Best/Worst Car You've Owned?

[BrightonCorgi]

12 hours ago, NicPac said:

I’ve gone through a lot of vehicles in my life but this is my favorite I’ve ever owned. Might not be the best and definitely not the most expensive but it’s my favorite. 1987 VW Weekender. It’s slow but a pure joy to drive. It’s currently at the shop getting all new interior, stereo and a bunch of other cool details. Next will be a TDI diesel conversion. I’m counting on years of memories in this thing traveling around the western part of the states with my wife and two young boys. 

They are fun to drive, but without a turbo it's at deficit.  My cousin had a similar one and I drove it around Switzerland.  We went down a large hill and hit the top end of what it could do.  Driving it up and down Verbier in the snow was interesting as was sleeping in it below feezing temps.  Had a diesel heater that just smelled.  He converted it a turbo and had to create unique back cover that looked stock, but allowed it sneak by for an MOT.  He no longer has I think.  He did buy a Puch Swiss Army Truck which is equally a hoot.

 

[dobbs]

best car is my first, still own it 29 years and many thousands in repairs and upkeep later:

worst car? hmm... strangely, it's a vehicle generally known for reliability, but that just wasn't my experience. 1990 toyota pickup with a 22re engine. i loved that vehicle, but it gave me clutch and rear-end problems, and eventually i lost the engine bottom end. cost more to fix than it was worth, so i donated it and got a $500 write-off. other than that and the fact that it is a vehicle with absolutely zero cool-factor, it was great. i have no photo, but here is one from the internet that looks exactly like the one i had:

-dobbs

[daleighan]

I haven't ever really had a bad car, but here are my current cars, which are also the best ones I've had.

The Alfa:

The E30 (currently in the shop getting repainted):

 

 

[BellevilleMXZ]

Worst by FAR was a late 80s Volks rabbit Diesel....what a HUGE POS. Major issues with engine/electrical/rust

Best, still have a 2002 Volvo V70 2.4T. Solid as a rock, and now has 550k Klms on it. Winter beater/spare car now. 

Best/most fun is a 2015 Volvo V60 Polestar. Have embarrassed some VERY expensive cars on the track with this.Great sleeper

[wineguy]

Worst car was a used 1981 Chevy Chevette that the heater didn't work and leaked water in the passenger side and froze in the winter. I used to put the floor mat on top of the ice.  Best was an Audi A8 that was the perfect car except for cargo space.  

[Nino]

Best : Mazda 929 Coupe next to another half a dozen Mazda 626's I had. All good, reliable and boring.

Worst : A couple of 70's Austin and British Leyland Minis. Nice to drive on a track but terrible maintenance-wise in day-to-day driving ( and way too small for my frame).

 

[djrey]

Best would be my 2004 STI. Only 50K miles on her. 
 

Luckily I have loved every car I’ve owned so no worst for me.

[wine_junkie]

Best/Current: 2013 Toyota Land Cruiser and 1995 BMW M3

 

Worst: 2010 BMW 328

[Colt45]

Can't really say best and worst - truth be told I've loved some things about pretty much every car I've owned.

1987 Mazda Rx-7 Sport Package - loved that car. Not incredibly powerful, but overall balance / handling - incredible.

Very early '80s VW Rabbit Diesel - an underpowered tin can, but took me every where I wanted to go - never failed - a later Golf was a piece of crap (so that's my worst), and put me off VWs for good. My current '16 Honda Civic is a stalwart.

Steve-O - Onya for not being bogged down

[Ej456]

Favorite car so far was my 03 Nissan Pathfinder. Hated to get rid of it

worst believe it or not was a late 90’s Toyota Camry. Needed a new engine a day after leaving the dealership. They paid but was only a sign of things to come. 

[BoliDan]

Worst. 87 Mercury Topaz. It was a more garbage version of a Ford Tempo, if you can beleive that.

When I hit above 70, my dashboard would start shaking uncontrollably. 

It ended up going completly belly-up on the Berlin turnpike in CT. Speed limit was 50 mph, and I came across an intersection and the break fluid became air. I hit snowbank to stop myself and slammed into a street sign. As everyone passed by staring at me, I lit a cigarette and waited for the cops and a tow truck. (Pre cell phones)... 

[joeypots]

The worst was a '78? Civic wagon.  It was about five years ild when I got it and was nothing but trouble.

 

The '19 Ridgeline truck is the handiest vehicle I've ever owned even if it's a little uninspired. 

[Ryan]

I've only ever owned 4 cars in my life and all have been used Mercedes. When living in the US I had company cars, the worst of those was a Dodge caravan. The best a Dodge Ram.

The best car I owned was my first, a 1995 Mercedes E-class. The last year of the W124 model. Great car. Drove it for 10 years.

It was nearly totaled within 6 months owning when a security van rear-ended me. I was stopped in traffic, he came over a humpback bridge doing about 30 mph. The driver had dropped something and was looking down for it. I caught him in my rear view mirror just before impact, but nothing I could do. He pushed me into the mitsubishi in front of me and that car into the next car in front of it. The security van and the Mitsubishi in front of me were totaled. The car, two cars in front of me was a wreck. I drove away after a nice chat with the police. I didn't even drop the ice cream I was eating (a White Magnum) on impact. It still did £4,000 of damage (20 years ago) but no issues with driving it until repairs, still road legal, not even a light broken. Just about everything about that car was simple, fixable and built very very well. I remember it every time I've had to change a lightbulb in a car since, and how easy that was in that car.

The worst car I had was the next, a 2001 S320, W220 model. Great engine and fun to drive. I got it at 10 years old at less than 5% of the original purchase price. Very quiet, it had double glazed windows. But the plastics inside were terrible, brittle and coming off. I think they were trying new plastics at the time. Then the air springs started going, 1,000 euro a corner. Then the air pump for the central locking went. 90 euro on an e-class, 950 euro for the s-class (the door buttons on a s-class "glide" up and down rather than "pop"). Gave it away for 300 euro. It was 125,000 euro new, not that I paid that. 

Had an e-class estate diesel (station wagon) for a while, to fit the kids bikes and dog cage. Bullet proof engine (duplex timing-chain on the diesels) but again the air springs started going, just early this year. The kids got bigger bikes and the dog died so I changed the car again.

On a w212 model e-class right now. Post-facelift so the bugs ironed out. Very happy with it.   

 

 

[nKostyan]

The worst is the Lada 2106, my first student car. One joy - if you had a piece of wire in the trunk, you could repair it on the highway yourself.

The best - Toyota LC 150 Prado diesel. It is quite reliable and suitable for my driving style, as well as helps out in snowfalls

[bolivr]

Like a few of you guys the current ones are the best and I think there is not a car I could honestly single out as worst. They all seemed fine overall - and I have owned or leased more than 50 cars since I used to do a lot of driving. Current 2014 MB A250 Sport and Mazda MX-5 from 2002.

Honourable mention for the wife's 2011 Honda Jazz (Fit) very underrated car as it is very well engineered and built.

[MrBirdman]

2003 Land Rover Freelander - broke down constantly, and needed the engine replaced after 12,000 miles. Covered  by warranty. What wasn’t covered were the windshield wipers, which flew off while driving on the highway in pouring rain.  

[Nino]

On 7/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, Ryan said:

It was nearly totaled within 6 months owning when a security van rear-ended me. I was stopped in traffic, he came over a humpback bridge doing about 30 mph. The driver had dropped something and was looking down for it. I caught him in my rear view mirror just before impact, but nothing I could do. He pushed me into the mitsubishi in front of me and that car into the next car in front of it. The security van and the Mitsubishi in front of me were totaled. The car, two cars in front of me was a wreck. I drove away after a nice chat with the police. I didn't even drop the ice cream I was eating (a White Magnum) on impact. It still did £4,000 of damage (20 years ago) but no issues with driving it until repairs, still road legal, not even a light broken. Just about everything about that car was simple, fixable and built very very well. I remember it every time I've had to change a lightbulb in a car since, and how easy that was in that car.

 

Reminds me of an accident I had while driving a Volvo 264 - a "Panzer" of a car.

I was stopped at a red light downtown Frankfurt driving out to the airport and a Mercedes 5-something slammed into the back of the Volvo. He had totally overseen the stopped car.

The Merc was totaled, my Volvo made it to the airport and was repaired after the flight.

[Colt45]

1 hour ago, nino said:

Reminds me of an accident I had while driving a Volvo 264 - a "Panzer" of a car.

I had a late '70s (I think a '78) Volvo 240 DL, another car I really liked. Some of the things I recall... It was built like a tank. It was so solid, and roomy. Mine was a two door four speed. One night I was driving to a friends house and got t-boned in the driver's door. Hit so hard it tipped the car over on it's side, broke the rear axle, and blew out some of the glass. I ended up with a very small cut on the top of my head. After I climbed out the driver's side window, I was embarrassed that my car was tipped over on it's side, so I tipped it back over onto it's wheels. That's when I noticed the driver's door panel caved in, but the steel beams in the door still pretty much true. The car that hit me was a Mercury Monarch - they had pretty big, squared off front ends

[Trevor2118]

Best:  Peter Brock Director (V8 carb. Holden Calais).  It did not survive a head-on.

Worst:  Austin Kimberley -  Annoying habit of dying about halfway when pulling out into traffic.

[Tstew75]

Best: tuned 04 Subaru STi

Worst: 88 Pontiac Fiero

[jpm2024]

Best - 1987 Volvo 740 Turbo, beautiful but hard to describe green, bought in 1997 with 180,000 miles for $500, drove it for six years and another 100k with hardly any maintenance until I got hit by a tractor trailer and it got totaled (I was able to walk away!).

I have actually been really lucky car wise, no bad cars in the bunch!

[eldude]

Best - 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser, the blind spots and seats are the worst parts. The reliability and capability have been great. I've wheeled it in east Texas river bottoms, beaches on the gulf coast, Sierra Nevada, and in the Rockies. Unfortunately rear facing car seats are a pain to use in it and the need for more legroom in the back is going to force me to sell it and move to something with 4 doors. 

 

Worst - 2002 Honda Civic, I was commuting to college 45 miles each way, and needed something with good gas mileage. The ac barely worked, you felt every bump in the road, and it was boring to drive. 

[cfc1016]

I'll break "best" into a few categories:

Most reliable:

1. 1997 toyota rav4. 5 speed, all power options, including sunroof, center differential lock (4wd HI range), and full-time front-rear biased AWD. Never got stuck. Never left me stranded. Superlative.

2. 1997 saturn sc2 coupe. The epitome of reliability.

Most rugged/capable:

1. 1988 toyota fj62 land cruiser. No contest. It didn't even NEED 4wd. Lock the hubs and put it in LO, and he would barrel through 4 feet of heavy slog snow and ice like it was a walk in the park.

2. Only other that was even in the same galaxy of off road capability was the rav. I made it handily up a 10% grade gravel road with 3' of fresh powder, on the FIRST diff lock test with that car. In retrospect, driving down that remote road in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter... could've led to a world of suck if Connie (The Conestoga Wagon - the nickname the rav4 earned) hadn't been able to climb out. I'd've been far from the first person to plummet to their death on that "road". Ah the unabashed cockiness of one's 20s. Those were interesting years...

Most fun/"coolest":

1. 1990 bmw e30 german spec 325is. Holy hell was that car a pain in the ass (read:wallet) to maintain, but it sure was fun. I did pretty much everything short of forced induction. Was putting down 265 rwhp on the tarmac and pullin a G on the skipdad. Never has bmw built a more fun, better balanced car than the stock e30 Bilstein suspended 3 series, imo.

2. 2003 vw jetta wagon tdi. 5 speed conversion (gruelingly performed by yours truly [Johnny Dollar]) slew of VCDS tweaks, hi flow injectors. Torque for eons. It's never been so fun to drive slow. Hard pull through 3rd on Mountain roads at peak torque band... a tiny bit a poo comes out...

Worst:

1. 2000 hyundai elantra wagon. In every way. I still hate that car.

 

 

[Chibearsv]

6 hours ago, Tstew75 said:

Best: tuned 04 Subaru STi

Worst: 88 Pontiac Fiero

Finally, the Fiero hits the list.  I was waiting for someone to admit they owned one.  Hopefully you got rid of it before it started on fire.

[Kikobar]

Three months ago I bought my first car - 2015 Honda Civic. For now, I am absolutely satisfied with this car. By the way, who doesn't have driving license yet? I can recommend the irreplaceable website that helped me to learn the theory, hope it's useful for someone