Your Top 3 most rubbish cars you have driven

[Driftit 1959]

This can be an argument starter. But just remember that peoples opinions differ and we have a wide range of people on here. Post up the three cars of which you have had the worst experiences driving purely because of the car.

Only rules!

You must have driven it!!

It must be a production car/suv etc!!

Give a BRIEF description to why

1. 86 Nissan Pulsar in violet/homax purple. It was so purple that everyone thought you were gay. Everyone! We called it Grimace (Fat Purple McDonalds creature) Used more oil than petrol.

2. 85 Ford Falcon. When people say that car handles like a boat. They are referring to the Ford Falcon. Not an actual boat. Thats just not fair on boats. Would only start when it was sunny.

3. 90's Nissan Vannette. It was a column shift 4 speed. At 100kph it was nearly on the red line. Kept trying to find 5th. It stranded me in the fast lane in Spaghetti Junction with a massive hole in its block.

Some of you buggers must have some stories. BMW's not excluded!!

[Hartage 0]

Where do you start!

#1 Valiant Charger, Orange and auto, basic 6 cylinder model, Drifted from lane to lane on its own, only car I have ever owned that cost more in oil than petrol to fill each time!

#2 Austin Maxi 1500, Bright Yellow The early on that had the smaller motor with less power and no looks! Leaked as much oil as the Charger used!

#3 Mitsi Celest 2.0, Gold with the black and white checkered interior, more rust than I thought possible, drove it to Auckland once and used a 4lt pack of oil each way.

Some thing about the cars I have owned in my youth being oil burners or leakers, all had crap handling and were more than just tired.

[pjay 8]

Only rubbish car I have ever driven is the Family Famila, wait.. Familia - clair

1.3 litres of 3 cylinder nothingness with a 3 speed. YES - THREE speed automatic. Tyres thinner than nikky hiltons legs and shocks so soft every corner was pure terror.

Handbrake works good though. Is now my sisters runaround and will be the younger sisters after that. Can't sell it though. It's chocka full of sentiment now.

[antil33t 90]

#1 - Nissan Pressea 1.5 Auto - it was difficult to keep it at 100kph for any extended period of time.

#2 - 89 EA Falcon GLi - Backfires and more backfires, also ran out of fuel on me one day at the top of a hill.. turns out it goes faster without the engine!

#3 - Subaru Leone Turbo - Kept overheating for no reason.

[Guest Ari Gold]

1. Nissan S110 Silvia turbo. Awful in a straight line, hilarious sideways. It was a goddamn death trap, but all of these things may have had something to do with the fact that we welded the diff up went 5 ways with some mates on it, split all the repairs and go faster bits, but not even the dodgy warrant shop down in onehunga could have made this car warrantable.

2. 1964 Landrover Defender. Another Chameleon car, but just because they're good off road, it doesn't mean they're good. At all. Multiple diff locks and low range gearboxes with unassisted steering made this a handful every time I fired it up. It didn't help that it had been sitting in a paddock on the farm I worked at for 15 years and more wildlife had used the interior as a home than I really care to think about. 60 degree slopes we no trouble, but keeping in a straight line on a gravel road certainly was.

3. 89 Honda prelude. Carbs. 4 wheels steering. 4 speed auto. Nuff said. Actually, when accelerating round a corner it would kick down, and combined with the 4 wheel steering, it would try and spit you out of the corner at an angle not previously thought possible by top scientists.

[Top Secret 2]

1. RB25DET RX7. This thing was slow, overheated, and was generally such a pain to drive I'd rather walk. We took it for a drive one day, and in the space of 30 minutes, it would overheat. So you pull over, pour about 6 litres of water over the radiator, and you'd be ok for about another 10 minutes of driving. Pull one skid however, and the temp is right up there. I hate this car with a passion.

2. 86 Navara ute. Purple. No wof no reg. Clunks from all corners of the ute, alarming ones at that. The speedo was like a trip counter, in that it would stick at the fastest speed you'd get to on that trip, and stay there. 5 speed column, and you were constantly revving the crap out of it to simply to stay with traffic. Death trap. Glad it's gone.

3. Can't even think of a third.

[kingkarl 136]

1. 1975 Renault 12. Carb'd 1300, Four on the floor. No brakes, no power steering, no horsepower and no cornering abilities. The driving position is unbelievably bad.

2. 1988 Toyota Corona Sedan. The shitty 1500cc one with the 3 speed auto. This was one seriously rough car and it drove like an absolute animal.

3. 1977 Ford Fairmont. It had a 351 v8 in it which was super awesome, but the suspension/steering was unbelievably bad. There was about 1/3 of a rotation of free play in the steering. Trying to keep that thing from floating all over the place was a mission. The rears rubbed on the guards too, so you couldn't carry any speed through corners. The 3 speed auto is a piece of crap too.

[Wervie67 0]

#1 Subaru Justy 84? - Was just about to hit 400000kms. clutch was slipping and gearbox felt like it was about to drop out, all this with a 900cc engine, it didnt get anywhere very quick

#2 Toyota hiace van. Pretty sure it was on its way to 500000kms. yes it was still running. most confusing column change i have ever driven. nothing but a black cloud of what used to be diesel and oil came from the exhaust. swear i almost rolled it on my first corner. keeped on dying randomly while driving

#3 toyota corolla, was an 86' 1.8 diesel. no power steering both felt and sounded like a truck to drive. all worth it though with the ridiculous gas mileage it got.

[Wom 0]

1997 Camry

Weighs 2 tonne, needs all of it's 185hp 3litre six just to move, no such thing as a manual v6 either in that generation of Camry.

A full 75 to 80 litre gas tank would be empty after 250kms (once got 300kms max out of a tank doing a long motorway mission). I put this down to requiring a heavy foot to get the thing rolling.

Used just as much water as petrol, I actually carried no less than 10 2.25litre bottles full of water in the boot at all times.

Handled like a barge, guess that comes from being a 2 tonne front wheel drive with a 3 litre six up front.

My mate's called it the SS Camry because of it's resemblance to an ocean liner.

1979 Lancer

Learnt to drive in this thing.

4 speed manual, 1200cc engine ... took a solid minute or 2 to get to 100kph with your foot flat lol

Would have been great if it had some power and had decent supsension.

1997 Pulsar

This is my gf's current car.

Base model, 1500cc, 4 speed auto, poverty pack option lol.

Even with your foot flat you lose speed going up any slight hill.

I don't think it has much sound proofing as there is a lot of road noise in the car.

Only has 2 factory front speakers, have to turn the stereo up real loud just to hear the music over the road noise ... and by the time it gets to that loudness, it's already distorting from the bass ... yet the bass is on -5 lol.

Has almost identical fuel economy as my E36 with 1 litre less of an engine (and a tiny fraction of the power).

Going from driving that thing to driving my car makes mine seem like a supercar lol

[kiwiland 3]

No. 1

1937 Hillman Minx. Had all modern features such as "rheostst controlled panel lights" and "steel floorboards" (proudly listed in the owners manual) No synchromesh on the gears though and could break a front spring leaf on any large rock on the road.

No. 2

Circa 1963 Austin A30 van. Easiest car ever to park (only about 4 foot wide) Great little vehicle for scooting around city but 15 minutes on the motorway at top speed 50mph guaranteed to cook the engine.

No. 3

Holden Sunbird 1975 vintage. Heavy body, 1800cc of useless engine, and foot operated handbrake (great for hill starts) also was painted the most yuk shade of karitane yellow.

[E30-323ti 66]

No.1 - Kia Rio (Wagon)

Old office hack car, did horrific "japanese wheels stands" even when empty.

Would wheel spin in the wet with-out provocation, and not due to power, just the worst suspension geometry possible, which equated torque steer for Africa in the dry.

And the clutch got exponentially stiffer, which had to be depressed the whole way to work & for the starter to turn-over.

No.2 - Nissan Navara (2.7l petrol)

Old survey wagon, was so gutless it couldn't pull the skin of a rice pudding, and would wallow around on it's R15 LT tyres

No.3 - Misti Magna (Wagon)

Wasn't that dis-similar to the Kia Rio above, albeit, bigger & more powerful.

Clutch let go driving up Baldwin St in Wgtn (the F-off steep one over the motorway), wasn't good.

[twisted 45]

1: 1983 Holden Gemini - The engine was so shot that people would regularly come up to me at traffic lights and let me know that my car was on fire, due to all the smoke pouring out of the bonnet. The oil usage was so prolific, that i would just fill it with waste oil from the workshop. It would use approx 20l a week!

2: 1993 VR4 - turbos were rooted, and the suspension was sloppier than the lada 2104 i had. would use $20 in gas to get from jville to pram - at gas prices that are now 10 years old!

3: VR COMMODORE - for no other reason than the buick v6 is harsh, the plastics looked like they were moulded by a 3 year old and they are just an all round sh*t car!

[39KiwiTouring 2]

1. 1981 XD Falcon with wow factor borg warner, heap of junk rust, rattles, rolls, headlights died on the Kaimais at midnight, but all dash lights interior lights worked no headlights spent the night on top of the kaimais in August lovely.

2. Traded that the next day (with two smashed headlights) for a 1986 lancia therma delta with a hole in the radiator that would drive for 15 minutes before it needed refilling, coudn't find a spare radiator for it swapped it for a chilly bin full of piss.

3. My 85 sigma just to mnay K's 380 odd and just worn out, breaks didn't work to good ended up rear ending a lady waiting at the narrow bridge at Urenui back in the day heaps wrong with it. Still drove it home after that and it was parked on side of raod and some guy had a heart attack and run off the road and rear ended it.

Edited January 29, 2010 by E39KiwiTouring

[bravo 34]

Lol - I'm going to have to come back and read the rest of these later. Great thread idea!!!

#1 2000 Ford Falcon (AUII Futura Station wagon). Worst car I've ever driven, period. sh*t interior, sh*t build quality, sh*t materials, sh*t handling, sh*t performance, sh*t styling, sh*t fuel economy just sh*t really. Drove it from Brisbane to Bundaberg and back, then down to Coffs Harbour and back to Brisbane again. Dreaded every time I had to get in it.

#2 2004 Toyota Corolla hatch. First impressions good - aircon, cd player - really good speakers for a car in this segment (really good!), electric windows in the front (manual in the back - lightweight!), peppy for round town, lacking torque at highway speeds, but still good for the odd passing manoeuvre. So what was wrong with it you ask to make it on the list? I'd rather drive our 40-year-old david brown to Auckland than this. I'm a small man and I crawled out of that thing after 3 hours behind the wheel in so much pain and discomfort, I still think my spine is straightening (3 weeks later). It was impossible to find the correct driving position. Pure torture.

#3 Various crappers - '81 misti mirage with the power/economy drive, 74 Vauxhall Chevette, too many others to list. Crappy because they were crappy when new, and were all well over 10years old when I drove them which made them even crappier.

[bravo 34]

2. 86 Navara ute. Purple. No wof no reg. Clunks from all corners of the ute, alarming ones at that. The speedo was like a trip counter, in that it would stick at the fastest speed you'd get to on that trip, and stay there. 5 speed column, and you were constantly revving the crap out of it to simply to stay with traffic. Death trap. Glad it's gone.

Had one of these - was awesome - chain-driven 1.6!! Went forever, and I didn't even lose money on it when I sold it, and I bought it from a yard!

[CamB 48]

I don't think its fair to criticise old, worn out cars for being old and, err, worn out.

1. Not so much that it was crap, but crap for the price - a relative's Mercedes B200. Horrible to look at, unexpectedly low quality interior, nasty to drive (gutless and bad steering) and unrefined/coarse. Just crap. I can usually find something nice to say about a car - this one, no.

2. Grandma's 1.3 90s Corolla. Yawn.

3. Lincoln Town Car hire car in the USA. Plush, but couldn't ber relied on to turn a corner when asked.

[M325is 0]

Really didnt like the Dodge Ram SRT10, handles like a pig, only good for going fast in straight lines. That's all I can think of right now.

[Greg111 13]

I can't think of any overly bad cars that i've driven and i would drive up to 10-15 different cars every work day.

[Mark 178]

I'm gonna go with newer cars and ones that are generally just sh*t to drive not because of how old or badly maintained they are, but just cos' they're sh*t.

#1 2009 Jeep Wrangler 2.4l petrol.

Shoddy American build-quality, slow as a wet week, handled almost as well as an aircraft carrier (not as dynamic) and forever going back to the dealer because another strange light had popped up on the dash cluster.

#2 2006 Mitsubishi Challenger.

Possibly the only car that can make everyone car sick - including the driver - on a trip to the dairy. Soft suspension made it worse to ride in than the Interislander tackling 6 foot swells. Petrol V6 made a lot of noise when you put the foot down, but noise didn't equate to forward motion.

#3 2003 Mini Cooper automatic.

Want to know how to turn a quick, sharp handling hot hatch into a steaming turd on wheels? Tick the automatic gearbox option. Couldn't ever decide which gear to stay in, steptronic was so slow you could say your ABC's between gearchanges and the stiff, bumpy suspension that added to the fun in the manual version made the auto version even more maddening. It also gave you time to notice the cartoon-like interior and cheap plastics.

[Greg111 13]

Actually with you on the mini cooper.

[ACS523i 0]

1. My 79 Mitsubishi Celeste 1600 cc - held together with spit and chewing gum, apart from the whiplash I wasn't to upset when a Cortina b#tchslapped it at an intersection (the front end got ripped off) - ill handling - gutless piece of blue poo

2. My Mates 85 Ford Falcon - this thing handled like rollerskating through cowsh#t coated concete, a big floaty pig that probably caused 11% of the worlds emmisions problems on it's own, and it seemed to absorb odours which ain't a good thing, especially when it was used to transport smelly Heavy Mettlers with flatulense issues - Yes, it smelled like a fart, and looked and handled like crap ............... "To the Fecalmobile Stinkman"!!!!

3. Mums 73 Austin Allegro, it didn't have a throttle, it had a volume peddle that was hooked up to a smoke machine, this piece of junk had a wheel shake itself off and pull out and pass the car once, the rear windscreen fell out ..... oh and yes the time it caught fire was especially enjoyable

[BM WORLD 1264]

morris marina land crab 1800tc . what a boat .

nissan vanette .

yes used one for a few weeks doing the home to work run pokeno to hernebay ,.

and yes they rev hard at 100km/h , got so sick of the noise used to just drive it at about 1.4 times the speed limit down the bombays all the awy to papakura just to make the trip quicker

[Driftit 1959]

Haha there is always more passion when talking about bad cars than there is over loved cars.

Seems a few have been mentioned a few times. Might end up like Bimmersports own dog an lemon guide. Haha.

[dubman 39]

Rover 114 Gsi/Metro - The 1st car i've ever driven. Nice little car, but it gave me a bad European aftertaste as it repelled me away from european cars, until i drove an e30 . Full leather interior, no power steering, no radio, and exhaust leaks when we bought it. Torture to drive it, as the exhaust was damn loud, even after it was welded. Heavy steering for a tiny car, gearbox broke down after 10,000km's since owned, overheated badly, you had to turn off the car at lights to stop it from cooking. When we sold it, i found out it had turbo!?! WTF 1380 cc turbo ahah. was pretty swift tho.

2004 Honda Civic ferio - Good economical car, awesome for my mom. But i live on a road with 20 speed bumps. My prostate hurts after each bump as the rear suspension is awful.

1995 Mitsubishi RVR sportsgear - 4wd, 1800cc severly underpowered for its size, aweful handling, terrible rattling and squeking. Rubber seals were aweful. Nothing sporty or SUV/MPV about it.

Edited January 29, 2010 by dubman

[Dyl 4]

Oooo I like this thread

1. Jeep Wrangler sport - seat cut off the blood to my leg and I had to stretch to reach down to the accelerator. The door was held on merely my a piece of seat belt webbing and you needed a doctorate to fold down the canvas roof.

2. 2003 Holden Commodore VZ - although this was a tired old Police wagon, the driveshaft kept falling out of the diff, the engine mounts kept breaking, you could see the side airbags through the rips in the seats and it would splutter uncontrollably under full throttle when trying to boost through an intersection. Not ideal.

3. 1998 Ford Falcon AU. Just sh*t in every respect. And possibly the ugliest car Ford have EVER made... up there with the Taurus - I know, big call.

Edited January 29, 2010 by Dylan M3