most disappointing car you ever had.

1986 Audi 5000S… blew its head gasket in late winter so it left a contrail behind me worthy of a 747…

Junked it. Never regained that $1200.
 
94 and 02 cavalier both inherited 4 headgaslets, a thrown rod through the engkne block and a middle finger at every smog inspection.
 
Infiniti J30 immediately comes to mind. Not sure I would have another one.

Some other possibles: 1989 Volkswagen Fox

Distant runner-up.. 1995 Honda Civic EX
2013 Chevy Cruze

But yeah that Infiniti J30. It just didn't work.

I'm almost sure it once parasitic drained its battery in 6 hours... it repeatedly did that.. learn about a J30 you'll know it's kind of a nightmare.. I wish it would have stayed working it would have been pretty good...
 
2017 Lincoln Continental. POS. So many things went wrong that dealers could not fix. Purchased new. Got rid of it after only four months

My two 1998 and one 2002 Continentals were GREAT.
My 2017was a POS. .
I was just informed from admin that we CANNOT use the term POS.....It is inappropfiate language......Thats what ADMIN says........
 
1982 or '83 Volkswagen Quantum
We bought the car new and had nothing but problems with it. A leaking head gasket was one issue, trim pieces literally fell off, the radio stopped working, the turn signals failed, and the door locks were difficult to operate and the driver's door eventually failed. Those are the things I remember other than the crappy Goodyear tires that were prone to flats. We had more flats with that car in our one year of ownership than I have had with all our other cars combined over the past 40 years or so. Oh, yeah, the dealer service was awful as well.

We traded the Quantum for a couple of 1984 Mazdas that were trouble-free for about 200,000 miles each before replacing them.

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2003 Chevy Impala. Lots of good stuff about the car until the mysterious ignition problem that prevented the car from starting. Spent years trying to find a solution. Finally replaced the body control module, which mostly solved it, after spending lots of money on various fixes that didn't work, but by then the underside was so rusted out I junked the car.
 
2003 Chevy Impala. Lots of good stuff about the car until the mysterious ignition problem that prevented the car from starting. Spent years trying to find a solution. Finally replaced the body control module, which mostly solved it, after spending lots of money on various fixes that didn't work, but by then the underside was so rusted out I junked the car.
LOL Yeah been there done that! (y) In my case the starting issues got stranger and stranger until eventually the car didn't start at all for several months. I finally decided to try a BCM from the junkyard (for just $24) and now the car starts and runs great. I didn't get anything re-programmed but the only issue is it no longer recognizes the radio. And of course before I could drive it I had to replace both rear brake lines...
 
I finally decided to try a BCM from the junkyard (for just $24) and now the car starts and runs great. I didn't get anything re-programmed but the only issue is it no longer recognizes the radio.
That's great! I called around and found a dealer willing to let me replace the BCM in their lot and then helped me push the car into their garage where they reprogrammed it. I had to pay for just the reprogramming, but it wouldn't start without it.
 
I bought two brand new jeep wranglers. 1990 and 1991, both were lemon lawed away. I had to buy a cell phone because they could not make it home from the dealer garage. Broken windows. Broken exhaust. , crank position sensors. Rust at 4 weeks old, rattles , no start , bad transmission, broken seats , broken dash and guages. They were nightmares. Both manual 4 cyl jeeps. The one with manual steering was 17 turns lock to lock , the one with power steering would change three lanes if you moved the wheel an inch. Top speed flat out was 75 mph with a ten mile run.
 
That's great! I called around and found a dealer willing to let me replace the BCM in their lot and then helped me push the car into their garage where they reprogrammed it. I had to pay for just the reprogramming, but it wouldn't start without it.
It's also possible I just got lucky and it worked without re-programming. I'll probably never know for sure.

I did have to do the key relearning procedure, but that only takes a half-hour.
 
One other thing about the 2003 Chevy Impala was the water pump seemed to be a regular maintenance item. Luckily they were very easy to replace since they only lasted 25,000 miles or so.
 
2013 Chrysler 200 limited. It lacks the comfort, styling, build quality, and charisma that my LH cars had while only getting mildly better mileage. I was in a hurry and didn't shop as thoroughly as I should have.
How was it in terms of reliability though? any major issues and how many miles/years did you end up owning it. Asking for a friend….
 
Another vote on a Subaru. It was a 2000 OBW with the EJ25. I bought it “low mileage” 1 owner car and what a miserable pile of crap it was. Front suspension, rear suspension, alternator, ac compressor, power steering pump and the rack, intermediate shaft, window regulators, seat belt retractor (who’d have thunk?) and oh, the lovely HG. The rear brakes needed a ridiculous swivel socket to get the caliper bracket off. It was gutless in commuter traffic and this was before I knew how to DIY. Spent way too much money on that garbage of a vehicle. Only positive was the giant wagon trunk. Literally should’ve rolled that thing off a cliff. Worst 40k miles in a vehicle.

A close 2nd is a 2011 Malibu. A CPO vehicle that I purchased that was 2 years off lease. The extended warranty I bought came in handy - new moonroof, new passenger seat, 3 sets of front struts, 2 sets of front control arms, 2 sets of rear shocks, new ac compressor and ac evaporator, 2x steering column, all 4 regulators were replaced. Dumped it right on the 36th month. Owned it from about 38k miles to about 60k miles.
 
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