Thread: What is the worst car you have ever driven?

I have a few that stood out to me .
I drove a 179 manual EH ten years later in about 74. I couldn't believe how crude it was. Crap gearbox with no synchro on first, brakes that needed sumo wrester legs to use. Although in 64 or so I thought my dad's 149 manual was OK but I still remember learning to double declutch. The gearbox did rear bearings every Tuesday even before I got to it, and the axle tramp was unbelievable.
I guess my worst owned car was a 1974 FJ40 . Noisy , gutless, seats impossible after 100Km, rusted as you looked at it, fuel tank rotted out, brakes needed sumo strength, heat from engine and exhaust burned passenger feet even with truck mudflaps on the floor, terrible highway handling.

A couple of other old stinkers were a Jowett Javelin and a Renault 750 .

But its not really valid to look back at old cars from todays perspective as they got so much better although even at the time Holdens were crap compared to such things as a Renault 16TS I had that would wind out to 102MPH (165kmh for the youngies) every afternoon on the way home from 1600Ccs , had a ride to die for, but still had terrible front end tramp. Funnily this and a Renault 12 are the ****boxes I owned that I remember with most affection.
Most memorable?
Press test XY GT that was"massaged" before given to press. Blueprinted by Fred Gibson and did 0-100 in 6.5 secs with redline FR70 tyres traction limited. Man that thing went. faster than Phase 2 and Phase 3 HOs I drove although they were brand new.
Biggest disappointment?
Porshe 928 manual with clunky gearchange and heavy clutch, or later 928s auto that just felt old fashioned and heavy.
Regards Philip A

120 cab chassis, and about a 90ish model trans am, both so uncomfortable

Funny the Cruze comments. I have my13 model and am really happy with it.
Worst of the new cars IMO is a Toyota Yaris.

The Austin Maestro.

My sister's first car and while it gave her (and to me to some extent when I could convince her to give me a lift) freedom, it was a dreadful, dreadful car to drive. No power. Awful handling. British Leyland Dysentery beige interior.

Was good fun on ice but that's about all can be said for it. My first car a year later was an Austin Metro. Smaller and more compact, shorter wheelbase, slightly better handling, awesome fuel economy. Still a dreadful car though. Sold it to go travelling. When I got back and went to Uni, Mum and Stepdad bought me another one! Even smaller engine (down from 1.3. to 1.0L) and even better fuel economy but entirely gutless.

Then came the Spitfire. Improvement.
Then came the Austin Healey 3000. Massive improvement.
Then came the Defender. Life complete.
Then came the Aston Martin Vanquish. Sorry, getting ahead of myself here.

For unmodified it would be the Landrover series 2. Some may think they drive like a Rolls Royce, I most definitely don't.

To reverse the tone, outside of my L.R'S my best car was my Datsun 1600. I drove this car until it almost wore out. The only real problem I encounted was that for some reason it wore out the tensioner on the cam shaft belt. I modified the cover to be able to remove it without removing the head as it had pins that slotted into the head. I ended up replacing both sprockets and tensioner and that settled the problem

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Young Ean, 1962/63 Holden EJ is what I used to have in 1969
Perhaps they were well before your time

Ahh Chucaro,

They were the first car I learnt to drive in, so maybe seemed ok to me. My dad had 1 that he taught 4 kids to drive so as far as I'm concerned they were great.

I had nothing to compare to mind you, but I couldn't wait to drive it.

Like you say it must be an age thing.

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

The latest land cruiser V8 diesel ute ain't any better likely worse cause after 2 hrs driving your back and arse are that numb ya have to stop and get out just go see if you can still walk.

Your BT50 or Ranger whatever you want to call it must be a later model than mine cause if mine wasn't a work car I get for free I'd burn it.

Cheers Ean

Ean, if you reckon the ute is bad - wait until you try the new 76 series wagon. At least in the ute you can move the seat back a bit - you can't in the wagon.

I recently had a brand new hire one for almost 3 months up on a job near Nullagine. Most uncomfortable piece of crap I've ever driven. Near impossible to keep pointed where you wanted it to go on dirt roads, gutless V8 engine, guzzled fuel. Can't think of any good points. Whenever I had to go into town (Newman) I always made an excuse to swap it for the workshop foreman's ute (same model). By comparison, the ute was a much nicer drive (and that's not saying it was good either) - the ute was a GXL and had wider wheels.

In my last job, we had a Poo Joe GTI similar to the one below in the "fleet" (think it had previously been purchased as a company vehicle for an accountant who had later left the company).



I had the misfortune of having to drive this thing on a few occasions (when it wasn't broken down). Very nippy little car, but unreliable, uncomfortable, horrible bouncy ride on anything but a runway smooth surface. Luckily I never had to drive it outside of the metro area - would have been painful on country roads.

But then - I've never had any time for french cars (except for some of the very old ones from the days when they used to know how to make them).

Where I am working now, they used to have a Renault Koleos in the office "fleet". It remained parked up under the building most of the time, as nobody wanted to drive it. Again, a horrible piece of rubbish. They sold it a while back and replaced it with a new Dunnydoor - a much nicer car to drive.