Best and worst car you ever had...

[gbb]

Reading the 'conversations with non cyclists', which somehow moved onto certain cars folks had reminded me of cars i'd had, some good, some awful...
The best...and it wasnt anything that special, it just had a special thing for me, was a 2001 Vectra SRI. Punchy if you wanted it to be, economical if you drove steady, comfortable, reliable ...and i liked the looks. Strange, because it really wasnt a well regarded range, but it did the job admirably (well until the engine developed several management faults)

The worst...oh god, i'm going back to circa 1976, was a Morris 1300. They look insanely small nowadays, but i suppose then it was a medium size car. It was THE worst because i'd brought it as a 17/18 year old and thought the fact they'd put underseal all round the sills etc...that it was a good thing. Noooo, i drove it 3 or 4 miles and the knocking from the subframes like they were going to fall out. Luckily, the seller gave me my money back.

In the middle, i always liked my Lancia Beta. styling was good (at the time), racy engine and gearbox but insanely complex.

What were yours ?

 

[Dayvo]

I've only owned three cars. A Vauxhall Cavalier, A VW Caravelle and (currently) a VW Caddy.

The Caddy is the best, but I really liked the Caravelle.

The Cavalier was a pile of crap, got me from England to Norway in 1993, but didn't get me from Sweden back to Norway in 1994, where I believe it is still rusting away somewhere.

VWs are great cars (IMO).

Hoping to get an OLD VW Beetle one day in the future so I can 'do it up'!

 

[007fair]

Worst was the car I learnt to drive in - A Morris Marina 1.8 Super DeLux Estate. Nothing Super or Delux about it.
We painted the bottom half dark brown to hide the rust. There was no 'straight ahead' in it, it was always weaving about like a barge in a current.
Despite the above I have fond memories of it

Unfortunately I have not been able to indulge in really good cars so the best one I have had is the one I have now - A Ford S Max 1.8 Tdi. Does everything except go 2 places at the same time



'i always liked my Lancia Beta.' Nice looking car before disintegration set in after about 2 years

 

[Saluki]

My 'best' car was an old Marina (blue in colour) Estate car. I could get the bike in the back. It would carry all the dogs - not at the same time as the bike. I went all over the place in Molly the Marina and loved her to bits. Sold her when times got tough, to a lady who loved her as much as I did, and actually made a profit on her. Molly never skipped a beat, never broke down and was just wonderful and very tolerant of me going round corners in the wrong gear etc. She was my first car but she was my most reliable, which is more than I can say for some cars I have had.

My worst one was a Mini Clubman on a 57 reg. It was a pile of shite. In the 18 months we had it, it spent well over 6 months in the BMW dealers being fixed. It had 2 new gearboxes while we had it, 1 new cooling system, the suicide door was fixed either 7 or 8 times, we lost count. Don't get me started on the power steering and, just to cheer us up, it was a mouldy as anything. The mould arrived within a week and we never could get rid of it. It wouldn't start from cold, ever. It was just awful and I will never have another Mini, or a BMW for that matter. We tried to reject it several times but BMW were having none of it.

 

[ASC1951]

I've had various cars over the years, although nothing particularly exotic, the closest being a Sierra XR4 (a bigger Escort XR3i).

Best - my current 10 year old Astra 1.7 Turbo Diesel. Does everything I need, very cheaply, and I can get the bike in the back with both wheels still on.

Worst - a Reliant Scimitar. It might have had a good 2.8 engine, but the whole thing was absolute pants. Having the brake servo belt snap on me on the M1 cured me of any lingering affection for 'classic British sports cars'. And it had been clocked.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Worst was a Marina, a total pile of shite that leaked through the baulkhead. A wet journey meant rolling my trouser legs up because the footwell would end up inches deep in water.

Best was a Mondeo Turbo Diesel, comfortable, smooth and reliable with good handling and loads of room.

 

[Kestevan]

Best car was a Peugeot 405 tdi. Fast, roomy comfortable and did 120K in 3 yrs with never a single fault.

Although I've driven some knackered old steeds the most disappointing was in fact 2 cars..... Both peugeot 105 gtis acquired within 6 months of each other. I totalled the first one on one of the few times it was actually on the road rather than at the dealers.

The replacement was worse. In 2 years ownership it spent more time having a never-ending series of faults inspected (and subsequenly ignored) by the dealer than it did being driven.

 

[upsidedown]

Best was a Talbot Solara, ugly as sin but really reliable, worst was an Opel Manta, the complete opposite.
I gave the Solara to a mate. The Manta ended it's days at the scrapyard at Forton Services on the M6 after I fell asleep and drove it off the motorway. I'd just finished a nightshift in Plymouth and was attempting to drive to Edinburgh. My risk assessment skills weren't what they might have been when I was 19.

 

[Gromit]

My best are was my little fiat punto sadly laid to rest at the begging of this year she took me the length and breath of the country. Bought her for £200 five or so years ago, she just kept going.

Worst car was my first car bought when I was 23 after I past my test, Black shiny Ford Escort the chap I bought it off swapped the engine after the test drive for a kangaroo. :-( £3000 pounds down the drain. Luckily it got nicked. :-)

 

[XmisterIS]

Best was the Nissan Primera 2.2 Turbo that I had before my current car. It finally went to car heaven when it became more expensive to fix than it was worth. It went for 10 years with hardly any problems at all.

Worst was a Fiat Tempra 1.6. It was the worst hunk of crap I have ever driven, the parts were insanely expensive and had to be imported from Italy. I tolerated it for 6 months before I sold it.

 

[Brandane]

Best ever (by some considerable amount) was a VW Golf GTi of 1991 vintage. Looked good, went like stink, utterly reliable and easy to work on. Bought it when it was 3 years old with 32k miles on the clock, sold it 6 years later when it had 152k miles on it, and it was as good then as the day I bought it!

Worst was probably my first car, a 1978 model VW Derby (Polo with a boot). It only cost me £300 so can't really complain. It lasted about a month before being traded in...

Quite impressed with current car, a 2006 Toyota Corolla 1600. Bought it purely as a reliable workhorse, but have been most impressed with the comfort, economy and reliability. Performance not bad either if you use the rev range and gearbox!

 

[Piemaster]

Best / worst in what way? For reliability/running costs/practicality? Or for the way you felt driving it?

Best - Triumph Stag. Rover V8 for superb exhaust note and a smile everytime I walked away from it and just had to look back. Was actually quite reliable too.

Worst. Nissan Bluebird. Utterly reliable, comfortable but by no means sporty. Just 16' of white car and as inspiring as a potato. Actually I can think of more interesting things to do with a potato.

 

[007fair]

Doh.. I fogot about my red B Reg Nissan Sunny - ( Top Gears worst ever car!) Bought at 8 years old and went for another 7 without a hitch A number of parking speed incidents meant it looked terrible but mechanically was amazing
Used to get parts for it at the scrap yard and there were a few red sunny's of the same age in the piles of scrapped cars which were much better looking than the one we (kids in the back) had just turned up in to get parts for!

 

[PBancroft]

Best: Mini Mayfair. D-reg, 998 cc and about the most fun thing in the world to drive. I sorely regret selling it. It was my first car and still lovely when it went, however a few of my friends had been involved in serious accidents (one of which was sadly fatal) and I felt it was time to get something safer. I trusted my own driving, but you can't account for other folk. It just offered no protection.

But damn I miss that car.

Worst: VW Polo. Ostensibly a nice little runaround, but it really was a money sink. Favourite example was when driving home when it decides it doesn't want to go any further. Run out of petrol? No. Overheated? No. Blown a head gasket? God no. The electronic chip which shuts down the engine in the case of mechanical failure itself failed. So what does it do? Shut down the damn engine. £150 to fix something which didn't even need to be there in the first place.

 

[rualexander]

Best - Audi 80 Sport, 1984 model, I had it from 1988 until it was stolen in 1991, police found it in Birmingham (taken from Glasgow) minus wheels, but by the time the AA got out to pick it up it was wrecked and a write off. Insurance payout paid for three months cycle touring in Thailand though! Totally reliable, very quick, smooth and reasonably economical.

Worst - probably MGB roadster, 1979 model, I had it from 1990 until 1995, fun car to drive and use but a bit of a financial black hole to keep on the road! Engine was good but body was a nightmare.