Worst car you ever bought?

[Balpin]

A 1979 MG Midget, with too many problems to mention.

 

Suffice to say, I'm lucky to be alive after the incident with the brakes on Long Lane in Loxley.

 

I've never bought a British made car since.

 

I served my time at Laycocks, in the R and D Department.

I could bore you to death with the stories from there.

What Larks, as Dckens said.

[medusa]

It was a company car rather than one I bought, but I drove a complete death trap of a Vauxhall Cavalier for 6 months in the early 90s. I lost half a day's work every week (averaged) over the time I had it because of the number of times it broke down, had to be recovered from places and had to be in a garage as an emergency.

 

It was an ex-rental car and it had done 70,000 miles before I got it and had been (according to the mechanic who serviced it) in at least 3 serious accidents, which had been repaired in a rather shoddy way, so it didn't start when it was supposed to start and if you got it started you then couldn't stop it. Problems included a bent engine block which meant that the cam belt worked itself loose and sheared the distributor drive shaft every couple of weeks if it wasn't adjusted on a weekly basis and something that they never succeeded in diagnosing meant that sparks in the distributor regularly went awry and blew holes in the distributor cap, leading to condensation in the distributor and the car failing to start- again.

 

How I never killed anyone or got killed as a result of driving this will remain a mystery forever.

[anywebsite]

I agree. I had a Rover 214. By the time it was 4 years old and had 30K on the clock it was on its forth head gasket. I virtually traded it in for scrap.

 

I loved my Rover 214 sli. It was an M-reg, 11 years old when I got it (but less than 40K miles), had a Honda designed engine & was very reliable. Pretty powerful for a 1.4l too, the sli had an improved engine over the other models. If it was made a few years earlier or later then it'd have had an unreliable engine like yours, but mine was great.

 

It wasn't without faults, it lacked any grip in the wet. I had a couple of slides in it & used to wheel spin if I tried setting off from traffic lights uphill in the wet. That just made it a bit more exciting though. I used to love that car.

 

I had to scrap mine after it was stolen & run into a bus stop by kids, got £30 for it

[anywebsite]

Worst car I've ever driven was my mum's Vauxhall Corsa 1.2, that was so bad it was scary, especially on roundabouts, it just wouldn't set off. I wouldn't have bought that car though, I had no influence over the purchase.

[Rupert_Baehr]

A 35

[Classic Rock]

I had a Subaru Justy back in the 90s which ran fine, but if I pressed the 4x4 button then the underside mechanism collapsed onto the road. It was repaired by holding it together with tie wraps, but as the button was on top of the gear stick I kept pressing it in error and had to stop to pick up the bits that fell off until the OH at the time could tie it back together.

 

The Land Rover Discovery came a close second as being the thirstiest beast of a vehicle I've ever had to run. It was like digging a hole in the garden and putting money into it, it drank like a fish.

[Rampent]

I loved my Rover 214 sli. It was an M-reg, 11 years old when I got it (but less than 40K miles), had a Honda designed engine & was very reliable. Pretty powerful for a 1.4l too, the sli had an improved engine over the other models. If it was made a few years earlier or later then it'd have had an unreliable engine like yours, but mine was great.

 

It wasn't without faults, it lacked any grip in the wet. I had a couple of slides in it & used to wheel spin if I tried setting off from traffic lights uphill in the wet. That just made it a bit more exciting though. I used to love that car.

 

I had to scrap mine after it was stolen & run into a bus stop by kids, got £30 for it

 

My ex mate still running around in it. He says thanks

[Tomm06]

Is it possible there are no bad cars so to speak, some people have just picked the faulty pick of the pack?

[sedith]

Renault Megane - Stay away from anything French!

I'll second that ... the Megane is the only new car I've ever bought, and the last ... cost me 10k and 3.5 years down the road part ex it for 2k. Bloody thing seemed to go into self destruct the minute it got to three years old! Last three cars I've had are Vauxhall's, absolutely brilliant cars!

[Rampent]

It was a company car rather than one I bought, but I drove a complete death trap of a Vauxhall Cavalier for 6 months in the early 90s. I lost half a day's work every week (averaged) over the time I had it because of the number of times it broke down, had to be recovered from places and had to be in a garage as an emergency.

 

It was an ex-rental car and it had done 70,000 miles before I got it and had been (according to the mechanic who serviced it) in at least 3 serious accidents, which had been repaired in a rather shoddy way, so it didn't start when it was supposed to start and if you got it started you then couldn't stop it. Problems included a bent engine block which meant that the cam belt worked itself loose and sheared the distributor drive shaft every couple of weeks if it wasn't adjusted on a weekly basis and something that they never succeeded in diagnosing meant that sparks in the distributor regularly went awry and blew holes in the distributor cap, leading to condensation in the distributor and the car failing to start- again.

 

How I never killed anyone or got killed as a result of driving this will remain a mystery forever.

 

I'm lost on that one