Stangarang

I guess my worst car was my first one, a 1985 Jeep Cherokee. It had 4wd and a manual transmission going for it, but it was a 4-banger under the hood. First got it around 1996.

For a while, it would backfire whenever I shut it off. Also, it had a fake turbo in it. See, there was something wrong with the engine...I would press on the gas and the car would barely move until maybe 3000 RPMs, then all of the sudden something would get unstuck and it would accelerate normally, thus giving the effect of turbo lag. To make matters worse, my brother hit a parked Jag one night right after getting his license, and from then on the passenger door never quite closed all the way, and it leaked some when it was raining out. Towards the end of it's life, the power steering developed a leak, so I got a nice workout while driving.

Oh, there was one more fun thing about it. The jeep had a rear windshield wiper, and the wiper fluid nozzle was clogged up a bit, which made the wiper fluid shoot straight back instead of up. It was something straight out of a Bond car. Whenever some plebe was tailgating me or honking for no reason, I gave them a little taste of wiper fluid on their hood. It was great!

So, let's hear about your beaters. I'm sure there's some good stories out there.

iCedOuT297

LOL Oh man thats great... my worst car is probably a 1987 or so (never found out the exact year lol!) red bronco.. haha the thing was a rust bucket and a half, no AC, the radio had a signal problem so no radio, it did have a cassette player but i don't own any cassettes lol, the seats were torn up, and there was something wrong with the engine because the exhaust smelled horrible.

a few nice things about it though was it was 4wd, the thing turned on a dime, and since it was such a piece i loved driving over anything and everything i could find.

one time when i was on the highway going about 75-80 a heavy thunderstorm kicked up and when i turned on the windshield wipers.. one actually flew off, not just the rubber part, but the whole metal rod and it hit a road raged driver who was in a mercedes speeding up next to me... hahaha funniest thing ever, but the guy didnt take it very well, he rolled down his window in the pouring rain and started yelling at me, i just ignored him and acted like nothing happened lmao

05WindveilGT

LOl . . . . . Nothing was worse than my 1989 Saab 9000 Turdbo. It was my first car and when I bought her she had nothing wrong. The headlight went out on the first day I had the car which should have been a sign for me to notice. The car was a 4cy turbo with about 180hp. The turbo was great for about a year and then it went downhill. My first summer I realized I had no A/C so I had it refilled for 270 bucks and it went out in about 2 months after paying all that money.

Next the darn brakes were all warped and I needed new pads. The BEST part was when it was raining also. I reversed out of my driveway one night and water leaked through the sunroof and onto me . I was drenched in water. The radio shorted out, had no a/c, and there was a hole near the turbo port which emitted exhaust fumes throughout the car. Sometimes I got so high from smelling the exhaust I would have to pull over and get out. My brake bedal stuck when I released it so when I was driving my brake lights would be on ALL the time :scratch: Very embarassing. And when the exhaust first started forming a hole near the turbo my car would stall if I gave it gas real fast and let goof the accelerator. God know how many fuses continually blew (COUNTLESS). Need I say more. Now someone try and beat that !!!!! I laugh now crying , but then I was pissed off as a motha !! Now someone tell me something better than that !!!

Matt

Flyinlow

1974 Chevy Vega, do I need to say anything more?

TomServo92

1981 Buick Regal. Where do I start....the engine leaked oil like a sieve, carburator was a POS, exhaust system literally fell off, cruise control couldn't hold a steady speed, various interior bits would fall off at random, transmission had shifting problems, the hood and trunk lift struts died after one year (I had a sawed-off broom handle in the trunk to hold the trunk or hood open if needed...everyone thought it was for beating people up), the power windows only worked if the planets were in the correct alignment and finally the rear-view mirror fell off in my lap while driving.

I suppose that about covers it....

FiaCobra

I had many beaters but the worst one was a '72 Country Squire wagon. It had a cracked exhaust manifold that filled the cabin with fumes and wood grain side panels...yuk. Not bad for a free car though

For laughs, here's a small list of beaters i had throughout the years:

'68 Ford Station wagon
'69 Fairlane
'72 Country Squire
'73 Duster (had 2...currently have one now)
'76 Cordoba
'82 Lynx

Best part about beaters is you can park them anywhere and leave them unlocked.

1999 Black 35th GT

I haven't owned a bad one yet... but my dad had a 1970 Fiat (not sure what model) and a 1993 Tercel that would both tie for this competition.

The Fiat was referred to a Fix It Again Tony

And the Tercel was referred to as a piece of (Coming out of a ministers mouth thats pretty bad )

future9er24

hey! thats what i have to do on MY car lol

gonna take everything i can get me hands on from the junkyard later today lol. my baby needs it (oh please let there be a wrekced 94-95 cobra oh please!!!!!!)

so i guess technically my current (and first) car qualifys as my best and worst.

the good:
its an originall cobra II
its fun

the bad:
i have a cassette player, but it eats the tpaes faster than a fat kid does cake
theres a tow hitch on it
it has AM/FM too, but no antennae so all i get ist static
the drivers seat doesnt stay stiff
the whole thing rattles
the drivers side door rattles even when its closed and lockd
the hood has no prop rod
the harcth is rusty and the lift cylinders are nroken
the hood is rusty
when i got it, it was idling @ 1500RPM, now down to about 1100
the tow hitch is welded on
it was 3 points away from failing smog
it doesnt start for a while in the cold
the wheels have serious curb rash
there is a bubble in my rear left tire
the turn signals work find, but that little green arrow that tells me when there on doesnt :bang:
the chin spoiler brackets are held up by wires (which is why i taked it off and am saving upt for a KC front)
did i mention anyhting abot a tow hitch?


and thats about it lol, but i love her and im never gonna get rid of her EVER!

Sonic05

1988 Tempo. Paid $2200 for it in 1996, and over 6 years, put $2200 into it. That was only over 15,000 miles!! Letting cars sit can do bad things.

I care not to think about all the hours I worked on that thing. The rain, the snow, the freezing rain while I'm underneath the car puting a water pump on it so I could get to work the next day . . .

I think I used a whole quart of Bondo on it too. Oh man, and that water leak from the fire wall!! I had a skating rink on my floor several winters.

Ahhhh, I still loved that car. It got 24mpg in the city! 100 HP 2.3L, Woohoo!

Zastava_101

In engine quality my old 1992 Escort was really bad. Every month I had to tow it to mechanic to get if fix and I finally trade it in when I got Mustang in 2001.
But my 1991 Taurus was really bad. It was burning oil really bad, there were no lights inside the car so when I drove it during to night I had to had flashligh to see how fast I'm driving, I lost muffler somewhere on the street and there was really bad damage on the passenger's side. I finally sold it to junk yard for $50. But no matter how bad everything else was, engine was always running. It did burn oil, but engine always started. RIP buddy.

blackhat

I've had my share of beaters. My first car, I turned 17 and my dad gave me his car, a 1979 Datsun 210 2DR in mint green with blue tinted windows and silver duck tape holding the bottom of the doors together as there was literally nothing left, not even rust. Had it for about 2 months till one day I shifted into 2nd and the driveshaft fell off and rolled back down the hill. I stopped, went back and picked it up, put it in the backseat and pushed the car home.

My next car I bought (still senior in HS), was for $400; a 1974 Chevy Caprice Classic, huge 4dr with a 6.6L I believe. Not a panel on it wasnt dented, leaked oil, and then one day the exhaust manifold rusted off and needless to say the car became VERY loud. I literally was made by my friends' parents to turn the car off before entering or leaving their driveways and roll it in and out. Also, everytime it rained, whenever I made a right turn the car shut off. Happened in an S curve once on the way to school and with no power steering or brakes I could only go straight off the road and ended up going through an abandoned stone wall in the woods. Started the car back up, backed out, looked at the front, no damage.. drove on.

Stangarang

First off, sorry about putting this in the 05 forum.

Oh man, my previous car (1996 Chevy Lumina) had no dash lights. There was a light sensor on the dash, and when it detected that it was dark outside, it was supposed to turn on the dash lights automatically. Welp, that stopped working about a year after I got the car. I replaced all the fuses to no avail...I drove it for over a year without knowing how fast I was going at night, or how much fuel I had for that matter. You kinda get used to it after a while. And yet, sometimes the dash lights would turn on at the strangest times...usually when it was cold. It's still like that today, plus I just got a call from the new owner who is a friend of mine, and he ran into a downed tree like a week after he got it. I drove it for 2 or 3 years without a scratch...I think he's cursed.

Anyways, I just remembered a few more awesome things about the old Jeep. I installed a new Sony head-unit with CD player to replace the old AM/FM cassette. I did all of the installation by myself, with no experience whatsoever (I guess I was around 18 or 19 at the time). Welp, I'm guessing that most modern cars have a big plug that connects the car to the head unit...not with the Jeep! It was a bunch of wires that were tied together and finished off with electrical tape and those plastic caps. Oh, and there was no diagram or markings to tell what the wires did.

So, I basically just did some trial and error in wiring it up until it sorta worked, and then I stuffed the head unit in the dash and called it quits. One thing I got wrong was, the stereo never turned off, even when the keys were out of the ignition. Not a big deal, since I could turn it off manually by hitting a button on the head unit. The worst part, though, was that the front to rear fader dial ended up controlling the left to right balance. Oops. Oh well.


Oh, and another thing I had forgotten...the roof liner was completely coming down from the interior ceiling. It was really annoying because it always brushed against my head. So, what did I do? I stapled it, of course. However, the staples didn't really stay in the ceiling for very long, so every couple of days or so I would have to push the staples back in. Driving on the interstate with the windows down was obviously not an option.

Ballz

I had a 1989 Seat Marbella.




I blew a hole in a the PLASTIC radiator once and just stuch a rock in it and went on. It didn't last though. We were over in Taromina, Sicily and ended up sleeping in the back of flatbed truck. The owner, scared and watching out his window all night, finally called the carabanari to investigate us. I would be worried to. My friend and his girl were having "relations" in my parked car and I took a leak on the roof of it. haha

The driver seat was held up by a piece of wood. The backseat was nothing more than two bars with some fabirc thrown over them. It didn't have a/c or a radio but later installed a radio. The car was made just to get from point a to b. I flattened 4 tires in a month.

And topped out the speedometer every chance I got. We called her the Fanatic.

Lalo

I have a very ugly and beat up 1992 Sentra (it was more like a lonner that I got for 500 bucks while my Maxima was getting fixed). The car was being primed to get riced out by the past owner: the paint was rubbed off, the engine was colored blue and red, the seats had ugly wannabe race seat covers, it had a very crappy fart can that didn;t even fart right, and some dragon rugs. Needless to say, most of this stuff was taken off immidiately.
The past owners just left it at my uncle's auto shop because they didnt want to pay the 500 dollars for the transmission fix, so I just payed for the fix.

schmalex

1990 Honda Accord By the time i sold it the drivers side door didnt open the heat and a/c were shot bc someone tore apart my dash to steal my cd player so i put the factory stereo back in and that would cut out until you turned the volume up and then when you least expect it wham louder music then you could imagin...... Oh ya the auto tranny was shot and you couldnt go four blocks w/o the clutch slippin and hittin 8000 rpms.... Still sold the beast for a grand

mr-mstng

1980 Chevy Chevette...aka 'The 'Vet' The thing had no air, AM radio, rust brown, and an AT. The thig couldn't break tires loose if it were on vaseline. I think it hit 65 once because of a long downhill.

1999 Black 35th GT

My buddy has a 1990 Accord. Granted it has 200K + on it but every 300 or so miles you have to add a quart of oil, the body is so rusted out in the trunk and rear door area that you can see INTO the car I sanded, bondo'd, and primered it the best I could for him but the cancer keeps spreading (he never washes it, EVER!)

When he starts it up, a huge oily backfire occurs and the interior lights have a tendency to decide when they want to turn on.

Needless to say it won't be passing inspection this year and will be put to rest but it was a good little car, really funny looking though with all of the bondo and primer. Oh and no one tails him because of all the fumes it puts out

future9er24

JustAnotherDude

Haha, since I have only owned one car in my own name, I guess this one makes the list.

My grape red '86 Volvo 245 DL.

Where to start? Oh well, this car had been sitting out exposed to the elements for about 3 years in my parents driveway when I took possession of it. Which meant that it had this white patina instead of the deep red color it was supposed to be. And 245's are full of water traps, so it was a rustbucket. First thing, the front seats almost went out through the floor and there were a lot of nice 'vents' in it too, so I had to basically remake the entire floor from torpedo wall to rear axle. Then the corrosion on and in the rear hatch got so bad that it was rusted shut. I had to load from the rear passenger doors. At least you couldn't break into it through there. The ventilation was bad and had this extremely annoying grinding noise to it, apart from being full of leaves and other debree that had accumulated in there. If you put the fans at max, it would spray the interior with dry leaves. The trip meter and speedometer went out regularly. It had a grounding problem which would run the battery flat overnight even if all electrical systems were turned off. It did have a radio/casette player but with poor reception and the player chewed tapes. Not sometimes, but ALWAYS. When it started eating my favorite Metallica tape, I in my panic to pry it loose from its' jaws, promptly rear-ended an electrician's service car. KRUNCH. No damage fortunately. Then the front spring seats (or what you call it) disintegrated, almost busting up the entire front axle in the process. Then the rust got to the exhaust system, the rear end just fell off one day. KLONK- BRAAAAAAAAH. Replaced. 6 months later, the front half of the exhaust snapped. KLONK-BRAAAAAAH. The carburator was shot so I got like 20 MPG, 98 octane. Expensive. The front door window cranks had deteriorated from the sun, so they just gave way and came off, one after the other. The rear seat belt assembly jammed, so you couldn't use it (which is required by law here). The headlight reflectors had rusted, so I didn't get much of a beam, and they were held in place by willpower alone. In the trunk, there's a lid for an extra compartment, between the trunk floor and the gas tank. It had a hole (rusted out from where the electrical wiring run to the trailer hitch), so water constantly gathered ON TOP of the gas tank....the hitch had to come off entirely since it had rusted through and I got a remark on it (of all things!) at the annual road safety inspection...took 3 hours in a shop to get that behemoth off, weighing in at 50 pounfs. And that's just for starters.

BUT... the engine (2.3 L cast iron 4-beater) ran like clockwork and when the battery problem was fixed it NEVER failed to start, even in -20 degrees. I loved it.

97svtgoin05gt

I must admit that this thread has made me laugh more than any other on here so far that I've read. Just picturing some of these goings-on with these cars was just a laugh for sure.

My second car which had some problems was ironically a 1982 Capri RS 5.0. While I loved this car and it looked really cool never really behaved to well. The carburator was the source of most of the problems. No matter how many times I had that car back to the dealer, they could not get the carb right. It started with surging. You'd have your foot on the gas steady and the car would buck up and down, not dramatically, but still surging faster and slower up and down. They couldn't fix it. Finally they told me they "jetted up" on the carb and that should fix it. Well, once this process was complete, you couldn't start the car without sticking a pen into the mouth of the carb without being choked to death with exhaust. Dang thing was set so rich, it wouldn't run until it warmed up.

However, NOTHING beats my '93 Mazda 626 ES for a problematic automobile. This car had things happen to it that YUGOS didn't have!! I wanted a new one, but decided I couldn't go wrong with a lease return and could save a bunch of $$. How wrong was I?? I had to drive it immediately to the tire dealer when I bought it cause the rubber was shot. Then, I took it for a tune up where I learned that the car DEFINITELY had more miles on it than the odo showed. $1,600 later (not including the tires) I was hopefully set. Then these things started happening....not all at once mind you, but systematically over time:

Ignition switch broken TWICE once with the key broken in it: $245 each time

Moon roof SHATTERED upon door closure $1,600 to completely rebuild/replace moonroof

Rear calipers FROZEN: $560

Drivers side door lock broken $286 to replace

And the final straw was A/C issues Est: $1,100 to fix.

I didn't get the A/C fixed, instead I traded the car in. I liked it, it hated me.

:notnice: