The worst car you ever owned.

Ethan

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Seeing the best and all car threads, might as well go to the other end of the spectrum.

For me, there is one clear winner, unlikely to be ever unseated. My 1982 Fiat Strada, in maroon, a colour very much associated with the era.

Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong. Particular highlights were the alternator failure one winter weekend while in Donegal, facing a 90 mile evening trip back to Belfast, some of which was managed with next to no lights. The petrol tank rupture also led to a short term fuel consumption of 0.1 mpg, as I had to drive around a country road while the petrol leaked out. On another occasion, I braked while going downhill and heard a metallic clang. That was one of the brake callipers failing onto the road.

And one particularly NI thing. The manual window winder in the driver's door seized, so the window was stuck in the up position. I was then stopped at an Army road check and when I opened the door rather than wound the window down, the soldier asked me why I did that, so I explained. He swiftly concluded that must mean I had the door filled with explosives or something, so he knelt down and started tapping the door like a doctor examining a patients chest. After a few moments he realised this looked rather stupid, partly hinted at by the people in the car behind laughing, so let me go on.

Many other problems, electrical, of course a particular specialty, like the horn sounding off you turned the wheel too far. On one occasion, I drove it to the dealer where I bought it and told them I was leaving the [redacted] piece of [redacted] and they could fix it or bury it in a hole in the ground, I didn't care which.

Have not had a Fiat since, and never will. Fix It Again Tony, as they say.
 
Strata was a spectacularly bad car...

My worst was a 1976 1.3 Escort
More filler than metal, engine as rough as a badger's bum, uncomfortable, uneconomical
Slow as anything, handled like a cow...trapped in mud
Absolutely no redeeming qualities
To this day I have no idea why I bought it and how I kept it for 9 months...
And it was Orange
 
New first edition Land Rover Discovery. First trip to Scotland and whole family was ill. Dealer checked and replaced all shock absorbers. Trip to Devon and everyone sickly.

It lasted 3 weeks!
 
Toss up between a Rover 216GTi and an Alfa Romeo GT.

Rover was just awful, awful engine, awful interior, awful everything. I was offered it cheap and thought "why not" - there should have been so many alarm bells telling my why not (starting with "it's a Rover").

The Alfa was actually a great car to drive and looked great. But I think that's the reason I am listing it here, the disappointment at the mechanical design and the reliability was just flabbergasting. Whoever designed the suspension and commissioned the clutch needed shot. Add a terrible DMF in to the mix it was a recipe for disaster.

I'd throw in a BMW 335d but it wasn't an awful car, I just didn't gel with it and it felt sterile.

But the Rover takes the crown.
 
My first car. Rover CityRover. Bought for £500.

Absolutely dog awful but a great introduction to driving and a wise decision to get a car you don’t care about first.
Lasted 4 months. Died in a lay-by on the A608 at M1 jct 27.
Got a Fiesta ST the next day.
 
Rover 600. I wanted a second hand Audi 80 but couldn't quite afford one at the time. I convinced myself that this was similar and found one at a good price. There was nothing particularly wrong with it but it was just bland, very vanilla, and it was an old mans car and i was late 20's. Oh yes I also resented the fact that it wasn't the Audi that I wanted. Very happy to sell it on.

I have never had an absolute dog thankfully.
 
Might sound a bit silly but I had a Fiesta 1300 sport.
It had a Kent gold seal engine in it.
It was so jumpy that I staled it constantly.
It was like a wolf in sheep’s clothing but almost impossible to drive.
Suspension was rock hard . Not good in a small car.
When the wife was pregnant she wouldn’t get in it so it had to go.
 
Probably my mini 850. It was matte maroon, with maroon vinyl seats that baked in the sun. It had non existent brakes, even when adjusted every weekend. The choke was either two clothes pegs, or one. It rusted like a rusty thing, the headlights were glimmers, it was slow, it was noisy, it vibrated badly, the exhaust fell off, it shed hub caps on roundabouts, it was rubbish.

But it was my first car, and I loved it.
 
Toss up between a Rover 216GTi and an Alfa Romeo GT.

Rover was just awful, awful engine, awful interior, awful everything. I was offered it cheap and thought "why not" - there should have been so many alarm bells telling my why not (starting with "it's a Rover").

The Alfa was actually a great car to drive and looked great. But I think that's the reason I am listing it here, the disappointment at the mechanical design and the reliability was just flabbergasting. Whoever designed the suspension and commissioned the clutch needed shot. Add a terrible DMF in to the mix it was a recipe for disaster.

I'd throw in a BMW 335d but it wasn't an awful car, I just didn't gel with it and it felt sterile.

But the Rover takes the crown.
I had an Alfa GT 3.2 V6 and it was a fantasic car to drive, i would say the best car i've ever driven for handling and sheer fun.. it was also the least reliable and cost the most to service and keep on the road once it was 3 years old.. a real shame
 
This one is totally my own fault, the Mazda MX5. On most levels it is superb, fun to drive, runs like a dream etc but we bought it because my wife had boring company cars so I had to have the 'fun'car. All well and good but when you are 6'2" and clearly have not seen a salad for many years, it needed a shoe horn and goose grease to get me in and out of it.
 
My Mitsubishi Colt, 2005 model. Had it in red. Could get it up to 60mpg with good driving. Wasn’t bad around town either as it was 0.9L 3 cylinders.
 
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