Worst car you or your family ever owned/leased?
When I was a kid, my mom had a 73 Pinto.
Serious
57 Replies
3y
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
tires at 35K, alternator went out at 60K, fuel pump died at 75K, and then the oil leaks. The never ending oil leaks.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
1979 (ish) Oldmobile Cutlass Salon, or maybe the 1982 Chevy Monza
IMO, that was pretty much the height of GM lack of quality, and colored my perception of the company for a couple of decades. Even though people who had Ford's in that time period hated Ford for 20 years as well.
I still remember my parents bringing home the Olds and for the first 3 days or so, maybe longer, my mother would be riding in the car with a notebook, making notes on all the things that were wrong with the car so the dealer could fix them. (About) 13 year old me asked "Why isn't it right when you buy it?" and the answer was "This is just how it is."
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
You need to drive it for at least a month to find all of the bugs/manufacturing defects before trusting it to take the family to the beach for a week.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
3y
out at 100K every, single, time. In this global, multi-national manufacturing world now I don't think you are really helping the American worker buying traditional US brands. Toyota's are made in Tennessee, etc. I always promised myself when I started buying vehicles I would go by quality, not manufacturing place of origin.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
Buy cheap, and it's always in the shop...lol
(In response to this post by soldcokesatLane)
3y
in the smallest amount of rain, I spun it around so many times. Def not the best car for a 20 yo dude.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
I did get a speeding ticket in it sadly
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
N
No Clue
3y
A divorce was involved and it was totally worth it.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
The Ford modeling agency had an Escort service division? Sounds hot.
Was that the REASON for the divorce?
(In response to this post by No Clue)
3y
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
3y
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
7
7Hokie1
3y
Engine almost fell out one time, it also burned oil. The Corvair was a little cheaper, so he bought it instead.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
Ex C&P Telephone Company car with the logo sprayed over. It was named "The Boat" by my friends. I had to rebuild the carb but it remained a touchy bastage to run. It was a pretty good ride on the highway. Seats (bench front and back, 7 could ride at a time) were badly stained and torn so I bought cheap seat covers for both from Pep Boys. Used it to drive to & from Blacksburg during my Junior and Senior year. Couldn't afford the gas (12 mpg?) so I seldom drove it to campus. A really bad car but extremely cost effective solution at the time.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
lots of good memories in junker land cruisers from my youth
(In response to this post by HokieJay)
3y
Any sort of an electrical glitch and it would go into "low power mode".
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
M
MikeVT85
3y
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
The D100 was the first "new car" I ever bought. It wasn't the best looking vehicle but it looked solid. Bought it after finishing flight school, so I guess that was my "ensign mobile." The stitching on the bench seat started unraveling about 3 weeks after driving it off the lot, but I had transferred so I couldn't return it to the dealer I bought it from to repair. I ended up just buying a seat cover that was made 100X better than Dodge's effort. The driver's door was not hung properly. That truck was always loud, but I just guessed it was the way Dodge trucks normally are. It rusted horribly bad. The mechanical fuel pump failed after 3-4 years (easy repair, just replaced it myself. The air conditioning evaporator blew after 2 years, so it was still under warranty. It was dealer repaired, but the repair blew after it was out of warranty. Since it was so crappy, I didn't pay to have it repaired again. On it's best day, it got 17 mpg on the highway, and probably about 13 mpg around town. It had a 318 with a little 2-barrel carburetor, so I expected a little better.
I ended up donating it to charity and took the tax write off. I replaced it with a 94 Toyota truck, which turned out to be the best car I'd ever owned.
Would say my Vega was second worst, but it got me through college and the year afterwards while I waited for my AOCS class date. The next worst was probably my ~1982 Cutlass Calais. That had a small V8 with a 2 barrel carb. It drove well, but kept fouling the plugs. I had it towed to three different GM dealerships in the Pensacola area who all said the carb was just a little out of adjustment, and they replace the plugs. I hit a tune up shop where they told me the carb needed to be rebuilt. No idea why the three GM dealerships didn't tell me that... Probably would have kept it if it had a 350.
Everything else has been pretty solid mechanically.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
3y
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
AMC Hornet. Then offloaded it on FfxStation’s dad.
** Edited by RoswellGAHokie at 12/17/2022, 11:42:52 AM
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
before a football game. For some reason, I had to keep replacing ignition coils in it.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
It turned out there was a massive amount of corrosion where the coil wire plugged into the coil. No idea how that got there, since the coil wire had a rubber boot over it. A nice guy stopped and diagnosed the problem in less than 5 minutes. I was able to make it to my class on time, and I drove straight to an auto parts store afterwards for a new coil and coil plug wire. Never had that issue again.
(In response to this post by HokieEngineer)
3y
if I knew what they were for. Ironically, they were on sale. I've never understood that one.
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
Would guess the answer to the first is that since most cars only had one coil, it was very unusual for anyone to buy two at the same time...lol
(In response to this post by HokieEngineer)
3y
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
...getting the coils on sale. Doubt many people actually buy those because they are on sale if they don't need them. I've never had a coil fail (knock on wood). The one on my 74 Vega was still working, once the corrosion was scraped away, but I didn't want to take the chance of it continuing to corrode and stranding me again...even for a short while.
(In response to this post by HokieEngineer)
3y
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
right and the interior was awful.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
Bought it used in '84. Piece of junk, had lots of problems. At one point there was some sort of electrical short and wisps of electric smelling smoke started coming out of my steering column at random times.
Had something major happen to it, can't even remember what now, and I wound up parking it at a repair shop in Maryland my last year at Tech, couldn't afford to get it fixed until I got a couple paychecks from my first post college job. Promised the repair guy I would have him fix it if he let me keep it on his lot for nearly a year. And did, but once I was established enough in my job to get a car loan I ditched the Fairmont and got my first ever new car, an '88 Chevy Beretta.
(In response to this post by hokiemas)
3y
As a teenager in the 80s, best friends parents had an Audi. Girlfriends parents had a Mercedes. I dreamed we’d have a BMW, but my mom was 100% content with her Ford Fairmont. 🥺
(In response to this post by hokiemas)
K
Kudelski
3y
Common issue and bad design for the v6. Eventually the engine locked up.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
My 1st car was a 78 cutlass cruiser
Was about the least cool car to drive in HS (though fortunately no wood siding) until it was time to carry 2 kegs to a party
(In response to this post by Kudelski)
3y
after about 10 years.
(In response to this post by Kudelski)
3y
It was terrible, like literally something was wrong with it ALL the time. In retrospect it was probably a financial hardship to my parents. I won't ever buy one even though I know their issues are behind them.
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by TekkNerd)
3y
aged badly and the wood was rotting. So he sanded it down and HAND-PAINTED the wood grey and dark blue. This pic looks almost exactly what I can recall that car looking like, except for the paint, the chrome tire holder and the baby moons..
** Edited by PhotoHokieNC at 12/17/2022, 10:57:22 AM
** Edited by PhotoHokieNC at 12/17/2022, 10:58:02 AM
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
1971 Dodge Polara…..Cruise control would get stuck in “on” position. 🤯
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by CrystalCoveHokie)
3y
nylon timing belts that slipped off probably as a function of driving over 85 mph at some point not necessarily when you were driving that fast but probably stretched it for later failure.
And then there was the temperature sender. Engine would just cut out, driving along and just stopped running. Wait a few minutes and it would start again, Dealers were clueless until I took it to one out somewhere else who knew what was going on, a falty temperature sender was messing up the early computer algorhythms. Especially annoying b/c I had followed the repair manual to a "T" repeated it and didn't fix it b/c because, in hindsight, it was a intermittant problem which makes those "if-thens" useless making it realliy hard to fix.
Swore I'd never buy another Pontiac which I can proudly claim I've accomplished since the nameplate has been dropped. Really should have been GM but I'd have to be dead before claiming that I suppose.
All those worst cars were right about that time when US auto was trying to catch up with that new concept of fuel efficiency. Nylon timing belts... Jeebus!!!!
** Edited by `lag at 12/17/2022, 10:26:50 AM
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
I had a red J2000…..Utter piece of junk…..Blocked it from my memory
(In response to this post by `lag)
3y
(In response to this post by MrBayAreaHokie)
