On the other foot, The car from your past you miss the least!

[Fishhead]

A 1974 Plymouth Duster that I bought in June of 1982. My friends called it the Cloud Mobile for obvious reasons. It was a 3 speed floor shift V-8 with fold down rear seats and a snakeskin vinyl top. My brother (seen here) and I decided to pull the carpeting after I'd had it about a year and when we did, we found that the floor was gone. Since the carpet had come out in chunks, we couldn't put it back, so when I drove in the rain, the steam would come up through the floor off the straight pipes. This was the day I brought it home. We were working on Dave's car, a 1966 Dodge Charger just out of sight to the left.

 

[SolarYellow]

Yugos were essentially Fiat 128s. A technically cool and interesting car in 1968, not so much 20 years later. The best thing about them was that the engines could provide a displacement & compression increase for the Fiat X 1/9.

I had a super-attractive female friend at one point who drove a B210. She eventually kicked it to the curb for a totally cool 510 wagon, and eventually a Mazdaspeed3. One of the coolest people I've known.

My personal one I'd rather forget was the TR-7. I owned two in high school, a project and a parts car, and have still never driven one. Up there in the echelon of worst engines ever. Thank goodness I didn't know the Buick V-6 would bolt up to TR-8 interfaces or I might have had it a lot longer and never bought the MR2 in college.

 

[BABAR]

'91 Ford Explorer. Worst vehicle I ever owned. It lived up to the F-O-R-D acronym - Fix Or Repair Daily!

Found On Road Dead.

 

[BABAR]

1983 Nissan Stanza. Great until it ran out of warranty, then electronics problems weekly.

On the flip side, had a 91 Civic DX 5 speed manual stick for 20 years. Such a wimpy squirrel on a wheel motor that had to turn off AC whenever on an uphill freeway on-ramp or I’d get rear ended by the merge. Still loved it. When brakes finally went out after 20 years was gonna cost more to fix it than the blue book value, so finally moved on to a 2014 Accord, which has been great but doesn’t have the memories (yet.)

 

[bjphoenix]

My first car was a 1962 Chevy II, which was renamed as the Nova in later years. 6-cylinder, two-speed automatic that went 'thunk' when it shifted.

One of my friends had one when I was in High School. Before I had a drivers license we drove his car everywhere.
I bought one about 1973 or so, pulled out the engine and trans and put a 283 and 4-speed in it. We put 4.88 gears in the rear end and made some 4-bolt 15" wheels for it. I put 12:1 pistons in it, heads with larger valves, Crane cam, headers, the then brand new Tarantula intake and the biggest carburetor you could buy at the time. Unfortunately I was going to college in another town and didn't have much time to work on or drive the car.

With a 2 speed Transmission, the gearing is wrong for good MPG.

That was a common transmission in a lot of GM vehicles, the Powerglide (sometimes called powerslide). It was about like a 3-speed without the first gear, using torque multiplication of the torque converter to get the car going. But I agree it seemed that the 2 gears it did have were spread out farther than needed. But fuel mileage was not a priority at the time, when we were running around in my friend's car it cost us $0.24 per gallon for gas. It's also possible that prfessor's car had a carburetor problem that compounded the issue- I never liked those 1-barrel carbs. Those were apparently pretty tough transmissions though- people used them for drag racing with various mods. My friend that owned the Nova eventually built a car for asphalt track racing, similar to a Nascar car of the time. He used that transmission but with no torque converter. It had a valve you could open/close to make the car go. Strangely enough I never owned a car with that transmission, my Nova originally had a 3-speed manual.

 

[teepot]

Ok, this has nothing to do with a car I didn't like. But it is funny. This was 1974 IIRC. I was driving on the John Lodge freeway in Detroit. Up ahead I saw a bright orange Cadillac De Ville. It had an orange landau roof, wire wheels with knock offs , curb feelers, wide white wall tires and a TV antenna over the trunk. There is a song that goes something like that. I took one look at it and said, a pimp mobile. I can still picture it in my mind.

 

[OZRoc]

Any recent Subaru diesel. Biggest POS's I've ever owned. (2, before I woke up to myself). DPF, Diesel Particulate Filter continually stuffing up.

 

[Art Upton]

24 cents in early 70s gas is like $1.72 today [think back 5 years and gas was that cheap again] I can remember 18.9 cents for gas I put in my Mini bike during a Gas War in 1972ish.

Then gas hit 48 cents and later 90 some cents back then ; that was huge costs for gas at the time equal to about $3.50 to well over $6.00 per gallon. Then it went over a dollar, pumps had tape next to the cost adding the $1 in front of the 29 cents to say it was $1.29; about 7 dollars or so in today's money.

 

[Mward]

Ford 1978 1/2 Mustang II (notchbach Gia hardtop)

Rust bucket, under powered, and ugly.

- Matt

 

[Buzzard]

Enlisted in the the Air Force 1972 and my Dad had given me a 1965-ish Ford Fairlane a few years before. It died and bought a '73 Duster. Loved it as I could fix it (and missiles). First wife put it into a tree in Oscoda, Michigan in the early '80s. Not many car dealers near the small SAC base so ended up with a Mercury Zepher. What a crappy vehicle. I didn't mind the stick, but the wife had to learn. Assigned here in Fort Worth in 1983 and later got the newly introduced 1986 Ford Taurus wagon, as we were moving every four years and needed more room with a young child. Drove it into the ground after A) divorce and B) ex-wife's passing and more moves, military and civilian. Bought a 1999 Ford Taurus sedan, 24 VOH that I called Quick Silver, that was replaced in 2022 with a 2020 Honda CR-V (Quick Silver II). Second wife said, "You just wanted a rocket car". I replied, "Does it show...".
So, the Zepher was the worst car that I ever owned.

Chas

 

[tsmith1315]

There is a song that goes something like that

Yep!

 

[dhbarr]

1997 Chevy Monte Carlo. It was my girlfriend's car when we got married, but when it died it tried to kill me. Intake in the wheel well, sucked up water. Power steering went out in a 2-lane turn, but fortunately I was on the outside.

Final straw was when I was putting on the spare and the factory jack bent. Power steering went out again as we were pulling into the Hyundai dealership to buy a fun sporty Tiburon while we were still young. I never got back in.

 

[goose_in_co]

Wrong thread...
oops.

 

[teepot]

Enlisted in the the Air Force 1972 and my Dad had given me a 1965-ish Ford Fairlane a few years before. It died and bought a '73 Duster. Loved it as I could fix it (and missiles). First wife put it into a tree in Oscoda, Michigan in the early '80s. Not many car dealers near the small SAC base so ended up with a Mercury Zepher. What a crappy vehicle. I didn't mind the stick, but the wife had to learn. Assigned here in Fort Worth in 1983 and later got the newly introduced 1986 Ford Taurus wagon, as we were moving every four years and needed more room with a young child. Drove it into the ground after A) divorce and B) ex-wife's passing and more moves, military and civilian. Bought a 1999 Ford Taurus sedan, 24 VOH that I called Quick Silver, that was replaced in 2022 with a 2020 Honda CR-V (Quick Silver II). Second wife said, "You just wanted a rocket car". I replied, "Does it show...".
So, the Zepher was the worst car that I ever owned.

Chas

Wurtsmith? When I was a kid living near Detroit I would hear fighters from Selfridge breaking the sound barrier. It was common too.

 

[teepot]

Yep!

Love that album. Not a bad song on it.

 

[Lord Rory Gin]

First and worst... '75 Buick Rivera. Lots of salt induced rust, had no block heater (absolute must in Saskatchewan), and a broken head gasket. It died on the Highway from anti-freeze in the cylinders. Paid too much for it, then had to repair it 2 months after buying. The guy who sold it to me sold me a giant lemon and walked away laughing.

 

[Cape Byron]

Thank goodness I didn't know the Buick V-6 would bolt up to TR-8 interfaces or I might have had it a lot longer and never bought the MR2 in college.

A half decent MR-2 is a much more reliable, attractive and better handling car than a TR-7/8.

The TR-7 had notorious build 'quality'. I saw brand new ones that came with factory installed rust.

 

[crossfire]

I LOATHED my 1977? 1978? Ford Fiesta.

Rusted out and long past done when I got it. Didn't keep me from using it a couple years longer. Driver's floor was so bad it got replaced by plywood, which rotted out again and got replaced by more plywood. Could see the road go by down near the gas pedal, slush came in during Winter and the throttle would get stuck. Brakes were either seized or useless, coulda marketed them as digital (one or zero, nothing in between). Everything leaked and the thermostat had a metric nut on one side and an English nut on the other. "World car" indeed...

It had a row of flags on the hatchback under the name - this was a reminder of the countries you had to call looking for parts. I'd post a picture but just imagine a handful of rust.

Carl was your Fiesta German made. Miki and I had one from Germany and it was great driving in snow great gas mileage and we got 92 thousand miles from orginal 12" tires

 

[dr-ws]

1977(?) AMC Pacer (silver), a.k.a. Lunar Cruiser, Kenosha Cadillac, etc. Was en route (with g.f., later my wife, as well as another couple) to a Friday evening dinner in 1984 in downtown Chicago, northbound on Michigan Avenue when a deluge hit, creating significant street puddling, near flooding. My car quit three times within four blocks [due to wet distributor?], with traffic piling up behind me as the windows quickly fogged up. I don't recall how, but we reached our destination and had a great dinner, Humiliating? No; it was Chicago, and no one knew us!

 

[SolarYellow]

A half decent MR-2 is a much more reliable, attractive and better handling car than a TR-7/8.

If I could find a time-capsule '88-89, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I ended up with nice suspension and everything on my '85, but with the suspension geometry changes on the later AW11s, they handle way better than mine did even with cheap suspension. At least the ones I've driven in 24 Hours of LeMons and ChumpCar did. I'd kinda like to do a 20V turbo setup. 9000 rpm and about 300 hp.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I forgot about the 1965 Dodge window van with the slant six engine, three speed on the column, unbelievably terrible carburetor, and suspension, and it belonged to the gas company from what I understood.

 

[tsmith1315]

At least the ones I've driven in 24 Hours of LeMons and ChumpCar did

Pics, man. Pics!!!

 

[Sandy H.]

Mine was a 1987-ish Chrysler LeBaron hardtop turbo. It actually ran half ok for a car of that era, but due to some dumb things I did and a really dumb thing the dealer did, it died a year after I bought it (true, bought it used with over 100k on it, so it needed help).

I managed to trade the blown-up (head gasket or cracked head) Lebaron with 100k+ on the clock in for a used Chevy Cavalier with 0 options (i.e. manual, roll-up windows, no A/C etc.) and only had to pay $3500-ish.

The Cav lasted for quite a long time. As sad as it is, I actually do have positive memories of the Cav. As a fun fact, the Cav went through a lot too and I sold it on ebay, no reserve, starting at $1 and took a ton of honest pictures of all the problems. I think it sold for around $350-400. A buddy of mine saw it on the side of a highway abandoned a year or two later. It was obviously mine, as it had odd hubcaps. The guy who bought it was thrilled and if it got him to and from work for a year or two, it was worth it for him too, I'd guess.

 

[SolarYellow]

Pics, man. Pics!!!

Meh. Pretty forgettable, really. Paying for a seat in a car that was alleged to be well-sorted and reliable and then fixing someone else's broken POS in the middle of the night on jackstands without enough tools. The lesson I learned is that if there's a driving position available in a LeMons car, there haven't been enough people working on it.

My friends in Eyesore Racing have many way more cool pics.

 

[tsmith1315]

Paying for a seat in a car that was alleged to be well-sorted and reliable and then fixing someone else's broken POS in the middle of the night on jackstands without enough tools.

I kinda assumed that would be a requirement.

 

[SolarYellow]

No, the teams that don't suck have their stuff together and know how to make a car work for as long as it needs to. Usually. They also aren't looking for more drivers.