Worst or most problematic car you've owned?

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I bought a 1976 Pinto station wagon new when my son was only a year old.

1.Top of metal radiator blew off. Had never been soldered on. Was held in place only by paint.
2. Missing oil holes to allow engine lubing resulted in severe rod knock. This was a common problem in these cars.
3. The diff (RWD) was noisy from day one and finally failed.
4. Kept hearing a noise in the back and finally found that no nuts had been used on the boltsholding the leaf springs at the rear of the springs. Both bolts had worked their way almost halfway out!!!!

Dealer was very surly about it all and I have never purchased a Ford since that time. I now drive a Nissan pickup.
 
Originally Posted By: ctrcbob

Worse thing was the attitude of the dealers. "Honda's don't give problems!"
Also, "I'm sorry sir, but we have not been able to reproduce the problem."

Hahaha! I'm getting flashbacks right now. Mine was a 2000 Accord (also US-made). It had numerous issues as a result of poor assembly quality. Dealers would give me the exact same attitude. I cut my losses and ditched it after a year of ownership... To this day, I'm not fancying another Honda...
 
1974 Plymouth Valiant. Something in the wiring went out and it wouldn't start unless you jumped the terminals on the starter with a screwdriver. Dash lights wouldn't stay on steady, and the speedometer jumped all over the place if you went over 65mph. Then a seat spring broke, perfect place for it to poke you in the aftermarket while driving.

So probably saved me a lot of money when that lady pulled out in front of me and totalled it.

But the engine was always good, and lived on in the replacement vehicle, a '77 Plymouth Volare wagon with 4 speed manual on the floor...put over 80k miles on in the next 2 years.
 
You might think it was my '73 MGB with its Lucas (The Prince of Darkness) electrics. I have had pretty good luck but the worst for quality issues is the 2000 Ford Focus I am driving right now. 185,000 miles and the drive train has never skipped a beat. But I had to the thing towed in twice to replace ignition switches that broke with the column locked. $200 each time. Most of the interior plastic is disintegrating, all four power windows ( I replaced tha last two my self, a real PITA) the trunk latch broke and I had to dismantle the rear seat and destroy the latch to get it open. $135 for the part and I replaced it. Just had both rear wheel bearings replaced. That said I plan to see if I can 300,000 out it before it sees the boneyard. A 1976 Chev C-10 just refused to run for more than two days starting at about 65,000 and finally put a rod through the side of the block and freed me from my misery.
 
Maybe I have had great luck with previous vehicles with few problems.

Sadly my recently purchased 2007 Acura MDX (82k) is glitchy electrically. I do need to have the battery tested as on forums it appears to be a very common culprit. I ran it down leaving ignition on for a few hours.

So far and just after leaving ignition on:
1) Low power warning side air bags not powered (went away after restart)

2) Check engine light(P0401) x2 that also triggered AWD turning off. This went away after a few days also near battery run down

3) My wife used it acted liked battery was disconnected. The radio/Navigation wanted code entered in them. The power windows auto feature had to be reset.

My previous vehicles 86 Jeep CJ-7, 87 VW GLI 16v, 95 Civic, 2004 WRX very few issues.

Otherwise I really like my current MDX as its really nice comfortable vehicle. Hoping its a simple battery problem.
 
1979 Chevrolet Chevette.

It wasn't unreliable. I don't remember it breaking down. It was just so ill-conceived and badly designed.

I don't know who designed this car. It was allegedly built off the Opel Kadett C which I find difficult to believe. They must have really gone out of thier way to screw up a German design as badly as they could.

I'll start with the positive. Singular. Just one. The air-conditioning. They must gone to the Vista Cruiser parts bin for the A/C components. It would freeze that car out.

But that A/C performance comes with penalties; plural. Running the A/C meant adhering to the 55mph national speed limit. You weren't going to get going much faster than that with the A/C on. And the R4 compressor is mounted directly over the distributor. You have to remove the compressor to change the cap, rotor and wires. Speaking of wires, the #4 cylinder's spark plug wire must have been 6ft long. Really. It's an OHC engine. Why would they drive the distributor off the crank?

It had no power with the A/C on, but not much was gained with the A/C off. My mom had a MK1 Rabbit with two extra doors and the same size engine and it would literally run away from the Chevette. Automatic Rabbit vs Automatic Chevette means Chevette driver gets to watch VW taillights fade into the distance quickly.

The brakes were underpowered and the firewall would flex a lot when you applied them so they always felt spongey.

The window crank handles were made of the cheapest grade of pot metal availiable. Right now in the People's Republic of China, there is a foundry foreman looking at a Chevette window crank handle and saying, "I'm sorry, we do not make anything this poor."

The TH200 might have been a bright spot on the car, but honestly, it was too big of a transmission and pinched the footwells into tiny little spaces.

The AM radio was about as non-spectacular as an AM radio gets and could barely reach the then AM "stereo" (AM stereo....does anybody still do that or are they all AM stereo now?) rock station. Apparently, an 1/8th note means volume and a vague picture of what I assume was supposed to be an aerial but actually looked like an oil derrick meant tuning.

It was a North Texas car and it had rust. Only on the front shock towers but it had rust.

Handling? Forget it. You know all the fwd vs rwd debate? This car was rear wheel drive and had the worst understeer I've ever experienced. Even with brand new Monroe-matics all the way around.

Ride? yeah, it had one. NVH? yeah, it had those too.

Again, I would like to meet the engineer at GM responsible for this pile. When you look at the Opel Manta and Opel GT, there is no way this car could have descended from them. None. GM apparently just decided to not learn from the Vega, not take cues from the Japanese, and engineer all the German that they could out of it.

Somehow or another, they managed to make it execute the ignition control module if you broke the timing belt. I do not know how, but every Chevette I have ever seen with a broken timing belt has needed a control module. Fortunately, the 4 blade module is real cheap. Unfortunately, you will have already replaced the belt and put everything back together by the time you discover this.

The HVAC controls were not backlighted. They had one tiny, smaller than 194, bulb above the panel. Set the heat or A/C before nightfall because you aren't going to be able to read anything on it

It was as if they were saying, "Let's make this car as miserable as possible. And then, well yank out the back seat and glove box door and make it even more miserable. Call it the "Scooter"."

I think I averaged 20mpg, which considering how slow it was, makes the pitiful fuel economy even harder to swallow.
 
2002 Chevy Trailblazer (son drives it at college)
Multiple ghost electrial problems.
Replaced radio X2
Rear air control unit
Rubber gasket on back hatch X5
Fan Clutch X3
4wd controler
trans. cooling lines leaking
both rear windows won't roll down
cruise control not working
AC Compressor

It does have a great engine though!...lol
 
1989 Pontiac Grand Am

Absolute POS with crumbling interior plastic parts, leaking moonroof, constant mechanical problems.

Fortunately, it ended up blowing a head gasket so I had to get rid of that S.
 
I guess I'm lucky that I've never had a car that was truly as bad as most of the stories here, not even during the bad-old-days.

My 2000 Ford Focus had an insane number of recalls and lots of little, aggravating problems as it approached 100,000 miles. I generally keep cars to 150,000 - 200,000 miles and as of yet (knock on wood) have never had to replace a transmission or engine. I dumped the Focus because it was nickle and diming me to death.

This included various cars which weren't exactly known for reliability -- '79 Cutlass Supreme, '86 LeBaron, and a '92 Acclaim.
 
Mine was a 72 Dodge Van with the famous 225 Slant 6, clearly the worst vehicle I ever owned. No power, wouldn't start w/o stalling several times or run properly in the rain, a real dog! That was followed closely by a 95 Caprice 4.3L V8, what a load! I had for a very short period of time an 87 E-150 with an electrical issue which Ford ended up buying back, that would take third place.
 
I can't say I owned it (it was my dad's) but I lived with it for many years and got very experienced at repairing it.

1988 Pontiac 6000

Got to replace warped brake rotors frequently, and the self-adjusting rear drums would occasionally not self-adjust.

Cooling fan motor went out at 50,000 miles or so, but since it only had an idiot light we had no idea it was running hotter than usual, and it apparently never got hot enough to turn on the idiot light. The only symptom we had was the air conditioning cycling off, and when the compressor kicked in it shuddered like you just put it in gear.

It seemed to go through ignition wires and spark plugs at a good clip, and since it had no knock sensor it would ping like crazy if the wires were going bad or the plugs had eroded themselves from .060 to more like .080.

The tensioner bushing would get worn, and the idler pulley would get cockeyed, then the belt would start rubbing the engine block. Strangely, the dealers could never sell you the worn out bushing, but they did have a copious supply of idler pulley assemblies, and once you said "2.5 liter four" they knew exactly which one you were talking about. Since it was this big aluminum casting which included the power steering pump mount and the front cooling jacket cover, it was never a simple and always messy job to replace.

Blower motor went out one winter, although that was just because the cheap connector at the blower motor wasn't well protected against the elements. A little steel wool fixed that, but it was cold for a few days until I could find out what was wrong.

The plastic timing gear let go at around 100,000 miles. Although I can say that was the only time it left us stranded on the road. Still a chore to replace it though. We took that opportunity to replace the steering rack which was having a severe case of morning sickness.

The thermostat started opening too early, but it never turned on a "service engine soon" light. I figured it out because the torque converter started dropping in and out at odd times. Once I noticed that it coincided with the heater warming up and cooling off noticeably, got that fixed.

One half of the ignition module started getting flaky in cold temperatures, so one day it flooded trying to start it, and for a week a buddy of mine and I were trying to jump start it. Finally got it running and got it to the dealer to diagnose it.

One of the silly problems it had was when the rubber bumper for the parking brake pedal actually wore out, the pedal came up too far, and slipped off the warning light switch. Parking brake released, but the BRAKE light was on. The next time I put the parking brake on it broke the switch arm off, and the BRAKE light was on all the time. The dealer looked at me funny when I was ordering a new bumper pad and parking brake switch.

I think it had about 180,000 miles when I gave it back to my dad after I graduated. It soldiered on for another year or so before the headliner started drooping and the transmission wasn't shifting right. During the last week I was still driving it, it managed to shed two hubcaps on the road, and the alternator quit for the third time.
 
1994 Honda del Sol Si I bought used from my brother-in-law.

Nothing like what some of you guys have dealt with, just a lot of dumb minor stuff. The plastic door release lever inside the driver's door broke, making the door unusable until I took it apart and got it fixed. The CD changer broke every other time I used it, trapping the CD magazine inside it. The supposedly stainless muffler rotted through at one of the welds but was pristine otherwise. 2nd gear synchros were a bit flaky. Brakes always pulled the car one way while the alignment made it drift slightly to the other.

Besides that, it was a fun little car for the most part.
 
1980 Dodge Omni with carburated 1.7...carb issues galore
1993 Dodge Omni 2.2 was a good car but it needed clutches regularly.
My first car, a 1968 Firebird with the awful OHC 6 cylinder.

My 2002 Buick Century has been one of the best cars I've owned...I did replace the LIM as a precaution and it does suffer the problem with the cluster lights but that's been it in over 130K. I would drive it anywhere tomorrow.
 
'93 Grand Prix. Hands down. Traded it in before the warranty was up.

Beyond the myriad of problems (some of which were never fixed) the last straw for me was the dash rattle that got worse over time. Dealer claimed they couldn't find a problem. I finally got so tired of it I pulled the dashboard apart and found a loose bolt with a speed nut still attached just rattling around. I could find no place that it belonged. Nice build quality. The combination lock for the glove compartment was a nice touch, though.
 
My present 1995 Mercedes E320 convertible.

I bought it out of warranty and put 50K on it. I have a major expensive problem roughly every 3K, mostly related to the body electricals.

Of course, the company doesn't care how reliable the car is out of warranty, nor does the owner care about reliability within warranty, since it's on the dealer's dime.
 
1975 Volkswagen Dasher, purchased in 1977 with only 16,000 miles on it. I cannot begin to recount all the trouble that car gave me, but it got to the point that repairs were exceeding the average car payment. Finally I sold it in 1979, and the new owner beat it to death in short order.
 
2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. (bought used in 2005, 42K)


WITHIN MONTHS
First the electric windows/locks
Car overheated on the Freeway, radiator fixed
1 week later transmission took a dump. Scrapped it.
 
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