Whatever smart MG car, its software is so slow it would be outrun by a 2010s laptop
The one I’ve got at the minute, a Seat Leon (mark 4); it’s built on top of VWs MQB platform and honestly it’s a piece of shit.
The list of issues is as long as my arm: The reversing beeper gets stuck, the graphics don’t draw on top of the reversing camera, plugging a phone in stops playback, the shitty entertainment system crashes, keyless entry gets shy when it rains, the emergency alerting system throws a fit if it loses mobile signal, there’s no light on critical controls in the dark, the interior light sometimes can’t be switched off, the cruise control gets confused about which side of the road it’s driving on and doesn’t want to overtake another car (it thinks it’s undertaking), the speed limiter is hiding behind UI 4 steps, the clutch jumps when cold etc etc.
Every month I discover a new niggle. This is the third Seat I’ve owned (having previously loved my two Seat Leons) and will most definitely be my last VW group car ever. What a piece of trash.
I was surprised, until I read the last paragraph. SEAT and Skoda have been the reliable VW brands for 2-3 decades, with the Ibizas and Octavias reaching mythical status. I read somewhere that some SEATs are actually rebadged VW china models. Great way for VW to squander reputation.
1993? Mitsubishi Magna.
Was literally given it and still lost money. Dry solder joints all through the main fuse/relay box. Got those all fixed and it blew the transmission.
A Mitsubishi Colt I bought from a guy in a scrapyard for £50 because my Allegro had just been stolen and I needed something quick to get to work. He told me it had an MOT and to come back the next day to pick it up (in the days before it was online) He wasn’t there. It was the rustiest POS ever - bits kept falling off, you could see the road in several places through the floor. Engine was good but that was the only thing. In a lifetime of exercising Bangernomics, that was the stand out terrible car.
Most I’ve lost on a car was a more recent Shogun. Bought for £7,500, cost £2000 in repairs then had a lot more pending. Sold for £1400 in less than a year.
1994 Pontiac sunbird. 2.0 liter iron duke had 80 hp when it was brand new. God knows what it was by 2001. Thankfully it had a manual transmission, but that thing REEEEAAAAAALLLY struggled on the smallest hills.
For a loose definition of “me” and more “my parents when I was young” was a mid-70’s Fiat. I have lots of memories where we waited in some parking lot or by the freeway for a tow truck or some other help to arrive.
Fix It Again Tony
A 2018 VW Passat GTE. It isn’t bad, but it’s the only car I’ve ever owned.
The car I had the most trouble with wasn’t because it was a bad car, but because it kept getting trashed. VW Cabriolet convertible. Bought it when I got my first real job out of school.
One week after driving it off the lot, parked on a busy city street, someone slashed the roof and tore out the stereo. Fixed it all up. Insurance rate went up. Six months later, knife through the roof AND a smashed window. Stereo gone. Switched to a removable, pull-out stereo. Still got broken into.
Had dozens of slashes/smashes. At one point, just left the door locks open. Nothing to take. Someone slept in the back seat (left food wrappers) and pilfered through the ashtray where I kept loose change.
Loved driving it with the top down, but what a pain it was to fix.
A 2003 Chevrolet S10. Had it since it was brand new, it’s been almost perfectly reliable. The recliner on the passenger seat is kind of weird, and in the 21 years I’ve owned it, it has only failed to make one trip. The radiator failed once and I was stranded for about 30 minutes on a nice spring day in the parking lot of a Food Lion. It’s showing some wear after a couple decades but it starts, it runs, it’s comfortable, it hauls any cargo I need, it’s not tremendously big for a pickup truck so it’s easy to park…I fully intend for that truck to be my hearse. Don’t let the funeral home rent you a Cadillac to carry me in my urn, I have a Chevrolet that’s perfectly fit for purpose.
It’s the worst car I’ve ever owned because it is the only car I’ve ever owned.
2001 F150, hands down
2008 Dodge Avenger. Believe it or not, it was that 2008 Dodge Avenger.
I hated every inch of that car. It was big without any of the benefits a car might have from being big. No power at all, pretty bad on gas. Didn’t have a very comfortable road feel or suspension. Every inch of the car was cheap. I drove it for a long time and towards the end, around 100,000 miles, everything in the car felt like it was malfunctioning.
Any dodge
Probably a 1996 Mercury Mystique
Vw jetta I think an '02. The interior was nice but it fell apart pretty quick. It ran great until almost exactly 80k miles. At that point, so much stuff started breaking all at once that I lost count. Forget even trying to work on them, I had to use so many specialized tools that were made specific to VW. I couldn’t get rid of that car fast enough.
Same situation tdi in the shop several times a year
Ironically, a Toyota. Specifically, my 1994 4Runner (that’s from back when they were still the same as the famous indestructible Hilux, BTW). I’ve owned it since just before the pandemic and still haven’t managed to get it to run right yet. It’s been parked for months because I can’t find any mechanic willing to touch it.
The lesson here is that when people say the 3VZE is the one bad engine Toyota made, believe them. The most common advice I’ve read for fixing it is “rip it out and swap in a 5VZE,” which I’m seriously considering.
Other half had a Peugeot 206. Thing was an economic write off at 10 years old with barely 100,000 kms on the odometer. Endless problems every service, high chance of stranding you. Interior falling apart, paint peeling off etc. Quality control must have been non existent.
Worst car I’ve ever driven would be a 2021 Mitsubishi outlander hire car. The way it handled corners felt downright dangerous, weak engine with awful CVT. Average park bench has more comfort than the seats. Sometimes in my career I get a feeling of imposter syndrome, but I can look at a car like the outlander and say thank fuck I’m not at daft as the arseholes responsible for that abomination.
