Worst car ever made

[stuckmojo]

Mr Gearchange said:

Liquid Knight said:

The Fiat Duna was a brilliant car! Much better than the Astra Belmont, VW Vento/Bora (Bora being "st" in parts of Africa)

Having run two of them I can confirm that they are in fact st everywhere.

I was born in Italy and I vividly remember these as the bottom of Italian car manufacturing.

Ask any Italian and they'll remember these pieces of st with a laugh.

The UNO was a success and the Turbo was a shockingly-quick car for it's size. However, the added weight of the boot in the Duna made it incredibly unsafe and prone to snap oversteering even at parking speeds (cit).

This is also remembered with guilt.

edited to notice the commitment of the test driver

Edited by stuckmojo on Tuesday 21st December 12:46

[Busa_Rush]

nobodyknows said:

Ambassador

Dad had one of those too . . . for its time it was very spacious and very quiet, fwd and reasonably economical, I liked it. Handling was better than you'd think.

[Twincam16]

stuckmojo said:

Mr Gearchange said:

Liquid Knight said:

The Fiat Duna was a brilliant car! Much better than the Astra Belmont, VW Vento/Bora (Bora being "st" in parts of Africa)

Having run two of them I can confirm that they are in fact st everywhere.

I was born in Italy and I vividly remember these as the bottom of Italian car manufacturing.

Ask any Italian and they'll remember these pieces of st with a laugh.

The UNO was a success and the Turbo was a shockingly-quick car for it's size. However, the added weight of the boot in the Duna made it incredibly unsafe and prone to snap oversteering even at parking speeds (cit).

This is also remembered with guilt.

edited to notice the commitment of the test driver

Edited by stuckmojo on Tuesday 21st December 12:46

Ah yes, the ARNA - the worst bits of low-end Nissan combined with the worst bits of low-end Alfa Romeo in one rotten package.

Annoyingly, it was by all accounts faster than the fastest Alfasuds though, so maybe it does have potential in a way. Great engine too.

[Willy Nilly]

The 1995 (new at the time) Chevrolet S10 Blazer 4.6 has to be one of the worst cars ever.

It was plenty lively off the mark, but being tall, narrow and far to softly sprung meant it felt like it was going to boing me into the ditch. Horrible interior and an auto that hung onto gears too long, wouldn't kick down and shifted rough.

Utter rubbish.

[morgrp]

My choices are:

AMC Pacer - Hideous, awful to drive and completely gutless:


Dacia Denim - Badly made heap of st based on an already out of date Renault design:
Also wins the prize for worst Ad slogan ever - "The Very Acceptable Dacia Denim" - Thats like the company admitting "Yeah its a pile of st but its acceptable all things considered..."

and finally

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

[Jw Vw]

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

[/quote]

That is Fing awful

[jbi]

If only because my dad had one when I was a lad and was constantly welding the thing back together. Gutless, leaked and smelled like damp, trim made from cardboard, looks only a mother could love.

fking hated that thing.... when he replaced it with a Nissan Sunny it felt like upgrading to a rolls royce

[RB26DETT]

Busa_Rush said:

RB26DETT said:

Zad said:

I think that is the first time I have heard a Marina called more stylish than an Escort or a Cortina.

Ill take that Cortina anyday over a crappy Marina.

You honestly think a Marina is more Stylish than say a Mk1 Escort in Signal Orange with a Black Vinal Roof ?

Wow.

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.

I would but I was born in '94

If you parked a Mexico and the Marina side by side i guarantee the Mexico would draw a bigger crowd,

[stuckmojo]

Twincam16 said:

stuckmojo said:

Mr Gearchange said:

Liquid Knight said:

The Fiat Duna was a brilliant car! Much better than the Astra Belmont, VW Vento/Bora (Bora being "st" in parts of Africa)

Having run two of them I can confirm that they are in fact st everywhere.

I was born in Italy and I vividly remember these as the bottom of Italian car manufacturing.

Ask any Italian and they'll remember these pieces of st with a laugh.

The UNO was a success and the Turbo was a shockingly-quick car for it's size. However, the added weight of the boot in the Duna made it incredibly unsafe and prone to snap oversteering even at parking speeds (cit).

This is also remembered with guilt.

edited to notice the commitment of the test driver

Edited by stuckmojo on Tuesday 21st December 12:46

Ah yes, the ARNA - the worst bits of low-end Nissan combined with the worst bits of low-end Alfa Romeo in one rotten package.

Annoyingly, it was by all accounts faster than the fastest Alfasuds though, so maybe it does have potential in a way. Great engine too.

True. In fact, the Arna wasn't the worst of the bunch. As Alfa became part of Fiat they started their descent to hell with the FWD switch for all but the 75 line (which was basically still a Giulietta) and the spider, which was already some 20 years old then.

I remember my mom's Alfa 33 with a shiver down the spine.

[hackjo]

One of the saddest demises of a brand ever seen in the industry.

And yes, I have driven one. It was insultingly bad to drive.

[Busa_Rush]

RB26DETT said:

Busa_Rush said:

RB26DETT said:

Zad said:

I think that is the first time I have heard a Marina called more stylish than an Escort or a Cortina.

Ill take that Cortina anyday over a crappy Marina.

You honestly think a Marina is more Stylish than say a Mk1 Escort in Signal Orange with a Black Vinal Roof ?

Wow.

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.

I would but I was born in '94

If you parked a Mexico and the Marina side by side i guarantee the Mexico would draw a bigger crowd,

Would now . . .

[HereBeMonsters]

hackjo said:

One of the saddest demises of a brand ever seen in the industry.

And yes, I have driven one. It was insultingly bad to drive.

Didn't they do one with raised ride height and chunky bumpers as well? That must be worse, surely?

[thiscocks]

BMW 1 series

[bodhi]

niva441 said:

useyourdellusion said:

niva441 said:

That defines my experience of BMW 1 series ownership.

Ouch!

I gather you bought from new then? Hmm, I'm still considering a 130i as my next steed...

Unforunately yes. I bought it new so I could have exactly the spec of vehicle I wanted, intending to keep it a few years to offset the depreciation. Unfortunately because of dangerously inept engineering and lack of interest in sorting it from BMW, I ended up ditching it for a properly engineered vehicle a couple of months later.

Modern Mercedes properly engineered? You're having a fking laugh aren't you?

[Jw Vw]

bodhi said:

niva441 said:

useyourdellusion said:

niva441 said:

That defines my experience of BMW 1 series ownership.

Ouch!

I gather you bought from new then? Hmm, I'm still considering a 130i as my next steed...

Unforunately yes. I bought it new so I could have exactly the spec of vehicle I wanted, intending to keep it a few years to offset the depreciation. Unfortunately because of dangerously inept engineering and lack of interest in sorting it from BMW, I ended up ditching it for a properly engineered vehicle a couple of months later.

Modern Mercedes properly engineered? You're having a fking laugh aren't you?

[philoldsmobile]

Ford mustang 3.8 SN95

oh so slow, very poor handling thirsty, and unreliable (head gasket issues almost guaranteed up to 1996 model) and a cheeky habit of destroying the bottom end. 140 bhp from 3.8 liters? please......

. looked quite pretty, but that was all..

This was not my old car - to protect the current owner...

Edited by philoldsmobile on Tuesday 21st December 15:13

[niva441]

Jw Vw said:

bodhi said:

niva441 said:

useyourdellusion said:

niva441 said:

That defines my experience of BMW 1 series ownership.

Ouch!

I gather you bought from new then? Hmm, I'm still considering a 130i as my next steed...

Unforunately yes. I bought it new so I could have exactly the spec of vehicle I wanted, intending to keep it a few years to offset the depreciation. Unfortunately because of dangerously inept engineering and lack of interest in sorting it from BMW, I ended up ditching it for a properly engineered vehicle a couple of months later.

Modern Mercedes properly engineered? You're having a fking laugh aren't you?

Shows you how bad my BMW experience was. Although the Merc was made after they realised they needed to pull their finger out and improve things.

[Tyre Smoke]

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

[Zad]

morgrp said:

My choices are:

AMC Pacer - Hideous, awful to drive and completely gutless:

AMC Pacer is a good call. It has some utterly amazing stats:

Wiki said:

..when we weighed the test car (whose air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering and so forth would not account for the full difference) it registered an astounding 3425 lb.

The 3.8 litre inline-6 made 100bhp (initially 90bhp)
The 4.2 made 120bhp (initially 93bhp)

There was a 402cu in V8 (5 litre) which made similarly unbelievable power.

This meant that, at one time, you could get a compact car with a 4.2 litre engine that had 56bhp/ton. Wow!

[morgrp]

Zad said:

morgrp said:

My choices are:

AMC Pacer - Hideous, awful to drive and completely gutless:

AMC Pacer is a good call. It has some utterly amazing stats:

Wiki said:

..when we weighed the test car (whose air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering and so forth would not account for the full difference) it registered an astounding 3425 lb.

The 3.8 litre inline-6 made 100bhp (initially 90bhp)
The 4.2 made 120bhp (initially 93bhp)

There was a 402cu in V8 (5 litre) which made similarly unbelievable power.

This meant that, at one time, you could get a compact car with a 4.2 litre engine that had 56bhp/ton. Wow!

The 3.8litre six was from the Jeep Renegade and was such a heavy engine it actually broke the steering racks on early pacers until they modified them!

Additionally, it was classed as a "compact" car but was actually longer than a Ford Granada

Another little nugget of info - it was supposed to have a wankel rotary when first realeased but the fuel crisis put AMC off and they fitted "conventional" engines

Think Motor Magazine sums it up best with their cover title of "We test the Pacer - and wish we hadn't."