The worst car you've ever driven...

The worst car you've ever driven...

Author
Discussion

S2r

660 posts

77 months

Monday 20th November 2017
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Early Ford S max 1.8 tdci... it used to bog down coming out of junctions and no amount of mashing the accelerator into the carpet would get the revs to rise.

New golf 2.0 diesel dsg (not a gtd) sooooo unbelievably dull, automatic everything, just point and go, absolutely nothing of interest in any of it other than the stop-start killing the engine as you pulled up to a roundabout and then taking an apparent age to start up again. If this is the type of car people now aspire to, it's hardly surprising that no-one is interested in cars any more

white_goodman

4,042 posts

190 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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There have been a few.

The P-plate Corsa B 1.2 that I learnt to drive in - it was so sluggish and numb that I nearly gave up driving lessons because of it but fortunately I had a go in my mum's Fiat Cinquecento Sporting and found out that not all cars drive the same! I have however driven later Corsa Bs and a few Corsa Cs and didn't find them too bad.

2005 Hyundai Accent auto

1990s Hyundai Sonata auto (the brakes only just beat the transmission)

An early Peugeot 307 diesel: I used to like Peugeots (the 306 was great) but this car is a turd.

Fiat Grande Punto 1.2 hire car: disappointing because I generally love small Fiats and the 500 with the same engine that my wife owned later was flawed but endearing but this had absolutely no brio whatsoever.

Top dog has to be my first company car and the first Mercedes that I drove, a mk1 A140 automatic. I was 22 and thought that my friends and the ladies would be impressed by a Mercedes but it had a pogo stick ride, was very uncomfortable, rolled excessively around corners and the accelerator didn't feel like it was connected to the engine and transmission, it just did what it felt like! I had most variants of the mk1 A-Class and they were all crap but this was the worst. I never drove it outside of work, preferring to drive my 12 year old 205 GTi instead and when that was broken, my mum's base-model mk1 Ford Ka (still preferable to the Mercedes).

Robmarriott

2,633 posts

157 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Worst car I've ever driven was a 3 door Sierra with a 2.9 24v Cosworth V6 and two turbos, the driver's seat fell out on the way to the MOT station.

The countless modified Escort RS Turbos I've driven were pretty shocking too, all but one (which had had a nut and bolt restoration) were just old and tired, badly looked after and too powerful for way they drive.

white_goodman

4,042 posts

190 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Ron99 said:
My wife wanted a Fiat 500 a few years ago but went off them for several reasons, mostly due to style without substance.
Her interest was killed off entirely after seeing the Watchdog show highlighting severe driveability problems with Euro-6-compliant versions of the 1.2 engine.
In defence of the Fiat 500, my wife had an earlyish 2009 1.2 and it was fine. Not a bunch of power but it went well enough if you rowed it through the gears, as you should with a small French/Italian car and it was fine, 50mpg and its natural motorway speed seemed to be about 90mph! We did some longer journeys in it and found it fairly refined and not uncomfortable, although we're both under 6 foot tall. I certainly preferred it to the snoozefest that was my Polo TDI. Having had a later 1.2 as a loan car and driven a Punto with the same engine, I think they did do something to it for emissions that scuppered the performance somewhat though.

djdest

6,542 posts

177 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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In the early 90s a company I worked for got pool cars from a local rental place, so you never knew what you were going to get. But what ever you got on the Monday you knew you had all week.
One Monday I was given an early Hyundai Pony!
I drove from the office in Peterborough to Bedford.
The thing was utterly horrible. No way on earth did I want it to travel long distance for the rest of the week, so hatched a plan to kill it!
That plan was to drive back to the office with the clutch half released. I got most of the way and started to enjoy the smell of it cooking, then it gave up about a mile from the office.
I never saw it again, and the garage couldn’t work it out as they said it had only just had the clutch changed laugh

Dewi-asl8m

60 posts

76 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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2006 Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 I drove as a courtesy car for a few weeks

STILLJOE

697 posts

91 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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280E said:
Chris Stott said:
280E said:
For me, it's a toss-up between a Peugeot 305 and a Talbot Horizon.
I learnt to drive in a Talbot Horizon... particularly hateful thing.
You have my sympathy, Sir!
so did I - I thought it was fairly rapid (but I was 14 and on an industrial estate messing about while my dad was cleaning his lorry)

jamiebae

6,245 posts

210 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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I used to drive a lot of rental cars for work , and as someone who likes driving quite frankly I'm always happy to have something different, it has to be pretty awful for me to really dislike it. There are two cars which stand head and shoulders above the rest, with a third earning an honourable (or honorable) mention.

The 'honorable' mention goes to the Mk6 Golf, specifically in US spec. I've driven an awful lot of Golfs, but where in Europe we'd get a 1.4 TSI engine and DSG box this one had the misfortune of being built in Mexico and lumbered with an awful N/A 2.5 litre 5 pot and torque converter auto from the 90s. This was teamed with a sub-base model interior and miserable spec, 15" steel wheels and all season tyres. It was dire, the ride was wallowy and it was impossible to put the power down in the wet without tons of wheelspin. The flat cloth seats and plastic steering wheel completed the impression that this is an incredibly cheap car and in no way something to aspire to own.

As with most other contributors, the Vauxhall Mokka features here, especially in Gatwick Airport rental spec with a manual box, asthmatic N/A petrol engine and horribly uncomfortable seats. It just has no redeeming features at all, it doesn't handle well, it isn't comfortable or nicely designed and it feels miserable to spend time in. I've now taken to refusing them, it's annoying as they seem to creep into the Corsa and Astra classes depending on where you go so they're harder to avoid than I'd like!

P1 though, goes to (drumroll) - the Mitsubishi Mirage/Space Star - I drove it in Germany where it wore the latter badge, in 2015 I guess. In 2004 I bought a brand new Fiat Panda, and in every way other than engine refinement and fuel economy the Panda is a nicer car than the 11 year newer Mitsubishi. The interior is terrible and made of horribly cheap materials, it's dull to look at and with the exception of the fairly sweet little three pot engine the driving experience is as interesting as spending an hour reviewing magnolia paint cards.

white_goodman

4,042 posts

190 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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dme123 said:
I'd agree that compared the the crap from the 70s nothing modern is really that bad, however it's interesting how many of the terrible 'modern' cars people cite are brand new Vauxhalls. There is a hard core of people who think Vauxhall are only unpopular due to Clarkson (doesn't explain why Opel are failing too), but my experience is that they really are miles off the pace of the competition and closer to the nasty st GM turn out in the US to anything from a proper manufacturer. The Insignia isn't too bad if you avoid the 1.8i but the smaller cars really are st.
To be fair to GM, they have pretty much replaced their entire product range in the US in the last 3 years. The new Chevy Cruze, Malibu and Impala are all pretty decent cars but I agree that pretty much anything prior to that, particularly pre-2010 was pretty awful.

toon10

6,140 posts

156 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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I remember as a student on work experience getting the keys to a 1990 diesel Nissan Primera. I've never liked the power delivery of a diesel, even now but this one didn't have a turbo if I recall. It had all of about 75bhp. As a car it probably wasn't the worst thing I've driven but the engine alone sticks in my mind as probably the worst as it was a death trap.

I'd never driven a diesel before this and the first time I drove it, I pulled out of the company car park with plenty of time before any oncoming traffic would be an issue... or so I thought. It started to move, very slowly and the more I put my foot down, the less of a difference it made. Now panicking, I'm waving my hands in apology at the traffic braking to the left of me before I got a sudden bump of power from the "nothing, nothing, nothing, everything, rev limit, change gear and repeat" engine. It was comically dangerous as I bunny hopped down the road.

Grindle

764 posts

83 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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BMW i8. I can only think that secondhand values will plummet or already have done because i was completely underwhelmed by this very expensive car with a total mish mash of power source. Could well be a real bargain as they get cheap as chips as i think they might. OK so it's not THE worst car i've driven since i had a Kia Pride for a month but it's the worst supercar i've driven.

Dermot O'Logical

2,547 posts

128 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Early in my banking career my manager asked me if I would take his car to the local Kwik Fit as he'd had a puncture and needed a new tyre. The spare wheel was on the car, so it was just a case of dropping off the wheel with the flat tyre, and going back later to have it swapped back on to the car.

The car in this case was a Renault 16. With a column gearchange.

I managed to persuade it all the way up to third gear, and as the Kwik Fit garage was only a mile or so away, I stuck with that. I stopped outside, the fitter took the wheel and tyre, I returned to the branch.

A couple of hours later, I took the hateful, wallowy, recalcitrant Renault back to have the wheel changed over. I had to park just past the entrance, and once a space had appeared in the workshop I was asked to bring the car in. Until this point I hadn't had to call upon the services of reverse gear. Several embarrassing minutes later, and I still hadn't managed to locate it. The man from Kwik Fit had a go. He couldn't find it either. In the end, I drove the thing round the block, the man from Kwik Fit guided me into the workshop, and he and a fellow fitter pushed the car back out to the road once the job was finished.

Bloody horrible piece of junk.

coppice

8,561 posts

143 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Brilliant , ground breaking car. Mark 6:4 applies in your case ....

Weirdhead

87 posts

104 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Ron99 said:
6'3" and you managed to drive a Fiat 500?
I'm similar height and too big to drive one.
Lies

I’m 6’6” and have driven a friends 500 with no issue

robemcdonald

8,715 posts

195 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Good old pistonheads.

BMW I8's, Jaguar XEs and a variety of other modern machinery. It's only a matter of time before someone claims a mclaren f1 or an enzo are the worst.

Are these truely the worst cars you have driven?

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah

12,787 posts

99 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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ChasW said:
Chrysler Neon loan car. Many decades earlier a 1300 Beetle, hire car. In the Beetle's defence I never felt it would breakdown or fail to start.
You've spurred my memory there! 16 years ago me and an ex had one as a hire car. The ONLY redeeming feature of it was a good stereo!

jamiebae

6,245 posts

210 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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robemcdonald said:
Good old pistonheads.

BMW I8's, Jaguar XEs and a variety of other modern machinery. It's only a matter of time before someone claims a mclaren f1 or an enzo are the worst.

Are these truely the worst cars you have driven?
Of course not, but it depends on your frame of reference. In every objective way a Toyota Avensis is better than a Blower Bentley but you can’t really compare them. For me a Mitsubishi Mirage is worse than anything else of similar age and mechanical condition. Yes, it’s better than a C reg Metro with a knackered carb but it disappointed me more than said tired Austin.

Plinth

713 posts

87 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Probably a late 1980’s Mk4 Escort base model, which I collected for someone about 28 years ago.
To this day I still remember how flimsy the controls felt and the distinct lack of urgency in its progress along the road.
But a bad ride is better than a good walk….
Drove a Morris Marina once – not as bad as I had imagined.
Chugged along quite happily and nothing fell off.
Obviously I had got a good one….
Experienced the delights of some well-worn 1980’s Nissans and Renaults many years ago and they were pretty poor.

HaydnFisher

42 posts

76 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Either a 2000 Mercedes A160 that I bought for £150 and lasted about two days or probably a 1998 LTI TX1 (black cab) terribly slow, horrible suspension and terrible fuel economy. The only plus was that it was extremely reliable and got attention.

techguyone

3,137 posts

141 months

Tuesday 21st November 2017
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Heh Morris Marinas... Good ol BL, why did the RH drive models have LHD wipers? Yes so the drivers side has an unswept bit that's on the passenger side in every other car. Oh and the stupid stereo that wasn't rectangular so you couldn't replace it (it had a curved corner for some stylistic? reason)