What are the most dismal cars?
What are the most dismal cars?
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VS02

Original Poster:

2,420 posts

90 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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A bit different to just worst car or cars you hate most. They don’t have to be the worst cars.. in fact they can be rather good at their purpose. They are cars that are just so tragic and depressing you just feel bad for the person who drives it? Or maybe they have given up on life.


First car that came to mind for me was the Zafira B in basic trim. As a utility, good, with their clever seats and frugal engines. As a car……….




Suitably glum colour, glum surroundings, glum weather for your glum life and glum future.






If being single, in a dead end travelling salesman job you hate, you get bullied at work, and all of this was a car, this would be the car for you.


All in jest!

cerb4.5lee

44,971 posts

210 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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I remember having a nearly new K11 Micra as a loan car(my S14 200SX was having some work done to it), and I wondered who in their right mind would ever spend their own money on one. I parked it up on the drive as soon as I got back from the garage and just left it there. I much preferred using my old sheddy Mondeo instead at the time.

911Spanker

3,715 posts

46 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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VS02 said:
A bit different to just worst car or cars you hate most. They don’t have to be the worst cars.. in fact they can be rather good at their purpose. They are cars that are just so tragic and depressing you just feel bad for the person who drives it? Or maybe they have given up on life.


First car that came to mind for me was the Zafira B in basic trim. As a utility, good, with their clever seats and frugal engines. As a car……….




Suitably glum colour, glum surroundings, glum weather for your glum life and glum future.






If being single, in a dead end travelling salesman job you hate, you get bullied at work, and all of this was a car, this would be the car for you.


All in jest!
I quite like the Zafira - plain, uncomplicated and does the job. Especially at shed prices.

I know it is the done thing to kick Vauxhalls on here but I quite like them.

Lincsls1

4,092 posts

170 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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How about something like this...hehewink



I am, of course, just jesting.smile

Truckosaurus

13,283 posts

314 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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BMW 114i - surely only sold to people desperate to get into a new BMW for as little as possible.

Hyundai i10 bought by trading in a perfectly decent car on the 'Scrappage' scheme.

Draxindustries1

1,657 posts

53 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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Anything BMW,Merc or Audi.
Tragic and dismal all round..

LuS1fer

43,543 posts

275 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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911Spanker said:
I quite like the Zafira - plain, uncomplicated and does the job. Especially at shed prices.

I know it is the done thing to kick Vauxhalls on here but I quite like them.
I have a Vauxhall. It's a very good car but I did hire a Zafira C and it was pretty dismal as a car. Suspension was way too soft, gave the kids travel sickness.

It's hard to say how dismal a car is until you've driven one but to me, most SUVs are dismal and though I've not driven them, the names Vauxhall gave to the Crossland and Grandland mean I never will. I imagine the Ford EcoSport is probably dismal.

Foss62

2,031 posts

95 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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Draxindustries1 said:
Anything BMW,Merc or Audi.
Tragic and dismal all round..
Yes, they were bad enough when just dull, but they’ve taken things to a new level in recent years by trying to copy Chinese ‘flamboyance’ and then painting the whole things the same colour as the Singer Vogue my dad had in 1968.

Downward

5,699 posts

133 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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Lincsls1 said:
How about something like this...hehewink



I am, of course, just jesting.smile
Matches the grey skys of the dullest british days

djc206

13,602 posts

155 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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Draxindustries1 said:
Anything BMW,Merc or Audi.
Tragic and dismal all round..
I don’t own any of them but I’d suggest each of them makes some good cars.

My vote goes to my wife’s Jimny, I’m sure it’s amazing off road but on road everything about it is dismal.

GravelBen

16,526 posts

260 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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Honda CRV.

Its amazing how often the car holding up a queue of traffic 20km/h below the speed limit turns out to be a CRV. Hard to say whether its the depressing boredom of the CRV numbing the minds of the drivers into a zombie-like state, or that's just the sort of people they attract.

VS02

Original Poster:

2,420 posts

90 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
quotequote all
Downward said:
Lincsls1 said:
How about something like this...hehewink



I am, of course, just jesting.smile
Matches the grey skys of the dullest british days
wink

Doesn’t make the Zafira any less tragic though.. if you see what I wrote above the picture, you can see that as a utility yes, its great, but its such a soulless contraption that when it was new it was a sign you had nothing left to hope for…

The modern equivalent is for sure the Grandland, or maybe the Renault Koleos


Leon R

3,913 posts

126 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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Always found the 718’s with the 4 cylinder a bit tragic and then Porsche re introduced the flat 6 which compounded matters.

VS02

Original Poster:

2,420 posts

90 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
quotequote all
GravelBen said:
Honda CRV.

Its amazing how often the car holding up a queue of traffic 20km/h below the speed limit turns out to be a CRV. Hard to say whether its the depressing boredom of the CRV numbing the minds of the drivers into a zombie-like state, or that's just the sort of people they attract.
Everybody has one of those in Canada, when I visited I drove around in one like the rest of the mindless drones and it was probably the most boring thing I have ever driven, I couldn’t name one thing about it that was interesting. I borrowed a 2007 with 150,000 miles on the clock and it was just terrible in every way except being spacious. I don’t think I had ever experienced a slower gear change, ever, and putting the foot to the floor just made lots of noise with no discernible movement. The seats were terrible, the stereo was terrible, the ride was terrible even on Canadian roads, seemed to have been made out of melted down kids toys, it was ugly, inefficient and stupid.


The diesel engine with a manual gearbox and leather seats in UK spec would probably have been A LOT better.






Edited by VS02 on Wednesday 18th January 23:16

M4cruiser

5,221 posts

180 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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A friend gave me a lift in his Frontera about 15 years ago. I was appalled.
Didn't know a "car" could be so bad.
Noisy, bouncy suspension, no comforts ... etc.

VS02

Original Poster:

2,420 posts

90 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
quotequote all
M4cruiser said:
A friend gave me a lift in his Frontera about 15 years ago. I was appalled.
Didn't know a "car" could be so bad.
Noisy, bouncy suspension, no comforts ... etc.
I was in Geneva, Switzerland recently and saw one of those parked in an apartment complex car park, I didn’t know any were still on the road, nor can I imagine why a Swiss person would even buy that.

It is essentially a piece of farming equipment but unlike the Defender, Nissan Terrano and Toyota Hilux of the time it has neither road manners or character.

wibble cb

4,163 posts

237 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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I needed a car, one of these came up, I took it, but within 2weeks I realized was a massively dull, dismal car it was, and got shot of it, I give you the VW Passat B3 saloon



The above is what I could find on the internet as I didn’t commit mine to film/jpeg, it was utterly devoid of anything you could describe as character or charm, yes I could probably have got eleventy sofas in it with room to spare, but I was 23, I could actually feel it draining lifeforce out of me, so it went, and was replaced by a MkII Jetta Gti16v, which proved slightly peppey-er.

descentia

237 posts

165 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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the Nissan Almera has not one redeeming feature. Even it's reliability is a curse.

WelshRich

487 posts

87 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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When you’ve given up…


Chubbyross

5,005 posts

115 months

Wednesday 18th January 2023
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I was given a 1ltr Kia Ceed as a replacement car whilst my family battle bus was having some sizeable dents banged out. I’ve never been so reluctant to drive a car in all my adult life. There was not one positive thing I can say about it. Driving the damned thing made me so angry, possibly because it made me realise that there are people out there who actually choose to buy one.