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

We have a one year old Yaris bought as an urban runabout. I would have preferred a Fiesta, but The Navigator liked the Yaris better. I recently drove it to Sydney and back and it wasn't too bad. Its a typical Toyota - competent at everything, but outstanding at nothing.

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I once rebuilt a Eagle RV kit car (knock off of the Jeep Renegade body on a primitive ladder chassis with MkIV Ford Cortina mechanicals). It came with massive BF Goodrich tyres which overloaded the wheel bearings and adjustable spax dampers which I set to maximum where they promptly broke the suspension mounts because they were now too stiff. There was too little weight on too fat tyres, the axle tramp was something horrible and wheelspin unavoidable. Oh and the windscreen popped out of the frame at 130kph.

That was my 2nd worst car.

My worst ever car was a 2003 model Renault Laguna Dynamique that I bought in 2004 and part exd in 2007 to buy Daisy.
- I cracked a head lamp cover on an Autobahn. By the time I got home the xenon lamp had failed as had the ballast resistor. I had to buy a complete headlamp assembly and only Renault could fit it as only they had the software needed to align the lamp (to say nothing of all the special-to-type single-use fastenings). You had to drop the front valance off the car to change the pod and no, you could not buy a cover to protect the headlight in the first place. Cost - £650!
- It needed new brake discs before 40000km
- I cracked a rear light cover (my fault) and that came in at £75
- The radiator leaked
- The exhaust was blowing
- It was on its 3rd set of tyres when I got shot of it
- A front CV joint was rumbling
- The next routine service was going to come in at £850
- Bits of the dashboard kept falling off

In fact, looking at that list you can suddenly forgive a Land Rover for quite a lot.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

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

Just about fell off my bloody chair when I saw "R16" .... those ugly things were brilliant cars... My grandfather used to travel at the redline in top gear everywhere from what I can tell. He reckon the faster you went the harder it seemed to corner (it seemed to push itself into the road). He was a truck mechanic way back then. He'd throw his tools into the hatch and travel flat out ... 100mph+ all the way to broken down truck. Not much traffic on the roads back in the 60's at 3:00am

My mother had one for years when I was a kid. I remember her complaining bitterly to my father when I was about 14years old 'cos it was running so poorly.... Eventually I said "you know it's knocking away on 2cylinders all the time"... He'd take it out and thrash the **** out of it and say "runs great". My mother would drive it on light throttle and it'd run on 2cylinders everywhere. He finally looked at it and found 4 burnt away plugs and cremated points. Yep it hadn't been touched in 5years and was still going. Only having had petrol added to it in all that time. You just couldn't kill 'em.

seeya,
Shane L.

Originally Posted by Allan

A 4x4 Jimny hire car in Broome that we drove to the oyster farm, and, now I have modern euro cars, a Land Rover Defender. No other vehicle makes you feel so alone in the North West It's about as safe and as modern as a T Rex and drives and rides like a T Ford. A total heap of ****. Best move we ever made was to get shut of it, as TaTa should A.S.P. I think I would rather take the bus.

What I would like to know just how many of these modern euro cars did it take to replace the humble defender.
Lots of defenders traveling around the north west.

Mocky.

Aah! the rear engine Renault R750 beetle I can still remember going to and returning from the Gold Coast in about 1960 with 5 of us teenagers stuffed in the mate's mothers 750 including 2 girls (she didn't know about them), Oh! what fun it boiled 13 times, as we were trying to keep up with a MK 2 Ford Zephyr

Shortly after I bought an Austin A40 Tourer.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Morris Marina were dangerous when new, particularly the six cylinder version. This was the extreme example of understeer.

My first (working) car! A 1974 Golden Jubilee TC. At the age of 20 I think I looked at the extreme understeer as a challenge! I do remember it being quick in a straight line, especially with the air-filter restrictions removed.......and I didn't crash it..........

From that point of view it is not on my list of worst cars.....to the DAF33 I will add;

Austin Metro (tin can on wheels)
Austin 1800 - Vague wallowy hyrolastic suspension, although it had/has a good following
Citroen Dyane - again it has its supporters but I didn't/still don't understand it
And the Early Hyundai Excel (I think 89 ?)

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Garry, it is legal to drive on the road a vehicle without doors or it have a special number plate?

Is fully road legal - it is now on historic rego but at the time the pic was taken last year it was on full rego. It has lap seat belts so you cannot fall out with the doors off.

Garry

By far the worst thing I have driven was a 1983 Camira, It was a new one owned by a mate's girlfriend and I got to drive it over the Bells line of road on a wet evening. The terminal understeer terrified me to the point that I was doing 60KM/H around corners that I would not think about doing 100 around normally lest it understeer into the wrong lane.

More recently I had a ford Taurus rentacar in the states in about 2006 that was so woeful compared to the current crop of Australian vehicles it was at least a decade behind. 12" rear drum brakes in 2006.... really??

Regards,
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