If you’re a fan of Led Zeppelin, you might want to put on The Lemon Song for this one. Yes, after owning an Audi and many Volkswagens, this one, a Chevy Suburban of all things, takes the cake for the absolute lemoniest and most frightening of them all!
Our family was growing, and an Audi 4000 just didn’t cut the mustard nay more. Michelle wanted a big family hauler. One day she told me in an exited voice that there was a Suburban for sale real cheap down the road. I was nonplussed and told her that there was probably a good reason it was so cheap. But she insisted that I come and see it. I refused, because 1) it was a GM product from the 80’s; 2) it wasn’t even four wheel drive; and 3) I hated Suburbans. So while I was at work she made some phone calls and got to bargaining with the owner. When I got home she informed me that I would be trading my engine hoist and four hundred dollars for the Suburban. So I did.
Apparently this vehicle, and I use that word in the loosest sense of the term, had not been driven for awhile. So it needed a battery, gas, the brakes needed bleeding, etc. When I finally got it home, it did not run well. But at this point I think I will let Michelle tell the story as she was the one driving it most of the time:
The first time I saw the white Chevy suburban, it was love at first sight. I was driving out in the country and I passed this house with a two-wheel-drive Chevy Suburban for sale. I had wanted one for a long time. At that time a decent Suburban was more than I could afford. I slowed down and looked at the price. They only wanted $600 for it. I did’t have it at the time, so I wrote down the phone number and when I got home I called them. I am a little fuzzy on how all of this happened, but initially I talked to them and they thought that they had it sold. Then about two months later I was at the grocery store and the people that owned the Suburban put a note on my window that they still had the Suburban and were willing to make a trade if I did not have the money.
I was very excited but I knew Michael did’t think that it was a good Idea at all. I drove home and told him the good news, and he sighed, mightily. So I called the people to see what they would trade for. It turns out that the man wanted an engine hoist and we happened to have one so we drove down there with the engine hoist and three hundred dollars. It started up with some help (it had been sitting a while.). It seemed to work ok for the price. I drove it away with my husband following me. I loved the truck and its nice intact upholstery. If I remember correctly it had electrical issues but Michael straightened those out fairly quickly.
I am not a great judge of what is good or bad in a vehicle. I am perhaps a typical women in that I like what I like, and it does not matter about anything else. I probably should have heeded Michael’s sighing, especially since it was so loud. It was a complete lemon.
The electrical problems that Michael “fixed”? Well they kept getting worse. We lived out in the country at the time and our family would drive back and forth to Salem from the small town we lived in. One night that I remember vividly: my mother, grandmother, children, and I were driving home from town and the whole electrical system shut down in the rain. We were way out in the country, and we had no lights, wind shield wipers, heat, nothing. And to make matters worse, the brakes also went out on a hill in the rain. Two old women, and children crying in the back, in the country, on a deserted road, going fifty mph with no brakes.
This was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. I needed to figure out quickly what to do next. So I did the only thing I could do: I threw the automatic transmission into first, and the truck lurched and started to slow. I turned onto a side road to help slow it more and put on the emergency brake. The truck was not going very fast at this point, however it still squealed. I don’t remember all the specifics of that night (I have probably blocked it out!). But some how we got that beast to a friend’s house where I called my Michael. This was not the first time that it broke down and did weird things, but it was the worst and last. I am not sure what happened to the truck and at that point I didn’t care. I swore never to pick a vehicle again.
As for myself, I just remember it being a piece of crap. I remember it dropping gears left and right until there was only second gear. We drove it all the way to town that way once, and then the alternator went out. After the no brakes experience Michelle and the ladies had with it, I was through with it, and she was too. It brought at least two hundred dollars in scrap money from the metal though!
It’s a funny thing, even my Audi was more dependable than that Suburban. It goes to show, it’s not as much about what you buy as it is about how it’s been taken care of (with some notable exceptions). But it taught me that when buying a used car on the cheap, never to buy something with multiple system issues. Take for instance a car that had a very bad front suspension and bad tires. If the other parts of it were in good shape, it might be worth fixing. But lets say it also needed a water pump and the radio is broken. In that case it’s obviously been neglected and there will surely be system wide issues with it.
Of course if you really want a good used car, just spring for a two year old one that has already had the first owner eat the initial depreciation on it as it rolled off the lot. Usually first owners are good with the maintenance as well. Second owners, usually the first one’s kids, not so much. And third owners, well they are just buying something cheap and treat it like something cheap. Usually after them it should really go to the scrapyard. But at least in my state it usually gets sold to someone who does not have a drivers license and is only buying it because the registration tags are still good. These cars are really the living dead, the zombies of the auto world and they are (only) worth their weight in iron .
And thus ends our treatise on the white whale. This was a cautionary tale; learn from my mistakes and advance up the automotive food chain! And I swear to you the next car will not be a Rabbit of any kind. You believe me don’t you? Now the big question is what’s the worst vehicle you have ever owned?
I’ve had a few family members with Suburbans and you’re right Michael, neglect will kill a vehicle regardless of it’s make, model, or country of origin. My Uncle Denny had a mid 80s model 4×4, 6.2ltr diesel, automatic, and he just couldn’t kill it. Eventually the rear AC unit died but he took all the seats out except the drivers and passengers seats and used it as a farm truck to well past 300,000 miles. The ignition switch got to the point where you could start it without the key, just grip the switch and turn! Eventually it was replaced by a 1991 2wd 454V8 model which stayed in the family for many, many years. (I think it’s still out there doing farm duty somewhere.)
Roughly 2 years ago my father bought a high mileage 1995 model in Chevy’s famous “Victory Red” with a tan interior. It’s a 4×4 350V8 model and other than some creeping rust in one or two places looks and runs pretty dang good for something with well over 100,000 miles on it. Of course he purchased it from a local family that owns an auto repair shop.
My worst car? Likely the 1982 Chevy Celebrity that was my first car, I have many fond memories but that car never was 100% right mechanically or electrically the whole time I owned it (1993 to 1997) but that car always reminds me how much cars have improved since the 70s and 80s.
I remember 2 things about this generation of Suburban-The prodigious appetite for fuel and the propensity for the floors to develop rust holes big enough for your kids to fall through.
6.2L diesel engine and annual undercarriage oil sprays solve those problems. 🙂
My dad had a 1988 Suburban 2WD with the 6.2L diesel. He was the second owner, and bought it in 1998. It was already 10 years old but still in excellent condition and had had one repaint over original steel. The first owner used it to tow an Airstream trailer down south, so it didn’t see much winter road salt before he bought it. Was a very dependable vehicle, which he replaced last year with a 2006 Chevy 3500 crewcab with the Duramax diesel. Technically he still has the Suburban, sitting in the driveway. Like a zombie it sits, not quite alive yet not quite dead. I told him he should keep it around as a winter beater, since the drivetrain is still good and he had the trans overhauled not too long before he parked it, but he can’t be bothered.
I had an 84 GMC 2500 van with 6.2L diesel. I was the third owner; my dad had been the second owner. I drove it til 2001, then parked it to use as a parts vehicle for the Suburban. One of the reasons I replaced it was constant electrical gremlins. I’d clean the electrical contacts on the afflicted part and apply dielectric grease to keep them from corroding again, but it wouldn’t last. I think that GM must’ve used cheap electrical contacts that didn’t maintain their tension once they got old or something. The cct. breaker in the wiper motor got soft too, and would pop when the wipers ran for more than a few minutes, making for some hairy situations on the highway.
My worst vehicle, by far, was my second 1984 VW Rabbit diesel. Only car I’ve owned that I sold instead of scrapping. (I bought it from a shady fly-by-night used car dealer and sold it to another one for 1/10th of what I paid.) I blame the hackish mechanics that worked on it before I bought it though, not VW. I’ll have to fill in the details later though.
Little tip, dielectric grease is not for and does not prevent corrosion. If you want to corrosion proof your terminals use a white lithium grease like used from the factory on many modern cars.
Sorry Scoutdude, you are mistaken. Silicone grease (aka dielectric grease) is used in many waterproofing applications. In addition to being nonconductive, it also does not damage rubber and plastics as petroleum-based greases will.
http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/8462.html
GM solved the connector issues with the introduction of it’s Weathertight connectors, some of the best out there.
Some in-laws had an 88 that ran for a long, long time. Creamish yellow and red, it always reminded me of a bread truck. At the end of its life, a niece refused to drive it, calling it the Loser Cruiser. It did seem to have an appetite for transmissions, but maybe no more than usual.
Worst vehicle ever. This is a hard one, there are so many criteria.
New car with lots of warranty repairs and un-stoppable water leak into the body by age 2? 85 VW GTI.
Most unpleasant to drive? 63 F-100 with extra leaves in the springs which made it ride like a 1920 Dump truck with solid tires and which required steering effort worthy of a Charles Atlas graduate.
Biggest disappointment that never ran right? 77 New Yorker with the Lean Burn 440.
Maybe the winner has to be my 63 Cadillac Fleetwood. Any lesser car would never have made it to that point. The original owner cared for it, then her son got it and kind of cared for it, but the grandkids beat it mercilessly. It still looked pretty decent and I bought it for $400 in 1978. Over the next 6 months, I did brake lines (rusted), CV joints (yes, it had 2 of them in the driveshaft), Exhaust system, and transmission seals. It needed carb work (7.5 mpg on premium). There was a wiring issue so that the wipers would not shut off when the car was cold inside and the power antenna only worked sometimes. I was a broke college student and did not have either the time to keep wrenching on it or the money to pay to have it done. The car seemed to cost me about $100 every month or two, which was a lot of money for a college student in 1978. It was a really stout car that had been neglected and run hard. I had to sell it after 6 months because my money was gone. The advice of Howard, my car mentor, continues to ring in my ears: “Never buy an old luxury car.”
‘Never buy an old luxury car”
You’ve helped me remember why I drove VW Beetles in that era of life. Simplicity. And one could always rebuild a motor on one’s kitchen table.
Excellent advise, unless it’s a well maintained Mercedes W123.
I mentioned it in the engine death comments a couple weeks ago, but here it is again. 2002 VW Passat wagon with the 1.8t. Ironically the newest and most expensive car I ever bought, they were not known as paragons of reliability even with religious maintenance.
We had it for 10 months and 10,000 miles, and during that period just about every sensor and relay lined up and took turns dying, each within a week of the previous one. It was slow as hell, returning 22mpg on premium no matter the driving conditions. Shortly before it gave up the ghost for good, I spent two days flushing oil out of the cooling system with Shout, after the oil cooler went. I never did get the heater core completely unclogged, so the heat was lukewarm to boot. In January.
The 1.8 sludge problem finally reared its ugly head in February, dropping the oil pressure at random times. VW’s Hal 9000 info display would freak out and tell me to stop immediately, but by the time I got a pressure gauge on it it was fine. Then one day it wasn’t. I happened to be within 1/2 mile of a VW dealership, having just purchased a new dipstick, when the clattering started. I got back and just left the car, knowing it was a goner. They pulled the valve cover to reveal burnt valves and scored cams. They gave me $850 for it and I said goodbye. A month later I spotted it at a used car place on the side of the freeway, and popped in to see. I’m guessing they just cleaned out the oil pan/pickup screen and sold it on the down the line. The place was asking more than I had paid for it originally, and I pity the fool who bought it.
I’ve never owned a ‘Burban, but my sister did. I wasn’t aware of ‘Cowboy Chic’ until she moved to Oklahoma and took on some of the culture there. One time in the mid 80’s she and her family came home to NEOhio to visit and brought their fully loaded Suburban. 454/automatic, dual air, loaded to the gills, tinted windows, the whole rack. I don’t know how well it ran for them, as I only encountered it once, but wow, what a ride. Even if it wasn’t anything I would have considered before I saw one.
I think I may have mentioned this before, but my worst ride ever was our Mercury Topaz. (This is the bad thing about posting on old cars here and on TTAC. You forget where you said what. I don’t want to repeat myself). I feel particularly bad, because I’m the one who recommended it. It had never ending issues, engine problems, electrical issues, tie rod ends, oil leaks, etc. When she got her Honda Accord (at the age of 75!) she wanted to dispose of the Topaz. I was living in Georgia at the time, and only got occasional reports on the car from my brothers who were responsible for taking care of the car for her.
I should have known that something was up when my permanently hard-up for money brother turned down the car. I took it, as my commute in Atlanta was a car killer, and I thought it would be nice to have a car that was good on gas and working A/C! As it turns out, because there were ongoing issues with the car, I gave it to my wife to drive (she only drove about 10 miles a day), but it never left her stranded. I continued to hammer away at my steadfast Lancer Turbo instead. It was up to the task.
Because it was paid for, we brought it up to Grand Rapids when we moved up here, then the rust started to settle in. So between the oil leaks I could never completely fix, the transmission issues, phenomenally bad brakes (inexplicable leaks and squeaks), four bad and expensive to fix MacPherson struts and now rust, I sold the car to a Mexican guy. I guess he was thrilled to buy it for $300, as he didn’t haggle on the price.
It was the only time I felt bad selling someone a car. I had another bad Mercury after that one, but when it was time to get rid of that one, I gave it to a charity that fixes old cars (or parts them out) to train folks who need jobs and cars. I felt much better about that one…
The ’79 Ford Country Squire was unquestionably the very worst car I ever owned. Usually I’m pretty lucky with all things mechanical, but that horrible, horrible car was just a complete nightmare!
It really had no excuse, as it had been well-maintained from new and had low miles. Yet it was always breaking down. Random electrical things quit working intermittently, the locks and latches were balky and sometimes refused to work, the 2-way tailgate could rarely be coaxed into opening sideways and sometimes wouldn’t open at all. And of course it never ran smoothly for more than a week at a time, punished me when I was in a hurry by giving me only 6 mpg, went through a ridiculously large pile of parts in a mere 8 months of ownership, PLUS was basically undriveable on non-perfect roads at speeds over 75 mph due to the danger of losing control from all the bouncing and floating over bumps and expansion joints. Initially I planned to do a few minor upgrades to the suspension, steering, and engine but as the car was always having some emergency or another I never got to it.
I know they improved the Panther platform over the years, but the trauma of that car has made it almost impossible for me to even consider another Panther.
’96 Intrepid, bought in 2000. I needed something large and cheap as a family hauler, and was punished for being a Mopar homer.
Front end made from Tinkertoys, motor mounts of Marshmallow Fluff. A/C system scavenged from a condemned housing project and a starter from a Waring blender. Dark red paint that faded to Streetwalker Press-On Raspberry Sparkle in less than a year.
Really have trouble ever seeing myself in another modern Chrysler product, although I do like looking at new Challengers.
Ha, at least it was worth the lulz
I’ve had a few cars over the years and most of them were very reliable, enough so that they almost never left me stranded with a mechanical failure of any major sort.
I’ve been thankful to have had little to no electrical problems either, save the wiring harness for the headlights in my 88 Honda Accord due to them being popup units, but that was more from mileage and use than anything else.
I’ve had to replace the alternator on I think the 78 Ford Fairmont but definitely the 83 Civic that came after the Ford and have had to replace the thermostat at least 3 vehicles, the Ford, I think, the Accord and the truck I drive now.
But the absolute worst car I’ve own was a 1978 Chevy Nova 2 door. A base bench seat 2 door (not even a split bench at that) with the 305 V8 and 3spd column automatic but DID have AC, ralley wheels, twin sport mirrors and an AM/8-track factory deck with supposedly 50K miles on it, originally from Texas and had hail stone dents all over the top of the car, hood and truck and was yellow with tan vinyl interior.
Within 2 months, the camshaft goes and it had to be replaced. The mechanic that did the work told me that the 305 V8 had oiling issues around the camshaft and they tended to go about every 50K or so and had the transmission serviced and was “told” by the transmission shop that whoever serviced it previously did a pretty poor job and the torque converted was “painted” or something like that. Anyway, the transmission never gave me any troubles but it would be the car that I’d wreck, slowly but surely being a delivery driver for Domino’s, only to loose that job in early 1986 due to one too many accidents (hey, young, barely 21 and had to deal with the then 30 Min delivery guarantee) and sold it for not much, running but the body, the front sub frame and such were shot, not by rust, but by my carelessness while driving.
The ’78 Fairmont was the second worst car, not so much for reliability issues as it was pretty good in that department, but it was slow as molasses. developed severe carb trouble, to the point that the air filter would clog up super fast and cause the poor motor to starve for air, no fast idle when cold. The new carb didn’t help much in the performance but it then had a fast idle so it would run without much issues when first started finally. I’ve had to replace the alternator, I think but definitely the starter once and the fan belt and had the transmission fixed as the thrust plate for the torque converter sheered, causing all the tranny fluid to get dumped onto the ground.
I sold the car to a Mexican guy. I guess he was thrilled to buy it for $300, as he didn’t haggle on the price.
I remain astounded that when I think I’ve totally used up my vehicles, I will sell them cheaply to someone who finds creative ways to keep them running long after I’ve given up the ghost. I see my ’82 Toyota around town once in a while – I sold it for $800 with 400,000 miles back in the late ’90s. The gentleman I sold it too has passed it through each of his kids through high school, and now is the one driving it again after they’ve moved off. Pretty cool.
@Dave M. Yeah, the second bad Mercury I mentioned that I sold to the charity that fixes cars ended up getting rehabbed and on the road again. I remember seeing the car running down one of the local thoroughfares here in town and wondering if it was my old Merc. I could see the I (heart) soccer sticker my kids stuck on the rear bumper, the charity didn’t remove it.
The guy who bought it lived nearby, but I never told him I was the previous owner. I can only imagine the grief I’d get if he found out I’d owned the car…
It may not be politically correct to say it, but it’s the truth in my experience that predominately folks from the country to the south of us buy such rigs up here. Usually it’s for the tags.
New Suburbans…now, those are nice. Tall Cadillacs. Well, it’s true…if you’re going to ask 40 grand for a rig, and sell a very slightly modified version as a Cadillac, you have to make it decent inside, and somewhat reliable to boot. Old Suburbans, well, if you think of them as old luxury cars with the same sorts of pitfalls you’ll do well.
I remember talking to a guy with a new 1982 Suburban, razzing him about how many months it would be before the seam between the top of the rear quarter window and the back of the truck rusted out. He told me that he’d noticed that, and had spent some time talking to factory reps etc. about it, and they had figured out that it depended on which worker put that part of the truck together on the assembly line.
My brother had a couple of different Suburbans of that era – one a very plain ex-state-owned rig, and one pretty well loaded one that he still has…good experiences with both.
My worst car: one’s standard’s and expectations change over the decades. Our first new car, a 1985 Jeep Cherokee, was a distinct disappointment in terms of how much we spent on it. Way too many trips to the dealer, and then later….all kinds of stuff.
But the 1981 Mazda 626 I picked up from St. Vinnies for son Edward (his first car) turned into an endless stream of repairs. After totally ripping out the dash to get to the heater core, I was pretty done with it, especially since he just watched, having no mechanical interest or aptitude. When the brakes failed, it went back to wher it came from.
@Paul: “one’s standard’s and expectations change over the decades.”
Very true. If a car stranded me when I was single and living in my hometown. it was mostly an inconvenience.
The car that stranded my wife and kids outside the closed shopping mall in the rain, it was a total @#$@#$@#$!!, and I will never buy that kind of car again…
Usually what will make me dump the car is when you get to the nickel and dime stage. I can put up with a sudden expensive emergency if it happens only once during my time with the car. But several of the cars I’ve gotten rid of is because there was a new but small problem seemingly every week. Sometimes I could attend to them quickly, others not.
Once the nickels and dimes piled up enough, it was time to move on to the next car.
So many candidates – tough to pick the worst.
Had a new 1979 Mercury Zephyr Wagon, slow, uncomfortable, wouldn’t track a straight line down the highway-sold to a co-worker who had smashed up his car.
Replaced the Mercury with new 81 Dodge Omni that was really comfortable and peppy/pleasant to drive but plagued with continual repair issues. Traded the Omini for a used 81 Corolla wagon about 1985. Bought a used 89 Lincoln Continental for my wife, a really beautiful car with comfort that was unprecedented in 92. The HVAC system soon refused to provide heat in the winter and no cooling in the summer. The temp gauge on dash would spike to overheat quite often for no apparent reason. Dealer service manager could find no reason for any of that and claimed the car was fine. Suggested if I was unhappy I should trade it for a different one. So we did, traded it for a new 1993 Nissan Maxima that lasted 10 years and over 250,000 trouble free miles. The Maxima provided peace of mind but not the comfort of the short-lived Lincoln. The Lincoln was the worst I guess because it was the most disappointing and frustrating. I recall it was towed in twice during our 18 months of ownership, once for serpentine belt and I have forgotten what the other tow was about. During the years from 1978 – 1988 I also was driving a 1975 Toyota Chinook camper for my advertising sales business – thus my name Chinookfan – my favorite ride.
Of all the cars I see at the junkyard I get parts from, the ’88-92 Continental is unique in that they are picked over very, very slowly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one picked clean like I have Panthers or virtually any other model. Also, they are very over-represented considering they weren’t a high production model to begin with. And lastly, the ones in the yard are seldom wrecked-they end up there because mechanically they’re a shit car.
I have often caught myself thinking I could find a nice one (I’ve always loved the looks) and keep it running, but once you replace the air suspension with steel, you still have that terrible AXOD transmission to deal with. And once that is rebuilt well enough to be kinda sorta reliable, you’ve got to worry about the 3.8 v6 eating head gaskets. And once you get that going, there’s still the dash chock full of antiquated, complicated electronics.
But hey! There’s plenty of parts in the junk yard….
I think my 1989 Toronado Trofeo was probably the worst car mechanically that I ever owned.
I loved that car and had secretly wanted one, from the time it was new until 10 years later when I bought this silver beauty.
New I had considered it a Grand Am in a Tux and would never have paid luxury prices for it.
Perhaps jamming all that luxury equipment under such a small hood had rendered it inevitably trouble prone. I RARELY see any surviving examples of any of the 1986-92 Toronadoes.
The Electrical bugaboos – such as the car turning off going down hill at 35 mph and having to stop and steer it manually upon such short notice took away any confidence I had in my prize find.
I still love the way these cars looked, even if it was just lipstick on a pig.
I had an 84 suburban with the 6.2 olds diesel. It was ragged out and worn out but easy to work on and keep going, and the parts were $4-$10 at my local Pickapart. Wiper motor, heater,fan motor aftermarket radio, and so much more. It wouldn’t go any faster than 65 mph without the temp gauge climbing towards the red and I had to put in a quart of generic Dextron every other tank but it never stopped running during the two years I had it. If I set the cruise at 60 mph it would return 23 mpg with the a/c going on a trip.
The worst car I had? My late mother’s 87 devile. Horrible in every way and a monthly nickel and dimer ($50-$100 repairs/parts) without fail. The final straw was a simultaneous failure of the A/C in summer (Mom had spent over $1500 fixing it before she passed away) and one of the motor mounts (thunk whenever I hit the gas) with less than 100,000 miles on the odometer.
The 6.2 was not the “Olds” diesel. The Olds diesel was 350cid (5.7L).
Yup, 6.2 was a Chevy unit designed to be diesel. Toward the end of production it was even possible to order a Bank’s Turbo kit for it, a few dealers installed them for customers.
A mechanic told me it was based on the Olds 350. Researching on Wiki just now convinces me the guy was a dumbass. Surely a Detroit Diesel looks different than an Olds? I’m glad he never got to seriously work on it.
Another used luxury car.
I come from a garage background so I can usually make good car decisions. Except one time, that is. It was 2005 and I had recently returned from Asia with wife, two little kids and little in the way of money. Vancouver is not, I repeat not, a beater town. You cannot show up at a client’s home with a POS. At the time I was working for GM as a service advisor but my intention was to start a business, so I needed decent wheels. At the time, GM was practically giving cars away as well as practically begging employees to buy or lease one.
We had not seen many Aveos back for repair so I thought it would be a safe buy. Har-har, with the benefit of hindsight. I took the plunge and ended up with an Aveo LS with all the toys except air (not really needed here) for an all in lease price of $190 a month, dirt cheap.
The day I picked the car up, it knocked when I started it. Silly me, I thought, “Well, a lifter has drained out since it has been sitting so long.” To make a very long story short, in 20,000 km the car had a complete long block engine, two computers and a transmission, not to mention a myriad of other little problems. The dealer I had worked for went belly-up just after I got the Aveo and the local GM store was absolutely horrid in their service, or lack thereof. For example, it took them ten weeks to change the motor and all the while I had a Buick Lacrosse, which used fuel like a Peterbuilt in Vancouver’s awful traffic. After the second computer went up in smoke (literally) while making a left hand turn (and nearly killing me in the process) I vowed to get rid of the thing at all costs, which I did. I then bought a 2008 Fit which has given perfect service ever since.
My biggest disappointment was a motorcycle. I scoped a really clean 1984 Yamaha XJ750RL, a European sport-tour bike, in 1986. It had very low km and looked great. The guy selling it was a little anxious to unload it and I later found out why. Before a big road trip, I took it for service and when it returned, it stated to completely crap and bog out intermittently. It seemed to do it on left hand turns only, making death immanent. I would take it back to the shop and they could not find a thing wrong with it. I was then faced by the dilemma of replacing coils, spark leads, rebuilding carbs or flogging it. I chose the flog route.
There are the fabled cream-puff used cars out there if you have cash and time to look. The thing is you need to snap them up when you have the chance. Last year I snatched up a mint 2000 Acura TL with all of 66,000 km on it, local car, one owner with complete service records. I paid $9200 for it, which is on the high side, but it has been flawless since I got it. My experience has taught me it is better to pay a little more upfront because the down the road costs are much higher if you don’t. Low km, one owner, records, local and luxury car is the way to go in my opinion. People who can spring $45,000 for car tend to keep them up nicely.
I’m thinking things went south at about this point:
“At that time a decent Suburban was more than I could afford.”
The operative word being, “decent”.
My worst car? Probably the ’80 (and thus non-turbo) 300D I had for about six months. Good bones (of course, it was a W123), but everything on it that was not the engine block was deteriorating more rapidly than I could pay to fix in good conscience.
yep, and those w123s are great.
Worst car ever its a tossup between VW Kombi and Simca Aronde. The Simca never ran right the electrics never worked properly night travel only happened once it caught fire and apart from being 50 miles from home I would have let it burn to the ground but no I got it running again and swapped it and a stereo for a souped up Austin A40 Farina a week later The Kombi was different everything worked initially and then failed in a sort of seqence from the front I rewired the headlights only to have the tailights fail redid the brakes just in time for the fuel pump to quit Repaired the left front passenger door in time for the slider to fall off which was fixed a week before the engine ate a piston staight to the scrapyard. I saw it 10 years later at Riverstone Wreckers while searching for EH Holden parts not one item had been removed I got my $100 and fled.
My grandpa drove a Simca! I don’t remember it though. I wish I could own an old Holden. But not in this county.
Worst vehicle I have ever owned? That’s an easy one – the first vehicle I bought new and even ordered from the factory – my 1976 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup truck (my wife called it the ‘fire engine’!). That thing got me to hate, absolutely abhor ANYTHING from Chevy or GM for 20 years and turned me to AMC, Chrysler and Ford!
The massive 292 six went out at only 4 months old – at least Chevy replaced the engine – never got over 13.5 mpg. Floor started rusting immediately, which I caught in time and fixed – at that time I used to diassemble my cars to tighten things up and discover oversights such as that. Ditto for leaks. Sad, but it was bright red with a white cab roof. Custom Deluxe, manual everything, full instrumentation, a real cool vehicle that let me down big time. I even did a little custom work on it like blacking out the dull areas on the headlight surrounds and filling in the middle area of the white front bumper with black vinyl material to accent the looks. Oh well…
I took delivery the day after Thanksgiving, 1975 and sold it the day after Thanksgiving, 1977 – two years to the day to a guy and his wife who dearly loved it.
This was a couple of months after we were married, I sold the truck for almost what I paid for it – $3600 vs. $4200 originally. Paid off the remainder of the loan, paid for a new tranny for my wife’s 1970 Mustang, bought a 1976 Gremlin and put $800 in the bank!
I have a photo of me next to that Gremlin which I’ll have to post, but it isn’t on this computer.
Sad, I would have bought that very same truck with the very same idea,
My worst car ever was my ’75 Ford Granada. And I’m a Ford Guy. Need I say more?
Guess it’s possible to say that the car I was happiest with and that most disappointed me was the same car. 2002 vue. When it ran it was excellent and I thought Saturn really had their act together. It was probably 2 years old when it started breaking. Computers, clutch, transmission, and finally a broken timing chain took it out. I have whined about this car several times and thinking about it again is starting to make me sick.
I remember now some advice I got from Dad. Never, ever, ever, buy a vehicle is the first year of it’s run. Father knew best.
I’m starting to think you and I are somehow related. I never thought somebody could make the same automotive mistakes as I have.
My Sub was an 85. Brown and tan inside and out, and she was awesome! She had front facing 3rd row seats!
Man, the stories I could tell..
I sent that rig airborn more than once and cracked enough hillbilly blocks to keep the block manufacturer alive for a while(PML=lift blocks on the front, I don’t recommend it..).
I don’t even like em on the back, but the Jeep I have now has em on the back. It’s a real beater and will probably be story worthy if I keep it. I hope not to.
I have never owned a car I’d consider bad, not really.
The ’84 Town Car I owned I really learned to hate, but it was entirely reliable and drove really nicely. I never liked the colors in or out, though, and it never looked as good as it could. The ’88 Town Car I drive today and wrote about here at CC has every single one of the same problems the ’84 had, except it is prettier and has better seats and more equipment. The ’88 has likewise been dead reliable, and I drive it on long, long trips regularly, this year from my home in the Ozarks to Georgia and back (though I did have to replace the steering gear while I was there.) I don’t really count the steering gear as a really bad failure, though. YOU try keeping that much lead sled centered on the road!
I had an Isuzu P’up diesel, which mechanically was good, but rust…my god, the rust in that single-wall bed! Single wall!! Ever notice how every one of these you see has a bed liner? Yeah, there’s a reason for that. Mine’s rust was definately present, but due to a well-placed tape stripe, you didn’t notice it unless you were looking for it. God bless 3-M.
My sister had an ’89 Dodge Daytona C/S turbo automatic 2.2. It was very, very clean for its age, but never ran right. Sometimes it had boost, sometimes not. Sometimes it’d start, sometimes not. I still like Daytonas, though. Dad sliced a pregnant deer in half with it at 70 mph, and once they got the accident damage fixed from that, my sister hit another one. They pretty much considered the carr cursed at that point and got rid of it for a ’96 Sentra GXE, which lasted my sister through all 4 years of college with only the classic Nissan horrendous front crank seal oil leak and a clutch needing fixed. Only the clutch got replaced, by me. It was a nice car to work on.
The worst car? Hands down, a 1986 Yugo. From the time I got it, till the time I walked away from it and down to the Amtrak station (2000 miles from home) it was one big, long, never-ending problem. Everything from ventilation
(air doors were chronically binding and sticking on “open” and “full heat;” I stopped the heat finally by cutting a 1×6 to lay over the opening of the vent, a rectangular opening covered by the hood and a sort of scoop)
…to electronics (intermittant failure which put the whole car in a brown-out, dim lights and no spark or starter, until one removed the battery terminal to reset)
…to a wiper motor with a partially-stripped gear, which would ONLY work when the crank arm was set at 60 degrees off from its proper placement, parking the wipers always on one-third of an arc. Setting it up correctly would make the nylon gears start to jump….
…to an exhaust-system which couldn’t be replaced anywhere, requiring a custom set-up by an independent shop; to a self-destroying clutch, to an alternator belt which not only committed suicide, but took the timing belt and the engine with it.
There was no WAY to deal with a car that would break and keep on breaking, something different every time.
Other than that, I’ve mostly been lucky. What’s made me walk away or sell in panic, was usually a major failure…not a series of surprise, irrational, inexplicable failures.
My Super Beetle, for example…serious rusting set the stage; but what killed it was a rear-end accident which broke the engine block. I had it fixed, but with a wrecking-yard engine…unbeknownst to me, the wrecking yard supplied me with a 1965 engine, not only worn out but much smaller and unsuitable. And with burned valves.
He and the shop kept it to themselves…it was another shop which passed it on. This after the 30-day guarantee had passed…after I’d nursed that thing along for four months. That was in 1977, when it was possible to pull off crap like that.
My Chevette came close…but I didn’t let that go on long enough to have all the problems listed in the article. No…I did the smart thing and wrecked it, first. That experience led me to give GM products a wide, wide berth.
The others were mostly reliable. Blazing Saddles, my Texas Pinto, went only for lack of space – a new job led to a better car, and I dispatched Old Paint on to less-conscientious owners.
Even my Gremlin…what killed it was that the manual three-speed ate the 2-3 shift fork. That, I blame on Borg-Warner…a transmission replacement was simple; but FINDING a three-speed WITH FLOOR SHIFT was impossible. By the time that happened, most Gremlins and Hornets had gone to the crusher, so there weren’t the parts to convert it to column shift.
No, I’ve had cars that smoked, cars that sucked gas, cars that clattered with collapsed lifters…cars I had to park on hills to roll-start. But I didn’t have too many that not only WERE broke…most of my junkers were…but which KEPT breaking. Au contraire, most of my beaters endured horrific abuse…honorably and reliably.
That is an impressive collection of clunkers my friend! You do know how to pick em’. Now, resist the urge to run out and by a Chinese car when they come to our market in the near future!
I was gonna say something similar… that list inspires me to realize; That, for a bunch of car nuts we sure have owned some real beauties.
OMG I forgot about the Escort that was a moving disaster I aquired a wreck of a 76 1600 Mk11 Escort from someone who owed me money assuming it would disolve the debt . The car was a piece of shit first step was make it look roadworthy 2 spraybombs of primer 1 of matte black quick wash a sqirt it grey with black shadow coat hides all the dents black the mags and grille a one colour car the off to Margate rubbish tip where amongst the 500 or so dumped cars I found 2 Escorts new discs steering rack exhaust taishaft spare clutch cable $7 bargain, There are several clutch cables to suit Escorts Cortinas & Capris of that era and my POS kept breaking cables the correct cables broke easiest the incorrect ones with some maori rigging lasted best and I became an expert at changing them and driving with no clutch when they broke. The brakes never worked well and one memorable trip that took us through Queenstown Tas down Gormanstown hill with its 110 hairpin bends without brakes was quite hairaising.
Meantime Id been working and had bought another car for 1 case of beer and got it a motor had it running well ready to register The Escort got its own back on my mistreatment on my way home as I hurled into a left hand bend a sudden lurch and the car dropped left ads I wondered WTF a wheel passed me I slid to a stop with said wheel with axle still attached dtood in front of me Hooray for the mobile phone age 1 quick call to the local wrecker got me cash and a ride home. That on reflection was probably the worst car Ive had it was junk when I got it and never improved despite renovation it remained junk.
Well, there was the Mk1 Escort with the wafer thin floors; the ’84 Ford Sierra that had been under salt water with a previous owner (rust appeared in the strangest of places); the ’87 Sierra that turned out to be two cars welded together in the middle; the ’86 Honda Accord that had been badly repaired after a crash and wanted to turn left all the time; the ’92 Nissan Laurel diesel that used 5 litres of oil per 1000km (but was still cheaper to run than the petrol equivalent and refused to die). But I love driving, so still loved those cars as being an extension of me at those times of my life.
But the worst? My ’86 Ford Sierra Ghia. I loved the looks inside and out, and it had loads of equipment that often sometimes worked. Even though I loved it, what made it worst was:
* kept blowing the rear seals in the (auto) tranmission;
* bonnet release cable broke in the engine bay (had to physicaly tear the grille off to open the bonnet and fix it;
* everything rattled (although tightning all the interior dash/trim screws solved that);
* it had the brake pads with electronic wear indicators…you pay twice what ordinary pads cost? And when you replace them with odinary pads without the electronic circuit inside, the dashboard warning light stays on constantly (pulling the bulb sorted that);
* the door open warning ofetn informed me that various closed doors were in actual fact open (dismantling the door latches and sanding and lubricating the tiny contacts mostly fixed that);
* the trip computer worked about 25% of the time…and correctly for 5% of that 25%. The Ford dealer just laughed when I asked them to fix it…
* when new brake pads were fitted, the calipers were too wide apart for my non-standard wheels to go back on (I learnt a lot about wheel offset that day);
* most annoyingly of all, it never, never, ever managed to retain correct wheel alignment and balance for more than a day. That was what stopped me having another British Ford.
But I loved it to bits. It had endless faults, but it was loaded with character – and stood out among my friends’ cars as being quite different (sort of like its owner maybe?!). It’s funny, it was definitely the worst by sheer number of irrepairable faults, but when I look back, it’s one of the few I wish I’d hung onto. So worst=best=worst.
You need a Saab
Well now you mention it the old Saab 900 convertibles are kind of tempting… They’re plentiful and cheap here in New Zealand too, but mostly in that 80s shade of calf poo yellow.
Actually, when I wrote about my Sierra I forgot about my last car, a ’94 Nissan Laurel, which was so bad I nearly entered counselling to get it banished from my memory… It’s wall of honour included:
Massive oil leaks from everywhere (despite replacing all the gaskets/seals I could), siezed injector pump (the injector piston was broken in half!), constant stream of varying-coloured smoke following it, spectacular aircon condensor o-ring failure (white gas everywhere), leaky boot, broken radiator hose attachments so the hoses could only clamp onto a quarter-inch of plastic, and it had been rolled by a previous owner who then bogged up and painted the roof (which I discovered when the bog cracked and lifted). Oh, and mega-ugly too.
I was between jobs at the time, had lost my company car and had no money, so only bought it because it was very cheap (hmmm…). Sadly I had no choice but to try to keep it going. Dad’s a mechanic, and even he said scrap it. It was a relief when last August, after just 5 months ownership, it blew the head gasket and cracked the head. I was in a new job by then, so happily sold it for scrap and bought a 1997 Laurel – which came with a 3yr/100,000km warranty, and has proven to be the best car I’ve ever owned (even has a factory TV!). But as I’m clearly a glutton for punishment, a Saab 900 could be very interesting…!
Is it wrong to say that this is probably the best thread I’ve read here? If it is, I do not want to be right.
My company lent us a [model year unknown, but sometime since 2005] Mitsubishi Minica that was just the most awful, incompetent, uncomfortable, embarrassing car I have ever seen, let alone been seen in. And my first car was a ’97 Hyundai Accent. A subcompact Korean car. In Michigan. In the ’90s when gas was $0.88/gal! But the Minica was worse in every conceivable way. It was horrendous. Oh, it ran everyday alright, but that is a HUGE part of what was wrong with it. Frequent visits to the dealer and using their loaner cars would have been hugely satisfying in comparison. I was laughed at many times by my students who saw me driving that stupid glorified golf cart. It was awful awful awful. Its three cylinder engine produced what must only be described as a horsepower. The A/C never blew cold, unless I was doing a steady 50 km/h, which was difficult because it could barely reach such speeds. Put my wife, the baby seat, and our baby in it with me (in the unwelcoming, uncomfortable, cramped cabin) and I don’t know how it ever accelerated. The handling was horrifying. Like, turn the wheel and hope to GOD that it goes the way you intended to while cars whiz by you doing the speed limit. Banked turns and wind made the thing so hard to control I started thinking that my company was trying to kill us. It was incredibly imprecise, and while parking my old Hyundai was so easy I could probably do it blindfolded, the rubber band connecting the wheels to the steering wheel never put the car in the position I wanted it in. Speaking of positions, the driving position was terrible. The seats were epically awful, slabs of unforgiving foam covered in malaise-era GM upholstery with no support for any part of your body at a size about 30% too small. Add to a cabin where there was no room to move around and you’re looking at something more like a penalty box than a car. And the noise. Oh, the noise. Turn on the A/C and it roars away as though it’s actually doing something (it wasn’t). The engine whines and wheezes away as though it has the weight of the whole world on its back. The howl of the tiny little tires was deafening over 30 km/h. For Americans like me, that’s barely 20 mph. Tire roar at 20! How did they manage it?? I still can’t figure it out. It is as though they set out to make the worst driving, least comfortable, most horrible little car they could possibly assemble. The sheer awfulness of that car is so difficult to put into words without cursing I’m not sure if I can continue writing about it. Ugh.
So, two months ago I was able to convince my wife to let me buy an ’03 Impreza wagon. The 1.5 L boxer feels like I’m riding a tidal wave of power (I’m not) and it’s so quiet and peaceful and comfortable and inviting inside I feel like I’m wafting to work each day in a Phantom.
Reading the posts above, I was thinking about some of my cars. My current Impreza is 8 years old. I had a 9 year old Outback, a 13 year old Impreza, an 11 year old Cherokee, and my wife’s first car was an 18 year old Camry, all of which were largely solid, dependable, well-running cars. Do you remember when buying an 8 (or 9 or 13 or even 18) year old car meant inoperable buttons? A/C that hasn’t worked for some time (if it was even equipped with it)? Squeaks and rattles and shakes and leaks of all kinds? Rust? And let’s not forget the little prayer that was necessary to say (or for our parents if we’re my age, I guess) in order to get to work that day? I’m hoping those days don’t come back. And I HOPE that I continue to have decent luck with cars (and now I know that’s gonna run out before too long)…
I have an 8 year old (soon to be 9 year old) Outback–solid as the day it was delivered. Probably the best overall car I’ve ever owned.
“Its three cylinder engine produced what must only be described as a horsepower.”
I missed this the first time through. Hilarious! 😀
You really had me in stitches there! And I thought our Hyundai was like that.
I had a Mitsubishi iCar (the 3-cylinder petrol, not the electric) as a loaner 4yrs ago while my car was being serviced. A Minica would have been a wonderously powerful and luxurious car by comparison… I don’t know whether to pity you for the Minica or be jealous. For a bloke, the iCar is about the most emasculating car ever to unleash its wrath upon the world lol~
Yikes, the iCar. I think they simply call it the i here (lower case, that’s no typo). I really think that Mitsubishi has NOT been aiming for the stars recently. I suppose the good thing about driving an iCar or a Minica is that pretty much anything you replace it with will be the best driving, best handling, most powerful, most luxurious, prettiest vehicle you’ve ever owned.
Thinking back to my Hyundai, in high school I really thought cars couldn’t get any worse than that (which was an impressively bad display of foresight on my part). The driver’s side door handle was always broken from the outside, so I had to let my girlfriend (now wife) in and she would reach across the car to let me in. I called it the Gentleman’s Car. Obviously, it worked out, and I have many fond memories of that car. First cars always earn a special place in our hearts, do they not? That said, I think I’m gonna keep buying Subarus. I’d like a Forester (so I can have something a little different), but the previous generation Legacies are really good…
Thanks all, for the kind replies!
The absolute worst car I owned was a 1980 DeVille with a v 4,6,8 engine. Where I worked I had to park at the bottom of a hill. Since that car always seem to be stuck in 4 cylinder mode it took me two hours to coax that car up the hill. It would reach halfway up the hill then stall; three quarters then stall. That car just never worked right. I gave up on that thing when the grill fell off; parked it in the driveway and called the scrap guy. I still shudder when I see a 4,6,8 Caddy.
1. You still see 4,6,8 Caddies on the road where you live? Wow.
2. Couldn’t you disable the 4,6,8 feature by just unplugging an electrical connector, thereby rendering the engine a regular V8? Sounds like that would’ve solved your immediate problem.
@BigOldChryslers
1. Sometimes I still see one lurking the same baby blue colour as mine in pristine condition. I’m as surprised as you to see it too.
2. I wasn’t as car savy then as I am now. I wasn’t too hip on the whole internet thing to find solutions( this was about 10 yrs ago) and My so called “crack-shot” mechanic was all too happy to take my cash. It was an expensive “free” car my cousin gave me.
Those Cadillacs were so nice looking, but the engines were so bad. And what did they replace the V8-6-4 with? The HT4100, brilliant. They should have just offered the 5.7L in them, which they finally did in the 1990-92 Broughams.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we had sort of a Cadillac-fest here at CC. The concensus was that the V8-6-4 was still the Cadillac 368 if you would just disconnect the cylinder deactivation system. The basic engine was a smaller version of the great Cadillac V8. After the horrible HT4100, the Olds 307 served reliably but slowly, and the 5.7 was finally offered, but with a hefty gas guzzler tax starting in 1990.
The best suggestion I read was to yank any of them and replace it with a Cadillac 472 or 500 (which was the same basic block as the 1977-79 425 and the 0980-81 368). I wish I had known that when I owned my 89.
Without a doubt the 368 is a great engine. How could it not be, really? It was downsized so much in that form, I wonder how much excess material was in the block for that displacement? Those things have 5″ bore spacing!
My uncle Jake the pilot bought aunt Colleen a ’80 Coupe DeVille with that engine. It ran forever, until crashed.
Earlier this year I parked next to a young guy with a white DeVille V8-6-4 at AutoZone. I asked him if it still worked, and he claimed it did, but I find that very hard to believe. On the other hand, the car was as nice or nicer than Claudine The Lincoln, and the car was obviously his baby, so who knows?
Wow…just wow.
In another thread I’d written about my ’72 Vega, which I’d owned in 1975-76.
Vega…automatically a candidate. Sad…it was a blast to drive.
When it ran.
I lived with an aunt and uncle near New York City in the late 70’s…much more exciting than staying in Brattleboro, VT with Mom & Dad.
Needing a car, my uncle proudly proclaimed he had good luck picking out vehicles…and picked out a ’68 Impala SS with the Custom Coupe roof. Rear quarters filled with bondo but the radio worked and the interior wasn’t bad…$695 and it was mine.
As a 307/PG it didn’t have much power, especially compared with the 383-equipped ’67 Plymouth Sport Fury fast top I’d previously owned. So I decided to tune it up, starting with the air filter…
While changing the air filter I noticed oil in the bottom of the air cleaner…and while doing a carb clean with a can of Gumout, I’d smell a bit of oil when backing off the gas. I took it to a local mechanic who took one look while I hit the gas…
“Compression rings”.
And just how can I fix that?
“It’s tired, you need to have the motor rebuilt.”
It all went downhill from there…by the following summer it was burning oil by the GALLON…yes a gallon every 100 miles. A quart every 25.
My commute to work and back was almost 25 miles. It wasn’t worth fixing and was junked, replaced with a ’71 Gremlin for which I’d paid $60. Aunt & uncle hated it but got used to it.
In 1988, now married with a son..we traded our S-10 regular cab for a first-year Chevy Corsica.
Lotsa power, great handling and mpg…but that all-new 2.0 four had issues.
Like a bad thrust bearing that wore out after, oh, about 18,000 miles.
Unlike the 70’s when I was learning about engines the hard way (besides the Vega and the ’68 Impala, there was the ’68 Chrysler convertible that developed an arc in its 440 block from running it with a bad head gasket for way too long), by 1988 I knew what was going on in there and when questioning Mr. Goodwrench about the wisdom of just fixing the thrust bearing and the bad piston they found…they gave me an entirely new crankshaft, rods and pistons.
The thrust bearing in the rebuild made it to about 50,000 this time. And yes it was rebuilt again, under warranty, no arguments.
It was also part of the legendary GM peeling crappy paint recall of 1990-91. I was one of the fortunate ones. The body shop manager repainted the entire car since after all, the panels that weren’t peeling yet…would.
When the thrust bearing began to wear and the crankshaft began to slide back and forth in the engine, you could hear the rods slapping as you decelerated. My wife and I called it the “death rattle”. When we started hearing it for the third time at 80,000 miles, we gave up and traded the Corsica on an ’84 S-10 Blazer.
We haven’t owned a new car since.
The ’89 Caprice wagon that replaced the Blazer had that POS 307 Olds engine (sorry Dan and supremebrougham!) replacing it with a 350 TPI solved that. The ol’ grocery getter became a blast to drive after that!
When my youngest son turned 16, we bought him the ’93 Taurus SHO that had been sitting in our neighbors’ driveway awaiting some brake work.
Never in my life had I been so frustrated and angry with a vehicle’s design.
It’s like Ford went out of their way to ensure only a Ford mechanic could work on it. Electrical diagnosis on a simple operation like, say, the fan switch…or the couple other electrical issues always led me – at some point in the diagnosis – back to “plugging in the breakout box and jumping connectors 32 and 41”.
Sorry, I speak GM and never had to deal with a “breakout box”. Why can’t you use a digital multimeter like everyone else?!
My son just hotwired the thing.
Then there was the front catalytic converter that needed replacing…nestled up under the engine, inlet angled one direction, outlet angled another direction. Hard to find as a universal part.
Best repair, to me? Just replace the headpipe. But a new headpipe ranges from $450 online to $2900 from Ford.
And if you should break a stud on the exhaust manifold and have to take it off, what’s the first thing the shop manual tells you to do?
“Remove rear cylinder head.”
One of my son’s friends who conveniently owned a lift welded the hole shut where the converter leaked. We got it thru inspection. No pipe replacement. No chance to break a rusted-out stud on which you could no longer make out where the threads had been.
Bullet dodged.
As it turns out a Taurus SHO isn’t a car you want a 16-year-old with a lead foot to drive.
Not as quickly and smoothly it would get to, say, 125 MPH…it only starts to breathe hard above that point. That Yamaha 3.2 was amazing. I was actually relieved when the AXOD tranny – a known weakness – started to slip, excuse me, S.L.I.P! – and we called the scrapyard to come get it.
Today my youngest son drives a ’95 Blazer into which he put a lot of sweat equity. It was a spare I had and I told him I’d sign it over to him if he made the repairs it needed and paid for them…and pay to insure it himself.
He did. He loves it and he can rely on it.
And he’s learning to slow down…I think.
Besides, its top speed – like most GM vehicles of that era – is a rather abrupt 96 MPH.
I wanna give “worst” honors to the SHO but even in its condition you could tell this was a premium car in its day…miles ahead of its GM-10 competitors.
The Vega and Corsica were enjoyable and economical…when they ran. The Corsica was a new car – the Vega was 3 years old but the Vega began a downward spiral in my finances that took years to dig out of.
So my ’72 Vega is the worst.
Worst car: 1966 Rover 2000. I’ve pissed and moaned so much about this car both here and at TTAC that I don’t feel it necessary to say much more about it, except to say that the reason I hated it so much was that it was such a great car when it was up and running.
Nice story!!! What a POS!!!!!!
Worst car…. ehhh, haven’t had one. But, both my cars that I have owned were/are circa ’90 Fords, when they were probably the best US car maker. 😉
I totally know what you mean with the water pump and the radio. It’s funny, when I inspected the ’90 Ford I bought I noticed a new alternator, a new voltage regulator, and a new EGR, all shiny parts in an otherwise dusty engine bay. I didn’t know what to make of it then, well it impressed me (wouldn’t have impressed me nearly as much now except the EGR part, as the state I bought the car in wasn’t testing for emissions, so this wasn’t a complete must, they could have just unhooked the vacuum line), but what did sell it was the fact that the owner (a 3rd or 4th) had a thick stack of receipts to show me. And so I found out the car also had new calipers, a new lower intake gasket (i should have suspected a neglected PCV right then however, but I didn’t even know what a PCV was, this story is ridiculous btw), a recent trans flush, an A/C retrofit, and regular oil changes of course. Those things all sold me. It turned out to be a well maintaned car, as I found out when we had the lower intake and valve covers off – no sludge!!
Ironically, the water pump kicked it right after I bought the car. lol. It was like within a few months.
But the radio worked!!! 😀
Maybe it’s late, and I’m delusional but I’ve never had a bad car. Each car I’ve owned had enough redeeming qualities that it wasn’t bad.
The Topaz wasn’t exciting, but it always ran.
The TR4 never ran, but it was fun to work on.
The Concord wasn’t a babe magnet, but it was free.
I guess the worst vehicle I’ve ever owned was the 1978 Honda GoldWing. It was owned by my in-laws Pastor and he wanted it gone. Pa called me over to have a look at it and when I saw it squatting sullenly in the corner of the garage I knew it was trouble.
I think he wanted $2000 for it and I said I wouldn’t be interested over $500. Whew, dodged that bullet. The next week Pa called and said “Ok, come and get it and bring $500”. Crap.
And crap indeed was what it was. It had one of those monsterous Vetter fairings on it and a giant dual-throne seat. Half the wiring harness was melted because some genius had wrapped all the fuses with tinfoil, and bolts were snapped and stripped all over it due to ham-fisted wrenching.
With every other old Honda motorcycle I’ve owned any problems are easily rectified by putting it back to the way it was when new, and then they work perfectly. The GoldWing defied fixing. After I got the wiring fixed and the carbs cleaned the engine clattered and overheated. After fixing the bent triple clamp the frame was bent too.
It just went on and on so eventually I gave up and sold it. It was a tough sell, as I was considerably more honest about the condition than the Pastor had been.
Finally some guy came to see it, didn’t ask for a test ride and wanted to hear it run. As his thumb neared the start button I begged the starter clutch to not slip (oh please…oh please…) and VROOM it fired right up. We had a deal and I was never so happy to see a vehicle leave.
Unfortunately that GoldWing haunts me to this day, because shortly afterward Mrs. DougD initiated the rule of “vehicular projects must run when purchased” which prevents me from dragging home the most terrible of project vehicles I run across.
Good rule really. I do try to follow it…
I think I found your driveway yesterday.
This Question could go in so many different directions. I can think of good and bad for all the cars Ive owned.
I’ve always wanted a Cadillac. For the last decade or so, I have hesitated to go that route for fear from the horror engine stories I Heard. I Could have bought a 87 Allante for $3500 in 98 or so, but feared replacing the dash lights someday. So Most of those are out, and only the recent CTS are worthy looking IMO.
But Of The Cars I Have Owned The Worst Probably was the 1985 Pontiac Grand Am V6
LE Coupe that said SE on Right side… and had a 86 Brake Light which was OPT in 85
it would stall taking a good left turn sometimes
I Made an Even Trade for a 84 Cavalier Manual Convertible, which I kept alive for 10 more years. Definitely spent the most in repairs on that one.
But the thing I remember When I Bought The Grand Am WAS… I Thought of IT as being Brand New 1985 model,
Though I Had Test Driven a BLACK Fila Thunderbird 1984, V8 That Rode Great, The ONLY Reason I picked the GAm over it was because it was a “Newer Model” the T-Bird new in 1983 basically. and this was 1987.
So I always regretted not picking the V8 THUNDERBIRD With Leather and Power Moonroof… unlike the COMPACT V6 3.0…pffft… i forgot i regretted that. Oh well.
that 302 would have still kept going today I bet… 🙁
WOW What a great thread Im reminded of a bombs and rockets car yard on Parramatta Road in Sydney called Beats Walking but judging by the scrapyard refugees they had in stock it would be not for long or only just.
Great name
The majority of these stories – including mine – revolve around a company that, once upon a time, made arguably the finest vehicles for each class segment on the planet:
General Motors.
It’s spelled out pretty well, here on CC, TTAC, Autoextremist, Ate Up With Motor and elsewhere.
But reading these words may make you wonder what drug I’ve been smoking, since “once upon a time” was 50-60-75 or more years ago and many readers are simply too young to remember.
I’ll warn you that this link is from a fansite, but at least they acknowledge the poisonous atmosphere that’s been GM throughout most of our lifetimes, and how finally the tide may be starting to turn back.
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f70/cost-no-longer-1-new-gm-106492/
I’ve said it before, I might have been a GM and a Chevy guy, it all might have been very different.
The first of my two Fords was a reliable but in no way an exciting car. I was looking for something that was fun. A friend was looking to unload a beat up cosmetically (primer quality black paint, some surface rust, etc, the whole thing kind of mad max-ish) but well maintained, routinely wrenched, daily driving 1986 Z28. I had been salivating over that one for a while, this was a cross-state vehicle, regularly driven for hundrends of miles. And it was a black on black. The whole mad max cosmetic condition actually kind of became it. Had I ended up with that, I know for a fact I would have been hooked. The one thing I don’t remember is whether it still had a stock 305 or a replacement 350 in it… this was a long time ago. I remember that thing having loads of power… I’m almost sure it exceeded the stock specs, or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me again.
We had a deal in place, as a matter of fact. But then the car was crashed, a few months before the potential transaction. Back on a lookout I went, and this time I found an exciting Ford.
My worst car was my first car. The family experience of Volvos had been very good (good old 244), so when I saw a Volvo 343, I assumed I was in for trouble-free motoring. I didn’t pay much for it, but it was still far too much for such an awful car.
For some reason, Volvo had chosen to put a Renault engine into the 343. They then added an undercooked CVT transmission. The combination made for a dreadfully sluggish vehicle with appalling fuel consumption. It didn’t help that the car was exceptionally heavy for its size.
What I hadn’t realised was that 343 was designed for retired people. So along with the stodgy styling came soft, sagging suspension. Whenever the wheel was turned, there would be a brief pause, then the weight would all slump to one side and finally it would start to wallow around the corner.
I couldn’t stand the rattling from the nasty, cheap Renault engine, so tightened up the valve clearances. However, when I put the rocker box back on, I tightened the bolts far enough for the rockers to hit the cover. A knowledgeable friend (unaware of what I had done) diagnosed serious mechanical woes, so I flogged it cheap to a friend. He was pretty cocky about fixing my mechanical ineptitude, until he also realised what an awful car it was. Ultimately the money I lost by flogging it cheap was recouped in petrol thy I’d dint have to put in it.
Very different from my first car Volvo experience!
Has to be the 1972 VW bus. I had been a long time VW owner and mechanic, but this thing was a POS. The dual carb setup, with California emissions was nearly impossible to make it idle and the bigger Type II transaxle, clutch and CV joints were still no match for the wieght and slightly more powerful engine. Virtually no interior heat in the winter. Random electrical fires added to the fun.
Runner up was the 1994 F-150. I dont tow or overload a truck, but the “heavy duty” E4OD transmission kept failing, along with the 8.8 inch rear axle. the 5.0 may be a great Mustang engine, but totally lacking in low-end grunt needed for a truck, especially above 4000ft altitude, resulting in terrible gas mileage vs the 4.3L V-6 Chevy 1500 it replaced.
Never mind ;=)
My worst car was a 1981 Mitsubishi built Plymotuh Champ. I got it in 1985 with “only” 48,000 miles. After 50k, it just was constantly having things break or need replacement. I bought it since Car and Driver loved these cars with the Twin-Stick 4 speed manual. It was fun to drive and got great MPG, up to 50 on highway. But, it was built to last only 50,000 miles, nothing like a Honda Civic, as I assumed unfortunately.
I admit I drove it more than average miles, from 48K to 95K in 3 years, and took it to Los Angeles twice in 1986. But, after 2 alternators, clutch, fuel pump, tie rods, carb, gas pedal cable, water pump, radiator, a/c compressor [didnt last], brake master cylinder, I dumped it when motor was leaking oil at main seal. Got a 78 Impala, and easy to fix.
My worst car was a ’90 T-Bird I bought second-hand in late ’90. Three months later, the rear window seal gave way on the rainiest New Year’s Day in memory, dropping a virtual Niagara into the back seat. The rear seat upper cushion faded from red to pale rose thanks to the huge rear window. It started running funny; my mechanic found that the distributor locking bolt was missing. At 45K miles it was ready for its third set of tires and second set of brake pads. It got 16MPG and was as slow as a ice wagon. And when it rained, it would kick the tail out on the gentlest of turns. On the way to the dealership to talk trade-in, the headlight switch failed. I traded it in on a ’92 Taurus and never looked back.
I still see some of that bodystyle around, and still think it looks good, but it looks better with some other chump driving it.
I usually find that when you buy any vehicle cheap thats 20-30 years old, you just have to comb over every inch of it and replace anything thats showing sufficent signs of wear and age. Even if the vehicle has low mileage and the part has yet to fail. Usually in the process you will find what that particular vehicles factory design flaws were and sometimes you can correct them for good. Once they have reached that age its unfair to call them lemons.
I also have a white whale, same body style, but it was a 91. They made suburbans in the old style up to 91. I wll say that I wqas leary about a Burb, since it is the vehicle husbands buy thier spoiled wives(the ones that are not safe drivers) around. I live in ground zero for the socor moms(we have had soccor teams here since the mid 60s, our town has a lot of Brits). These wives pull to the curb with the back end in traffic, and pick up thier kids, but they have a safe amount of metal around them.
The man I bought it from used it to haul a travel trailer and his wife made him sell it because she burned up OD driving into a headwind across Texas at 75 mph, then it just stopped. He spent almost $5k having a friend beef the trans and then the wife wanted him to buy a van to haul the trailer.
It was thier loss. He had tears in his eyes when he sold it, and I got a great vehicle, that got awful mileage. Since I drive about 5000 miles a year, I really did not care. This was made for trailer hauling, it has a couple of times, when friends’ rigs broke down, but this is the toughest truck I have owned, and I have had a few other trailer pullers. It is as comfortable as a 91 Cadillac, it has 140K on the odometer and I imagine I will own it until I die. The AC gets cold enough to wear a sweater on a 110F day, the 454 always starts and it is just about broken in. The stereo is too die for. When I finally die, someone will get a great deal, except it is not a diesel and that is what everyone seems to want. Maybe I ought to add 120V ac attachments and a roof air conditioner so I can live in it……..