The worst car you've ever driven...

[VtecMini]

I thought I'd bring this up, cos I felt it's more likely to get entertaining and truthful responses than "What's the fastest/best/biggest car you've ever driven", or at least so I'd imagine.

The main reason I thought I'd post this is actually cos I had the misfortune of having to drop a colleagues company car off at the local Ford dealership. (I live local, he doesn't, so I foolishly volunteered to run the errand).

It was a W reg (early 2001?) Ford Mondeo 2.0 Petrol.

The seat was uncomfortable, the driving position was... well... wrong. The steering felt as though it was being assisted back to it's central position by a spring the size of a shock absorber, which meant that every time I loosened my grip on the wheel at any point, the damn thing tried to go straight forwards. For a 2 Litre 16 valve it felt lethargic and uninterested in going anywhere soon. The brakes were wooden, the clutch was creaky and the gearbox felt like stirring a bag of bolts with a spanner. The gear knob itself was a slightly rounded off cube. The fascinating bit is that some guy out there actually got paid to design that.

The only real redeeming feature was the stereo. It was nothing special, but it worked. Which was nice.

To be fair, It's a company car. It's probably been mistreated and abused all it's life. But it was still horrible.

I know that there's people out there that have driven hundreds of cars, all the way down to Austin Allegros, Tata pickups and god knows what else, but the point I'm kinda getting at is that this is a modern car. I've driven cars fifteen years older than that thing that were more comfortable and satisfying!

[.:DB9:.]

lol - I dont care what I drive .. at my age your just grateful that you've got behind the wheel of a car

[Mustang]

lol - I dont care what I drive .. at my age your just grateful that you've got behind the wheel of a car

i agree we young uns need all the practice we can get for the srtict british laws

[bk4uyeah]

1991 rusted out, powder blue, Ford Taurus Wagon

[byronleehk]

1980 Mazda 323 1.5 with nothing. Had a boombox as the car radio/stereo. 80% of the time you have to double / triple clutch to get 2nd gear in (still grinded). One of the rear taillights had red masking tape over because the original plastic one was broken. Wipers didn't work. You could 'peddle to the metal' and still won't get a speeding ticket in a 40mph zone.

That was my ex-girlfriend's car

[SlickHolden]

81 ford falcon
60% was rusted out, Engine coverd in oil couldnt find the leak there was that many, No back seat, 3speed auto with only 2 gears that worked would jump from first to second and back anytime it felt like it, No handbrake 4 doors only 2 open, suspension was shot the front was 100mm hire then rear, The speedo wouldnt work so it had markings on the rpm for speeds only one light on higbeams, Power steering worked fine. Lucky this wasnt my car, The man that owned it was a family friend he used this car on the farm and only drove it to his work as a logger

[bent]

The Best and Worst I've ever driven was my 70 something dodge custom sport van. I owned it around 8 or 9 years ago and I know we mustve almost died in that thing several times.

I remember my friend turning to a passenger in the van claiming "Looks like a van, drives like a ferrari!"

About that time I pass a cop going about 20 miles over the the speedlimit.

It was also a piece of crap in many ways, like the steering was loose as hell and it had A-Team spoilers on it. Man, what a ride.

[henk4]

If I can change it to the passive form, the cars that have been described so far compare very well to the taxi's we have to use overhere. These are either old Lada's or even worse Moskvitches, or ragged down second hand european imports from the eigthies. The roads are pothole galore and this is reflected in bended suspensions and unround wheels which makes a very interesting drive. Nevertheless they move but the drivers appear to take the old adagium: "if it aint'broke don't fix it" a little bit too literally.

[Falcon500]

My sunny...looks as good as it goes SHIT....capets fallign apart...vauge stearing...consumes more oil then petrol....and the fact i never wanted it (long story) also the clutch is going...and it needs more work then im willing to put into that car and thats just to keep it going...worst ive driven probly not...worst ive owned hell yes.....Hate it WITH AS MUCH ENTHUSIAUM AS I PUT INTO MY MOTORSPORT AND MY FOOTY!

So it might not be the worst but i hate that car more then anyother on the planet! sunnys are good cas but i took that car under pressure if i chose to buy it off my own back i wouldent complain...i want it gone i cant wait to get a car i like....

[Mustang]

erm think mine has to be a 1.0 metro from about 15 years ago, was rusted and rotten and basically fell apart was we were driving round fie;ds in it

my mate ended up burning the clutch out, and without that we couldnt get it in gear so ground all the gears up eventually then, pusing the gear stick so hard to try and get it in gear, we managed to snap the gear stick off rite at the bottom so that was the end of that car

[SPHFerrari]

well, mine is pretty nice for the worst car ive driven: 2001 green toyota camry

[sandwich]

The worst car? Hmm...i test drove a 1976 Mercury Cougar...the steering was so loose that you could turn left and the car would drift right. I was doing 40 and it was THE most frightened i had ever been in an automobile.

we also had an mg b in the family that apparently would just quit braking whenever it wanted to....then come back to life when my dad was driving it. Thankfully, I didn't want it and we sold it.

[Egg Nog]

Earlier on today today, I was behind the wheel of the worst car I've ever had the unfortunate experience of driving... Early 80s Civic. Carbed. Beige.

I'm toodling along at around 80 (km/h), when traffic speeds up ahead. Flooring it in fifth makes absolutely no difference from putting the clutch in and coasting, so I downshift to fourth. Strangely, same thing... not accelerating at all. I didn't want to try going as far as third, because I knew it couldn't even do 80 in third

By the way, Nigel (he's on UCP lately) is renting this car from someone for $100 a month. I had to drive because everyone I was "babysitting" the night before was too hungover

[Falcon500]

I'm toodling along at around 80 (km/h), when traffic speeds up ahead. Flooring it in fifth makes absolutely no difference from putting the clutch in and coasting, so I downshift to fourth. Strangely, same thing... not accelerating at all. I didn't want to try going as far as third, because I knew it couldn't even do 80 in third

By the way, Nigel (he's on UCP lately) is renting this car from someone for $100 a month. I had to drive because everyone I was "babysitting" the night before was too hungover

Welcome to my world...the sunny does that too
Im lucky enough to of never been the designated driver Why doesnt he save up the $100 a month for about 5 months...thatll get him something drivable....

[cls12vg30]

Without question the worst vehicle I ever drove was a 2000 Mitsubishi Montero Sport that I rented on a business trip to Dallas in 2000. Even though it was brand new it was horrible, it was like driving a boat. It was so top-heavy it turned like a ship, and listed so much in the turns that it was more like a sinking ship. The 3.0 V6 was totally underpowered, and the transmission sucked. While merging onto a freeway I punched the gas and it took a full second to downshift and actually start moving, I thought I was going to get rear-ended. You do a lot of U-turns on the surface streets in Dallas because many of them are divided, and it was impossible in this thing unless you had at least 3 lanes in the other direction to work with.