Best and worst car you ever had...

[Cardiac]

Worst - my Vauxhall Ventora, 3.3 litres, six cylinders, which was my first car in 1980 (well, it's hard to be young and sensible at the same time...). It did nearly 18mpg on a good day, and about a gallon of the cheapest oil you could find every fortnight. It was fun to drive though, and the oil smoke from the twin exhausts did a good impression of a Saturn 5 rocket when you put your foot down.

Best - that's a hard one. I loved my BMW 323i (new in 1999) which I ran for three years. Silky smooth and extremely reliable. I love my current Volvo S80 (new in 2005). Not as smooth as the BMW (the Volvo's a D5) but it's a very good drive, and with the manual box is very economic in fuel - service costs not so great though.

 

[Oxo]

Best car which was 100% totally reliable and the most fun to drive was a Mazda MX5, the road holding/handling was incredible. Worst car ever was a Morris Marina, it just didn't do straight lines.

 

[pally83]

Worst - Ford Focus ST170. Brilliant to drive but just about everything went wrong with it. Total pain in the hole.

Best - My current Alfa 156 2.4 JTD bought on the cheap to replace the ST. 10 years old and goes like stink. Fixed a couple of existing problems but nothing gone wrong for me. Love it.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk

 

[Smokin Joe]

Best car which was 100% totally reliable and the most fun to drive was a Mazda MX5, the road holding/handling was incredible. Worst car ever was a Morris Marina, it just didn't do straight lines.

I've listed my worst as a Marina. The body roll made you seasick and the crossply tyres used to screech on even the gentlest of bends at moderate speeds.

The only good thing was they were so simple you could replace virtually everything with the tools you had lying around in the kitchen. Front lever arm suspension units, ten minutes a side if you wanted a cup of tea half way through each one.

 

[Orange]

Best - Honda Accord: leather. climate control, cruise control, headlamp washers, it had the works, was seriously comfortable and very rapid.
Runner Up: Fiat Uno: did over 50,000 miles in 2 years on a 900cc engine, utterly reliable, very frugal and sold it for only £100 less than I bought it for.

Worst - Austin Allegro: my first car, a rustbucket, could drive around 90 degree corners without using the steering wheel. In fact you had to steer to the right to drive in a straight line. Only lasted 2 months.
Runner Up - Ford Cortina: slow and thirsty, never quite sure if it would start or not. Always sought out a hill to park on,so I could bump start it by rolling if necessary - forwards or backwards.

(Someone mentioned a Nissan Bluebird. I had one of those in the days when I was doing 56,000 miles a year. It was brilliant and I loved the all blue interior - that included the dashboard and steering wheel - all blue. It was the hatchback version and one day the hatchback fell off to one side as one of the top hinges had broken!)

 

[gbb]

I've listed my worst as a Marina. The body roll made you seasick and the crossply tyres used to screech on even the gentlest of bends at moderate speeds.

The only good thing was they were so simple you could replace virtually everything with the tools you had lying around in the kitchen. Front lever arm suspension units, ten minutes a side if you wanted a cup of tea half way through each one.

Its a love/hate thing with Marina's then. I saw another post, they loved it. I had a 1800 Marina Coupe, L reg IIRC. Looking back, they were pretty awful, yet i enjoyed having mine at the time. Quite reliable, the only thing i can remember going wrong was siezed kingpins, which they were renowned for.
All the old leylands were a strange mix....rotted like the clappers, neither sporty nor particually comfortable, yet you could tinker with them and they'd keep going and going.
I speak from experience ...Minis, Allegros (aggros...yet my 1.8 HL was particually good), Maestros, Marinas, they were all crap'ish cars, but mine just seemed to keep going and going.

 

[Arch]

Best: 1979 Mini automatic. It was brown with a beige roof, but after I did a minor fill, and couldn't rematch the beige paint well, it had a roof of beige and brown stripes. I called it the Humbuggy, and drove from Leicester to Devon in it once. (and back)

Worst. 1979 Mini automatic. It was brown etc etc. Only ever had one car.

The Mini had a very clever safety system. In ice, snow, rain, or the threat of drizzle, it wouldn't start, ensuring I couldn't drive in inclement weather.

I loved that car though. I'd like another one day. I had to sell it for parts eventually, when the rust holes in the floor became large enough to power it Flintstones style, and one of the doors started to sag on the hinge.

 

[GrasB]

Worst: Mazda 323. It's not so much that I could fault it. it was wonderfully reliable & low running costs. Why the worse? It's crime was blandness

Best... this is a hard one I'd say it's a tie between my rally Cinq & my current Alfa 159.
-The Alfa is frugal, luxury cruise missile on wheels with a serious attitude, equally at home plodding along at 15mph round town as it is blasting down the Autobahn at 150mph or eating up the Alpine climbs around my in-laws residence.
- The Cinq... It was an absolute money pit, hell it was (is?) road legal a rally car used for hill climbs, sprints & auto testing across the UK. But turn the key & hear that little 1108cc engine burst into life & you didn't care it was harsh, noisy, had transmission whine. Select 1st gear & pull away & you were under no illusions it was the motoring equivalent of a hyper, naught & completely insane puppy that had just been shown an field full of cats for the first time.

 

[Scotmitchy]

Between OH and I we have had lots of cars.

Worst - probably a Fiat X19 which we bought on looks alone, but it broke down a lot.

Best. mmmm several for different reasons - Nissan Primera SVE, just cos it was so well equipped, only really appreciating that in hindsigt.

Have just reserved a Chevrolet Spark - have had two testdrives, both of which I loved, it is very well equipped and mostly cheap.

Am not getting it for a good few weeks, but am looking forward to it already! Oh, and it has roof bars, so can get my bike on the top.

 

[endoman]

Best, several contenders depending on purpose.

Best to drive, Porsche Boxster, Best fun, Jeep Grand Cherokee cos I offroaded it., Best practical Jeep Grand Voyager. Best combination Volvo XC90,

Worst, never had a really bad car, currently have a 110K miles 950 Corsa and it's a perfectly good car, but for image etc the worst I have had. But it goes and gets me places when I want to.
Citroen C5 wasn't a deal of fun, but very practical and spacious.

I think it's pretty hard to get a duff car these days, been driving for 26 years and not yet needed roadside assistance!

 

[the_mikey]

Okay, don't laugh:

The best: 1996 - Kia Pride - 1.4LX - Cheap efficient reliable.
Closely behind that was my 1987 Nissan Micra 1.0L!

The Worst: 2008 Vauxhall Vectra 1.9 diesel - Expensive, inefficient, very unreliable.

 

[gbb]

Okay, don't laugh:

The best: 1996 - Kia Pride - 1.4LX - Cheap efficient reliable.
Closely behind that was my 1987 Nissan Micra 1.0L!

The Worst: 2008 Vauxhall Vectra 1.9 diesel - Expensive, inefficient, very unreliable.

Funny that, i know a guy who had the Vectra CDTI (is that right ?)...very costly. Management issues and the dual mass flywheel cost him a fortune.
Another guy had the same car, different year...just as costly, although i didnt know exactly why.
Both were glad to get rid.

 

[the_mikey]

Funny that, i know a guy who had the Vectra CDTI (is that right ?)...very costly. Management issues and the dual mass flywheel cost him a fortune.
Another guy had the same car, different year...just as costly, although i didnt know exactly why.
Both were glad to get rid.

I can also say I was glad to be rid of it too! Mine was a CDTi .

 

[TheDoctor]

Hmmm. Worst is a close call. Could be the Skoda 120, could be the Fiat Tipo.
I'm going for the Tipo. Bought new. Tracking went out every 6 months, which was also when it burnt enough oil that the warning light came on. Gear lever was very vague even from new, and got a lot worse over time. The air-con never really worked, and neither did the heater. Exhaust system - 3 pipes, 2 silencers, 10 feet long with a bracket at each end. Once the end of the rear silencer rusted out, after about 18 months, the pipe dropped, hit the road, twisted 6 foot of metal round and smashed the rear bumper. It was an unmitigated heap of shoot.
Best - also a close call. I retain a certain fondness for the Fiat Uno 45S - 1000 cc, 5 speed, quite fast and extremely economical. I took it to North Wales and back on one tank at over 70 mpg. And it stuck to the road like glue.
But (and this might be controversial) I'm voting for the Hyundai Matrix. Bought at 4 years old, 30 000 miles, with a years warranty left to run. £4000 after some haggling, and it's never, ever gone wrong. It'll take 2 bikes upright in the back, and I can drive it across France and not get beaten up in the process. It doesn't handle as well as a Focus, it's not as economical as a Scenic, but it just works.

 

[User482]

Worst was a Citroën ax. The head gasket blew twice and the engine caught fire. My biggest mistake was putting it out.

Best is my current Ford cmax. Not exactly thrilling but all I want is something spacious, economic and reliable, for which it fits the bill.