Jeep. All of them. Rickety. Not built well. Terrible gas mileage. Bad on highways. Bad on city streets. I literally got bruises on my butt on an off road trail in one of them. Just absolute shit cars.
The only selling feature of any Jeep vehicle is the classic round front lights and the grill design … it’s like owning an Apple product, people just want to be seen in one.
We had a brace of rented Nissan cargo vans at work, the small ones. Those were truly terrible. They had CVT transmissions that just would not hook up. I’d get to the top of an SF hill at a stop sign and just sit there with my foot planted, waiting.
We replaced them with Ford Transits. The CVT in that model is only slightly more usable, but we all still fight over who gets the older model, with the torque converter.
A 1971 Chrysler Newport.
The thing was a boat. You’d hit a bump in the road, and the car would act like you crested a wave and bob front to back a few times. It was wider than most pickup trucks and probably heavier. Not only could it not fit in most parking spots, it could hardly fit in some lanes. Required leaded gas, which was getting hard to find at that point. If you needed to go uphill you had to build up speed because you would slow down, even with the gas pedal floored.
The best part is that when I finally brought it in for service, the mechanic came out and said “You’ve been driving that thing??” Three out of four motor mounts had broken and the last one was about rusted through.
It did have an 8-track though, and came with a bunch of Elvis tapes.
I hated Elvis, but did manage to find an 8-track of Peter Paul and Mary.
I rented a 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander in 2022 and it was amazing how unresponsive it was. It’s a small SUV with the engine of a hamster. It has a “sport mode” that really struggled to get me up some hills in Colorado.
Also, the rubber seal for the door, on 3 of the doors, was constantly feel off and could be worn as a second seatbelt.
Mid 80’s Bronco. My ex insisted that she had to have a bronco. It had a 302 in it, but holy hell. I am sure it was the fact that they were still trying out emissions schemes but I bet it had less than a hundred hp. It would barely move out of it’s own way, and if you got about 6mpg you considered yourself lucky. Toss in an oil leak and it was like driving the Exxon Valdez. I can’t decide if the best day of my life was getting rid of the bronco, or her…
Narrator: Both…
I’m pretty sure you could buy one of those with a straight six, I bet they’re even more of a dog!
I had an '86 with a straight six that was phenomenal.12 mpg and would go anywhere. It’s the only car I hate I sold.
A Ford Expedition from a car rental place. It felt like driving around a ten ton brick through molasses. It was the least responsive and awkward shit box I’ve ever had the displeasure of piloting. It was so bad I literally drove to the nearest rental place to exchange it for a smaller car.
Ooh man, I’ve driven a lot of rentals for work…
I hated hated hated the Nissan Cube. Thankfully the check engine light came on within two hours of me picking it up so I got to swap it.
But I think the one that takes the cake is actually a vacation rental car. My husband and I rented a car when we went to Belgium. It was an Opel Corsa. It struggled to even reach the speed limit on highways and definitely couldn’t go above it. The funniest thing was that all the Audis and BMWs in Belgium didn’t even bother to tailgate us; they saw us ahead of them and moved over to pass well before they got to us. They knew. That thing was hilariously bad at being a car. I was also a new stick shift driver and it was very difficult. We then went to Switzerland where we got a VW Polo and suddenly I got a whole lot better at driving stick, lol.
Why would they tailgate you at all if they could pass you? Is this common somewhere?
I guess what I meant was, they were so aware that we were lamely going as fast as we could (not very) in the slow lane that they managed to move over in plenty of time even when they were going way (way) faster than us and had to merge into other traffic. No one ever seemed to get stuck behind us unable to pass. I chalked it up to their very high awareness of our very shitty car, lol.
Ah haha I see
Some people just like being a dick instead of getting on with their lives. My answer to those people is to slow down until they pass, and it’s fairly common that I get under 10mph and think I’m actually going to have to stop before they get the hint.
Hahaha. A rented Opel was what came to mind for me as well. Followed by Plymouth Crossfire and Chevy HHR.
Thankfully the check engine light came on within two hours of me picking it up so I got to swap it.
And wouldn’t you know it, the check engine light was because of a loose gas cap. How could that have happened?
I once had a loaner from a dealer that was a Dodge Caliber. Ugly as sin and the transmission was definitely on its way out. That car was just a struggle. It was a reminder why I will never buy a Chrysler product.
I am not defending that car.
Not good practice to use a loaner or rental as a reference. People drive those like they are trying to break them. And dealers will use a shitbox as a loaner because it is a shitbox
This was an unofficial loaner that was for sale as a used car by the dealer…so they were actively trying to sell it.
Like i said im not defending that car, was meant to be general advice.
I work for an autoparts company processing returned parts. Im the guy that inspects and rejects (if thats even worth noting).
If they were willing to use it at all as a loaner, it was probably a problematic vehicle. Even the highest quality vehicle will have some units that someone didnt put together well. Dodge is not a top quality builder to start.
But that all aside im very happy to hear you wont be buying one anytime soon
The CVT in the Caliber is crap even when it’s brand new
I test drove one when they first came out. The salesperson was telling me about the continuously variable transmission, and how revolutionary it was.
“It’s a new technology? From an American car company? In it’s first model year? Ok, no thank you.”
2021 gmc Sierra, cant see shit in front of you
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I knew what video that was going to be before I even clicked on it
Thank you, I needed that
I had a 92 Taurus that made a loud crack when I turned left. Mechanic said engine was about to fall out. Left it parked in front of my house and a cement mixer backed into it and crumpled the front end. Got about 2000 bucks out of a car we were going to scrap.
Nissan Versa, so many weird blind spots.
Chrysler 200 as a rental after someone smoked my Civic, and I waited to get a new one.
The car was… Jiggly? Like the suspension was unsettling, the brakes needed getting acquainted with lest you rear-end someone, and the steering had too much play. It wasn’t enough play to convince me something was wrong, it was just shit quality.
No power. At all. Getting on the freeway was an adventure in noise and hope. Everything lagged. Fuel economy was garbage too.
Looked stupid. And my Civic si that replaced it, the econobox with a hot engine, had a luxury interior in comparison, which is saying something.
Horrible car to add to a horrible week.
I had a Lincoln mkz for a week after someone hit my car in a parking lot, insurance said I was covered for a premium sedan.
Worst car I’ve ever driven. Handled like a boat, was all flash but everything felt cheap and “jiggly” when I touched it.
Learning at the time (2012) that this was a 35k luxury car was mind-blowing. You couldn’t PAY me to drive that car again. My 20k Prius blew it out of the water in everything but acceleration, and even then it wasn’t behind by much…
Chevy Malibu I got at a rental place because they didn’t have the type of car I requested months ahead of time. Neither my partner nor I could figure out how the fuck to set the cruise control, which had “get up to speed then step on the brake” as one of the instructions. We’re also not frequent drivers.
Fuck that car, driving it gave me a panic attack
Chevy Suburban. I volunteered to drive for a university course field trip and it’s what I got stuck with.
- Unresponsive fatass brick of a vehicle. I mean, come on, a minivan has more cargo space and the same passenger capacity without three light aircraft worth of inertia.
- Dashboard sucked. It took me a solid three minutes to find the button shifts. (I know these can be done well - Honda does them right - but the PRNDL was fucking laid out in a thin row at the side of the dashboard. Huh?)
- Overtaking damn near anything would redline the (very new, less than 10k miles) engine.
My uncle owned an 80’s suburban. That thing was an absolute tank… and not in a good way. The steering had so much play in it, you had to turn the wheel about 45 degrees for there to be any input.
A fedex truck actually ended up t-boning him, and the truck flipped. He was fine. Suburban wasn’t. Probably for the best.
Overtaking damn near anything would redline the (very new, less than 10k miles) engine.
While this suggests it might have been underpowered, how high the engine revs during acceleration in a modern automatic transmission vehicle is determined by software that operates the transmission and the driver’s control inputs, not how old the engine is. The designers of the car probably decided that was the best way to deliver the performance you asked for. They may even have been correct in that assessment.
A Hyundai Elantra, it let me down in so many ways. Financially, spiritually, etc.
