Least reliable car you've ever owned.

[maxmk8]

For me it was a 1993 Mazda 626 4 cylinder.
The car had 64k miles when i first got it. That was back in 1999, paid $5600.

So let the fun story begin, at 90k the transmission lost gear 3 and 4, and $2500 later i had myself a rebuilt tranny. (Yes Mazda replacement parts are ridiculously expensive). I had about 3 front brake jobs by the time i sold it at 142k.
Well at 95k the half shafts needed replacement (mucho money about $600-700).
At 100k the air bag light went on and I need a new air bag module $400. Had to bring the car 3 times to the dealer to get it fixed since it kept on reappearing.
At 105k the valve gasket went south.
At 110k the engine pulley disintegrated tearing up a belt.
At 110k The CV boots went out.
At 120k the transmission and the torque converter went out again leaving me stranded in the middle of nowhere and without any gears at 3 am. Yep another $600 out the window.
At 125k the ball joints went out. Wasn't fun driving the car, it was leaping from side to side ($300).
At 135k the distributor went out, causing the car to die above 3000 rpms no one could figure out the problem, took a $180 diagnostic at the dealer to find the prob. Distributor was $230 used.
At 142k I sold the car!
Well to list some of the problems at 142k miles.
Engine was loosing 1.5 quarts every 3k miles, please note that the engine oil capacity was 3.7 quarts.
The front end was shot needed new upper and lower control arms etc etc couldn't get the car aligned anymore.
The air bag light was on intermittently again.
Car was leaving some oil spots on the ground after being parked for a while.
Car was sold for $1650. 6 month ago with 142k miles on it pheeeew.

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[felo3769]

ive only had two so far, Jeep Grand cherokee (1999) and my current 2000 Lincoln LS. The jeep was always having a different problem. The engine overheated on me 3 times in less than a month and they were never able to fiix it. The brakes were replaced a couple of itmes too, and also the whole bunch of recalls with the jeep. My LS left me stranded once, a hose broke and the engine overheated and my brakes suck, always squeling and they could never fix it either.

 

[dsinclair]

It's tough to say.

After having owned some of the most notoriously lousy cars in the history of manufactured automobiles I can hardly say which was the worse. Let's see...

Could have one of the two Renault LeCar's I owned. One was no better than the second - the only difference was one yellow and other one was red. Bucket of bolts the whole pair. Used to impress my friends by taking corners so fast the inside rear wheel would lift off the ground.

The '63 VW Bug was foul - wouldn't go over 40 - valves were so bad. I used to amuse my friends by standing on the floorboard with my torso out the sunroof (back when sunroofs were BIG) and drive around the school flashing peace signs. Stopped doing that after I fell over and almost crashed the stupid thing into the flagpole.

Might have been one of the two Triumph Spitfires - except one redeemed itself when my wife made a rude comment about the car and a rock flew up from the road - just cleared the top of the windscreen and bopped her square in the head. I was laughing so hard I had to pull over - then the damn thing stalled and we had to call for a ride home. One of them had such nasty wiring - I was driving home one night and smelled something (nothing odd about that in those cars) and when I got home I reached to the center of the dash to flip off the headlights and the my finger just mushed into a huge glob of melted plastic. I had to use the battery cable to turn them off.

But then there was the '66 Chevy my brother gave me (after picking up a check from the insurance company because it was totalled and he bought back the thing and pocketed $100 bucks). I was coming home from college when the pig chugged to a halt just off the freeway. I got out of the car all disgusted - stompted out my cigarette - lifted the hood - and get a huge face full of white smoke from the broken fuel pump that had spewed raw gas all over the hot exhaust manifold (three seconds longer on that smoke - and I would have been smoked). Same car decided to break an engine mount - which meant the engine spun so far sideways in first gear (engineers call it rotational torque) - that the cluch pedal assembly fell out of the stay - AND the throttle twisted to full blast. No clutch - full gas - and there I am doing donuts in the field next to the church - trying to get off the side of the door I was pinned to - and reach the key.

Yeah - I've had more than my share...

 

[1wykdmk8]

Mine I would have to say was a 1987 Ford Escort EXP. I kinda liked the looks of it, but the dang thing was nickel and diming me to death. Every time I turned around I had to do something to the car.....brakes....wiring.....alternator......AND I put like 60,000 miles on it in like 8 months......so basically I ran it into the ground. I then traded it in on my first NEW vehicle....my first S-10.........a 1991 S-10 Tahoe edition.

 

[Joeychgo]

I would probably say my 1984 crown vic..... it was always inthe shop for this or that. Ford has alot of "better ideas" built into that car ---

In re that particular car --- Better ideas = higher cost of and more frequent repairs required

 

[OldSchool1]

1984 Ford Mustang used.

It once failed to start and it took THREE mechanics to discover a bad ignitor(?) on the side of the distributor. I had to pay for towing TWICE before the third guy found it. It took all of seven minutes to replace and start the vehicle and that includes the time it took to unflood it

 

[WackyWRZ]

1984 Ford Mustang used.

It once failed to start and it took THREE mechanics to discover a bad ignitor(?) on the side of the distributor. I had to pay for towing TWICE before the third guy found it. It took all of seven minutes to replace and start the vehicle and that includes the time it took to unflood it

Yeah, I had a 1987 Toyota Tercel that would cut out ALL the time, and it turned out being the ignitor, equivilant to an ign. module. I think my most unreliable car was an 85 S-15 Jimmy I had. It had the notorious 2.8L V6 in it. I bought it with 112K miles in 1998 for $1000. First thing to go out was the carb. Me being the cheap highschool student, I had to go through 2 of them from the junk yard, before I got bold and tried a rebuild kit. Then every other month the module under the distributor cap would fry and leave me stranded. At 114K while leaving my driveway, I heard the loudest clunk, and came to a halt, as the front CV shaft had snapped for the 4x4 (the boot was GONE). Fixed that and at 116K, left the driveway again, and got to push it back up the driveway, it had no fwd/rev gears at all (gotta love the 700R4 tranny). $35 at the junk yard, and lucking out to find one that was rebuilt approx 1 year from the date I pulled it, that got me by for 2 months until the bellhousing came unbolted from the engine, and took out the front pump, the engine's rear main, snapped the flexplate, and bent the tq convertor shaft. After that I pulled the tranny and got it in my head to do the Chevy 350 swap into it. After buying the installation adapters, books, headers, 700R4 tranny and xfer case to bolt up to a SBC, body lift kit, etc.... I ran out of money for an engine. After sitting for a few months on the driveway, the city called it a nuciance and gave me 3 day tow notice. We trailered the poor beast to the scrap yard, and got $75 out of it. (after we filled the gas tank w/ water for weight, hehehe. I still think of all the wasted money on the cars that I've had over the years!!!

 

[BlackIceLSC]

Honestly, I never leave them stock long enough to become un-reliable.

One car that required alot of work was a 1973 Alfa Romeo Spider veloce 2000.

By the time I was done fixing all of its little quirks, it was RESTORED!!!

New everything...name it, and it was replaced.

The MOST reliable car I owned was the one I owned the longest.
1996 Mercury Grand Marquis-Police Interceptor package
Kept it for 4+ yrs, and the ONLY thing that ever broke was the cracked plastic intake manifold at 145k miles. I fixed it, and traded it in 1 week later on my 94 Mark VIII.

Oh, and I onwed a 1987 Camaro IROC Z-28. It was "reliable" but I didnt trust it enough to even risk a drive longer than 200 miles at a time. Not that death trap!

 

[SC_Steve]

hmmmm.... a crappy car eh?

probably my old Chevy Celebrity... It was an 88 and bought it in 2000. It only had about 60K orinional miles on it (if that) and ran good for about a week. After that, the brake lines went, somehow was creating a crazy vaccume in the gas tank which would cause it to stall and sputter, the cluster was hard to read... when it worked, it used more oil than rick james hair stylist, it was rusting worse than any car I've ever owned (a majority of the problems I blame on it sitting so long, as it belonged to an older gentleman that was no longer able to drive). The Heater core went on it and flooded the floor with coolent and the exhaust rusted thru.

I know there are more problems I had with it, but can't remember off the top of my head

 

[Otus]

A 1974 Chrokee Chief