What's the worst car you ever owned, BUT.....

[Steve Cassani]

An early seventies Fiat 850. The oil pan was aluminum; the drain plug steel. The threading was the reverse of what you would expect and, sure enough, within a few months of purchasing the car the threads were stripped. I replaced the plug with a flexible unit that was put in place, pull a short lever to apply pressure to the plug, holding it in the pan. This method did not enocourage confidence.

I soon learned that Fiat is also an acronym.

[Bartruff1]

Trouble with the EMU...dealer could never get it to run right...eventually they lemoned it out and gave me a 2007 JK.....but if they ever could have solved the problem I would have kept the little bugger...great tow cars for a motorhome, light and fun...

[Woodz428]

1963 XKE 3.8..typical British stuff, although it was a lot of fun to drive. Always had a soft spot for Brit cars. If the Fiat 850 Coupe I owned had given me the fits that the subsequent owner had it would probably be on the list. Worked great for me, I drove it when I didn't want to ride the Bike( like grocery shopping or any time I had to haul more than I could fit on the motorcycle)...the following owner used it ,maybe, once a month and always ran the battery down trying to get it started. Tried locating it last year and bought a Spider I found instead....really liked that Coupe.

[289fia_cobra]

No sure if it falls into this question but I owned a 84' Rabbit GTI and it was my first "new" car purchase. It eventually got into a small curb accident and bent the lower a-arm. Not a whole lot but enough. I didn't really like the interior that much and it was bought only because my Mustang caught on fire!!!! I eventually traded it in after getting the lower a-arm straigthened, for an 86' GTI.

In retrospect, I now wish I could have kept the 84' Rabbit GTI. With a few modifications to the engine, it would be faster than most cars today given it's power to weight ratio with a Calloway turbo-charger... and I do miss having the inside tire take a turn in the air!

[PANAVIA]

in 1995/1996 or so--

I had a 1976 Jaguar XJ-S Coupe, Silver with Oxblood and black leather int. the V12 was toast and the former owners Son had done a "Conversion" to a 350SBC with a 4spd auto 200R4. It was smog legal -- barely.

I spent most of my ownership "Reconverting" portions of the car. Cooling, fuel system, intakes , etc.

---the leyland-Jag electrics and vintage hacked and badly welded "Conversion parts" were the bane of its existence.

It was my daily driver at the time and I was coming up on some serious downtime on the car and --well-- it had to go. -- but when things were going right, - a very cool car.

Had to do most of the work on the car myself, as no shop i took it to would touch it. --

Replaced it with a trouble free 1986 300ZX that drove nice ---but was like dating a 1980's geisha mannequin vs a 1976 Catherine Denuve.

Steve

[Ronbo]

After a while you figure out what Fiat stands for...

Fix It Again, Tony

[csx4910]

Having a X 1/9 I can attest to the acronym for Fiat but that car was a great chick magnet in high school . Pull the 1 piece convertible top off, stow it under the hood (in the front of the car) and you had an instant convertible. The car was a PIA to keep running but a ball to drive (minus the extra horsepower it didn't have). One car I wish I would of kept was my first one - 1969 Triumph GT-6. The only fastback triumph ever made. It broke more than the Fiat but I would take it back in a heartbeat for nostalgia reasons.
Ron

[computerworks]

Hands down...1970 Lotus Europa.

Biggest piece of fragile crap on the planet. Things would just fall off while it was sitting idle in the garage. Leaked every possible fluid from every possible place.

...but, man....could that thing handle.

[PANAVIA]

Originally Posted by computerworks

Hands down...1970 Lotus Europa.

Things would just fall off while it was sitting idle in the garage.

Classic--!!!! So far it seems to be Italians followed by the British in this competition.


If FIAT buys Chrysler maybe they could bring back the X-1/9.....

[JAC]

1980 Datsun 210- constipated car- couldn't pass anything

[Mac VABCH]

I had three:
1-early 70's Porsche 914, yellow had bad ignition problems above 4000 RPM
2-77 Datson B210 Hatch back, green so slowwwww
3-while I lived in New Zealand I had a 73 Toyota Hiace Van, right hand drive w/ a 4 spd on the tree shift and a cracked block. But if I filled it with water ever other day it wouldn't over heat.... Looking back it was great fun but its funny what you would deal with when you are young...Mac

[lineslinger]

A 1970 Fiat 850 Spyder. I bought the thing for $150 non running and rebuilt it. What a piece of screaming junk. I quickly became proficient at fixing it, where upon my dad bought my sister a...............Fiat 850 Sedan, it was horrible. I had to keep hers running as well and she didn't have a clue about taking care of an automobile.

The other was a Jensen-Healy. It was British junk at its best, that thing was possessed by a female spirit and would always crap out when I was on a date. The girls really liked the looks of it, and they would quickly find out about its dark side. I hate to even think of the opportunities lost because of that four wheeled turd.

[tkb289]

1970 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400, Ram Air III with functional hood scoops, Muncie M-22 4 speed 'rock crusher', posi rear end, rochester 4 BBL with secondaries that could swallow a silver dollar. Monster torque and horsepower, with pretty decent brakes and handling, for it's era.

What was the downside ... ??? In a word ... rust!

I bought the car for $2,200 in 1974 from a Chevy dealer in El Segundo, Calif. The car had over 100K miles on it and was from New Hampshire. The car had been repainted (Gold), but there were rust bubbles forming here and there and already had pin holes in the driver's door, just below the window. Later on, I had some suspension work done and the mechanic said the under carriage had rust as well, no surprise at that point.

So ... after about (3) years of fun, I sold it to a guy that drove it back east, thinking I could just find a clean California car in the future. To date, I have yet to come across a '70 Formula 400 with all of the goodies, but I do keep my eyes open.

Not the worst car ... but one I would like back the most (but without the rust !)

[55312]

1963 Austin-Healy Sprite. It 5 dollar'd me to death and I didn't have a lot of 5 dollars in those days. A real blast to drive but not much on the romance side with no back seat! Tough to beat my old 57 Plymouth for that.........you could put Miss Torkel's girl's chorus and 2 sprightly midgets in the FRONT seat!

Tim

[Guppiedriver]

1970 Volvo 164. My parents bought it brand new and wouldn't let me touch it while I was in High School. 150k mi. & years later I bought it from them, replaced the POS Strombergs w/ Webers and it ran great. Not fast, but smooth, safe and easy to work on. Wish I had it back. Would be a great car to teach the kids how to drive a stick, and how to change oil etc.

[Cobrabill]

Actually,i'd like to have all my old cars back from the HEMI GTX to the numerous Z cars i've owned.None of them were bad.

And for the Fiat folks:

F ound I n A T oilet
F ailed I talian A utomotive T echnology
F *&king I talians A ttempting T ransportation

A friend of mine back in the early 80's took his X1/9 and had it detailed.He then left it parked in the lot at Westfarms mall(stolen car capitol of central Ct. at the time)WITH the keys laying on the floor.The car sat there for two weeks untill the cops called him and told him to come get his car.

True story.

[CBattaglia]

At 15 I saved my paper rout money to buy a 72 Mustang convertible. At 16 I had the engine rebuilt. 25 minutes after getting the car back from the rubuild I wrecked it trying to pass a friend.

For the next 3 years it was a Pea Green 1979 Plymouth Champ. Ya Baby!! Try to get a date in that POS....

[RedEsprit]

Every car I have ever owned has left me stranded multiple times. I finally thought I got wise. I bought a brand new Sport Trac with a 7,000 tow package just to tow the Cobra. It has 27,000 miles on it. It has left me stranded 3 times already. I have had two really tough cars though that I loved but were simply intolerable. 1972 Jag E-Type V-12 convertible and 1980 Maserati Merak SS. There was no way you could keep up with mechanical failures on the Jag. It had something like 25 water hoses alone, all of which were ready to fail at any given time. While you were waiting for parts to come in for a given failure, a caliper would seize up or the alternator would quit. The Maserati was mechanically very sound but you could never get caught in the rain. If you did, you would never catch up with the rust. Any time you got caught in the rain it really meant a ground up restoration.

[blykins]

LOL, 1973 Corvette. I bought it 2 years ago from a gentleman in Cleveland that restored it from the ground up. Even rebuilt the engine and put a little more pep in it. It had a 350 in it, with Dart heads and a camshaft that was way too big for it. That was hooked to a Muncie 4 speed.

The guy had really done a good job on it. It was restored over the period of several years. Everything was basically new on it.

With a very wild hair up my butt, I bought it sight unseen (probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done, but you only live once I guess) and drove from Louisville, KY to Cleveland, OH to pick it up. I drove it all the way home without one issue....about a 6 hour drive.

What started to turn me against it was that it was a non-A/C car. Even with ceramic coated Hooker Super Comps, it absolutely baked me to death on the way home in July.

One week after I got it home, I went to open the driver's side door, and when I pushed the handle in, I heard the linkage rod break. From there on, I learned how expensive it was to buy parts for Vettes. I did all the work, but the parts were horrible. After I replaced that, I noticed that one brake light lens looked goofy. I went to look at it, and found that it had been held on with double sided tape. So $60 later, I had a new lens in hand and installed that.

Shortly thereafter, the radio quit working. LOL

After that, I noticed a valve cover leak. So I found some bolts that were loose and tightened them up. When I fired it back up it sounded like the thing was knocking. Felt the valve cover and the roller rocker arms were banging off the insides. Had to install a new set of tall valve covers. LOL

Also, I can't leave anything alone, so I yanked the factory distributor out and put in a new Mallory distributor and a new Mallory coil. Took it for a test drive and on the way home, the coil failed and left me on the side of the road. I had to call AAA and have them take it to my garage on a rollback. Put the old coil back on it and it fired right up.

I kept that car 3 months and sold it. Got my money back out of it and never looked back. LOL













Do I want it back? No.

Do I know why? Yep. It's a Chebby. LOL

[Tom Cimino]

A bright red 1973 Pinto Pony with a 1600 cc engine. Six weeks after buying it, my wife(at the time) packed it up and left. Come to think of it, it was probably the best car I've ever owned!

I sure missed that car!