Worst car I have ever driven....

Worst car I have ever driven....

Author
Discussion

Ali_T

3,379 posts

256 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
FSO Polonez. A driving position that only an orangutang could find comfortable where your knees were above your ears. The rest was just as dire.

Closely followed by a Peugeot 206 whose pedals were so close together that my regular size 9s couldn't actually hit one pedal at a time so driving became a sequence of heart stopping moments as you wondered which pedal you were actually going to get, regardless of which one you wanted.

Ali_T

3,379 posts

256 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
otolith said:
I think the worst car I've ever driven (not the worst kind of car) was a Vauxhall Chevette belonging to a housemate at university. His driving was frightening enough without knowing how much play was in the steering or how ineffective the brakes were.
We may have had the same housemate!

martin84

5,366 posts

152 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
Nice to see it's not just me who thinks the Vauxhall seats are stupidly hard. I was a passenger in a newish Astra going to some work training thing, it felt like 1000 miles away and it's not just me having a less fat arse than I once did I promise you. The seats were like sitting on the floor.

Mock my Rover all you want, I do as well but I had a whole new appreciation for it when I got back from this thing.

rohrl

8,712 posts

144 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
It's a toss-up between a Maestro Clubman D and the world's most knackered 300,000 mile Rover 214, again a normally aspirated diesel.

Both utterly crap joyless pigs to drive and the 214 was shagged-out beyond belief having been used as a hack in a transport yard. The Maestro wasn't that old though and it abysmal to drive, just unforgivably st.

Dixie68

3,091 posts

186 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
Another Vauxhall, but an Astra. I too was offered a Nissan Note or the Astra 1.6 SXi - no contest I thought as the Astra had a bigger engine & didn't look bad. Big mistake! st seats, st gearbox, st steering, gutless engine, st view of the dials even after adjusting the steering wheel, oh and those fking indicators! Indicate left, don't cancel after turn so try to cancel manually and end up indicating right, try to cancel manually and end up indicating left, try to... you get the picture. Since then when my company hires me a car I've made sure they always stipulate NOT an Astra.

martin84

5,366 posts

152 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
Some cars are the worst you've driven because they were past it, beaten up and generally knackered. Hell nothing will be good in that condition. Others are awful to drive because they're just st.

I have an example for both: C Reg Cavalier, not driven for 5 years and in almost unroadworthy condition. How it passed an MOT is beyond me. Rattled like hell at 60mph, felt like I'd get to the other end of the carraigeway with panels missing.

The other was a Kia Picanto. Oh dear.

Waugh-terfall

18,488 posts

199 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
martin84 said:
The other was a Kia Picanto. Oh dear.
What?! Great fun!


DSC00483 WM by Waugh-terfall, on Flickr

SystemParanoia

14,343 posts

197 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
i currently have a new smart car here in ital... omg i want this thing estroyed and clensed by fire!

it has the most aweful semi auto gearbox ever...

in auto mode its a lotteer if the car will accelerate again if you lift off the throttle, i counted 3scs of lag! i have rolled into quite a number of junctions without power whilst death on 18 wheel is bearing down on me.

semi-auto mode insnt any better... it wont change gear then you ask it to... an when in finally doe i jumps all the way to 5th because ive been hammering the crap out of the silly little gearnob trying to get it to change gear.

its the only petrol ive ever been in that sounds like a iesel, and the stupid gearnob work the wrong way round. its push to go up the box and pull to go down.... wrong wrong wrong!

i hate it and it will probbably killme

SystemParanoia

14,343 posts

197 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
posting from my kindle

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
John D. said:
Hyundai i10. Drove that bd thing 110 miles to work and back every day for a fortnight. Flat to the floor mostly.
Amazed to hear that. I've driven a few i10s and think they are great little cars.

AGumbo

516 posts

180 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
The Hyundai Getz we had as a hire car in the Blue Mountains in Oz, slow, really slow, gearbox with a random collection of ratios in it and the worst driving position since the SII Landrover I used to drive working on a farm.

Hateful waste of resources no idea what engine was in it I suspect two hamsters could have done better.

TallbutBuxomly

Original Poster:

12,254 posts

215 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
I think a lot of people are judging these cars on handling when quite frankly handling is not that big of an issue. Its more just the overall finished products quality.

The corsa was st because it shouldnt have been, being both brand new and very expensive. The seats should have been comfortable the engine should have been punchy enough to be usable and the list goes on.

Maxus

951 posts

180 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
Nissan Almera 1.5 petrol

Slow AND poor fuel economy
Harsh ride AND wallowy

I can't think of any redeeming features although it didn't break down.

m555

371 posts

183 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
TallbutBuxomly said:
I think a lot of people are judging these cars on handling when quite frankly handling is not that big of an issue. Its more just the overall finished products quality.
Overall finished products quality?!
that is the least of me worries when doing 60 in a motorway with wet weather and struggling to keep the tiida in a straight line?!

GreatGranny

9,097 posts

225 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
My sister has a 1.2 Corsa, driven it once and as the OP says, it is truly awful.

However my M in L's Getz Auto is worse. The gearbox is only 3 speed I think but even with a 1.5 engine it is pathetically slow. Worse still due to the buyer of my car picking it up thursday and my new car arriving on sat I have to drive this hateful thing 90 miles to work and back another 90 miles on friday. Oh joy!

If you see a little black thing trying struggling to overtake an artic thats doing 40mph on the A17 between Sleaford and King's Lynn on friday morning that will be me.

Another candidate is a 307 Auto hire car I drove to a course from Sheffield to coventry. It had a manual option! On a 3 speed! Horrible horrible.

psgcarey

611 posts

161 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
Another hire car here, this time a Chevrolet Spark.
No good points.
Was on a rather lovely road from Marseille to Signes. This st box was so slow on the uphill bits I was being tail-gated by an HGV.
I still await concrete proof of it having an engine at all.

TallbutBuxomly

Original Poster:

12,254 posts

215 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
quotequote all
m555 said:
TallbutBuxomly said:
I think a lot of people are judging these cars on handling when quite frankly handling is not that big of an issue. Its more just the overall finished products quality.
Overall finished products quality?!
that is the least of me worries when doing 60 in a motorway with wet weather and struggling to keep the tiida in a straight line?!
I would put money that it was due to the tires as the one I used for a month was fine in rain from what I recall. Yours most likely had either very worn tyres or differences.

OneLittleFish

10 posts

113 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
Used to work for a car hire company so driven some awful cars in my time. Ones that come to mind are:

Vauxhall Corsa 1.0l - horribly cheap on the inside, awful handling, looks terrible, sounds terrible, thirsty on the petrol and the engine is the most hopelessly gutless thing I can ever remember.

Automatic 1.0l Toyota Aygo. Most savage gear change in an auto box I can remember and thanks to the size of the engine it would literally change every few seconds. Like a sledgehammer blow in your back every fifteen feet you drove.

0.9l Renault Captur - God awful car and engine was redlined so much on the motorway just to reach 70mph I swear you could see the fuel gauge slowly move as you went by.

1.6l Vauxhall Insignia - That engine in that car. Hideous.

Fiat 500l - The Fiat 500 is an ace little car, but the 500l is just an awful idea terribly executed.

Vauxhall Astra - The 2l diesels were good fun, but everything else was underpowered and dull to drive.

On balance though would probably have to go for the Captur, even if Vauxhall deserve a special mention for being consistently dismal.

Kentish

15,169 posts

233 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
CoolHands said:
should have gone for the note! I've got one & I like it. Seats are comfy.
I own the previous to the current model, a 2012 model & I've also driven the new one.

Both are a clever design with a tardis like interior, lots of kit, very good economy and very nice ride & handling.


JustADay

196 posts

125 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
OneLittleFish said:
Used to work for a car hire company so driven some awful cars in my time. Ones that come to mind are...
Not trying to have a dig but I'm trying to work out how you came upon a 2 year old thread for your first post on Pistonheads? Genuinely curious...