[Closed] Bloody awful cars

I don't mind them - small Renaults are normally pretty okay.

It was a popular car among the Spanish youth as the seats would lie flat making a more comfortable environment for getting closer to the one you love, or so I have been told.

Spanish... ...one you love

always fancied one tbh!

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Looks suitably daft and at ~£12k for a 133 BHP mini hatch i think it's a bargain

Renaultsport one is meant to be pretty good fun, but I can't imagine a boggo courtesy car model would be that exciting....

That would be themselves wouldn't it?

I'm sure it's a cost cutting exercise to put the dash in the middle of the car so it can be easily swapped for the euro market, but if you're over 5 foot 5 you'll have trouble seeing anything other than the bottom half of the speedo.

Anyway, I was hoping for a draft of pics of other such useless cars 😀

Must be a Renault thing. I got a Megane as a hire car a few years back. Absolutely truly bloody awful. It was brand new yet somehow managed to give the far-from-confidence-inspiring impression that it was held together with duct tape. God knows what what the heap of **** would have felt like after a few years of ownership

pics of other such useless cars

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I bought a brand new Mazda 3 saloon after being convinced by the Mrs at the time it would be a good idea. Words cannot express how much I hated that car. 1600cc's of pure utter sh1te, for my 300 miles a week it was the worst car I've ever had. Ended up making the Mrs drive it and I bought a Dis-Astra van, which was much nicer to drive. At trading in time, I drove it from Ipswich to Norwich in third to see if I could blow it up, got to Norwich and it hadn't even got warm. So chopped it in at a Honda dealers for an Accord and drove that back. THATS how bad it was

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But being serious for a minute - the world's most ugly and pointless car...

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I had to drive to scotland from surrey and back in one of these it was a 1.1 too with no radio hateful car

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Fiat Seicento was pretty bad.

A Vauxhall Corsa I had as a courtesy car was awful - almost rolled over when taking a corner.

And a colleague at work also had a Corsa courtesy car at roughly the same time and said the same.

Reinforces my commitment to never buy a Vauxhall - the Vivas and chevettes my mother and sister had where pretty bad.

Can't access images at the moment but a 1.6 Nissan Note (Goat) automatic was a low point in hire cars supplied to work.

Mini coopers...
Audi TTs...
All Lotus...
All low-slung exotics...

All of the above are useless, not really awful, but useless.

I was looking for a s/h run-around.

Drove a couple of small hatches for £2k, bought a 3.0 Jag for £1k.

The hatches were noisy, harsh, rattled and sparten - the Jag is the total opposite, and for the miles I do, about the same price to run/insure etc.

Only thing now is that the MTB has to go in the back (seats)..., good job leather cleans easily 🙂

Any Vauxhall, possibly with the exception of the VX220

I drive a 2001 Vectra, cos it was dead cheap & very low mileage.
But good grief it's an awful thing.

As Jeremy of Clarkson once said of the Vectra : designed in a coffee break by people who don't care about cars.

My ex had a 206 CC, that was a comedy of a vehicle. Every week something else would break, we noticed the odometer wasn't going up fast and measured a 2 mile route from her house to mine, the car recorded 1 mile so we kept our eye on it and discovered it only added a mile when it felt like it. So much went wrong on that car, it was handy to sell it with a 'genuine' 30k on the clock though.

^
Vauxhalls.

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Shouldn't this thread have a spoiler warning in the title? Outrageous I say!!! 👿

Our Citroen Grand Picasso is up there. In theory it's a great idea, a torquey diesel and a shed load of space make for the ideal cruising companion. However, Citroen have managed to completely ruin it.

Firstly, there's the plastics. They detach at the slightest hint of disturbance and really aren't up to the job. The rubber cover on the brake pedal lasted a week before it detached and stubbornly refused to stay reattached.

Then there's the shitetronic gearbox. You could squeeze an ice-age in while it actually goes about the business of changing gear - badly. You can move a piece of flimsy plastic to turn it into a semi-auto and use the paddle shifters, which resemble rejects from a cracker toy production line. But I wouldn't recommend that, as the experience is very depressing.

And the dashboard...why put a digital speedo in the middle of the dash, where you can't see it unless you take your eyes off the road and divert them forty five degrees to your left? Hmm?

I remember Citroens being ace. Seriously, the DS is whacky and space age in a good way, the CX and Safari looked amazing and were a nice place to be in (my old man test drove one back in the 70s. Okay, it made us all sick but it was a lovely looking car). Even the old Xantia was wedgy and a nice drive, in spite of the fact that none of them seem to exist anymore.

[i]Any Vauxhall, possibly with the exception of the VX220[/i]

Disagree - did 70k in 2 years in an 06 SRI Vectra, cracking car and compared to colleagues BMW/Audi/Merc's no trouble whatsoever.

The original Kia Piccanto probably stands out as the worst car I've ever driven.

Vauxhalls are rubbish too though

Mini coopers...
Audi TTs...
All Lotus...
All low-slung exotics...

All of the above are useless, not really awful, but useless.

The OP isn't the target market, maybe when they are a

pensioner who smell of wee and sanatogen

Bet it is cheap enough to run on a state pension 😉

mastiles_fanylion - Member
Mini coopers...
Audi TTs...
All Lotus...
All low-slung exotics...
All of the above are useless, not really awful, but useless.

I had a TT and it was far from useless - 35mpg around town, 45mpg on a run, comfortable, very fast, could fit a bike in the boot, main dealer servicing cheaper than independent servicing on my wife's Mazda 3. Don't see why any of the others are useless either, especially the Cooper. They are all designed with a purpose in mind.
POSTED 17 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

I wonder if image has been confused with 'bloody awful'.

How about this, was parked round the corner from our house a while back and I couldn't resist snapping it.
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Are you going anywhere nice on your holidays? 😀

My parents bought a 2CV, they wanted something with "character". God awful car, so slow as to be dangerous (it's nice to get across the lights before they change...), rattly, cold... thank god it caught fire one day and had to be scrapped.

Chevrolet Spark.

A crime against humanity.

This is without doubt the worst courtesy car I've ever had to drive - [img] [/img]

Don't think it had a 0-60 figure 'cos I don't think there was a road long enough in the UK to hit 60 on.

I was given a Fiat Seicento once. Clearly meant for deformed people as by the time I'd got the seat far enough back for me to fit in, I had to lean forward to change gear if it was in first or third.

On the other hand, I'd quite like a go in one of these for city driving.

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I'd rather try one of these...

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On the other hand, I'd quite like a go in one of these for city driving.

They had one of them in the showroom when I dropped the car off

But 7 and a half K for an overblown moped plus 45 quid a month battery lease 😯 all so you can pretend to be saving the planet

Had the misfortune to drive one of these for a couple of days last week.

It was like flying down the M61 is a tennis ball.

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Ghastly.

WTF are you all talking about? These are cheap city cars. What are you expecting, a BMW 335d?? I've driven Spark/C1 etc and they all seemed like decent cheap little runarounds to me.

The Twingo is based on the floorpan of the previous Clio, so handling should be streets ahead of a C1/Aygo/107. And whilst the base model with no frills is likely to be pretty grim, you won't find many haters of the naturally aspirated 1.6L Twingo 133 cup. I rather fancy one, should I come to buy a car. Evo love them and Renaultsport in general.

And chapeau for even building the Twizzy. Sat in one at the dealers; tight in the back, and no windows (and optional doors), but they have built it.

I've driven some bad cars (including Tata's), but the worst I found was the Berlingo.
Terrible ride, steering was turn and hope, gear lever vague and floppy, pedals seem to be suggestions rather ran commands. Just a horrible car to drive.

My wife has a Renault Megane Grand Scenic.
There is nothing much wrong with it but it is utterly joyless.

Toyota Avensis. 1.8 petrol. Utterly, utterly hideous car to drive. Quite possibly the worst car I have ever driven in the UK. Did drive a friends 2CV many years ago that was also fighteningly bad but also had a certain character and charm that you couldn't help smiling about (wavered all over the road, brake pedal that seemed to have an odd offset that meant it wasn't quite where you expected it to be when needing to pull an emergency stop!). Almost all American cars I have driven were utterly gopping as well as useless to drive.

I must be a bit odd. I LOVE little Fiats!
I've owned a 1990 Panda, I've driven modern Pandas, old Unos, Cinquecentos, Seicentos etc and liked all of them rather a lot. There's on thing that Fiat do and that is to make cracking small cars.
No, they aren't full of toys (So there's nowt to go wrong....) or endowed with massive power or grip, but the engines are fantastic, they rev and rev all day long and are just fun little roller skates. I'd have any small Fiat like a shot. 🙂

I had a Clio as a hire car. It was really really slow (and not really economical at all) but handled well and sounded fantastic. So you could rev the tits off it around mountain roads pretending you were in some kind of racing car but in reality moving at entirely reasonable speeds. Cracking fun!

WTF are you all talking about? These are cheap city cars

True but some of them are genuinely bad. The original Ford Ka, is a humble city car but is actually great fun to drive. I hear Suzuki Swifts are good fun to0. Kia Piccanto's and Daewoo / Chevy Matiz's are just hateful tin boxes

The original Ford Ka, is a humble city car but is actually great fun to drive.

I also drove a new Ka - it was awful. Just too small and cramped, and I'm not a big bloke.

My first car was a 1986/7 Fiat Panda 4x4. I'm 6' 5" and I loved it.

Not exactly Speedy McQuick, but nippy enough round town and cheap enough to repair when you had to fix something. Good off road too and well worth 350 quid.

Compare that to the Rover 620SLDi that I bought for commuting. Ok, I pretty much killed in in a couple of years, but it was a horrible car. I bought it for the economy and bits just kept falling off it. In 18 months it needed a new gearbox, the driver's window electrics died, the sunroof stopped working, it got a huge oil leak and the clutch went so badly that the bloke that finally bought it had to drive it home in third.

I was glad to see the back of it quite frankly.

Nissan Juke.

Horrible to behold, horrible to sit in, crap to drive.

Nissan Note +1
but I think an A Class merc I once had as a hire car was truly the worst.

I drive a 2001 Vectra, cos it was dead cheap & very low mileage.
But good grief it's an awful thing.

As Jeremy of Clarkson once said of the Vectra : designed in a coffee break by people who don't care about cars.

I drive a 2001 Vectra, cos it was dead cheap & very low mileage.
But good grief it's an awful thing.
As Jeremy of Clarkson once said of the Vectra : designed in a coffee break by people who don't care about cars.

I've said it before, a truly, hateful, godawful car, seriously the most uncomfortable car I've ever had to spend time in! I'd start fidgeting after five minutes trying to find a position where either my back didn't ache or my arse go numb, not looking forward at all to spending the next two or three hours in the bloody thing.

Hmm. We did 60,000 miles in a 2001 Vectra. It was the second best motorway car I've ever driven. Torquey diesel engine, lovely comfy seats, quiet, docile.
The best motorway car I've ever driven is the £400 1998 Omega I'm currently using. Same as the Vectra but more so, then add a quieter petrol engine, auto box and cruise control and I'm as happy as a pig in poo. It's an epic mile muncher. 🙂

I currently have the misfortune to be driving a Vauxhall Insignia whilst my car is in the bodyshop for a new front end following a muppet in a van pulling out of a side road in front of me.

It is, without doubt, the most hateful vehicle I've ever had the misfortune to drive.

It's a 1.8 petrol and it struggles to maintain 70mph on a motorway when it has 4 normal sized adults in it.

It's impossible to find a comfortable position to drive in.

The interior plastic would be rejected by Fisher Price for being too nasty.

It handles like a cow on casters.

I have driven several of the cars that folks have cited on this thread but not one of them is as utterly horrible in so many ways as the Insignia with which I am currently inflicted.

Fortunately I should be getting my car back on Friday so I'll be able to return the current heap to Enterprise.

Meh, I remember the deathtrap that was the old company car I and (the then yet to be) mrs_oab drove one summer at an outdoor centre. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the beige Lada Riva estate with iffy steering, underpowered brakes and a penchant for overheating and smoking under the bonnet and behind the dash...
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And for 'modern' cars, it has to be:
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Good call.

There's so much fluff around the Defender few who drive it actually notice that they are terrible to operate.

Yes, I'm know they are good off road; that doesn't change the fact.

Am I the only one who thinks that the Lada Riva is a little bit attractive?

Freak. 😉

Neighbour used to own one of these. Gave me a lift in it one day 😯

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PeterPoddy - Member

I must be a bit odd. I LOVE little Fiats!

Same here, had a Panda and then a 127 when I lived in Spain.. great little cars, the 127 was a real giggle to drive. The new Panda is pretty good too, always book one as my hire car when I pop back over to see friends.

Worst car, either a very tired 1.4 cvh powered 1992 Ford Orion, I left this with the keys in when it finally expired, or the Morris Ital estate I once bought for a laugh.

It's a 1.8 petrol and it struggles to maintain 70mph on a motorway when it has 4 normal sized adults in it.

Bullshit. Utter bullshit.

^ that was my experience with the insignia as well. Hired a 12 plate for a weekend, 2 adults, 2 kids and festival gear (so light camping). Totally uninspiring, and surprisingly under powered. No confidence, so where I would have overtaken etc in my old 1.9 diesel laguna or 1.8 Mazda 6, the 1.8 insignia forced me to just sit there.

Without a doubt, the dullest repmobile-light I have ever had the misfortune to drive.

Mk III Astra was absolutely the worst. I had a Mk2 Golf GiT at the time, with a perfect driving position, lovely ergonomics and comfy seats. In a car designed in 1979.

The 1994 Ashtray I drove had an offset driving position - common to all Vauxhalls I've driven. WHY CAN'T THEY PUT THE STEERING WHEEL IN FRONT OF THE DRIVER? The seats were desperately uncomfortable and the handling was very, very poor indeed. I had to drive that damn thing 450 miles, within forty my back was aching. I've driven a Vectra and a Corsa of mid 90s vintage and couldn't believe how utterly inept they actually were. It was as if someone had sat down and intentionally made the driving experience of all GM cars a trial.

The Carlton wasn't a bad effort though. And for balance, I drove a Mk IV Astra and was actually pretty surprised at how much like a Mk2 Golf it felt.

I used to have a 1.0l micra which had wheels like a fatbike, grass growing on the back seat, and windows that wouldn't quite wind up properly.

Objectively, as awful a car as could be created.

But so much fun to drive!