Best and worst car you ever had...

[scots_lass]

Worst - definitely a Ford Escort - bought new and never out of the Ford garage.
Best - a toss up between my Celica (had 2 of these), MR2(two of these as well) or Capri (ice blue metallic). Loved them all.

 

[swee'pea99]

Worst, an old Beetle. Horrible car. Staggeringly crude, leaden steering, spongey brakes, terrible visibility, no 'feel' at all. Did I mention deafening noise, heat, and the gear change - like heaving a parking meter around.

Best, my current Golf estate. 10 years' faultless performance. Swallows anything and everything. And actively enjoyable to drive.

 

[Trembler49]

Best - Subaru Forester 2.5XT, looks like a small 4x4, quicker than a Porsche Boxter

Worst - Jaguar X Type, very very dull.

 

[Piemaster]

(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!)

Me. Though it qualified as my worst. Wouldn't dispute its reliability and mile munching abilities, but it was as inspiring as supermarket white sliced bread. It comes down to what you regard as 'best' or 'worst'. For me its how much I enjoyed driving it, not how practical it was. Though being unreliable may well take some of the shine off it.

 

[Stephenite]

Best - Mazda 323 1.8i '98 model. Nippy, with good-handling. Also used it to move house with once. And it looked great! Had to let it go because i couldn't afford to re-register it in Norway.

Worst - Citroen AX 1.8 '96. A death trap. I was so p-ed off with it once I just parked it and walked away. Not seen or heard anything about in 4 years.

Current car is a '93 model Golf 1.8 which i picked up for a song. Very satisfied. I want to buy something newish and bigger ,like a Touran or S-Max for example, but i can't yet. Not until this little Golf lets me down. Want, want, want... but what i have is good enough.

 

[Gixxerman]

Worst = MK3 Ford 13.L Escort. Bio-degradable and water soluable. On a quiet night you could hear it rust. The heater had a very strange smell of curry. Never did find out why it smelt like that. Was driving it one day and the battery dropped into the footwell of the car as the metal below the battery box has disolved. This explained why the carpets were always wet after it was washed / it had rained. Repaired it with loads of fibre glass and sold it quick.
Best = BMW 320d sport series coupe (current car). Looks great, handles brilliant and quite economical to boot. I like it so much that I am currently looking for another one to replace it as it is getting a bit long in the tooth.

 

[HLaB]

Its hard to categorise but I think the worst car I've had was a Volkswagen Polo and the best car I've had was a Toyota Starlet but given that I've only had two cars since 1997 I don't think my views are educated.

 

[Stephenite]

It comes down to what you regard as 'best' or 'worst'. For me its how much I enjoyed driving it, not how practical it was. Though being unreliable may well take some of the shine off it.

I take 'Best' to mean favourite, not most expensive or practical.

I can see that confusion might arise if one owned a Porsche Cayenne. For many people it would be the best car they've had. It may also be the worst. I for one would feel like a prize tit if i'd bought one.

This bloke has a different take altogether:

 

[crow_bag]

My worst car was my first a 12 year old 5 door Astra hatch back. I paid £650 for it, got it serviced about 2-3 weeks later ready for my first long drive from Manchester to Aldershot, the service cost me £1200.

My best car was a Mark IV Golf, very very nice car, sadly it had to be replaced with an automatic Astra due to a leg problem, my current car would be best described as "meh".

 

[Rhythm Thief]

My worst car was probably my 1962 Volvo Amazon, bought for £900 unseen on Ebay and driven home from Reading to Wolverhampton. It'd have been a corker with a bit of money spent on it, but as it was I couldn't really afford to sort it out and it was a complete dog. I enjoyed my brief ownership of it, though, because it looked really cool and was a bit different. But it was hopeless for long journeys. Either that, or the knackered Renault 5 - based wheelchair van I bought to convert to a small camper. It leaked water into the footwells and the heater didn't work, with the result that before driving it in winter I had to remove about two inches of ice from under the pedals. One day in December I got into it when leaving work (having removed the ice and togged up in gloves and a woolly hat) when I suddenly thought "why am I driving this heap of shite?". I unlocked the office, fired up the computer, went on ebay and bought - there and then, unseen - a Saab 900, which was reliable and comfortable, but dull.

The Saab eventually failed it's MOT, and was replaced with my best car yet, which was (inevitably) a Citroen 2CV. I've had a lot of 2CVs and they've all been great, but this one was really great. It was more rust than solid metal - when I eventually scrapped it I was able to fold most of the shell up by hand - and I had to rebuild the engine before it was reliable, but when the summer came and I removed the doors and knocked the windscreen out (by accident), it was great. Easily the most fun I've ever had on four wheels, driving that thing to work in a woolly hat, buff and goggles on the M50 every morning, rain or shine.

 

[byegad]

Worst.
An Austin A35 van circa 1965 bought in 1972 as a temporary vehicle while my Honda CB175 spent 6 months in a 'garage' being sorted out for a knocking sound. You could lift the mats and see the road going past. The brakes were awful but as the front shockers were shot you didn't drive it over 50mph.

Best.
A Megane Alize 1600. Capable of over 120mph, I know I drove it on a German Autobahn at 121mph! And capable of giving well over 45mpg, though not at the same time, it actually belonged to my wife, who rarely drives over 60mph on the motorways. She really didn't get the most out of it.

 

[Ellis456]

None, I buy japanese.

 

[aberal]

Best - my current Subaru Impreza. One of the non-turbo hatchback ones. Had it eight years and it still runs and looks great. Being 4WD it took me through Glenshee in a white-out blizzard and didn't so much as shimmy a millimetre.

Worst - a Volvo 440. Not that it had anything wrong with it - ran well, cornered sure-footedly, nippy enough, comfy, reliable.....but dear oh dear oh dear what a dull DULL car. A driving experience best described as soporific. Even typing about it makes me want to nod off.

 

[wildjetskier]

Worst - My Mitsubishi L200 had it for 2 months, just sold it - thank god, like driving a yacht down the road

Best - Mercedes CLK320 lovely bargain and has all the gadgets, LOVE it

 

[Brandane]

Worst car ever DRIVEN, rather than owned, that has to be an Austin Metro. Just awful. You sit offset to the steering wheel by what seemed about a foot, so you had to have your arms pointing away to your left to steer the thing! Terrible gearbox, rough engine, uncomfortable, unreliable, zero build quality; why anyone would actually have BOUGHT one of these things I will never know.

Closely followed by a Kia Sportage rent-a-car in Florida. The last post regarding driving a yacht reminded me of this thing. No noticeable wind blowing but it felt as if you had a hurricane blowing you all over the road. Luckily the drivers door lock barrel fell inside the door after a day, so I took it back for something else!