Two that I regret.
1. A brand new (2001) Peugeot 206 DTurbo. Dashboard slowly fell apart, seats would collapse when folding to allow rear passengers in, lights leaked water, crunching gearbox issues. Sold it back to Peugeot for a loss after only a year.
2. An ancient (G reg) Audi 80 purely as a run around. Should have known better, it was absolutely shot when I got it for the princely sum of £500. I spent about £600 on it over 2 weeks and ended up putting it out of its misery by driving it to the scrappy after a month or so of ownership. That was about three years ago.
Edited by Cheeky on 04/01/2010 at 17:57
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Nothing really - enjoyed most of them !
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Ford Anglia 105E......Found out after I bought it that the rear spring hangers were totally rusted away and the backs of the leaf springs were just resting on the underside of the boot! Cost me £25 to get it welded-up, which was a lot of money in those days.
Hillman Imp.......Had a problem with the synchromesh on second gear, which I complained about to the used car dealer I bought it from. After their attempts to repair the gearbox they finished up fitting a "reconditioned" gearbox, and demanded a contribution from myself towards it. After about six weeks of use this started to jump out of gear. This saga was repeated and, in the end, this car had three different gearboxes fitted in three months! The last time I got it back I hardly dared to use it, and sold it quick before the gearbox failed yet again.
Vauxhall Viva HB.......Siezed up on the M4 the first long run that I did in it! Spent a fortune reconditioning the engine, after which it actually ended up being a really good car. However, if I'd spent what I forked-out on the car plus what the engine job cost, I'd have been able to buy a much later car.
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Nothing really - enjoyed most of them !
Same here, PU. My succession since 1964 of BMC (Leyland) 1100s and Maxis with an odd Triumph, then a Cavalier estate, and finally a series of Peugeots since the late 80's, have taken me around and across Canada, the States, and various parts of the British Isles, France, Germany and Switzerland, pretty well without fault. I do remember having a Maxi fanbelt changed in France before it parted ... One or two of the early cars developed unacceptable levels of tinworm, and I became skilled at changing the electric fuel pump on the first 1100; but mechanically I have not suffered any serious failures except a broken clutch cable and a stop solenoid - both on a 205 Dturbo. Probably no more than 10 punctures in all that time too.
Edited by Andrew-T on 05/01/2010 at 17:58
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A Metro 1.3, bought in 1985, about 2 years old. To this day I don't know why. I guess I was taken in by the "new Mini" advertising! The seat fell apart on the way home from picking it up and it needed a can of oil every week sprayed into the CV joint area to stop it squeaking. The points lasted about 1000 miles and the condensor about the same. I could get the distributor off and refitted in the dark, I did it so often. It used a pint of oil every 400 miles and the day before I sold it, I put my finger through the front wing while washing it. It was only 3 years old. I swapped it for a MK 1 Astra which felt like a Rolls Royce in comparison. I vowed I would never have another BL/Rover product! Thank goodness they don't make them like that any more!
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2001 1.0l VW Polo - absolute bag of nails it was.
The engine pinked like a good un, I'm not sure what the gear stick was connected to before the gear box but it felt like it was in a bowl of jelly - the dash rattled like my dauhters play pen and the ride on the small wheels was awful. Funnily enough I bought it for the VW build quality as well !!
You can't win them all.
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Learnt a massive lesson on my last car. Bought a Fiesta MK4 for £350 with new sills. It actually drove ok until the clutch went a few weeks later and the play in the steering seem to get worse. I owned it for two months before selling it for spairs and repair. The lesson? It may have had no sills but the rest of the car was rotten as a 2 year old apple.
Everything broke on it too, the day after I bought it the drivers door handle snapped.
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Rattle, that's not really fair to the Fiesta MK4 though. They are very old cars now - you bought a rotten one and its no surprise it was rotten considering how bad they were for rust. But for arguments sake, lets say you bought it new, I'm sure your opinion of it would be different.
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My dads got one, an R reg MK4 Ghia with the 14" four spoke sports wheels. It had had all its suspension parts replaced, is now starting to suffer the rust issues but the chasis is still solid underneath. In the 20k we have owned the only single engine repair it has needed is a new thermostat and a new breather pipe which I diagnosed and fitted myself.
On 85k and until the day my dad broke his arm it ran like new. He starts it once a week and it still starts instantly. It is a lovely lovely car to drive it just encourages you to chuck into corners with better brakes and a faster engine it would be fantastic - oh wait its called a Puma.
Everything that is famous for going wrong with the MK4 has done on my dads, CV joints, break pipes, bushes, arms, boots etc.
The main issue with my dads MK4 is it has the 1.3 Endura which is reliable and simple ( no cam belt to worry about) but the chasis just demands a fast engine.My Corsa 1.2 16v can trounce it in a straight line but down the Top Gear track I have no doubt the Fiesta would win.
If I ever have the money to have two cars the Puma would be on my list.
I like my Corsa because despite its age there is no unusual noises, the suspension is silent etc and everything works. It is just a shame it not much fun round corners, but the four new springs and shocks helped some what.
I never regretted buying an old MK4, I just regretted buying that one. In fact I actually wish I had kept the MK3 I sold 12 months before and had a new engine put in it. The engine was useless (about 20bhp left, 1 litre of oil per 100 miles etc) but the bodywork was solid.
Edited by Rattle on 04/01/2010 at 19:25
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You really have to watch out for rust and suspension wear on the Puma too though. :) Fords, fun eh.
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Worst buy was a five year old, 50k D-reg Golf 1.6CL. Although cosmetically fine, over several years, all sorts of things needed replacing that shouldn't have given trouble much before 100k: clutch, gearbox, CV joints, dampers. Engine was noisy, hydraulic tappets rattled, and the head gasket went at about 120k. I suspect it had been clocked to the tune of about 50k miles.
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I had a Peugeot 309 Style, E Reg, think it was 1.3 engine. Car was superb in every way.
So much so that when a facelift came out, I traded it in for a 1.6 GL and it was a complete dog.
Unbeknown to me, there was an inherent issue with the carburettor on the 1.6 models and nothing, but nothing the dealer did (and charged me for) would cure it.
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Lancia Thema - great engine and lovely to drive but didnt take long to dissolve into a pile of rust.
But if it had been the 8.32 things might have been different!
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Opel Monza - The fuel injection system proceded to leak fuel all over the exhaust manifold because Opel in their wisdom decided to make it from short lengths of rubber hose that perished, the LCD dash only displayed MPH about 10% of the time, the rest of the time it displayed in KPH due to a faulty switch, so I had to constantly work out my speed as I was driving, the engine wouldn't idle properly and the rear wheel bearings were shot.
One day I decided to flick the back end out round a wet roundabout, held a lovely slide, over corrected and went over a kerb. I parked the car at home and thought nothing of it.
Next morning I came out to find the nearside wing about an inch higher than the bonnet. The suspension had broken through the inner wing due to horrendous tinworm, probably helped by the previous days antics. Enough is enough I thought, and gave it away free to an Opel enthusiast, ending the whole sorry episode.
Shouldn't have bought the first one I saw.....
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about 1989 I bought a B reg 5 door escort,
It drank oil and pulled to the left. the hatch snapped off its hinges one day which I replaced with a scrap hatch. Final straw - broke down in Perth on way to Aberdeen. AA diagnosed blocked carb. In Aberdeen bought new air filter and replaced oil soaked one. Ran fine all week, set off back and broke down at same roundabout in Perth!
Several AA vans dispatched to help between Perth and south Edinburgh before finally towing back to York.
Sold two weeks later for a"new" Escort (which was stolen 18 months later!) that was everything the old 'un wasn't.
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A Saab 99 bought in the late 1970s when it was about 6 or 7 years old. Worst car I've ever owned by a mile. When everything was working ok it was great, but there were very few occasions like that in the two years I owned it (couldn't afford to get rid of it any earlier)
Big problem was it had a hydraulic clutch, and it was forever losing pressure, despite numerous visits to the main dealer who were a bit useless. They'd fix it and the clutch pedal would be solid for a few days and then it would gradually become limp and floppy as the pressure disappeared. Because of this feature I became expert at driving clutch-less. I could stop or start from a red light or junction by switching the ignition on or off, and lurching away in second gear; I had so much practice it became easy.
And the non-power steering was unbelievably heavy. Today's kids don't know what they are missing. It would've required less effort to push an elephant uphill.
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Worst heap was a Citroen BX which put me off the marque forever; a previous girlfriend's Saxo merely confirmed this a few years ago.
Others I've regretted were a Marina 1.3; not that I actually disliked the Marina as a car, simply a bad buy at the time because it turned out to be a shed, and furthermore I'd swapped it for my much-loved old Land- Rover. Another one that still haunts me is a VW Beetle; a 1966 model, last of the 6-volts, and since I was doing a lot of night driving at the time it didn't stay with me for long.
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i bought a fiesta - the biggest heap of junk
and also had company escort/granada/focus at various points
i wouldnt sign money over for a ford car if you held a gun to my head
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Vauxhall Belmont 1.3L - easily the worst car I've owned. Bought it after borrowing a friend's Astra, sadly it was nothing like the Astra. The boot hanging off the end ruined the handling and the extra weight, even when empty, made the thing completely gutless.
Sold it as quickly as possible and bought an Orion with the old non-turbo 1.8 diesel - better handling, quicker, and more economical.
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Well right about now I'm thinking my current car, a 2005 Mondeo ST TDCi.
I've had it since 5th December and suffered clutch failure last week without warning, the repair bill, a startling £1,240!
I live in hope that the rest of her time with me is less costly!
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The dread dual mass flywheels? You've commented on that yourself I Am sure in the past :( How ironic.
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Any car can need a new clutch or have the clutch abused by a previous owner, DMF or not.
To answer the question:
'68 Beetle, 6v electrics, no fun to drive.
'83 Metro Turbo because it turned out that it had been clocked (or at least I thought so) though it also turned out to be good fun.
'96 Vectra SRi, a company car, potentially very nice and a better interior than the later one though troublesome. The replacement '98 V6 was better.
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My first car, 1968 Mini 850, from the local garage, and to my Dad's disgust they stitched us up really well, he never spoke to them again!
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Funny how sometimes one make dogs you with bad examples. Of the 60+ cars we've owned for us it has been Vauxhall... albeit going back a few years. A HA Viva 1100 auto... so so slow and no other redeming features. A HC Firenza Coupe... met blue with alloys but with the standard 1100 engine it was virtually as slow/bad as the Viva. Finally an Astra 1300 van which fell apart in 6mths of ownership.
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... Of the 60+ cars we've owned...
Sixty-plus? You must change your car more often than most people change their shirt. :)
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In a nerdy bored Christmas moment I listed them all and it is at least 67. Sounds a lot but that's between self and SWMBO over 35yrs... had three vehicles at once for many periods and some not so good ones only stayed 2-3mths.
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VW Polo 1.9D CL on an R plate. Was just five years old with 40k on the clock, family owned from new. The power steering sprung a leak, the rear arches went rotten, front wheel bearings became noisy, the interior trim fell to bits, the alternator packed up and the heated rear window stopped working. All in a year. Plus it was both gutless and uneconomical, noisy, and generally drab and joyless, like all the life and "pizazz" had been sucked out of it at the design phase. Sold it, and bought a mkIV Fiesta which wiped the floor with it in every respect. Also vowed never to buy a VW again, which I stuck to until we bought our Golf last year. doh! The Golf's good though. We like it.
I also want to add our Grand Scenic to this, but I don't regret buying it because it was a lovely car. What I do regret is not selling it when it got to the 60,000 miles that Renaults are clearly designed to last before everything starts to fall apart or fail in some way. Pre 60k it was a peach. Post 60k, the stuff nightmares are made of.
Edited by DP on 05/01/2010 at 09:58
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M.M - Well it is a lot - some people keep the same car for as long as 10-20 years.
Edited by Jcoventry on 05/01/2010 at 10:32
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Austin Ambassador 1.7.
Bought to replace 1800 Princess.
It was gutless, drank petrol, rear side window fell out, needed frequent front suspension ball joints and front brake discs that kept warping. New clutch (pig of a job without engine lifting gear), CVs, thermostat holder (it broke trying to remove thermostat), head gasket (small 'o' ring perished depositing copious amounts of oil over engine, complete exhaust. The back brakes would snatch viciously with the first few applications each journey depite having the first few inches of the leading edge of the leading shoes feathered to within a fraction of the backing. Hydragas unit and suspension bushes broke my thumb.
I'm sure I could think of more, but I try to forget.
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1996 Vectra (company car so I was locked into the lease for 4 years), cat disintegrated after 40 miles from delivery (44 miles on the clock), it did around 30K miles per annum so never went more than 4 months between main dealer services, can't recall it making it for an entire 16 weeks without an unscheduled visit to the dealer for something or other. Main problems with oil seals, engine sensors, steering racks, cats, trim, electrics, aircon. Dealers rarely fixed faults first time and often broke other things, I've never had a Vauxhall since and probably never will either.....
Speaking of design life, the Vectra was bad from the start but went down hill rapidly at 70K miles.
Apart from that, Honda Civic FK3 I guess, big disappointment with the suspension in particular, I'm really quite sad to say.
Edited by idle_chatterer on 05/01/2010 at 14:29
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Austin Ambassador 1.7.
I had one and the power steering went on the blink when we were up visiting in Blackburn... agree about the gutless engine, looking at the hp/torque figures it should have been ok but it definitely wasn't... I alwys thought that they spoilt the lines of the Princess when they smoothed it out to make the Ambassador.
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>>the power steering went on the blink
Strangely enough that was the one thing that never caused any problems. It was the first car I owned with PAS. It was so light, with no feel, that I couldn't steer a straight line for weeks when I first got it, felt like you were driving on ice!
Just remembered it had (I think) a bent dizzy drive shaft, as did the two replacements, meaning the timing between 1 & 4 and 2 & 3 was different. I eventually resolved that with an 'ammer and a bit of wood. I found that problem when the mechanical advance got stuck fully advanced - never heard pinking like it!
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Isuzu Piazza Turbo. Drunken ebay purchase. Apparently Lotus helped with the suspension, but seeing as it slid in a straight line not sure what they did... it did about 15 to the gallon (even though the engine was not a V6 or anything: it sounded like a bag of nails) and had the worst gearchange of any car I have ever had. It did have beautiful seats though! The interior was quite cool generally: all woolly, it was like piloting a sheep. Sold it to a bloke in Coventry and he wrote it off a few weeks later.
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This thread has made me realise how lightly I've got off; sounds like you needed to be a competent mechanic just to own a car in the bad old days! ;o)
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Sounds like you needed to be a competent mechanic just to own a car in the bad old days!
Yes, with lots of cars. I used to carry a metal 5-tray cantilever tool box around in the boot (and a few head gaskets) for about 20 years. No need now.
Downside is now any idiot can drive a car, and expect to get to the end of their journey, and so the roads are so full you can't enjoy them. ;-)
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Ha! and just think of all the petrol you save not having to lug the tools around :)
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I often think that too as i always had the 5 cantilever draw full of worn out screwdrivers from the war,vono bed spanners ,worn out pliers and of course the old bib and brace just in case in there too...
Did i mention it always spilt everything out as i used to take all corner with gung ho spirit,i remember once losing all 4 hubcaps on my way home from work and searching all over in the grass for them,think i left them off after that do
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I'd forgotten the Isuzu. My boss twenty years ago had one. He was something of a character - ex RAF pilot and slightly eccentric.
Once when coming back from a conference, me as a passenger in the Piazza, without warning and for no apparent reason he suddenly and violently turned off the main road, through a field gate, over the grass for a few hundred yards and out of the next gate back to the main road. Both gates were open.
At no point did he change his conversation, and I didn't say anything.
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Citroen C4 Picasso. A great family car in all but one respect - the drivers seat had a lump at the bottom of the back rest that gave me chronic back-ache (I think it was called lumbar support but it did nothing of the kind for me). It was OK on the motorway when you weren't on and off the accelerator/brake but around town it was a real pain. The really annoying thing is that I borrowed a car for a day to ensure I was happy/comfortable with it - and I was. But the car I bought was a different trim level and had a different seat ...
I looked into replacing the seat, but the cost was prohibitive, and so cut my losses after only 4 months.
Apart from that a Morris Marina 1.3 Coupe that I had the misfortune to borrow for a couple of weeks years ago stands out as being an all-round pile of carp, unsurprisingly.
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A W123 230TE. Nicked within a fortnight. £1,000 down the drain.
It could have happened to anybody, or any car BUT the silly thing was that I'd bought it to replace another one - which had cost me £400 and had been nicked after three months.
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A W123 230TE. Nicked within a fortnight. I'd bought it to replace another one which had been nicked after three months.
I bet they're both still doing sterling service out in Africa!
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>>I bet they're both still doing sterling service out in Africa!
I bet the engines, gearbox and other components are, anyway. The bodywork and chassis will last forever out there, but poor quality petrol and running the cars without an air filter in a dusty environment kills cars quickly in Africa.
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But the car I bought was a different trim level and had a different seat
Theres nothing worse than an uncomfortable car. I can put up with something slightly thirsty if its comfortable, but not bad seats. When I bought my current BMW, it had standard seats, and it gave me back ache on long journeys. So I ordered a used drivers sport seat from a coupe from a dismantlers and fitted that. The car is now transformed! I'm not really worried about the situation if selling it, its old now anyway.
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It was not eccentricity. That's how badly they handle......! : )
He sounds fun, I like the fact he didn't even acknowledge it....
If anyone is interested the Piazza was based on a Guigiaro concept car/design study, the Ace of Clubs. Very much the "folded-paper" school of design.
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Neighbour with kids same age as ours showed us the delights of camping in Brittany - his Ambassador was new and very comfy, but had oil leak and engine seemed to "whip" a lot on acceleration. One day when weather not too good, we found a French BL dealer/agent who put it up on ramp, and watched him as he poked around underneath. He kept muttering "encroyable, encroyable..." Turned out only one of the 3 engine mountings was bolted. Good old British Leyland. He got and bought a Cortina.
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I've had it since 5th December and suffered clutch failure last week without warning the repair bill a startling £1 240!
Private buy or dealer Blue?
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austin montego circa 1990.....first week i had it the camcovers leaked oil so bably the oil light came on within 4 miles , had it replaced and it did it again within the week, then soon after the alternator went for a burton, it had go faster alloy wheels that kept deflating and the spare was a steel original different size too, when it was parked under unatural light the passenger front door didnt quite match the rest of the car
luckily the finance company i had it from went bust, i ignored the letters that came soon after and eventually i heard no more ....
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Same mistake here. So many noises that I can't pin point one problem. Had the crank shaft bolt come off(previous owner had glued it together) have replaced cv's inners and outers as well as wheel bearing at least 6 times in 70 000 kms. Car slides when going over humps while turning. Had to overhaul and to top in off now it is giving me problems with idling. At the end of the day it's true. Volkswagen making mechanics out of drivers since 1984. s*** car s*** service and has put me off so much that I would never ever buy a Volkswagen ever again. Except for my worst enemy
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