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Vauxhall Omega, ex taxi, totally shagged out, 180,000 miles when I bought it.
To be fair it looked good in the dark and was only £300.
All the bushes and ball joints were worn, so it dived for the kerb unless you kept an eye on it.
Tyres were pricey but it was fast and comfy, proper barge.
Traded it in for £400 at 280,000, AFTER it had been hit from behind by a bus outside Crumpsall Hospital.
The bus came off worse. 🙂
God, I'd love a nice one, but there aren't any left.
I've had a couple of poo cars because I was a povvy student, notably a mk3 Escort that was a proper Friday Night Special. Amongst its many interesting failings, at one point it needed a new engine. My tame mechanic later took the old one to bits for the lols, turned out that the piston rings were upside-down so it was cheerfully scraping engine oil up into the chambers rather than down into the sump. I finally did for it driving out of Preston in traffic, I stuffed it into the back of a Mitsubishi Colt because I was too busy looking at the legs of a girl walking down the other side of the road rather than looking where I was going.
But the single worst motor I've ever 'owned' if not actually bought was when I first entered into the world of company cars back in the mid- to late-90s. I was given a succession of 1.8L normally aspirated diesel Fiestas and they were the most hateful pieces of shit it's ever been my misfortune to sit behind the wheel of. At the time I was doing maybe 20k/year and they just weren't fit for purpose, they'd last about six months before curling up their toes. Utterly gutless engine even dragging a lowly Fiesta about, there's a gentle incline on the motorway on my commute home, in anticipation I'd hit the bottom at about an indicated 85 - the vehicle's top speed - and with my foot to the boards throughout I'd reach the 'apex' a few hundred yards later doing about 60. Hateful hateful ****ing things, I don't know what Ford (or work) were thinking.
Current car. Focus st 2009.
Didn't realise the orange paint would shed it's lacquer so badly. Apparently common in this colour. Crap on fuel. 22mpg.
Great fun though. But not what I need. But fun.
Despite having owned a couple of metros it's my current car, an 08 civic type s. Cars are a functional thing, have had a number of xsara picassos as proof. Fancied getting something more interesting, the 2.2 engine goes well and corners well too.
3 doors aren't practical, it's too loww, the suspension is too hard and I'm too old. Fortunately I kept the Picasso, the civic will be getting sold ASAP.
1.1l fiesta in Paris blue. Fine for a 19yo but developed a fault in the light stalk cluster which needed fixing every so often in order to have lights. Replaced with a unit from scrappy.
Worst car ever rover 314. Absolutely terrible. Just had a rover 620si which was brilliant. The 314 was hateful. Bought it on PFI or whatever it was called in 1999 just before rover went bust. Returned it convinced them the finance had been mis sold so the actually gave me money for it.
Rover 214
Actually a Honda, with a K series engine
I had one, or 2 actually. 214 petrol 218 Deisel. Both were ok in ad much as i cant recall any major issues
Squeaky plastic wood trim, on both
Ahh yes the 214 would randomly m just switch itself off whilst driving along. Then died in driveway overnight, i suspected the ecu but had progressed up to a cat c golf mk3 td (£90)
Not mine but my old mans Maestro in the late ‘80s. Even today I still hate maestros - it was an appalling piece of s***!! I saw one at a car show a couple of years back and it made me angry 😀
Nowhere near the drama of everyone else but, a 2008 manual Audi A5. Looked lovely but was horrible to drive for more than hour. Hugely offset pedals made heavy traffic painful, tram lined like a swine at even the slightest wrinkle in the road, aquaplaned as soon as looked at you. Sold after about 4 months after driving to the Lakes and back to Scotland over a long weekend and needed about 4 bouts of physio to walk straight.
Still looked nice though and I loved the ridiculously long doors 😉
Audi A4 cabriolet - lovely car , always wanted one but I bought the cheapest one I could find and went to look at it in the pissing rain.
The dealer was so keen to make the sale he drove me to the bank to deposit the cash and then drove the car home for me.
in the cold light of day the paintwork wasn't great. It needed a new clutch after a couple of months and the 4wd developed a distinct "pull" to the left which I could never fully sort.
Swapped it for an MX-5 after 18 months which was perfect for the 8 years I kept it.
Saw the Audi on the MX5 dealer forecourt I few days after I traded it in , gently leaking steering fluid onto the concrete.
2nd worst - brand new Audi TT. A lovely car in every way but the dealer experience from start to finish was awful - to the extent that I won't ever go back to the same dealer again.
They took my MX5 in part exchange but gave me cash to max the finance figure. I didn't actually get the cash in my bank until I threatened court action. Took about 6 weeks after collecting the car. I took revenge by cancelling the finance so the salesperson didn't get commission.
2013 Mini Paceman. Thankfully my wife drove more than me, just not pleasant, not comfortable poor placement of external mirrors, the interior seemed to be bunch of components left over in the design box, poor rear visiblity. Swapped 3years later for a new 2016 Mk3 Audi TT which in comparison ( yes its apples and pears) drives more like my old minis and just so much more fun.
1988 Yamaha XT350. Great fun on/off road but it was pre-electric start and kicking over was a pig, the auto decompression and carb choke was far from effective. Ruined the right sole of my boots in 6 months. Traded in for a 1985 Kawasaki GPz 600r
My first car was a huge mistake. A VW Scirocco. It leaked from below, from above and from the sides. But boy was it good looking.
2nd mistake was a Renault 5 Gordini turbo. I was young at the time and not yet an environmentalist, also because of my age the insurance was off the scale.
3rd mistake - a Vauxhall Astra GTE 2 ltr. Very fast. Horrible looking car (the rounded version) and being only 5' 4" tall I couldn't see out of the back due to the stupid aero foil thingy.
All three were a complete waste of money and I don't know what came over me at the time. Oh the foolishness of youth.
Maybe
But i am well impressed
They are all / were all petrolhead nirvana at the time, early 90' s
Austin Montego
Sounds like I did well owning two Sciroccos with no major issues.
This was when they were cheap and not desirable compared to the Golf.
I bloody loved them and they were the only cool cars I've ever had. Apart from a Mini perhaps.
Fiat sedici. Why did we buy it? Needed a small hatchback with a bit of ground clearance and 4wd for the mile long unmade road home. 1st generation dpf failed, destroyed the flow regulator and then the turbo, garage hadn't a clue, sank about 2k into it, then the garage, out of guilt, offered to buy it for a face saving ( for both of us) price. Last diesel, last fiat.
All the VW's I have owned have been expensive and not particularly reliable.
2005 T5 Camper - Oil Cooler Failure at 20k, Water Pump, Alternator all gone before 90K - side windows leaky, drivers door electric window failed. Did like it when it worked, travelled around Europe and a trip to Iceland.
2008 VW Polo 1.2 (Ex's Car) Cracked Engine Block - 1 month out of warranty, £1200 to fix.
2009 VW Sorrocco - Mad single man phase, see above 😀 Ate Tyres, Faulty DSG Gearbox. 4K Depreciation in a year!
2011 Twisted Land-Rover Defender (90)
Bought on a whim, the most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned.
It spent most of the summer with the local Specialist chasing LR reliability issues.
After several theft attempts and finally the bonnet being stolen whilst on my drive! ,
I gave up after 11 months and gave it too local Land Rover Specialist for SOR.
It sold quickly as it did look good, I felt sorry for the next victim/owner.
2001 Clio 172 - bought off a friend of a friend who knew about Renaultsport cars. A week in it generated an intermittent starting problem. Tried a few things to sort it but ended up being a new ECU/UCH, keys and barrel. Luckily that only cost £60 because it was sourced through the owners group on faceache. Then the gearbox started crunching into 3rd and I got rid of it. I'd only had it a year.
2008 First ST150 - had a straight through stainless exhaust on it so not only was it incredibly loud it was also incredibly thirsty. Only ever did one long journey in it and resolved never to do such a silly thing ever again, it was absolutely horrific at motorway speeds. Started leaking from the steering rack, that was the last straw so it went.
1992 VW Polo Coupe 1.0 CL - after the Fiesta I decided I'd get something that would be easy to fix. Only had 32k miles on it. However, it had been resprayed by Stevie Wonder so looked like a bag of shit when you got up close. Exhuast fell off within a month, then the rear brake cylinders went and also needed new drums and shoes, then it cut out on a busy roundabout in rush hour. Tried everything to get it back running but it wasn't having it. Flogged it for £400 which wasn't bad for a non-runner with a months MOT and two flat tyres.
1993 Fiesta 1.3 LX - the car was fine but I went halfs on it with the girlfriend at the time and she turned out to be a complete and utter mental case.
The first (and to date only) new car I bought was back in 2002, a BMW 330ci and @ £33k was a few k more than my annual salary at the time :p I'd convinced myself it might be the only chance I had to get a 'nice' car and I had a lot of equity in my house so could afford it via remortgaging.
I enjoyed the car but sold it 9 years ago (for £3k, it's dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree by then) and am still paying the mortgage for it :p I could probably have afforded a Ferrari the amount it will cost me over 25 years...