VDC, the ignorant commercials done them in(the market they were after didnt really want the product)-Kevin
I can honestly say that I’ve never really owned a bad car and that ownership trail consists of just about everything in the book from domestic to Asian and European. There’s been problems along the way but no car of mine has ever been chronically problematic.
My current Lincoln has a lost a couple of stereo heads and recently suffered a broken driver’s door window guide but that’s not the fault of the car. It’s due to the lousy roadway, made double lousy by wind farm construction, beating things to death.
Worst car ever has to be the Yugo. We purchased one that was 2 years old with some spare change in our pockets. What we neglected to buy was a big net to drag behind the car to collect all the parts that fall off. One tail light fell out, half a bumper fell off, a windshield wiper, the side view and interior mirrors, the door handles on a regular basis, both inside and outside, several dash knobs, and 2 sidelight blinker lenses. After 8,000 miles, reverse gear was a distant memory, running on all 4 cylinders was reserved for rare occasions, and making a left turn was an adventure worthy of “Survivor Man”
My worst car was a 1981 Dodge Challenger. It wasn’t anything like the old V8 model. It was a Mitsubishi import with a 2.6L 4-cylinder engine and a 5 speed stick. It ran very rough. I bought it from a co-worker who fooled around with customizing it. After I bought it, (all sales final) I noticed the rear tires had a higher profile than the front ones. The previous owner said he did that to get better gas mileage. (I like all of my tires to be the same size for rotating). It hesitated and jerked a lot. Of course, It didn’t happen during my initial road test. The clutch pedal was connected to the transmission via a cable. It did not have a uniform feel like the hydraulic clutch in my previous car (1977 Datsun). Also, the previous owner squeezed a GM Delco radio (which failed in 2 months)into the dashboard and, as a result, messed up the mechanical cabling for the heater and vent controls. I had to re-dress and secure those cables properly to get them functional. I had the car for about a year when it was rear-ended and totaled by a reckless Toyota pickup driver. Maybe he meant to do me a favor.
1972 Chevy Impala, bought 3 years old, well maintained from a friend that worked for GM;
Never got over 12mpg on the road with the 350 even after a tune-up, 8 mpg in the city.
Lost the rear end and a year later the transmission.
Car was heavy, slow, and limp, To change a tire ,you had to take a very tall bumper jack all the way to the very top notch and you didn’t dare open a door or the car would sag so much you couldn’t get the spare back on.
On ice and snow it had a disconcerting back and forth sway that made it feel like you were going into a skid and if it was actually snowing the snow blowing under the hood would close the automatic choke and stall the engine.
It also rotted out its own battery cables twice in 3 years- from the inside middle of them ! The ends and covering were fine but if you moved the cables slightly you would feel the wires breaking inside and when you cut them open they were brittle and completely green.
I had it 3 years and 30,000 miles and the heater motor died, the wiper motor, the radio and the radiator had to be replaced. The distributor caps and plug wires only lasted a year and when the transmission went I junked a 6 year old car with only 75,000 miles
I always say that I got two cars when I bought that one. My first Chevy… and my last/
...and Saturn was supposed to be "the Honda-killer". It seems that it did not turn out quite that way.
The Plymouth Acclaim and Ford Taurus were considered “the Accord-killer”. The Acclaim is no longer still being made…The Taurus sales dropped significantly and then in 2006 dropped it. They revived it in 2008, but sales are still well behind the Accord.
Having owned one, I’d have to say that what done them in was the poor quality of the product. Once they’d been on the market for a few years NOBODY wanted the product.
The worst car in terms of relaibility has been 2005, Ford Mustang GT.
I have owned worse looking cars, but none as badly made. And that is saying a lot because it includes a 1988 Dodge Spirit.
I had a 1994 Saturn SL-2 with 5-speed manual trans. and I really liked that car. It never left me stuck and it took up-hill grades nicely, two things I can’t say about my aforementioned Escort. I bought that Saturn new and put nearly 181,000 miles on it, all with the original clutch. I will say, however, that I tried one with the automatic and was not impressed. Didn’t have the zip that mine had up-hill.
When I met my ex-wife, she had a 1981 or so Chevy Chevette (or Shove-It). Between her choices of purchasing that car and dating me, I should have known something was wrong! You could have goosed a turtle and gotten better acceleration. The engine wasn’t anemic - it was asthmatic! It was a manual transmission, and with every gearshift, it would clunk when the clutch pedal was depressed and decelerate quickly until you could find the next successive gear with the mushy and sensitive shifter. With GM’s all-in-one turn signal/washer/cruise control/evil magic wand stalk it was absolutely physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to signal a left turn or lane change without activating the wipers. I’m sure they got more use on lane changes than rain storms! I made her trade in the car and get something else. Pity she wasn’t smart enough to trade me in too!!!