It wasn't that good....
The worst car you ever owned.
- Thread starter Ethan
- Start date
Yep, great cars to drive and look at but the design was baffling and the reliability was shocking. The DMF on the diesel block was a ridiculous decision and one that wasn't necessary as you could fit a single mass wheel in it's place with a space and have no issues. Just greed on the part of FIAT.
Toss up between a VW Beetle and the (current) Kia Picanto.... see cars I've had thread.
Can I also add a Mercedes A180, the one that looks like a small people carrier. I bought it for the wife Nov 2008. We had it about 10 months and it spent about 8 months backwards and forwards to the garage. Chronic electrical problems. Either a new ECU or a full wiring loom to cure a host of problems but although they changed the ECU, allegedly, they wouldn't fit a new loom. The final straw was when it broke down, again, as she was coming home from work late at night up on the North Yorks Moors. The garage bought it back off me at book price - good of them really.
Can I also add a Mercedes A180, the one that looks like a small people carrier. I bought it for the wife Nov 2008. We had it about 10 months and it spent about 8 months backwards and forwards to the garage. Chronic electrical problems. Either a new ECU or a full wiring loom to cure a host of problems but although they changed the ECU, allegedly, they wouldn't fit a new loom. The final straw was when it broke down, again, as she was coming home from work late at night up on the North Yorks Moors. The garage bought it back off me at book price - good of them really.
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soon as mine was out of Warranty things started going wrong, parts were and arm and leg got rid of straight away after its 1st service OOW
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2013
- Messages
- 508
Volvo 480. Tried to look like a sports car but didn't. Didn't drive like one either. Neither was it comfortable.
Much of the part cost was down to poor design. The suspension was dual arm for example, you couldn't only replace one arm as to get the strut leg out you had to damage the other one. So a job that should be £50 (upper arm example) turns in to £150 (as you need the more expensive lower arm).
Bought as a new car a Citroen Nemo Diesel Auto
In out of the garage more times than any other new car I have ever owned.
Bought as second hand car, part my lack of knowledge, Renault 18 Auto . Bought as garage stored for a year and that was where my lack of knowledge came in. Nearly every rubber seal failed over the next few months. The result of one seal failure meant it going in to a Renault dealer for repair, a week later a similar fault on the repaired part meant the gearbox completely failed but luckily Renault replaced it free of charge. Made me realise it had a major design fault and the same problem could easily reoccur.
In out of the garage more times than any other new car I have ever owned.
Bought as second hand car, part my lack of knowledge, Renault 18 Auto . Bought as garage stored for a year and that was where my lack of knowledge came in. Nearly every rubber seal failed over the next few months. The result of one seal failure meant it going in to a Renault dealer for repair, a week later a similar fault on the repaired part meant the gearbox completely failed but luckily Renault replaced it free of charge. Made me realise it had a major design fault and the same problem could easily reoccur.
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Think my worst car was 2004 Toyota RAV4 - ridiculously sensitive clutch, only 5 gears so it grumbled constantly on the motorway, plus the boot swung outwards and was a pain.
Head gasket went on a trip to cornwall.
Still not as bad as a renault senic.
Head gasket went on a trip to cornwall.
Still not as bad as a renault senic.
I was in two minds whether to put my first car in the "best" thread or this one.
I think we all have a soft spot for our first car. Mine was a Mini 850 in "mini orange". When it worked it was great but it was a continuous headache, here's three picks from the catalogue of disaster.
Second contender for worst car was an FSO, I foolishly thought that this would just be a no-frills East European car but it was assembled from the lowest quality materials imaginable and was literally a pile of junk. The most memorable example of "quality" were the disc brakes, they lasted a matter of months before they needed replacing.
I think we all have a soft spot for our first car. Mine was a Mini 850 in "mini orange". When it worked it was great but it was a continuous headache, here's three picks from the catalogue of disaster.
- Within weeks of buying it both rear subframes collapsed, I knew nothing about cars and was happily driving it around like this until a guy at work pointed out it's strange stance.
- That was probably the most costly failure but the most dangerous was that the splined shaft at the bottom of the steering column had lost most of it's splines so on hard cornering it would skip a couple of notches back to straight, I kept trying to remedy it with shims and stuff but in the end went down the scrappy and got a replacement. They were the days when you could get your spares from the scrap yard, and were allowed to clamber around over the pile of rotting hulks.
- The most annoying problem was that the parcel tray under the dash would fill with water whenever it rained, worst case was after a heavy shower and I got into it in the dark and pulled away to get a tidal wave of water into my lap and shoes. I couldn't work out where the water was coming in from but eventually tracked it down to small holes in the seams on the roof next to the A pillars and the water ran down the pillar and into the parcel shelf, an easy fix once found. After that was sorted I filled in all the holes in the floor pan with fibre glass matting as I no longer needed them to let the water out.
Second contender for worst car was an FSO, I foolishly thought that this would just be a no-frills East European car but it was assembled from the lowest quality materials imaginable and was literally a pile of junk. The most memorable example of "quality" were the disc brakes, they lasted a matter of months before they needed replacing.
My first one - the red Cortina Mk3. My fault really as I got it cheap from a rather dubious dealer. Unreliable as hell.
Renault Laguna , lovely to drive , really comfortable , best stereo i've had . But absolute money pit , everything broke on it , Renault spares cost a fortune and the customer service is appalling , spent more on parts than the cost of the car ,would not have another French car
Used to do some bench marking assessment stuff for competitor sets.
Here is probably some really controversial stuff ...
Porsche Panamera - lovely for the driver very direct and sporty but passengers will complain , so why bother with those seats if your going to make them uncomfortable?
Bmw X2 and MB Glc both were tinny and cheap, the MB was just unpleasant on all levels .. the BMW felt like it was trying to become a Ford
Post 2018 Disco sport , geez what a mess, too much front end noise and vibration up through the floor pan and steering
Here is probably some really controversial stuff ...
Porsche Panamera - lovely for the driver very direct and sporty but passengers will complain , so why bother with those seats if your going to make them uncomfortable?
Bmw X2 and MB Glc both were tinny and cheap, the MB was just unpleasant on all levels .. the BMW felt like it was trying to become a Ford
Post 2018 Disco sport , geez what a mess, too much front end noise and vibration up through the floor pan and steering
Panamera turbo S was my other considerstion when I bought my Merc, but in reality, it wasn't even close. Mainly due to rarity, but also I have no idea where my nearest Porsche dealer, or independent is. In the back of my head, there is a little voice saying a Porsche is a VW beetle.
I had 2 Laguna's one estate then the updated bodied version, first one was a 1.9 diesel and tbh it was great no issues at all, wish I had kept it a bit longer but I traded it in for a 1.8 16v petrol version and it was absolutely awful, definitely the worst car I've owned by some considerable distance
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2013
- Messages
- 3,532
Renault Captur - because I didn't check if my golf clubs would fit in the boot before getting it. Schoolboy error.
51 plate Clio was my first car and that was only about 7 years ago. At the time I lived in a town notorious for having a tonne of roundabouts and this thing could NOT corner. Any turn and the back end would kick out as if driving on an ice rink. It was the second time that I ended up in the literal middle of a roundabout that I decided to scrap it. A week later, I traded it in for the minimum £1000 trade in, part of a deal at a local dealer. Thought they’d be annoyed for having to pay £1000 for a scrap worthy car only to see some young kid drive past me in it a few weeks later. I hope they made it out alive.