What is the worst beater you ever had

[OETKB]

Co-worker of my dad gave me a '65 VW notchback if my dad would just get it out of the driveway. He got it from a high school shop class. I guess it was no good to them anymore.
Cracked block, leaked and burned oil. Had to check/fill the oil everyday. Nearly no reverse. The hood would fly up at highway speed.

Dad got it running standing out in the driveway out in the snow and it was my first car. The upside was... it was free.

Sold it to a friend 6 months later for $150 (value of the 8 track stereo I put in with big honkin' speakers) who failed to check the oil everyday like I told him, and it burned up three days later.

Not the actual car.

 

[DaleM]

71 el camino that was rusted out and had those air shocks you could fill up at a gas station.

End up a bondo baby and swapped the 307 for a 396 holley carbed road smoker. Most interesting part swapping out the column shifter for the floor.

Sold when i left to germany in 83. It was the only car i drove with a beer between my legs. Oh, the stupid days of being young.

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[CV355]

My first car, '90 Mustang LX 2.3. Paid $1500 for it, immediately had to shell out $1000 for repairs, and then it drained me of another $3000 or so over the next two years that I owned it.

Oil pan rotted out, steering and brake fluid lines deteriorated, rear drum brakes disintegrated, entire ignition system needed to be replaced, transmission needed an overhaul, exhaust rotted and fell off at the manifold. All that and the poor thing still didn't have enough power to make it up a hill on the highway without losing 20mph. 0-60 in like 16 seconds.

I got everything repaired, got it running the best it ever had, and then sold it for $1400. From what I understand, the next owner had absolutely no trouble until the frame gave in towards the center of the vehicle.

 

[lOOKnGO]

76 ford fairmont. $500 just after I got married had bought a house and an infant at 21. Interior was great but paint was a mess. Painted it with a HVLP outside before bringing home. This is not the car, but what it looked like. We drove it for a year before getting back into a Mustang.

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[Weather Man]

69 mustang I bought in 1980 as a Airman at Offutt AFB for $800 to get through the winter. Had to take the battery up to my room every night so it would start in the morning and the heater core was plugged so drove to work on other side of base with head stuck out driver window more than once, no defroster. The good old paycheck to paycheck days!

 

[SVTdreamin04]

1979 Ford F100. Looked like a nice truck but had a v6 302 in it. I called it a v6 because one cylinder had 19 psi and another had 50 psi. It ran but blew oil out of every gasket it had.

That was my first rebuild and i was able to call it a V8 again. Lol

It also didn’t have power brakes or heat. It would randomly die also. I fixed all these issues eventually. That truck was a money pit for a kid in high school.


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[black4vcobra]

I had a 91 Eagle Talon when I was 17. Mitsubishi and Chrysler forgot to engineer any quality into those cars, seemingly everything in those cars broke. It didn't help that I beat the piss out of it but that should affect the alternator, auto seat belts, blower motor, seat controls, etc

 

[Booky]

1984 base model Dodge Omni.

I never had to change oil because I would add about a quart every other week.

 

[SVT-BansheeMan]

Easy question. 300zx. It couldnt take donuts in the field. I blew two big holes in the block on the way home.

A close second place:

 

[Mpoitrast87]

2.3 foxbody. Thing would not accelerate ever and even had to pull over on hills cause it couldn't get up them. overheated all the time and some days it wouldn't start and other days it was fine. Luckily it had nice black interior that I sold out of it for more than I paid for the car.

 

[Mpoitrast87]

1984 base model Dodge Omni.

I never had to change oil because I would add about a quart every other week.

Got you beat. Chevy prism I had would eat 5 quarts a week.

 

[CV355]

2.3 foxbody. Thing would not accelerate ever and even had to pull over on hills cause it couldn't get up them. overheated all the time and some days it wouldn't start and other days it was fine. Luckily it had nice black interior that I sold out of it for more than I paid for the car.

Hey, makes me feel better about mine knowing I wasn't the only one who couldn't make it up a hill! Haha

Mine couldn't even power itself to redline. No joke, I could leave it in 1st and it would float around 4k. The only good thing about the car was that the previous owner had left the plastic on the entire interior. The interior looked fresh as factory- had I been smarter and thought ahead, I could have tore the interior out and sold it like you did.

 

[CobraBob]

Worse beater was our old '76 Honda Civic. Got it dirt cheap and it served a family of 4 pretty well for maybe 3 years. Finally blew a hole in the block driving home to Connecticut from New York one Saturday, 20 minutes from the house. Made it home and it literally died as I parked it in the garage. Ugly, small and uncomfortable, but it was cheap transportation back when we needed it. It was just like this one, in light blue.

 

[MG0h3]

2002 Focus codename snowball. Bought it two yrs ago for $1300. Basically bought it because I was tired of parking a 1/2mile from walmart. Now I can push carts out of the way and laugh when I come out and there are two creases in the bumper from someones front license plate frame.

 

[CompOrange04GT]

88 CRX

 

[Sirhc7897]

My first vehicle...a 1985 F-250 with the 6.9 IH diesel in 1996.

Bought it with 130k on the clock. Both fuel pickups were rusted off so it would only go about 100 miles on each tank. And if you were unlucky enough to accidentally run it out of diesel it would kill both batteries before it re primed and you’d stink like diesel from jumping the starter solenoid under the hood with one screwdriver while pressing in the air release valve on the fuel filter on top of the motor.

There was an issue in the transmission where I basically had to manually shift it with the column shifter to get it to change gears and even then I had to rev it to redline (3k rpms if I remember correctly) pull it into the next gear and hope for the best.

Smoked like a dumpster fire cold idle.


Back sliding window wouldn’t lock and you didn’t need a key to crank it. My friends soon found out and the game of the day used to be the scavenger hunt to figure out where around town they had hidden my truck.

No AC. No heat. Phantom electrical gremlins.

God I loved that truck...and hated it all at the same time.


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[me32]

I had a 1990 white GEO metro 1.0L 3cylinder, 5 speed manual.

Basic POS car but it would get 50mpg. Crazy.

 

[nxhappy]

in high school I bought a 89 supra turbo, I think for $3500. On the way home it overheated and blew the head gasket. That car taught me how to work on motors LOL. So I guess I can't be that mad.

 

[biminiLX]

My dads '84 diesel Tempo stick car, I think I was 14-15 driving it, he'd air up the tires to 50# and get 40+mpg.
No, it wasn't worth the gas savings.
-J

 

[RedVenom48]

1991 Mercedes 420 SEL. It leaked from every seal, electronics were failing, vacuum system was disintegrating, left front caliper was leaking, fuel distributor was failing, no AC....

Basically it was a peice of shit.

But cruising on the freeway, no traffic on a cool night, she was the most comfortable ride ive ever owned.

An 81-91 Mercedes S class in great condition is possibly one of the finest cars ever built. My example... was not. Lol