Soldato
Probably been done before but I need a laugh, so i figured i'd ask here, and give a little of my own nostalgia. List the worst cars (for any reason) and the reasons why they were terrible. Mine would be as follows:
1987 Ford Fiesta 1.1 "Popular plus". Hmm, plus eh? Right..
This car had done silly miles, like 134k when i bought it (admittedly for £20) at an auction. It had no first gear when i bought it and the brakes had the alarming problem that when you pressed the pedal, the car would pick at random two wheels to slow down and two wheels to do nothing to. It also felt down on power and was covered in rust. By the time i got rid of it it only had 2nd and 4th gears, took 5 goes and a load of wd-40 to start even in summer, reverse sounded like i was torturing 10000 cats, and it would NOT go above 40mph. Oh and the clutch groaned. I got rid of it when i sat in it one morning and the seat fell through the floorpan. Still, got more than i paid for it at weigh in and learned good clutch control
later on i had a 1997 vectra 1.8. This came to me as a non runner, and a £40 airflow meter later it worked. For 17 miles, then the radiator literally exploded. fixed this with scrap parts, and it worked for another 43 miles and then started missing and backfiring and wouldn't run properly at all - this wasn't an overheat problem either, tried all sorts to find out what was wrong, nothing showed up... So i got rid.
Replaced that with a Sierra 1.8 that i got on the "i'll take it away for free" rule as it had 4 months t&t on it. Unfortunately, when it ran it did like 4mpg. So i swapped it for a bottle of whiskey to a mate who was building a kit car - it wasn't worth fixing
And this ends my truely bad car run. I've had some cars you would think were awful, like old maestros, ford ka etc but they have all performed solidly, and done the job i've bought them to do. Until recently... this one is VERY recent and i still haven't recovered, i'm still twitching and shaking...
Went up to edinburgh on the train to pick up a 1972 Land Rover SIII diesel. This was a standard, pretty nice structurally land rover that had "slight engine problems, no rilly an essue mate et'll dehfinitely get ye hoome"
Oh yes. It got me home from edinburgh to sheffield. At 28mph, top speed out of a very sick and overly loud sounding 2.25d in a vehicle which had no o/d and no 4th gear.. also no soundproofing and no stereo. Also the suspension seemed to be locked solid - it was, when I got it home. Not forgetting the 1/4 turn of play in the steering which operated on the teenage rebellion principle. It also had typical series landie brakes. IE hit the brakes about 4 miles before you want to stop and pray.
Oh well it was very cheap even with the maladies and the chassis and bulkhead really are nice (a testament to regular waxoyl) but it's taken me months to be able to look at it without wanting to go crazy and chop it to pieces with all the nice tools i have in the garage.. lol
EDIT: oh yes, i forgot to mention, there's like a half inch of what i hope is a combination of dirt and waxoyl all over the floor of the cab. its certainly evil stuff and 2 days of scraping has hardly left a dent
1987 Ford Fiesta 1.1 "Popular plus". Hmm, plus eh? Right..
This car had done silly miles, like 134k when i bought it (admittedly for £20) at an auction. It had no first gear when i bought it and the brakes had the alarming problem that when you pressed the pedal, the car would pick at random two wheels to slow down and two wheels to do nothing to. It also felt down on power and was covered in rust. By the time i got rid of it it only had 2nd and 4th gears, took 5 goes and a load of wd-40 to start even in summer, reverse sounded like i was torturing 10000 cats, and it would NOT go above 40mph. Oh and the clutch groaned. I got rid of it when i sat in it one morning and the seat fell through the floorpan. Still, got more than i paid for it at weigh in and learned good clutch control
later on i had a 1997 vectra 1.8. This came to me as a non runner, and a £40 airflow meter later it worked. For 17 miles, then the radiator literally exploded. fixed this with scrap parts, and it worked for another 43 miles and then started missing and backfiring and wouldn't run properly at all - this wasn't an overheat problem either, tried all sorts to find out what was wrong, nothing showed up... So i got rid.
Replaced that with a Sierra 1.8 that i got on the "i'll take it away for free" rule as it had 4 months t&t on it. Unfortunately, when it ran it did like 4mpg. So i swapped it for a bottle of whiskey to a mate who was building a kit car - it wasn't worth fixing
And this ends my truely bad car run. I've had some cars you would think were awful, like old maestros, ford ka etc but they have all performed solidly, and done the job i've bought them to do. Until recently... this one is VERY recent and i still haven't recovered, i'm still twitching and shaking...
Went up to edinburgh on the train to pick up a 1972 Land Rover SIII diesel. This was a standard, pretty nice structurally land rover that had "slight engine problems, no rilly an essue mate et'll dehfinitely get ye hoome"
Oh yes. It got me home from edinburgh to sheffield. At 28mph, top speed out of a very sick and overly loud sounding 2.25d in a vehicle which had no o/d and no 4th gear.. also no soundproofing and no stereo. Also the suspension seemed to be locked solid - it was, when I got it home. Not forgetting the 1/4 turn of play in the steering which operated on the teenage rebellion principle. It also had typical series landie brakes. IE hit the brakes about 4 miles before you want to stop and pray.
Oh well it was very cheap even with the maladies and the chassis and bulkhead really are nice (a testament to regular waxoyl) but it's taken me months to be able to look at it without wanting to go crazy and chop it to pieces with all the nice tools i have in the garage.. lol
EDIT: oh yes, i forgot to mention, there's like a half inch of what i hope is a combination of dirt and waxoyl all over the floor of the cab. its certainly evil stuff and 2 days of scraping has hardly left a dent
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