Rover 25 (i know, I know).
Bought brand new. Engine problems were diagnosed as out of tolerance cylinders (too tight) so had to be re-bored.
Windscreen lamination failed giving an "oil on water" discolouration.
Windscreen replaced.
Switching on the aircon battered engine performance. I once had to switch AC off to muster enough ooomph to get up a steep driveway in Howorth.
Absolute bag of shite.
Renault scenic.
Paid 6.5k for it.
3 weeks and the electric handbrake failed, covered by warranty.
I wish id given it back then.
There isn’t room on the internet to list all the things that needed an expensive repair, thank **** my mate is a mechanic.
Just as an example though, the last 3 months cost us £2400 in parts.
Ive never been so glad to see the back of a car.
Really annoying, because when it was working it was a great place to sit.
I actually struggled to give the bloody thing away, and that was with a full mot.
The subaru i have now has cost a LOT less to run.
I’d never touch a french car again.
Renault Clio 16v...great when it worked
Within about a month of purchasing it the cambelt went - or some random piece of debris was caught up in the cambelt. The dealer wasn't interested initially, via the warranty company I went elsewhere for a stripdown to find the fault and a subsequent independent RAC inspection. Finally the dealer took responsibility after the mention of legals and trading standards, and took the car in. Between the two garages they both accused each other of breaking or losing parts, so I was still out of pocket and had the gearbox stripped down and rebuilt as they claimed the first garage has broken or dropped a part into the gearbox. The first garage also decided to say I owed them a storage fee as my car was taking up space and they subsequently didn't get any work.
Not long after the rad was replaced under warranty.
Steering column started to get a lot of play in it once I started driving to work each day, that was replaced
The revs would cut out sporadically, the first time on roadworks coming back home on the A3, after a few trips to the Renault dealer it was found to be the throttle body sensor.
I had to disconnect the battery each night as something was draining it, fault was never found. I cursed myself on this as one time I was going to a friends for dinner and phoned to say I'd broken down so would be an hour late, I could hear his wife saying the food was nearly cooked so had the hump, lo and behold I was at the front door, ha bloody ha what a joker I am. Needless to say on my way home that night the battery died on a petrol station forecourt around 1am and 2 miles from home. New battery purchased the next day. Fault still persisted.
Window regulators replaced about twice on both sides
The final straw was the sills needed to be welded to get it through the MOT.
At times I did hope it would be stolen and never seen again, but I'm sure it would probably have broken down within a few miles.
I had a stop gap '14 Fiesta 1.25 Zetec with 60BHP- they chocked the engine to reduce emissions and therefore fit into the £30/yr tax bracket.. as a result is was woefully slow. I used to have to drop to 2nd to get up the A38 hills in cornwall. It was utterly reliable and cheap to run but so bland and borderline dangerously slow.
Quality wise it was the Polo 6c- we've had 4 from new in the family with issues. Rocking seat bases (normal apparently..), broken air con compressors (also common) and always full of moisture because of bad seals. Nothing covered under warranty despite being less than 2 years old, full VW service history and having an easy life.
I’d never touch a french car again.
Every single French cars I have ever owned which have all been problem free:
Renault 5 Gordini, Renault 18, Renault 19, Renault Scenic, Renault Grand Scenic, Peugeot 205 and Peugeot 405
Every single Volkswagen I've owned which have all been diabolical : Polo, Passat and Bora.
The Passat was the worst car I've ever had by a country mile.
My first car - a 950cc Citroen AX. The head gasket blew twice, and then after extensive repairs it cut out. I opened the bonnet to find the engine on fire. The worst thing that could possibly have happened was that the first house I knocked on (no mobile phone back then) had a fire extinguisher - so the wretched thing was repaired and put back on the road. I traded it in at that point.
Nova merit saloon 1.2.. the manual choke I found ok, but it was so slow, I think I managed to get about 90mph out of it once, down hill with a tail wind. The engine was screaming though!
And a 1.0 fiesta, or it may have been 950cc, 4 speed gear box...
my car broke down in bath once, so I picked up a freeads and bought a breadvan polo off someone nearby and drove home (brighton). It had a week's mot left and was £50.
it was 4-speed, which meant on the motorway at 80 it was doing around 4,500 rpm (I don't know exactly as it didn't have a rev counter). it was tinny, but the worst thing was the front right wheel bearings had collapsed and it had ~1 INCH of play at the top of the wheel. Turning into a corner, you could feel the wheel 'cluck' over to the other side of the bearing casing (or whatever was still holding it together), and as this pushed all the brake pads apart it took 2 full presses of the brake pedal to get any braking at all (shimano wandering bite point eat your heart out).
took the speakers out (decent 6x9s) and flogged it for what I paid 2 days later.
BMW 320. The STW car.
Creaked like an old ship. I stripped the entire headlining and panels, cleaned, lubed and refitted everything. Still chuffing creaked.
That and BMW charged me £200 to look at the problem, even under warranty, to say 'It needs looking at".
My worst car is also one of my favorite cars I owned, Mercedes A class. I loved it as it was like a little go-kart that was pretty nippy for a 1.4l and with the rear seats removed was like a little van and ideal for biking. Would happily whizz up and down the motorway with two DH bikes in it.
But it was also frustrating as it seemed to have lots of niggley little faults. The suspension bushings would wear about 12,000 miles, some electrical faults, and some other minor things that were nothing major but annoying.
Engine and the semi-automatic gear box though were faultless.
I had a really really battered Vauxhal Cavalier, no idea how it kept going but one positive, on narrow streets even range rovers wouldn't try and pass me.
Had a Rover 205 that had heated rear windows to keep my mates hands warm when pushing.
Funny to see someone mention the Austin Montego; we had two of those at work as pool cars many years ago, alongside a pair of Fiat Pandas. Some scrotes broke in to the compound one night and stole... the Pandas.
Personally, it probably has to be the Fiat X1/9 that I had at the end of the 80's. It had a very special party trick with the pop up headlights; flick the big rocker switch on quickly and one lamp would rise up, then go back down again. Then the other lamp would rise up before going down again. Followed by them both rising together. Not handy if you need to flash headlights quickly at a junction but great for getting noticed.
It's other trick was an inability to steer around corners when accelerating uphill. Massive understeer in that situation, as the engine sits on top of the back axle and there's nothing to keep the front down under power. I used to keep a big tool box and a sandbag in the front to help with steering. Aside from that, and when it worked, it was great fun. Weber carb, an Italian engine that liked revs, big non-servo discs all round. Electrics with all the conductivity of cheese and an undertray made of... cheese. You know, that rusty dark orange coloured supermarket stuff that's the cheapest of the cheap and is a bit rubbery. And try not to worry about the petrol tank that's upright and sideways on, right behind your seat.
Volvo V70 bought when kids started coming along – ostensibly to put them in something bombproof. How 5 cylinders can only push out 140bhp in a two tonne car is beyond me.
.....and our best car ever owned!
That bulletproof unstressed engine will do a million miles, ours is 200k miles towards that goal. Awesome car with thought and attention paid to whoever would be servicing and fixing it in years to come and not how quickly can they throw them together on a production line.
going with the VW theme, beetle 1303, the 'twin port' very slow very heavyto push/tow. rusty yellow POS stripped one of the rear wheel hub splines Engine blew up via dropped valve in fast lane of A55 big swerve to hard shoulder got lucky no one hit me !! later Replaced the engine with a scrapper set off home broke down 3 times due to fuel pump failing, RAC attended did some spannering to the pump which prompltly caught fire ! finally got home. On the way back to work on monday morning full of fuel canoe on roof car full of stuff for the week car cut out , I thought fuel pump again. got out to check but flame coming out of vents suggested otherwise ! 999 time managed to get boat off before that died too. Fire was a suitable ending POS
Nearly bought a Marina ( TC i think) but managed to put it on its roof on test drive, dodged a bullet there.
In the spirit of ignoring the thread title 😉
Some of the cars I've owned over the year have been either deeply unfashionable or just shitboxes but only 1 deserved a birching
1985 Citroen BX 1.9d no turbo for this car oh no it was base spec but despite the lack of toys it went wrong with a tedious regularity over the 18 months I suffered it.
Cracked head
Alternator fire
Handbrake failure
Levelling valve failure 4 times
Massive blowby pushing the oil out
Heater fan worked when it bloody felt like it
there were probably many others but I try to forget it ever existed
Considering I have owned the following with their faults:
Marina 1.3 exhaust leaking into the car, terminal rust
Ital 1.7 Nothing much
Princess 2.2 Engine sized
Simca 1100 Estate Rust Rust & more RUST
MG Midget Mk2 total restoration no problems after rebuild owned for 35 years
Hillman Avenger 1600 Estate Main bearings
3000E Capri Gearbox blew up
Ford P100 pickup Nothing in 295,000 miles
Opal Manta Faulty oil pressure relief swapped engine
Scirocco Mk2 GTi Fuse/relay board caught fire, fuel pipes collapsed
Fiat Uno 1.1 Nothing much written off by a Taxi
Said BX
Rover 414 head gasket but I had that for 10 years
Mazda6 Estate 2.0d turbo under warranty had that for 9 years
Volvo XC60 2.0d Nothing
Peugeot 3008 2.0d nothing
Ford P100 pickup Nothing but the mental trauma of driving it 295,000 miles
I agree with the sentiment that more recent drivers don't know a true shitbox 🙂
On paper my worst car was our first, which my Mrs bought of a workmate for what it cost to weld it up to get through it's MOT. A well-faded imported Micra, every panel was dented, the speedo read in kph only, it was festooned with rust, and when running would alternate between fanbelt squealing and the cam chain chattering like a cutlery drawer in a washing machine. And it stank indelibly of dog.
But, it had a certain charm. We didn't own it that long, but it never broke down, and it caused other road users to give you such a wide berth that it was almost like a cheat-code for a newly-qualified driver.
Actual worst car was a 59 plate Citroen C3 Picasso, for the second time on this thread. It had a fuse box fault that would cause the engine to cut out at random, inevitably on the motorway. The passenger seatbelt was somehow going moldy and stank of mildew. The passenger door had slipped (the two were probably not unrelated) and fouled the bodywork as it opened. We had a massive fight with the dealer to get the fuse box issue sorted, and by the time it finally was we were pig sick of the damned thing. To rub salt into the wound, it needed north of 1500 quid to get it through it's last MOT, after which I promptly (and entirely foolishly) chopped it in.
Another vote for the Chevette. My example was tired and gutless. Scrapped it after a year.
I can't really compete but my first car was a Lada - Riva, was it? The Russian 131 ripoff? Horrible thing - I think it *may* have been OHC and didn't sound terrible, but it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and was horrible to drive. The boot was dented in and held shut by a bungee cord and, from time to time, would come loose and the boit would wave merrily at the car behind until I noticed. The points (remember them?) would not-so-slowly drift out of aligment and it would not-so-slowly get worse at starting until it wouldn't. Had an 8 track - I thought I'd learn to handbrake turn in it and put it on its side, boot spilled open and sprayed its contents all over the road. Can't be many people who've rolled a Lada.... 😉
An 80's Volvo (Daf) 340 GL.
Gutless, appalling handling and terrifyingly easy to spin. When it did let go it was like a spinning top!
In second place a Citroen (Shitroen) BX 1.9D. Gutless, appalling handling and hydraulics that when they went wrong you would lose suspension, brakes and steering in one hit. Clever!
In second place a Citroen (Shitroen) BX 1.9D. Gutless, appalling handling and hydraulics that when they went wrong you would lose suspension, brakes and steering in one hit. Clever!
At least there was a hierarchy with the hydraulics, as I found out with my 16v as I was driving it home for the very first time and the high pressure hose from the hydraulic pump let go. The steering goes first, provided a warning if you hadn’t noticed all the flashing lights on the dash, then the suspension lowered and then finally the brakes. That ended with it on a truck. Not the only time unfortunately
It’s got to be one of my current cars: a 62 reg Mercedes Vito. OMG what a piece.
Body work made of cheese, if cheese rusted at the first sight of rain. A catalogue of electrical faults. A parking brake in the oddest position possible (foot activated) that decouples if you push it too hard. Every time. A manual transmission that grinds between one and two so badly it is hard to get into gear.
If you have ever been tempted by a Vito as a possible van for getting to the trails, don’t. Just don’t.
I've had a few crap cars but they all cost peanuts to buy so in terms of value-for-money they were great. The worst that I paiddecent money for though was an '05 Fiesta 1.25 Style. Great engine and the handling was very good but everything else would just refuse to stay working or hold together!
Two new gearboxes (one warranty) within 3 years.
New headlights every MOT as it would break the beam adjuster mounts.
At least one new front spring every MOT due to corrosion.
Driver's seat latch broke 3 weeks into owning it so you couldn't get in the back. The new latch was only £17 but to install it you had to rip the seat apart!
Various bits of trim would come loose most weeks so it all ended up being held on with various glues.
Ate alternators with a passion, one if which decided to put over 20v into the battery one day. I've never seen a battery that puffed up and the recovery guy nearly shat himself when he saw it.
A random wheel wobble that would come and go the whole time I owned it.
Had it for 7 years and 133k, hated the thing after a week. Really regretted trading in my near-perfect Ka for it.
The second it was paid off and I had enough money for something else I traded it in. Thankfully the Fabia that replaced it has been unbelievably great, the only issue it's had in 120k is that the 'bulb out' warning didn't come on when a headlight bulb blew!
Objectively speaking my old 1988 Nissan Bluebird 1.6 SLX. The fuel filler neck was rusty so shite fell into the tank meaning the carb was always blocking up, It ran rich so was the slowest yet thirstiest car I've owned (including a Range Rover). Fuel gauge stopped at 1/4 tank so always had to keep it topped up. Ride was terrible lowered springs on knackered shocks. Was weirdly specced to have electric everything yet no PAS!? That said I loved that old heap.
Runner up was a 1999 Vauxhall Vectra GSI that was constantly broken, lost a fortune on that car.
My parents decided that swapping a perfectly decent Polo for a 2CV would introduce some joie de vivre into my teenage life. Absolutely horrible piece of shit, drove it halfway up the country to the Lakes once. Miserable.
Made my own mistakes later on - Ford Ka, ended up more rust than car. Followed up by an elderly Suzuki Vitara in which turning the wheel had no bearing on the direction you ended up going.
RustyNissanPrairie
Full MemberFord P100 pickup Nothing but the mental trauma of driving it 295,000 miles
I was at least paid to drive it 1986-1991 though one summers day Gloucester-St Austell-Warrington-Gloucester did try my patience
Rover 214, just shit
My first car, boxy Micra was a dismal rot box, but a beautiful wonderful thing
Current focus would be condemned by environmental health if it was in scope and just doesn't work but won't die
I miss company cars 😭😭😭😭
I’ve had several. I had a Fiat 126 at university, with the liquid cooled engine that hid on its side under the boot. It had no oil filter, save for a mechanical centrifugal trap that slowly clogged over time. When it was full you were expected to throw the engine away. It had brakes allegedly. You wrote them a letter and hoped it got to them. It had swing axle rear suspension. Which, combined with rear enginedness, made it lethal in the wet should you dare to lift off on any corner. It remains the only vehicle I’ve ever spun on a public highway. The heater fan switch supplied the fan directly with 12v @15A, not via a relay. It would regularly weld itself in the on position. The four speed transmission had no synchro on 1st (by design). So you used second’s to halt the layshaft prior to setting off. The front suspension was by upper wishbones and a transverse leaf. This was underspeced for the 600kg of car and so sagged over time. The uprights had 1930s style king pins that required grease gun lubrication, weekly.
That was an oasis of good design and reliability in comparison with my T5.1 caravelle however. In the last 18 months of ownership it ate a full set of front bushes, top mounts and drop links. The nearside sliding door lock failed requiring rebuil. Electrical fire #1 started in the heater resistor pack, requiring a full bail out of the family to the roadside on the A66 after the cabin filled with smoke while daddy went about it with the extinguisher).
The rear diff oil seals all simultaneously failed One night while it was sat on the drive. The rear diff lock solenoid failed, along with the rear diff controller.
Rocketing oil temps were the norm on motorway climbs (130-140C). This was cured by installation of a forge intercooler and oil cooler combo as by design it’s under cooled. Electrical fire #2 came along with failure of a HVAC pressure sensor causing the feed wires toburst into flames, killing the ac. The front disk callipers seized on solidly on the A1 at speed requiring a total rebuild of front brakes.
Due to the unique way in which VW approached the design of the oil and EGR cooler it was slowly eating its pistons, resulting in cataclysmic oil consumption and contamination (the oil quality sensors would demand a change of all 7L every 2000miles), despite it eating a litre every thousand miles. Oh and on the way back from antur Stiniog it ate its head gasket. Two weeks before it was due to be traded in.
This from an otherwise immaculate van with full VWSH, clean MOTs and provenance.
Just remebered a renault Grand Scenic I had, this was still under warranty. I was filling up in tbe petrol station when the windshield and back window blew out simultaneously. I honestly thought we were being shot at. My two toddlers in the back were showered with broken bits of glass. This was in Llansamlet Tescos so its only 75% possible that the Swansea apaches were responsible. Rang Renault to ri p them a new one, only to be asked was I sure it was a Grand Scenic, as they had heard of this happening to Meganes but we were the first Grand Scenic. Got it replaced under warranty, but dented my faith in French cars for ever.
Also witnessed a Zafira , very much on fire , Im talking 9' flames, behind Amazon in Swansea whilst biking one day. Driver was very shaken, said all the doors locked at once and flames just leapt from the dashboard. He had to smash the windows with the headrest to get himself and his young daughter out in time.
🤷♂️
MG Midget - nope it's great.
Ford C-Max - bought at 6 years old and did another 110,000 miles in my ownership. Even the 1.6 petrol was brisk enough as long as you were happy launching it round corners and revving the nuts off it if you wanted to have fun. It melted a set of front tyres and got airborne worryingly regularly. Only 1 breakdown. Got written off by a "key worker" with a messiah complex driving on the wrong side of the road.
Berlingo 2.0 HDi - bought for £650, 9000miles in 4 months so far and 1 clutch cable. Objectively the worst car I've ever owned. But I still think it's great.
Not sure if I'm just good at buying and maintaining them, or just have really low standards.
1988 Nissan Bluebird 1.6 SLX.
I traveled in one of these as a taxi in Equatorial Guinea about 10 years ago.
Driver asked for some money for fuel.
No worrys go for it get some fuel I need to get where I'm going.
We get there and he opens the bonnet. Starts putting fuel into a cut open 2 l water bottle gravity feeding the carb.........that'll be why it smells explosive back here then
Toyota GR Yaris, good riddance.
Toyota GR Yaris, good riddance.
tell us more, given its only been out a short while
Its a toss up between a 1997 Fiat Punto diesel or a 1998 Mercedes A class. The punto was that awful metallic yellow colour, like newborn baby poo. The engine was noisy (soooo noisy), gutless and wanted ots oil changed every 4500 miles. Amd i was doing a fair few miles at the time. It was also rather unreliable so got chopped in for a Fiat Brava. A better car but not great and quickly chopped in when I could afford something better.
That something was a Mercedes! Oh yeah. OK, so it was a bottom of the range A class but I was in a quality car now so all would be well. Except it was an absolute nail. It shook itself apart over the 20000 miles I kept it for, the old concrete surface of the M42 absolutely battered it. The drivers seat collaped, the suspension collapsed, the seals were so bad you could poke your finger through and feel the door juddering. It also used to creak amd groan going through twisty bits. The speakers used to make the door bins buzz when you had the stereo turned up which you had to do as it was so bloody noisy. I did quite like the clutchless manual 'box though and it went on to do another 100k miles in 13 years after I got shot so someone must have liked it.
Ldv pilot when I was 19, basically a horse cart with peugeot 1.9. Despite it pretty much falling apart everytime I drove it, I still had a bit of a soft spot for it.
Best value was probably a 1.6 seat ibiza I bought for £100 and stuck a set of alloys/winter tyres I got off my mate for £50. 3 years of problem free motoring, and then sold it for as much as I paid for it... Doubt that will ever happen again...
not this one, but one very similar, the Ford Escort Mk5 1.4L 3 door with tilt and slide sunroof and radio/tape deck.....steady ladies
An absolute dog, bought second hand with warranty and when the carburetor packed in the garage wouldn't do anything because (in their words) it hadn't packed in enough. Keys fell to bit and had to weld a washer to one to be able to get in and out of the car, you had to joggle the lock until the immobilizer disengaged which could take 3 or 4 attempts, the window winder came off in my hand one day and it was a constant fight to keep the paintwork from fading to a milky pink.
My suffering paid off and the car I was able to trade this against was a Peugeot 106 1.6 XS which was light and extremely rapid (in comparison)
Merc A35 AMG. Noisy, bumpy, eats tyres, and breaks down all the time.
I'd rather the old VW beetle I got when I was 15, took 2 years to weld it back together, it broke down a bit, but always a simple fix and the breakdowns were probably due to the fact that I took the car apart and probably didn't put it together right. But, oh my god, it was noisy, the suspension crashed around as it was slammed to the ground, heaters were crap, but it had a charm about it and put a smile on your face........
All the cars from the 1980s I had were a POS; rust at the first sniff of rain, unreliable and nickable with a lollipop stick and no option but to replace them with yet another POS. Wasn’t until the 1990s that the car companies seemed to get their act together. The very worst though was the Renault 5 which I bought after my XR2 was nicked and trashed for the second time and I couldn’t afford anything else. The Renault 5(hit)features highly here for good reason. God awful, ticked all the boxes for one of the worst cars ever - although an ex girlfriend had a Yugo which was something to behold and may just pip the Renault 5.
Every front wheel drive Escort was awful.
Never driven a bad fiesta, Mondeo's were ok, as were the Sierras I drove.
The Escorts, all dire. 1.4 petrol, 1.8 diesel and every other woeful pile of crap. I used to keep the bits that fell off in my 'in tray' at work. We went to Astra's which were better in every measurable way and they weren't that great.
I rather liked the original Renault 5 for its er Gaelic handling charm.
Someone gave me a Morris Ital to drive to the station after 2 days I gave it back and dug up an old mk1 gti.
I do think the 70’cars were just pure shite the 80’s were definitely getting the reliability dialled in but the good stuff was just always being twok’d
I also had a TR7 before it dissolved in the rain,that was also shite the 924 that replaced it was great (although unloved by many snobs)
The Yugo and Lada brands probably deserved its own ring in car hell, I just couldn’t get how people bought em.
XR2 was a fun little go-cart 🙂
Vauxhall Viva JEC 508 N. Owned it less than 2 years, head gasket failed necessitating an engine rebuild, exhaust blew up very loudly on the M69 on a rainy Sunday night, battery was knackered and it leaked so badly that the carpets were growing mushrooms and, after rain, water was sloshing around in the footwell, which is certainly an incentive to look ahead and brake gently, or you'll get wet feet.
Mini metro van. They were slightly lower geared than the normal ones I think and topped out at a very noisy 60mph or so. That was pretty crap. But I later had a Montego so it’s a close call.
Probably be a Chrysler PT Cruiser 2.0 petrol. I loved the styling both in and out. It was quick enough and had been lowered by the previous owner looking for stance.
We couldnt go over a speed hump as fast as a snail could and the reliability was poor. Its the worst out of over 200 cars Ive owned.
My Leyland Daf 200 campervan.
Has the 2.0l diesel out of a Montego in it. Probably had about 55bhp when new, 170,000 miles/30 years ago.
Bit gutless is an understatement. Noisy as hell too! Gearbox is essentially playing the lottery as to what you'll get and whether it will stay in that gear or give you some nice grinding noises.
Steering is awful.
Yet, it still has its own charm and to be fair to it, has only broken down once when the steering wheel went on fire while driving down the dual carriageway!
