Cars I have owned - the best and worst.

The best model was the Volvo 240 [DL/GL low rated 2356 cc version], of which I have had two. One from 1986 with Solex carb [42/3 mpg] and slow like a magesterial procession, and my current one [1989] with Bendix fuel injection [40/43 mpg] which is like a big gazelle. Surprisingly mobile! The next best was an Austin Meastro Ex-GPO van with 5.5:1 compression 1275 cc enine. Bomb-proof but slow. [33 mpg max and top speed of 70 mph].

The worst was a 1600 cc Golf Deisel [38/40 mpg]. Like a Mini, it was continuously wrong, and required a Rothchild bank account to repair. I did run a Mini pick-up for years which was always wrong [especially the brakes, and 68/40 mpg]. I also ran from the age of 17 a low power Rover P6 2000 single SU carb, which topped out at 100 mph [faster than either Volvo, but would only do 33 mpg with a light foot on the throttle]. I retain a temendous affection for the next car after the Rover: A Renault 12 [1250 cc, and good for 35 mpg, and 70 mph]. This was a toughie like the Volvo.

I would love a Saab 90 one day, but content myself that I shall never had a better car than the 240.

My drean car is the Mark Six Bentley of 4.2 litres made between 1948 and 1952. Similar performence to the low power Volvo 240, [129 comapred to 116 bhp and only 160 kg heavier and 0-60 in about 14 seconds], but only about 18 to 22 mpg. Nice car to drive. Corners better than the Volvo!

Fredrik

Best and favourite by miles, my current car, a 2006 Mazda 6. Not too exotic perhaps, but an excellent car in every way, responsive and great fun to drive.

Best remembered old car was my first, a long time ago, a Standard 10. Possibly the world's most underpowered car, but it got me around for a while and never left me stranded.

Worst was a company car, a V8 petrol Land Rover in the early eighties. The best of British - not. A true gas-guzzling, unreliable monster, with the heaviest steering I have ever encountered, and that includes old tractors.

Heavy steering on the P6 and the Golf, but the Volvo has overlight PS. Risky, till you get used to it on the Motorway. Very scary in high winds because you don't immediately feel the car move, so reactions need to be grease lightning. You see 240s weave because they are such utter bastards at high speed. Strangely the P6 and Meastro had the best [and unpowered] steering. The Renault 12 had very competent stereing with far too many turns lock to lock - 5.5!. More than the Mark Six Bentley with relied on splendid engineering to have light steering once bowling though it is a disaster for parking! It feels like mad, so reactions are completely natural just through the sterring column.

Fredrik

Best: Mini 1275GT: Excellent about town and in the lanes around Bath. Volvo 240 was a close 2nd I just a brilliant all rounder.

Worst: Fiat Panda a rattly tin can that was hell in a cross wind.

I've only owned 3 cars so far, the best (most enjoyable) being a 1.7 Puma, the worst being a 94 Rover 214SEi. The Puma had great handling and a peachy engine and was only sold because my girlfriend (now wife)had a 1.3 KA and nothing practical between us....

A Focus replaced the Puma, which is practically the best overall car I've owned, but at least some of the Puma's spirit lives on in the fom of a SportKA that my wife drives. What a little go-kart with a wheezy engine!

The Rover? Suprisingly quick for a 1.4, but lacking on any real sophistication...sold it to a friend when I got the Puma, who then had to have the head re-built (£1500)due to valve recession...ooops!

Sold a TVR V8 to buy my Naim kit and other hi-fi stuff but that was the best, most reliable car I've ever owned. Mind you I only covered 5000 miles a year in her. Sounded like thunder and turned heads everywhere; some in distaste, some in wonder!
Fuel was getting pricier than CD purchases, which we just can't have.
The worst -- an old Nissan Sunny with a picture of some Islamic leader stuck just above the tax disc. Couldn't get it off. Had 4 cylinders but I don't think all of them ever fired in one journey.

Worst was a 1970's Vauxhall Victor 1600 which I bought for £60. It didn't go properly and used a tank of petrol to get me to college, so I sold it for £100.
2nd worse was a Triumph Spitfire 1500, but I guess I deserved everything I got for that one - in my defence it was my wife that wanted it.
Best was a Alfa Sud 1.5Ti Green Cloverleaf, and my current Lexus IS200, which I can't seem to justify changing.

My current car is a Corrado VR6 - got to say for the style, performance, money and the rarity factor (only 97,000 made in a 6 year run) you can't beat them.


Other than that I've owned 3 16v Mk2 Golfs - all of which were awesome go karts for the road.

Best car I have owned is the one I have now, my Nissan 350z.

Worst car I have owned was my Toyota Supra, which was heavily modified. Just before I gave it away it was iin the garage after any serious journey. I just couldn't rely on it at all. Which was a shame as it had the potential of being a really great car,

Regards

PB

Best is my current Mondeo ST220 (my second, slightly later model which has fixed every slight niggle of the first one I had so Ford obviously listen). Does everything you could want in a car, comfortable Recaros, relaxed on a journey, quick and fun to drive, nice colour, all the toys (which all work properly and intuitively), safe, roomy for a family and you can get large things in it cos it's a big hatchback. Price is right if you shop around too. Honestly, I can't forsee any reason to change it until it dies.

Worst was a company car I had for a short while about ten years back, Peugeot 306 1.6XN. Basic as basic could be, feak and weeble in power, uncomfortable, unreliable, terrible servicing, felt unsafe, metal so thin it sounded like a tin can. Horrible car. Had to travel 80 miles every day in it. Loathed it.

Best and worst was a Lotus Elan +2. Very quick and handled like a dream but appallingly unreliable.

Unlike the Austin Healey Sprite (1275cc) which spent a year in the back garden until I tired of the Lotus. Charged the battery, put in some fuel and it started first time. Had over 100K of happy motoring in the Sprite.

Cool thread.

Best I have owned by far, had to be my '93 S- reg Honda Integra Type-R, in white of course with the magnesium alloys and carbon fibre bonnet/doors to save weight.......but the best thing about it was the engine!!

190 bhp from 1.8 ltrs, revving to a VTEC screaming mad 9,500 rpm....just listen to it here....

http://videos.streetfire.net/search/integra+type+r/1/wm...aba-eafd6e569676.htm

No wonder I got caught speeding and was banned for a year.....

It was insanely good fun, yet bullet proof with the Honda build quality and reliability. I wish I owned one again!

Worst car I've owned seems a bit harsh as it was my first car - a Fiat Panda 4X4, held together by the mud more than anything else!! But it was great fun to drive - especially while spinning about the fields with the 4 wheel drive engaged. It's either that or my second car which was an '83 Y-reg Nissan Cherry, in beige.....nice

Cheers,
Ali

Best cars, 1500cc Fiat x1/9 & 1600cc Mistubishi Colt. The Fiat was a love affair that ended in tears, the Colt was a surperb mix of reliabilty fun & comfort.

Worst car was a Fiat Panda 4x4, dead funky to look at, the upholstry logo was a man in a canoe, but brutally unreliable, a pig to drive, and possibly the only car I've ever encountered that had worse suspension (if indeed it had any) than an A Class Mercedes.

There's a theme developing here......

I loved the Fiat Panda's attempt at a rear seat - two poles with a bit of canvas stretched between them - what I used to call "the hammock"......mind you I did fit 9 people into it one night.....

The best:-

1st: Honda Integra Type R, sublime handling with Torsen diff, 30mpg, nice ride, air con, cup holders, loud CD player , oh and 9000 rpm through the gears every journey and nearly every gearchange for 2 years(big stupid grin)!!!!!!!!!!

2nd: Alfa Sud 1.5Ti, going around the outside of XR3s on roudabouts and slip roads.

3rd: modded 1275GT mini, very low, very noisy, very peaky cam and the ability to force water out of windscreen washer jets on corners.

The worst:-

1st: Talbot Simca, caught fire, I will say no more.

2nd: 1.3 Mk1 Golf, sold to man in wellies, I will say no more.

3nd: 1.4 Mk4 Escort, company car. Broke it's distributor, cam belt, wipers. Crashed into another car in back roads south of Newbury and then I...er, will say no more.

Jono (currently in a 1.4 Modus)

Best: Strada Abarth 130TC - Simple, quick, light and absolutely hilarious, fitted with the classic 2-litre twin-cam. Also, it was part-built by Abarth, so a little better mechanically than other Stradas.

Worst: Strada Abarth 130 TC. What's the point in being one of the quickest hot-hatches if you never know whether you'll be able to stop? And the electrics.....I once got stopped by a policeman who referred to the tail-lights as a disco...

Actually, the worst car I ever owned was a mini, because it broke down all the time and wasn't actually as 'fun' to drive as you'd think.

quote:

Worst was a 1970's Vauxhall Victor 1600 which I bought for £60

I had one of those. One with a 3 speed column change gearbox. Also paid about £60 and sold it for £5 more.

I haven't had a best car yet.

If honest, my best is a Saab 900 which is still going without a fault after 10 years. I usually buy a new car every three years, but couldn't let the old Saab go, so it is just used as a second car.

Worst for me, probably the Evo VIII as I couldn't bear to keep it even a year and lost a fortune in depreciation. However, the guy I sold it to still loves it dearly.

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen B:
I had one of those. One with a 3 speed column change gearbox.

Yeah, that was the one. Leather bench seat in the front. That of course reminds me of one thing it was good for.

Best #1 without a doubt my Caterham 7 Superlight. Unfortunately, may be about to sell due to lack of time and to free up some cash for new house
Best #2 J-reg Subaru Legacy turbo - just so safe, secure and anonymous. The running costs were pretty poor though
Best #3 1972 VW Beetle my first car (owned 1988-1998 and now in father-in-law's field looking forlorn after being passed over by brother in law who bought from me in 1998), much loved despite its objective failings

Other greats include 1992 Peugeot 106Xsi, 1991 Mazda MX5, 1995 BMW 318is

Worst #1 1998 VW Golf GT Tdi - soggier than a box of kleenex left out in the rain. Understeered so much that on certain roundabouts you could choose your exit by how hard you pressed the accelerator. Gave me backache
Worst #2 2002 Audi A4 tdi - didn't do bends and incredibly difficult to drive smoothly (overly sharp brakes, very narrow power band, sharp suspension). Not sure how much of the revoltingness was down to it being stolen/recovered before I got it as company car - when I first got it, it had the wrong size tyres on, which can't have helped!
Worst #3 - can't really think of one which is quite interesting...

1988 Volvo 240GL Estate in red, owned 1996-2003. We loved that car, and miss it still.

James

My best is my current car, a BMW 530i Sport, very comfortable, practical, and handles incredibly. I've also just picked up an '88 Golf Gti Cabriolet, which is very good fun this weather.

The worst could arguably be my '67 Vauxhall Viva, but on reflection, i had some great times in that, my first, car.

So the worst is undoubtedly my '86 Rover 820E auto, a hateful, terrible car - sounded like it'd explode when revved hard, falling apart at the seams, difficult to work on (replaced the DOHC 16v head gasket and head twice!). Sold it to work for 'testing' eventually. Best place for it!

Phil

The worst car my family ever had, was a Range Rover 3,5.

EVERYTHING broke. Crappiest car ever.

Best Audi A4 Avant reliable, well built, handles well, versatile. Just a great family car, really

Worst (by a country mile) Metro; none of the above applied

Honourable mentions for a BMW 318i and my wife's first ever company car a Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9

Best SAAB 900T cab (old style)

Worst Austin Allegro, I hated it. It was crap. Fell apart quicker than you could fix it. Pile of junk, and it had a square steering wheel.

Steve