Here's mine. Please share yours as well!

Yeah, I had some real gems. But, my 1979 VW took the cake. I bought it when I was 16 years old. I had a summer job working at a junkyard, weeding at painting buildings. Talking with the guys led to my second car ever (I wrecked my first one, a Datsun). The VW had nice paint, straight panels, no visible rust, a clean interior, and a cracked engine block. I bought the car for $500, and I bought a new engine for $500. The two were married, and the car sprang from the nearly dead. It was fun to drive, but teething problems soon emerged. A list of my hair-pulling experiences follows:

1993, July - Bought car and engine. Brake lines also needed to be replaced. Floor soaked with DOT#3 was evidence of a cracked line. Cleaned it up, and drove it home. The trans was sloppy, and had a worn reverse synchro. It popped out of gear often in reverse.
1993, August - Multiple coats of Nu-Finish sure brought out the shine in this bright orange beauty. An aftermarket stereo and Scirocco wheels dressed it up. It looked far nicer than any $1000 car has a right to.
1993, late August - Overheated engine as a result of worn out water pump. Warped head. Oil in coolant, coolant in oil. A bad situation.
1993 September - New cylinder head on car. Funny occurrences include a seized right front strut that banged over every imperfection in the road, and curious electrical gremlins (such as all four hazards working, but left front turn signal not). Didn't bother to get either fixed.
1993 October - Brake problems - e-brake cable out of whack, and handle does not hold the car. Trip to mechanic clears it up.
1993 November - Curious electrical gremlins. Car will not hold a charge. Battery and alternator replaced, but battery quickly drains on freeway leaving me stranded. Hours spent with multimeter traces issue to short deep within the harness.
1993 January - Cold winter day. Door handle literally breaks off of door when trying to open. Not amusing, but easily replaced.
1993 February - Worn engine mounts cause down pipe to crack. Many times. Every three weeks, I took the car back to the muffler shop to get it welded up. Didn't occur to me at the time to replace the mounts (hey, I was 17).
1993 March - Heater core leaks. Causes hot steam to be sprayed all over the windshield when the defrost is turned on. This is not amusing.
1993 June - Had enough. Sold car for $1300 cash to someone who was impressed by the cosmetic condition of the car and could repair the little things that had caused me so much misery.

The car looked and ran fantastic, but it soured me on VW's for years. Of course, I am older and wiser now (and capable of fixing everything mentioned above). Maybe someday a new GTI could find its way into my driveway. After all, a new VW will have a lot of the same charming personality in its DNA, without the kinds of issues above. In truth, I always wanted one anyways. Ever since high school, when a GTI 16V was one of the "Hot" cars to own. (Perhaps that just proves that the early 90's were a different time to grow up). These days, a new 1.8L Turbo GTI would be a fantastic prospect!

 

i guess it would be my first car... an '83 GP with the 3.8L Buick V6. it was fun to work on, but it just nickel and dime'd me to death. always something new to fix.

 

I bought for a kid to drive to school car '89 honda accord 80k miles 1 owner piece of crap!

my own worst car would be 1st car but for $50 bucks wasn't that bad a 600 Fiat sedan.

 

Had too much fun in my real early rides ('52 beetle '53 Chevy) to think badly of them even though they were crap. My worst car was a new Fairmont 4 banger. Brown exterior, 3 tone brown interior. Called it the turdmobile. Hated that car, treated it badly and prayed for it to die every time I got in it. Just to spite me it kept right on running. Finally dumped it to get even.

 

1976 Chevrolet Vega GT Kammback!!! What a piece of crap (period).

 

My first car - an '89 Mazda 323 Hatchback. I think it had 160K miles on either when we bought it or when it was on its way out. The thing had no a/c (I lived in AZ) and it blew it up twice in various ways. As soon as I was told the engine was going, so did the car!

 

Its a toss up between my 1979 Corvette and my 1985 Monte Carlo (the last GM product I will probably ever buy). The vette would die making a turn when it was cold. Almost caused a few real nice accidents. Was in the shop 1 week of every month I owned it and I owned it for 1 year. Cause of problem, finally? Stuck float in the front barrel of the carb. It took a call to the VP of sales in Detroit to get it fixed.
85 Monte Carlo - Dash caught fire two months after car was delivered (new). There was a short somewhere but they could never find it. Back to dealer too many times to mention. I finally got hold of the owner of the dealership, he sat in the car, smelled the burning plastic and turned to me and said, "if my techs can't see it they can't fix it, but I sure can smell it". I quickly traded it in on a Nissan.
No more GM for me. I drove imports until 2001 when I purchased my first PT Cruiser which I never had 1 bit of trouble with, nor the second one.

Pat

 

If you had that much trouble with a carb, imagine how bad you would have had it with an iffy fuel injection system! ...I've heard those old Corvettes with "Crossfire Injection" (no relation to the model name of our Chryslers) were awful. But, I think it was in '81, when they went to the Crossfire injection.

Truthfully, I've always loved the shape of the C3. Cheap to buy, easy to modify, and steadily appreciating these days. I know somebody who is trying to unload a 1978 25th Anniversary model with the Pace Car package for a mere $7,800. It's got the L82 in it, I think. Plus, it's in decent shape with only 60K on it. The only demerits I noticed were a front bumper in need of wet sanding, and a 3-speed automatic (instead of the much more desirable four speed manual). Figure that after almost 30 years, most C3 Corvettes that are in good upkeep ought to have their quality issues addressed by their loving owners. Here's to hoping, for anyone brave enough to take the plunge...

 

Actually JUDDZ it was the 1982 model (good call though seeing how you were only 4-1/2 years old at the time.) I agree with you too about the C-3s. I've had 7 Vettes, but my favorite one was a white '78. The '63 thru '67s are the ones I really wanted though. Just never could bring myself to pay the premium price they command (that '78 you spoke about sounds like a pretty good deal).

 

Two Mini's. Cheap insurance, but bad little cars.

 

I actually almost bought a Vette. I always wanted a "real" sports car, so one day on a whim I called up the insurance company. When I was 22 and out of college, they wanted a laughable amount of money to insure an Acura Integra GS-R, (which I never bought). So, I was half expecting it to sting like the dickens when I called up and asked (hypothetically) how much it would run to insure a nice Corvette, 1996 Collectors Edition with a 6-speed. To my surprise, it was a wash compared with the front wheel drive Mazda I owned at the time. Figure, you turn 28, get married, buy a home, keep the credit in good shape and a clean driving record, and good things happen. Next thing, I was trolling for C4 Corvettes. I looked at a bunch of them, discovered that their pricing is really subjective, and that "mint" means different things to different people. I just couldn't do it, because (IMO) the C4 is fast but built like junk. I swear the C3 Corvettes have nicer interiors on them. The C3's are gorgeous, but strictly Sunday drivers. See? I do have a practical bone in my body.

I looked into Crossfires on a whim, drove one, and that was all she wrote. Others considered included the aforementioned Corvettes, plus old Porsche 911SC (figure, about 1982 with the sturdy 3.0L). By the way, I should also add that old 911 to the list of cars that I've always wanted. Ditto the BMW M Coupe, i.e. the "Bread Van".

 

1983 plymouth tc3 with 1.7 liter vw motor, manual trans. Wow it was a turd buy hey it was only $300.

 

My worst "used" car was a Ford Escort wagon I bought as a winter beater. Within 3 weeks after it was out of warranty, the cam belt let go. Fortunately it was one of the "new" improved models Ford came out with, so it didn't take out any valves when it suddenly went out of time. The early ones would usually "mangle" the valves when the belt broke, but Fords better idea was to give the valves more clearance instead of fixing the real problem which was a faulty designed water pump.
My worst "new" car was an 84' Corvette, it road like the axles were bolted directly to the frame. The Crossfire injection didn't offer anything that anyone would ever consider "High performance". But the final straw was reading about a Corvette recall in the local news paper on Wednesday, and driving the car just 15 miles on Friday and having the car break down due to the problem the recall notice, (I hadn't yet received) would have addressed.
I got rid of the car in less than 6 mos. so I never experienced the problems the "video game" dash-board supposedly had, or any other of the 1/2 a dozen other problem areas that showed up later on alot of other 84's. I dropped 4K on that deal, and I've been leery of all new Vettes ever since.

 

1994 Mitsubishi Diamante. P.O.S. Bought it with around 74K, the exterior/interior was pretty mint. Spent a bunch of money replacing control arms and other little things off the bat...then the transmission blew. Got it rebuilt, a while later it blew again. Rebuilt...soon after the engine popped. I got the engine replaced under the extended warranty (the used engine was blowing blue smoke), threw some smokeless oil in it and sold it.

 

I think it was my 1959 Renault Dauphne. It was so bad that when going up the slightest grade, I had to come to a complete stop, go a little ways - stop - go a little further - stop. NO power at all! I sold it for $100 a month later. It was used of course, when I bought it for $200. I had NO car and this was the first opportunity I had to get any kind of car. That was in '67 LOL.

 

1974 ford mustang II.

 

1973 Pontiac Grand AM 2 door coupe ~ Special ordered and purchased new. Had several problems within four months. Traded it for new special order 1974 Chevy Caprice which I kept until 1980! Thom

 

I bought a 1976 Vega and in 32,000 miles the engine was burning oil, the body was rotting out in all wheel well edges. It had an engine sound that mimicked any complex farm machinery. It had a great looking interior though. After 2.5 years 32,000 miles I traded it in and got a heaping $600.00 for it. I then bought a 1977 Nova the car tracked sideways. My 1973 mustang was also very bad, I went though 3 alternators in 23,000 miles and finally they found a wire crossed in the harness. The trunk also leaked and I had a mess with that.

 

A 1984 Chevy LUV 4x4. Truly a gutless wonder.

 

It's a toss up between my 1982 DeLorean and my 1981 DeLorean lol. I loved both cars, but they were CONSTANT maintenance. Something was always breaking, dying, burning, stopping, or flying off them. The DeLorean was my dream car since I was a kid, and I started saving for one when I was 11. I bought my first (the '82) when I was 19... and after 4 years of owning DeLoreans I got burned out. I'll own one again one day when I have more disposable income. The Crossfire is the only other car that has kept my attention as long as the DeLorean... so Crossfire here I come! :-)