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Alternative to Churchy's thread, what's the worst set of wheels you've had?
For me, defo a handme-down VW Derby. They were saloon Golfs, mine was an absolute shocker. From a window that wouldn't close, to a heater that didn't work. Used to do 0 to 60 in around 15, maybe 16 minutes. (Found out later it only drove on three of its 4 pistons according to the AA guy)
Once parked up at Villa park and the kids looking for parking money
Kid. Quid to look after yer motor Me: It's not worth a quid Kid: There's joyriders round here Me: What self respecting joyrider would be seen dead in that? Kid: Fair comment.
Post match car needed a bumpstart so the same kids helped and got their quid too :-)
Vauxhall insomnia 2.0 diesel - yeah it could do 8 million miles To the gallon but my god was it slow - it had the torque of cow with its hind legs chopped off. Actually nicknamed Daisy ironically.
Easy. I’ve had more dogs than Battersea but one stands out.
The Rover 214. Nice colour, nice interior, good value (cheap). What could go wrong? Try everything. It had a K series engine. A new engine which worked alright until it didn’t and the oil sprayed out copiously. Rover grudgingly agreed to fix it. And made it worse.
I got an independent to look at it (AA) and the Rover heroes had damaged the camshaft. Catastrophic, new engine. Ton of money. Er no, I did captain nasty all the way to the chairman of Rover group. No idea how. But I did and they ‘sorted’ the car at no cost to me. It still squeaked, rattled and sounded the tin box junk it was.
As soon as I could I traded it for another Toyota. And thanked the lord for a chariot that went first time every time.
Easy. I’ve had more dogs than Battersea but one stands out.
The Rover 214. Nice colour, nice interior, good value (cheap). What could go wrong? Try everything. It had a K series engine. A new engine which worked alright until it didn’t and the oil sprayed out copiously. Rover grudgingly agreed to fix it. And made it worse.
I got an independent to look at it (AA) and the Rover heroes had damaged the camshaft. Catastrophic, new engine. Ton of money. Er no, I did captain nasty all the way to the chairman of Rover group. No idea how. But I did and they ‘sorted’ the car at no cost to me. It still squeaked, rattled and sounded the tin box junk it was.
As soon as I could I traded it for another Toyota. And thanked the lord for a chariot that went first time every time.
I had some terrible tales with my Rover 75. On the way home from buying it, it stuttered to a halt, about 500m from my house. Turns out it had 2 fuel pumps. One up front by the engine and one in the saddle shaped tank. The one in the tank failed so it would only pick up fuel from one side of the saddle, so it essentially ran out of fuel with a quarter tank still in it! Easy fix, just keep it above 25% at all times.
Then the worst was driving to Nottingham, the clutch pedal went straight to the floor suddenly when driving. The replacement cylinder I got for the clutch had failed spectacularly. Had to drive home to Leicester that night with no clutch. I would stop the engine at the lights, force it in to first gear and then just give it some gas while ragging the starter motor to get me moving. Then just matched revs for each gear change down the M1.
Finally, I noticed that when I braked or accelerated, I'd hear a single knock from the front left corner. Went to look at the wheel I could hear it coming from and realised that with just my hand I could rock the wheel backwards and forwards an inch each way. One of the control arms was rusted to hell and at some point a pothole had been the end of it and it just snapped clean in two.
I had more trouble with that car than probably every other car I've ever owned combined.
One thing I will say in it's defence is that the seats were the most comfortable I've ever had in a car. I genuinely wish I'd ripped the front seats out and turned them into an arm chair. Only bit of the car that didn't break down!
Citroen C4 Picasso. A 2014 car that was awful. It handled worse than a 400m long container ship, rolled more than one too.
It had no mechanical issues, it was reliable as anything. But it was such an awful drive. Somebody had put a tow bar on it, it couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.
It was just plain terrible to drive. It was that bad that MrsN cried and refused to drive it, so I let her keep the Jaguar XFS. I eventually sold it for a grand less than I paid for it.
Reliability wise, I’ve had some bangers which you expect reliability issues with, but the XK8 is starting to cost me some decent money. But I just can’t stop. I’m slowly buying spares “just in case” and hiding them in my garage.
It probably needs a gearbox overhaul to be honest. I’ll chuck some gearbox oil on and try to nurse it along to summer. I’m going to end up buying a used box, overhauling that and sticking it in.
2020 Ford Focus barely done 20k and the catalytic converter failed (twice), also the driver's window stopped opening and closing, the glove box light stopped working, and, being a Focus, all of the door seals came unstuck.
2020 Ford Focus barely done 20k and the catalytic converter failed (twice), also the driver's window stopped opening and closing, the glove box light stopped working, and, being a Focus, all of the door seals came unstuck.
Citroen Xanthia Diesel
Had the weird suspension that made ir feel like a boat and the acceleration was such that milk floats would over take it
My dear old dad said ‘don’t buy it son it really is wrong’un ‘ he wasn’t wrong either I took it to a garage to check the wiring out and they told me they wouldn’t touch it.
It had those sliding windows and a roof that slid right back and I took it with a ex girlfriend through a car wash I think we came out wetter than the car,we were drenched as it all leaked 😂.
Then one day the steering wheel decided it would line up with the with the rest of the gubbins and I ended up going through a hedge,spinning the steering wheel in hope that it would catch it didn’t ..
2020 Ford Focus barely done 20k and the catalytic converter failed (twice), also the driver's window stopped opening and closing, the glove box light stopped working, and, being a Focus, all of the door seals came unstuck.
My 2016 proudly protrudes its door seals. Good to see this hasn't been fixed by the factory by presumably 5ml of super glue.
Had a few, but none worse than a Peugeot 2008 I purchased about 10 years ago. If ever there was a car that was on the production line at 16:59 on a Friday it was that. Felt from the word go it was thrown together in a hurry, horrible build quality, issue after issue for 2 years until I finally bit the bullet and part ex'd it.
Never had a French car since and dare say I won't.
1979 Toyota Carina in dog sh1t brown. Had 2 bits of cardboard for rear windows. The exhaust was held on with a coat hanger. I gave £70 for it from a lovely lady in lowestoft, just down the road from the building site i was working on. Found out later that her husband was in prison and he'd been apprehended whilst driving it.
First car I ever bought, an Austin A40. Broke down after I’d done less than 50 miles in it & cost nearly as much to repair as the purchase price (the bushes had seized up or something).
Hand me down Vauxhall Astra mk 3 1.4i that my step mother gave me after my mother gave my hand me down mk4 golf to a friend of hers (I'd moved to London and hadn't used it for 5 years). Felt like a massive step down from all the previous cars I'd had, used to break down all the time, struggled to sit at 70 on the A14 and just looked awful.
Always found post 1990s Vauxhalls to be utterly crap.
First car I ever bought, an Austin A40. Broke down after I’d done less than 50 miles in it & cost nearly as much to repair as the purchase price (the bushes had seized up or something).
My friends dad had one of those A40s he traded it in for a Yugo 😑
Citroen C4 Picasso. A 2014 car that was awful. It handled worse than a 400m long container ship, rolled more than one too.
It had no mechanical issues, it was reliable as anything. But it was such an awful drive. Somebody had put a tow bar on it, it couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.
It was just plain terrible to drive. It was that bad that MrsN cried and refused to drive it, so I let her keep the Jaguar XFS. I eventually sold it for a grand less than I paid for it.
Reliability wise, I’ve had some bangers which you expect reliability issues with, but the XK8 is starting to cost me some decent money. But I just can’t stop. I’m slowly buying spares “just in case” and hiding them in my garage.
It probably needs a gearbox overhaul to be honest. I’ll chuck some gearbox oil on and try to nurse it along to summer. I’m going to end up buying a used box, overhauling that and sticking it in.
Have you seen the recent JayEmm episode on the XK8? He drives a lovely example that someone bought for £5,000 and has spent a further £7,000 getting into shape (including gearbox work I think). I'd love one but that's a bit off-putting.
My 2016 proudly protrudes its door seals. Good to see this hasn't been fixed by the factory by presumably 5ml of super glue.
There’s a thin piece of wire that runs through the seals. It needs snipping in a couple of places and the seal will glue back into place and never give troubles again.
Takes 10 minutes. I had the technical bulletin somewhere.
Have you seen the recent JayEmm episode on the XK8? He drives a lovely example that someone bought for £5,000 and has spent a further £7,000 getting into shape (including gearbox work I think). I'd love one but that's a bit off-putting.
I’ve not seen that.
I almost regret not getting the convertible. But I’m bald.
I’ve sunk best part of £4500 into the car. It’s a money pit.
But when you’re blasting along it is something else. I’m genuinely looking forward to getting home and firing it up.
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