Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

2003 Chevrolet Cavalier. For non-Americans, this car was not available outside the USA.

What worked great: The engine (Ecotec L61)

What didn't: everything else

Fiat panda, it is literally a cardboard box with wheels.

i owned a very abused 09 civic si sedan.

it was obviously in a front end collision on the driver's side that was covered up by the previous owner. i know this because the headlight mounts on that side were busted and that light pointed way up into the sky. it also darted all over the road because the front wheels were pointed towards eachother. it was so bad that it wore through the rubber down to the metal belts so i had sharp wires sticking out of tires and i cut myself taking the wheels off:(

it had trouble starting because the starter motor was barely holding on by 1/3 bolts and it was for a different model civic. when i got it home i wiggled the starter motor and a bolt fell out.

the clutch master failed while i was on a road trip. i heard a loud ping like a bolt snapped and was bouncing around my engine bay then the clutch pedal went to the floor and i couldn't put it in gear.

everything the previous owner said he fixed on the car failed within a year of me owning the car because he did a lousy job and bought the cheapest no-name parts.

oh and the rear sway bar was fully disconnected and doing nothing.

Jeep Wrangler 4 cylinder. Something major broke every single month. I didn't even drive it the last 6 months I owned it, because I was terrified of yet another major thing breaking.

Mid 80's Ford Bronco. My ex insisted she had to have this thing. It leaked oil, was the most anemic thing I have ever owned and got maybe 4 or 5 mpg. We had no money to begin with, and she also insisted that we spend our tax refund on a set of rims. So at some point it had rims on it worth more than the truck, in my opinion. She spent sooo much money on gas. It was by far the worst car I have ever owned.

My first car, a 1997 VW Jetta, the engine exploded and caught fire on my way to work one day. Can't say any car I've had since has been as bad.

An early 2000s Jetta my fiancee bought shortly before we got married. The electronic sensors kept dying throughout the warranty and after and were expensive as hell to replace, a pain in the ass to install becsuse I had to take off 6 parts to get to them, and it had horrendous handling in snowy/icy weather. Got rid of that lemon a year after we were married and replaced it with a 2005 Camry that was super reliable and cheap to maintain for the next 18 years.

The Canrywas still going strong when I traded it in for a truck due to changing needs. Literal opposite of that stupid Jetta.

2012 Hyundai Tucson. What an absolute piece.

Body roll like a guy on a unicycle. Suspension as smooth as a jeep, as strong as a yugo. Acceleration like a 70s VW.

The wife really liked it.

I haven't really had a "bad" car yet. My oldest car was my first, a 2003 Ford Taurus. Wearables needed to be replaced but outside of that, the only thing I can say that would make it the "worst car" is that the cruise control lever broke and got stuck while I was driving it, so essentially my throttle was stuck open while I was going about 70 MPH. I tried not to panic, and shifted into neutral (it was also an automatic) so I could shut the car off and then coast to safety.

Punto sport 16s

Pro : short gear, 6 shift Cons : generic aleatory default on the assisted direction.... (electric jacks).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYXPmROLfl8

My first ever car was a 1997 Saturn S. And I don't think it was a bad car overall, but when I bought it, the thing was very old and had been driven by an old lady who smoked in the car. It was all I could afford at the time, and the price was right for obvious reasons. So we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and the smell never quite fully came out. We did a pretty good job, but on hot summer days you could still smell it. It also needed quite a bit of work that we ended up doing and it ended up being the first car I ever rebuilt the engine on.

As for worst car I've ever had the pleasure to drive, for a while I was borrowing my mother in law's Ford Flex. It didn't have any issues but it really was the worst car to drive. It had absolutely no turning radius. The seats were very large for no reason and were very uncomfortable. The visibility out of the front windshield was trash at night and made me think I was having vision issues. There were so many sounds for everything that you couldn't discern which sound was for which thing and this made them all useless. The accelerator was so unresponsive, I had to program my brain to floor it ahead of when I needed to speed up so the timing would be right. The infotainment system was complete trash, but really all of them were back then. Loads of other small annoyances that I could go on and on about, but I'll finish with how the car also just looks awful and I was always embarrassed to drive it. I hope I never have to drive one again.

2013 Mini Cooper S

Spent more time in the shop than on the road. Traded-in that POS before the warranty ran out.

~~2nd~~ 1st Gen Durango.

Every electrical accessory died. The window motors, the instrument cluster, the radio, etc. The drivetrain was solid, but the water pump failed 3 times while I had it. It wasn't even an abnormal example, they all were like that.

I will never buy a Dodge again because they have gotten worse; newer dodges are blowing engines and transmissions at low miles.

2000 Chevy Blazer, first car and at least one thing was usually broke on it (usually the ac, but occasionally something else would break until I/my dad could fix it). 2nd gear broke at 230k, and didn't want to put more money into fixing it.

I've only had two but the first one, 2001 Audi A6 was significantly more expensive to maintain than my current Nissan pickup.

My first car was a rusty 72 Pinto. Objectively bad, but there's a freedom associated with a total shitbox as a 16yo that I've never had since.

Later had a mid-80s Cutlass Ciera. It already had an engine replaced by the time I got it, and that engine ran fine, unlike literally anything else in/on that car.

Briefly had a 77 F250. Also on a replacement engine, but this motor didn't last long. That beast only got like 9 MPG, so it wasn't worth fixing.

The 99 Jetta was fine for a few years, but when things started breaking, they broke in bunches. Finally a mechanic told me there was nothing he could do, so I had to scrap it.

I’ve had a few including a 1986 galant that needed a new transmission three times in the two years that I owned it (luckily all were replaced under warranty) and a 1991 Toyota Camry that I bought for $500 and it died a month later. I can’t fault either of those much though because they were each way over ten years old when I got them. The one that takes the cake is a 2003 mazdaspeed protege which I bought new and it shot a piston through the block 2.5 years after I bought it. Since I was over the mileage on the warranty at that point, Mazda didn’t honor it. The car had a handful of other issues during the time I owned it too. I won’t buy another Mazda.