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Best & Worst Cars You've Personally Driven

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worst: '03 chevy venture

ergonomics are pretty crappy, and it's not a great minivan to begin with

also the windshield wipers have to be 'primed'... people who've used this type of wiper system will know

best: '08 335i, i think
 
Best: Audi S4 2010
Awesome engine
Awesome DCT(Yeah, I said it)
Seats 4 with very snug seats
Feels like it is on rails (I can only imagine what it would be like with the Sports Differential.)

Worst: 2004 Avalanche
Too bouncy/floaty
(It is not actually a terrible vehicle. I just cannot come up with anything worse that I have driven.)
 
Best: My Mazda3 2008.5 hatchback (mid year revision) has been an absolute blast to drive. Only 163 hp but for a little hatchback that's plenty of pep.

Worst: 1996 Mazda 626. This was the series of mazda 626's that was plagued with the CD4E transmission failures. I've had the damn transmission built 3 times already now, and this is at 130,000 miles. Other than the transmission it was actually a decent car, hardly had any problems for the first 100,000 miles. I curse myself to this day for not buying the manual version though.
 
Juddog said:
Best: My Mazda3 2008.5 hatchback (mid year revision) has been an absolute blast to drive. Only 163 hp but for a little hatchback that's plenty of pep.

Worst: 1996 Mazda 626. This was the series of mazda 626's that was plagued with the CD4E transmission failures. I've had the damn transmission built 3 times already now, and this is at 130,000 miles. Other than the transmission it was actually a decent car, hardly had any problems for the first 100,000 miles. I curse myself to this day for not buying the manual version though.
Click to expand...

Can't fault the car for having a fail-o-matic trans 😉
I like those older 626's, solid cars.
 
Best: 2001 mazda miata LS. 100% of the car was usable everyday. Drop top, leather, nice stiff tires and a good stereo. Sounded great, extra comfortable, easy to drive. Oh yeah, did I mention I live next to a bunch of winding mountain roads?

Worst: 1995 Ford Aspire. I haven't figured out if that meant it was aspiring to be a car, or if its owners aspire to one day own a car. Got this as a loaner while my stang was getting a new head gasket at the dealer (at ~3000 miles). Gutless and unstylish to an epic degree. The seats were so uncomfortable I suspect they'd have given me spina bifida if I drove it any longer. Only got about 15 mpg since I drove it with the gas pedal firmly pressed into the floormat at all times.

FWIW, I don't mind the Caliber. Wife has an '08 Jeep Patriot, which is the same car. It gets 30 mpg. Nothing has broken, nothing rattles. It's roomy, rugged enough to withstand two young children and just feels and drives solid. 4WD is awesome in the snow. I can't see why anyone would hate it, it's a perfectly good grocery getter.
 
one of the worst: kia optima rental with only a few hundred miles on it. just bad all the way around, interior was hard to use, steering had no feedback, transmission would search gears going down the highway.

best: my 99 olds 88 and my 2009 sierra half ton. the truck is wonderful, pretty powerful with the 5.3L gets better gas mileage than most full size trucks. handles great and has a great ride.
 
The only "bad" car I ever had was a 1982 Plymouth Reliant station wagon. It was horribly underpowered, handled badly, and actually flooded when it rained heavily. I doubt that you could find a better $150 car with 180,000 miles on it, though.

I'll put the rest of the cars that I ever owned in order from my favorite to mediocre:

1) 2007 Mini Cooper: Blast to drive, handles great, and gets amazing gas mileage. The dealer charges too damn much, though, and the parts are insanely expensive.
2) 1998 Ford Escort: Rock solid car, very reliable and comfortable to drive. It was underpowered, but got great gas mileage. Cheap to maintain and fix, too.
3) 2003 Audi A4 3L Quattro: Also fun to drive, and handled great in any weather. It drank gas like a fish, though, and it had a weird unattended acceleration problem that almost killed me once! Again... the dealer charged too damn much to fix things, and parts are insanely expensive.
4) 1999 Mercury Cougar: Cool looking car, and fun to drive. It was dangerous to drive in winter, though, and it broke down several times during the first two years I owned it. My favorite was the one where the door flew open at high speed due a latch malfunction... good times! The Mercury/Lincoln dealer charged a lot for repairs, but at least the parts were cheap.

Oh... and oddly enough, I've liked every rental car that I've ever had. I even liked the 2006 Nissan Altima that I crashed into a guardrail because it skidded out because of bad tires, or the 2007 Taurus that I practically destroyed when I accidentally took it off-roading through downed trees and foot deep potholes when I made a wrong turn driving through a state park. What can I say... rental cars are fun 🙂
 
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v8envy said:
Best: 2001 mazda miata LS. 100% of the car was usable everyday. Drop top, leather, nice stiff tires and a good stereo. Sounded great, extra comfortable, easy to drive. Oh yeah, did I mention I live next to a bunch of winding mountain roads?

Worst: 1995 Ford Aspire. I haven't figured out if that meant it was aspiring to be a car, or if its owners aspire to one day own a car. Got this as a loaner while my stang was getting a new head gasket at the dealer (at ~3000 miles). Gutless and unstylish to an epic degree. The seats were so uncomfortable I suspect they'd have given me spina bifida if I drove it any longer. Only got about 15 mpg since I drove it with the gas pedal firmly pressed into the floormat at all times.

FWIW, I don't mind the Caliber. Wife has an '08 Jeep Patriot, which is the same car. It gets 30 mpg. Nothing has broken, nothing rattles. It's roomy, rugged enough to withstand two young children and just feels and drives solid. 4WD is awesome in the snow. I can't see why anyone would hate it, it's a perfectly good grocery getter.
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I think I actually know why.. I'm willing to bet most of the people who drove a Caliber, it was probably an '07 model. My company had 1 or 2 in their fleet, and their mos recent one is an '09. I don't love the car, but let me tell you.. the '09 is 100% without a doubt, a better built car than the 07 is. Even just getting into the car and holding the steering wheel you can tell its much better than the older first year cars.

I hated the '07 when I drove it, and I am not crazy about the design of the '09, but it was worlds nicer than the older one.
 
Tweak155 said:
I like trucks so...

Best:
2010 F150 (I like all F150's I've been in, I own this one)
2008 Fusion
2007 Mazda 3 hatch


Worst:
Obviously I like Ford's but I don't know how Focus made it to best, at least not 2008+
Some Kia i rented for work that was really small, 08 model
Escape 2010 - test drove this thing... after being in the nicer interior models they have, I don't know what they were thinking on the base model for this car. The leather was meh, but still overall not a good car to drive all around.

Meh:
2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee - I liked it at first but it was overall a cheap and not roomy interior
2010 Cobalt (for the price of the car i thought it was decent)
99 Grand Am
2003 Grand Prix (for the price, though, is toward the lower end)
2001 Corvette - Didn't get to drive it much, but wasn't overly impressed
1996 Contour - first car, got it with 26k miles, lasted to about 110k miles before i sold it. Heard it died shortly after, but getting 90k miles out of it for a $6150 investment, and still being able to sell it, not bad
Click to expand...

The old Jeep Cherokees and Wranglers are far better than anything else ever made.
New stuff is junk by comparison, and the new Wranglers arent up to the same quality. I dunno if QA went down the shitter or what.
 
you guys notice a trend that most people replying to this thread rate american cars as "worst"? i find that NOT surprising, yet i'm laughing.
 
Best:
-Noble M-somethingrather
-4th gen N.A, Honda Accord (An outstanding vehicle for it's time, multiple levels above the competition for years, IMO)
-2010 Mustang with the Trac Pack. Can't wait to drive the 5.0.
-c6 Corvette Z06.
-Porsche 911. Driven various gens of this vehicle. It's a real treat each time.
-1st gen Lexus LS400. The dawn of extreme build quality.
-2009 Ford F-150. Really, for a truck it's awesome. Reminded me of the first time driving an LS400. I rented one while I was in Louisiana. I would drive somewhere at night, always looking for somewhere new to eat, come back during the day and realize the roads were gravel. Holy crap! Incredible NVH going on this thing.
-Dodge Viper. Not my thing. But golly, it's easy to launch this sucker. No training required. Rev it up drop the clutch, and go. You can only improve on reaction times to get a better ET.
-Acura NSX. Point and Shoot. The road is in your lap. Feels like driving a Formula Ford.
-On that matter, a Formula Ford.

Worst:
(Mind you, I drive an aging 2003 Ford Focus. If a new vehicle is worse than this car, even after several years in advancements, and the fact that they are new and haven't been able to get to the point of having stuff age...I hate it. No reason a seven year old economy car should be more refined than any new car.)
- Dodge Avenger/Chrysler Sebring. I swore the last gen of these vehicles were better. One of the few times in car history where the replacement sucked more than the outgoing model. Loud, unrefined, gutless, and an interior that made me miss my car.
-PT Cruiser. The only good thing about this car, it's that it's a box. I guess you can pile stuff up in there. But there are many other ugly vehicles that are better at doing this. Honda Element, Scion xB, etc. Even cool mirco cars like the Honda Fit are better at cargo me thinks.
-Chevy HHR. Really? Why was this car made? 1 point for being slightly better than the PT Cruiser. Minus that point for making the world's most annoying turn signal chime. Argh.
-Any Hyundai in the turn of the millennium era. My gosh have they come a long way.
-Dodge Dakota/Dodge Durango. World's worst turning radius. Supertankers can turn tighter than those trucks. 5.9L's are gutless. It helped kill mid-sized trucks and forever put small trucks in limbo land.
-
 
I'd have to say Americans made like the best 40 cars, and probably 90 out of the best 100. I don't care if their cavaliers and escorts had worse... door handles? than civics and corollas.
 
altimahybrd said:
just try nissan.
Click to expand...

The irony is overwhelming. Someone made an obvious advertisement account named after the hybrid version of the Altima, they post that I should try Nissan, and they are posting this in a thread about the worst car you've driven.


Oh yeah and the worst I've driven is some early 90s Dodge Neon. The performance was typical for a car in that category, but the car just felt cheap. I can't even describe what I mean.
 
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Worst:
The hands-down worst car I've ever driven is my dad's Pontiac Solstice. Noisy, with horrible sight lines, the NA 4 banger is too underpowered for a 3500lb roadster, the failmatic transmission is slushier than the one in my truck, and the seats are uncomfortable. About the only redeemable feature of it, is that 4 cylinder has one nice snarl to it at higher (4000+) rpm.

Best:
My 1988 Honda Accord lxI Coupe 5spd. Bought it for $300 with 250k+ miles, drove it cross-country twice, put another 15k miles on it here in Texas. It had no AC, the fans were wired up to a switch, it was beat up, the lights didn't close, but that thing ran like a swiss watch even after it was overheated and the coolant turned into chocolate milk, right up to the day it was totaled in my driveway while I was rebuilding the engine.

The In-between:
1998 Nissan Altima. It wasn't really good or bad, it just kind of was. I have no complaints, but I have no praises, either.
 
Best :

3rd and 5th gen Preludes, had one of each, wonderful cars through and through
1995 Buick LeSabre. Ugly, rough interior. Never failed me once, sold it with waaay past 200k on the clock still going strong.
2008 Focus S 5Spd Coupe. As reliable as can be, outstanding fuel economy, high marks for being a great city runabout.
2001 BMW M5. Nothing more to say than epic. The perfect well-rounded luxosport machine.
1981 F250. Went something like 650k miles on original motor and tranny until my brother finally destroyed it. Coldest AC in the universe.

Worst :

1999 Neon. Horribad.
2006 Kia Rio. Plastic throwout bearing shattered, which in turn destroyed a clutch that should have lasted another 75k+ miles easily. Just generally a cheap and underwhelming car in every way, even in fuel economy.
1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4. Ugh. Everything that could break on this car did in fact break. Everything was expensive. Scrapped with under 80k on the clock.
1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST. Died with about 100k on it.
Rental 1994 Ford Escort. The most underpowered pile of garbage ever.
Rental 1994 Chevy Cavalier. Much more power than the Escort, but the mushiest handling/suspension ever.
Bosses 2008 Audi A4. Constant maintenance issues, weird rattles, snail slow for the price.

that's all from the top of my head for now.
 
Worst was my 95 Saturn SC1.

Best is a cross between my old 335i and my RX-7. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I always enjoyed the BMW and the 7 is just something else every time I get in it.



A close second was my 2003 Mazda 6s. Other than the slushbox trans, that was a great car.
 
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most of the cars i've driven are pretty close on the "best" part since my friends and family tend to drive similar cars.

Best:

I have a 2010 A4 quattro its very good, but I'd say it isn't a "best car at anything". but i'd say the best car i've personally driven right now would depend. most fun i've had driving a car , probably a 2004 miata 6 speed i rented , though I drove a friends 2006 S2000 which would have been fun if I didn't stall it a ton, it was alot harder to drive than the miata. Most giddy I ever was? 2005 g35 coupe I bought when at the time I was 24. Probably best all around car of late is my friends 2011 335d (insane power, great gas milage, all the newer tech doodads). My mom has a current X5 3.0 with the turbo and thats probably the "best" family car that still hauls ass i've driven. I'd say the car that felt "just right" the most for me was in college my dads friend let me drive a 2001 E46 325i coupe with the sport package. That car just FELT so balanced. Though today maybe it'd not compare the same, but I just remember it feeling great.

Worst car:

Easily a rental 2011 yaris automatic sedan. Easily. I had a rental PT cruiser once, and that car was much much better.
 
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Since I made the list, there's a couple others I want to add.

New to the best:
-Lincoln MKX: It's a souped up Ford Edge but damn these are nice. Got the same power engine in it as the Mustang. Goes like a rocket. Handles winter roads like they're nothing. Very smooth handling. Nicest interior I've seen. Heck, it's got butt chillers!

-Hyundai Sonata 2012: Best in the mid-size class, blows it's competitors away. Handles like a dream, plenty of power, nice interior.

-Kia Sorrento V6: Yeah, another SUV. Very comfy interior, handles well, and goes like stink. Kia is actually making some really nice stuff now.

Honerable mention (cars that aren't the best but impressed me still)
-Chevrolet Acadia V6: Cheap, looks like a tank, but powerful
-2012 Kia Rio 5: Shocks are stiff and seats are hard but it drives really nice. Better than the Yaris and Fiesta.


And the Worst:
-Chevrolet Malibu: not quite as bad as the Cobalt but still an overall junky car. Rough suspension, cheap interior, had engine sensor problems, pollutes a lot.
-Anything Volkswagen: German cars seem to get a reputation for quality. I don't know why. They always seem to develop electrical problems. Jettas will spontaneously leak coolant. Since there's no wet spot, I'd say the blocks are cracked somewhere. Not to mention they're grossly overpriced for what they are. Cheap, cheap, cheap.
 
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