The worst car you ever owned?

We had a Vega for a while when I was a kid. Probably more than a year or two. When my folks decided to trade it, i don't remember why.

 

... impulsive decision. I made a mistake. Sold, down the river on glowing testimonials, by whore R&T automotive journalists who don't know beans about cars, what I bought was arguably the worst engineered vehicle in automotive history, Ford's SVO Mustang:



Take the car in for service? So much chassis slop, opening its doors, once up on the lift, vehicle suspended, doors won't close.

So much vibration from its single valve 2.3 liter Pinto 4-pot, set screw on its rotor would work itself loose, its distributor self-destructing, thus cutting off oil supply, to its turbocharger. KA-BLAM! Blown turbocharger, but for no good reason than Ford bean counters, cutting corners, mandating obsolete distributor components!

Defective clutch cable guaranteed to snap, every 5 thousand miles? The 64 thousand dollar question, what would be the cost, every time the car vehicle was towed, back to the local FORD dealership, for the same repair?

ANSWER: ... whatever they could soak you for! Never the same price, for the same repair!

8 blown turbochargers? 12 clutch cables? 6 distributors? A/C dysfunctional inside 20K on its odometer? My worst nightmare, towing this car back to Ford, every month I owned it! Always a clever way of wiggling out, not one warranty did the Ford people ever honor, servicing this vehicle.

Tires proprietary in size, to this particular vehicle, they cost a fortune! Awful lot of money at the time, I'd just spent a cool US$1,300, on brand new Gatorbacks, at all 4 corners. Totaled a month later, 1990, on Tehachapi-Willow Springs road, when a left rear caliper hung up, sent my wife, dearest Barbara, up a road cut, where the car flipped 5 times. Thankfully, the man upstairs happened to be paying good attention that particular day, to goings on here on planet Earth. Guess I own him one, for that.

Corporate irresponsibility. That would be the last Ford I'd ever buy -


Samuel, '04 Ruthiemobile -

 

My worsts were not especially bad, so I will mention a late 60’s Chevrolet Impala bought used. During a long hot trip it made smoke on highway, so I pulled over. The A/C compressor had seized and cooked its belt. A motorcycle guy in full regalia stopped. His big knife filled my view and, I hoped, not anything else. He cut off the A/C belt and said “you’re good to go”. “um, thanks”. So this is a car-adjacent story.

Others had lemony cars that I was called upon for repairs. Typical dismal Renaults and MGs etc. Worst does go beyond self owned.

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Going against topic, best cars other than Prius were 1966 Mercedes 230 sedan and 1959 Ford F600 truck (chassis under a steel van body by Herman of St. Louis). Former bought for about $1000 with broken engine (I rebuilt it a few times). Latter bought functional for about $1000; I removed interior and remade it for living in. Both were fine in their own ways.