Your best and worst cars

Honda · Post by **Honda** » 28 Mar 2006, 16:20

Worse: Xantia HDi, Opel Calibra 2.0, Renault Clio 2.0.

$\:D/$ Best: Honda Prelude 2.3., Maserati Shamal, CX 2.4GTi.

Decca · Post by **Decca** » 31 Mar 2006, 12:39

Best... My present car.. 1995 405 SRi. 206000klms and I love it.

Worst... A Holden my dad bought brand new in 1958 and I inherited it when I got my license in 1970.
Holden was General Motors infliction on the Australian Motoring public. These cars were all made on a Friday.
A sod of a car that handled like a pig, handbrakes never worked, it boiled whenever the sun shone
and on a still night you could hear it rusting away in the driveway.
I still twitch whenever I think about it. It had a knock in the engine from the word go and GMH ( General Motors - Holden ) didn't want to know us.
The windscreen wipers worked off manifold vacumn which meant whenever the motor was under a bit of a load... the wipers stopped. Brilliant! I hoped they never paid the goose that designed that bit.
Probably at the end of its short life it got crushed and is now the better part of 15 Toyotas. And good riddance.

Decca

Clogzz · Post by **Clogzz** » 31 Mar 2006, 13:59

Decca wrote:These cars were all made on a Friday.

Last car before the Xantia was a Holden HG 1970.
Kept it going for 12 years until 1997.
Every year I took 3 weeks ‘holiday’ to hide the rust with flyscreen and bog.

Also spent 12 years trying to stop it from wandering.

Went for a Citroën after that because what I wanted most of all was a car that didn’t wander.

f00lzz · Post by **f00lzz** » 09 Apr 2006, 13:24

Best owned car.... probably 504ti followed by XM 3.0 though didn't appreciate that at the time... used to complain bitterly about the 'faults' on the XM but now realise they were only 'characteristics'

paranoid · Post by **paranoid** » 09 Apr 2006, 19:17

BEST....... My current Rover 75 connoisseur CDT SE very closely followed by my 2 previous Xantia TD's both se new and old shape

Worst by far... Sierra 2.0 glsi Very fast when it was running

mbunting · Post by **mbunting** » 09 Apr 2006, 19:26

Best for engine refinement and flexibility : Mercedes A170 Cdi.

Worst for Ride: Mercedes A170Cdi
Best for ride: Xantia TD SX

Best performance ( diesel ) Rover 420sdi
Best performance ( petrol ) 405 GTX Est Auto ( for sale )

Best handling: Mercedes A170Cdi

Best Economy: Mercedes A170Cdi ( between 45 and 70 ) closely followed by the rover.

Worst Economy: 405 GTX Est Auto ( 30 - 45mpg )

sub42 · Post by **sub42** » 20 Apr 2006, 21:05

Hmmm, let's see,

Best car:

Now that would be either my Talbot Samba Rallye, or my Citroen Visa GT trophee lookalike. Now I come to think of it, it was the Citroen that brought home my eldest daugher from hospital when she was a newborn, the Samba refused to start

So Visa GT then.

Worst car:

Easy, Ford Cortina MkV Estate. Crap, to say the least. Buggered gearbox, cut out at every junction, smelled awful, drank petrol, ate tyres......

sub.

fourwheelsteer · Post by **fourwheelsteer** » 05 Nov 2006, 15:57

The best I've owned was my second Honda Prelude. It was a 1989 4WS model to SE specification. I fitted 16" alloy wheels with 205/45 tyres which made grate steering truly outstanding. This Prelude, unlike my others, had Honda's 4-speed automatic transmission which made it blissfully easy to get the best out of the Honda's peerless 2-litre engine. Whatever I had been doing it was always nice to return to the Prelude. It was just a shame that something within the engine let go

The worst was unquestionably the car I owned before I bought my first Prelude. It was a 1994 Ford FIesta 1.1 Azura. This Fiesta was clearly calculated to look impressive in the showroom and was designed for people with no idea what a good car should feel like. Driving the Fiesta was depressing but it tought me two valuable lessons:
1) Any car is better than no car.
2) Life is too short for boring cars.

Now if I cold have a Prelude with Citroen suspension and brakes or a BX with Honda engine and build quality I think you'd have the perfect car.

Village · Post by **Village** » 08 Nov 2006, 14:04

Best car: '94 Vauxhall Cavalier V6. it had been poked with a quick stick by a previous owner (unknown mods) and had just short of 190 bhp (rolling road printout came with car). It was proper quick and sounded awsome!

Worst car: '94 Vauxhall Cavalier V6. It struggled to better 25 mpg, was rusty and had an alarming vibration through the steering wheel. did I mention the sh1tty fuel economy?......

I have had more than 1 car, in case you were wondering

Pete

Post by **philhoward** » 08 Nov 2006, 22:04

Best car? From a "don't open the bonnet" point of view, then a Mk4 Vauxhall Astra 2.0Di Estate..60,000 miles in 12 months and all it ever needed was headlamp bulbs (about 8 - don't know what it did with them!) and the occasional service, or the wife's 1986 BMW 525e (still have it)..has passed 3 MoT's with nowt more than me charging the battery the day before from it sitting on the drive for 2 months untouched! Performance...any of the Reliant Scimitars I've owned.

Worst..hated a Renault Laguna (drove like the suspension was made of blamange), but a 98 Rover 416Si...was on first name terms with the local AA man (steve, very nice bloke - water pump, clutch, head gasket twice, battery feed cable snapped, battery earth cable snapped). Not that bad when it actually went! Had a Nissan Almera hire car for 2 days - first car to ever made me physically vomit from driving it. Swapped it for a Renault Kangoo van as it was the only thing they had available (it was Christmas...) and that wasn't much better. Wasn't keen on a Ford Focus either - the noise of that indicator drove me mad and the steering was far too twitchy for my liking.

Best car i've ever borrowed is a tricky one; probably a Subaru Imprezza. Worst car is easy - a Kia Pride!

Car which shocked me the most is possibly a Mk3 Cavalier 2.0 CDi - works hack. 250,000 miles (it refuses to die), but still pulls from 10mph to 90mph in 3rd gear AND gives 38mpg! Or its a Nova 1.5TD...terrorised 525 BMWs on the M5 and it returned 60mpg

reblack68 · Post by **reblack68** » 09 Nov 2006, 06:49

When I started this thread I said my Xantia was my favourite car. It still is but tomorrow I am going to pick up a W-plate HDi estate, also an SX. My wife will take over the hatch until she gets a new car.

I hope I don't end up regretting it.

demag · Post by **demag** » 19 Nov 2006, 21:31

Worst: Rover 800 auto. What an absolute pig sh*te heap of a car. It would be easier and quicker to list what worked and didn't break than the other way round. I was trying to get some parts from an independant one day and when he asked me what model and I told him he said "Oh bad luck mate"!

On a par with the Rover; Ford Anglebox. Curiously I've owned a few of these!

Best: Well I did so love my little BX. What a sweet little car, and went great as well. Paid next to nothing for it, ran it for a few years and sold it for the same money! Also Citroen ID 19. Awsome car wish I'd still got one. I couldn't afford a front wing now never mind the car!

Funnily enough I had a Skoda Estelle once. You know, 1 litre engine in boot! Absolute cracking motor and silent inside! Apart from a slight hum from the motor. No creaks, squeaks, rattles, nothing. Just fun to drive, never let me down once.

My mate had the sporty version with front spots and the black roof. Oh yes now that was a motor, 0-60 in 15 seconds! 8)

steelcityuk · Post by **steelcityuk** » 14 Dec 2006, 12:32

Best car would probably be the 405 GTX TD estate that the wife is now using. Bargin motor when I bought it - paid £1050 with full service history, 71,000 near mint condition. A plonker shoved the car behind me into the 405 cracking the bumper and wrecking the tailgate. The insurance wrote it off and paid me £1050 (I'd had the car 4 years by then). So I bought it back for £65 put a tailgate on it and it went through it's MOT without issue. I hope the replacement Xantia will be as good.

Worst car would probably be a Panda Super. Only cut out once but a complete rot box. I'm sure they fit rear wipers on them so you can open and close the hatch without drawing blood on the rusty metal of the hatch. Still I had a suped up mini, that had to go as it was only doing 20MPG.

Steve.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 14 Dec 2006, 15:23

Wors in terms of problems and work needed over a short length of time
Xantia 1993 TD (although that is my fault for buying it)

Best best best
Xantia V6 1998

It's my first luxury car and i love it.. I had a Pug605 base model once, and that was nice on long runs, but nothing on this... Driving it to Newcastle tomrrow, from Sussex, almost looking forward to it

John G

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » 27 Jan 2007, 11:30

Best: Probably a 1989 BX 19RD estate. It has never broken down. Although a 1993 AX GTi I had proved to be very reliable too, I fully trusted that car.

Worst: 1991 VW Polo 1.3i "coupe." Naff-all coupe like about it, that thing was a hound. It leaked, it chewed fuel, it was slow, it rolled around bends like a 2cv, yet didn't handle and managed to suffer an appalling ride all in one.
Seats were uncomfortable, brakes were shocking and it made me want to end my life. And I've owned a Fiat Panda before!