The Worst Car You've Ever Driven.

[Alan Drover]

Compared with some others on this forum I've not driven many different cars. The worst one of what I have has to be a SIMCA 1301 in 1972. It was a new car and I drove it to from Winchester to Gatwick and back twice, once to take its owner to Gatwick and then to collect him.
The gearchange was like stirring pebbles with a crowbar, the seats were extremely uncomfortable and even for its size and considering its small engine the performance was somewhat lacklustre and it had the typically tappety SIMCA engine.
Fortunately I haven't seen one for a very long time.

[diffwhine]

Tata Safari 4WD...
Nobody should ever be forced to drive one. We were forced to sell them...!

[nathanglasgow]

My land rovers tick most of the boxes for being the 'worst car you have ever driven'
Slow-yup
Noisy - yup
Poor fuel efficiency - yup
Uncomfortable - yup
Dangerous to drive on the modern roads - yup
Short service intervals-yup
Ect
Please read with tounge in cheek

[diffwhine]

Actually I think now I come to think of it, the City Rover wins first prize...
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/97621/rover-cityrover-the-worst-cars-ever

[GlenAnderson]

I've driven loads of different vehicles, many of which were reputed to be "the worst car ever"; Trabants, Wartburgs, Ladas, Skodas (the rear engined type), Marinas, Allegros, FSOs, communist era Dacias, the list goes on. Surprisingly, nearly all of them were actually pretty good considering the environment in which they were designed to operate, and the time they were contemporary. Yugos were pretty shoddy though, it has to be said.

Probably the worst car to drive I have ever owned though was my 1934 Ford Model Y, which was a truly nerve wracking place to sit. The suspension design is truly compromised on them, and they were pretty notorious for poor handling when new.

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[Countryview]

A Vauxhall Chevanne, pale blue and horrific to drive!!

[TimV]

A Toyota Prius - one of work's pool cars.

If I was frugal on the throttle, I could get 50mpg, (compared with my diesel Eurobox which averaged 56mpg - not being frugal), it handled like a mattress at sea, was unbelievably boring to drive.

[Simon K.]

A Chrysler Neon automatic.

Given as a courtesy car while my car was being serviced.

Appalling build quality, and an autobox that on kickdown to overtake actually slowed the vehicle right down as it just had no guts.

[Alan Drover]

Land Rovers are fun to drive though unlike the SIMCA.

[nathanglasgow]

Indeed hence the "tounge in cheek" caveat 

[Bradley66]

In order of mediocrity
Dodge Ram 2500
MGB roadster(convertible Morris Marina)
Grenadier ( for a modern it's rubbish)
Morris Minor.

[Uffddd]

For modern cars the Hyundai Tuscan is very disappointing. Was given one as a rental and it was so lacking in power I nearly turned around to return it as my initial thought was that it must be in limp mode.

[w3526602]

Hi,

Mine was a Moskvich van, bought new (£600 .. the cheapest 4-wheeler available I bought it cash, with an overdraft).

Brakes were too powerful ... you could recognise a new Moskvich owner by the way he approached traffic lights in a series of short skids.

I could not stop the engine pinking ... even on four star petrol.

Dreadful after sales service ... main-dealer operated from a yard and shed, and had taken delivery of more cars than he had room for).

On the other hand, it pulled like a train ... cruise at 70mph pulling a 12ft caravan, and out accelerate most boy-racer Escorts away from the lights.

It was also Barbara's first experience of towing (same caravan), from the Aust Service station, near the Severn Bridge, through East London and Croydon, to my parents house.

I seem to remember Gibbo confirming it had a (copy?) 1500cc BMW engine, a huge, impressive looking lump of aluminium.

"Right of Passage"?

602

[Alan Drover]

I've had the same rubber bumper MGB GT since 1979. Yes, they are crude, unsophisticated and with rubbish suspension. My Series 2 Morris Oxford had far superior torsion bar front suspension unlike the crude Austin set up of kingpins and lever arm dampers front and rear instead of the superior Morris set up using telescopic dampers all round.
However I got mine to perform much better than average with a set of larger carburettors, a modified cylinder head and longer bottom front suspension arms to give a more negative camber to the front wheels.
It was fun to drive though with an engine that would hit the red line in the lower gears.
Still better than the SIMCA though.

[DogDave]

Had a Citroen c1 as a courtesy car for a couple of days, got hit by a kamikaze wet sheep which ran off and we couldn't get the passenger door to open after that, had done so much damage. Thing must have been made of cheese.

Worst thing I have ever been a passenger in was a smart car. Horrible flimsy thing, your head is resting against the boot door and point it at a steep hill it just made a loud noise and stopped dead, we had to go the long way round