What's the worst car you've ever driven?

joolsveer

My vote goes to an A class MB I drove in mallorca a couple of years ago. It was a replacement for a Renault Mégane which was hors de combat. The A class was so stodgy compared to a 1.5 diesel Renault that I felt I was in the Flintstones!

jayok

Peugeot 206 GTI. The car was over powered, overweight with terrible handling. It cornered like a brick on ice and was just simply dangerous to drive. Top that with brakes that really couldn't grip the discs properly and it just has to be the worst.

Only plus thing was it was a company car and I didn't own it!

BrianD3

The worst "car" I've ever driven is the Mitsubishi L200 crew cab pickup.

It has the turning circle of an oil tanker,
Ride comfort is like a beach buggy
Feels like it's about to topple over when going around gentle bends at low speed
Brakes are terrible
Horrid plastic interior
Crude cart spring suspension and part time 4wd system
Poor space inside despite it being longer than a 7 series

Given the choice between it and the rustbucket Renault 4 banger I once drove, I would pick the 4 every time. The Toyota Corolla KE30 that I drove in a field when I was 14 is also ahead of the L200.

Second worst car I've ever driven was an Opel Corsa diesel. 3rd worst was a VW Golf Mk3 1.4.

BrianD3

Gatster

1.0 1994 Corsa (in 1994). Vastly underpowered, dangerous brakes, bizarre handling. Unfortunately confined in it for about a 500 mile round trip with two mates. Only plus was it was rented and therefore got screwed...

Seth Brundle

One of them Fiat Seciento thingys - just pure evil crap!

dogz

any fiat theyre all crap

ando

Going down the m1 in a suzuki balero

bazz26

1985 Ford Orion 1.3 - car would cut out after emerging from a small puddle of water. Pressing in the cigarette lighter caused smoke to come out of the radio cassette! Rear windscreen and boot both leaked. Total disaster of a car, haven't bought a Ford since.

1999 Opel Vectra - drivers electric window relay replaced 3 times - window still got stuck. Air Conditioning stopped working after 12 months. Radio controls on the steering wheel stopped working. CD player stopped working. 1.6 totally underpowered, bring a spare pair of underwear when overtaking in one of these. Car would cut out randomly for no reason, that Opel could find anyway. Glad to see the back of that car.

raphaelS

Citroen BX... can't be worst than that!

Everything is based on one hydraulic system... if there is a leak, you are loosing: brakes, suspension, suspension, Tape player,... and with 1000 pipes runing all over the car, there is always one close to nervous breakdown!

Once you start the engine... you need to wait for the car to rise!!! C'mon!

Raphael

impr0v

This is a tie between a 1l Polo that I took for a test drive because my mother was thinking of buying it, for no other reason than the lack of forward momentum, and a 1.2l (I think) 5 door Stilo which I had for a whole 2 days while some work was being done on my car.

Our man in Havana

1990 Opel Corsa, bastid brakes failed one day going down Summerhill in Waterford, (mike will know that hill well) The handbrake barely slowed me down, luckily the lights on the bridge were green and I managed to get across safely and stop the wreck. Deffo a brown trousers moment.

Never another opel.

unkel

Current Toyota Corolla. Makes you feel like being a capacitator on a motherboard

Would rather drive a €50 company car like a Renault 5, Peugeot 205 or a Fiat Uno

BrianD3 wrote:

The worst "car" I've ever driven is the Mitsubishi L200 crew cab pickup

So lucky I ain't a masochist, so I've never driven one. Neighbour got one for about a week (probably test drive) and it was either the rotten drive or the disgusted looks I gave him that convinced him not to buy it

kbannon wrote:

One of them Fiat Seciento thingys - just pure evil crap!

Drove one on Rhodes for a week and felt it was brilliant. A few things I should mention though:

- top speed in Rhodes is 70kph
- it had aircon
- it had a 2CV style electric all roof sunroof
- on a fairly narrow street you can do a u-turn in one go

dogz wrote:

any fiat theyre all crap

Eh right :rolleyes:

joolsveer wrote:

My vote goes to an A class MB I drove in mallorca a couple of years ago. It was a replacement for a Renault Mégane which was hors de combat. The A class was so stodgy compared to a 1.5 diesel Renault that I felt I was in the Flintstones!

Yeah was not too impressed with a A170CDI L I had as a rental apart from the rear legroom which was about twice that of my 7-series. Really liked the 1.5 diesel in the Clio 2 I had for two weeks in Italy. Wheelspin in 2nd gear - I was driving like an Italian

Alfasudcrazy

When the clutch went on my Fiat 128 3p I got a Ritmo as a loan car - horrible drivel and an appaling gear change - I just don't know why those cars sold in such large numbers

stratos

Mercedes 200 e I live in the country, twisty roads, soft barge, fell into the passenger seat going around corners. Horrible dash, lousy seats, hit a bump and the car reacts 25 meters later . I drove a c180 also horrible. Lousy soft fat mans barges.awfull, was really dissapointing as i loved the look of the 200e. Lmao oh yea and a Leyland Sherpa, Though would prefer one to a merc.

skibum

Worst car as in "Most disappointed with" was a 5.7 1990 corvett that I had the "pleasure" of driving many moons ago. Before I had driven it, I had heard about it's suspension and handling, they were right! In a straight line the corvett went like a bat out of hell, but when you came to the twisty bits it was a complete biatch. Great car for cruising but complete crap for hard driving.

stratos

U.S. cars don't do corners. Hey they don't have any.

AMurphy

Hard question to answer;
What's "worst", lots of "bad" cars had "character".

However, A Ford Pinto rental which I returned for a "real car". However, the VW Beatle wasn't great either, the acc would not make it go and the brake would not make it stop, (now do not confuse that with a 79 (analog) EFI Convertible Beatle).
The other Beatle only suffered from a brakes problem, the go-go juices were flowing.
Now, the VW Golf where Rev and 1st always ended up being in Rev, was not excellent.
The Fiats were fun, acc really ment GO and brakes really meant stop...just the body couldnt hold it all together....
That sums up the junk...
On the expensive side, I drove a friends MB SUV and thought...sheet, my truck is better than this. I have expectations, low and all as they may be..... but I do have expectations and if I mortgage the kids future to buy it, it had better perform.. So I would say the MB SUV matches the previous description of the Corvette.

I'm only basing my review on go, hold and stop. Breaking the driveshaft of a Chevvy on rapid acceleration or writing off the front end of a VW because it had bad/no brakes is "coleteral damage", nothing to do with being bad or good.

lomb

AMurphy wrote:

Hard question to answer;
What's "worst", lots of "bad" cars had "character".

However, A Ford Pinto rental which I returned for a "real car". However, the VW Beatle wasn't great either, the acc would not make it go and the brake would not make it stop, (now do not confuse that with a 79 (analog) EFI Convertible Beatle).
The other Beatle only suffered from a brakes problem, the go-go juices were flowing.
Now, the VW Golf where Rev and 1st always ended up being in Rev, was not excellent.
The Fiats were fun, acc really ment GO and brakes really meant stop...just the body couldnt hold it all together....
That sums up the junk...
On the expensive side, I drove a friends MB SUV and thought...sheet, my truck is better than this. I have expectations, low and all as they may be..... but I do have expectations and if I mortgage the kids future to buy it, it had better perform.. So I would say the MB SUV matches the previous description of the Corvette.

I'm only basing my review on go, hold and stop. Breaking the driveshaft of a Chevvy on rapid acceleration or writing off the front end of a VW because it had bad/no brakes is "coleteral damage", nothing to do with being bad or good.

the yanks dont make great cars either. when i was there last i hired a chevy malibu. about the only good thing about it was the engine a 3. something liter v6. the roar it made when it was floored was lovely but it didnt go anywhere. the seats, interior, exterior and auto shift left alot to be desired.
oh yeah and that merc ml suv is made in ...........usa! ask yourself a question-would u buy a used (or new) car from a yank?

joolsveer

impr0v wrote:

This is a tie between a 1l Polo that I took for a test drive because my mother was thinking of buying it, for no other reason than the lack of forward momentum, and a 1.2l (I think) 5 door Stilo which I had for a whole 2 days while some work was being done on my car.

I had a similar Stilo on hire from Barcelona and I tried to go up the mountains to Andorra and I nearly had to get my passengers out to push it was so sluggish!

$lash

A 1991 Lada Riva 1200 L ... Beat that if you will

ambro25

Tie between 3 of 'em:

1.6 PT Cruiser (rental) - couldn't fault handling (but just did motorway miles) but it felt like an underpowered 2CV (takes some doing!)

My great aunt's 1.0L Micra (the brick-shaped one, mid-eighties model)

bought new 1985 or thereabouts, current odometer reads: 35.876 kms. Never been 1 km/h beyond 60 in all it's 20 years, never driven beyond 50 km round trips. Needless to say, I was so afraid I'd blow the gearbox/engine trying for 50 mph that I ended up driving it just like my Great Aunt!

My first car (I sh1t you not), Citroen C35 (Pug 504 mechanics, no P/Steer):

:eek:
(I think that one got you beat, $lash )

Silvera

I drove a little convertible Suzuki jeep (name?) last October when I was staying on Rarotonga. It looked ok - but was an absolute heap to drive !!!

CrowdedHouse

How about a Renault 4 van ! Features such as gear change on the 'dash'.Handbrake hidden off in under the steering column,about the same power as an electric toothbrush !

Still learned to drive and passed my test in one,so I have a little affection for them.

$lash

Silvera wrote:

I drove a little convertible Suzuki jeep (name?) last October when I was staying on Rarotonga. It looked ok - but was an absolute heap to drive !!!

That would have been a Suzuki SJ410 or SJ413 ... they have a nasty habit of tipping over!

Silvera

$lash wrote:

That would have been a Suzuki SJ410 or SJ413 ... they have a nasty habit of tipping over!

Yeah, that's the model I drove.
(I wanted to rent a Mazda MX5 - but there was none left that day)

Luckily the speed limit on Rarotonga is 50kph - though the jeep even felt unsafe at that speed !

Here's a pic of the (actual) jeep I rented...........

AMurphy

lomb wrote:

.......
oh yeah and that merc ml suv is made in ...........usa! ask yourself a question-would u buy a used (or new) car from a yank?

Depends on who made it.. not who is selling it.
US cars tend to be softer, that reduces roadnoise and jarring... but has it's side effects.
My made in Japan 89 is still stiffer than made in US equivalent half it's age.
but you can always buy aftermarket parts to re-store the stiffness.

Renegade_Archer

93 1.7D(the Opel engine, not the nice Isuzu TD engine) Vectra. 0-60 of around 3 years, kicking down from 5th to 4th and putting the boot in resulted in going from 55 to around 65 in perhaps 30 seconds, so overtaking was not really an option. Handled like a tank, and had **** breaks as well.




When I got my hands on a TDI Toledo afterwards, it felt like I was driving a farking McLaren F1

trotter_inc

1996 Fiat Punto!! Doesnt sound that bad compared to some above

ambro25

Sorry for diverging from the main theme, but the mere mention of the F*** word prompted me to add the "Worst Car I've Ever Been Driven In": the (old) Fiat Panda (the one with cigarette paper -thin panels).

So bad I was terrified of being rear-ended by a cyclist!

fletch

A '94 Daihatsu Charade.....1.0 Diesel (meant to be a turbo but it was blown :eek: )

It took forever to get up to speed, no power whatsoever & steering was body builder heavy!

Dan_B

Jeep Wrangler,
All the comfort of a lada for the price of a Merc.
Still looked the biz though !!
Not sure of the model / year but guys on 18speed mountain bikes
where dropping me at the lights.