 | Home > Off Topic > worst car you have ever driven .... |
 
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971   
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So I've never driven a 70s car, but I have driven an LDV Convoy and they're basically from the 70s.
The worst thing I've ever had to drive was a 2015 Fiat 500L that we had as a courtesy car at work earlier this year. It was just atrocious. The seats had no support anywhere remotely useful for either me or my boss (and we're quite different shapes), they managed to not hold you round corners yet also somehow dig in to you in weird places and they were impossible to get set up in a comfortable way. The steering wheel had adjustment but coupled with the seat issues it wasn't possible to get it in a position that you could reach it, turn it, and be comfortable. It was also not possible to adjust it to be able to read the whole dash board at once. The controls were bizarre, for instance the indicators would sometimes just randomly turn off, and at other times they just wouldn't turn off. If you tried to manually turn them off you'd end up indicating the opposite direction. Displaying stuff on the dash was sometimes a question of controls in and around the steering wheel, or sometimes buttons on the passenger's side of the centre console underneath the radio. So you'd have to get your passenger to try and adjust stuff that they couldn't see. Its crowning glory was the start stop system. Or, more accurately, the stop, then fail repeatedly to start system. It did it to my boss a few times whilst I was a passenger so he turned it off and I thought he must be doing something wrong. But no, it was just rubbish. When I took over driving I turned it back on again, the first set of suitable lights we got to (with the engine warm) it turned the engine off. I put the clutch down, the engine tried to start, then died. And then did that five further times before actually managing to get going properly. I have no particular issue with having a start/stop system, but the start bit *has* to work properly. Then there was the rubbish fuel economy, it was only getting mid 40s MPG for a small car with a small diesel engine on a decent run. Finally, they look silly. They're fat and ugly and the wheels look far too small. We had one two hour round trip in it then it sat in a corner in the yard until the decent car came back from being fixed. |
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26th Aug 2016 8:20pm |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971
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Assuming it's got a decent battery and starter I don't see why not.
The question is, will any of the car still be working at that age? The LDV Convoy wasn't actually that bad. It was certainly better to drive than a 1.2 petrol Corsa (~2011 sort of age) I was driving at the same time. It wasn't very quick, but then it was quite big and only had 90hp. |
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26th Aug 2016 9:14pm |
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| lambert.the.farmer Member Since: 11 Apr 2012 Location: harrogate Posts: 2006  
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Worst car ever was a td5 disco van. Had it 6 months and in that time it was at the dealer for 4 months for various reasons. What made it truly hateful was its unerring ability to stall coming out of the farm drive with the heavy trailer on the back which for a tow car is not good. So it went back and in reality only cost us about 250 for the 6 months we had it. Rhubarb and custard let fly with their secret weapon.
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27th Aug 2016 6:05am |
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| RoddyK05 Member Since: 08 Apr 2015 Location: Inverclyde Posts: 633  
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Had a Suzuki SJ410 which was great fun, but one time it was in for a service and they gave me a Vauxhall Nova saloon. A truly awful car which felt like it wanted to leap off the road into the ditch if you went over about 35 mph - a bit frightening too.
 Click image to enlarge |
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27th Aug 2016 5:00pm |
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| Projectblue Member Since: 22 Nov 2011 Location: Devon Posts: 1096
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I thought this was going to be difficult, but then I realised there was one clear winner. Waaaaay above all the others.
Click image to enlarge Friend of mine owns a garage with MOT and I had to move a customers car to let someone out, so as a 'listed employee' I moved the customers car carefully around from one side to the car park at the rear. And in that short time dear reader, I became aware of the following attributes; The autobox had no indicator of what you had selected and there was no feel for the points so you could be in reverse, you could be in d2. The throttle didn't appear to be connected in anyway to the engine and the lag between pressing the pedal and the vehicle moving was akin to the twelfth coach on a train moving after the loco sets off. The brakes were just made from sponge fingers and had the stopping power of bluetac. And the steering had adaptive steering before it was invented, but actually it was random, so you couldn't predict how much lock was going on. At the end of the 200m of near death experience, I got out and locked it up and noticed the childs seat in the back and went back in and said ' That Kia you have just MOT'd? Can you add an advisory to it? Write down "this is the worse car I have ever driven and I owned a Triumph Dolomite - get rid of this if you love your child" ' But apparently that's not on the MOT test so they couldn't. 
[/img] New project and it's green: www.projectoverland.info |
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28th Aug 2016 9:42pm |
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| benjiraison Member Since: 28 Aug 2016 Location: northants Posts: 13 
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Renault fuego turbo owned it for a week then sold it. When the turbo cut in it would jump across the road and the brakes didn't work.
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28th Aug 2016 9:50pm |
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| foxyred Member Since: 16 Jul 2016 Location: Nottingham Posts: 227 
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Series two lightweight !
F*ing death trap, I could list the problems. But don't have the time and I'm trying to mentally block the whole experiance |
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29th Aug 2016 1:16pm |
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| Barneyboy Member Since: 19 Nov 2014 Location: Exmoor Posts: 1620 
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Hi it has to be my first Land Rover I got it about 30 odd years ago found it in a garage in Anglesey never got on with the steering someone in there wisdom had put the wheel in the middle
 but I soon rectified that and put it back where it should be here's how I found it all be it I had washed it
Click image to enlarge   Paul |
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29th Aug 2016 1:21pm |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10742
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^ ^ ^
1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up.
Keeper. Clayton. |
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29th Aug 2016 7:49pm |
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| Ryderoo Member Since: 28 Aug 2015 Location: South Oxfordshire Posts: 1666 
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I always wandered where McLaren got the idea for their F1 car . The dash is as sparse as a Land Rover too!
Cheers Simon
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you 1990 110 TD5 county, my first Land Rover - gone 2012 Discovery 4 XS SDV6 - gone 2014 Discovery 4 XS SDV6 - gone 2015 Evoque SD4 dynamic - Wife’s - gone 2015 Urban Truck 90 XS Santorini Black Hard Top - Reluctantly gone 2020 Discovery 5 Eiger Grey 3.0 SE - gone March 24 2021 Defender S D250 Santorini Black 110 HT - gone March 24 2023 Evoque P300e SE wife’s current vehicle |
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29th Aug 2016 8:14pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20339
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^^^^ That'd be interesting just to get into, especially with gear knob in the way one side too.
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29th Aug 2016 8:32pm |
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| Barneyboy Member Since: 19 Nov 2014 Location: Exmoor Posts: 1620
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30th Aug 2016 5:27am |
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| mrandmrsh Member Since: 31 May 2010 Location: Huddersfield Posts: 692 
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It's all about context. I had a Vauxhall Chevette (1.3 GLS no less) which failed to start when warm and when I slammed the door in anger a piece of filled the size of my head fell out of the front wing. The passenger window fell down into the door on a rainy 150mile journey with my mate. Annoying and funny at the same time. But I paid £100 for it so expected little.
My first car was a metro and the drivers seat back collapsed so I moved the passenger one over and left it as a 3 seater rather than 4 but, despite the gf moaning she had to sit in the back like the lady mayoress, it gave loads of legroom, was great for carrying camping crap and left plenty of room for in-car cheeky fun. The car I most despised was a company car, provided from fleet that had been used previously (company rule: first company car had to be a spare one). It had been in an accident already and badly repaired, the engine management light illuminated more regularly than both headlamps worked together, the interior felt like it would disintegrate at any time and there was virtually no grip when setting off. There's a hilly junction nearby I could not get started on, it just skidded. The lease company fitted  tyres that were so bad I took the car back and refused to drive it until they fitted better types (I had another car and at the time had fitted some Pirelli P Zero Rosso tyres that were fantastic in the wet). The car stayed at quick fit for a couple of days while I refused to use it and the lease company actually gave in in the end (I was gutted, I was hoping for a car swap) and put decent tyres on.
I had it nearly two years and while my long awaited first company car I chose arrived (323Ci BMW which I loved) some arse crossed double white lines overtaking trucks on the woodhead pass and hit me head on. The car died, sadly the bloke who caused it did not. What annoyed me most was this happened after I endured the car for so long, if it had happened after I had it 3 months rather than 2 years I wouldn't have minded as much...... Click image to enlarge 2015 110 USW XS in Santorini with premium contrast leather seats in tan/black, black headlining and with Dual Finish alloys (in the garage, now on Wolf rims with Goodyear MT/Rs) 2012 '62' 2.2 X-Tech 110 USW now gone ... 1984 90 soft top with full roll cage, 200 tdi engine etc now sold 2012 USW XS 2.2 "FUU" now gone.... |
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30th Aug 2016 6:51am |
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| languedoc Member Since: 13 May 2016 Location: Edinburgh Posts: 283 
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ouch!
I think the worst car i owned was at university. I sold my first car, a champagne brown leyland metro with orange seats, and bought a fiesta 1.1 popular plus. Turned out it was the most badly put together car ever made. It must have been in a serious accident because it would pull left when driving and pull right when braking. I shouldnt have bought it from a junkie on a council estate who preferred his livingroom furniture to be in the front garden. The relays used to pop out at random (usually at night in rain and winter). It ended up T Boned in a thunderstorm in London between a taxi and a courier van with most of the front end ripped off the car. |
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30th Aug 2016 8:02am |
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