Which car did you buy and wish you never did?

[driver]

1977 International Harvester Scout.

• Flapping body panels in the wind
• Questionable tires
• Terrible fuel economy
• Scary handling

I was young - didn't care. All I could focus on was the 4-wheel drive and the purr of the 345 CID "Bus" engine. Man, that thing ran good!

 

[tunalegs]

An old 1980s Subaru GL. Was complete rubbish in the snow, and the joints in the drive shaft to the rear went out after I owned it only a year.

I had an older 1982 Toyota that was better in every respect, and I paid half as much for.

 

[driver]

Ahhhh, Subaru's from the '80s are interesting. Anyone remember the "XT" coupes? My TR7 actually looks sexy parked next to one 😀

 

[JRminox]

1965 Corvair van, taking two lanes with cross-wind over bridges in Vancouver BC
Could not keep thing thing in a straight line on a calm day.

 

[pvdhaar]

1981 Saab 900 GLS sedan; a.k.a. the money pit.

Countless and very expensive repairs, iffy electronics, non-starter, rust bucket. That thing left me stranded every couple of weeks with something new, and then you'd think that everything that could break was replaced by now, and immediately it would find another way to break down again.. For the money that went into that car, I could have done so many other more useful things..

I'll refrain from publicly expressing my thoughts when the brand went belly-up, but you can probably guess..

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Peter,

I remember hearing many years ago that all Saab owners know two things:

Saabs are inherently reliable.

Theirs is the exception.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

As for awful vehicles, I never owned one, but I drove one for some weeks as part of a summer holiday job: Morris Minor van. The rear end would break away on corners at anything much more than a walking pace.

Cheers,

R.

 

[btgc]

Golf Mk2. Everything were messed up and economized before sale so basically I got a lemon, squeezed out dry. First car, lesson learned 🙂

 

[driver]

I have two British vehicles in the shed - cannot part with either of them.
I used to have three. Good bye Spitfire . . . . . . . .

 

[Mark A. Fisher]

'82 Fiat Spyder. I put more than one mechanic's child through their doctoral program with the repair bills that thing rang up. Still, it was a fun little thing to drive, when it ran. Which was about 15% of the time I owned it. The other 85% it was securely stored at the repair shop...

But wait, I forgot. I also had a '72 Porsche 914 with similar history. Again, another really fun car to drive, with great cornering and handling. But I just kept my wallet open and available any time the mechanic wanted to take a month-long holiday!

m

 

[sevo]

Just about every kind of bigger Citroen - when I was young, I went through a progression of DS, BX and CX and all of them had a strong tendency to sit dead in the parking lot with a flat battery after leaving the engine off for only a few hours, or failed to lift onto their pneumatic suspension whenever they felt like it. Mind, the only reason why I could afford these middle class to luxury cars was that they eventually grew so unreliable that their resale value was almost nil in the eighties...

 

[driver]

'82 Fiat Spyder. I put more than one mechanic's child through their doctoral program with the repair bills that thing rang up. Still, it was a fun little thing to drive, when it ran. Which was about 15% of the time I owned it. The other 85% it was securely stored at the repair shop...

But wait, I forgot. I also had a '72 Porsche 914 with similar history. Again, another really fun car to drive, with great cornering and handling. But I just kept my wallet open and available any time the mechanic wanted to take a month-long holiday!

m

Fix It Again Tony

Last Fall, my neighbor's sons X1/9 had a minor linkage problem with the Bosch injection system. He fixed it roadside in about 5 min.

I had the task of driving the vehicle back to his house. Now don't get me wrong, normally I would respect the owner/vehicle and drive like the little old lady from Pasadena.

Something got the better of me I assure you all, I drove the little Fiat like i frickin' stole it.

There is a 90 degree left turn on the way to his house on the shore of Lake Michigan - I felt like a certain Andretti. I know this corner well - bled off speed at the right time and got back on the throttle at just the right time and precisely and confidently powered through the curve. Stuck like Gorilla Glue.

Street Legal Go Cart!!!

For some reason, I can see myself in a 914 😎

 

[Clay]

I won't mention the brand, it's the dealer I want to hang!

One of the largest dealer in Toronto. I wanted a 'used' car, and
got an 'abused' car. Drove it from dealer about 8 blocks to
show my buddy. Gets in and 'new' car wouldn't start! Went
downhill from there. Many tow trips back to dealer to fix
under his 'warranty', ha! Up on hoist and saw mounting holes
in frame for rear shocks were worn oval! Blew rad, blew brakes, blew engine. 305 V8, a big pig wagon. Had one good
feature, when you could start it, went like hell in snow, ha.
Beats me how they ever passed it for safety inspection. Of
course the salesman was a friend of my father.

Best regards,

/Clay

 

[archeophoto]

Land Rover Series III 1971. Never been stranded so often. Nothing ever works 100% on any Land Rover at any time. Ever.
But I had a love-hate relationship owning it and it was a vehicle I sold for a profit!

 

[Pioneer]

1955 DeSoto with the Firedome Hemi. Awesome engine but could not keep brakes in it. Would rather have had the Porsche 356 but it probably would have been a mistake as well. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I could not afford it so never found out.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Just about every kind of bigger Citroen - when I was young, I went through a progression of DS, BX and CX and all of them had a strong tendency to sit dead in the parking lot with a flat battery after leaving the engine off for only a few hours, or failed to lift onto their pneumatic suspension whenever they felt like it. Mind, the only reason why I could afford these middle class to luxury cars was that they eventually grew so unreliable that their resale value was almost nil in the eighties...

Interesting. In my extensive experience their hydro-pneumatic suspension systems are incredibly reliable, with massive amounts of built in redundancy, and continue to function well beyond normal service intervals. Even with huge amounts of internal leakage, they will generally still perform. If they actually fail to rise at all, it will usually be as a result of: a hydraulic pump failure (needs repair/replacement every ten years or so depending on use and vehicle spec); air in the system (dirty hydraulic fluid/filter or loose regulator bleed screw the usual causes); or, a failed return hose. Once fixed, these things stay fixed for a long time, and are not hard to diagnose or spot before they fail. I maintained my own Cits and they never failed to get me home, except for a seized wheel bearing on one of the GSs. That was a rear bearing though, so even then I suppose I could have removed the offending wheel and driven it home on high. I suspect you needed a better mechanic.

Regards,
Brett

 

[robbeiflex]

Alfa Romeo 147. It was like a Golf with more style, better handling, better soundtrack, but unfortunately lower quality. Had it for two years from new and it started burning oil. So much fun to drive that I do miss it, not that I would buy another though.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[dave lackey]

Fix It Again Tony

Last Fall, my neighbor's sons X1/9 had a minor linkage problem with the Bosch injection system. He fixed it roadside in about 5 min.

I had the task of driving the vehicle back to his house. Now don't get me wrong, normally I would respect the owner/vehicle and drive like the little old lady from Pasadena.

Something got the better of me I assure you all, I drove the little Fiat like i frickin' stole it.

There is a 90 degree left turn on the way to his house on the shore of Lake Michigan - I felt like a certain Andretti. I know this corner well - bled off speed at the right time and got back on the throttle at just the right time and precisely and confidently powered through the curve. Stuck like Gorilla Glue.

Street Legal Go Cart!!!

For some reason, I can see myself in a 914 😎

Came within a minute of buying a red X1/9 from a friend who was a used car dealer. Regret never getting one because they were soooo fun to drive! IIRC, I bought a family sedan or something that is now in a landfill.

 

[Addy101]

Came within a minute of buying a red X1/9 from a friend who was a used car dealer. Regret never getting one because they were soooo fun to drive!

I had one of those, never had any problem with it other then me rear ending a friend. It was great fun driving it - but not that practical to be honest.

Alfa Romeo 147. It was like a Golf with more style, better handling, better soundtrack, but unfortunately lower quality. Had it for two years from new and it started burning oil. So much fun to drive that I do miss it, not that I would buy another though.

Buy one, yours was made on monday morning, and you know how Italians are on monday morning 😉 I had one and never had any serious problem with it. Well, not quite true, I blew up the engine as I ignored the warning light on the dashboard :bang:

 

[Greyscale]

I bought a 1995 Ford Explorer in 1998, one week before the story broke that it was a potential flaming death machine. The Explorer has served me well for almost 15 years, but if I had waited one week, I probably could have got it for much less.