Mine was a used low mileage Rover 25 which I bought after the PCP on my Toyota RAV4 ended and my business partner vetoed making the final payment to own the Toyota (around 2001 I think). She later conceded that keeping the RAV would have been a wise move, of which more below.
Within days of owning the Rover the sunroof decided to stick in the open position. Back to the dealer it went.
Then a few weeks later the head gasket went, again back to the dealer (still under warranty thankfully).
I think there were other things wrong with it but can’t recall the details as I have blotted it from my memory. It was a classic example of why Rover’s rubbish quality control meant they finally packed up a few years later. I gratefully got rid of it when I moved to Turks & Caicos in 2003
My current Honda Accord is running it a close second in terms of repair costs, but that’s down to it being 15 years old and getting into the “not worth it” zone. I’m hoping it will struggle on until I move to France and can get something better in LHD.
Our Skoda superb, which. among many other things had a leak somewhere round the windscreen. It was so bad that it reached the stage where the mats were floating. The foot well was aptly named. When I first saw it (it was black) my immediate thought was OH had “bought a hearse”. I was never so glad as to see that car depart from our lives after one of us had put in the wrong fuel (it was at a time when OH was going in for a major op and our minds were all over the place) and I persuaded the garage to buy it off us as it was, before the engine had been sorted out.
Mark 1 Ford Escort circa 1975. Bright yellow and automatic because it had been FIL work’s car a few years previously until the mechanics had used it to teach apprentices at the main depot. Dam thing had a mind of it’s own and for me,who had never driven an automatic before, kept forgetting to put it into P and it crashed through my parent’s brand new double gates. Well I did only pay £150 for it and it guzzled petrol too.
Yes auto gearbox cars do use a bit more fuel than manual I think, though no doubt they have improved since the Cortina era!
I have had autos for donkey’s years and don’t think I would want to be bothered with a manual any more, though I know many people prefer a stick-shift.
Worst car? Citroen GSA clutchmatic. It was bought used, and the camshafts had worn badly as they were prone to do, resulting in reduced power for an already slow vehicle and heavy fuel consumption. It was also a pig to work on and just an all round poor design.
Worst bike? Honda 400/4, which was just dog slow unless redlined, boring and stodgy. Sure it looked interesting, but 20 years after it was released the design had aged very badly.
The first car we bought was a green Morris with a sticky clutch and a rather home-made paint job . Cheap but I suppose we knew it was really a wreck. It’s best performance is memorable. When leaving friends, to travel home, we drove 10 m from their house, and at that point the front wheel fell off.
The next car was mine - a second hand (very cheap, from friends of my father) blue Vauxhall Viva. I used it to travel to work - often a trip from Manchester down the M6 to clients in Oxford, Reading, Bristol…
The seats were very uncomfortable, and the radiator had a tendency to overheat, so that I had to stop repeatedly on the motorway for it to let off steam and cool down. Not to mention one afternoon a flat tyre on the M6, that somehow I did manage to sort out.
Its replacement was a super little VW Polo hatchback. Never a problem.
Yes I went for the 550 four on the grounds of it being a bit bigger and somewhat more powerful.
But I’m not sure I would enjoy a 70s vintage bike these days, technology has moved on. I do remember the suspension on the 550 Four K having something of a Zebedee quality.
my Dad made me buy (he had to sign the HP form) when I was in transition from 2 £5 Standard Vanguards (both Mk 1 beetle backs) and really wanting a Vauxhall Victor
I made do with the baby Austin 'till it was paid off and then, after chasing the driver all over Nottingham, bought a 1939 Packard 8 with a P6 diesel under the bonnet, for £75. No need for Dad, I gave the bloke a fiver a week for 15 weeks.
My worst car will ruffle a few feathers because it was a SAAB. A 1995 900S. I really wanted a Peugeot 306 GRD but the SAAB was quite a lot cheaper. On paper it sounded so good, 2-litre 16V but it was thirsty, dynamically awful and a bit dark inside. It was simply too heavy for its suspension and rolled like a 2CV without the charm. I was glad to see it go. It wasn’t my first experience with a SAAB just after I passed my test my parents bought a 99 EMS. It was fun having a fuel injected version of the Dolomite Sprint engine. I was just glad it wasn’t me paying for the fuel and front tyres. My second least favourite car also attracts raised eyebrows, it was a 2003 Audi A4 Cabriolet with a V6 TDI and a six speed manual gearbox. It might have been better as an auto as its main problem was being in the right gear, overtaking would often need three down changes, completely the opposite of the two cars that succeeded it. All the bangers I have owned have been characterful.
No, actually, all of them up to the 1st Celica which I loved but killed driving through too much water. The A4 I had was truly dire - it was a 6 cylinder so guzzled petrol but began to guzzle oil at an alarming rate as well (so much that I wondered if I had accidentally bought a diesel). Also the radio had a firmware error which caused it to wear out a memory chip so the volume would jump about randomly if you tried to change it (usually full blast). I was glad to see the back of it.
The second Celica was also brilliant - 06 plate, almost the last of the Gen 7 production - still have it (though must get around to selling it). The Mondeo that I bought when I was driving 650 miles a week (to keep the miles off the Celica) was also OK. Not great but a steady workhorse.
Had so many cars, vans, lorries I’ve lost count.
Never had a motorbike although did nearly by a lambretta scooter when I was 16 but my dad said NO.
Loved them all.
Perhaps the most memorable was a TK Bedford lorry (ex army I think).
The prop shaft became detached and stuck into the surface of the M1 near Leeds and overturned it.
Thankfully walked away as its top speed was no more than 40mph downhill in a following wind.
Also had 2 JCB’s a few dumpers, a fork truck and a front loader bucket on a tractor if the count as vehicles.
(and it sounded like a bag of spanners)
