"Bad" Cars I've Owned

[dgs49]

'58 Hillman Minx

'65 (I think) VW "Fastback"

Various Fiat's

'73 AMC Gremlin "X" - 258ci inline 6, 3-speed on the floor (new)

'77 Buick Skyhawk, V6, 4speed (new)

'80 Honda Accord LX - 5 speed (new)

'86 Chrysler Lebaron GTS Turbo (Sedan)

'87 Cadillac Cimarron - V6 Auto

'90 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe GTC (with VNT Turbo, Getrag 5-speed) (new)

'98 Cadillac Catera

'04 Saab 9-3

Suzuki Grand Vitara x 3 (all new, all V-6, all 4WD, first two were sticks)

'06 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT Turbo

My experiences with all of these cars was mostly positive. The early ones were all junk because that's all I could afford at the time. The Fiats were horrible cars, prone to rust and constant mechanical failure. The Cimmaron and Catera were both good cars, although I must admit that I had thousands of dollars in repair work on the Catera under GM's warranty. When the warranty ran out, I dumped it.







'

[Joe Guy]

I've only owned 5 cars in my life. Two of them are my current car & truck... Both are Toyotas.

[liberty]

Mozda MPV , Worthless junk

[dales]

Mozda MPV?

My ex has "our" Mazda MPV that we purchased new and it's still going some 15 years later.

But then again if you don't maintain the vehicle....

And ah dave, there's no such animal as a 1965 VW Fastback.

[Daisy]

It wasn't necessarily a "bad" car as ruddy terrifying.

My first car was a Fiat Cinquecento 899cc with nothing between you inside and other road users. It taught me to drive very very carefully.

[oldr_n_wsr]

1982 Dodge Charger 2.2L bought brand new in Dec '81 (my first brand new car). Threw a timing belt and it was an interferrence engine so I bent the valve stems and cam shaft.
Manual transmission end plate got chewed up (don't know why). The rod that held the gears sat in a socket on the endplate and somewhere somehow it sarted to wobble.
Had a heater hose that rerouted the collant through the exhaust manifold (to warm the engine up quicker) go and I had to take said exhaust manifold off to change it.
Numerous front wheel bearings which required the whole steering knuckle to be changed.
Struts, shocks.
Numerous clutch cables (I kept a spare with me at all times).
Door handles sometimes didn't open the doors when it rained (had to crawl in from the hatchback a few times)
Got it in red (not off red, not dark red, not light red, not burgandy, REAL RED) and the paint would fade/chalk even though I waxed it religiously once a month.

[dales]

And I thought my 1988 Ford Escort was a POS.

After a blown radiator, fcuked up xmission and a blown head gasket at less than 60,000 miles - I swore I'd never buy an American car again and never have. Fcuk 'em!

And yes, this POS was maintained by the book in a gentle California climate and driven very easily by my then wife. Traded the sonofabitch in on a Mazda MPV and never looked back.

[Crackpot]

After that the car should have been bullet proof after that

[dales]

Except for the blown head gasket at 60k miles, which I refused to replace as I was past throwing anymore money at this dog.

[Gob]

Toyota Tercel, abysmal, though I made money on it.

Apart from that I haven't had a "bad" car, as I started learning in all sorts of bits of junk motors, which I managed to keep going until they fell apart, so my expectations of cars are very low..

A 1959 Ford Anglia was my favourite car, I had that for four years,.

[Jarlaxle]

1982 Dodge Charger 2.2L bought brand new in Dec '81 (my first brand new car). Threw a timing belt and it was an interferrence engine so I bent the valve stems and cam shaft.
Manual transmission end plate got chewed up (don't know why). The rod that held the gears sat in a socket on the endplate and somewhere somehow it sarted to wobble.
Had a heater hose that rerouted the coolant through the exhaust manifold (to warm the engine up quicker) go and I had to take said exhaust manifold off to change it.
Numerous front wheel bearings which required the whole steering knuckle to be changed.
Struts, shocks.
Numerous clutch cables (I kept a spare with me at all times).
Door handles sometimes didn't open the doors when it rained (had to crawl in from the hatchback a few times)
Got it in red (not off red, not dark red, not light red, not burgandy, REAL RED) and the paint would fade/chalk even though I waxed it religiously once a month.

Wait a second. The 2.2 is NOT an interference engine unless the belt breaks at high RPM's. (It went at ~3000 in my mother's Omni with no problem...I replaced the belt on the side of the road & drove it home.) I wrenched for a long time and am not sure I EVER saw a K-car with bad wheel bearings.

Chrysler had paint problems with paint in that era, ESPECIALLY red.

[dgs49]

I'm not sure what year my VW fastback was, but I am sure it was crap.

[dales]

Was it rust issues or did you not change the oil and adjust the valves every 3000 miles. On later models it might have been an EFI issue.

I owned a squareback 1967 and 1968 and had very good luck with them.

[Joe Guy]

According to Wikipedia the first VW Fastback was made in 1965, although they weren't imported to America until 1966, so dgs49's could have owned one but it's more likely that he had a later model.

[dales]

Volkswagen model years start in Sept the previous year, so even though a car could have been made in Sept 1965 it would be sold as a 1966 model.

The VW Fastback was unique to the North American market while the Notchback (more sedan like body) was unique to the European market.

So there.

[Joe Guy]

Are you insinuating that I should redact my last post? .....

[oldr_n_wsr]

Wait a second. The 2.2 is NOT an interference engine unless the belt breaks at high RPM's. (It went at ~3000 in my mother's Omni with no problem...I replaced the belt on the side of the road & drove it home.)

The parts guy at Chrysler said it was an interference and a softball teammate had a similar thing happen to him in his Omni? Horizon? (the hatchback that the charger was based on)

I wrenched for a long time and am not sure I EVER saw a K-car with bad wheel bearings.

After a few wheel bearing/hub replacements I went to a junky and actually got the K-car hubs. Only difference was the splash guard needed to be cut down as the wheels/rims on the charger were deeper and hit the splash guard. Pair of sheet metal shears took care of that. Never had a problem after that.

Chrysler had paint problems with paint in that era, ESPECIALLY red.

Yes they did.

[dgs49]

I'm not a mechanic so I may be speaking metaphorically, but I was told that there was a major flaw in the design of the intake manifold. The expansion and contraction rates of the manifold and the block (if it had a block) were different, causing a crack in something. The result was that gas got into the oil, so that the oil had to be changed every 1000 miles or so. Also, the smell of gasoline was a constant in the car, so you had to keep the windows open to some extent at all times. There was some rust, but it did not appear to be structural.

At a time when I was very tight on money, virtually all of my "spare" cash went into keeping that POS on the road.

[oldr_n_wsr]

My wifes 1999 buick century kept blowing intake manifold head gaskets. The only saving grace was I bought it brand new from a friend of mine (Ownes a GMS/Buick dealership) who always fixed it for free.