A Chevrolet Aveo 5 2003. All the interior was made of cheap plastic. It was pretty terrible in general.
Not a direct answer, but if you ever get a chance - go walk around a self-serve junkyard. This is where cars go when they finally just aren't worth fixing anymore. It is eye opening. There are cars that you will still consider 'new' that have already given up the ghost (mainly Dodge/Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia, & Nissan). And you can't help but think - WTF are these cars doing here, aren't these still for sale at the dealership?
Conversely, there are also cars there so old you hardly recognize them (usually Honda, Toyota, and full size pickups from Ford/GM).
Not me, but someone I was dating. Her family owned a Chevrolet dealership and she was always driving some kind of lightly used mid-range sedan. Two of them catastrophically failed and one of them would randomly shut off when going over slight bumps. Like going over an expansion joint on a bridge could do a full shut off, no power steering, etc. These were all sub 20k mile cars. She would just get it towed back to the lot and get another one, like a disposable product. The family laughed about ripping off customers. The whole operation was banking off soccer moms buying enormous Suburbans and boomer nostalgia for Corvette. Basically just rent seeking an ancient contract to be the dealer for a large territory. Needless to say I will never buy a Chevy.
Volkswagen Jetta. I think it was a 2012. Aside from having an oil leak that was common in that model, the gear shift computer broke, and most annoying of all, on the inside would just sort of fall off for no reason. I mean, the vent direction control tabs. And the only way to replace them was to remove the entire dash. Stupid and cheap design. I’ll probably never buy another Volkswagen.
My first vehicle was a 1971 Ford 3/4 ton. It was extremely reliable and tough. Having sat for most of the previous 30 years in a barn, it even looked good.
But it had all of the safety features of 1971. Power brakes the would lock up and throw you off the road if you more than thought about braking. Lap belts and a solid steel steering wheel to smash your teeth on. If you somehow hit the steering wheel hard enough to break it, you'd be impaled on the steel pipe steering column. Speaking of the steering, it didn't have power steering, so if you hit a rut on a rough road, the steering wheel would spin out of control. You had to just let go of it until it stopped spinning lest it break your thumbs. Also, the gas tank was inside the cab behind the seat for extra car crash fun.
It was a beautiful death trap. I kinda wish I could have put it back into a barn for another 30 years instead of selling it.
My first car was an ancient Renault that was plagued with electrical issues, to the point that it was actually pretty funny. I was also a penniless student at the time and I don't know how to fix cars, so I just sort of put up with it.
It used to drain the battery when it was parked, so I kept a spare battery in the boot and some jumper cables and used to have to jump-start it every time I switched the engine off.
One time I was driving at night and the headlights started dimming until they were nearly off, I turned the radio off and they came back on again.
Eventually I finally took it to the scrap yard, they said it was worthless but they gave me £10 for the tape deck lol.
Technically the worst car I ever had, but also one of my favourites.
Mercury Sable
Jeep. Not owned but have rented two. First one was a 2022 Compass. The electric system died mid highway. Never recovered fully. Second was a 2024 Ranger. A true shit box. After a week having it I despised that piece of shit.
A 1991 Ford Sierra that I bought for 100,- from a friend because I needed a car quickly. This car was already promised to be shipped to Nigeria, where Europe dumps all the old cars. It still had 3 months until the next savety inspection, which the car certainly would have failed.
The engine was still OK, but the car had some electrical issues. When using the turn signal first, and then using the brake pedal, all lights and electrical load were going bonkers, resulting in flickering and failure. The car had to be stopped and the key had to be removed in order to switch it off. Then the car could be started again and one could resume driving.
In order to avoid this issues, it was crucial to use the break pedal first, and then the turning signal, right before turning. This way the electrical issues ware not that severe - the issues stopped, wenn dis-enganging the turn signal.
Also, the doors central locking system was not working properly. Only the passenger door was operational. When I wanted to get the trunk hatch to open, I had to unlock the passenger's door, reach inside to open the driver's door from the inside. Then I had to walk around to fully open the driver's door in order to pull the lever for the trunk hatch that is located next to the driver's seat.
I only had this car for two months. One day I put the car into neutral at a traffic light. After that, there was a strange noise. I put it into first gear and the clutch refused to connect to the power train. The clutch failed, the car couldn't be moved by its own. It went to the scrap yard.
98 Volkswagen Jetta. Rampant problems for everyone, not just me. Body molding falls off, window motors fail, water pump fail, wiper motor fail, 3 starters and an alternator, frame problem wearing out at the wheels, and the clear coat peeled.
When my third window motor failed, I drove my pregnant wife and her sister (who were in the car) to a dealer instead of whatever plans we had. I bought a Highlander on the spot and drove home in that. My wife drove that Highlander for 14 years.
I went from one extreme to the other! :)
Not owned personally but my mom's '99 Fiat Punto I used to drive in high school was awful. 60 drunk donkeys under the hood, 0-60 of eventually, brakes that yanked it to the right if you were too aggressive on them and a battery that went flat in a few days if you didn't drive the car. It also had the tendency to just keep revving up when in neutral until you either put it in gear and engage the clutch or shut off the engine.
Anyway, I still have fond memories of that car. Going down mountain roads was fun because it was very slow, but super light, so you could just keep the throttle pinned for the most part and the rotted out muffler made it sound like a racecar lmao.
Without a doubt, that would be the first car I ever owned, a Renault 21 2.0 diesel that was about 12 years old when I bought it in 1999 of thereabouts, for slightly north of € 1000.
It had some rust, but the worst part about it was that it was slow as molasses. It would do 0-100kph in 25 seconds on a good day, with a top speed of 125 on the speedometer. I laughingly called that my highway cruise control 😁
At the same time, I have very fond memories of that car, as it allowed me to visit my then girlfriend (and current wife), and had loads of cargo space. It also handled speed bumps incredibly well, so I didn't really need to slow down for them. It also helped that I never had any reliability issues with that thing, until it was totaled.
I had a Pontiac Fiero. It really was terrible in every way but I love that piece of shit. It has been the only car I have owned that appreciated in value. I sold it for almost double what I paid less than a year after I bought it.
I had a 2006 Ford Taurus that would've been stronger if it was built with Legos. Water pump fell off one day - like... just... fell off. The brackets weren't broken or misshapen or anything like that, it just fell. None of the bolts were loose or unthreaded or anything. I know that doesn't make sense. I KNOW. It makes even less sense that it happened twice.
There was also some kind of electrical issue that I could never isolate, but it was causing fuses to blow out every couple months, and would burn out the starter about once a year. I had to replace that starter so many times that I stopped needing to refer to my Chilton book for the steps. Sometimes the power steering would just stop working and then start working again with no warning.
In 2003 I learned to drive in a 1986 Hyundai Pony. The breaking point was when I got a stop sign on a slight incline and my dad had to get out while I floored it so the car could get moving again.
I can't recall the year, but it was a Dodge Aries K-car, to pin down the era. Jesus. It was a replacement for when my 1970 VW Beetle died in an accident. It was not as good as the Beetle, which says a lot.
I did once for a job briefly drive a Chevy Chevette. That might have been worse than the Aries.
my 2011 toyota camry.
it's also the best car I've ever owned, probably because it's the only car I've ever owned.
Probably my 2008 Suzuki Reno. It's coolant system was made of such brittle crumbly plastic that it would crack and leak out all the coolant, and I didn't realize this at first I didn't know to look for it, so I get off the highway after driving 20 miles just in time for huge plumes of white smoke to be coming out of the front of my car.
I got it fixed only for it to crack again and leak again. And it became this nightmare of whack a mole where I'm constantly adding coolant, constantly checking my temperature gauge, constantly bringing it in to be fixed.
And then the whole engine died on the highway and I had to pull over while driving to my new job.
I had an '82 Ford Escort. Those things were notorious for lunching the motor if the timing belt ever broke (which they did every 45,000 miles like clockwork) while you were traveling down the road. The valves would stop in whatever position they were in at that instant, and then the momentum of the car would keep the pistons moving up and down, bashing the piston tops in to whichever valves were unlucky enough to still be open, ruining pretty-much everything. At the same time I owned that car, my best friend owned an '82 Chevy Cavalier. We were constantly one-upping each other over who owned the biggest turd...
Not a car I personally owned, but I knew someone with a 2010's Audi (don't know what year/model) where the trunk lock was always broken in a way they couldn't repair, the fuel gauge had a mysterious not working issue for like a year plus, the windows didn't work, and the transmission, while automatic, would stall out on you like a manual if it was hot out, just stranding you in traffic. And this was a new lease FROM Audi, not like a used lemon.
A Mitsubishi Colt I bought from a guy in a scrapyard for £50 because my Allegro had just been stolen and I needed something quick to get to work. He told me it had an MOT and to come back the next day to pick it up (in the days before it was online) He wasn't there. It was the rustiest POS ever - bits kept falling off, you could see the road in several places through the floor. Engine was good but that was the only thing. In a lifetime of exercising Bangernomics, that was the stand out terrible car.
Most I've lost on a car was a more recent Shogun. Bought for £7,500, cost £2000 in repairs then had a lot more pending. Sold for £1400 in less than a year.
2022 Kia Sportage.
I was forced into leasing it for 4 years so thankfully I don't own it nor am I financing to own it. The thing is a gas guzzling piece of shit. The parts for it are ridiculously expensive, including getting the tires. There's not really a thing about it that I like.
An Audi TT.
FUCK Audi. Never again. Nothing but problems with that heap of shit, and repairs cost more than I paid for the car.
The car I had the most trouble with wasn't because it was a bad car, but because it kept getting trashed. VW Cabriolet convertible. Bought it when I got my first real job out of school.
One week after driving it off the lot, parked on a busy city street, someone slashed the roof and tore out the stereo. Fixed it all up. Insurance rate went up. Six months later, knife through the roof AND a smashed window. Stereo gone. Switched to a removable, pull-out stereo. Still got broken into.
Had dozens of slashes/smashes. At one point, just left the door locks open. Nothing to take. Someone slept in the back seat (left food wrappers) and pilfered through the ashtray where I kept loose change.
Loved driving it with the top down, but what a pain it was to fix.
A ten year old 1995 Kia Sportage. All sorts of electrical problems, the four wheel drive didn't work and I could never figure out why.
I will say the engine was surprisingly durable. I got it stuck in the mud and a friend of a friend tried to help get it unstuck by trying to drive it out, but only managed to get it stuck deeper and cracked the block. I had to add new coolant every day, but I drove that car gor another 6 months with a cracked block and only had to spend a few minutes trying to coax the engine to start when it was cold.
Pro tip: Never buy the first year of any car, even used.
The one I’ve got at the minute, a Seat Leon (mark 4); it’s built on top of VWs MQB platform and honestly it’s a piece of shit.
The list of issues is as long as my arm: The reversing beeper gets stuck, the graphics don’t draw on top of the reversing camera, plugging a phone in stops playback, the shitty entertainment system crashes, keyless entry gets shy when it rains, the emergency alerting system throws a fit if it loses mobile signal, there’s no light on critical controls in the dark, the interior light sometimes can’t be switched off, the cruise control gets confused about which side of the road it’s driving on and doesn’t want to overtake another car (it thinks it’s undertaking), the speed limiter is hiding behind UI 4 steps, the clutch etc etc.
Every month I discover a new niggle. This is the third Seat I’ve owned (having previously loved my two Seat Leons) and will most definitely be my last VW group car ever. What a piece of trash.
2008 Dodge Avenger. Believe it or not, it was that 2008 Dodge Avenger.
I hated every inch of that car. It was big without any of the benefits a car might have from being big. No power at all, pretty bad on gas. Didn't have a very comfortable road feel or suspension. Every inch of the car was cheap. I drove it for a long time and towards the end, around 100,000 miles, everything in the car felt like it was malfunctioning.
Other half had a Peugeot 206. Thing was an economic write off at 10 years old with barely 100,000 kms on the odometer. Endless problems every service, high chance of stranding you. Interior falling apart, paint peeling off etc. Quality control must have been non existent.
Worst car I've ever driven would be a 2021 Mitsubishi outlander hire car. The way it handled corners felt downright dangerous, weak engine with awful CVT. Average park bench has more comfort than the seats. Sometimes in my career I get a feeling of imposter syndrome, but I can look at a car like the outlander and say thank fuck I'm not at daft as the arseholes responsible for that abomination.
Hyundai sonata 2017
The door hinges do not hold the doors open. If the car is on a slight incline or a very slight wind the doors will slam shut. Better not have an arm or leg in the way.
The rear view mirror is set so low in the window that it blocks view of front right of the window.
The seats are hard as rocks. You can literally feel a metal bar that goes left to right through the seat. It’s right under your butt.
I’ll never buy another Hyundai again. Zero chance.
A 2011 GMC Terrain. It burned oil like none other. The power steering would occasionally just not work upon starting the car, requiring me to turn it off and on again a several times. Sometimes, I'd stop at a red light, the engine would die, and when I'd restart it it'd go into limp mode. And traction control and AWD would occasionally just give out, which can be dangerous where I live due to ice and snow.
The thing was a hazard and GMC and all associated brands can fuck right off.
2002 ford explorer. You don't see many 20 year old cars on the road at all, but that thing was already a rare sight by 2012 when I ignorantly bought mine.
After owning that pile of scrap for 2 or 3 years, when the 2nd transmission gave way and the front left suspension just sorta collapsed in on itself, I was left surprised that any of those cars survived beyond 2003.
I’ve only owned two cars. So the worst by default was a 1987 Ford Laser I owned in 2003.
It was the “Ghia” model. So central locking, sun roof. My uncle had modified the wheels, steering wheel, carbon shifter.
I actually loved it and it handled so well on gravel roads. But eventually the cv joints went, repaired, they went again, leaving me stranded 30km out of the nearest town.
I had a little Mazda B2200 truck for a while. The gauges didn't work so I had no idea how much gas I had, how hot it was, or how fast I was going. And it leaked everything, gas included. Thing only actually got me to where I was going half the time.
Gave it to a friend and he fixed it up
Vw jetta I think an '02. The interior was nice but it fell apart pretty quick. It ran great until almost exactly 80k miles. At that point, so much stuff started breaking all at once that I lost count. Forget even trying to work on them, I had to use so many specialized tools that were made specific to VW. I couldn't get rid of that car fast enough.
I e only ever had Japanese cars, and they’ve all been great. A Nissan, a Toyota, and a Subaru.
Whatever smart MG car, its software is so slow it would be outrun by a 2010s laptop
Ironically, a Toyota. Specifically, my 1994 4Runner (that's from back when they were still the same as the famous indestructible Hilux, BTW). I've owned it since just before the pandemic and still haven't managed to get it to run right yet. It's been parked for months because I can't find any mechanic willing to touch it.
The lesson here is that when people say the 3VZE is the one bad engine Toyota made, believe them. The most common advice I've read for fixing it is "rip it out and swap in a 5VZE," which I'm seriously considering.
A 2003 Chevrolet S10. Had it since it was brand new, it's been almost perfectly reliable. The recliner on the passenger seat is kind of weird, and in the 21 years I've owned it, it has only failed to make one trip. The radiator failed once and I was stranded for about 30 minutes on a nice spring day in the parking lot of a Food Lion. It's showing some wear after a couple decades but it starts, it runs, it's comfortable, it hauls any cargo I need, it's not tremendously big for a pickup truck so it's easy to park...I fully intend for that truck to be my hearse. Don't let the funeral home rent you a Cadillac to carry me in my urn, I have a Chevrolet that's perfectly fit for purpose.
It's the worst car I've ever owned because it is the only car I've ever owned.
Mid-2000s Suzuki Forenza. I loved having a hatchback for getting additional storage while not sacrifing fuel efficiency. This part was good on paper, but I had issues with overheating + lack of power + alignment, but the real killer was constantly needing to replace the transmission selector switch—which got me ripped off for quite a while before I know what was wrong & mechanics absolutely took advantage of me if I didn’t say exactly what was wrong. This affected almost everyone that bought the vehicle. I stuck with it for like 4 years, & ditched it for a early-2010s Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart Hatchback which was nicer in literally every way & had no issues with the vehicle. As a bonus I didn’t have to be yet another Subaru Outback driver meme.
I didn’t have it terribly long tho—I had to sell it to leave the US. I had to sell it to a dealer since I couldn’t find a buyer, & it was kinda rare to find them. Guys at the dealer ran out to gawk at it, one piped a “this is a nice car; why you think you had trouble selling”? “It’s not a Subaru”, I lamented. The rest of the men nodded their heads in agreement with that fake smile of knowing the truth. & now Mitsubishi no longer makes sedans/wagons.
But despite moving from something I loathed to loved & selling prematurely, I am not too sad since being outside the US, having a car is not a requirements where walking, public transport, & a motorbike (want a bicycle) cover my needs while being much cheaper & better for the environment.
I had a passat for 3 days when the engine almost exploded going over a bridge from engine sludge. I loved my Ranger and hate to speak ill of it, but it was a ford. I kept a full wrench set and spare parts under the jump seats. Most parts I've ever changed on a car and some repeatedly. Ultimately gave in to its unfixable head warp.
1990s Plymouth Caravan
2003 Mitsubishi Galant. Just thoroughly mediocre-to-bad in literally every regard one might care about. It did get me from point A to point B.
I bought a 1987 Cutlass Supreme and thought I had one of the best cars ever made. Except I bought it used in 2003. I learned a lot about carburetors and tightening belts that summer. The poor thing died one foggy fall day when a tractor grazed the side of it and the damage was more than the $400 the car was worth.
Worst I've owned was a Saturn. Worst I've driven was a Chevy Malibu.
Probably a 1996 Mercury Mystique
So far, a 2010 Malibu I like how it looks but as a non-mechanic working on it SUCKSSS. No rear jacking point because of the exhaust so lifting the entirety is a pain, changing the damn fuel filter is awful again because of the exhaust, 6 speed transmissions have the vss inside the transmission instead so its a hassle to change vs being mounted outside the passenger side like on the 4 speed, the tiniest space to change the serpentine belt, pinch welds (I know its the norm but I hate it), programming an extra fob requires a scanner that can do so ($400+ on amazon), it has the shortest battery cables which are crimped so changing the connectors (due to corrosion) will require either putting new cable or moving the battery orientation and somehow locking down the battery after you cut the wires, some have faulty door lock actuators (guess who got lucky and got the faulty ones), no transmission dip stick so good luck getting the right level using that damn screw it has on the transmission, flimsy trunk board and spare tire doesn't sit leveled (DIYed my solution) and lastly in my experience THE DAMN HEADLIGHTS. You'd think it would be easy to change the headlights, but noooo its a massive pain. Besides that I like the flex fuel variant, gets good mileage. Replaceable parts and liquids are easy to get and affordable, has a good community online plus I think it's pretty so I'm going to keep using it (currently fighting a mysterious problem and I'm just seeing what sticks in terms of a solution)
1993? Mitsubishi Magna.
Was literally given it and still lost money. Dry solder joints all through the main fuse/relay box. Got those all fixed and it blew the transmission.
2001 F150, hands down
1983 Peugeot 305
Wierd electrical failure incarnate.
2012 hyundai tucson. Wow, what a piece of junk. The suspension was all but fallen and rattled down the road, it was high-centered, and drove like a unicycle.
