Crap cars that are actually great

My other half’s Corsa was actually a good little car. I hated it with a passion, but it cost sweet FA to run, never broke down and was better at carting stuff around than my 325. Horrid driving position though.

My Clio 1.4 Extreme was made of cheese, not very big inside but was reasonably swift (sub 10 secs) and never gave returned less than 41mpg no matter how I drive it.

Fist Coupes were crap but brilliant. My uncle had a limited edition run out 20v turbo. It was quick, sounded pretty good but had the turning circle of an oil tanker, access to the rear seats was useless and painful when it went pop. Still bloody ace though.

Agree that the Puma shouldn’t be in this thread as they’re highly regarded. I take out the Volvo too, but I love that era of Volvo especially if it says T5 on the back!

Another one:

Citroen AX

I had one. The head gasket blew twice and the engine caught fire. So a crap car that was actually crap.

I’m glad I did. the rust was well rusty but the 1.7 engine was rev-tastic peach. Lovely car. The dashboard was weird- never had a car with a dashboard that far away from me.

Agree Puma’s have no place on this thread. Good Puma’s are appreciating now.

The 1.7 was actually made by Yamaha, a great engine.

Yes it’s a Metro.Picture is not my car but I had one for three years.
But with a k series fuel injected twin overhead cam it was a bloody rocket and so much fun to drive.
You could drive it at any speed into any corner. Just great.

Nova GTE. Mental car, rusted and came with a Jeremy Kyle image but by god it cornered and went like stink.
Then the valve stem oil seals went, gearbox and some scrote nicked it and left it burnt out on the Wirral.
Made me grin….

I saw one in the Maritime Alps in Italy, at about 2000M altitude, on a track that was rough as a badgers, and it just took it all in it’s stride. Most folks I know with Chelsea tractors wouldn’t have ventured where he was.

the 2CV was allegedly designed in such a way that you could drive it across a ploughed field and still keep a basket of eggs inside without breaking a single one. or something.
I heard a story of a 2CV being used in the ice & snow of an Ardennes winter going where owners of so-called rally cars wouldn’t dare. skinny tyres would cut through the snow to the firmer stuff underneath

Indestructible and amazing in the snow!

Suzuki Swift

That is lovely.

Very surprised at that johndoh. I’ve had the 2.5 v6 in a Mondeo (my cougar was the 2.0 vtec) and it was a superb engine but never driven a Vectra. The Cougar big plus for me against a Puma was that it has a boot like a cave!

What anyone else thinks about my car is usually last on the list of requirements – keeps the price down.

For example, the company Vectra. Did 70k in 2 years with nothing but 2 services and a couple of sets of tyres. In fact, I went and bought a private one this year..

Or the Jaguar (or Mondeo as folk who don’t know call them. AWD rocketship – 230bhp ‘vtec’ and sub 7 secs 1/4 mile plus proper wood and leather.

If only I could find the images I had of my old 2.8 Capri , 21 year old and spending most of my life sideways on roundabouts , sills always needed welding , thermostat was on the blink , used water ,drank like Alex Higgins , always looked down upon by the ladies, but such a lot of fun ,the hump in the bonnet had its uses aswell

BX 16 valve was another ex-company car.

160bhp and 1000kg 🙂 Plastic fantastic.

http://www.mercadoracing.org/imagenes-anuncios/38/435764/citroen-bx-gti-16v.jpg

Bought a 16v punto on ebay for £425 for the wife 3 years ago.
Only had to change tyres, oil and a set of brake pads in the 3 years despite the man in the shop who sold me the pads saying that’s a crap car. Tried to change it but wife is happy with it. If im nipping out to the shops I always grab her keys and usually end up driving miles out of my way cause its soooooo much fun to drive.
Fab car!

I adopted my partner’s old Ka for about 8 months when she bought a Fiesta. Getting it up to speed was hard going on dual carriageways, and folding myself (6’3″) into was probably a comical sight, but it was fun to drive and it could fit my old Cotic BFe in the back with the wheels off!
My finest moment was buying a set of wooden garden chairs and table, getting it out Philip (that was his name!) and realising I’d buggered it up a little bit. With both front seats right forward everything fitted in, but I probably looked mental on the drive home, folded around he steering wheel to fit in.

Our Triumph Dolomite. Why did we bin that car it was so much fun

b r – Member

Or the Jaguar (or Mondeo as folk who don’t know call them. AWD rocketship – 230bhp ‘vtec’ and sub 7 secs 1/4 mile plus proper wood and leather.

lolz, just in case anyone’s wondering what a 7sec 1/4 mile looks like:

My 24v probe was a nice car, handeled great though under powered. Massive boot with the seats down as well.

Rover 75.

The Cdt is a less powerful (113bhp) BMW diesel engine. Bombproof and chain driven. Currently on 107,000 with no issues and still gets 55mpg. Plus it’s got ALL the toys, elec everything, leather, wood etc… love it.

My first car was crap but great. A MK3 metallic gold Escort 1.3L, which turned out to be a cut and shut and a potential deathtrap. But I had it for 3 years, went absolutely everywhere in it, had loads of holidays with mates as we were all leaving school and about to go our separate ways to University, Apprenticeships etc. so lots of fond memories of care free adventures all over the country in the old Escort. Even managed to woo my first girlfriend with it. To be fair the thing was pretty reliable, though needed a certain level of constant maintenance to keep her going. Taught me a lot about home mechanics and maintenance (timing belt, cylinder head gasket, servicing engine, brakes and suspension etc.).

I really don’t think there is such a thing a crap cars these days.

Or the Jaguar (or Mondeo as folk who don’t know call them. AWD rocketship – 230bhp ‘vtec’ and sub 7 secs 1/4 mile plus proper wood and leather.

I must have missed the Honda-Jaguar co-lab on that one…

And it is a Mondeo. Better dressed but deep down it’s a Mondeo (not that it’s necessarily a bad thing). Doesn’t have ISOFIX though or I’d have bought my old mans estate off him.

Why is it in this thread though?

E39 Second hand pile of poop thirsty cow.

Put right+LPG and then you know why it was one of the best cars in the world at one time.

lolz, just in case anyone’s wondering what a 7sec 1/4 mile looks like:

Meant 0-60.

E39 Second hand pile of poop thirsty cow.

Yep, had one of those too. And no way a crap car from anyone’s perspective.

I meant it will be crap second hand 😆

New bushes, springs and shocks = a great handling car that will carry 4 adults in comfort.

Looks a V engine there. 540?

I love E39’s though!

I am astonished no one has mentioned the Fiat Multipla.

I admit the looks are…..lets say challenging shall we… But they are comfortable, handle well and are not as unreliable as you might expect and very versatile.

I had a 1.3GL Escort – 1990 in early 2000.

It was stolen twice, over two nights, reported it the first time to be told maybe I had left it somewhere else as I was somewhat worse for wear.

Second night same policeman who found it the first had asked me if I had secured it – I hadn’t at that point, just taken that little black starter box that the thieves used out.

Put a Crooklock on the wheel and one on the handbrake and never bothered to repair the steering lock or ignition.

lifestyle vehicle

outback explorer

2CV, first car I drove-just so much fun. Tried and tried to roll it and failed.

Hyundai Terracan, ‘industrial’ looks, panned in most reviews fake wood interior, but so well built, comfortable and amazingly capable. Not a driver’s car!

I had a Cinquecento sporting when I lived in Ireland and I loved it! It had great handling and was surprisingly decent at wedging things in, I think the one I had must have been tweaked in someway because it was pretty quick and it’s only a 1.1! Sadly I crashed it after finding out snow on cobbles is actually slippy.

I refuse to accept the term crap car. I had one of these years ago when I lived in Oman. Tthe hi top was great as when you bounced over sand dunes anyone sat in the back didn’t hit their head on the roof.

had the 5 door version of this in the same colours too…

it conked out on the second day we had it and set the theme for the next 4 years.
its issues were mainly to do with it being made up from rubbish french parts as these were the bits that would fail.
it rattled constantly, the front bumper and headlights were held in place with zip ties, remote CL knackered as was the key fob, the AC didnt work, the heating needed to stay on warm to stop it from overheating, the steering wheel was wonky, it pulled slightly to the left, it loved eating tyres, rear passenger window came off its track, odometer was a bit iffy, drivers seat knackered…but it still managed to give us 60k worth of motoring. when it was running ok it was a good workhorse…i dont miss it though