Models; That remind you of the worst car you have owned over the years .

Oh Boy !

 I just remembered one from a few years ago . A Large 3/4 ton GMC van  . The 9 Passenger version , reduced to four . This thing had so much rust that it blended right in with the rust colored paint .

 Drove through a minor flood once and almost had to find a bilge pump ! Driver side wiper worked , the defroster/heater didn't . Held it in third gear because if I didn't , the tranny shook so bad it would pop out of gear !

 Paid 300 for it got 500 a year later . Guy that bought it was a retired Bodyman . Last I saw it was lowered . Had a sound system that would blow my doors off , and looked cool as can be !

fox

T.B. -  On the '60 falcon. Bought it brand new and it was one of the best cars I've ever had.

The worst was a '70 Plymouth wagon. Three months after buying it new, it started overheating after running for about 15 - 20 minutes. Brought back to dealer several times and they could find nothing wrong with it. Could not afford another new car for quite a while so I just had to drive it around with a half dozen gallons of water in the back at all times. They didn't have the "Lemon Law" back then. I know a guy that bought a wagon like mine and had the same problem. He made a giant fibreglass lemon  and tied it to the roof of his wagon and had it towed and dropped at the front door of the dealership. "I bought this Lemon here" was painted on the lemon.

Jim  

 

 

We bought a '72 Luv truck in '76 when I was in auto body school.  Thing couldn't get out of it's own way.  Dealer did a head and valve job on it.  No help.  Painted a yellow lemon on each fender of that baby blue POS.  Let it be known around where it came from.  Dealer finally gave us back $1 more than we gave for it, and we got their shop truck, a '76 Luv.  Had to sand off the lemons first though.

Forgot about that thing till now, thanks fox, gave me a laugh for the morning.

jeaton01

About an 83 Olsmobile with a diesel, I think itwas a mid size.  Bought it used, didn't have it long.  Worst ever was a 79 Rabbit with the electrical system from hell, bought new.  Everytime it rained it stopped on my wife.

 

John... My dad bought the same Oldsmobile diesel around that same year. It was junk, nothing but problems. As my Dad put it... the diesel was a mickymouse deal and not a true diesel. He was pretty disappointed with it. He eventually pulled the engine out and put a Nova engine in. He drove it that way for years.

As for me... most of the cars were bought used. My favorite though was an early 70s Cutlass Supreme. I think it was a 1974. I paid $2500 and drove it for about 13 years. The mechanics of it were pretty solid, but the body rusted badly. I barely got a year out of it before the doors started to rust. Thats when I realized that I was duped. The doors had already been worked on, and badly so. Hence the rust busting out. But...I loved the car. It had a great ride and the front bench seat was great for date-night at the outdoor movie theatre. He he. It eventually succumbed to rust. The rear wheel wells rusted through into the trunk. So... when it rained...water sloshed around in the trunk. This of course lead to more rust and it was not good for the wiring. This car was preceded by a used Charger that I bought for $150. It was fun for a bit. The springs went bad so I had spacers put in. Then it drove like a tank. The exhaust system was failing but it sure sounded cool. This car succumed to rust as well. In this case, it was the front drivers side wheel well. So when it rained, water poured in. There were times that when I came to a stop...water sloshed back and forth from the front floorboard to the rear. I had to bail the water out, and at times, about four inches of it. Sold it for what I paid for it. Many more cars followed    and I won't bore you with the details. Currently driving a used Ford Edge. It has been the best all aound vehicle I ever owned. I hope to drive it into the ground.

Fun thread.

T.B. -  On the '60 falcon. Bought it brand new and it was one of the best cars I've ever had.

The worst was a '70 Plymouth wagon. Three months after buying it new, it started overheating after running for about 15 - 20 minutes. Brought back to dealer several times and they could find nothing wrong with it. Could not afford another new car for quite a while so I just had to drive it around with a half dozen gallons of water in the back at all times. They didn't have the "Lemon Law" back then. I know a guy that bought a wagon like mine and had the same problem. He made a giant fibreglass lemon  and tied it to the roof of his wagon and had it towed and dropped at the front door of the dealership. "I bought this Lemon here" was painted on the lemon.

Jim  

I’d love to see a kit of my first car - a 1964 Dodge Dart with a slant six engine option. I loved that car....

Others I’ve had:

1978 Pontiac Sunbird (awesome winter rat with studded tires)

1980? Mercury 

1978 Chevy Monte Carlo

1990 Lumina Eurosport

2003 Toyota Tacoma

2003 Toyota Matrix - a fun car to driv3 but sucked in winter. LOL!

Current car - 2013 Ford Escape.

jeaton01

About an 83 Olsmobile with a diesel, I think itwas a mid size.  Bought it used, didn't have it long.

My father, rest his soul, always wanted an Oldsmobile.  My uncle told my dad he knew a mechanic who had a dealer's license and sold used cars from his garage.  Dad went to see the guy and bought an ugly Olds Cutlass Salon, two door, blue.  It was the biggest dog pile he ever owned.  I think we had it for all of two months before things started circling the bowl; electrical, fuel and brakes.  Dealer gave dad his money back and never spoke to him again.

Biggest heap of turd I ever owned was a 91 Cherokee Sport.  Car wasn't even three weeks old and I discovered a massive water leak around the windshield and front cowl.  It soaked the carpets and shorted out the radio.  A year after that it really started to poop the bed.  Starter, transfer case, power steering pump, brakes and then rust.  As someone else mentioned, had we not been making payments, I'd have driven it over a cliff.  Traded it in when we bought our first Escape and haven't looked back.  The Ford dealer gave us $2500 for it because, as the dealer said, people will buy Jeeps for the 4X4 drivetrain.  Haven't owned a Pentastar product since.  Having said that I really liked the 69 Fury III and 73 Satellite Sebring Plus that my parents owned at one time.  My three GM's (75 Firebird and 78 and 83 Trans Ams) never gave me any problems but I'm now a Blue Oval man (03 and 10 Escapes, 16 Edge and 02 and 17 Mustang GT's).  Love my '17 GT!

My cars have been fairly reliable and mostly fondly remembered despite how crappy they were. I'm trying to build a model of every car i owned, despite some aren't available in model form.

jeffpez

'71 Chevy Vega. I seriously doubt that anyone ever offered a model of the Vega.

There's a promo version available. the only reason i'm interested in a model one is because of it's appearance in the Blue Thunder movie (the one with the helicopter).

New Omni 024, don't remember the year.  Thing would eat alternators for lunch.   Had the same engine as a VW Sirroaco.  We used to autocross it in the day after doubling up the sway bar up front and an AM rear sway bar.  When got divorced the wife got it and I kept my Chev p/u.  The best thing that ever happened to it was the guy she was sharing a house with later used it one night and something in the steering let go and he rolled it several times....not a straight panel left on it.  He walked away, unhurt.

My 81 wide track Jeep Cherokee (the 2 door with steel factory flares).  Loved it, and the late wife wouldn't let me get rid of it, said she never felt safer in anything.  only downfall was the oil rust-proofing on the underside.  When it quit leaking you knew it was time to add oily type fluids.  For something the size of a big Blazer, it would wheel with the CJ's, constantly amazed me for the first year we had it. Is a 360, 4speed.  Hate to let her go, but she needs a new home.

Two brand new cars that I've owned fall into this category. My very first brand new car, a 1984 Wolfsburg Edition VW Rabbit. I have a fondness for it since it was my first new car with a sun roof, AM/FM cassette stereo (big deal back in '84) and a 4-speed manual transmission.

I built an AMT kit to represent this car, but the kit is several model years earlier. Decent kit though. The car's sun roof (a solid piece that cranked back into the roof, not a glass sun roof) leaked which in turn made the driver's floor well fill with water and would short out the directional blinker. Imagine that, fluid makes the directional blinker not work!

The second car was a 2000 Ford Focus ZTS sedan. If everything worked as planned, it was a neat little commuter car. This car was a recall magnet. I had more recalls on it than every other car I've owned combined. Some of the ones I remember were the rear wheel could come off the car if you made a turn at a high rate of speed. Windshield wiper motor could catch fire and a the plastic parts that go inside along the windshield had to be replaced. There was also a seat belt recall. At about the 30,000 mile mark, the front bearings started making a terrible grinding noise. Eventually traded it in in 2006 for a new Chevy Aveo for my almost 18 yr old daughter.

I bought a Tamiya and Hasegawa Ford Focus WRC rally cars, but they were the hatchback not the sedan.

Cadet Chuck

1974 Mercury "Capri", actually an Opel made in Germany.  Total piece of *#@%!

I dumped it after a year and took a big loss on it.

 

Definitely not an Opel, but was a Deutsch Ford built in Koln or Cologne.  Worst for me was my very first Chrysler product, a 2007 Jeep Patriot with the tranny grinding itself to rubble in 59,000 miles.

About an 83 Olsmobile with a diesel, I think itwas a mid size.  Bought it used, didn't have it long.  Worst ever was a 79 Rabbit with the electrical system from hell, bought new.  Everytime it rained it stopped on my wife.

Oh, what a topic! LMAO!!

83 Ford Escort (blew every seal - nice James Bond smoke screen)

79 Datsun B210 (motor seized - signed title and left it)

84 olds Omega (carb turned into a gas fountain)

79 olds Cutlass (fried electrical - nothing power ever worked)

There are many more, but those were the worst.

Cadet Chuck

Well, what would one expect, when he pays less than $1000 for a used car?

OH I'm not complaining. I knew when I bought them that they were pretty much " disposable". I just thought you guy's would like to hear what I went through with each of them. I got "VERY" handy with bailing wire and duct tape!

I have bought car's that were more money. the latest one is a 96 Dodge Ram 2500.

Paid $9970. Then put another $5000 into replacing worn out 20 year old part's.

Should be good for another 20 years. Not bad for a truck with a bluebook value of  maybe $6000 

I haven't owned any bad cars, just a few that were kind of Meh.

Having lived in California near the coast my whole life, rust never was an issue.

I've made a few bad decisions, like the 74 Sedan de Ville bought used in 1978. But it could capably get six guys from LA to Vegas in style.

One of the better crappy cars was a 1968 Peugeot 404 wagon. A real Egyptian taxi special. it had an unreliable Marelli ignition system, but god bless it, it had a crank.

Otherwise built of solid steel over leaf springs in the back, enough to take 39 guys to Las Vegas, umhh I mean Luxor.

Well, what would one expect, when he pays less than $1000 for a used car?

Tanker - Builder

Oh ! I forgot one ! a 1960 Ford falcon four door sedan . Whatta piece of C$%# !!

Hey Tanker.... My dad had one of those when I was a kid. I always liked the taillight's. Thought they were cool !  Would love to build a model of the 2 door version.

My Grandfather had the Falcon van. Also cool looking. His came with a complete camper interior. Sink, bed, stove......... Un- comfortably slept 7.  Would "LOVE" to find a kit of that !

1980 Volkswagen Quantum, it was a farm to market car in Eastern Washington for well over 1million miles, at least. It had heat, barely, and only in the summer, A/C, you guessed it only in the winter. The former owner said it was "all wheel drive" however I think the car had a stroke cause while trying to go up hill in a snowstorm it couldn't figure out which side to put into oncoming traffic. I drove it for a year. Picked up my best friend from the hospital after he was invloved in a car wreck, did I mention I only had ONE wiper that worked? Fortunately the drivers side. It was a HEAP to say the least but it got me where I needed to go until I got my truck. BTW probably won't own another Dodge either. GO BLUE OVALS.

 Oh..... where to begin.

1973 Ford Econoline van. Paid $ 800. Dented, broken window's ( plural ) I had the heater repaired by a "proffessional" and after that the heater would blow backwards' and then ONLY if the left turn signal was on!

1976 Pinto Paid $200 ( we called it "THE BLOWABOUT" ) Burned oil like crazy ! Took 12 quarts to go 500 miles.The oil blew out the top of the drivers side valve cover and onto the windshield. It left a nice racing stripe over the roof and down the hachback.

1992 Ford F-150. Paid $700 The only thing on this truck that worked "PERFECTLY" was the engine! Everything else rusted and fell off!!!  I sold it for $500 so I really didnt lose...

1982 Ford Bronco 4X4. Paid $300. This truck could TAKE IT!!! We called it The Slammer.... because the suspension was shot, bent, broken, missing.....

1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass supreme. Paid $1200.  This was a 4 door land yacht! My friends and I used it as a "party barge" ! At some point someone got sick all over the interior ( all the seats and floor, and the headliner) I put blankets on the seats and drove it that way for another 2 years. The floor in the backseat had rusted out and my friends took "great delight" in tossing stuff down the hole..... usualy just as a cop pulled in behind us.... thus scattering whatever was tossed  ALL OVER THE COP CAR !!! (I no longer hang out with these fools ! )

These were just a few of the "MANY" cars I have owned over the years. But the all time "hated the most" car has to  be my 1974 Datsun pick up! Paid $450.

The fenders flopped as you went down the road.The rear window fell out and there was so much rust in the window frame that I couldnt put another one in. The engine mounts were broken and sometomes if you "Stepped on it "...... the engine would walk out of the frame and slam into the radiator!

One day I noticed water in the oil...... so I drove it till it "siezed" and left it where it died with the signed Title on the seat.   Never saw it again!

I built models of the Pinto... right down to the oil smear over the roof.

The Cutlass.I could only find a 2 door model so it wasn't quite right.

The Datsun. I found a snap together kit that came with a dirt bike..... I kept the bike.

I have always wanted to do a model of the van. Just never found a kit to match it.

'71 Chevy Vega. It would be far easier to list it's good features (styling) than the bad such as but not limited to blown head gaskets, a warped head, massive oil consumption and being unstable at speed (assuming you had the time to wait for it to get up to speed). The best part was during the first Arab oil embargo when people suddenly became concerned about milage. I found a Chevy dealer who was so happy to take an economy car in trade that they didn't test drive it plus they gave me a great deal on a 396 Malibu that got terrible milage. I was always afraid to even drive past the dealer after that because I thought they'd see me and want to undo the deal. Sure wish I still had the Malibu. I seriously doubt that anyone ever offered a model of the Vega.

1974 Mercury "Capri", actually an Opel made in Germany.  Total piece of *#@%!

I dumped it after a year and took a big loss on it.

Ford Pinto. I don't remember the year. Absolutely the worst performing and most uncomfortable car I've ever driven. Fortunately it was a loaner that I used for about a year so it only cost maintainance and a few improvements.

Mike

Hi,

I can't say that I've really ever had a bad car, but as far as just any car that I have owned, I was excited to see that Moebius has come out with a 1/25 1965 Plymouth Belvedere Model, since that was the 1st car I ever owned back in high school (though I had a four door instead of a two door).

Additionally, I also bought a 1/24th Fiat 500 model kit shortly after I bought my Fiat back in 2011, but I haven't put it together yet.

And finally, although I also own a 1951 Buick Special Deluxe, I haven't been able to find a model of that particular car, though I have bought a 1951 Chevy Fleetline and a 1950 Olds Club Coupe, due to their similarities to my Buick.

Pat

Do they make one of a 1978 Datsun 510 sedan? My ‘first’ car almost encouraged me buy a lifetime bus pass.