The worst car you've ever driven...
Discussion
Chevrolet Ypsilon. I had the misfortune of having this pile of s
t for 4 days while my company Astra estate was in for repairs (dont get me started on that 14 plate crock of crap).
Less than a litre engine, anything over 50, the whole car would shake a rattle, the clutch would wobble, brakes non existent and the steering unresponsive. I put just under 700 miles in those 4 days on that, mostly motorway driving, but also off the beaten track, because I can. It's safe the say I returned that car back to the dealership with a new colour shade.
fking horrible car.
t for 4 days while my company Astra estate was in for repairs (dont get me started on that 14 plate crock of crap).Less than a litre engine, anything over 50, the whole car would shake a rattle, the clutch would wobble, brakes non existent and the steering unresponsive. I put just under 700 miles in those 4 days on that, mostly motorway driving, but also off the beaten track, because I can. It's safe the say I returned that car back to the dealership with a new colour shade.
f
king horrible car.DamnKraut said:
Just had a Nissan Micra 1.2 as a rental.
Among cars currently on the market this must be one of the bottom lows. Absolute crap gutless engine, going up hills at 30-40 mph, absolutely ste handling and interior design from the early 90s.
Utter stbox and the rental car agent assured me it's in the same class as a Polo following their logic 
Learned to drive in one of those - it was indeed awful. It visibly slowed down when you activated the air con, and made the 1.4 Astra I had afterwards feel like a rocketship.Among cars currently on the market this must be one of the bottom lows. Absolute crap gutless engine, going up hills at 30-40 mph, absolutely s
te handling and interior design from the early 90s.Utter s
tbox and the rental car agent assured me it's in the same class as a Polo following their logic The worst car I've ever driven though was my old housemate's CityRover. Only 25k miles on the clock but it was so tinny, rattly and slow, it didn't even really feel like a car. My mum used to have an old Rover Metro, and god knows that was bad enough, but I think the CityRover was genuinely worse, despite being more than 10 years newer.
Trixxz said:
Qubit said:
BMW e46 328ci. Worst car ive ever had, both to own and to drive.
Worst car because it went wrong or? I absolutely loved my e46 328i!Worst for me was a Nissan Primera - Borrowed it off a friend while I was between cars - Gave it back a day later and went back to riding my pushbike it was that bad. That 1.8 engine and the utter soul destroying interior. Not nice
SteveTTT said:
sunnydude said:
Lexus CT200 hybrid.
What a load of fking bks piece of fking st bd fk fk fk piece of crap it really is
And all down to that CVT box IMO!What a load of f
king bks piece of fking st bd fk fk fk piece of crap it really isJ4CKO said:
Yeah, the Escort is somewhat eulogised, thing is, every video I ever see of one is it going round in circles doing a donut or just spinning the tyres, would love to see someone drive one in a straight line.
I can remember scrapping them at the garage I worked at in the late eighties, nobody wanted them, generally rusty, leaky and usually not much fun, remember driving MK2 XR2's and they were miles more fun than the average MK1/2 Escort, its like the Mini, back then the reality was a steamed up, rusting 850 in sludge brown with mouldy trim that wouldnt start int he wet, that you had to use every day and hated, but now people compare it to a pristine, modified, restored Cooper they drive once a month, just like not every MK1/2 Escort was a 5 linked, caged beast with 300 bhp and a roll cage.
Have good memories of all my Escorts and I don't think many of my friends would have swapped their Escorts/Sunbeams for an XR2. Not that they were bad cars, just that I think for most of us, we had more fun driving the older cars. Then again the Escorts weren't average ones - usually 2 litres or Mexicos/Harriers etc and the Sunbeams were Lotus or ti versions I can remember scrapping them at the garage I worked at in the late eighties, nobody wanted them, generally rusty, leaky and usually not much fun, remember driving MK2 XR2's and they were miles more fun than the average MK1/2 Escort, its like the Mini, back then the reality was a steamed up, rusting 850 in sludge brown with mouldy trim that wouldnt start int he wet, that you had to use every day and hated, but now people compare it to a pristine, modified, restored Cooper they drive once a month, just like not every MK1/2 Escort was a 5 linked, caged beast with 300 bhp and a roll cage.
I remember one lad got a new XR2 back in the mid 80s - he was back in a Mk2 RS( albeit an 1800 ) before long. I tried a Mk1 1800Gti for a while but went back for another RS after. Golf was nice enough but I enjoyed the Escorts more - a few extra cheap horses/mods added to the experience too
When my first RS got run into and written off, had to get a cheap stopgap quick. Remember trying a low mileage Marina coupé - felt awful after the RS. A boggo 1.3 Mk2 Escort felt like a racer compared to the Marina despite double the mileage - steering was direct, nice and balanced through a roundabout. All comparative I guess though - I started off in Minis but never got into them like some lads did
Yadizzle1 said:
Peugeot 2008, stupid gearknob, stupid handbrake that you have to pull up to release. Can't see the dials if you have the steering wheel in a comfortable position, fuel gauge always looks like it's reading 1 line under full due to parallax error. Gutless 3 cylinder engine, horrendous clutch that feels like it's already worn out, the biting point is near the top of the pedal travel. AC that makes more noise than cold air, stty infotainment system that takes a year to load anything and is impossible to comprehend. And to top it off you look like a mong in it.
I passed my test in one of these last year so not driven many cars but feeling the steering column rubbing against my foot whilst using clutch wasn't nice.tty infotainment system that takes a year to load anything and is impossible to comprehend. And to top it off you look like a mong in it. 
compared to the ghastly offerings from the 1970's and 80's so you need to jump into a time machine and experience my top five selection: 2014 Vauxhall Astra Diesel hire car. Horrible in every way and impossible to justify in this day and age. Useless engine with somehow no low down torque so stalled constantly if you didn't change down to 1st at every opportunity, dreadful gearbox, rattly interior, st ride. It had only done 2000 miles so no excuse.
t ride. It had only done 2000 miles so no excuse.Zod said:
<snip>... and ended up with a 318d, not an exciting car, but it is a very good one. It has a decent amount of go, a good auto box, decent steering (I've been driving the Serra de Tramuntana) and nice, predictable rwd handling.
The 318d (2007 E90) is up there on my "worst car" list. Partly admittedly because it was *so* disappointing. It wasn't bad apart from the engine which ruined everything. It was a hire car, almost brand new.SWoll said:
2014 Vauxhall Astra Diesel hire car. Horrible in every way and impossible to justify in this day and age. Useless engine with somehow no low down torque so stalled constantly if you didn't change down to 1st at every opportunity,
Yep, exactly the same. The hotel we were staying at had a bunch of speed bumps coming out of the car park, the kind of thing I'd take in any other car in 2nd. Stalled it every time. So much for the so called low down diesel torque. Epic boost threshold lag, cannot remember the exact RPM's now (it was 9 years ago!) but there was just a massive hole between tickover and *any* go. If you attempted a speedy launch you had to rev it past the dead zone but then if you weren't utterly perfect and got even a hint of wheel spin the traction control would kick in and drop the revs to the death zone again. The engine ruined what was otherwise an acceptable car (although IMO even then overrated). To my mind it was made by the accountants for poor people to whom the badge was more important than any kind of driving pleasure.It is not however the worst car I've driven. That award goes to the 2l Diesel Rav4 I had as a "hire" while my car was in for bodywork repair (strangely enough after a 318d scraped down the side of it while parking). It once again had epic boost threshold lag with a stupid low 1st turning every pull off into either what felt like a hours wait for any go or reving the tits off it and riding the clutch through it's ludicrously short rev-range. Coupled with comedy handling, masses of roll and bizarre steering that was mildly dangerous as it changed weight mid-corner (appearing on some occasions to lose all assistance). I took to keeping it in "sport" (hahahahaha) mode as the only effect seemed to be that it kept the steering response linear.
Oh and the Insignia, nearly forgot about that. Badly designed with terrible integration. Was like the different parts of it were designed by separate committees who aren't talking to one another and all worked in isolation. Terrible (petrol) engine, forgettable handling but just slow, not in the same league as the BMW, Ford or Nissan Diesels. It was dire white goods. Don't understand why if you're in the market for white goods motoring anyone would want one over something Korean, Japanese etc.
I've driven plenty of other crap but either they were acceptable for their time/function (apart from an LDV Luton) or their bad points weren't so bad. In comparison a Micra (which was a courtesy car) was a breath of fresh air. Slow but predictable, ok handling, reasonable engine. Round town I'd have it over a 318d any day except on a hot day as it had no aircon!
Axionknight said:
Trabi601 said:
legless said:
It has to be the (then) brand new 59-plate Astra 1.6 'Design' that I was given as a hire car once.
I'll raise you a similar vintage 1.6 petrol Zafira. Awful heap of junk.t slow, unreliable, it ate its front tyres, looked abysmal and it was a touch heavy on the old jungle juice too as you had to thrash it to make it move.I drove it from Aberdeen to Huddersfield and with four blokes and all our clothes after a weeks working away and it used a hundred quids worth of fuel, it then broke down just before J23 of the M62 where we would have been exiting the motorway
We ditched it, walked up the super spiral slip road and went to a boozer.
The Meriva itself isn't awful per se, she likes it, its easy to fix when it inevitably does a Vauxhall and carts the kids around with barely a complaint, but the engine and gearbox are f
king awful1.6 16v, creates noise rather than forward momentum, and really needs a 6th gear, it's so short geared 70 is over 3k revs, it screams its head off
She quite likes it as she's a slow driver, scares the s
t out of me joining the motorway at 50, BUT, having driven it a few times it's not her, it's the carI took it to get MOT's, and usually my 1.9td Citroens are fine, but I entered the on ramp in 3rd at 25, screamed it up to 45, into 4th where the power dies, foot to the floor to 60 (watching the fuel needle drop a bit), up to 65 then into 5th, then just keep the pedal pinned until it eventually winds itself up to 70. But then, the stupid thing suddenly shoots up even more, 80/90 is easy at this point once your on the flat and above 60, but it's doing 4k revs at this point, the steerings stupidly light, and the electronic accelerator pedal is stupid sensitive, micro adjustments result in it jerking around.
The last few times I've driven it I jut go into old fart waft mode and change up at 2.5k and don't floor it, it seems to like that better
Plus it always b
d leaks oil from somewhere. Sump (had that off and re-sealed it), rocker cover (new gasket), oil pressure switch (new one) and it still smells oily now the bd. Doesnt burn any more than the 1.2l the handbook says it does every 1000 miles so fk it it can stay as it isThe plus side is every time I drive it I get back in my old shed and feel much happier, like sitting in an old friend
When she gets bored of it/it breaks, if she really wants another Meriva it'll be at least a 1.8, but she's been making noises at a shed mondeo so I shall push her in that direction (pez though, not diesel)
I think the worst was probably a mid-90s Hyundai Lantra. Wooden brakes, wheezing asthmatic engine, steering that managed to be overly heavy while having no feel at all, a sponge for a clutch, gear level that felt like it was about to snap off in your hand... I can't think of a single good thing about it.
I drove a Morris Marina once too, it was a terribly vague wallowy boat but at least it went sideways in a paddock.
I drove a Morris Marina once too, it was a terribly vague wallowy boat but at least it went sideways in a paddock.
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