Worst car you've ever been in?

[Kiwibrit]

A girl in high school had one of these:

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She knew that I worked at a shop & enjoyed wrenching on cars. She asked me to look at her car because it was running badly...started with plugs and fluids. What oil there was in the engine was very thick, and very inky. Asked her when the last oil change had been and the answer was, "what do you mean?"

Could you explain to foreigners what is meant by wrenching on cars? In my day the nearest to that would seem to be a sleepover with the back seat down.

 

[DLax69]

Could you explain to foreigners what is meant by wrenching on cars? In my day the nearest to that would seem to be a sleepover with the back seat down.

Hmm...could be

"Spannering" on cars just doesn't have the same sort of je ne sais quos

 

[dem maser]

Smart car

 

[Kiwibrit]

Hmm...could be

"Spannering" on cars just doesn't have the same sort of je ne sais quos

Yanks eh.. Spannering is another dirty weekend I reckon.

 

[happydaze]

"Spannering" or "wrenching"? That is the question.

Either could be a bit rough on the nuts...

 

[RoaryRati]

For reliability - Roary - but he's worth it for the smiles

 

[zagatoes30]

My Dad use to buy the biggest lumps of sh1t at the local auction, something to get us all around in that cost him next to nothing. We had a few A60 Farina saloons from Austin, Morris & MG which as a kid weren't too bad but he once brought home a Vauxhall Victor FC estate which was horrendous.

My personal most was a Opel Rekord D diesel, bought to keep me on the road after I put my Kadett Coupe through a hedge. Bought it in from Birkenhead, I should have known, and driving back home down the M56 it wouldn't do more than 45mph until suddenly there was an almighty bang and black smoke everywhere. i thought the engine had blown but it was just the exhaust and after that it started to accelerate to a heady 80 plus. Kept it for about 2 months and it rattled and smoked like a good 'un but always got you to where you needed to go.

 

[davy83]

I got one of these as a rental in Florida one time and i could not believe how "boaty" it was. it would rock gently back and forwards every time you stopped. Holywood tyre squeal on every corner, an utter joke of a car. It had a V8 under the bonnet developing what felt like 10HP @ <10 MPG, and must have weighed 2.5-3 tonnes? The was also a smaller GM car that was worse but I forget the model, it was just very plasticky and none of the body panels fitted properly, the door moved around, wheezy engine and terrible seats, rubbish handling just the most awful thing.

 

[2b1ask1]

I'm with Davy, the worst drives were American hire cars...

Worst owned (and legally driven on UK soil) by me was probably the Hilman Avenger (ex-police), could barely pull the skin off custard and the front suspension mount fell off the rail. Worst I've been in as a passenger in the UK, where would I start, actually, yes, my father-in-law's orange allegro automatic that couldn't pull away up a 1:10 hill with one person in it!!!! And yes the back wheel fell off whilst he had it too!

 

[PaulCambio]

My childhood was traumatised by my dad's Robin Reliant. As he had a bike but not a car license he was only able to drive a 3 wheeler.

He would toot and wave at other 3 wheelers. Sometimes it would tip on to 2 wheels going around corners, but worse was to come. One day he insisted on taking me to school(only the second time in 6 years). I insisted he drop me as far from the school gates as possible(did he heck) he drove into the playround as everyone rushed up to us. I got out red-faced only for my friends to say,
'what a **** car your dad has,' to which I replied, he wasn't my dad.

Consider yourself lucky. My dad drove us around in a Reliant Regal before upgrading to a Robin Reliant. We used to go on an annual family holiday in them. Very traumatic indeed.

 

[Wack61]

When I was 16 in 1977 I was an apprentice panel beater, the boss had a ferrari dino,he also had the bottom of jamjars in his glasses, his eyes were about a foot wide from the other side of his glasses if he looked straight at you

one day he asked me to help move some paving at his house, we walked towards the ferrari , result
He walked past it and we got in an old series land rover
It was about 8 miles to his house on an A road, partly through the land rover being utterly ****** and him being as blind as a bat we went up the kerb about 5 times, more alarmingly the correction sent it veering off towards oncoming traffic
I'd never been in a Land rover before, I was just thankful we hadn't gone in the ferrari

This experience wasn't repeated until about 10 years ago when I bought a defender off a farmer the other side of Cambridge, it was that bad I lasted 1 junction on the M6 before I shat myself and spent about a week coming back on A roads to Warrington
The steering was ½ a turn before anything happened at the wheels, there was that much slack in the drive train it was a while before the drive reached the wheels, candles for headlights and Wipers from the 1940s

Awful, a new back axle, steering box and a lot of bushes and bearings and it was a lot better, old defenders, you really have to like them to want one, I did have 2 more after that one though

 

[Phil H]

I'm with Davy, the worst drives were American hire cars...

Worst owned (and legally driven on UK soil) by me was probably the Hilman Avenger (ex-police), could barely pull the skin off custard and the front suspension mount fell off the rail. Worst I've been in as a passenger in the UK, where would I start, actually, yes, my father-in-law's orange allegro automatic that couldn't pull away up a 1:10 hill with one person in it!!!! And yes the back wheel fell off whilst he had it too!

I learned to drive in an Avenger from the 'Avenger School of Driving' in Wiltshire. On the morning of my driving test the instructor turned up in his shiny new Nissan, a car I'd not even seen before; passed though, and always fancied a Tiger:

 

[happydaze]

When I was 16 in 1977 I was an apprentice panel beater

When I was 16 in 1957 I was an apprentice panel beater...

 

[2b1ask1]

I learned to drive in an Avenger from the 'Avenger School of Driving' in Wiltshire. On the morning of my driving test the instructor turned up in his shiny new Nissan, a car I'd not even seen before; passed though, and always fancied a Tiger:

A good friend of mine had an avenger Tiger and I drove it several times, it was quite a handful and a much better car than stock. There were key body parts pressed from heavier gauge to stiffen them.

 

[Wack61]

When I was 16 in 1957 I was an apprentice panel beater...

I didn't last long, about a year, it was a proper Arthur Daley setup, the 'spray booth' was just a rectangular room with barn doors at either end, the sprayer had paper masks , they went from spraying cellulose paint to 2 pack, the fumes were really bad

Within minutes I couldn't breathe, wheezing, it was awful so I packed it in

My final job was a car in the spray booth, rush job, T cut the body so I'm there rubbing away with a rag, it was a mini so I lean my arm on the roof, he didn't tell me the roof was still wet, I pull my arm off to a sound like sellotape off the roll, lovely impression of my overalls in the paint

Del started moaning so my **** this for 70p an hour head came out for the first time and I went home never to return

His dad worked there as well, must've been 80, he was a worse driver that his son, used to move cars in the garage by touch, crunch, crunch, backed into a stag, that car went out with more damage than it came in with.

Del Motors it was called, appropriately

There was a nutcase who worked there, my first day I walked over to the toolbox to get a spanner which set him off, oi they're my ******* tools, **** off you little ****

Lovely guy, went to prison before I left

Del ( of del motors) bought the Dino as a write off, front end shunt, it needed a bonnet, front wings and a front valance so he ordered them fron Italy, they cost a fortune

When they came they were just rough shaped panels which had to be fettled to make them fit

Nobody wanted to do it so they had to get someone in who'd done a bit more than put a bucket of wob in a cortina wing and made it look OK from 10ft away

It looked good when he sold it but they were welding the exhaust an hour before the buyer turned up, it sold for a few thousand, amazing what they're worth today

 

[DLax69]

...also this:


Riding with a friend in a light drizzle...he went to make a right turn, and due to the weight bias the car decided it wouldn't. Straight ahead, through a red light, and into an intersection. Still not sure how we survived that.

 

[zagatoes30]

I learned to drive in an Avenger from the 'Avenger School of Driving' in Wiltshire. On the morning of my driving test the instructor turned up in his shiny new Nissan, a car I'd not even seen before; passed though, and always fancied a Tiger:

Tigers were a bit special, normal Avengers weren't

 

[Felonious Crud]

Could you explain to foreigners what is meant by wrenching on cars? In my day the nearest to that would seem to be a sleepover with the back seat down.

Mechanophilia.

 

[Goodfella]

My uncles Kia people carrier (No idea nor interest in what the model is)

He changes gear at 1,100 rpm ”to save on fuel” and the shíte it kicks out is hard to believe, like a bond film, rear of the front seats is like a giant dumping area.

He’s worth I’d guess £10M with assets ect and he drives this 20 year old piece o’ shizen refuses to turn the heat on at home and shops at Asda at 10 o’clock in the evening to raid the reduced section.

 

[highlander]

to my eternal shame, my first car was a hand me down mustard coloured marina................i'll get my coat.