What is the worst car you have ever driven?

**MBZ460** · 9th January 2014, 08:29 AM

My worst, an old Datsun Bluebird. I woudl also count, my wife's current C200 Mercedes Coupe. Noisy, poor quality interior, random faults, other-non-random faults. Very nervous that it will deliver a huge repair bill, any day.

From: Carsguide: Top 1- worst cars

Datsun 120Y: Why indeed? It was underpowered, thank god, because the brakes were useless and the handling downright dangerous. At least when you crashed it was at slow speed. Unfortunately, it was very reliable, so there are still a few around.
Leyland P76: It held a 44-gallon drum in the boot and the design reflected such practicality. The Aussie-made gas-guzzler arrived just as the oil crisis hit.
Morris Marina: It should have come with a cardigan and a death warrant. Mechanically nasty, unsafe and unreliable.
Ford AU Falcon: Ford spent $600 million to build it and immediately it failed as plain ugly. It also blew head gaskets, radiators and thermostats, yet there are still a lot of AU taxis limping around.
1960-1990 Jaguars: Some nice models, but you needed two as one was always in the garage. You also needed to be a bank manager as they were expensive to fix. XJ12s were perhaps the worst.
Holden Camira: Once a Wheels Car of the Year, but prone to rusting and overheating. Chewed oil and should have been booked for underage smoking.
SAAB 900 Turbo: One of the early turbocharged cars. Unhappily the turbo unit didn't outlive the tyres. Major engine problems and expensive to fix. Despite being Swedish, they rattled and squeaked.
Rover Vitesse: Designed around a large-dimension, mid-capacity V8 engine, but they also fitted six-cylinder engines in the UK which were complete duds. They even considered a four-cylinder plant! The electrics were UK Lucas, known for good reason as the Prince of Darkness.
Mitsubishi Magna: Early models fell apart before they needed their first refuelling. Early carby engines were known to have four-cylinder performance and six-cylinder economy.

Hummer: America's insensitive answer to the first Gulf War. An itinerant in San Francisco actually spat on one I was driving. Although mechanically sound, a GM PR disaster.

**Ralph1Malph** · 9th January 2014, 08:41 AM

In 2010 I hired a Lancia Delta - one of the new ones, 2009 model, for a trip around Italy and my treat, to drive the Stelvio Pass.
Irt was not a bad car actually, well appointed and comfy.
In order to save a few bucks, I went the diesal manual

.
On the flat it was great, but the turbo lag was as bad as my Disco

and negotiating the Stelvio and hills of Italy, I basically had to keep in it near redline to harness the torque. A bit of finess required but worked it out in the end.
I was told, the petrol best suits the manual, diesal the auto...oh well.

Otherwise a pretty flash critter.

Ralph

**Bigbjorn** · 9th January 2014, 09:07 AM

It is a bit unfair to be comparing cars of the 40's, 50's, 60's with modern ones. There have been exponential improvements since the late 60's.

The worst modern(ish) cars I was ever lumbered with was a Sigma. A bright spark in our Sydney head office decreed that the fleet had to go to 'four cylinder economy'. Wasn't he led up the garden path. Sigmas without a/c used more fuel than the Commodores with a/c that they replaced. Oil consumption was horrific. Bad dust entry which is really a great attribute for a country rep's car. Anyone over 5'10" ended up with a crook neck or back due to the lack of headroom.

I started driving in 1956. As a poverty stricken apprentice I drove a number of cheap and badly worn pre-war cars so I won't dwell on them but start again from about 1960 when I was able to afford post-war cars. Pretty well anything made in England, France, or Italy were rubbish bar the big Humbers, big Citroens although maintaining these would really try your patience. I had a Ferrari 212 Export for a while. Great street racer but keeping it going for more than two days out of ten was not on the agenda. Then there was a 1959 Corvette. A bitzer, quite non-original, wrong engine, wrong trans, competition brakes that didn't work cold, but stone reliable and lightning fast. wish I still had it. My wife's 1972 Ford Escort 1300 auto must get in the hat as one of the worst, bog slow, thirsty, cramped, expensive parts, pain to work on. My current Falcon ute is a complete pos. Totally electrically unreliable until all Ford Autokraft components were replaced where possible by Bosch, thirsty, cramped, rusty.

**trog** · 9th January 2014, 09:09 AM

By far the worst car I had was a 1972 Ford Galaxy. The v8" ran" on maybe 5 cylinders drivers window wouldnt wind down and the indicaters didnt work. As I was a 16 year on on a learners permit and no repair money each drive required 3 people, the front seat licenced driver and a back seat rider to perform the necessary left and right turn arm signals. Once my licence was acquired the ownership was quickly transferred to the local wreckers and I was allowed to drive the newer family death trap , a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba of a similar mechanical quality. I think my father was secretly trying to kill me!

**Saitch** · 9th January 2014, 09:12 AM

My B-I-L's early 2000 & something Alpha takes the cake for me (& him)! Trying to put your foot on the "Go" pedal without touching the brake was nigh impossible without wearing Italian style, toe cramping, pointy leather shoes. Same with the clutch. Pedals the size of a 50c coin. The glue used on the dash etc melted in the 1st summer, seats were crap, handled crap & accelerated to match. All in all the biggest piece of **** ever, even worse than my S-I-L's MGB & that's a big call!

**SuperMono** · 9th January 2014, 09:33 AM

In absolute terms probably a Morris Marina that had been poorly maintained, everything that moved was worn out and everything else was broken.
It was a danger to all around.

In relative terms a Lada Samara, if it was actually finished it was a disgrace.
Terrible build quality, even at the price against competition.
My parents actually bought a second one as it was the only way they could get rid of the first one, trade it in on the 'new and improved' model.
It was new, it was barely improved.

The second one was replaced with a Daewoo based on a 1980s Opel.
Even as a 20 year old design it was way better than the Lada, which I think was based on a 1940s refrigerator, only not as reliable, or functional, or comfortable.

**carjunkieanon** · 9th January 2014, 09:38 AM

No power steering, no syncro on 1st & 2nd, wandered all over the lane, top cruising speed of about 80kmph, fuel economy 25l/100km, bare metal interior, windows didn't slide, dreadful handling.

Loved every second in my 1971 series 2a

**UncleHo** · 9th January 2014, 10:12 AM

In an effort to get to Toowoomba Royal Show dog show one year, when my car was being serviced (which they stuffed up) we hired a Nissan Prairie a strange little front drive van type people carrier,it drove and rode like a mower powered skate board

it shook at all and any bump,handled like a 48 Ford Anglia/Prefect with the braking abilities of the Prefect,and we paid for the privilege

Boy was I happy to get the EH Hydro-magic wagon back,at least it's handling was predictable,helped by Boosted brakes and heavier rear springs

**Bigbjorn** · 9th January 2014, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by SuperMono

In absolute terms probably a Morris Marina that had been poorly maintained, everything that moved was worn out and everything else was broken.
It was a danger to all around.

.

Morris Marina were dangerous when new, particularly the six cylinder version. This was the extreme example of understeer. We had some of these at Leyland Truck and bus as company cars. In country rep's service they used to literally disintegrate. Bits were continually coming loose and falling off. Front suspension became worn and rattly within a few thousand miles.

**Hall** · 9th January 2014, 12:02 PM

Had a Toyota stout. Was the heavy duty model with the old I beam front end with king pins. There was a light stout with your more standard front end with coil springs. This was a 1970 model and had single line drum brakes. You had to adjust each drum so they would grab at about the same time. You soon learned to keep in the left lane so when you needed to pull up in a hurry you could veer of the road and stop, some times past the car in front. Steering was interesting, non power steering and would tram track real easy.
Another ute I had was a 1970 crown ute. Was the poverty pack model with a 4cyl motor. You could get the ute with a six. This ute weighed in at a bit under two tonnes empty and was powered by a two litre motor. So as you may assume correctly it had the power of a four and fuel economy of a V8. You could see the fuel gauge moving to empty as you drove. Other than being under powered it was not bad. Lastly I owned a 1978 Volvo 265 for a short while. Would have been a good bus if the motor had not been taken from a tractor ( well it seemed like a motor from a tractor.) It had as standard a lower compression of eight to one were as the norm I think started at nine to one. Had a intake system that had multiple right angle bends. So the 2.7 ltr motor lacked compression and had asthma, was coupled to a auto box (was a four speed well ahead of it`s time ) and fitted to a heavy wagon. So performance and this model Volvo where not used in the same sentence often. Do now remember just recently the grown up kids reminiscing of there total embarrassment as much smaller kids being driven around in the Volvo.
Cheers Hall

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