Worst Car You Have Ever Driven

Fritz2 · Sun Aug 16, 2015 1:47 am

Oh, I forgot, the water pump as well on the VW. First 30,000 miles. Did I mention it was fun to drive?

redmed · Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:31 am

Fritz2 wrote:For me, its a tie. 1998 Mercury Villager and 1987 VW Golf. The Villager looked nice and drove almost like a car, and the Golf was a blast to hurl around, even with its rubbery shifter. Both. purchased new. What car needs 2cv joints, a new master cylinder, a new battery, and multiple plastic trim pieces in its first 30,000 miles? VW, that's who. Had a blast driving it back and forth to the shop. Dealer was very good about the warranty, but never again. The brakes on the Villager started making an ungodly screeching on the way home from the dealer( but not during the test drive, weird). Took it back and lo and behold the rear brakes weren't even hooked up! An unconnected brake part had gotten wedged somewhere making the racket. A few months later, the horn decided to start blowing on its own and wouldn't stop. Multiple times. Of course, the dealer couldn't replicate this on the multiple trips to the shop. Well, finally, God had had enough of our van as well, apparently, because as we drove right by the front of the dealer, in a downpour, the horn goes for the gold. I drove it right into the service alcove where all the customers, salesmen and service folks were( due to the deluge of rain) with the horn blowing. Did I mention that shutting the car off wouldn't silence the horn? My service guy was mad, took them two weeks and a new steering wheel to fix it. Thank you, God.

LOL I wish I was in the dealership when you drove in with the horn blaring!

paininthenuts · Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:52 am

cbrf1wr wrote:I too have to give it up for the corsica. Got one as a rental for a couple weeks back in the mid 90's. It was quickly renamed the corsiCRAP. I seem to recall the seat feeling like it was make out of concrete covered with cheap velour. It had the handling qualities of my dads old 78 long wheelbase f150 just not as fast. A real gem of a car.

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Coming from the UK, I have never seen one of these cars, so I googled it. It is as ugly as it sounds to drive

FrankoLaMoya · Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:05 pm

What car needs 2cv joints, a new master cylinder, a new battery, and multiple plastic trim pieces in its first 30,000 miles? I knew the answer would be VW...piece of junk lol + the water pump...wow It sounds just like the 2004 Audi A4 Quattro I had 3 years ago...what a mess to repair lol always something...

paininthenuts · Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:34 pm

FrankoLaMoya wrote:What car needs 2cv joints, a new master cylinder, a new battery, and multiple plastic trim pieces in its first 30,000 miles? I knew the answer would be VW...piece of junk lol + the water pump...wow It sounds just like the 2004 Audi A4 Quattro I had 3 years ago...what a mess to repair lol always something...

I have had various VW's as company cars, and to be honest I don't really rate them either. The UK public are obsessed with German cars, and I can't understand why. All my VW's used to have very noisy interiors that drove me mad. Over the years I had seen a couple of Turbos, and an intercooler blow. If I were paying, this would have cost me thousands. I also had a Merc E Class. Whilst the car was beautiful to drive, it spent half it's life in the work shop.

FrankoLaMoya · Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:04 pm

Yeah they are not reliable in general.

http://dougdemuro.kinja.com/german-reli ... 1572026115

Wed Aug 19, 2015 6:08 am

I'm not much of a fan of the gen 3 and 4 ford Taurus/Mercury sable.

Probably not the worst cars on the road, but as they age they have stupid stuff break on them, and they are the only car I ever have to drive that cause me to hit stuff. The bubble shape makes it really difficult to figure out where the corners of the car are. I bump stuff almost every time I drive one. .... Next time you see a gen 3 or 4 Taurus look at all of the dents. Its almost impossible to find a clean one.

I've not been impressed with the build quality of anything when I work on them either. Japanese cars of the same time frame were built much better.

The best mechanical failure so far is a spring busted out of the strut assembly and stabbed into the sidewall of the tire while the car was moving. If it had happened on the highway it would have blown the front drivers side tire.

Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:11 pm

FrankoLaMoya wrote:Yeah they are not reliable in general.

http://dougdemuro.kinja.com/german-reli ... 1572026115

Totally agree. I have a few VWs in the family fleet and some I've worked on for friends. The quality is so overrated with German cars, especially VW. These things are not built for long-term durability like the air-cooled predecessors were but even those are finicky. Even modern BMWs, Benzs, and Audis lag considerably behind the Japanese brands in reliability. Also, when things go wrong, they cost significantly more to repair in both parts and labor.
The German car I'd trust for long term ownership would be a diesel Mercedes-Benz or a Porsche but neither come cheap. The rest are better as lease-mobiles in my opinion. They do drive nicely though so while a VW may not be the "worst car you have ever driven", it can be the "worst car you have ever owned".

Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:14 pm

Moto wrote:I'm not much of a fan of the gen 3 and 4 ford Taurus/Mercury sable.

Probably not the worst cars on the road, but as they age they have stupid stuff break on them, and they are the only car I ever have to drive that cause me to hit stuff. The bubble shape makes it really difficult to figure out where the corners of the car are. I bump stuff almost every time I drive one. .... Next time you see a gen 3 or 4 Taurus look at all of the dents. Its almost impossible to find a clean one.

I've not been impressed with the build quality of anything when I work on them either. Japanese cars of the same time frame were built much better.

The best mechanical failure so far is a spring busted out of the strut assembly and stabbed into the sidewall of the tire while the car was moving. If it had happened on the highway it would have blown the front drivers side tire.

The interior on these things are atrocious. It looks and feels like some kind of Fisher-Price toy car compared to imports of the day. I'm so glad domestics have come a long way since.

Firefly · Fri Aug 21, 2015 4:23 am

KuroNekko wrote:
FrankoLaMoya wrote:Yeah they are not reliable in general.

http://dougdemuro.kinja.com/german-reli ... 1572026115
Totally agree. I have a few VWs in the family fleet and some I've worked on for friends. The quality is so overrated with German cars, especially VW. These things are not built for long-term durability like the air-cooled predecessors were but even those are finicky. Even modern BMWs, Benzs, and Audis lag considerably behind the Japanese brands in reliability. Also, when things go wrong, they cost significantly more to repair in both parts and labor.
The German car I'd trust for long term ownership would be a diesel Mercedes-Benz or a Porsche but neither come cheap. The rest are better as lease-mobiles in my opinion. They do drive nicely though so while a VW may not be the "worst car you have ever driven", it can be the "worst car you have ever owned".

I agree here. I've had 2 VWs and I loved driving both. They are well designed cars which are composed of crap parts. I was on a first name basis with the service manager at the dealership. That being said, the worst latter-day car I have driven was a Geo Metro (Sorry , I know its a Suzuki) rented from Enterprise -it was all they had available on the Thanksgiving weekend when my Passat's coil packs went south.