Worst car I have ever driven....
Discussion
Nuclear Biscuit said:
I had a Citroen Xsara Picasso automatic as a hire car once. It felt dangerously bad. Epic understeer at low speeds to the point that I stopped and checked the tyre pressures. Stupidly lethargic and thirsty as well.
This 100%. I had a Xsara Picasso HDi manual for 3 months (.. it felt much much longer). I started a new job, ordered a new CC on Day 1 but there was a 3-month lead time, so ‘HQ’ (it was a national co.) said they’d sort out a temporary car for me. Next day the Picasso turns up 
. It was frightful, absolutely frightful- I was convinced that it was a sent over to test my commitment to the job 
. It nearly killed me several times in the first fortnight, as (unbeknown to me) every time you clicked the indicators it also flashed the headlamps (a known Picasso problem apparently), hence causing several semi-road rage incidents when people pulled out on me as I was turning right.
I got that fixed (… it needed 3 separate visits to the local Citroen dealer- ‘we ordered the wrong part sir…!
’) which at least made it safe. Which was its’ only plus point really. It was gutless and wallowed around like a drunken hippo to the extent that it was scary at even moderate speed. It didn’t strike me as being spectacularly economical either. Its only single redeeming feature was that it had masses of internal cubby holes and storage spaces, albeit they were in its horribly flimsy interior. You can see why they have the reputation of being the car for the person who knows very little about cars or simply hates them. Never was I so relieved to hand back a car.madbadger said:
JustADay said:
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...
I like the way some members on here just pick up the conversation without noticing the dates at all.
To answer the question I've driven some truly terrible cars in my time which have made a decent case for the crown of being the worst..
Honorable Mention
Chevrolet Cavalier - Had this as a hire car for all of a day while I was in the states on holiday. All the build and materials were flimsy and very much gave the impression that it was some sort of rough draft mock-up of a car that was being developed. Worst thing was the autobox though, it could never seem to work out what gear it should be in and it would be very hit and miss (mostly miss tbh) as to whether you'd have any power when you put your foot down.
Bronze medal
2001 Astra 1.6 - This was a company pool car at a job I had a while back and was mainly shocking when compared with the similar age Focus that was our other pool car. Both had 1.6 petrol engines and had cost more or less the same to buy, the Ford was unspectacular but decent at what it did, not the comfiest car in the world but certainly not going to cripple you either, power was adequate for the job of getting you about. The Astra was terrible, somehow they had managed to create a driving position that looked like any other car but somehow was perfectly engineered to make various bits of you hurt quite badly after any real length of time behind the wheel, compliment that with concrete seats and an engine with so little power you'd have sworn someone had put it together wrong and it was the washer pump that was driving the wheels. If anybody at Vauxhall at that point was wondering why they were getting their asses handed to them by Ford in that particular battle all they needed to do was drive the two back to back!
Silver medal
1997 Peugeot 306 Diesel - It was bought as a cheap as chips commuter hack to save my crippling fuel bills, the engine was NA and slower then a very slow thing, and had a very weird set of options - think alloys and electric sun roof but manual windows and no central locking. The fans only "worked" on two of the settings on the dial and even then only if cajoled, rain would periodically result in a small lake in the passenger foot well and the poor fit and build quality of the thing meant that the road noise on the motorway was deafening. The seats were truly god-awful and after an hour or so in the car I'd have to get out and move around a bit or it would become completely unbearable. And the worst thing? Despite lots of small things going wrong with it the damn thing utterly refused to do the honourable thing and die and as I couldn't justify replacing it while it still technically did what I bought it for it plagued me for nearly two years
Gold medal
2004 Citroen C3 1.4 - Drove several of these as my Subaru dealer was also a Citroen shop and had a fleet of brand new ones that they used as courtesy cars. The interior was clearly put together on a budget of 50p (and I think they probably had some left over), the instrument cluster was straight out of a low-rent 70's sci-fi show's idea of "the future" complete with a crap digital speedometer that probably started life as one of the designers' childhood alarm clock. The high driving position and incredibly bouncy suspension gave you the feeling that you weren't driving a car you were riding around on top of a bowl of jelly and I'm fairly sure the 1.4 figure actually referred to the horsepower the engine produced rather than it's displacement, why anyone would willingly part with money for one of these hateful things is truly beyond my comprehension!
We had a Corsa 1.1 hire car when we were on honeymoon in Lake Garda last year. We only needed it for 5 days to get from the airport to the hotel and then to drive around the lake.
Dangerously slow is the only way to describe it.
To make matters worse we were staying at an amazing 5* hotel called the Lido Palace and the German Ferrari Owners Club were staying there at the same time. The valet couldn't get our shed out of sight as quick as possible.
Dangerously slow is the only way to describe it.
To make matters worse we were staying at an amazing 5* hotel called the Lido Palace and the German Ferrari Owners Club were staying there at the same time. The valet couldn't get our shed out of sight as quick as possible.
JustADay said:
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...
Was googling worst cars - trying to dissuade a friend from buying a new Corsa and buying something better on the second hand market for the same money. Came up with this.I've driven some knackered, ropey old nails over the years. But the worst was a 2008 Astra 1.4 Life, at the time a 6-month-old car.
Completely gutless, horribly uncomfortable, and generally a cheap and nasty piece of cynically-engineered junk. It drank fuel and gave me both back- and earache - any hint of incline necessitated dropping down to fourth or even third gear and revving it hard just to maintain 70mph.
It was a hire car, fortunately, and the week I spent with it made me wonder how anyone ever signed off on such a miserable combination of car and engine. It was good at nothing, mediocre in some areas and godawful in the rest.
Completely gutless, horribly uncomfortable, and generally a cheap and nasty piece of cynically-engineered junk. It drank fuel and gave me both back- and earache - any hint of incline necessitated dropping down to fourth or even third gear and revving it hard just to maintain 70mph.
It was a hire car, fortunately, and the week I spent with it made me wonder how anyone ever signed off on such a miserable combination of car and engine. It was good at nothing, mediocre in some areas and godawful in the rest.
forzaminardi said:
Possibly not the worst ever, but certainly the worst I've driven for a while - a new Astra 1.4 SRI. Quite comfortable, but ridiculously vague light steering, absolutely no power and quite simply an unpleasant vehicle to do anything but sit in. The most enjoyable part of it was either eating a tuna melt panini whilst sitting in it, or giving the keys back.
I retract this comment and instead submit: The Hyundai i30. It has a 1.6 diesel engine so lacking in flexibility that no matter what gear you're in, you're in the wrong gear. It has suspension made of trifle, not that nice trifle that your auntie makes at Christmas but that cheap Farmfoods trifle with suspiciously yellow custard and radioactive cream. It has a novel steering system that "works" by small scuttling creatures running one way or the other along a treadmill made of 20-year old elastic bands depending on the direction of your steering input. It has a gear shift that is designed to replicate the sensation of stirring Jordan's ladybits with a wobbly broomstick from a pound shop. Its interior is made of the recycled model plane collection of every Korean schoolboy. For a conventional hatchbacky car it vibrates so that every time you look in the rearview mirror you think you need to have your eyes tested as everything looks blurry. It has an upshift advisory indicator in the dashboard that when followed, puts your car on the verge of stalling while in motion. It has a stop start system that stops more frequently than it starts. It feels like it will topple over if cornering is attempted at more than 25mph. It was my pleasure to give it back. Even if I removed any enthusiasm at all for cars, motoring or driving, I can't understand why someone would intentionally buy such a car. There are not only fundamentally better competitors (such as the aforementioned Astra) but also better, cheaper competitors.forzaminardi said:
I retract this comment and instead submit: The Hyundai i30. It has a 1.6 diesel engine so lacking in flexibility that no matter what gear you're in, you're in the wrong gear. It has suspension made of trifle, not that nice trifle that your auntie makes at Christmas but that cheap Farmfoods trifle with suspiciously yellow custard and radioactive cream. It has a novel steering system that "works" by small scuttling creatures running one way or the other along a treadmill made of 20-year old elastic bands depending on the direction of your steering input. It has a gear shift that is designed to replicate the sensation of stirring Jordan's ladybits with a wobbly broomstick from a pound shop. Its interior is made of the recycled model plane collection of every Korean schoolboy. For a conventional hatchbacky car it vibrates so that every time you look in the rearview mirror you think you need to have your eyes tested as everything looks blurry. It has an upshift advisory indicator in the dashboard that when followed, puts your car on the verge of stalling while in motion. It has a stop start system that stops more frequently than it starts. It feels like it will topple over if cornering is attempted at more than 25mph. It was my pleasure to give it back. Even if I removed any enthusiasm at all for cars, motoring or driving, I can't understand why someone would intentionally buy such a car. There are not only fundamentally better competitors (such as the aforementioned Astra) but also better, cheaper competitors.
Surprised you found it that bad I had an I40 Estate the other day as a hire car 1.7 diesel 140hp thought it was a nice car to be honest and drove quite well.I worked for a while at Gatwick airport many moons ago as a driver for one of the car rental companies; Ford, Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Vauxhall, Seat, VW were the cars doing the rounds and without question the Vauxhalls were the worst to drive, all of them; terrible steering, poor dynamics, dreary interiors, flimsy build, poor in most respects. The best were the Peugeots; 306, 406, lovely to drive.
Also, all Volvos I've ever driven; dreary, lifeless things. Never liked them nor Saabs.
Also, all Volvos I've ever driven; dreary, lifeless things. Never liked them nor Saabs.
torres del paine said:
I worked for a while at Gatwick airport many moons ago as a driver for one of the car rental companies; Ford, Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Vauxhall, Seat, VW were the cars doing the rounds and without question the Vauxhalls were the worst to drive, all of them; terrible steering, poor dynamics, dreary interiors, flimsy build, poor in most respects. The best were the Peugeots; 306, 406, lovely to drive.
Also, all Volvos I've ever driven; dreary, lifeless things. Never liked them nor Saabs.
Agree with Peugeot thing had a load of hire cars through work recently one I was most impressed with was the brand new Peugeot 308 good diesel engine, drove nice and the interior was a lovely place to sit and appeared to be very well built materials wise I would say it was a lot better than my Audi to be honest. This was on a bog standard active model and it still had Sat Nav, bluetooh, parking sensors etc... surprised you don't see more of them on the road certainly for me preferable to a focus or golf. Also, all Volvos I've ever driven; dreary, lifeless things. Never liked them nor Saabs.
OneLittleFish said:
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.
0.9l Renault Craptur???? 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.
Hows that even legal? It must have been glacially slow...MoleVision said:
I also have the opinion the handling is not just bad but dangerous. You have no idea what the wheels are doing, and 1/4 turn of essentially play in the wheel doesn't help.
The very worst would probably have to be a Reliant Regal, went out with a customer to road test for a noise, drove it about 200 yards before getting out and walking back to workshop leaving customer to drive it back. Not very much better anything made by the soviet block countries in the late seventies and eighties. Worst dissapointment the Lotus Esprit truly awful car.
Went to a wedding out bush a year ago, my car was in for the timing belt so we hired a car for the trip. Brand spanking new Nissan Pulsar. Utterly horrid car in every aspect. Gutless 1.8 engine coupled to an automatic box that seemed to be designed by chimps bashing typewriters. Interior was similarly designed using better ware plastics rather than the far superior Tupperware range. Ride quality was akin to perching the car on stacks of old tennis balls. All in all a miserable experience so much so that we had an argument over who was driving it home as I felt violated by it, picturing my self as Ace Ventura in the shower scene as the theme from The Crying Game played.
Would have to be my sisters mk1 1.4 mercedes a-class. Horrific little piece of s***. It bounced along the road, had no power, no steering feel, a horrible driving position, stupidly light pedals, uncomfortable seats and one of the worst quality interiors of the 1990s. Wheelie bin plastic everywhere, and this was a 'mercedes'.
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