What's the worst car you've ever owned?

[kermit]

Used to be a 1300 Allegro. Slam dunk.

But, unexpectedly, coming up on the inside rail, my current Peugeot 2008. Uncomfortable seats, a stupid touch-screen radio (I just want knobs!!), irritating bleeps if it thinks it has an unsecured passenger (shopping....), and poor all round visibility through letterbox windows all round - and that's just for starters.

Horror stories?

 

[meridian2]

A Rover 216 previously owned by my father in law. A veritable money pit that handled like a pig on skates. A Skoda Estelle with wheel alloy made from chewing gum and a warped head, was at least fun and cheap.

For fear factor, a Vauxhall hire car last year that had a button hand brake which released as soon as you touched the throttle. Hill starts were genuinely terrifying and it was easier to ride the clutch at high revs than employ the brake.

 

[DaleCooper]

Vauxhall Viva estate - as I'm pulling away from the kerb the steering column lock on the ignition switch jammed so I couldn't turn the wheel, all I could do was reverse back to the kerb. I had to break off the lock mechanism and thereafter I started the car with a screwdriver.

Allegro 2nd

 

[neilb62]

A D reg Renault 21, it kept you warm by squirting boiling water over you feet!

 

[thejuggler]

Hyundai i20.

We suffered it for 6 months as a second car, it was so short a period I have no idea what the reg was!

It had no redeeming features whatsoever. Reminded me of a 1980s Datsun inside, awful drive, terrible clutch, really uncomfortable seats.

Then in Sardinia the hire car was an i30 diesel. I'm sure half the engine bhp hadn't been fitted. It had so little torque at low revs hill starts were a lottery.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Renault Scenic, just a couple of years old when purchased with only 13,000 miles on the clock and trouble from the word go with all but one of the ignition coils failing one by one, then it was the electric window lifts followed by defective heater/demister controls which required the top of the dashboard to be removed to effect a repair. The final straw was when a short circuit developed in a wiring loom in one of the rear doors causing the cabin to fill with smoke, I've never owned such a flimsily built nevermind unreliable vehicle, it was replaced by a Ford seven years ago which has been 100% reliable and which feels like it's built to last unlike the Renault.

 

[EM2]

I must have been lucky, because I've never had a truly bad car. Maybe because for a long time I bought at the budget end of the market and all the faults had already been sorted!
The one that cost me the most money was probably my recently departed Ford Granada Scorpio, bit I would forgive it everything because it was so relaxing to drive.

 

[J-2739]

Renault Scenic, just a couple of years old when purchased with only 13,000 miles on the clock and trouble from the word go with all but one of the ignition coils failing one by one, then it was the electric window lifts followed by defective heater/demister controls which required the top of the dashboard to be removed to effect a repair. The final straw was when a short circuit developed in a wiring loom in one of the rear doors causing the cabin to fill with smoke, I've never owned such a flimsily built nevermind unreliable vehicle, it was replaced by a Ford seven years ago which has been 100% reliable and which feels like it's built to last unlike the Renault.

Renault has never been known for reliabilty to be honest.

I'd be careful buying French built cars, especcialy second hand ones (although Peugeot are quite ok).

 

[EM2]

Renault has never been known for reliabilty to be honest.

I'd be careful buying French built cars, especcialy second hand ones (although Peugeot are quite ok).

Yet I've had two used Renaults and a used Citroen, and not one of the three ever let me down.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Renault has never been known for reliabilty to be honest.

I'd be careful buying French built cars, especcialy second hand ones (although Peugeot are quite ok).

Yes, I unfortunately learned the hard way, never again!

 

[Darandio]

Renault has never been known for reliabilty to be honest.

I'd be careful buying French built cars, especcialy second hand ones (although Peugeot are quite ok).

Citroen were always fine for us, we had a succession of 'BX's' and despite the complex suspension, never had an issue.

No idea about these days though.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Nissan Cherry – late 80s model I think. Even with my foot to the floor it would decelerate quite alarmingly on the climb over the Pennines on the M62 and if I hit the bottom at 80+ I was barely doing 60 by the top. Though I was only a student at the time and its rubbishness made my next car (an Escort RS Turbo) seem even better.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Yet I've had two used Renaults and a used Citroen, and not one of the three ever let me down.

Yep, I've had five Citroens and two Renaults and they have been great. The best was probably a Renault Laguna estate, 145k faultless miles on the clock (I'd had it since new)

 

[Welshman]

In my early days of driving[1970's], in a misguided attempt to be patriotic, I had a succession of British Leyland products - minis, metros and even a maestro [remember those?].

After about 5 years, I invested in a Ford Escort diesel, and discovered for the first time the novelty of having a car which went from one scheduled service to the next without having to return to the garage several times in between.

 

[Bromley boy]

A C reg Renault 11 I acquired from my late grandmother (same model and colour that Roger Moore drives in the Paris car chase scene in a View To a Kill, which ends up being cut in half with him still driving the front portion). I had just started driving so must have been 2000/2001. It was an old car by then, but only had 11000 miles on the clock. The tracking was way out because grandma used to ignore mini roundabouts and drive straight across them...

It was god-awful. 4 speed slush-box auto, incredibly tinny doors. Spongy steering, handling somewhere between a chesterfield sofa and a blancmange. Drank petrol despite performance that couldn't pull the skin of a rice pudding. Incredibly soft seats that felt deceptively comfortable at first but resulted in excruciating backache after an hour or so.

It was prone to stalling/flooding at random occasions. Most memorably when the 18yo me had pulled out of a junction in front of a group of teenage girls, "nice car mate!" I died a little inside that day. The exhaust also leaked and developed a throaty burble. Which sounded impressive until people looked over and saw the state of the car making the noise!

Eventually part exchanged for a new Clio. God only knows what the dealership did with it. It was almost immediately written off in a serious accident from which the driver absconded. The police came round to my parents' house and almost arrested me because the v5 transfer hadn't been processed and they (understandably) assumed I had been driving it. That took some fast talking!

Not really the car's fault, but didn't enhance the ownership experience any. On the other hand, I can say I've owned a Bond car!

 

[Busaholic]

Yet I've had two used Renaults and a used Citroen, and not one of the three ever let me down.

I've had three Renaults (inc current car), one Citroen and one Peugeot, and my experience has been variable, to say the least. I'd never have a Citroen or Peugeot again, but my current Clio has done nearly 70,000 miles since new about six years ago, and it is absolutely bottom of the range - air conditioning = open the window and there's only a radio, but I've had no problem other than inevitable clutch change about six months ago. A real workhorse!

 

[fowler9]

I don't drive myself but two work colleagues have recently had 3 Vauxhalls between them and had no end of trouble. Another work colleague had trouble with a Vauxhall but that was because he bought a very expensive one and pulled out in front of someone less than a week after he passed his test. The worst experience my family had was in a Volkswagen Santana (Basically a very old Audi 80 with a VW badge I think) where the engine seized on the M62.

 

[Cowley]

I've had some fairly good vehicles over the years although none were even remotely new. Probably the worst we've owned as a family was a Peugeot 307 7 SW seater, it was my first ever foray into buying a French car. In some ways it was nice - with a big glass roof etc, but it was much slower than it said on the tin, it was forever going wrong and there was always at least two warning symbols coming up on the dash that you just couldn't get to the bottom of and some monkeys at Longleat Safari Park stripped various bits of trim off it.
Our mechanic said it looked nice but it was junk and offered to write it off for us, I didn't take him up on this as it sounded a touch dodgy. A month later the twin mass flywheel exploded in the middle of town in rush hour while the other half was taking the kids to school. The repairs would have cost twice as much as the car.

My friend Steve who is self employed like me and had a Mercedes van like me decided to go for a Renault a couple of years ago as he could get a slightly newer one than he could by getting another Sprinter, he's paid for the thing three times over in bills now and it's in the garage this week after costing him another £900.
I'll be sticking to German built. Our replacement for the Peugeot was a VW too.

 

[fergusjbend]

An AlfaSud 1.3Ti. A wonderful driver's car with great handling but appalling workmanship. I had it from new in about 1985 and it needed a new gearbox within a year. Never again! I have long since moved on to Land Rovers - Discoveries and Freelanders, of which I have had six or seven over the years. They have a reputation for unreliability and poor finish, but all the ones I have owned have been completely reliable and will go anywhere.

 

[Bromley boy]

I've had three Renaults (inc current car), one Citroen and one Peugeot, and my experience has been variable, to say the least. I'd never have a Citroen or Peugeot again, but my current Clio has done nearly 70,000 miles since new about six years ago, and it is absolutely bottom of the range - air conditioning = open the window and there's only a radio, but I've had no problem other than inevitable clutch change about six months ago. A real workhorse!

After aforementioned Renault 11 nightmare, I had a Clio 1.2 "dynamique" and a Renaultsport 2.0 182 hot hatch. The 1.2 had a few issues, fixed under warranty, the 182 was an excellent drive and pretty reliable.

Overall I don't think I'd have another French car. I've been won over by German engineering.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Hmmm... I've only ever had the one car so my worst car is also my best car...

 

[Liam]

Renault has never been known for reliabilty to be honest.

I'd be careful buying French built cars, especcialy second hand ones (although Peugeot are quite ok).

I've had 4 Renault Clio's and a Citroen C2, all of them second hand, though the C2 only had 7,000 on it when I bought it, and never had any serious issues with any of them. One of the Clio's (T reg RXE) did eventually give up after I hit a deer which buckled the chassis, but it had 130,000 miles on the clock. I also had a VW Scirocco (the only new car I have ever bought) which I sold after 6 months having spent many days back at the dealership with engine management faults.

 

[CarlSilva]

Yugo 513. Crash repaired one. Heater didnt' work cos of no thermostat. But it was cheap. Only £25. Sold it to a traveller a day before the tax ran out.

 

[Bletchleyite]

a stupid touch-screen radio

Touch screen radios are dangerous.

Yes, we know, we shouldn't fiddle with the radio while driving. But people do, and they still will with a touchscreen. And unlike a tuning and volume knob or steering wheel controls, you have to look at a touchscreen to use it.

Terrible design.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm going to give my current 2012 Land Rover Defender 110 Station Wagon as both. Best - well, it's a legendary vehicle that will get you anywhere and drives very nicely given what it is (and fuel consumption is barely any worse than my old petrol Vectra estate, to my surprise), and I really enjoy owning and driving it. Worst - well, the build quality is appalling for what is a premium priced car (though easy to fix yourself with a hex key and spanner as it's like a giant Meccano set!)

 

[61653 HTAFC]

A 1996 Suzuki Swift 1.3 GLS. They sold millions of these (albeit some branded as Subaru Justy) but they were awful. A stupidly high boot sill, Just 2 rubbish tinny speakers for the stereo but was very difficult to install replacements or extras, electric wingmirrors which tripped the fuse whenever you tried to adjust them, and electric windows which had a habit of falling out of line. Some of these issues were design flaws but some were just down to it being an absolute dog of a vehicle. And it was a really peculiar metallic purple colour. The worst thing though was that mechanically these things were practically indestructible - it just would not die!

 

[gg1]

The one that cost me the most money was probably my recently departed Ford Granada Scorpio, bit I would forgive it everything because it was so relaxing to drive.

Was it one of the 1994-98 Scorpios by any chance? I owned a 1995 model for about a year and your experience sounds not dissimilar to mine. It was unreliable (especially the dodgy electrics) and drank fuel but it was easily the most comfortable car I've ever driven with decent performance too.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

The two cars I've ever owned have both been top notch, so can't complain about it really. The first a 1998 Kia Sportage GLX and the second a 2006 Vauxhall Astra Estate. I still have the Kia tucked away in the garage .

I remember many years back my mum purchased an M-Reg Peugeot 405, which at the time I guess were a very common med-size saloon. But my word, this car was terrible. None of the dials with the exception of the speedo seemed to work, radio didn't even work and had a habit of just cutting out.

 

[EM2]

Was it one of the 1994-98 Scorpios by any chance? I owned a 1995 model for about a year and your experience sounds not dissimilar to mine. It was unreliable (especially the dodgy electrics) and drank fuel but it was easily the most comfortable car I've ever driven with decent performance too.

No, the previous model (1992). I never had any problems with electrics, it was all mechanical. I think it was because I was driving it a lot more than it was used to. When I got it, it had done 12,000 miles in five years. I put that on it in eighteen months.

 

[richw]

I once was stupid enough to buy a cityrover. No further comment required on that!