Tell Us about the Worst Car You've Ever Owned

My car caught on fire at work when I worked at Buffalo Wild Wings in college. It was actually a decent car hand me down from mom - Nissan Maxima. It was probably 15 yrs old and was in bad shape.

I had a 1989 Hyundai Sonata I bought used, that was an absolute pile of crap. It went through 3 transmissions and a cylinder head in 3 years. I was financing the piece of shit and nobody would take it off my hands. I junked it at 7 years old and 60,000 miles because the transmission and air conditioning had failed AND the paint was peeling off it.

The second time the transmission gave out was in 100 degree weather, on Sunset Boulevard in Westwood, and nobody would help me try to push it off the road until a parking enforcement officer assisted-did I mention it was part of Sunset that’s curvy and on a grade? I was ready to set it on fire at that point.

The worst car my parents every owned- A 1975 Hornet Sportabout Station Wagon. In the morning my mother would make a left turn onto this main road and the car would ALWAYS stall out while the car was about to turn left therefore blocking both sides of the street. It was considered a small car in the mid to late 1970's yet it only achieved 15 mpg which was lousy fuel economy even in ca 1977.

This is exactly what the car looked like- same color too.

I had a Toyota Celica that I bought from my brother’s coworker for $500. The door handles were rusting through, and by the end I had to tie rope to keep the doors closed. I was super young and didn’t know that the metal scraping when I braked was a really bad thing. When I bought another car (a used Saturn!), I was moving and left the car on the street for a few weeks, during which someone stole the pathetic car stereo, some change, and two tires. I donated it for a tax credit.

I just realized that every car I have owned since the Saturn was a brand new Honda.

1990s (early) Ford Taurus GL, sky blue. It had been my mother's. The engine froze up and the cost to replace it was over $2K, by the time it died, it wasn't worth it to fix the car. It was a piece of crap.

Oh, and the floorboards had rusted through, so there was a sheet pan or something under the rug on the passenger side. Youth is indeed wasted on the young - I’m lucky I survived.

1987 Chrysler Le Baron purchased in 1989. It was the first car I'd ever owned that had a digital dashboard (like KITT from the TV show). I bought it from a coworker's friend who was trying to buy a house. I loved the car but he didn't tell me the sunroof was installed after manufacturing; I tried to find the installer but they'd gone out of business.

The sunroof leaked like a sieve when it rained. Because of this car, I was well acquainted with TV ad for Shamwow's because it was the only thing that would absorb the water that dripped in through the sunroof. I was so embarrassed when driving with my then-boss as water dripped into his hair and down the side of his face.

The second worst was a brand new Buick Encore which I lovingly referred to as "THE BIG GRAY BLOB." I hated it and traded it in in less than a year. It had no character, no nothing. I thought that, at 60+, I should own a functional small SUV. Nope, I'm a Cadillac girl so that's what I traded it for.

Every American car my parents owned in the 70s and early 80s. Seriously. Cars used to break down all the time - you'd see it on the side of roads so much more often than today.

Then the Japanese made quality their highest priority and that shifted everything - unfortunately, slowly for American car makers.

Reliability of cars now feels like night and day difference to 40+ years ago. The avg age of a car on the road in the US is like 12 or 13 years old. There are some reasons for that - chip shortage, prices - but trust me, 12 or 13 year old cars were usually in the graveyard by then years ago.

After my Volkswagen bus caught on fire and blew an engine for the second time I swore no more Volkswagens. I have been a loyal Toyota owner ever since and they have never let me down.I wouldn't buy any thing but an Asian car. Certainly not an American car.

R9- I own a 2017 Toyota Camry LE which I purchased from a Toyota dealer in July 2019 with 7,000 miles on it. In six years of ownership I have had ZERO repairs. Just maintainence -which is not cheap nowadays.

Datalounge does not approve because it's not a luxury/sports/ev and or German car. One of the testers at Consumer Reports said once that BMW stands for Break My Wallet because of all the endless expensive repairs needed after 3 or 4 years of ownership on a German car.

This Mercedes-Benz M class. Steering, transmission, electrical, you name it.

In the early days of Audi in America, I bought an Audi Fox. For the short duration of the warranty, it was great. Then-new front wheel drive, really comfortable seats, ran like a dream. Then, said warranty expired. It became a rolling shitshow. Everything possible that could go wrong, did. The entire electrical system would die and leave me stranded. Pieces under the hood broke off that were supposedly permanent. Even the German-born head of service at the dealership admitted it was a lemon. But still, they wouldn't do a thing about it. Then one night, the electrical system failed while I was on a major highway mid-blizzard. There was an 18 wheeler coming up behind me, so I pointed the car towards a snowbank outside a gas station on Route 3 in N.J. and plowed into it. Fortunately, there was enough snow to cushion the impact. One of the attendants at the station drove me home. The next morning, I called the dealership and tore them a brand-new, giant asshole. They went and picked up the car, and finally admitted there was nothing they could do. The car was dead. They offered me a discount on another Audi, but I told them to go fuck themselves. The Audi dealership is still in business in Fairlawn, NJ. I bought a new Datsun and lived happily ever after. Until it was demolished by a drunk driver. I now rent a car when I need one.

My dad has a Triumph with an electrical system like that, R12. Lucas electronics I think?

VW Passat. Great fun to drive, with a V6 engine. Every problem imaginable.

In the 70s, American car markers really fought against using fuel injection systems in their cars, instead of carburetors. Carburetors do not work well with the emissions control devices that became commonplace at that time-that’s why so many American cars of that era would stall, or hesitate, or flood. The devices also sucked all the horsepower out of these cars, as well.

Then there was the quality. American cars were just built poorly in the 70s, and the quality of the materials they used were a significant downgrade from the 60s. Consumer Reports buys their own cars for testing. In 1979, they bought a Dodge St.Regis for a test. It was so unreliable they had to buy a second one to finish the test. The two cars had a combined total of 7 dozen manufacturing defects-one car lost its transmission; the other one had an engine that had to be overhauled; one had an accelerator pedal that stuck; another one had suspension components that snapped-these two cars were brand new.

The Dodge St.Regis was one of the cars affected by emissions controls. The California Highway Patrol traditionally bought Dodges for their fleet. That came to an end in 1980/81- the St.Regis fleet the CHP bought were so slow and so unreliable that speeders could easily outrun them. That’s why the CHP started buying Ford Mustangs.

I named my first car Christine because it was a red Chevy that would only play golden oldies (its radio could only pick up one AM station clearly) and tried to kill me on multiple occasions. I had a dry-rotted tire tear itself to pieces while I was driving on the highway, and when I discovered a flat in my parent's garage and tried to lift the spare out of the hatchback the trunk lid springs failed and almost knocked me out. It had an uncanny ability to sense when I had any spare money and develop a repair need in response, once going so far as to snap the steering column while I was parked at the bank depositing my paycheck. Oh, it also developed the habit of spewing antifreeze into the floor of the passenger side when I made a left turn, reminiscent of Linda Blair spewing pea soup vomit in The Exorcist.

I bought an ancient Honda Civic at a car auction in 1989 for $500. Those were desperate times, people!

It was a 4-speed auto, but the only gears that worked were 2nd and 4th. You should have heard me pull out in that little thing! It wouldn't go over 45.

I only used it to go back and forth to my undergrad (about 20 miles one-way), and I used all back roads, but by the time I got to school, there were usually 40+ cars impatiently lined up behind me. It was so humiliating!

As soon as I got my diploma, I drove the Honda right to the junkyard, and they gave me $50 for it. I was not sad to see it go.

A Nazi Muskmobile.

Ford Escort early 90s, I was driving down a steep hill and the brakes quit. It was my lucky day because no cars were ahead of me and an empty parking lot was at the bottom which I was able to glide into. That was scary.

2008 Volvo S40. Poorly built, expensive to maintain and not even that luxurious.

Interesting, the Escorts my family had back in the 80s had the opposite problem. Decent brakes, but the engines would die if you ran over a puddle or stopped too short at an intersection.

2005 Volvo S60R Yamaha 5-cylinder turbo with a five speed automatic transmission. It was sexy to look at and drive for about a year. Then the warranties problems started. The mass airflow sensor failed and it took the dealership two weeks to diagnose and replace. A week later, it failed again. Another repair that took. The rear window defroster didn’t work. The first time I needed it, it did not work. I took it in and they accused me of having messed around with it. Apparently there were broken solders on the connectors, so they told me it must’ve been done before they sold it to me. It required a new back window. The radiator burst at 8000 miles. The replacement radiator at 15000 miles. At 25000 miles the transmission stopped downshifting in city traffic.

The plastic parts were hard and cheap. The metallic bits flaked off the control switches, the steering wheel, and window controls. By 30000 miles the “Nordkap premium” leather seats cracked and split, despite being garaged at home and work. They refused to replace them. Brake lights burned out every three months. The roof liner detached as did the fabric on the A pillar covers. I could literally see the inadequate amount of glue used to hold them together.

Just before the end of warranty 48000 miles, the fuel pump and fan blower motor conked out. Those were the last warranty repairs covered. I ended up keeping it for another 60000 miles, ten years total. By then it looked like a thirty year old jalopy rather than a well maintained ten year old car. Then the warranties finishes inside were worn or bare, all the rubberized knobs had shed the rubber. The decals on controls fell off. I went out and bought a Mercedes wagon (which I still have with 130000 miles on it) and sold the Volvo on eBay Motors for $4000. It turned out that the S60R was among car modifiers’ favorites. Some guy in Illinois bought it, flew out to LA to pick it up, and my problem was gone.

All things considered, my first car — a 1984 stripped down Chevy Chevette — was more worry free than that fucking Volvo. I thrashed that Chevette in college and grad school, but it never broke down and stranded me.

I was down on cash and my old car’s transmission was starting to go, so I bought a tan 2001 Mercury Sable from a mechanic on my street.

A nightmare. It hadn’t been maintained well. Did great on a road trip but wouldn’t hold idle the next day. Needed an air control valve and none of the aftermarket parts worked.

Got that sorted and the power steering pump died. It had to be replaced twice due to faulty parts.

The engine started to ping under load so I either used octane booster or premium gas.

The headlights kept getting dimmer due to a ground issue.

Then, out of all things, the windshield starts to leak. I was through with this car. I ended up replacing it with a car I loved a lot, a blue Toyota Matrix. I decided to stick with Toyota so now I have a RAV4.

My second Audi. The first one, an ‘82 5000 got rear-ended. I wish the second one had been. It was an 85, leased, and so everything that broke was covered but everything broke. They they started hitting walls unexpectedly - unintended acceleration. I was embarrassed to drive what people said was a death trap.

I overreacted when the lease was up and got a Volvo.

Audi’s response to the sudden acceleration issue was horrible.

They essentially said at first that unsophisticated Americans were accustomed to driving Oldsmobiles with giant, spread apart brake/gas pedals, and not a sophisticated device like Audis, whose pedals were close together for optimal performance.

The first night I had my '75 Audi Fox, I drove to Yankee Stadium and was stopped by the NYPD because a headlight was out. That should have been a warning.

A used Buick Skyhawk. That shitbox was used more than I was!

I bought a car on eBay (I know...). It was an older Volvo sedan and I needed a car and all I had was a $1,000 eBay credit card. I rode the bus to Cincinnati and was picked-up by a dour old man to go to his house. We rode in silence til he announced, "There's a problem with the car". Apparently it was now making a noise and he offered to knock a couple hundred off the price. What could I do? Apparently his wife was a Notary Public, so I paid in cash and drove off in this loud, musty, rickety car. The ride was awful, like a wagon on a dirt road.

It started and ran. I made the best of it and drove it til I could afford something better. Later I found out it had three different-sized tires on it.

Subaru makes a damn fine car. When I was in a bad accident earlier this year, I would have been dead otherwise. Later, when I came to, the mechanics were singing the praises and showing me how it saved my life.

You're saying that your body would have been turned into bloody hamburger meat if you had been driving a Honda, Toyota, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW or VW, r29?

The ONLY reason you weren't killed is because you were driving a Subaru?

I’ve had numerous shitty vehicles, OP. It’s hard to pick a “worst”.

My dad was Army motor pool and his dad (my grandfather) owned the first garage in the town he grew up in. So my dad could get anything to run and could fix anything made prior to about 1982.

The problem came when I was in college and I had to leave my old impala at home and drove the Audi to college. That thing was a POS.

It wouldn’t start unless you goosed the engine then turned it off. You had to keep one foot on the gas and one on the brake at stop lights. It was such a heap, I have no idea why he bought that thing.

He couldn’t keep it running, because of the fuel injection and the electronics on it. He brought it used from some guy he worked with.

After he tried driving it a few times, he got rid of it. Thankfully.

I can’t hate on any of them. They were all interesting.

R30 Yep, or divine intervention.

I’ve only had 3 cars and none were bad.

I've owned four cars in 20 years of driving.

A 2000 Ford Taurus (red), which was cheap but a high-mileage shitbox.

A 2004 Ford Taurus (white), which had been my grandma's car and was a solid low-mileage sedan with clean seats and an utter lack of sex stains.

A 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe (gray), which I bought gently used and kept for ten years, before getting creamed by an old lady at a red light.

And my current car, a 2024 Honda (blue, model undisclosed), my first NEW car.

My first car was a Champagne-beige Renault LeCar (yes, it said "LeCar" down the sides). I got it brand new for a song. It was... fine. It went forwards and backwards and that was about it. No radio, AC or clock. Crank-down windows (although I did like the butterfly windows in the back). I think I had it for about eight years. Then I got a new Honda CRX -- a pocket rocket two-seater, still with no radio, AC, clock or automatic windows. It ran like a top for 20 years. Now I drive a 2018 Honda HR-V, which seems like an Escalade after decades of The Bare Minimum. Heated seats! Sunroof! AC! Two clocks! And as I approach 70 (years), it's nice to climb up into a car instead of down.

R36 Did your Le Car have a fabric sunroof?

It did not, R37. Thankfully, as I might have achieved liftoff on the Mass Pike, provided I could get the car up to speed.

R32 your problem with no newer cars than 2004 is that parts are getting harder and harder to find. A lot of dealers and even independent shops are refusing to work on cars 10 years or older due to parts scarcity .

Model undisclosed, r35? Guessing it's a base model civic

R40 Not hardly. But I've had creepy exchanges with determined DL super-trolls in the past, who managed to figure out where I worked and said so. I'd rather not give that kind of current personal information to you merry band of day drinkers and pinky bottoms.

Yes, r39, unless you have a junkyard or a pull n pay nearby.

You also need a garage and tools to do the work yourself. I have spent many an afternoon at the pull n pay lot.

‘74 Volare with supercharged V-8. If you double-tapped the gas pedal it took off !!!

It died for good as I was driving to my Con Law final as a 2L. …barely made it as I had to take a bus.