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First, Best and Worst Car?


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Just a fun & light topic: What was your first car, best car and worst car you have owned?

I'll start. First car was also the best car I have owned. A 1969 metallic blue (repainted-used) VW Carmen Ghia. A two seater with only about 50hp I loved that car even though it had no heat or AC. Modified the stock muffler and it really had a good deep sound. I and my GF drove that car all over the US and never ever had any problem other than the windshield wipers would fall off until I found a way to keep the bolts tight with 'LockTight'. Little sport steering wheel and four speed made it feel sporty. Had to adjust the valve tappets every 5K miles and adjust the clutch. The sparkle blue metallic paint job really made it stand out. After 160Kmi it was stolen and never seen again.

Worst car I ever owned was an expensive 1997 Volvo V70 all wheel drive sedan. Excellent handling and power. Rust started showing up the 2nd year we had it (Florida) and then the wheel bearings went, the ABS braking shortly after. This was followed by all wheel drive problems and the list goes on and on and on. Nothing but problems in the 3 yrs we drove it. Electrical issues were the last straw and ended up selling it for a fraction of the price paid. I think it was assembled in New Brunswick Canada. We have a new Range Rover Sport and really like that very well made car..but only a few months into it, it is too early to give it a rating. Our current Spark can also be considered one of the best value cars as we have had no issues in the almost 60Kmi and is one of the best handling cars I have owned.

What's your first, best, worst story??

Edited by Retired old Gearhead
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First: 1962 Chevy II - Loved it, but couldn't afford to save it from the total disintegration of the body and undercarriage due to rust.

Best: 2006 Chevy HHR - While it wasn't the prettiest, most comfortable, or useful, out of the nearly 20 cars, trucks, and SUVs I have owned, my HHR was (unbelievably) the most trouble free.

Worst: Toss up between 2005 Chevy Cobalt (2 transmissions and more in less than a year) and my 2013 Spark (too many problems to list - none of which have been repaired)

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First car: 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT. Garbage.

Best car: 1993 Ford Festiva.

Worst car: 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT.

I still miss my Festiva. :cry:

If I remember right the Festiva sold in the US had a similar engine to the Spark..about 1,2xx cc and about 85-100hp 8 or 16 valve minus all the fancy sensors and electronics. I had a friend with one he picked up used with lots of miles on it. Drove the crap outta it and rarely changed the oil...never seemed to have a problem.

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First, Renault 11 1.4. Decent car, should have kept it

Best, 1987 Honda civic 1.3DX. Was very disappointed when I had to let it go (body was rotten), engine and gearbox still felt brand new. Spark reminds me of this car

Worst, Fiat Tipo, dull, dull, dull.

Have had lots inc Alfa GTV, 2 Volvo 440's (one a turbo), Neon, Talon (close 2nd on worst) and also a Jeep GC right now.

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  • 2 months later...

Best: must be my current Spark.

Worst: Nissan Prairie. Bought it second hand and it appeared to be rotten.

First: Toyota Corolla 1976. The car made more noise day after day, so one day a cop pulled me off the road and asked if I thought I was on the racing track of Zandvoort (Netherlands). Because I'm such a nice guy he let me drive on....

Can I add another category? The car that was the most fun to drive. To me, this is my 2003 Smartcar cabrio "numeric blue". The car is chipped and the power that comes from it 600 cc engine (turbo, intercooler, six speed) is amazing. Every time I climb into that car I get a smile on my face from ear to ear.

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First: 1982 Camaro Z28 Indy 500 edition. Used all my savings and bought it when I was 15. Beautiful car inside and out. Decent power for a 16 year old driver.

Best: 1984 C10 step side shortbed lowered 5" in the front, 6" in the rear. 10" street slicks. '71 Pontiac 455 13:1 compression and TH400 with a trans brake. in it. Loved that truck and torquey as HELL. Had to put a chain from cylinder head to the frame to keep motor mounts in it. Sold to pay lawyer...dammit.

Worst: 1988 Ford Ranger with a carb'd 2.0 liter and a 5 speed 2WD. Enough said...HaaHaaHaa.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great idea for a topic!

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First car: 1992 Mitsubishi Expo LRV. It was a hand-me-down and at the time, I didn't like it. I mean, it wasn't the epitome of "cool," what with its sliding door and pregnant-rollerskate looks. Looking back, it was a great car, super practical, and ideal for a college kid.

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Best car: Well, I guess that depends. I'm leaning towards my current 2007 Toyota Yaris, as it's been great, sans the clutch that was replaced under warranty. Mine's got a lot of modifications to it that make it like a go-kart (intake, header, exhaust, intake manifold, springs, shocks, swaybars, sticky tires, custom wheels, short shifter, and the list goes on ...)

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However, I'm also tempted to say my 1995 Suzuki Sidekick, which I've been building up for the last few years. It's very capable off road, still gets good mileage for what it is, and has taken us on some incredible adventures.

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Worst car: I'm going to have to go with my 2001 Ford Focus ZX3. It was a love-hate relationship. It drove well, was a great autocrosser, but had lots of problems. It was in the shop nearly ever month for the year that I owned it. I also made the mistake of trading it in, meaning I lost my shirt on the resale. I probably should've held onto it for a while longer.

Edited by Thirty-Nine
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First and also worst was a 78 buick skylark (used) white on white the car was cleeeeeean but had a never ending oil leak in the shop every other week over heated put a "new" engine in it then got t-boned by a nissan sentra and totaled it

second worst but a close favorite 98 Cadillac deville (used) that was a sweet as ride and my first finance purchase good mpg fast comfortable pimped it out with tvs and a system thankfully bought the warranty with it and replaced basically everything but the transmission.. new 4.6L north star engine.. yes please.. probably at the shop every 6 months getting something replaced 3 months into having it paid off lady backed out of parking space into me and totaled it I still miss this one

Favorites tough.. my 73 Impala sport sedan with 454 and all the options (used of course) was a sweet ass ride never had a problem with it well had to rebuild the tranny but white with a black vinyl top black leather seats pimped it with a 2200 watt 14 speaker system 4 6x9's in the back? yes please.. dual flow masters with the pipes cut yup.. set off car alarms you bet ya! never have another one like it

07 silverado LTZ with a 6.0 loaded first new car and a chick magnet.. still treats me real good only ever had minor problems all covered under warranty and hauls ass

and my spark.. gotta say I love this little car it's a blast to drive park it any where great mpg all the features i need really and cheap as hell to own.. coming from all these beasts and boats and making fun of tiny cars iv'e changed my ways .. got a 93 metro before the spark to use a commuter and get better than 13 mpg.. fixed everything (about $1700 new tires, spark plugs and wire, change all the fluids etc.. ) then a lady backed into it while it was parked and totaled it, I knew i had to have another baby car and no visits to the mechanic every week.. and thus the spark.. such a blast and no pain in the ass manual shifting like the metro.. the Spark is in the list of top Faves for sure. I prefer to dive it over the truck and it's the top choice when reaching for a set of car keys

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  • 1 month later...

???----86 Buick century's were front wheel drive and offered with 4 or 6 cylinders...

Time flies and mine could have been an earlier model ..just remember it was early '80's and looked great-4dr sedan with a small v8 2xx cu in. I remember they came in 2 door fastback and 4 door very heavy & solid car. The only issue I ever had with that was the AC unit seized up..very easy car to work on with a 2bbl carb, very basic set-up and huge amount of room in the engine compartment...not much power for the heavy car but the small v8 was very smooth. Split power bench seats with quality 'pillowtop' velour upholstry and the paint was so well done with anodized steel under primer+some black coating+metallic paint and clearcoat..whitewall tires, huge trunk every option known to mankind and just a very quiet smooth ride..really liked that car and it was quite expensive since in those days you had to pay for almost all luxury options..even power brakes & chrome trim were xtra...

I remember my wife saying it was an "old man car" and asked why I had traded in my '69 Firebird with the 400 cu V8 piece of crap in for that..she never knew how unsafe and unreliable that car was...On a rainy day you could spin the tires at 80mph and the huge Auto tranny was always leaking from the inspection hole screw cap that required the tranny be dropped to fix it..just one of the most problematic cars I ever owned..engine was OK but doors never closed properly and the rear end was way too light for the amount of HP and went thru rear tires like crazy due to the constant loss of traction spins...Still not as bad as the absolute worst ...'97 Volvo V70 all wheel drive...OK..TMI..'Nuff said on that.

Edited by Retired old Gearhead
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Chippy , I also had a Lemans Sport , a 1970 Cardinal red with black vinyl top . Beautiful car , only thing that broke was the timing chain at about 50K miles . Typical problem as they used nylon cam gears . Most of the other cars I had were raced so I could expect some problems . Mainly transmissions , broke the C6 in my Mach 1 , the 727 in my Rosdrunner , the turbo 400 in my Buick , trans broke on ford custom 500 police interceptor . Probably some others too that I'm not recalling . Those were main issues , other than that , a few starters , water pumps , things of that nature and they are all easily replaced .

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  • 1 year later...

First car in the us was a 2008 chevy cobalt 2.2l 5 speed manual, spent too much time and money modifying it. 

Worst car was a 2003 mazda6 i grand touring. Very comfortable but had both front wheel bearings and axles replaced due to the cv joints going bad at 40k miles, a couple of the ignition coils had to be replaced just before the cv joints failed, motor mount collapsed and pretty much all rubber parts under the hood were gone and replaced by 60k miles (so much time finding vacuum leaks!)had a power steering leak and the transmission said bye bye at 73k, very happily traded for the spark.

Had a 2013 chevy malibu 1lt after the cobalt, the malibu was nothing special, lazy transmission and too nose heavy traded for a 2012 mazda 5 grand touring. 

Best one so far has been the cobalt bought it new drove it a lot and sometimes i think trading it was a bad decision. the only down time I had was for a couple recalls and my mods. 

The spark so far has been good but I have not put enough miles to say if it is a good car yet.

The mazda already has a ripped cv joint boot at 34k...yay. 

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On 9/23/2015 at 1:25 PM, Gossamer said:

First: 1962 Chevy II - Loved it, but couldn't afford to save it from the total disintegration of the body and undercarriage due to rust.

Best: 2006 Chevy HHR - While it wasn't the prettiest, most comfortable, or useful, out of the nearly 20 cars, trucks, and SUVs I have owned, my HHR was (unbelievably) the most trouble free.

Worst: Toss up between 2005 Chevy Cobalt (2 transmissions and more in less than a year) and my 2013 Spark (too many problems to list - none of which have been repaired)

My wife still has the 2011 HHR bought new, and I am shocked the car has had no issues at all, considering how she drives (shhh..). Very practical car with the hatchback feature. 

 

My worst car in terms of frequent breakdowns was the 64 Corvair. It was air cooled engine, and the fan belt broke after only 250 miles, and the engine got badly overheated, and had nothing but engine problems during the 3 years I owned it.

 

The best car has to be 1977 Chevy Malibu, it rode like a big car and veery comfortable, had great traction in Chicago snow, and never had a single problem during 100k miles and 7 years.

 

Best feature of my current Spark I like is how nimble it is in traffic. And I can park it at the beach in the smallest space, where no one else could squeeze in.

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On 12/11/2015 at 2:03 PM, Skids said:

First and also worst was a 78 buick skylark (used)  

Almost every used car I bought during 1960-1964 made car repair shops lots of money. Can't blame the cars, not knowing how previous owners had abused them.

Then I began buying new cars only in 1964, and if I add up all the dollars spent on repairs through 2017, it will be less than $1500 in 53 years of driving. The most money spent was on Ford Probe (mid 80's model) when the CV joints went Kaput. But I blame that on my wife's driving habit of pushing the gas pedal down during turns. The CV joints wear only during turns. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

 

My 1st car was a 1965(?) Plymouth Belvedere 4Dr/Automatic.

For my best car, I don't think I could really say, as I've pretty much have liked every car that I have owned, which has also included a 1978(?) Ford Fiesta/Manual, a 1988 Mazda 323/Manual, a 1993 Plymouth Sundance/Manual, a 2000 Mazda Protege'/Manual, a 2001 Hyundai Accent/Manual, a 2005(?) Toyota Matrix/Manual, a 2012 Fiat 500 Pop/Manual, my new 2017 Chevy Spark/CVT, and an old 1951 Buick Special Deluxe/with a DynaFlow Torqueconverter Automatic.

Overall I was pretty happy with every car that I have owned, though the 2000 Mazda did experience some engine issues (which I got repaired under warranty).  

 

Pat

 

 

 

Edited by PFJN
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