Posted on 03/05/2013 11:52:09 AM PST by US Navy Vet
I'll start, Best-1974 Chevrolet Malibu Classic 2 door just ABSOLUTLY beautiful! Worst-1979 Ford Futura DAMN thing couldn't get out of it's own way, got PASSED by a Ford Pinto on the 805 to the 92(I think)South in San Diego.
I had a firebird like this in the 70's. I wish I still had that car. Paid 600 bucks for it. Got 10mpg city 12mpg hi-way. Great car.
Best - 2000 Accord EX/1974 Camaro LT
Worst - 1984 Camaro beautiful but a lemon
Best 97 Toyota Camry, 265,000 miles and still runs like a top.
Worst 95 Dodge Intrepid, bad paint, bad electrical, bad mechanicals.
Most Fun (Tie) 70 Buick Skylark GS (455ci V8), 72 Triumph TR6, 2K VW GTI VR6.
Best: 1965 IH 4X4’ three on the tree, inline 6, stepside pickup, it was my first ride, and I didn’t appreciate it, and traded it in 1985 for my worst car..1979 Dodge St. Regis. Also, I pretty much loved my 96 Laredo.
Best - 1988 Honda Prelude Si with 4 wheel steering. Smallest turning radius I’ve ever seen!
Worst - 1991 Range Rover. Stupid cooling and electrical issues.
Worst: 1981 Pontiac J2000. Too many bad things to list in one post. I actually got to watch this one get built. I recall an assembly line worker jumping into the engine compartment to try to attach a screw that wouldn't go in to the inlet air grill. His foreman finally yelled out: "Let it go. 3 out of four screws ought to hold it on."
My lifetime car history:
1972-79 — 1966 VW Campmobile. In terms of mechanical reliability, was most definitely “the worst”, but it took me to a lot of bluegrass festivals. I eventually sold it to a young guy who did a complete restoration.
1979-86 — 1979 Honda Accord. I had got my first (actually my only) real job, and needed a reliable commuting vehicle for longer distances that could go more than 50mph. The first Accord took me 170,000 miles, though it was using a little oil towards the end.
1986-93 — 1986 Honda Accord. First one gave good service, so I replaced it with an updated version. The ‘86 went 192,000 miles, then I sold it and got .
1993-2005 — 1993 Acura Integra. The last one on the lot for that model year. Drove that car just over 300,000 miles, and it didn’t even burn oil when I finally sold it for $400. That may be the “best one”, simply on the basis of its longevity. Kept me going twelve years. Actually, around 2001 I thought “it was time for a new car”, so I started shopping for one. Four years later, I decided on...
2005-present — 2005 Toyota RAV4. My first vehicle with a stereo and air conditioning and power windows (all the previous were “stripped-down, basic” versions). Carried me 6+ years and into retirement. Nothing needed (except for some rear-end damage to the rear door, bumped by a lady in a red Mercedes) other than routine maintenance, it has 148,000 on it now, still doing fine.
Choose wisely, and you won’t have to replace your cars very often!
Worst car was a 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix turbo, started breaking down as soon as I drove it off of the auction floor.
Best was my 1978 Transam, dropped a 455 Pontiac engine in it and raced it to death. The gas prices started inching up and I just couldn’t maintain it and sold it.
I had the 1970 version. Mucho power.
Kept it into the mid 80s to pull my 25' boat.
Only real trouble I had was alternators. Replaced 4 or 5 of them.
Recently my son told me about the time he threw all 4 belts off it . He was in high school at the time.
He told me he was running around 120 mph.
BEST: 1965 Pontiac Catalina 2DR V-8 (bought it in 1975 before I turned 16). Made learning the birds and bees easy with a front seat that was very wide.
WORST: 1985 Buick Skylark. Brand new car we bought when we got married. One week in the engine blew and left my wife stranded on an interstate at 11 pm in Arlington, TX where we lived. There was a serial killer loose in the area and it took us five hours to find her (she was working night audit and didn’t make it to work).
Had a `69 Buick GS 400,yellow with black vinyl top
that was my fvorite.loved those bucket seats a that
console mounted shifter.Remember picking up an E-7
hitch hiking on base at Bragg..you an E-3 with this
he said..that always stuck with me.
Worst was a Rabbit,don`t remember the year car,but
I got shed of it quickly.
Worst: 71 Gremlin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I loved my 71 Gremlin. I did. The engine was strong and if you got past the weirdness of it - it actually was a good product.
Except the back hatch back window was held on by two cheap clamps. One day while driving down the road - one of those clamps failed - the other couldn’t hold the window by itself and - BANG!
Busted glass all over the road.
86 Dodge Omni
survived getting hit by a semi-truck from behind and was still running and driveable, but 3 feet shorter.
(had 240k on it at the time. 2.2 motor and 5 speed manual)
Worst:
72 Ford Maverick. complete Bondo car but only paid $75.00.
rear bumper fell off once while driving across a frozen lake.
Batmobile, until it lost one wheel.
Worst was the three Ford Pickups I bought, wore the bed floor clean through. Sure glad when my friend left Ford.
I learned to drive in that GS. Love to able to cruise at 60mph and still be able to smoke the tires at will.
LOL you too huh LOL. Yea that happened to one of mine. I had three of them all in the 71-73 range. The straight shifts were the best. A built in {not intentional} anti-theft feature. The straights had floor shifters. If you held the floor shifter in neutral and turned the steering column sleeve you could lock the car up in 1st or reverse and the thief could not shift it with the floor shifter. I did that when I was at Norfolk Naval Shipyards and parked outside the secure lot.
Gremlins also required a crowbar to open the doors due to them being longer and wore out hinges faster. Other than that good solid and very reliable cars.
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