot of it - the dash lit up like a christmas tree, every single nut and bolt seemed to have a sensor attached to it, none of the sensors seemed to work and the car would shut down if it thought it had a problem........hopeless, even running slightly low on water would cause the engine to cut out - traded it for a 406 - and its far superior, which tells you what a bucket the Laguna was 

[Sixstring]

Citroen BX19GTI

Promised so much, delivered so little, hydropneumatic suspension failed twice, needing new pipes and £200 each time (paid £500 for it) It actually went reasonably well, and then after leaving a window open slightly in the rain and taking all the carpets out to dry one day found this little weld line from the floor to the ceiling and all around the "b" pillars............................ashamed to say I dried it out and sold it on to a dealer in PX for a Granada Ghia 2.9 and he allowed me £300 on it!!

The Granada was almost wallet breaking to run, but sooooooooo much better.

[Dishevelled Den]

After passing my test I bought a 4/5 year old BMW 1602 in a lovely teal colour.

Was underpowered and uninspiring to drive. (Unlike the 2002Tii that followed it)

The universal joints on each drive shaft (at the differential end) were knackered - discovered when investigating a lag in drive take up.

Never really took to it after that but it was disappointing rather than the worst.

The worst car by a long way was a Renault 18TS bought new in 1979 for my wife. (Was a deal from a friendly local dealer)

This car was badly made of what appeared to be cheap materials and had a gear change with more movement in it than a dog's dick. It started to rust in the boot floor seams where they ran along each rear wheel arch so was disposed of after about 14 months.   

[Kevin Wood]

Don't think any of mine have been that bad. They've all served me well and stood up to the abuse admirably.

Yes, when I had the Morris Ital I was forever chasing round it with a tin of rust eater and a rattle can, and that oil leak onto the exhaust made a bit of a smell sometimes but it did 50k with nothing other than regular servicing and a recond alternator IIRC. Oh, and the "occasional" (at every fuel stop!) top up of oil. Gearbox whined a bit but TADTS.

The Rover 214 was a bit bland and uninspiring but did 80k in my hands without much bother and had the decency to wait until 2 weeks after I sold it before doing the "K series head gasket thing".

The Laguna I had, again uninspiring but a good mile muncher - until the valve clearances all closed up and, when I went to re-shim it I found it had mullered a cam bearing in the head. Changed the head and got it all tip-top again then promptly chopped it in for an Omega.

I've been lucky, really, I suppose.

My mate always had the knack of buying liabilities - like an all-aggro - one of the pokier ones. It was a 1500 or 1750 IIRC. A bit more grunt comes in handy when only 2 gears work - 3rd and 5th IIRC (no reverse, then!).

Then there was the Chevette that had been serviced so regularly that the breathers had almost filled the air filter box up with crud. Went to adjust the rockers and had to find them first! Just a big chunk of margarine under the rocker cover.

Remarkably, that ran as sweet as a nut after a couple of oil changes and a good service.

.. and speaking of Chevettes, another mate had one with a dodgy gearbox. Replaced that, then the prop shaft let go and took the back end of the gearbox casing out. So, we made one good gearbox out of the bits, and tried again.. etc.. I think the gearbox came out 5 or 6 times before it was fixed.

Kevin

[Varche]

Like the OP , mine was probably an Imp. Light blue in colour. It too cost me £25. It too had loads of overheating and lack of gears issues. It was just horrible.

I had a friend who had an ex works Imp rally car with a fairly standard but bigger capacity engine. He sold it to a chap from Ireland who met him at York. On the test drive it stuck in reverse. He still bought it though!