Best and worst car you ever had...

[ArDee]

Both worst and best are a toss up;

Worst between 1.5 litre “A” reg diesel Astra estate the “Mould Mobile” old, slow mouldy; but frugal, in excess of 50mpg no matter how driven (but it wouldn’t have been driven fast) and an 855 mini, only kept the mini for a week; went down the road like a crab.

Best between our last car, Audi 20v Quattro and our present car, Saab 9-3; Audi for shear out and out speed and grip, present car for comfort, speed and frugality - 150 bhp diesel that will average in excess of 50 mpg on a long run and 46 mpg driving round town.

 

[sunnyjim]

Worst - 1976 Coke bottle Mk 3 Cortina estate. Tappettappetttappettappettappettappet. All the handling of a half filled hot water bottle. Would only start in winter with 2 batteries in series on the starter.

Best to look at and going when it was : 1984 Jag V12 XJS. Wall-wall enjine. Seating position not unlike recumbent bike.

Most memories:1981 Volvo 245 estate. Car, camper, truck. Bought in 1983, finally off to the scrappy last year.

 

[Chilternrides]

Worst - Ford Capri 1600 GT; looked great, handled like a blancmange, drank petrol like Oliver Reid drank booze and rapidly fell apart.

Best - An old Mk2 Ford Escort; It looked (and was) very basic, it was reliable on the whole, and when it wasn't, I could fix just about anything on it myself. It handled surprisingly well for a basic model, didn't glug too much juice and was extremely good value for the few quid it cost me.

I've had several other cars which may be regarded as better or worse than those above, but these two stick in my mind as they gave me, in order, the worst and best value I've had from cars.

 

[meenaghman]

Best for fun driving - my alfa suds 1500 TIs - sure they leaked like a sieve - nothing better to wake you up in the morning than the sunroof leaking on the back of your neck going round a bend.. don't worry in comparison to the shelf under the steering wheel depositing its fluid contents on your feet it wasn't so bad.. Then there's the electric gremlins - f**k where did my lights go as your hammering down the M3 at night.. oh OK back again... and electric burning smells (because the wiring loom was un-protected and your passenger had moved his seat and caught the wires.. Still turn the radio off - open the window and just listen to that little engine sing...and driving round corners was superb fun..

Had a 33 which did upwards of 50K miles in a year... really lovely car to drive despite all the talk about Italian driving position - I must be of Latin descent - same boxer engine but the 1700 version with carbs.. Drove a P4 .. beast of a little car...

Owned a number of 3.0V6 164s -- had one up at 150mph and had to back off because I reckoned the tyres were probably not rated for much more but the car was willing to keep going.. Again for a big car quite nimble.. but could never beat anyone off the lights due to Torque steer.. Had a Fiat Croma Turbo (same chassis as Alfa 164 and Saab9000 and well balanced and pretty fast.. would have loved to try the ferrari engined Lancia on the same chassis).

Had to have some 'boring' cars since moving here.. Have a C5 which is dull as dishwater.. just had a suspension leak (don't want to know the bill).. but fits 5 adults on a long journey comfortably..
Worst car has to be a Mondeo 1.9 diesel estate - lifeless thing.. but to be fair I only bought it as a stopgap for when moving back home.. unfortunately the stopgap ended up being 2 years.. Always started always did everything..always sat on the slow lane on the motorway and always just drained another bit of my life from me..

 

[mcshroom]

Worst car was an L reg Ford Escort 1.3. Underpowered, bad brakes, poor clearance and the electrics had been redone by a previous owner with very little in the way of electrical knowledge. It got me up and down the country ok though (even if at one point I was putting 2 litres of water in the cooling system every time I drove to work and adding it again on the way home).

My best car is probably my currant one, an X reg Megane 1.9 DCi. Room to put my bike in the back with wheel still attached, very little ever seems to go wrong with it and comfortably runs along at 70mph all day if you want to at just under 60mpg. It was even better when the air-con worked but for 168k miles on the clock it's still a well running car.

 

[Fnaar]

My dad's cars... all mine have been sh!te:

best: ford corsair, 1966 reg. Classy looking

worst: marina... utter cr@p

 

[CharlesF]

Best for fun driving - my alfa suds 1500 TIs - sure they leaked like a sieve - nothing better to wake you up in the morning than the sunroof leaking on the back of your neck going round a bend.. don't worry in comparison to the shelf under the steering wheel depositing its fluid contents on your feet it wasn't so bad.. Then there's the electric gremlins - f**k where did my lights go as your hammering down the M3 at night.. oh OK back again... and electric burning smells (because the wiring loom was un-protected and your passenger had moved his seat and caught the wires.. Still turn the radio off - open the window and just listen to that little engine sing...and driving round corners was superb fun..

An Alfa fan! I had a Sud in Cape Town and it was great. Full trottle around Chapmans Peak with my then girlfriend hanging on for dear life. What a sound to rev it up to the limit before changing up. My only new car I ever bought and I only bought it new because it had gone done the production line and received some GL bits and some standard bits, it was b*st*rd and they were selling them off cheap. My only problem was the oil consumption. Alfa re-bored all the oil passages and that helped. Otherwise problem free.

 

[Piemaster]

I'm on my 2nd 156 now. It's the only car I've had since being married that I don't get to drive by default when going out with my wife as she loves driving it too. We did test drive some other family cars - Zafira, Megane, Focus etc.
Then bought the Alfa anyway

Getting a 2nd one was due to a serious engine fail with the first, but I don't blame Alfa for it. Filled up with fuel somewhere on the A1 Dunno what it was but it looked like the fuel was contaminated when subsequently looking at a sample of it at local garage. Unfortunately couldn't prove which filling station it was to claim against them. Engine repair was going to be borderline uneconomic, so hence the 2nd car. Apart from that never had any problems with either of them.

My best still goes to the Stag though, but for different reasons.

 

[twobiker]

have had several best cars,Sierra gti,Granada Ghia,Fiesta MK6 1.4 Tdci,Citroen 2cv,so good i sold and then bought it back,we took it to Scotland twice and to the Outer Hebrides,and Mondeo Tdci,it does 25,000 miles a year and so far is reliable and frugal,best mpg 57.1,worst car Peugeot 305 estate ate parts and money like i eat malted milk biscuits.

 

[gbb]

Commenting on a couple of previous posts...
Skoda 120 E ? was that the rear engine jobby ? my dad had one, he said it was the best car he ever owned. Why, it was reliable, cheap, reasonably economical and best of all, he'd drive all the way up the A1 to Northumberland at 65mph....all day. He said it was so funny, you'd overtake another car (any car) and 1/2 a mile up the road...they'd overtake him. Just pure one-upmanship..they just didnt want to be overtaken by a Skoda. That was when they had a poor image.

My son in law has a Subaru Imprezza WRX STI 320 Prodrive...jesus, its the fastest thing ive ever been in, jaw droppingly fast yet comfortable and well behaved when driving normally. That would be my best and worst car combined. All that power and image, yet i wouldnt ever be able to drive it as you could...just watching that fuel guage