Well?

For me it was a mid eighties Dodge D-50 Ram made by Mitsubishi. Feedback carb. No power. Total POS!!! 10K!!

I had a dodge K car.  Piece of junk.  I bought it from a woman for $300 bucks.  It was ugly, ran crappy but never broke down on me.  I guess I can't complain.  My boss used to tease me about how ugly it was.  It got stuck in a hail stone the size of tennis balls and looked even worse.

Patty

79 Dodge Colt (also by Mitsubishi).

I had it 5 months. One cylinder died. I still drove it. Then a tractor-trailer merged into me on the freeway, spinning it 90 degrees (facing the center divide), where it skidded to a stop. I drove it home. Insurance considered it totaled, and I got my money back.

1971 Ford F-100. 360FE big block, 3 speed on the column. 7 miles per gallon and camoflage.

Boy was it loud though. Nothing but headers on it and it had enough torque that when it locked up in third gear, I made it home by feathering the clutch at stoplights. Almost as good as an automatic.

It was a 86 Monte Carlo.  I probably put about $1,100 into it before i sold it.  Had no radio, ate 1 qt of oil every 3 days, had a brown passanger door, etc.  It was my first car.

toss up betweek a Volksfuckingwagon jetta or a Mitsubishit Eclipse

Eclipse was a nuiscance. Volkwagon was just a PITA! CONSTANT mechanical failures.

I just got a 1981 VW Rabbit pickup for free. Has 82,000 miles on it  Hasn't run in 10 years,  or at least they could not get it to run.  

50 $ on a battery.

I'll let you know how much the PROPER fuel pump relay is at the pick and pull tomorow ( guessing about 5$), I jumpered it and it runs great.

Quoted: I just got a 1981 VW Rabbit pickup for free. Has 82,000 miles on it  Hasn't run in 10 years,  or at least they could not get it to run.   50 $ on a battery. I'll let you know how much the PROPER fuel pump relay is at the pick and pull tomorow ( guessing about 5$), I jumpered it and it runs great.

May be bad karma posting about it in this thread

Forget the exact year, but it doesn't matter.  Every single one ever made was total crap.  

ca: 1982 I was driving a Chevy Chevette.    Chickenshit yellow with a weedeater motor.  
eta:  Oh yea, the water pump had to be replaced at least every 3 months.

However, ...   hatchback with the front and rear fold-down seats was the inspiration for the original 'Lovve Chair'.  

1983 Oldsmobile Firenza.  My first car.  It and a 1985 Buick Regal turned me off to GM cars forever.  Utter pieces of shit.

Three letters.....EXP.....that's right, Ford EXP. Motor sounded like a roller coaster at the fair climbing up a steep hill....clickety clickety clickety.


roy d...drives a dodge now....nuthin but the finest for me

I had a hand me down Grand Prix at one point. My uncle bought my aunt a new car and I got her old junker. It didn't have AC, didn't have reverse, the cloth was pulling off of the roof interior, and the power windows didn't work.
I would have to drive around the school parking lot until I could find a parking spot to pull through or else I was going to have to back out with my foot or have one of my friends push me back so I could leave.

Ahhhh good times.

I got 2 chevettes I run out in the field. I have no idea how anyone could possibly drive one of these on the road, fucking sloooooow. I drove one with an AT, on the road up a decent hill and I barely got to 35 mph. 1.6L engine with 80s technology makes like 60hp. One is a '83 and the other is a '85. I have never had a mecahnical breakdown yet, too bad because I cant wait to shoot the hell out of them.

'89 Jeep Cherokee Lorado. I put 3 times what it cost me back into it. Once I finally sent it to it's grave it sucked a quart a day, poured out coolant through the JB-welded radiator, and wouldn't start the first two times that you would try.

Ford Contour.
Had a baby comming and needed a 4 door.

What a piece of crap, Ford was no joy to deal with either.

Money spent on repairs? didnt even try, I got rid of it.

Chrysler LeBaron. I don't know how much cash I sank into that thing. It finally died, so my parents donated it to a local Vocational school.

81 Saab 900 Turbo.    It was a great car, but a giant money pit.  Brakes, turbo, alternator, starter, tranny, etc.  Mostly normal stuff to go out on any car, but everything was 3x what it should cost.  I had the alternator and starter rebuilt myself.  The heater blew up and burned my ankle pretty bad.  I stlll have scars.

Quoted: Quoted: I just got a 1981 VW Rabbit pickup for free. Has 82,000 miles on it  Hasn't run in 10 years,  or at least they could not get it to run.   50 $ on a battery. I'll let you know how much the PROPER fuel pump relay is at the pick and pull tomorow ( guessing about 5$), I jumpered it and it runs great. May be bad karma posting about it in this thread

OK to make up for it.

I paid 100$ for this,



I now have over 1500$ in it and it still pretty much looks like that, except for the rear wheels.

Of course the changes have been all underneath,  it now has the rear suspension and tranny from a Porsche 924s sitting under the rear.  The other half of that project ( the front half of the 924s ) is sitting just to the left of my free pickup.



This project has been a nightmare,  I hate it when I bite off ALMOST more than I can chew.

I am amazed at the relatively few responses this topic has garnered. I suspect it's because the memory of the crappy automotive experience everyone over the age of 22 has had is too painful to commit to text.

84' S-10 Blazer.
Spent hundreds trying to keep the drivetrain and suspension in running order only to blow the engine.

I'm 38 and I still play with shitty old cars,  bought a new Dodge Dakota 4x4 back in 1990 and that was the biggest piece of shit I've ever owned.  

I'll stick with old German stuff from here till the end of time from now on.

1990 audi quattro v8 purchased at 90,000 miles.  New front brakes (only available thru audi) $2,000, O2 sensor $500, New brakes AGAIN after 2 yrs (we traded it in first) and adding insult to injury this was the only vehicle we've ever owned that might start/not start/might die/or not, anytime.  And audi could NOT solve the problem even after having the car 3 months in their service shop.  We did have a free loaner which soothed the pain.  All that aside, this was the coolest drivimg machine, all wheel drive at any speed, a real sweet road hugger. ms

1978 Audi Fox GTI. Bought it for $100 from a guy I worked with.

1984 Fiero!

That POS was never 100%

You're not even going to believe this but it's the truth.  77 Silverado pickup that had a former life as a snowplow.  Still had the hydraulics on it and the plow in my parking space.  The driver's side door was not only rusted shut, and had a hole in it you could shove a basketball through, but the plastic inside with the armrest and all that crap was gone.  Power windows still worked, though.  You just had to follow the wire down to the toggle switch and you could see the window go all the way down.  It was stuck in 4WD, too.  The bed was rusted through in so many spots it was like looking through a spiderweb.  The turn signals didn't work, and neither did the brake lights.  I picked up a couple red reflectors from a Walgreens and stuck them on the back and that kept the po-po at bay for some reason.  I guess they didn't think anybody would be so stupid as to do that so they figured their eyes were playing tricks on them.

Brand new Chevy 350 engine, though.

What else.

Power steering was broken so you had to muscle that wheel like the devil to get it to turn.  I had one side painted to look like a lava lamp and the other side said B!tches, Man! in letters three feet high, but the guy that painted it misspelled B!tches.  

On headlight worked on the truck and one high beam worked on the plow, so you had to pick which headlight to use.

There was some other stuff, but it's even worse than this, so I'll leave it here.  License plate was BZBMB.

87 Chrysler Lebaron

Looked good because the previous owner had it painted.  Turns out the suspension was shot.  One day, it just died, and wouldn't start.  Left it sit, and it started... then died on the way home.  Towed to Pep Boys (never ever do that again!) and they check it out, and I TELL them to test the alternator.  They say it's fine and it's just the battery...but OH... my timing chain cover is all fubar.  I have them fix it.  $250 (which was a LOT for a working college kid) later, I get it back, drive to the mall with a friend, then get home and it dies again.  Battery is dead.  I take it back to Pep Morons, and they check the alternator, and sure enough, it's bad.  I try to get them to give me back my old battery, because apparently that wasn't the problem, and I was out $60 for a new battery that I didn't need.   Fucking service mgr wouldn't budge.  I told him fuck it, replace the alternator, and that will be THE absolute LAST time Pep Boys ever TOUCHES a vehicle of mine.  

Later on, some fuseable link kept blowing, which consequently completely disabled the car.  Turns out it was a bad O2 sensor.  I fixed it and traded it on a much better car.

To this day, Pep Boys has never laid a finger on any car I've owned.  I buy parts and supplies there, but that's it.   Fuck 'em.  

86 Olds Calais

Power steering didn't work, AC didn't work, carpet was all torn up and it leaked all of its coolent out every 3 days. Had to run for 15 minutes every morning in the winter or it would never get warm.


Some kid in a Jeep cherokee plowed into it and his insurance company gave me 3x what it was worth, I bought a cheap Honda CRX that lasted all through college and has 190,000 miles again.


I'll probably be a Honda guy for the rest of my life.

88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.

When it was working (most of the time) it was great. I think I replaced every major component in the engine and drivetrain, including the whole engine, turbo, master cylinder, trans, with the exception of the battery.

It cost me more in repairs in the long term than it did to buy it. I was so happy to get rid of it.

My Damn wifes 1986 Plymouth Horizan, 1 radiator, 3 head gaskets, 1 cyl. head, 2 Water pumps,
4 Timing belts, 3 CV Axels, 1 Hub bearing, More brake rotors than I had in a record collection,
everytime I thought to have enough money to get out of it something would come up and then
of course a couple of weeks later it would F_ck up again.....

Damn you Lee Iacoca

I've only owned two cars....... did my homework before buying either one.

My first car was a 1979 Datsun 310GX.  Horrible piece of shit



The ignition under the steering wheel died, so I rewired it through the glove compartment.  
The fuel tank fell out of the car while I was driving it over a speed bump (at a slow speed), I had it repinned back into place.
The engine fell out of the mounting and pinned the transmission into one gear, had to have it attached to it's mounting again.  

I'm really shocked I didn't bite it in a fiery crash in that thing.

A 1981 Subaru GL.

I spent hundreds redoing the front end -- CV joints, axles, and ball joints -- plus a new muffler, and THEN the trasmission blew.

Junked it.

1984 Porsche 944. It was a complete turd.

Plagued with horrible electrical problems when I first got it.

Computer went out.

Linkage to the tranny which is in the rear of the car broke while I was in traffic.

Always had a problem with randomly stalling for no reason although it would start right back up again.

Had some sort of strange problem with pumping oil into the cooling system even after I replaced the head gasket and had head inpsected. Wouldn't do it all the time but just all of a sudden oil pressure would drop then temperature would go up. I would pull over to the side of the road and there would be brown oil/antifreeze mixture pouring out of the coolant reservior.  

My first car, a 1969 Opel Kadett station wagon.  The color of mine was gold:

Why am I not surprised that the pic of the Opel Kadett killed this thread?

1987 Toyota Tercel.

Toyotas were supposed to live forever like Hondas.  Mine sucked big time.

It had less than 100,000 miles on it and it was shitting parts monthly and then weekly.  It came from a friend of my mother's who was selling it to get into something bigger.  She cut me a deal on it since it was my first car.  I knew she had maintained it because she had every freaking record for oil changes, tune-ups etc.  The paint was perfect.

When it died it was leaking oil, transmission fluid, and anti-freeze.  I maintained it as well but damn, when it broke parts other parts went and then poof!  One day it was a heap of junk.  

Believe it or not the car I beat on the most and had last to over 200,000 miles was a 1989 Chevy Celebrity (2.8L V6).  That damn thing went forever and until recently my sister still drove it as a backup car.

I had a 1981 Ford Crown Vic two door...yes, two door, that was red with white vinyl top. It looked like some fucking fire chiefs car. It had that problem (supposedly an 1981 problem) that if you hit the brakes too hard the car would shut off. When this happened you lost your power steering, and were more or less just along for the ride. Great fun! One day i was leaning my foot on the bumber to tie my shoe and the fucking thing fell off...the bumper, not my shoe.

I owned a 1983 Renault Le Car that was much better than that Ford POS...

1997 Hyundai Excel. When the time came, I just tossed that POS, happy to be rid of it.

It was a free hand me down so the price was right.

What was the crappiest car I ever had? How much did I waste repairing it before I gave up?  

Well that would have to be my first car I owned while stationed in Germany, a 1977 BMW 316.




I first laid eyes on this car while out drinking with some buddies at a local GI hang out. We were outside drinking Weizen when this guy pulls up in front of the pub and parks. I noticed a for sale sign in the window and started asking him questions about the car. Seems he was PCSing and needed to sell it…..price $800.00!

Now in 1985 $800.00 was about all a PFC made in a month but I had to have that car, see I had just met the future Frau Quib who lived 2 hours away and riding the train was getting old!

Well we went to get the car inspected for the transfer which is standard in Germany, all vehicles must be inspected for condition and safety. Well my new purchase failed the inspection! The brakes needed replacing and the body had numerous rust holes which had to be repaired. Well every night for about a week I walked across post to the auto shop parking lot where my car was sentenced to sit until I could get her repaired and roadworthy .

Well after all the hard work, the day finally came that my baby passed the inspection! That following Thursday evening during my nightly telephone conversation with the future Frau Quib, I informed her I would not be arriving with the train as usual the following day, but instead would be driving my NEW car up to see her!

Friday evening finally arrived and I was headed out the front gate, bags packed for the weekend, ready for the trip up to see my girl! Well no sooner out the front gate and on the main road I accelerated up to the 80 km speed limit. I barely made 60km when I thought the whole front end of the car would shake loose! I had to turn around, head back to post and call off the weekend visit to my girl, there was no way I could cruise the autobahn in that car doing 60k’s or less! You see when I test drove the car I never drove anywhere but on post where the max speed limit was something  like 15mph, so there was no way of knowing that the car was in dire need of a front end alignment and balance!

Front end alignment and balance completed I attempted trip number 2 the following Friday. All went well for the first hour. During my cruise north on Autobahn 9 my motor suddenly got louder and louder until I realized that my muffler was about to fall off!  Well it eventually did fall off and I had to insert earplugs for the rest of the trip north. When I finally arrived at Frau Quibs house her mother said she thought the Army was having maneuvers  and a tank was coming down the road towards the house!

My  future brother-in-law Hansi welded the muffer together and I made it back to post Sunday evening. The welds did finally give and I had to invest $600 in a new exhaust system for a $800 car!

I drove the car for about a year when I went off to PLDC and left the car with a buddy. My first week in PLDC he calls to tell me that he was driving across post and drove over some railroad tracks. At the moment he crossed the tracks both rear struts busted through their rusted mounts and came to rest on the rear deck!

I eventually had to register the car as scrap and watched as a forklift carried it past the hanger where I worked and dumped it at the back of the post at the condemned vehicle lot.

My next purchase was a 1979 Opel Rekord, this is how it ended up, if you want to know how……..start a thread on what damage can occur when running over a dear going 85mph!

This is a funny story (well it is now) about one of my old junkers from many years ago. I took my daughter and one of her friends to the local beach, the dairy queen and drove them around to stores. Just a fun day with the kids.

The next day I went to put something in the back seat and noticed that the entire back floorboard was gone. I could see my driveway!!! Shit!!!  Panic.

I talked to my daughter about it and she said that when they climbed in, it let loose when they stepped on it and they didn't think it important enough to tell me. I was driving all over the day before with two kids and no floorboard. I'm so lucky they didn't get hurt.

The next day I bought a car with strong floorboards and yes I did check. P.S. I still drive junkers.

Quoted: 1987 Toyota Tercel.

Turdsell. The only Toyota I will not have anything good to say about.

1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme SL.  Couldn't get it to stop overheating, even after radiator work, new hoses, thermostat, etc.  Turns out it was the fan assembly -- it was electric, so it turned on when the computer told it to, not like a perpetually turning fan such as in a frontal engine whose fan is rotated by a belt (Olds, btw was a shitty transverse engine).  Oil pan and tranny were leaky, didn't figure it was worth dropping the engine to replace the oil pan gasket, so I gave it to my cousin.


On the other hand, it was pretty fast.  120 mph on an 2.8L 80's 6-banger aint bad

Never owned any crappy cars and most of my bikes were bought new.

Did have a 1967 Bultaco 250 that occasionally would start and run backwards but that was kinda fun so I never thought of it as a "bad thing"...

After my brother totaled my first pickup 3 weeks after I bought it 20-some years ago, I had to get a new vehicle to get around in and didn't have much in the way of $$. I settled for a really really old Nissan to get me from point A to point B. That thing ran for a few months then finally gave up the ghost in the middle of the street one day. By then I had enough cash that I went out and got a better vehicle. About a year later my brother borrowed THAT vehicle and totaled that one out too. He's never driven another one of my cars again.