Worst car ever made and sold in the UK?
Discussion
yonex said:
The Viva takes some beating!
Oy no - My first car was a Viva HL 1.2, it had the best handbrake of all of my mates cars & taught me the art of going sideways. Superb amounts of steering lock too. The comedy horizontal speedo would always keep me amused with it's alleged speed indications. 
In which case the Polski, Dacia and TATA cars I have driven over the years have been head and shoulders worse than any UK car.
These East European and Indian cars are in a class of their own in build quality. Dreadful.
The trim falls off, the wheels fall off, the door fall off. Dreadful. Awful.
You could not forecast with any degree of certainty whether any journey would start, continue or finish.
You did know you were NOT in safe hands.
These East European and Indian cars are in a class of their own in build quality. Dreadful.
The trim falls off, the wheels fall off, the door fall off. Dreadful. Awful.
You could not forecast with any degree of certainty whether any journey would start, continue or finish.
You did know you were NOT in safe hands.
The Talbot Tagora.
Talbot Sunbeam. I had a 1.0 LS when I was a student. Cheap, 4 speed box, no kit, dodgy RWD handling and 0-60 in 18 seconds. It started rusting after 2 years. As usual, it was the UK workforce and lack of investment to blame (at Linwood and Chrysler US). However the Ti and Lotus Sunbeam models were successful in motorsport events including the world rallying championship - I always wanted a Lotus version...
Talbot Sunbeam. I had a 1.0 LS when I was a student. Cheap, 4 speed box, no kit, dodgy RWD handling and 0-60 in 18 seconds. It started rusting after 2 years. As usual, it was the UK workforce and lack of investment to blame (at Linwood and Chrysler US). However the Ti and Lotus Sunbeam models were successful in motorsport events including the world rallying championship - I always wanted a Lotus version...
Back in the late 80's or early 90's a mates company bought a Tata pickup truck. They used to buy new and run them into the ground.
After six months they were a bit concerned already about the amount of trouble they might have come MOT time 2.5 years away.
Fear not. There was no need to worry about how much it would cost to get the then three year old Tata pickup truck through it's MOT. It didn't get that far. Just past it's second birthday it actually started falling to pieces.
After six months they were a bit concerned already about the amount of trouble they might have come MOT time 2.5 years away.
Fear not. There was no need to worry about how much it would cost to get the then three year old Tata pickup truck through it's MOT. It didn't get that far. Just past it's second birthday it actually started falling to pieces.
Ozzie Osmond said:
For instance - the Talbot Horizon.
This from Wikipedia, "The collapse of Chrysler Europe in 1978 and its subsequent sale to Peugeot meant that the car was hurriedly rebadged using the exhumed Talbot brand for the remainder of its life. From 1980 production expanded to the former Chrysler Europe Ryton plant, near Coventry in England.
In 1981, Series II models were introduced, with some minor improvements. By then however, the Horizon was becoming increasingly uncompetitive next to rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf, Opel Kadett/Vauxhall Astra and the third generation Ford Escort. The rattly and unrefined ohv engines which had been carried over from the Simca 1100 were largely to blame, while body corrosion was a serious issue, at least until Series II, giving many cars a short service life.
Due to corrosion problems there are few left, Horizon is now a rare sight with possibly less than 200 surviving examples in the UK.
The end of Horizon production in 1987 also marked the end of the Talbot badge on passenger cars."
lol. My Dad had a new Chrysler Alpine (blue with white bumpers) followed by a gold with black bumpers Talbot Alpine.This from Wikipedia, "The collapse of Chrysler Europe in 1978 and its subsequent sale to Peugeot meant that the car was hurriedly rebadged using the exhumed Talbot brand for the remainder of its life. From 1980 production expanded to the former Chrysler Europe Ryton plant, near Coventry in England.
In 1981, Series II models were introduced, with some minor improvements. By then however, the Horizon was becoming increasingly uncompetitive next to rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf, Opel Kadett/Vauxhall Astra and the third generation Ford Escort. The rattly and unrefined ohv engines which had been carried over from the Simca 1100 were largely to blame, while body corrosion was a serious issue, at least until Series II, giving many cars a short service life.
Due to corrosion problems there are few left, Horizon is now a rare sight with possibly less than 200 surviving examples in the UK.
The end of Horizon production in 1987 also marked the end of the Talbot badge on passenger cars."
Fancy, eh?
It wasn't so much the corrosion but the way the paint and bumpers faded in sunlight after what must have been 2 months.
Shocking tanks.
My nominations? Firms that are remembered for great cars, but have little dollops of shyte in their catalogue.
A British company which enjoyed building butch open-wheeled roadsters - usually powered by massive US V8's. Things like this, for example (Allard J2X):-
Yet it also built this little s
tbox (Allard Clipper) for, seemingly, no apparent reason whatsoever apart from to demonstrate that it could build an ugly little stbox:-
Another nomination would be this (AC Petite):-
From a British company that also made the AC 289
A British company which enjoyed building butch open-wheeled roadsters - usually powered by massive US V8's. Things like this, for example (Allard J2X):-
Yet it also built this little s
tbox (Allard Clipper) for, seemingly, no apparent reason whatsoever apart from to demonstrate that it could build an ugly little stbox:-Another nomination would be this (AC Petite):-
From a British company that also made the AC 289
Welshbeef said:
moffspeed said:
Mk 6 Escort RS2000 - probably just an averagely bad car until you add the RS prefix - an unforgiveable defamation of everything that had borne the title beforehand...
Agree with you there. I remember the RS1600 with fondness and then of course the RS1800 (farmers special)
douglasr said:
Talbot Sunbeam.
Yep, The regular Talbot Sunbeam was a bit of a shocker. However, the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus was a different matter!! Impressive figures for 1979. Not bad figures for 2011!!http://www.performance-car-guide.co.uk/sunbeam-lot...
tali1 said:
Welshbeef said:
moffspeed said:
Mk 6 Escort RS2000 - probably just an averagely bad car until you add the RS prefix - an unforgiveable defamation of everything that had borne the title beforehand...
Agree with you there. I remember the RS1600 with fondness and then of course the RS1800 (farmers special)
I nominate either the Mark 1 Escort 1.3 Automatic. I drove one that another friend bought for a project and it was so awful it was definately the worst car I have ever driven.
I imagine the 1.3 Capris would be worse.
Steffan said:
Welshbeef said:
S1_RS said:
The Allegro was a better car than the Maestro, that was a crap car.
Well I had a Maestro 1.6L in like a skin colour with brown interior.... It was a carb not injection. Rust was diabolical
Dash fell apart which I Vosges back together with wedges and glue...
Seat foam collapsed
Radio speakers stopped working.
I rebuilt that car mechanically totally stripped engine braking and cooling system and the engine was a gem never once broke down I simply stripped it as a learning exercise with my old man.
It was without a doubt one of the most durable long lived designs ever produced in the UK. Or indeed anywhere else. 5,500,000 built.
Nearest engine to a Meccano set I have ever rebuilt.
Utterly understressed, magnificently forgiving: I ran one in a Mini once from Aberystwyth to Nottingham with a leaking radiator stopping every ten miles to top up.
Boiled time and gain. Never blew the gasket never caused any problem
Except when I switched it off it overran for a minute because the carbon in the combustion chamber was glowing.
Imagine that in a K series. Bang.
Or a Duratech. Bang. Or a Vauxhall Red Top Bang!
But sadly as cars the inadequate build quality and poor design ruined BMH etc
The Marina was an unsafe indeed a dangerous car on release.
The handling was appalling before urgent suspension changes were made post test driving by journalists. That car should never have been made.
The worst I think.
. S-Series was good - "the thinking man's engine" the blurb called it, and it just went on and on with oil leaks - but the R-Series inherited fragility from the E-Series in the Allegro and Maxi (head gasket failure, for example).For reasons I cannot fathom (the seed was sown in 1984
) I have an MG Mestro 1600 with R-Series engine in my fleet - it pressurises its coolant system and isn't particularly refined, but the damn thing sounds great (two twin choke webers) and just keeps on going! 400 miles a week is quite feasible, and the bodywork - despite recent muchos welding after it was abandoned in long grass for quite a few years - just doesn't fall apart 
.When the Montego was new, contemporary Road Tests put it above both the Cavalier and the Sierra. Poor/lack of Quality Control was mentioned in the long term tests - to be honest, it probably 'did' for the brand
as the same problem (letting the buyers act as unpaid development engineers) had been blatantly obvious with the Allegro & Marina (Steffan refers to Journalists also helping out with the Marina) 10 years before (and the Maxi 5 years before that, the 1100/1300 & 1800 five years years before that, and the Mini a few years before that...).Meanwhile, CAR Magazine did a Long Term Test of the new Nissan Primera 2.0 eGT (published in 1992), and they slated the build quality (electric windows sticking and failing, fifth gear failing, other irritating odds'n'sods). Sadly the car was built in the North East
. BL/Austin Rover never had these problems with Japanese Implants - the Acclaim produced their lowest warranty costs ever, and Austin Rover built Hondas that passed all the Japanese Quality Control checks...
But it's good, as usual, to see the usual BL-bashing thread
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