What was the worst and best car you ever owned?

[Odysseus]

I have a real soft spot for a W124 E Class. I had a 1992 300E saloon in black with sportline suspension and 16” alloys. I remember that car feeling incredibly fast but it was ‘only’ 180bhp through a four speed auto.

Thanks for putting the pictures up. [emoji846]


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[olliesgrandad]

 I agree with some ofBen01s comments but the rubbish cars I had were all bought brand new so should have been okay. I remember having to replace a rusted through exhaust on my Marina almost immediately after the 12 months warranty expired. The Allegro was a joke. I spent about 2 months of my first 12 months ownership in loan cars. Bear in mind that these cars cost around £1300 brand new which equated to a year's salary so they weren't actually cheap. I have checked a payslip from 1974 when I bought my Marina so know this is accurate. 

My wife and I have owned cheap cars in the last few years. She currently has a Fiat 500 which is amazingly good for a cheap car. We ran a couple of Ford Fusion diesels which were also totally reliable and comfortable. None of them could be called a 'bad' car. The premise that all bad cars are cheap is far from true. Not that long ago BMW had the 'nikasil' engine issue which particularly affected cars in the North of England where there was more corrosive sulphur in the petrol. The bigger engined BMW Z3's had a nasty habit of pulling diff carriers out of floor pans due to bad design and weak spot welds. Mercedes from the Early noughties were rusting through panels in less than 2 years. 

I think this shows that some very expensive models are 'bad cars'. 

Don't ask me about my experience with my late 2014 Mini Cooper which I bought new......

[olliesgrandad]

2 hours ago, Odysseus said:

I have a real soft spot for a W124 E Class. I had a 1992 300E saloon in black with sportline suspension and 16” alloys. I remember that car feeling incredibly fast but it was ‘only’ 180bhp through a four speed auto.

Thanks for putting the pictures up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The W124 was probably the best built Mercedes for many years. I know that my car cost the first owner £42000 in 1992,so at today's money is probably nearing the 10000 mark. But the build quality was amazing which I think can be sent in the interior shot. With the sunroof and pillar less construction it was the ideal long distance cruiser. My car was factory fitted with a long range 90 litre tank which gave it a range of around 500 miles at 26 Mpg. 

[gdh300]

Worst - Morris Marina 1.7, 1978 vintage I think. Bought it for £125 so perhaps shouldn't have expected too much. If they wanted to design something to rust, they couldn't have done a better job. Swimming pool in the back footwells, lights that randomly went on and off, leaking seals on the axle, dodgy car, on and on... But it did start every time I asked in the four months I had it, so in that sense perhaps a better car than my FIAT Coupe...

Best - IS300, without a doubt, the best £3000 I have ever spent on a car. I so wish I could have afforded one when they were still in production. 

[olliesgrandad]

8 hours ago, Eame64 said:

i had one of these two.

Did your Z3 have a wooden centre console fitted as I test drove one in Bidford on Avon at a small garage. I eventually bought my car in Harold Wood Essex privately. 

[Chris Skelton]

On 7/20/2018 at 3:27 PM, The-Acre said:

I must admit to liking that GTi ☝

I had the bumpers, spoiler and rear 'grille' painted to match the car. Wish I'd kept it now. Bought by a guy who -medically - needed an auto car. Exported it to Aussie, where this picture is.

[The-Acre]

2 hours ago, Chris Skelton said:

I had the bumpers, spoiler and rear 'grille' painted to match the car. Wish I'd kept it now. Bought by a guy who -medically - needed an auto car. Exported it to Aussie, where this picture is.

How many times have I said "I wish I'd kept it" but still I don't learn!

[Ben01]

32 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

How many times have I said "I wish I'd kept it" but still I don't learn!

Amen fot this. But life is brutal and cut our dreams, and I have no space nor money for 6 cars. At the moment. But (Arnold voice mode) "I'll be back".

Maybe we should start another topic "what cars did you plan to keep forever but you were poor and stupid and let them go?"

[The-Acre]

1 hour ago, Ben01 said:

Amen fot this. But life is brutal and cut our dreams, and I have no space nor money for 6 cars. At the moment. But (Arnold voice mode) "I'll be back".

Maybe we should start another topic "what cars did you plan to keep forever but you were poor and stupid and let them go?"

Good point, and for me it would have to be my 69 Chevy Malibu in a rare right hand drive but poverty told me it had to go!

[Ben01]

49 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

for me it would have to be my 69 Chevy Malibu in a rare right hand drive but poverty told me it had to go!

Nice ride

Ok, lets steal the topic, for me it would be Camaro 1995 for sure, relocation to Scotland kicked her out to the market. And Pontiac Fiero 1984, broken a bit so pointless a bit, and gone "on general principles", but never forgotten. And Pontiac Trans Sport 3.8, fenomenal locomotive, moved us to Scotland and flied thru Europe many times, but detoriated and gone (and it would be such a fine "minicamper" for now...). And I should keep as monument one of many Granadas Scorpio Ghia we had, or this unique manual Merkur Scorpio... Damn, half of the fleet was too good and too exotic to go, but about 5-6 cars I always have given up and sold something. And relocation to Scotland deleted leftovers. 😐

[Chris Skelton]

PS. I have a fond memory of spending 9 weeks touring Northern Iberia in my cream 1955 Citroen Traction Avant 'Commerciale'. Wild camping 'in spades'; people sitting outside bars in villages standing and cheering as we drove in, etc.! Even broke a driveshaft in Segovia, but they found a replacement in 10 days. Didn't mind hanging about......

[i-s]

Holy Thread revival!

I've not owned many cars...

1998R Mitsubishi Galant GLS 2.0 Auto Estate

2001X Mitsubishi Galant Elegance GDI 2.4 Manual Estate

2003 53 Honda Accord Tourer Executive 2.0 i-VTEC Manual

2011 Volvo V70 D5 SE Lux Polestar Geartronic

2015 Nissan Leaf Tekna

 

Now the 2015 GS450h Premier is coming in to replace the V70 and will reside alongside the Leaf. 

 

As you can tell, I've always had a bit of thing for Japanese cars. I hate the spec stinginess of european cars, gouging for things that should just be standard - One time I had a VW Passat B6 hire car - R-line bodykit, alloys, parking sensors, 2.0TDI with DSG gearbox..... and wind-up windows in the back!!!

So of my 5 cars there's one worst and 4 best... The worst was the Galant GDI - it was a mistake to buy and I only kept it a year. Everything was on the verge of collapse with that car, and it was a shame because my previous Galant was great. The GDI engines were a nightmare outside of Japan, the gearbox was awful, suspension was dying (in worse shape with half the mileage than my previous), etc. 

The other 4 are all the best cars I've ever had, in their own ways. 

My R-Reg Galant was my first car and so it holds a special place for that. It had its mechanical foibles but it never let me down. Mitsubishi were an underappreciated brand I think, and back in the 90s they were doing some great engineering - sadly it all rusted away far too quickly. 

My Honda was great - great engine, amazing gearbox (rifle-bolt precise, never mis-shifted, never reluctant to go into gear), bombproof mechanicals and it was incredibly cheap to run as I could DIY service it. 

The Volvo is a great car because it's extremely comfortable with lovely seats and ride. The interior design and quality of materials is much nicer than the 5-series and E-class, and there's a lot of things where you feel that Volvo actually design cars to live with, rather than for the motoring press. 

The Leaf is great because being EV it's so zippy and responsive, even on very basic mechanicals (macstrut/torsion beam). Interior is pretty naff and the infotainment relatively infuriating, but the EV side is so good that it makes up for it. It's like my Canon EOS D30 was - very early digital SLR camera. The focusing, metering, framerate, viewfinder, etc were all awful - it was a terrible Camera compared to my EOS 3, but it immediately demonstrated the crushing superiority of digital to film (And I never felt that I had a camera that matched the EOS 3 as a camera until many years later with the 5D3). In a similar way, the leaf is not a very good car compared to what I'm used to (first thing I've ever owned without independent rear suspension for example), but it demonstrates the crushing superiority of EV over ICE. 

 

[Odysseus]

Worst car without question was my P38 Range Rover.  Abysmal build quality and woeful reliability.  Awful thing.  The British motoring press is FAR too forgiving of the shoddy nature of Land Rover products in my opinion.

Also poor was my Smart Roadster Brabus.  Looked fantastic but rubbish build quality and frequent problems.

Best car was probably my Mercedes CLK, mostly because I had it for eight years and 120,000 miles and it went with me from being a bachelor right through to when my first child was born.

 

 

 

 

[superatticman]

I've generally been lucky with my cars. Never really had any total dogs. The absolute reliability and 'guts' of my numerous Japanese cars mean I'm going to have to be pretty harsh on the two I've chosen as my worst. 

MG ZT Cdti 2004. Decent looking, well appointed and actually very reliable. However the build quality was indicative of a company struggling big time. How I never picked up on it during the test drive I don't know, but the interior rattles, buzzes and creaks drove me up the wall. At one point the entire dashboard resonated with the throttle. Also had seemingly incurable squealing brakes. Original pads and discs wouldn't resolve. A real shame as this car had quite a bit going for it. Divorce was after just 2 years. 

BMW 523i- 2009. My current and quite a staggering choice as a 'worst car'. However nice, however well built, however prestige, however comfortable it is inside, I've spent some serious money on that car just keeping it afloat. I've actually worked out its chomped through £4000 in repairs in 4 years. That outside of consumables such as discs, pads etc!! We're talking nearly £6 grand over 4 years on servicing and repairs. Funnily enough its actually been pretty reliable and only once left me stranded. Someone on the BMW5 forum did say BMW ownership comes as a real shock to 'Honda' or 'Lexus' man. And he's not wrong......

The two best. 

Honda Accord Coupe V6 1999. Conservative soft coupe which sold by the bucketload in the USA but didn't really make an impression here. Didn't excel at anything obvious. Not quite as fast as a CLK320 or 406 V6 Coupe. Didn't handle quite as well. Maybe not as pretty looking either. However this thing had balls of steel. Reliability was immense and quality of engineering miles ahead of the Germans. AutoExpress put this car miles behind the two previously mentioned cars as a brand new buy. However...I reckon from 4-5 years old as a second hand car the Honda would have absolutely destroyed the other two as a value for money buy. The CLK would have been crying out for sensors here and there, the Frenchie would have been starting to creak, rattle and squeak. Never burned a drop of oil, never missed a beat. Used to get loads of compliments from those in the know. Will I ever own something as reliable as this? 

Opel Monza 3.0E 1983. Another soft coupe. Bought with around 100k on the clock in 1994 this old beast was starting to show major signs of wear. Rust spots were appearing, there were a few minor oil and water leaks, the heating system was iffy. And yet....it was the Millennium Falcon of cars. Mainly due to a still potent straight six 3 litre engine which could propel this car with ease past 100mph and beyond. Was capable of embarrassing hot hatches and leaving even some turbo charged boy racer mobiles behind. It had its hissy fits, misfires from cold and once I had to give the dashboard a huge thump with my right first to bring the whole thing to life. Must have covered around 30,000 miles in this car before the suspension mounts died and the car was a write off. The Ford 2.8i V6 engine of the time often got the plaudits, but the GM 3.0i Straight six was a far better engine. Was damn comfortable too. 

 

[LexusIS300h]

Great topic and some good examples of winners and losers 👍

I had 2 worst cars, the first being a 1968 Reliant Regal (Del Boy style for the younger generation),a geuine solid pile of 💩. Always broke down, no matter if you were driving on a motorway or had it parked up. I only bought it cos it was all I could afford at the time, but OMG penny wise, pound foolish. Did it again with a MkI Ford Escort that had had all its electrics rewired in random sequences. The only good thing about going to a drive in with this POS was that the car was parked on a slight slope so it helped with the bump start when the film finished. No lights to go home with, but fortunately at the time not much traffic either.

The best car has to be my IS, just love the luxury of it and smoothness, something that was missing in my previous favourite, a Prius 2nd gen.

 

[Britprius]

My worst car was a Vauxhal Victor 101. This car possibly had the softest suspension of any car including the Citroen 2CV. On a strait road the ride was very smooth but cornering there was so much body roll, and you had to hang on to the steering wheel to stop you sliding along the front bench seat covered in a shiny plastic material. The bodywork dissolved while you watched in the rain.

The best car for performance, and comfort without doubt is my GS450H, In reliability, and economy terms as in the post above over 10 years, and 140,000 miles my Prius gen2 Tspirit wins hands down. The only item replaced in that time was a NSF wheel bearing getting noisy due to pothole damage.

John.

[Bob King]

Worst car a Rover 216 EFI VP was advised not to buy as an unreliable help of poo but purchased all the same, as a mechanic I was sure I could keep on top of it, fuel injectors would pack up at random and then start working again, would also cut out at junctions but with no mixture or idle adjustment it was the computer with a mind of its own, then the auto gearbox would loose a couple of gears at random......put it up for sale as it was sold within a week .

Best car my is my current Lexus SC430....best screwed together car I’ve ever owner 👍🏻👍🏻

 

[Dapprman]

Hmm Best Car.  My heart does remind me of my Alfa 164 3.0 v6 Lusso -but that's only really for the 3 litre Busso engine and ignores the electrical problems, failed aircon, and massive oil consumption.  My MK1 MX5 (which was supercharged for 3 years) certainly comes high, though I think the 17 years I kept it for mean I do not miss it ... much.  The one car I do still miss, however, is my Citroen C6 (2.7 tdi Lignage).  Inside and out it just shows how well the French (and Italians) can design cars.  Swapped it post 100,000 miles for the GS after the second turbo went in short order.

 

Worst - without doubt a last generation Vauxhall Cavalier 1.7 TDi LE - poor car, terrible seats, and mine was a Friday build - fortunately it was a company car.