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A simca something-or-other.
I bought it from a buddy because he needed the money, and he wouldn't have got twenty quid for it, elsewhere.
When it was running, it was a good drive.
I don't think I need to expand on that; I'm sure you can guess the rest.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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A '99 Mazda 626. I bought it when it had 80K miles (from a coworker) and it had no problems whatsoever. For the 40K miles I owned it, it was another story:
0: replaced both CV joints (at different times)
1: replaced multiple cheap relays for the cooling fans
2: replaced busted coolant tank (which I think resulted from #1)
3: replaced water pump / timing belt (as a result of #2)
4: the glue for the interior panels/headliner did not stand up well to a couple of hot Louisiana summers. I remember when the flapping headliner went beyond an annoyance to a safety hazard.
5: the CD player started skipping on good discs, especially when it was cold, and especially the last tracks were the worst.
6: the brakes had a nasty habit where the calipers wouldn't fully release. I'd have to pull the wheel off and use a c-clamp to push 'em back in...and by that time, everything was smokin' hot!
7: the A/C system sprang a leak. For a couple of summers I got by with the diy charging kits. Third time was a charm when the tiny leak finally gave way and the compressor seized. 
That's when my wife (gf at the time) refused to ride in it, and when I broke down and bought my first new vehicle which I still have today, now 10 y/o but with only 33K miles on it.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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10 years old and 33K miles? Oh you must tell more! There is a story here, I can smell it. 
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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charlieg wrote: 10 years old and 33K miles? Oh you must tell more!
Working from home is great!  Also, the wife's company car gets used for most vacation/travel. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Forogar wrote: Mine was a Renault 14
Ah, well, there's your problem: Life is too short for French cars. 
My worst was a Citroën C3. The wife promptly wanted one of the first cars that rolled off the assembly line because she had seen it in a picture and thought "it looked cute". 
Nothing but trouble. It started 3 days after we got it (six months after they had promised to deliver it) and continued with trouble after trouble throughout its entire life cycle. In the end, we gave it away for free just to get rid of it. 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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We can close the thread now. I owned, and for some bizarre reason loved, a Trabant 601 Kombi.
Stupid car but a joy nonetheless.
veni bibi saltavi
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Yup, you Win. i rember Robbie Coltrane taking the engine out of one those with a Leather Man multitool and brute strength!
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Disagree.
Not the worst car ever, it was well adjusted to the circumstances.
Built according to the principle that what does not exist doesn't break.
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My Personal List of worst cars: (They have proven to be failures, time and time again)
1. Dodge (Chrysler) any kind.
2. BMW, Audi, Mercedes - these cars are not what they used to be.
3. GM/Chevrolet
Best : Over time, they are known to be reliable.
1.Toyota
2.Honda
3.Subaru , Kia , Hyundai
If you buy a new car every year, or 4 , this list is meaningless. Just about any new car can last
almost as long as the payments.
Where there's smoke, there's a Blue Screen of death.
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A Daewoo Lanos that was given to me by my father-in-law when my Ford Focus finally died (it did have 200,000 miles on the clock).
Horrible build quality, abysmal performance and lack of comfort. It was written off by my insurance company after I had a little bump - the repairs would have cost more than £500, which is what they valued the car as.
=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================
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In the mid-80's I was driving a 76 AMC Hornet with a hatchback that my parents gave me. It had a 3-speed manual transmission. The worst part about it was if it went through a puddle there was a very good chance that it was going to stall. Apparently this was caused by water getting into the distributor cap so I learned that I could fix it by wiping it out with a rag. Eventually I let my parents have it back. My dad said he was able to fix the problem by spraying some WD-40 in it. Wish he had told me that back when I was driving it. I'm not sure what ultimately happened to it. I think my parents loaned it out to other family members before someone wrecked it.
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It's a toss-up between:
- The leaky Alfasud that had been patched and resprayed but had about 2 gallons of water in the sills and floor pan that rushed forward when you braked.
- The powder blue and rust Polski Fiat that ate timing chains faster than it ate oil.
Runners-up are a 1964 Morris 1100 with Heinz baked-bean cans pop-riveted to the sub-frame and a BMW Isetta 300 whose gear-lever came away in your hand if you were a little too brisk with it.
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That must have been a second hand Citroen 2CV, I remember one time when I tried to put something in the trunk and ended up standing with a broken off trunk lid in my hands !
The problem was that instead of hinges a simple seamed edge was used where the water could collect and cause the entire edge to rust off 
Of course all this had to do with bad maintenance and not greasing the lid properly ...
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'89 Volkswagon Jetta
Loved that car -- it was peppy (5 speed manual transmission, not automatic) and hugged the road -- a true pleasure to drive. I drove it far faster than was wise.
At the 5 year mark the electrical problems started and for the next 4 years it nickled-n-dimed me with constant, semi-trivial repairs. I finally gave up and bought Toyota ...
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'86 Pontiac 6000 - not because the car was bad per se, but because I didn't maintain it.
Near the end:
- The brake cylinder lost pressure so you had to pump the brakes once before they'd catch (except 1 in 100 times when they caught the first time and sent you to a screeching halt)
- The engine would not idle, but would sputter and die when coming to a stop
- Power steering would occasionally step out for a break
When coming to a stop-light, I would have to pump the brake with the left foot, put the tranny in neutral while gently pumping the gas to avoid a stall.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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Depends how you define 'worst'. Performance-wise, it was my first car, a 73 VW Beetle.
However, it was reliable, chugged along, pretty indestructible and relatively easy to repair.
The next car was one of those late-80s Mustang hatchbacks (88 I think). A better car in terms of performance and comfort, but it was just another generic car--Mustang in name only. So, in a way, it was worse--a new car (especially one with the Mustang name) should've been much better than that.
I guess I've been pretty lucky overall, all my vehicles have kept running o.k. for long periods until an accident (so far).
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I forget the year but it was sometime in the 80's it was a Ford Probe.
I believe the transmission fell out one day when my wife was backing it out of the driveway...
A car for me is just basic transportation.
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A Ford Taurus wagon- used with low mileage (30k?). Shortly after I got it, when I was stopped at a light the car would jump like it had been hit from behind. I found out the transmissions were junk and Ford never bothered to fix the problem. When you type "ford taurus t" in a search engine, the suggested search is "ford taurus transmission problems" with a long list of sites.
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I bought a Nova from a neighbor with a weird noise. They said it was the exhaust pipe rattling.
Nope it was a Rod Bearing.
I threw that rod through the side of the car, ON PROM NIGHT, coming home from finding out they had no TUX for me, because the lady wrote the pickup and drop off dates backwards.
They had to piece together a TUX for me from the sample try on stuff, and give me shoes that were 2 sizes to small. Oh what a Joy!
But that rod blew, and white smoke came out, I put 2 quarts of oil in it and made it the last 5 miles home, destroyed the car.
Had to borrow dads car to get to prom.
Later I learned that Nova = No Go in spanish, and I cried inside!
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1986 Nissan Stanza Wagon. That thing was a death trap.
It was heavy in all the wrong places: up high and up front. Slab sides that caught crosswinds like sails. It had the worst handling characteristics of anything I have ever driven, and it's one of the reasons why I won't drive SUVs or other top-heavy vehicles to this day.
I once had to do an emergency lane change in that thing at highway speeds. The front suspension overloaded to the left and then bounced back to the right, and I had to countersteer and rock the front suspension back and forth a bit until it stabilized, while the front end was doing a reverse fishtail. It just about spun and rolled, and all it took was having to hit the brakes and change lanes suddenly. As soon as the weight transferred to the front and I turned the wheel all hell broke loose immediately, it was scary. I drive small Mazdas now.
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The worst car I ever owned was a gently used 1968 Toyota Corona I bought in the mid 70s. Styling-wise think Soviet era Lada, but because it was a Japanese car it always ran.
That is until I made the mistake of letting one of my brother-in-laws borrow it. At some point in the evening he was driving back home on the freeway when the engine light came on, and the temperature gauge max'd out. Of course, he was bound and determined to get home. It finally gave out about 15 or so miles later. He left it on the side of the road, angry that I let him borrow such a clunker!
My other (good) brother-in-law helped me rebuild it. It lasted another 3 months. Turns out knuckle-head managed to warp the crank shaft (and we hadn't thought to check that before our rebuild).
Now a-days I carefully vet anyone who wants to drive any vehicle I own, and usually decline.
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Before we got married, me ex-wife had the brilliant idea to purchase a Ford Tempo.
It drank more oil than gas, ended up using 20/50 to keep the consumption to less than a quart weekly.
Director of Transmogrification Services
Shinobi of Query Language
Master of Yoda Conditional
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1980 something Chrysler LeBaron Turbo. Bought it from my grandmother in law (took it and gave money, cuz she couldn't see at night and still drove by following the white lines on the side of the road) with 32k miles in 1997. Drove in such a way as to never engage the turbo cuz the car shook like crazy when under acceleration. Parked in the garage one night shortly after having bought it. 15 minutes later our garage was on fire. The fuel line had broken and dripped onto something hot and ignited. Burned the garage and part of the kitchen. The grandmother in law, when she found out we got more in insurance for the car than what we paid her, wanted the extra money. She was a piece of work too.
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"Ambassador - Mark IV". Made in India. The only part that was quiet and never made noise was the horn.
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Dodge Intrepid, which was constantly stalling, had to have both the transmission and rack & pinyon steering replaced after the 36,000 mile warranty ran out and before it hit 40,000 miles.
Second worst: Mitsubishi Lancer GT Manual. The clutch went at 30K miles. I replaced it with another standard transmission car where the clutch was still going strong after 100,000 miles when it was totaled by hail.
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