Worst car ever made

[r11co]

morgrp said:

The Pontiac Aztec - May well be a good car underneath but those looks are utterly unforgivable on any level:

You can see where they got the inspiration for the two ugliest cars currently in production - the Ssangyong Rodius and the Nissan Juke!

Anyhoo - I offer this as a controversial choice.



The concept was fine, but in the decade this particular model was being built (and I know because my mother had one from brand new, same colour and everything) this was the most unreliable POS on the planet. Rusted like hell, the engine would fail to start and the doors would jam in the slightest bit of cold weather (remember several times having to climb in through the barn doors at the back), bits fell off (most comically a door mirror which flew off at motorway speed never to be seen again).

Was traded in at less than 2 years old when the gearbox packed up - right in front of a VW dealership who took it there and then in exchange for a Polo - which ended up the first in a very long line of VAG products purchased by my family because the Polo was the epitome of reliability.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 23 December 09:22

[NoelWatson]

useyourdellusion said:

NoelWatson said:

BMW 330i Touring

I would imagine it would score quite poorly at load capacity, but well everywhere else.

Do please tell us your reasons for suggesting it.....

The most unreliable car I have had the misfortune of owning/driving (and that includes a Fiat 126)

[Liquid Knight]

Just had a go in a Hyundi i30.

[The Wookie]

heebeegeetee said:

I would defend the B series lump though. It was a tough, rugged and reliable unit which was able to be stretched from 1400cc to 1800 without blowing head gaskets every 5 mins. Indeed it takes being stretched to 2 litres+ for competition also. Hundreds of thousand of them were sold and they powered all sorts of vehicles throughout it's time.

Can't speak for it as a racing engine, but as an MGB owner as a road engine in original tune 'rugged and tough' are definitely its only good traits, perhaps indicating it's suitability for propelling fork lift trucks

I'd argue it's not difficult to build a robust engine when you're only carving 4 pots out of a quarter of a tonne of pig iron!

[heebeegeetee]

The Wookie said:

heebeegeetee said:

I would defend the B series lump though. It was a tough, rugged and reliable unit which was able to be stretched from 1400cc to 1800 without blowing head gaskets every 5 mins. Indeed it takes being stretched to 2 litres+ for competition also. Hundreds of thousand of them were sold and they powered all sorts of vehicles throughout it's time.

Can't speak for it as a racing engine, but as an MGB owner as a road engine in original tune 'rugged and tough' are definitely its only good traits, perhaps indicating it's suitability for propelling fork lift trucks

I'd argue it's not difficult to build a robust engine when you're only carving 4 pots out of a quarter of a tonne of pig iron!

Hmm. Do you know anything about British cars? If I say K series, Hillman Imp engine, MG twin cam, Dolomite engines or indeed multi cylinder engines such as Triumph V8s... the only decent road car engine Britain has ever produced was a Buick, if you ask me, so yes, Britain has had a great deal of difficulty in building robust engines. And er, didn't you need a Coventry Climax for a fork truck engine?

And btw, if you don't mind me saying, you *do* know about racing B-Series engines because I've shown you with those results. And please be assured, those results are entirely typical, both in period and now . Bloody good competition record has the B-Series. Not as good as the A-Series I'll grant though. (Britain's other good engine

[Mr2Mike]

heebeegeetee said:

Hmm. Do you know anything about British cars? If I say K series, Hillman Imp engine, MG twin cam, Dolomite engines or indeed multi cylinder engines such as Triumph V8s... the only decent road car engine Britain has ever produced was a Buick, if you ask me, so yes, Britain has had a great deal of difficulty in building robust engines.

Clearly you don't know much about British cars, so it's rather hypocritical calling out other people on it.

I suppose you'd believe the Daimler Hemi V8 was a weak and unreliable POS, even though it's been used for drag racing producing astronomical amount of power due to its inherent strength. And what about the engines that Rolls Royce have churned out for the last century, all completely unfit for purpose I suppose? Of course the humble Ford Crossflow must join your scrap pile, only being fit to reliably power hundreds of thousands of Fords production cars and being used extensively in motorsport, likewise BLs A and B series engines.

[Liquid Knight]

Mr2Mike said:

heebeegeetee said:

Hmm. Do you know anything about British cars? If I say K series, Hillman Imp engine, MG twin cam, Dolomite engines or indeed multi cylinder engines such as Triumph V8s... the only decent road car engine Britain has ever produced was a Buick, if you ask me, so yes, Britain has had a great deal of difficulty in building robust engines.

Clearly you don't know much about British cars, so it's rather hypocritical calling out other people on it.

I suppose you'd believe the Daimler Hemi V8 was a weak and unreliable POS, even though it's been used for drag racing producing astronomical amount of power due to its inherent strength. And what about the engines that Rolls Royce have churned out for the last century, all completely unfit for purpose I suppose? Of course the humble Ford Crossflow must join your scrap pile, only being fit to reliably power hundreds of thousands of Fords production cars and being used extensively in motorsport, likewise BLs A and B series engines.

The six and three quarter Rolls Royce engine was so crap in was used for nearly fifty years.

[robemcdonald]

Not too sure why there are a lot of people slating British cars and technology from the 70's. There were reliability issues but most of these were caused by the guys making them being out on strike most of the time rather than design.

My first car was an allegro and to be honest I never really want to drive another, but it had a good ride and plenty of space inside and as far as I remember was as dependable as a lot of the foreign cars around at the time.

A lot of people on this thread seem to be trashing cars they have probably never seen in the flesh let alone driven, which is a shame.

[Tyre Smoke]

Busa_Rush said:

Tyre Smoke said:

Busa Rush said:

Think back to the 70's . . . forget what you know now . . . the first Mexico looked like a tarted up 1100L shopping car . . . which was in effect what it was. The Marina was a coupe - very stylish in those days, had an 1800 engine and could be had with twin carbs, again very modern.

We know now that the basic Mexico didn't handle that well either although slightly better than the Marina. The Marina was never used in anger for rallying which is where the Escort won its popularity. The 1.8 TC saloon was used for rallying for a couple of years but never with the budget that Ford had.

You're trolling right?

The first Mexico was not a tarted up 1100L it was a bespoke homoligated Mk1 Escort built by Ford AVO. The similarities in the two cars extend to their overall appearance and that is about all. The Marina was never used for rallying because it was made out of tinfoil and had utterly crap suspension. If the car had shown any potential at all as a rally car it would have been exploited. It handled like a three wheeled Tesco trolley on ice. There is nothing 'modern' about a twin carb set up, my dad had a VX/490 from 1963 with more HP that the wheezy B series engine put out. Twin carbs where needed to give a very tired and st engine a power boost to bring it up to (then) something approaching modern power output.

Edited by Tyre Smoke on Tuesday 21st December 15:43

The Marina was most defiantly used for rallying, just not very successfully The amount of money Ford poured into Motorsport in those days eclipsed any other budget. Have a look here: http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/racrally.htm Spot the Marina

The original Mexico was produced as a result of the success at Rallying and was way below the RS1600 and even the RS2000. It may have had a strengthened shell and different suspension but I don't think it was anything special. I could be wrong (won't be the first time ). . . do you have a link to show it's a bit more than that ?

Sorry, late back to the thread. Just google type 49

[Captain Cadillac]

I'm having a bit of a struggle here as for what I use it for it's actually not bad at all.. but...

My Lexus GS350 AWD is proving to be quite the steaming pile of excrement. It's been in for repairs 9 times in the past 16k miles, needs more work yet done to the engine, it rattles worse than a retired NY City taxicab, and it's now managed to figure out how to use 20-30% more fuel which, again, can't be figured out at all by any Lexus dealer.

Meanwhile everyone laughs upon hearing that I also own an "unreliable" Jaguar but the car has had exactly ONE fault in 18 months.. a bad throttle assembly made by (Toyota owned) Denso.

[otolith]

robemcdonald said:

A lot of people on this thread seem to be trashing cars they have probably never seen in the flesh let alone driven, which is a shame.

Perhaps - but if they're trashing the Ital, as a former owner I can vouch for their opinion

[robemcdonald]

otolith said:

robemcdonald said:

A lot of people on this thread seem to be trashing cars they have probably never seen in the flesh let alone driven, which is a shame.

Perhaps - but if they're trashing the Ital, as a former owner I can vouch for their opinion

That's fair enough I've never been in one, but guess it must be a bit like a marina.
My comments were more aimed at people who found pictures of ugly cars and then proclaimed them the worst car ever made. Examples of this are; the FIAT multipla and Lagonda.
Personally the worst cars I have ever driven are:
1. Volkswagen Beetle
2. Suzuki Vitara
3. A Lightweight ex army Land Rover (which in fairness had seen better days and no doubt would have been awesome in the recent snow)

[Tyre Smoke]

robemcdonald said:

3. A Lightweight ex army Land Rover (which in fairness had seen better days and no doubt would have been awesome in the recent snow)

Which self contradicts this thread does it not?

I can vouch for the Marina being a horrible car. It was my first company car, 1.3 in cowpat brown. The heater was awful, freezing, cold and maybe tepid were the three settings. It wallowed terribly round corners and was as slooooooooooooow as a snail on Prozac.

The Ital was no better, my dad had one (briefly). The dash did indeed all face the passenger which made tuning the radio from the driving position 'interesting'. It had all the redeeming features of the Marina with added crappiness thrown in. I seem to remember it had a fair sized boot though.

[Bos48]

My worst car ever made. Land Rover Discovery 2.It was the most unreliable car I have owned.
£ recoveries,
Leaked through sunshine roof. Motor failed so roof could not shut.
Rear suspension. Air bag bust, then height sensor failed - that side pumped right up.to rock hard. Remedy converted to coils.
three steering boxes - all leaked.
Two injector wiring looms
Air conditioning seized, and took uut crankcase pulley (LR genuine £500 !).

Clutch stuck.
Height sensor one side failed. Changed but had to disconnect battery. The complex german radio and casette player then needed coding, the soft "4" on the display would not work - radio and casette caddy therefore useless. Installed simple cheap radio.
It ate maintenance money !
The breakdown service asked what make of car it was whilst awaiting recovery, when told Discovery 2 thhe comment it would be, the most unreliable car they recoverd.

[Muchie Lecken]

RENAULT GRAND ESPACE INITIALLE 3.5 V6 PETROL (2006)


I had the horrendous misfortune of buying one of these gross monstrosities.


1) Horrendous electrical problems,
2) Constant Battery Drain,
3) Main Headlamp Unit faulty,
4) Indicators wouldn't self cancel after taking left or right turns,
5) Injection problems,
6) Acceleration problems,
7) Intermittent flashing Dashboard,
8) Heating problems,
9) ECU faulty.


I had all the above problems with this car.


IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On one occasion it self locked itself, with the keyless entry fob still inside the car, which was happily sitting nice and comfortably in it's allocated slot!!!!! So I had to fork out £130 to get the car reopened.


WHY WOULD THIS HAPPEN??????????


I also got extremely fed up and PISSED OFF after BUYING 3 NEW REPLACEMENT BATTERIES (£95 each), which were all drained of power and completely dead (as in totally impossible to recharge) within a week..


ABSOLUTE WASTE OF MONEY.


ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!


In the end I had no choice but to scrap the heap of st, as the ECU was fked and could not be fixed.


I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER BUY A WRETCHED RENAULT (GRAND ESPACE) AGAIN.


AVOID THESE CARS LIKE THE PLAGUE.


THE ULTIMATE MONEY PIT.


AND TO THIS DAY, I AM STILL HAVING THRICE WEEKLY COUNSELLING SESSIONS TO GET OVER THE ANXIETY AND TRAUMA.


DEFINATELY THE WORST AND MOST UNRELIABLE CAR EVER MADE.