What is the worst car you've ever driven? Options

[moe]

Since there's a hint of activity on DS these days, lets keep it going. What is the worst car you've ever driven? For me it's the Peugeot 207 CC. My sister has one of these, and aside from looking like an absolute clown-car, it's terrible to drive. Chopping the roof off of a distinctly average subcompact, adding in a weighty folding hard top, and topping it off with a lethargic four-speed auto is a recipe for certain disaster. Yet this car continues to sell in great numbers in the UAE. Why? Girls that don't care about the driving experience, and want a cheap convertible keep snapping them up.

[fiber optic]

Mazda 6

I can overlook a lot of faults but the motor on this thing was so gutless and sad the great ride couldn't make up for it.


The Jetta VR6 was only disappointing, maybe I was expecting too much.

[clarkma5]

Hmmmm gotta think about this one.

I drove a '97 Jag XJR that was in pretty good shape circa '03 and it was really, really disappointing...big outside, small inside, ergonomically disastrous, uncomfortable seating, spongy handling, truck-like steering. Was the most powerful car I'd ever driven for a long time until a friend of mine let me sample his Supercharged XF V8 a couple months ago (which is about 5 billion miles more refined than the XJR, which is interesting because they are conceptually very similar cars: big, supercharged V8 performance Jags)

But I feel like somewhere in my history there must be something I've driven that was worse. I'll get back to you guys!

[HKYStormFront]

VW Cabrio........ or maybe an early, base model "New" Beetle.

[Bjorn]

I drove the "Sea to Sky" highway (most dangerous road in Canada) in an early 2000's Hyundai Accent 2-door. Don't know if it was just the car, or the car in a completely inappropriate setting.

[Mr b00st]

God, all these cars seem pretty great. Some of my worsts:

1) The Cavalier i learned to drive in (driver's ed car.) 2.2 OHV with 0 horsepower, 3-speed (!) automatic. Totally gutless, flooring it to merge onto the highway would cause a single downshift, lots of awful noise, and no forward movement.
2) 90's Ford ranger, 2.3 I4, Automatic. Had 300+k on it, 2WD, ran good but the A/C would cut out at anything past half throttle. Bad design in 100+ degree NC summers.
3) a GMT800 Tahoe with 100k+ miles. The front suspension/steering components in this were worn out about 50k miles prior, it had no directional stability.
4) Suzuki Forenza. Yuck. Nothing nice to say about that.
5) Saturn Ion quad coupe with CVT - they had to be kidding with this car.
6) not really fair, but a 1987 Mercedes Benz 300D. 6-cylinder. Put your foot in the carpet, it starts to get going very slowly, the turbo kicks in abruptly at 2,500rpm, you almost rear end the car in front of you, and then it shifts really hard and the process starts over. The rest of the car was lovely - I LOVE W124's - but that motor was junk.

[Synesthesia]

Hah! Hmm... I haven't driven that many dreadful cars. I spent a lot of time in, but only briefly drove, my friend's early 2000s Pontiac Sunfire. Nasty nasty styling inside and out and it made all kinds of bad creeking/rattling sounds despite really not having many miles. We would then drive in my ~10 year older Celica and bask in the refinement.

[dukenukem]

A car so horrid I sincerely thought the parking brake was stuck on when I started driving it.


Horrible in every respect.

[clarkma5]

'98 Tahoe K1500, 150k-ish miles and all original I'm sure (mostly highway at least, and decently maintained and clean otherwise). The peak of GM's floaty 90s suspension and oh dear lord the brake travel. Body roll, pitch, dive, it's truly at sea.

Our '90 Suburban V1500 should be even worse, and it is in a lot of ways, but it's such a dependable old beast of a thing that is really quite endearing.

[fiber optic]

I thought of another one.

Chevrolet Lumina van.

This hulk was my in-law's vehicle. It had a Chevrolet badge on it and could hold their 5 person family, I guess that was the appeal to my father-in-law.
It must have been a '95 or '96 as it would lock the doors when the trans got shifted into drive. God help you if the side sliding door was open at that time as it would yell the most horrible screaming noise you'd ever heard. The sliding door was powered so you only had to press a button to close it and it played the weirdest "the door is now closing" music for the event. The steering was all over the place and it maybe it had brakes. They let my wife drive it after she graduated from college and her '68 Mustang wasn't up to the task of getting her to work. I had to replace the battery on it once and it required that I remove the windshield washer fluid reservoir to get to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Lumina_APV

[Altostratus]

Any sebring ever. the chrysler 200 is included.

[shandyman5]

I drove a SMART Four-Two last week in the Netherlands... That was pretty awful although it was quite roomy.

Moe, my girlfriends mom has a Pug 206CC and besides the rubbery shifter and usual convertible flex, I didn't think it was that horrible. It definitely needed a short-throw though.

[Razor]

I drove a SMART Four-Two last week in the Netherlands... That was pretty awful although it was quite roomy.

I rented a For-Two on the Greek Isles. One word: go-kart.

[moe]

Moe, my girlfriends mom has a Pug 206CC and besides the rubbery shifter and usual convertible flex, I didn't think it was that horrible. It definitely needed a short-throw though.

Perhaps the 206CC is better than the 207CC? Also, you can't get the manual in the Middle East. All CCs are autos.

[speedyK]

Worst I've ever driven was without a doubt back in my student days when an acquaintance let me drive their split-screen Morris Minor.

It had zero power and - at the first junction - when I put my foot down to enter the main road, there was so much slack in the transmission that it nearly tore itself apart. Dreadful!

[Synesthesia]

^Looks cool though

[Mr b00st]

Any sebring ever. the chrysler 200 is included.

that's funny - Sebrings are gawdawful, but I drove a 200 "limited" or whatever with the Pentastar, and it was pretty nice. You can tell it's still a Sebring, but they did make a lot of improvements.

Also, holy crap, how about a Fiat 500C Automatic? Charming, but totally terrible. Hard to imagine it's related to the stick shift Abarth.

[Bjorn]

Not the worst ever, but certainly the worst in a while.

[clarkma5]

Really, what was so bad about it? The powertrain?

[Bjorn]

I just wrote about it in User Rides. But yeah.

Engine seems willing, CVT transmission is a disaster.

I don't really see the benefit. The engine is a 2.0L 150bhp flat four. My Legacy with a 2.5 and a 4-speed auto gets as-good-as if not better MPG and makes 15% more power.