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We are always talking about great cars. Have any of you owned really crappy cars?
What were they? What problems did they give you? What were you thinking when you bought it?
I'm actually pretty lucky. All my cars were various levels of good to okay. All pretty dang reliable.
Have you seen my daily? lol Probably the worst Miata in DFW.
My Triumph TR6 comes to mind. That is that car that taught me to work on cars. Since it was either fix it or walk......
That car truly had a soul! It was black as pitch and filled with evil but it had a soul! ::EvilBana
Not like these little Japaneses Lotus Elan copies that we drive now! ;-)
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...tSmokeKit1.jpg
I still miss that TR6.....
i had a '96 Neon that was "barney purple"... although, only the spots that still had paint... it seems Chrysler had a hard time converting to water-based paints...
thankfully, Peterbuilt had a great car crushing program!
1986 Chevy Cavalier Z24...never had a car that left me stranded as much as that POS!
http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/chevrolet-cavalier-11.jpg
Two for me. 1959 MGA 1600. I don't think I ever drove that car that smoke didn't boil from under the dash. But, damn it was fun.
http://www.sportscarshop.com/wordpre...GA-1600021.jpg
No. 2. 1960 Renault Dauphine. 32 hp, 1400 lbs. I could drive 10 tenths all over town and no one would notice. Damn it was fun.
http://www.renault.com/fr/vehicules/...dauphine-2.jpg
My Alfa Romeo GTV-6 was without a doubt a crapcan in terms of reliability, but it sure was fun when it worked.
I had a 1982 or 83 CJ7 that sucked the nugget in numerour ways. The worst part was that I traded a badass, indestructible 77 CJ5 with the 304 V8 and headers/sidepipes for it because the CJ7 was an auto with a hardtop. My gf (wife now) wouldn't drive stick (still won't) and we lived in KC where a HT was useful. I hated that truck; it was slow, the carb-ed 258 I6 was a dog, the slushbox slipped like crazy, and the electrical system was a friggin joke. F***ing truck left me stranded in Perry, OK on a Sunday in the middle of winter after the plastic valve cover flexed at the back and let all the oil blow out. Thanks for helping me relive that nightmare, William. :punchout:
Had a red 92 Classic Sentra SE-R. Paint was faded and the guy I bought it from lubed it up in some baby oil to make the paint shiny when I picked it up. Was a fun and nice beater, even took a 200 shot of nitrous without blowing up.
That's a sweet car!Quote:
Originally Posted by cone-cerned
I’ve had several…
1982 Saab 900. My first car. What a POS. It spent most of the nine months I owned it sitting on jackstands waiting on a replacement engine after the first one seized up due to a bad water pump. At various points the instrument cluster didn’t work, the netting under the seat cushion gave way (while I was on the freeway – I replaced it with a piece of plywood), the tach would drop out when the right blinker was on, etc. Drove it to Grubbs Nissan to trade it in using the parking brake, because the master cylinder had failed and I had no hydraulic pressure for the brakes. Traded it for an ’85 Nissan 200SX.
1985 Volkswagen Quantum GL5. Apparently I didn’t learn my lesson with the first Euro car. Sterotypical VW electrical gremlins – in the two years I owned it every single power window regulator burnt out, the sunroof regulator burnt out (while the sunroof was open, right before three days of rain while I was living in an apartment with no covered parking, of course), the factory radio fuse would go at random, and quite regularly. The dealer never could figure out why. This happened often enough that I could reach up under the dash and replace the radio fuse by feel while driving. I kept a glovebox full of spare fuses.
1993 Mazda RX-7. I still miss this one, but man it turned out to be a nightmare. I bought it mildly modded from ProAm in Houston. It had a minor turbo oil leak when I bought it (which was disclosed at sale). I drove it on the weekends for a few months, then took it to a “friend of a friend” who worked at Freeman Mazda to R&R the turbos so I could have them rebuilt. I sent them to Majestic in Waco for the rebuild. I got the first set back, “friend of a friend” mechanic installed them, car made no boost. Mechanic blamed turbos. Sent them back to Majestic, Majestic said they were fine, sent them back. Mechanic reinstalled them, car ran great for 30 seconds… then the primary turbo impeller broke off and was ingested by the engine. Mechanic blamed Majestic. Majestic said mechanic was idiot. I thought they were all idiots, but I was left with a very expensive paperweight. Several months, several thousand dollars and one lawsuit later, I had the car back with a rebuilt motor and new turbos, but it never ran right after the rebuild. Even Rotary Performance couldn’t figure it out. I sold it to some guy in Detroit who was going to turn it into a track car and bought a Miata.
I still miss that damn RX-7, even though it brought me nothing but misery.
My first car was a '78 Camaro with gorgeous red paint, but it was a complete piece of shit underneath. It had a doggy 305 that never wanted to run right and had a habit of randomly throwing off accessory belts. I thought it was going to have a lot of potential, but it just morphed into a shitty albatross of a car. Sold it and got an '89 5.0 Stang - shoulda kept that one...
Also had a '79 MGB for one summer. It was a fun car, but had really squirrelly brakes and a starter that didn't like to engage sometimes. It acted like half the teeth were broken off the flywheel. It also had atrocious metallic maroon paint. The upside was that it had twin Weber carbs, a long-tube header, and a cherry-bomb "muffler" out back. It was loud as hell and sounded really fierce.
Right before the Miata, I had a generic late '90s Camry with a 4-banger and a slushbox. It was quiet, comfy, and mostly reliable for a year (until the tranny blew up), but it was about as fun as driving a refrigerator. The upside? I bought it from a buddy for $800, fixed a little bit of dash damage where some crackhead tried to rip off the CD player, and basically drove it for a year until the tranny decided it was tired of life at 180K miles. Then I sold it to some enterprising young Hispanic lad for $2300...
I'm sure when it was new it was just dandy, but a year or so ago my 1995 Nissan 300ZX (NA) was probably the most frustrating car I've ever owned or worked on. The twin turbo models are even worse. If you've ever popped the hood on one, you know why. My boss still has his 1993 300ZX (TT motor, very upgraded now) up on jacks in his garage. Over the last 4 years or so that car has sat in the garage in pieces about 90% of the time, driven the other 10%. Granted, that's what happens with all project cars. When it comes to the Z's though...I know why their owners are not dying to wrench on them. What a pain.
...and every one of those Nissan V6 engines seems to leak oil like an old MG after a while. I have yet to see one that isn't bathed in oil underneath.Quote:
Originally Posted by 4W4K3
Here is a crap can-
1972 Gremlin, 150k miles. Hadn't been used regularly for 6mo (lawn art) or so when I got it as a first car. No A/C, no power nothing. Light blue paint turning to rust. Fouled its plugs so I was constantly running on 5 until I could clean them. Had a electrical short for a while where I could only run the headlights for 30-45 sec or so until they would overheat. Backfired/barfed once up thru the carburetor once so bad that is started a fire under the hood, resulting in an emergency evacuation of all 5 people in the car at the time (that is alot in a Gremlin). I spent at least equal time fixing all these things as actually driving it. It did beat a newish (back then) base Mustang in a drag race, to the everlasting shame of one of my friends. Finally sold for basically scrap value after a wreck.
Had to borrow money for my next car, but I upgraded to a 77 Plymouth Fury with right at 100k miles!
1979 Mercedes 300SD Turbo Diesel
0-60 in 22 seconds, steering wheel would turn about 30 degrees without doing anything, cracked head. Sold for $800
1986.5 Toyota Supra
POS, stranded me every time I went to the mall.
1988 Toyota Supra Turbo Targa
POS, stranded me every time I went to the mall. But it was fast.
2000 Mazda MPV
AC quit working, was slow as crap, almost stranded me because of a water leak.
You should stop driving to the mall; get someone else to drive. :D
No malls around here, heck I don't even have a car right now :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by OZMDD
The bottle of official Lucas replacement smoke reminded me of my brand new, turbocharged, '65 Corvair.Quote:
Originally Posted by POS Racing
I am in the same boat as BR...........never really had a bad car even though some of them were nothing special.
Out of the 16 cars ive had never really had any "crappy cars" but my 1972 Chevelle broke down on a regular basis thanks to it being 30 yrs old at the time and a retarded 17 yr old(obviously me):punchout: that was driving it.
My 04 SRT-4 i also had a fair amount of problems.
1)When i first purchased it, it was only making 10psi instead of the 14 psi which i contributed more then likely to vacuum leak(s) or wastegate and it turned out to be several coroded vacuum lines that went to the factory "boost controller".
2)Then the first time it rained i had about two inches of water in the passenger side floor board which over the 11 months i had i slowly tracked down the leak to a combination of the sunroof and windshield and slowed the leak to where it only made the carpet on front passenger area damp.(water leaking was a common problem on the 99-05 neon chasis, stupid, cheap, profit hungry american car manufacturers)
3)Then timing belt broke at about 69,xxx miles(over $1200 to fix, thankfully had breakdown coverage on it that covered it all but $100 deductible)
4)....and the same day i got it out of the shop about 4 miles down the road the car when trying to go into 2nd gear when leaving a stop light it wanted to die each time i let off the clutch..turns out 4th gear welded itself to the mainshaft of the transmission w/o any discoloration or signs of overheating and that cost over $4k but all but a couple hundred was covered but warranty. All the rest of the time it ran like a raped ape! As far as performance it was the best FWD i ever had.
Sooo..... your Gremlin had gremlins. Are you surprised?Quote:
Originally Posted by eliandi
I've always wanted one of those turbo neons.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilthyMonkeyRacing
the 04-05 srt4's are awesome!(only left out 03 since it had no factory LSD..can you say torque steer:punchout: ) Truely one of the best FWD's cars i have ever driven or owned. They are affordable,bottom end that can handle 500hp, factory quaife LSD, responds really well to upgrades and exhibits very little understeer for a FWD, four door, decent MPG's, cheap insurance and sound REALLY good for a 4 cylinder,probably one of the best sounding next to subaru's boxer motors. This is what i had done to mine:
Modern Performance Intercooler (24x12x3.5, good for approx. 550hp) and crash bar
Modern Performance oil catch can
Modern Performance high strength motor mount bolts
AGP dog bone motor mounts and transmission mount
AGP upper hard pipe w/ Turbo XS RFL(Really F****ing Loud....it sure was) bov and screw in air temp. sensor( that wouldnt blow out and create a boost leak like the grommet type)
AGP billet adjustable wastegate w/ 14 psi spring set at 15 psi
Injen Short ram intake
NGK iridium plugs gapped @ 0.032
Royal Purple oil and K n N filter
Booger bushings for transmission linkage(also have the two for the shifter)
Gates Racing timing belt(also replace tensioner, idler pulley, water pump, cam seals)
DC Sports front and rear strut bars
Carbon fiber SRT-4 "spark plug cover"
Clutch Masters Stage 4 clutch(6 puck) w/ steel flywheel
3'' side exit exhaust w/ Magnaflow resonator(from cat)
Just with those upgrades the car probably put down approx. 275-290 whp and over 300lbs. Here is a link of some pics:
http://s21.beta.photobucket.com/user/superhonda02/library/04%20srt4
I think most every car that I have ever owned has been a crap can in one way or another. Volvos have biodegradable wiring harnesses, my Cavalier had self loosening lug nuts...but I usually had older cars that I bought to fix up so I guess some issues were to be expected.
However, the one that stands out in my mind was a '96 Neon. Back when Autonation had their 30 day guarantee, I used it! In the month I had it, two of those weeks it was stuck in their shop for brake and transmission repairs and it only had 36K miles on it! Turned it back in and picked out a '94 Altima to replace it. Now that was a good car, boring, but good.
No, it was a POS. It did make me like AMC. Not because they made great cars, but because they were the underdog.Quote:
Originally Posted by black roadster
But they did make
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FoXyvaPSnV...ransam-001.jpg
My 1979 Porsche 924 was pretty crappy. The mechanical Bosch CIS (can it start) fuel injection made the engine look like Medusa with all the fuel lines going everywhere. the pop-up headlights didn't always pop up. The oil leaked. The exhaust literally fell off once. The tail lights would work, then not work, depending on how hard I slammed the hatch. I had to rev the engine until it warmed up in winter (the only time of year it didn't overheat). The floors got super hot. The heater, defroster, and ac were all inoperable. The removable roof panel leaked. The rear hatch leaked. I had to remove the carpet because of the moldy smell, which made the floors hotter.
It did handle well, though. I don't really miss it too much.
Hahaha, someone gave my mom a '73 Gremlin for me when I got my license. I guess I got lucky cause my mom lived 2 hrs away and we never got the car to even start. It turned out to be a rust bucket and a rats nest. Never would have made the trip so it went to someone's pasture to rust away. Some how I loved the car, call it a quirky fascination with a goofy as hell underdog, but....well I was a retarded 15 y/o.. so.
When I was 17 my brother and I went half in on a 87 Civic hatch for $500, and I think it was a ripoff at that price.
Loved that civic for some reason, drove the shit out of it, had a bitchin sound system, a ghetto rigged set of cheap 12's in the back, haha. Sounded great though. I put the 'Gremlin' emblem I kept on the front of it, hahahah I remember now my super religious step mom thought the gremlin emblem was satanic and always told me to take it off.
The one time the cd player wiring started smoking and I had to drive without loud music, I was terrified with all the horrible noises the car actually made. Made me really nervous until I got the music working again, volume to back to 11 and everything was gravy.
Car had automatic oil changing system. Had to keep a crate of oil in the backseat. One day I put a quart in leaving highschool and drove to church, the engine was clattering by the time I pulled in 15 miles down the road... Few weeks later something seized and sheared the cam gear off the cam, took it to a shop that screwed me out of a bunch of $$ and the engine never ran right after that. Finally the engine busted a rod or something very loud and completely seized shortly after with the odometer reading 187,000. Looking back that car was a cursed shit box from day one...still loved it though and it made it through a few road trips...somehow.
After the cursed civic, my dad let me drive his backup van. Oh man, this van was given to my dad post electrical fire. My dad and I completely rewired a new electrical harness. It was a late 80's Dodge panel van shaggin wagon. Never got me any shaggin to say the least. It had a cool feature in that it would crank in drive or reverse. My dad ran out of gas once driving up a hill, didn't want to push it, he remembered this wonderful feature, and, I shit you not he cranked the damn thing all-the-way up that hill and to the gas station at the top, ahahaha, still cracks me up thinking about it.
Another time the radio fell out of the dash into my lap and at the same time the wiring arced and caught fire, almost made me swerve into oncoming traffic. I remember when I worked at parks mall I had to drive up the long hill on I20 heading into arlington, I had to floor it and it wouldn't even make 50mph.
Those two cars were probably the biggest single factor that drove me to strive for a decent career. The memories with them are what drove me back to College when I got laid off. Good memories to keep me from being lazy in life, haha.