What was the Worst Car you Ever Purchased

For the name of Thor (the commie Thor) I will never buy an American, French or English car again, I had a Ford Fiesta a Citroen DS and a Triumph TR7, and if I looked hard at them they broke. Every time.

Korea, Japan, Germany, they build cars, not throwaways.

Let's be honest, TOYOTA makes cars that last. Everyone else is fighting for a distant second best. IMO of course.

Germans? LOL. They might last a while if you are:

(A) An ASE certified mechanic.

or

(B) Have an unlimited budget for routine and non routine maintenance.

2000 Ford Windstar. Had it only 9 years. Both sliding doors broke in different ways, and one time smoke came into the cabin through the vents. It had several issues. Just a piece of crap.

"69 VW Squareback wagon that I got in 1977. The engines were air cooled and in the rear. The way they set blocked a good bit of the air flow from getting to and cooling the #3 cylinder so the engines would blow. Mine did it a few days after I got it. The dealer wouldn't do anything. I bought a junkyard engine and had it installed. The #3 cylinder failed the compression test which meant it was about to blow. The same happened with the next engine I had put in, and the next. All of these engines were under warranty but the labor getting them into the car wasn't free. Finally the fourth engine was good and I got a year or two out of it but finally got tired of not having heat and sold it.

A Yugo. Not sure what year it was but I was driving it around in the 80s. Some drunk guys stole it and rolled it a few miles down the road. In hindsight, I guess I owe them a favor.

Toyota is absolutely the best. The worst car I have ever owned is a BMW Z4. I think that the Germans are still salty about losing the war. I once owned a Yugo, and the BMW beats it hands down.

I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a bad car. If I can name the worst out of many good cars, it’s probably a Lexus CT200h. It was when premium fuel was close to $4 per gallon and traded in a good 4Runner for it. It wasn’t a bad car, but just didn’t really do anything special other than get good gas mileage.

A 1963 Corvair van. It lasted 3 months.

SprintTriathlon wrote:

For the name of Thor (the commie Thor) I will never buy an American, French or English car again, I had a Ford Fiesta a Citroen DS and a Triumph TR7, and if I looked hard at them they broke. Every time.

Korea, Japan, Germany, they build cars, not throwaways.

Ford F-250 owners would disagree with you. They have bulletproof diesel engines that last a long time. They also hold their value incredibly well.

The new Corvette C8 is probably the best sportscar value in the world right now.

Of course, the F250 and the C8 are out of reach for the average buyer, but it’s not fair to say the US can’t build a good car.

I’ve only owned German or Japanese cars for the last 20 years, with the exception of a Land Rover LR4, but I can appreciate good vehicles from any of the major companies.

The worst car that I had was a 1972 Chevrolet Vega!! It looked good on the showroom floor,Light Blue with a Back racing stripe.......After the first year I had four heads and two engines .(aluminum Engine)...POS........My GF at the time wanted to learn how to drive a stick.....She ran over a divider in a empty parking lot.....I was able to drive it home and It was kind of fixed. Traded it in two weeks later......I had a Toyota FourRunner five years and it was great, Had to trade it in because the gas mileage was 18 MPG. Got a Honda CR-V and It to is a good car.

Pdx 1967 wrote:

The worst car that I had was a 1972 Chevrolet Vega!! It looked good on the showroom floor,Light Blue with a Back racing stripe.......After the first year I had four heads and two engines .(aluminum Engine)...POS........My GF at the time wanted to learn how to drive a stick.....She ran over a divider in a empty parking lot.....I was able to drive it home and It was kind of fixed. Traded it in two weeks later......I had a Toyota FourRunner five years and it was great, Had to trade it in because the gas mileage was 18 MPG. Got a Honda CR-V and It to is a good car.

My gf had a Vega. What a piece of crap. U.S. auto companies really started making crappy cars in the 1970s. The Vega, the Pinto, the Gremlin... No wonder Toyota and Honda gained a strong foothold in the market in that period.

They don't call it the Malaise Era for nothing

I'm amazed this thread has already been visited by two former Yugo owners. They cost $3999 brand new and were pieces of crap. To get a feel for how crappy they were, watch this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QN4UhS8cFTk&t=1s

2011 Chrysler Town and Country. It started falling apart after around 70, 000 miles in spite of the meticulous care I took to keep it in good shape.

Worst- Ford Focus station wagon. The engine block cracked at 102k miles. Despicable that the metal itself actually fractured almost in half. Not under warranty.

Best- 2007 Honda CRV. 242k and counting. Incredible that I’ve only done the brakes, oil, air filter, radiator hose. The thing won’t die and we want to get a newer car. We keep saying when our CRV dies we”ll buy a new one.

El cheapo wrote:

2011 Chrysler Town and Country. It started falling apart after around 70, 000 miles in spite of the meticulous care I took to keep it in good shape.

Correction: it was a 2007 T&C.

Ford contour. It was a burner car anyway. Complete POS.

Had an mr2 (SW20) also. Great car except when it broke. Camry engine but because the engine was rear mounted all the sensors and hoses were backwards. Every part was special order . One manufacturer of OEM tires- primewell. That’s like putting dress shoes on to go for a run. Trash. Fluids needed to be flushed mechanically because the hoses were so long. Maintenance nightmare.

Ford Pinto

That may be the car I bought this summer for my daughter to learn on and drive for a few years.

2016 Chevy Cruze with 90K mikes.

It’s driving fine and it’s a nice starter car.

I got it from a dealer and the check engine light was on. They fixed that by replacing the catalytic converter.

About three months later and the light comes on again. I got it diagnosed.

The estimate is $3,500.

There was a hole in the flex pipe in the front.

That pipe connects to a mid pipe and they are rusted together. Then the muffler and tail pipe would then need to be replaced. Only GM supplies those parts for that car.

I got a reference to another shop that would patch the hole for $150. That didn’t take. The light came back on a week later.

Need to get this fixed for emissions.

Also, the rear windshield shattered the week before that light cage on when the passenger door was shut. $400

Who knows what’s next.