What's the worst car you've ever owned?

[Mr 5 0]

Good thread. No wonder it's lasted so long.

My worst car was probably an old Rambler American 4-door sedan (white body, blue interior) with fairly low miles on it that we had for about a year when my wife and I were first married. I don't know what we were thinking. Six cylinder, automatic. Slow, unattractive, uncomfortable and basically unreliable. We never took it very far. It was her first car (I taught her how to drive) and she wanted something docile and easy to drive. I wanted something cheap. It had various fairly minor problems but the transmission started acting funky after a year so we sold it before it went, totally. I can't believe we ever had such a dumb car. My wife agrees.

I once owned an Oldsmobile convertible that was a nightmare. Looked cool and had some power but handled like a tank and got about 10 MPG. Broke down all the time. Ate water pumps and had a weak radiator. Electrical gremlins, too. I had to sell it for parts after only 3 months when I stupidly burned out the tranny clutches doing doughnuts in the snow. I never got to drive it with the top down.

In more recent years I owned a '90 Mustang I bought new. Practically no problems in 15 years. I sold it in 2005 for $3,000. It had given me 125,000 pleasurable miles and I knew it would eventually develop problems like a leaky head gasket or a leaky heater core. No thanks. I sold it to a guy who had some money (owned a small trucking company). He intended to 'restore' it. I never heard from him again - but I hope he did.

I had other 'grocery-getter' vehicles over the years that were crappy but they also had high miles, which excuse them, to a point. Most things that went on them were not unexpected. Engines and transmissions always held up. This includes a '87 Plymouth Horizon traded in 1995 with 144,000 miles on the odometer and a 1995 Mazda 626 (4 cylinder) with a bad transmission and 140,0000 miles on the odometer that I traded in 2005. Both were traded on a new car. I got next to nothing for them, which is about what I expected as they both were tired and probably went straight to auction, where they belonged.