What is the most unreliable vehicle you have experienced?

79 Pontiac Sunbird. Pushed the clutch in one day, and the clutch cable housing busted through the firewall. Air could never cool the inside. The hatchback was full glass. It was like a rolling greenhouse. However, it got 40 mpg.

 

Fortunately my experience on this was rather indirect. Held a flashlight a few times, tagged along on a junkyard run once or twice. Oh, and got to watch a few things break while I was in the car. But it wasn't my car and I didn't really have to work on it so all in all I just got to watch the show...

1969 (I think) FIAT Spider. Legendarily awful vehicle of course. It was just comically bad. Something was always broken and it seemed like every weekend was just a triage of what was the worst broken thing to fix first. Of course some things would break multiple times before you ever got around to fixing something lower on the triage list.

Besides all the usual junk you just expect to be constantly broken on a FIAT the more memorable "really?" incidents included the parking brake failing and the car rolling down a hill into a tree (fortunately no one hurt and to be honest we were more concerned about the welfare of the tree than the piece of junk car) and being stuck in a parking lot traffic jam wanting to participate in the useless honking people were doing when the horn itself broke resulting in a comical wheezing coughing sound.

Oh, and the window was hilarious, we about died laughing (and crying) after pulling off the door panel to fix a stuck window. Clearly someone at FIAT had a family member who owed a pulley company. There were at least 10 more pulleys in that tiny door than were necessary to raise and lower a window.

 

I've owned 14 vehicles in my lifetime so far, and the worst one, hands-down, was the Jeep Comanche. Sweet truck, but that f'ing thing broke down every month. I had an International Scout II that broke down all the time as well, but that was a '72, so it had an excuse.

 

my family owned a couple of VW's in the early 2000's and will never have a VW/Audi product ever again. these cars were purchase brand new, and had lots of little (but very significant) issues:
switches for trunk and gas door repeatedly broke - couldn't put gas in car or open trunk
periodically wouldn't start which seemed like a dead battery, but then if left would start no problem
strong gasoline smell that dealer said was fine
my sisters car had to be towed with 1,000 miles on it for some recall

 

77 caprice classic, new tranny in 79, then in 1980 plastic started dripping on my shoes, got out and watched it burn to the ground. Never bought a Chevy again.

 

Most un-reliable vehicle...hands down '77 Hardly Davidson sportster I owned for about 2 weeks in the Navy...either that or an '81 Dodge Aries that, shit you not, would vapor-lock driving down the road at 70 mph (downhill)

 

93 GMC Jimmy, 4.3 Vortec

The well-maintained engine threw a rod, went through a transfer case, transmission, and a huge amount of electrical and other minor issues--all before 130k.

 

91 Honda Accord. Maybe a got a bad batch?

-Transmission rebuild
-Clogged fuel pump
-Timing cover leak
-Pullies
-Antenna motor
-both rear window motors
-All the power locks froze eventually

 

did it come with a bag of this?

 

93 Ford Ranger.Bought it brand new that yr.Constant smog related not passing issues and engine was stressed and done at 75k miles.Took care of the truck and it was just simply a POS!

 

89 BMW 318i, thing was a drift missile. Had a poorly welded diff that snapped one day out at the track (<what made me get rid of it), the SR20 that was in it wasn't built well, had to overhaul that twice in the 5 months I had it.

Not mine but my buddy had a R33 Skyline that we had to tear apart what felt like every other week, he claims the PO didn't take good enough care of it. Pulled like a freight train when it was running correctly or didn't have a knock. Motor failed from overrevving after he sold it to some kid. Last I saw the frame is still at the junk yard.

 

98 Chevy blazer 4x4. Same pos as a jimmy. Shit a main bearing at 86k. Dropped a crate motor in. Replaced the mitiport fuel injector 3 times. Ac compressor 2 times. Abs sensor recall after they did the recall my abs light would come on once a week take to the dealer repeat. My wife called it the cancer. I traded it in for a 94 Nissan frontier 4 banger even Stevens tags and title done.

 

1991 Olds Cutlass Sierra - It wasn't a bad car at all.... but it was my worst. I was 16. It was a family hand-me-down, and I drove it like a 16 year old. The details are not in keeping with site policy. All the big components held up amazingly well. I remember driving around with a buddy one day and his door flew open. We were laughing so hard we almost pissed ourselves. Here he was holding the door shut telling me to stop and I'm nailing every left turn as fast as I can while he was using his feet as anchors under the dash and seat thinking I was trying to kill him. I have no idea how I survived my youth.

I later got a 1990 Chevy Caprice Classic, then a 1991 Chev s10 reg cab 2wd. Both were great to me and lots of good memories.

Since having the money to pick and choose my vehicles, I have had a Civic, and 4runner, and 2 tacomas and have had great luck.

 

'99 Porsche Boxster

 

I've only had 1 lemon in 35 years of driving. '91 Jeep cherokee 4.0. I bought it brand new and it was the 1st year with the HO 4.0. it was plagued with electrical issues from day 1. Great vehicle otherwise. I traded it for my '96 Trooper which was 1 of the best vehicles I ever owned.

 

A tie between my '85 Cherokee (2.8 V6) and my '96 Yukon. Both were within a couple of years of being new when I had them. Both were giant crapwagons, especially the Yukon.

 

You just brought back some good memories. I had a hand me down 1978 chevy monza. That would swing the driver side door open. The only saving grace was that you could hear an audible click before it swung open. It scared the shit out of me the first few time it did it. After a wile I would yell out "I'll get that". My friends would shit their pants and then laugh their ass off

 

1999 Jeep Cherokee - purchased new

Rear main seal oil leak at 9k that several dealers could never fix.
Fog light switch multiple times.
Keyless entry multiple times.
Rear cargo door froze at 12k. Took 2 days at dealer to fix.
Drivers power window broke, in the down position, during rain.
Water leaked onto passenger floor during rain. Dealer could not figure it out.
Three radiators in 110,000 miles.
Rear axle gave out at 90k. $1500 to replace.
Vacuum lines at 95k. AC and cruise control stopped working as a result.
Transmission was starting to go at 110k.

The tranny was the final straw. Traded it for a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder. That was the best vehicle I've ever owned - never more than gas, oil, tires and maintainence in 133k. Still miss that truck. They don't build them like that one anymore.

 

I had a 1970 FIAT 124 Sport Coup, same mechanics. It was my first car, I wanted a sports car, it had the twin cam engine which was ultra rare at the time. I was always making a run to the wrecking yard for parts. They always had lots of parts.

The parking brake sucked because it had 4 wheel disc brakes and the parking brake attempted to operate the rear calipers, there were no auxiliary drums for the parking brake.

I'd forgotten about it until I saw this thread, thanks for stirring up old trauma. There's a reason Fiat abandoned the US market.

And now for the most amazing thing, I saw a running Fiat 124 Spider a couple days ago, I was amazed.

 

Ford 6.0L Powerjoke diesel. Haven't owned one but have been around and worked on em. Pretty solid trucks everywhere else except the motor. I regularly see them cruising by blowing blue and white smoke.