Chevette in Diesel. Man you win. That is worse than the Chevrolet Celebrity. I never owned one but pity the person who did.
Hello All I have had some really bad cars. I had a 3 year old 1963 VW Convertible. After the roof started leaking in the rain I took it to a convertible repair shop. I got a call later telling me he never saw anything like it before. The struts were made out of WOOD and had rotted and turned into SAWDUST. He tried to fold over material the best he could to build up some kind of bracing but it never was right any more. I had a Chrysler Cordoba with Corinthian Leather. It had a big V8 that got around 12 miles a gallon. The rear leaf shock was actually welded to the bottom of the trunk floor ( not the chassis) and busted through. I went to a junkyard to see if there was something to maybe help it and the guy showed me a pile of maybe 10 of the same cars all the their rear springs sticking through the trunk floor. I had a 1973 Dodge Duster that had both fender in the engine compartment rust out. You could check the tire treadware without ketting on your knees. I had a Dodge Aires wagon, It was a lot of fun to drive but itwould fall apart in my hands. Every button in radio presets would push in and fall into the radio, the door handles would come off in my hands. It had a carburator that was a combination of some parts that dodge cobbled together.The dealer had never seen one like it before. Dont get me started on a 1995 Dodge Neon.
The first car that I chose myself was a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix in high school. It was fun but had tons of problems. For some reason, I then chose a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP as my first new car after college. It was also tons of fun with that quick 3.8L supercharged engine. But I would have saved soooo much money if I had just bought a Toyota either time.
'72 Datsun 510. Bought it in December of '77 and apparently had had some rust repaired and a full repaint by then. Side to side shifter play was a couple of inches (used to hit my passenger in the knee when shifting into reverse). With emission controls it had a dual point ignition--one set of points was retarded relative to the other and was used when the transmission was in third gear (for some reason). It had its good features: Powerful, 92 hp 1600cc engine (2/3 of a 240Z engine). Independent rear suspension. But the body integrity wasn't so good. People apologized after shutting the door because it sounded like something got broken inside. Side window glass flopped back and forth when passing oncoming cars. The floor eventually rusted out to the point that the accelerator fell over (it was 8 years old by this point) and I replaced it with sheet metal secured with sheet metal screws and sealed with bathtub caulk.
Datsun 510, especially the wagon was one of the best cars I've ever had. They would run for ever, until they ran into something! Icarus
I helped my sister get a '71 wagon (the '71 still had a manual choke!). The wagon had a live rear axle instead of the IRS.
Wow.. .I think I just had an anxiety attack from the last several posts. Chevy Vega Chevette Monte Carlo Ford Pinto Dodge Duster Datsun 510 Just think how far we've come with the gen III Prius!
This thread reminded me of a coffee table book I bought a while back: Amazon.com: Crap Cars (9781582346380): Richard Porter: Books
My wife had a Dodge Omni. Don't remember the exact year. Things broke/quit on it all the time, especially the doorhandles. You would pull up on the handle and it would break off in your hand. I think I replaced a door handle 6 times in one year. We didn't keep it very long. Representative Photo