Worst or most problematic car you've owned?

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Worst car I ever owned was a 1989 Suzuki Swift GT. Was my very first "brand new car", having only bought used cars up till that point. On 3rd day of ownership, the A/C compressor disintegrated, taking the belt & radiator & some other stuff with it. At around 12k miles, the flywheel let loose from the engine/transaxle and buzz sawed its way thru! Couple months after that, random electrical failures that would include the car just shutting off & refusing to restart. Fog light bulbs would last exactly 8 months, then go bad, regardless of how much or little you actually used them! CV joints & boots. Rear vent windows would randomly break free of their little plastic hinges & just swing open when making sharp turns. I replaced those plastic hinge thingies so often, it was just ridiculous! A/C compressor again. Starter failed & replaced at 28k. Alternator shortly thereafter. The dealership staff knew me by name, as I was routinely in there for warranty work at least every 8 weeks. I purchased an aftermarket warranty when the factory one expired, and used that extended warranty 7 times! Once for a transmission rebuild! After a while, I just couldnt trust that car anymore, and at 74k miles, traded it in on my new (at the time) 1994 GMC Sonoma, which I drive to this day. The GMC has been very reliable for the most part, with mainly only normal wear items needing replaced. Oh, except for the heater core being replaced twice under warranty, 1 ball joint, 1 power window motor. A/C broke again about 5k miles after factory warranty expired.
 
Originally Posted By: DesertDually
Worst car I ever owned was a 1989 Suzuki Swift GT. Was my very first "brand new car", having only bought used cars up till that point. On 3rd day of ownership, the A/C compressor disintegrated, taking the belt & radiator & some other stuff with it. At around 12k miles, the flywheel let loose from the engine/transaxle and buzz sawed its way thru! Couple months after that, random electrical failures that would include the car just shutting off & refusing to restart. Fog light bulbs would last exactly 8 months, then go bad, regardless of how much or little you actually used them! CV joints & boots. Rear vent windows would randomly break free of their little plastic hinges & just swing open when making sharp turns. I replaced those plastic hinge thingies so often, it was just ridiculous! A/C compressor again. Starter failed & replaced at 28k. Alternator shortly thereafter. The dealership staff knew me by name, as I was routinely in there for warranty work at least every 8 weeks. I purchased an aftermarket warranty when the factory one expired, and used that extended warranty 7 times! Once for a transmission rebuild! After a while, I just couldnt trust that car anymore, and at 74k miles, traded it in on my new (at the time) 1994 GMC Sonoma, which I drive to this day. The GMC has been very reliable for the most part, with mainly only normal wear items needing replaced. Oh, except for the heater core being replaced twice under warranty, 1 ball joint, 1 power window motor. A/C broke again about 5k miles after factory warranty expired.


This is very, very odd - Suzuki's are usually known as a pretty bulletproof, reliable small car.
 
Originally Posted By: addyguy
Originally Posted By: DesertDually
Worst car I ever owned was a 1989 Suzuki Swift GT. Was my very first "brand new car", having only bought used cars up till that point. On 3rd day of ownership, the A/C compressor disintegrated, taking the belt & radiator & some other stuff with it. At around 12k miles, the flywheel let loose from the engine/transaxle and buzz sawed its way thru! Couple months after that, random electrical failures that would include the car just shutting off & refusing to restart. Fog light bulbs would last exactly 8 months, then go bad, regardless of how much or little you actually used them! CV joints & boots. Rear vent windows would randomly break free of their little plastic hinges & just swing open when making sharp turns. I replaced those plastic hinge thingies so often, it was just ridiculous! A/C compressor again. Starter failed & replaced at 28k. Alternator shortly thereafter. The dealership staff knew me by name, as I was routinely in there for warranty work at least every 8 weeks. I purchased an aftermarket warranty when the factory one expired, and used that extended warranty 7 times! Once for a transmission rebuild! After a while, I just couldnt trust that car anymore, and at 74k miles, traded it in on my new (at the time) 1994 GMC Sonoma, which I drive to this day. The GMC has been very reliable for the most part, with mainly only normal wear items needing replaced. Oh, except for the heater core being replaced twice under warranty, 1 ball joint, 1 power window motor. A/C broke again about 5k miles after factory warranty expired.


This is very, very odd - Suzuki's are usually known as a pretty bulletproof, reliable small car.


The G13B in the Swift GTi is incredibly overbuilt. Forged steel crank, gundrilled cams...etc...way overbuilt for it's 87 octane sipping C/R.

But things like door handles and window cranks?
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Those broke easily and regularly in my Swift GA.

I don't know about the fog-lights. I bought my Swift wrecked and put a Geo Metro front clip on. I didn't even have composite headlamps. I had whatever brand H4666 sealed beams came with the clip. Those always worked. I never had a single problem with the A/C....there was none to break. Because I had no A/C, the rear vent windows were used virtually everyday and the clips never broke.

Again, plastic inside door handles and window cranks. That's what broke and broke regularly. Replacements were actually cheaper through the Chevrolet dealer than the Suzuki dealer. (Junkyard ones were all broken too) The Chevrolet/Geo handles were a darker color but who cares? It's a cheap little car. Everything else worked well enough. Freakin' engine was practically indestructible.

I think he just got a lemon. Every manufacturer sends one out once in awhile.
 
1997 Volkswagen Passat, owned it for four years. Worst four years of my life, bought it new and traded it in for the BMW M3 E46 in 02.
 
Originally Posted By: nickaluch
Fiat X 19,what a piece of [censored].


Mine had bad transmissions.

The rest of the cars were actually pretty good. The Bertone even had power windows that worked better than my Oldsmobile's
 
When my folks were shopping for a car in the early 1990's, they went to a local Suzuki dealership.

The dealership had, in the front of it's lot, a 1989 Swift GT that was used by a local customer that drove a lot (courier, I think), and it had something like 270k miles on it, and the dealership had all the paperwork on what had been repaired, and I remember it was very little.

Car was in really good shape.......
 
'91 Probe with the Vulcan. Engine is a gem, auto trans is a travesty. How that thing ever got put into production is beyond me. No matter how many times they worked on that trans, it just never was right. If it wasn't for that trans, I would've kept that car much much longer.
 
So far my worst car to date has been the 1997 A4 I still own. Big issue being the timing belt broke at 64k and Audi offered no help at all even though the interval was 90k. Took me 18 mos to save for a new cylinder head and all the parts and even wtih me doing the labor it was still almost 2700.(Was at tech school at the time) Finally got my money back after the class action lawsuit. Besides that its been a great car for me, not for everyone I know, but I stay on top of it and has yet to not start on me again. Besides maintenance, the car needed a vibration dampner and a few axle boots. I dont think Ill ever sell her...
 
a '97 Bravada I bought from a used dealership. The dealer was a friend of my dad's and they both told me an older couple traded it in because the vehicle shut off on them while they were driving once. The dealer said his mechanics tried to get it to do it again but it wouldn't. I said I was marginally interested because it was only $800 and the dealer said "here's the keys, take it for the weekend and let me know on monday".

So I drove it a few places and out of town and nothing bad happened. I bought the vehicle for $700 and drove it the rest of the summer and most of the winter. Things started gradually going wrong with it like the A/C and fan not blowing, rear wiper not functioning, and the car died on me like a manual would more than once while backing out of the driveway.

In February I was driving it and all of a sudden I hear this KACHINK and the accelerator quits working. I coasted it into the parking lot and it would not start again. Had it looked at and they told me the flywheel busted off and killed the u-joint, which in turn destroyed most of the transmission. It was a domino effect in a matter of 30 seconds.

Nobody thought it was worth fixing (myself included as it was a second vehicle) and we had it towed away. It had 123,000 miles on it.

No other horror stories to speak of though.
 
Every French, Italian, and British car I've owned. They were all very unreliable. This includes various MG, Jaguar, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, and Renault models. The Alfa was the best of the lot.
 
Originally Posted By: Tim H.
Pontiac Grand Am.


What year/engine and why?

My '03 GT worked great except in the snow. There was a little sludge around the mouth of the coolant tank (not the nicest thing to find), my passenger door leaked when it rained, and one of my liner boards came off, but otherwise it was a fantastic, reliable, great feeling car.

Just curious, thanks
 
2002 Chevy S10 ZR2. Had the famous coolant leak, vacuum leaks behind the dash, cab leaked, windshield leaked. Only had it 8 months and couldn't take it anymore.
 
1979 Plymouth Horizon. Easily the worst, most unreliable piece of junk I ever ran across. This is no joke, the salesman broke two things while demonstrating the car's features to us prior to delivery. I should have cut and run right there but I didn't know enough.
 
Originally Posted By: zerosoma
Originally Posted By: Tim H.
Pontiac Grand Am.


What year/engine and why?

My '03 GT worked great except in the snow. There was a little sludge around the mouth of the coolant tank (not the nicest thing to find), my passenger door leaked when it rained, and one of my liner boards came off, but otherwise it was a fantastic, reliable, great feeling car. Engine was 3.1L

Just curious, thanks

LIM gasket issue, radiator plastic burst, heater core leaked and was [censored] to replace, Tensioner, 2 power window motors, interior flooded each time it rained, 2 coil packs, one hub on the left front, 2 ignition keylock cylinder switches due to the wonderful passkey system, 1 instrument cluster bcs the gas guage quit working, bad slap when cold, manifold crack causing another coolant leak, both coil packs (at different intervals).. interior items always falling off, like door trim, visors, etc. That was my last experience I would ever have with a GM. I took good care of it, but I just couldnt keep up with the breakdowns
 
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Never had a bad car, Not even the Renault R5 (refuse to calll it a LeCar). Some had a few more problems than others but nothing that couldnt be solved by a competent mechanic.

That said I never owned a Yugo (aka Fiat built on worn out tooling with no quality control).

I guess if I had to pick one it would be the 1964 Plymouth Valiant with the 170ci Slant 6 but after 400,000 miles you have to expect things to be worn out.
 
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1990 Volvo 740GL - bought it new....Had so many issues in the first year I sold it.

1999 ML320 - bought it new. Trans failed at 8,000 miles. Total POS
 
1997 Toyota Camry V6. Not really the fault of the car but rather the fault of my father in law who owns it:

battery acid puke that corroded the front end
leaks everywhere in and out of the car
borderline failing emission
fail to change oil frequent enough
fail to do alignment after axle change causes premature worn tire
keep driving with worn sturts and causes tire cupping
broken interior due to brute force (sun visor, radio button, door handle, etc)


I'm a firm believer that he should only drive American trucks because he'll break anything else.
 
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