The worst car I ever owned 

I don't really know how BMW cultivate such a good reputation withe the general public when reliability of some of their cars would shame a 1970's British Leyland car, and their parts prices are shocking.

As the car wizard says "if someone asks me which BMW to buy, I say don't, buy a Honda"

Brand new Passat. What a piece of garbage that thing was. Endless faults, parts wearing out at ridiculously low mileages, turns out that VW are experts at hiding mediocre quality behind a veneer or soft touch plastics. Conversely, a few years ago I bought a cheap Alfa Giulietta as a second car. It’s been excellent. Knocking on ten years old now and it’s covered nearly 120,000 miles, never needs anything more than servicing and wear and tear items. Looks, drives and even sounds fantastic.

One of the great myths is German build quality. Two friends of mine have identical BMW bikes costing £15k each. They were off the road for the best part of 6 months due to a recall because of the possibility of the gearbox failing at high speed 😱

Precisely why I prefer older cars. Other than the usual age related wear and tear items, older cars are not only, from my experience, more reliable and cheaper to put right. Easier to work work on them yourself too.

Mine was ford focus titanium estate diesel, had from brand new - it’s was the biggest lemon ever. Electric faults with the radio, driving mode, central locking, cruise control, lights...only had it 9 months and the rear tailgate started rusting round the glass, had the most ridiculous low profile tyres, only had to drive over a pebble and you’d get a bulge or blowout. I was over the moon when a merc read-ended it and it was declared a right off.

"Worst car I've ever had!" - "Sold it to my dad" lol

A Citroen Cx 2000 Athena 1979 , suspensions problem all the time ,starter problem, electrics,etc etc....... but God did I love that car , was just beautiful.

I've heard of this before - when everything that could go wrong does go wrong, you spend an absolute fortune on it, then when you finally sell her (because you're fed up with forking out money) she's as right as rain for the next owner and most of the problems are fixed! Oh joy! 🥰🥰🥰

"People throwing rocks at the cars from the field that they lived in..." do you mean "Travellers"?

Great story. A few years ago My uncle gave me several copies of the BMW Car Club of America magazine that had been passed on to him by a Dr. friend and BMW owner. Excellent magazine with many talented columnists. There were a few technical columnists as well that would answer member questions. A common theme would be a question about such and such repair on a given BMW that they had been given an astronomical estimate to repair by the garage or dealer and how could this be done for less money. They reply would always begin with “BMW’s are very expensive cars to own and maintain “..... this is from the car club magazine for diehard enthusiasts of the brand! I’ll never forget that.

Mk5 escort. God it was dire in every way. Started rusting at 18months old, interior feel apart, ton of ongoing electrical issues (inc 2 ecu replacements) multiple breakdowns persistent water leak into the cabin, oil leaks etc etc etc etc and Ford couldn't give a sh*t. I was so fed up with it I went and bought a golf GTI and lent the escort to my then girlfriend, who unanimously decided she would keep it when we split up. Result! a definite win win.

modern BMW's after about 7 years are usually expensive to keep on the road and give lots of trouble, mainly electrical

for a short period (about a month) i owned a 2014 VW polo 1.2, now it was absolutely horrifically slow and dull........ but good god the problems so, where to start, the cd player failed closely followed by the entire radio, the wipers failed, the central locking failed, dash cluster went haywire, warning lights were like a christmas tree, window regulator on the drivers side failed and it ate bulbs...literally one a week, bought it at 4 years old with 24,000 miles oh and it developed rod knock....i ran from it then, so called german reliability i now own a lovely 2005 Citroen Xsara Picasso 2.0 HDi and apart from a few little issues (i restored the car pretty much) it's been faultless at 100,000 miles, i've covered 18,000 miles since i bought it in june and loved every second of it. not sure if the email went through about my offer for you to do a video on it?

Everyone ive known who had a bmw from that era (including myself) has suffered catastrophic failure of some sort. 1, 3, 5, x5 all needed surgical repairs and all were just out of warranty. Unacceptable and its why i would never ever touch one again. Remember, BMW got it so wrong with ALL models in this era, and did nothing to change it.

I found BMW overrated you have to buy extras to make it decent over priced

I had a £300 M-reg Rover 218SD turbo. It was awesome, rusty and tatty but started first flick of the key and ran like a champ. I sold it a year later for the same price! I had a cheap mk3 Mondeo which I ran for over a year and it was awesome. I really don’t like those 5 series at all.. BMW really have lost the genuine quality now. Great video mister! Really enjoyed it

They used to call them 'Friday afternoon cars' the ones that misbehaved like that! What a vehicle! Many thanks Matt, stay safe.

The number of owners that complain about their BMW over the years seems endless. How hard can it be for them to build a car that works? If Lexus can do it for a similar cost, why not BMW?

For comparison I have a 1999 Rover 75 1.8 with over 320k kilometres on the clock and the biggest issue I've had was a worn out gearbox cable snapping while I was in 2nd on an 8-lane junction, besides that just your typical parts replacements.

I have a 2009 e61 530d in black. I love it. Its massive, very fast, handles brilliant now i have got rid of the run flats and i use it for towing a car on a trailer which it handles with ease. Its a brilliant brilliant motorway car. It''ll sit at naughty speeds all day long without you even realising. I bought it 3 years ago as a 9 year old car with 84,000 miles. Its now just hit 150,000. The only parts it has had are front brake pads, an alternator, tyres, a 4 wheel alignment, oil changes, fuel filter, and it had an oil leak which was basically the result of the crank breather becoming clogged. I have had the tailgate wiring fail due to the same issue you had, but i just taped the wires up so its fine again. Sorry to hear yours was such a heap Maybe just a friday car? Theres a reason the Police used them. I think ive only ever changed 2 bulbs. One was an angel eye and i had to buy the proper bmw bulb for £25. But you dont need to, you can just break the bulb out of the housing and glue in a standard bulb for pennies.

Could you not have just written the thing off when it got vandalised? My worst car ever was a Peugeot 306 that had an intermittent power steering failure that even main dealer was clueless about. Eventually the stupid thing set itself on fire behind the dash so that was the end of that! As a previous many Alfa owner, I would say the majority are reliable if maintained!

My worst car ever was a 1985 (7 years old at the time) 6 cylinder petrol BMW 5 series . There was always something wrong with that thing. My wife hated it too. Cost us a fortune in repairs.

From 1995 to 2007 my Mam had a Rover Metro, only refused to start ONCE, never broke down, never failed MOT... was driven all around the country as a family car, zillions of trips to shops and to work and school, proper family car... written off by Audi going on the wrong side of the road at a T juction as the driver felt he could be bothered to wait behind two cars. Nobody in my Mams Metro hurt. Just goes to show buying a car is about luck. You can pay 6K for a Metro and have no problems for 12 years yet this video is about a supposed well built premium BMW with dodge filler cap, for lights, wiring, ENGINE! You seem so calm about its problems when I think many of us would have hit the rook at all the charges it was racking up!

Easy one: Rover 820. Valves kept coking up, gearbox failed, rear hatch had to be kept up with a stick, jumped out of 5th gear all the time, exterior door handles all fell off, CV joints failed, power steering line ruptured. There must have been loads of other stuff too that I have forgotten.

My worst car was also one of my favourite cars, it was a mk1 Golf Gti I paid £250 for and spent around £10,000 on a restoration and modifications over 5 years. It blew hoses for fun, overheated regularly, the battery used to drain for no reason and eventually the timing belt snapped! I had the engine rebuilt and bored to 1956 cc with a hot cam, used to rev to 7200 rmp and shoot flames and was incredibly fun, but it was unreliable and had serious rust on the underside, the outside looked immaculate but the dreaded tin worm got to it and it was eventually stripped and scrapped by the next owner, the welding would have cost at least £2000. Shame would be worth a lot now.

Hahahaha! Next time someone takes the piss out of me for driving a Dacia Sandero, I'll show them this! Not a single issue in six years. It even has all its original light bulbs.

There's some kind of media conspiracy that shouts about BMW being well built. Every other car I see broken down on the side of the motorway is a BMW. Give me a Volvo every time. Worst car I ever had was a Fiat X19. Great idea poorly executed and broke down every time I drove it, or so it seemed. Edit: but at least the Fiat was a used car...forgot to mention my KIA Sedona...starter motor would grind on it's gears and KIA said "Computer says it's fine" Door handles fell off for fun and it had 3 head gaskets in 3 years. A people carrier that spent most of it's first 3 years in the KIA garage whilst my family of 7 got a vauxhall corsa as a loan car.

I had a 1990 Eagle Premier ES, which was the offspring of the partnership between American Motors and Renault. It was based on the Renault 25 chassis, and used a variant of the Renault 21's suspension. It was powered by a 3.0L version of the PRV engine. It was very roomy, very comfortable, and worked very well when in worked, which wasn't often. Electrical gremlins by the score, periodic mechanical issues and a few very minor assembly issues kept it in a perpetual state of disrepair. So unfortunate for what could have been a very good car.

The last great BMW was the E39. I had a T reg 523i in 2009. The thing was carved out of titanium. Since then, it's been rust, dodgy diesel engines, failing electrics and senile sensors. How the mighty fall.

Love this style of video. You have a good story telling technique! You should do more of these. Very informative and fun to watch

A three year old Morris Marina 1700 we had reminded me of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', as it seemed to be fitted with an 'Infinite Unreliability Drive'. The car's electrical problems were like mole hills on a lawn; as soon I thought I had sorted out one problem, another popped up. Putting in lots of additional earthing points helped to an extent. Replacing points, coil, capacitors, a fair proportion of the wiring loom, and so on affected only temporary relief. I went over the electrical system with a continuity meter, and a pen light between my teeth but i never tracked down the lair of the gremlin. Like many cars of its era, the Marina had galloping rust. A neighbour took pity on me, and showed me how to weld, to help my vain attempts to 'stop the rot'. It amazed my how a part of the car, which seemed solid enough, could become like a lace curtain, only a month later.

Mine was an 1982. VW Jetta, you know, the one with the plastic fuel pies of that era that managed to split and leak fuel over the engine and set fire to it while you're driving it. The even dumber thing was for me to get it repaired and resprayed. That car gave me so much financial grief after the fire, I should have just let it burn.

It's still around, taxed and tested according to the government website. By contrast, my 04-plate petrol E60 saloon is heading towards 300,000 miles and still on the original engine and gearbox. Thanks to the current situation, it isn't doing 2,500 miles a month now. As for the tailgate wiring - right back to the E34s the fatigue failure of wiring into the boot lid was an issue and I found it was easier to get on my back in the boot with a reel of extra-flexible wire, a soldering iron and some heatshrink sleeving - on my E60 a couple of wires intermittently failed in this manner and used to set the alarm off!

My dad has an E60 520d M-Sport, and I must say the thing has never missed a beat in the 5/6 years he’s owned it. It’s done a few trips between South Wales and Scotland, and was an absolute dream throughout! Sounds like you’ve had a bad experience with a lemon, but I’d still maintain that a decent-spec’d BMW 5 Series is the ideal daily driver

The construction and use regulations have been changed so that manufacturers are now no longer able to put lights on tailgates or boot lids that open, because you could be driving with the tailgate open and the lights would be pointing at the sky, and also I suspect because of the problem of the wires fraying. The result is that the lights now intrude upon the tailgate, which is smaller, making the car less useful.

Rover 200, purchased from a relative. No redeeming features whatsoever. Handled like black ice on dry roads, blew a head gasket and consumed half my meagre salary on an almost monthly basis. The interior was attractive, which I studied intimately while waiting for numerous AA recoveries.

I've heard lots of bad experiences on the E60 BMW, from the diesel to the M5. Never tought it was such a crap (for the money that cost). On the other side, i've an Alfa 156 1.8 TwinSpark and is a very solid and reliable car, almost from when i bought 2 years ago.

My 08 3series had me visiting my mechanic so regularly it was ridiculous! So ridiculous in fact I had to buy a Toyota the same age which I’ve had years of trouble free motoring and now see my mechanic once a year for servicing. Comment not sponsored by scotty!

After owning a few Saab 9000's (comfortable and seemingly indestructible) I foolishly "upgraded" to a 2004 9-5 Aero. What a horrible understeering uncomfortable thing it was! Apparently fitted with Active Head Restraints,they were active allright. Every time the front wheels went down a dip in the road the headrest would smack you on the back of the head, bloody infuriating after about ten minutes driving. The whole car had a nasty cheap feel compared to a 9000, no wonder they went bust making junk like that. Paid £5.5k for it,sold it three months later at a big loss but was glad to see the back of it.

Im convinced cars manufactured around 08 mark due to the financial crash suffered with slap and dash construction. Not a great time for BMW. Great upload 😊

Once upon a time there was a car manufacturer that built great cars. It was called BMW. Then something came along called 2002. BMW released there new flagship model the 7 series and all BMW were now to follow its led. And so they did, to the letter. Trim fell off. Wiring burned out. Brakes played up. Engines went bang. Transmissions developed a life of their own. Headlining fell down. So did electric windows. Cooling systems lost the plot. Rattles and bangs developed from all manor of tucked away places. Bearings ran and suspension collapsed. In 2003 I was in position to assist in looking after 20 brand new 7series BMW for a visiting billionaire attending the Americas cup in New Zealand. Within 5 weeks of receiving 20 identical cars, nine of them had developed minor or major issues. Three others did the same around 7 weeks . Pre 2002, I was a BMW fan. Never again. After the above, I would rather walk than rely on a BMW to get me to my destination.

I have a 2008 Fiat Grande Punto, and my best mate has a 2006 Alfa Romeo Brera: both have been good reliable cars. Neither have high mileage for their age, but they do both have lots of electricals to go wrong, yet everything still works, and they both start 1st time... I do get the impression that "german quality" is little more than a myth: people laugh and sneer at my Fiat, but after 6 years, I have no desire to part with it anytime soon, and hope to replace it with another Fiat when the sad day comes that it does have to go.

Worse car I've owned I still own. 1973 Ford LTD pillarless 4door. I've wanted an early 70's Ford LTD since I was about 5 (now 48). Bought mine about 2 or 3 years ago. California car & only been here in the UK about 5 years now. Literally every single time I've driven that car it's broke down. I've had Yanks before but never bone stock. This is 100% un messed with & all original. But it's let me down so often I've lost confidence with it now. Fuel, electrics, engine, trans, overheating, Axle, brakes, etc.... I'm pretty sure I've now sorted it & ive even stuck £50 in the tank.........aaaaaaand now we are in lockdown 🤦‍♂️ Will I ever get to drive the car I've always wanted 🤷‍♂️ AND I've noticed that while it's sitting there idle, the headliner has come apart & is hanging down 😔

The worst car I ever owned wasn't bad actually. My bad experiences were with courtesy/rental vehicles; Chevrolet Lumina APV, Oldsmobile Alero, and 2010 Jeep Compass. I went in really wanting to like the Lumina and Alero and they each had * some * redeeming features, but that Compass.... I have never hated driving a car quite so much as I have with that. It had zero personality, a terrible transmission, a lack of power, and the interior was so fake and clinical. This is coming from someone who used to own Ladas and 1980s Skodas and would qualify them as great cars.

My worst one was my second one - a 1981 Fiesta 1.0. Plagued with problems from the start, including a gearchange so worn that by the time you'd persuaded it to go into gear, you'd need the next one down after slowing down so much, it let me down big style when the engine simultaneously shot a rod through the block and seized solid while in the fast lane of the M1. That was exactly as terrifying as it sounds. Rather than sensibly having it scrapped, I went to the scrapyard and bought a new engine, spent two weeks fitting it (on the road outside my house!), only for the new engine to also seize up thirty seconds after firing it up. I cut my losses after that, having spent twice the purchase price of the car in the four months I owned it. I sold it for the price of a bus fare home...

Back in the early Eighties, a miserable decade through which to have lived, we could just about afford to keep patching up the Morris; we could not afford a replacement. As we lived out in the sticks, were we could just about afford to live, we depended on the car to get to work. We seemed to lurch from one car problem to the next, and MOT time was the most dreaded time of the year.

Incidentally, I was warned not to buy a modern BMW car. For 13 years I've relied mostly on BMW bikes (R65, R80 and R1100RT), and they are very reliable (long commute means about 1000-1300Km per week).

My worst car ever: Alfa 156..... My best car ever: the same Alfa 156 😉

Worst used car I owned was a 1998 Peugeot 306 GT TD. Despite an extensive full main dealer service history it suffered brake failure, interior trim was made of biscuits, the clutch cable seized up due to rust, 42 mpg average, and the 'all or nothing' turbo boost quickly grew tiring on the daily commute. It also had the build quality of a wet cardboard box. Only car I ever wrote off when aforementioned brakes failed.

I have a 1995 Isuzu Campo. Never had any problems at all. But i have changed the EGR-valve in my 2008 Suzuki Grand Vitara 5 times now. So new cars are clearly garbage compared to good old cars.

A Mercedes w220 3.2 diesel, I could never keep up with endless rust, it left patches of diesel on the ground and broke down on a regular basis. Shame really, it was a nice looking car .

I bought a 2009 Nissan Note 1.6. It was a dealer demonstrator had a low mileage, good spec and a good price. I soon noticed that there was a multitude of issues; the passenger check strap wasn’t fitted when built so the door swung violently on opening, the passenger airbag sensor failed and had to be replaced. I noticed that the fuel consumption was excessive to say the least. The dealer said there wasn’t an issue. It ate up tyres and had three punctures.It was broken in to twice through the back tinted windows that then took weeks to arrive. It was hit by a taxi who drove off damaging the door and front wing. A pigeon flew in to the windscreen on the motorway and broke it. It was replaced and then a stone chip did the same a month later. The air conditioning wasn’t cold even after being regassed.The CD player skipped constantly to the point you couldn’t listen to CDS. The cruise control was jerky. It got hit by a car in a car park. It became a bit of a joke- I almost permanently had a courtesy car Maybe it was cursed? I only kept it for about 18 months and traded it in for a Volvo which has been fantastic...

This is why I own Nissan Maxima 2001 with the V6 engine and automatic gearbox. It's my second Maxima. They are very reliable for a car with "complex" V6. Yes I know it's not the most exciting car at all, but it is big, reliable and comfortable highway cruiser. It just eats miles without problems. Rust is problem if not taken care..

Wow, I thought this kind of thing only happened to me, including tipping hot coffee in my lap. Thanks for sharing. Can't say that I feel inclined to run out and buy a BMW now. This isn't the first time I've heard horror stories about BMWs. The older I get the more I understand why some people are happy to drive an appliance like a Toyota or Hyundai. I drive a fairly elderly (13 years and 305,000 klms) B6 Passat 2.0 TDI which still drives like a new car (I'm the 2nd owner and it has been meticulously maintained it's whole life). It has had a couple of issues but nothing major, but with so many kilometres on the clock I do sometimes wonder about what kind of catastrophic event is just around the corner. And we live in rural Australia where it's very easy to be hundreds of kilometres from any help. Also, what kind of scum throws rocks onto someone else's motor vehicle? Sounds like justification for involuntary euthanasia. It's obviously the shallow end of the gene pool anyway.

Worst one I owned was a 2001 Explorer 4door with 4.0 OHV V6 that I bought knowing I was going to flip it soon. Bought it from a friend-of a-friend's private mechanic who replaced both cylinder heads/gaskets and intake manifold+water pump at only 110k after a head gasket failed (causing the cylinder head to warp,both got replaced for sanity's sake) before he got it as a non-runner. A week after I got it,both front power window regs failed in a rainstorm and both windows fell into the door (and of course the drivers' window shattered).Next day the rear hatch handle snapped after a parts run to replace the broken window and window regs,then like clockwork the drivers' door exterior handle fell off a few days later and the interior handle stopped working. Decided to not replace the regs nor the glass,to order a set of 4 exterior and interior handles, to replace the broken handles but include the other new parts in the sale along with a quote from a local shop. Ended up making a small profit,but a great learning experience about buying Fords.

Worst car I ever owned used to be a Mazda 323, was obviously a Friday afternoon/Monday morning car as Mazdas are usually good, but that was until I bought a 1997 BMW E39 525TDS auto, what a pile of cack, bought it from the seller, got half way home, popped into a shop halfway home, tried to start it, no chance, the car had immobilised itself and I only had one Key! It made it home on a recovery truck. I didn’t have any more money to investigate the issue so I moved it on for £200, and as far as I know it still hasn’t returned to the road.

My '90 Volvo 740 GL is closing in on 280,000 miles and still has the original engine, transmission, rear end, etc. all running as good as ever. What am I doing wrong? Lol

The company I used to work for has Golfs as Company Cars and one of the engineers had a Golf Estate. It used to idle in the yard all day with the boot open so he could get to his tools. He also used it more than once to pull a Minibus broken down on the road. He also occasionally filled it with 4 24v bus batteries or bus wheels. I wouldn’t recommend buying a company car but if you do then make sure it isn’t an estate.

From the picture I very much expected that to be your Mondeo. I agree though. A car can be terrible on paper but this usually means your expectation is lowered to the point where you take on a "support the underdog" mentality and you end up.instead finding things endearing rather than awful. Price also helps of you bought it dirt cheap and the appeal only grows if you have some legendary experiences with it. I had a Proton Satria in 2008, essentially a 90s Mitsubishi Colt built by Proton in the early 2000s. While the Lotus tuned GTi version gained a loyal following, mine was at the other end of the range. It was poverty spec, its 1.3 litre engine hated inclines yet was surprisingly thirsty and sat in a really high road tax band. However I'd bought a 4 year old car for £1350, you sat low like a sportscar behind a comically huge steering wheel and its back to front wipers and indicators made for some laughs. Plus they were so rare (perhaps for the on paper reasons outlined above) that you enjoyed being a bit different and I still love the shape too. Very AMC Pacer. In terms of motoring memories, hitting a pothole at 80 and jettisoning the stereo from the dashboard and into my passenger's lap and helping friends move a giant TV as I drove while they sat on the bonnet holding it will always stay with me. It was endearing to the point where i want one again. They are now even rarer but the ones out there tend to be low mileage having been owned by an older demographic yet are cheap as nobody has heard of them.

Funnily enough, the two cars I remember as being possibly the most troublesome I've ever owned were also BMW's. I had a 320 and a 325is, they were both bloody awful, both of them had exactly the same issues as each other. Fuel injection system failed, camshafts both had to be replaced, next I had problems with the steering....and the problems just seemed to carry on. One of the cars was only four years old and I seem to remember the other one may have been around six years old, both were terrible and despite the 'iconic' status people like to bestow upon them, I would never buy another BMW.

Bit like a classic car, the two happiest days of owning it are the day you buy it and the day you sell it...

I bought a manual '03 530i back in June 2011 on 86k miles. I still have it and it's now on 193k miles ! It hasn't been without its faults but overall it's been good. It's also been to Italy, Austria (twice) and South of France (err, 3 times, I think). Needs some bits and bobs fixing but overall it's a good car and I'll keep it.

MD08 FZV ✗ Untaxed Tax due: 31 May 2020 ✗ MOT Expired: 21 August 2020

BMW =Bad Motoring Woes

My wife and I’s first car joint purchase after marriage back in the early 90’s was a Citroen AX. We somewhat rushed into the purchase from a true “Arthur Daley” character. Flicking your finger against the door panel was just like flicking an empty biscuit tin, thankfully it died exiting the M1 at jct 25 north when the cam belt snapped (mercifully on the slip road) and that was the end of that!

My worst car actually turned into the best car I've ever owned, and still own. A couple years back I bought a 2005 Mazda 6 wagon after my old Suzuki was trashed. Very nice, well kept, paint still good, mechanically perfect. Or for the last part, it seemed to be... After owning the car for about a month it burnt an exhaust valve. Once that got fixed, the car drove for about half a week before the PCV system failed and caused rapid unplanned disassembly of the engine. I was now at a breaking point - either put even more money in the car and have it fixed, or get rid of the car for basically scrap money. Because I didn't have money for a new car, I got it fixed. A lot of drama within the first months of owning the car.... However after that it's been dead reliable, never missed a beat. Almost 300.000km and probably many more to go!

Now untaxed, no MoT, not even fail details entered for August 2020 so it wasn’t put through an MoT. Why is it not on a SORN or ‘Details Not Found’ as would be the case if broken up? I thought the registered keeper was liable for automatic fines from the DVLA if a vehicle isn’t taxed or on a SORN declaration? Does it mean somebody in the trade is sitting on it?

Currently driving a '99 E39 530D touring, bought it cheap, does everything you could ask of it, love the 50/50 weight distribution. Love it, feels like an old mate and you can fix it with a hammer.

Several and all French I’m afraid. Citroen Picasso head gasket blew and it was off the road for 3 months because the factory was on strike, and the dealer couldn’t get the parts. Renault Laguna, leaked prodigious amounts of oil from new and the dealer couldn’t fix it. Worst of all Citroen DS2, the gearbox seized and the airbags failed to deploy - neither the dealers or Citroen were willing to pay for the repairs (and were abusive with it). In contrast I have had four new Jags and have had no trouble with any of them.

Worst car I've ever owned. That's easy. My current 2007 Mini Cooper S that I got for £5k. I've now spent over £5k on repairs. I should have, could have spent more the first time to get a better car, but pension and budget constrictions set me on a £5k budget only. But I'm in the rut where I can't get rid of it as I can't afford a different one. Currently, and with the covid-19 lockdown, the car is in the car park and undrivable due to a common fault with pre 2008 Minis where the electronic steering lock doesn't disengage. Such a shame because over the years, my family have had and owned 7 Minis in various guises. Will I ever get another Mini. Nope. Never. As they say, "Once bitten..."

A late Rover 800 Vitesse (1999), almost rebuilt the car in the four years, it’s head gasket went just after I’d put in a second hand gearbox. That was the final straw for me, loved those cars I had three of them. Not had a Rover since. First 800, gearbox failed, second an automatic that needed a reconditioned gearbox, sold it for about £700. I’ve had a MK3 Ford Mondeo, fairly reliable for a a 15 year old car.

Those style disc and drum are common on 850/ v70's, omega's, BMW's and mercs, I stopped using the handbrake in my e46 because I just couldn't get it to adjust and hold the car, used to wrench it up for mot's the let it off when I got the car back

Sounds familiar….I’ve owned countless cars over the years, and the worst was…well, it was a Land Rover. That vehicle absolutely refused to stay on the road more than a couple of days at a time. But the second worst was my BMW 328. It was absolutely the best looking and driving car I ever hated with a seething passion. It would go for a whole week at a time before needing to spend a month at the shop. To be fair, it was never anything major, mostly just a constant battle of chasing down often massive leaks from all the plastic parts under the hood. Nonetheless, it soured me to BMW forever. Now it’s nothing but Volvo Estates for me. In my humble opinion you get near German luxury and performance with Japanese reliability. 😉

I've never owned a car that really let me down, but the worst car I had was a 1999 Vauxhall Vectra, the last of the original shape before the minor facelift. Bought it in 2007 with 70000 miles on it. Leaked oil all over, never got to the bottom of it despite replacing gaskets etc. Used to like to cut out whenever the clutch was pressed, taking out the power steering! Noisy as all hell at speed, too. Replaced it with a MK3 Mondeo 130 TDCi which was a bit of a money pit, needing two turbo rebuilds in as many years. Two Mk4s owned afterwards were bombproof by comparison.

Mine was a Renault, early 90's, forget which one, the saloon above a Megan, it was a transition model built as a dealer demonstrator, not intended to be sold but returned to Renault. Whenever ordering parts from a main dealer was always queried that the VIN did not match the year of registration as registered a year before it should have been. Had to physically show them the vehicle. It was engine and mechanical parts that were different, body stayed the same.

Brand new VW Passat B8. It's the worst thing I have ever bought. 10,000KMs (around 6,000miles) and the gearbox acted funny, the fuel pump died for no reason, the rear brake pads failed just 5,000KM later, the air conditioning had issues smelling like dead rat while the blowers are random that it would blow different intensities of air through all the blowers! Thought it was a sound and sensible upgrade from a Proton, turns out it was the worst choice I have made.

Without doubt it would have been my H reg Vauxhall Astra max van. I bought it as a temporary vehicle while I was waiting for my new car to be delivered. one the drive into work I had an almost complete and catastrophic electrical failure. On the way home in the evening after tow starting it the engine blew. Leaving parts on the road. It really was a sad end to a van that I had owned for one entire day.

Peugeot 307. I think Frank Spencer did the wiring on it...

The n47 engine massive design flaw. BMW Should have cover all the engine failures

I have just checked and your beloved BMW E61 is no longer on the road - MOT expired in August 2020 and was never even tested then, so either got written off in an accident, or the owner just got so fed up that they decided to scrap it! Tax expired in May 2020. Would have been nice to see it go on, but I guess it was so problematic that this was inevitable. Did well to reach 197,000 (may have even got to 200k), considering how iffy it had been whilst you had it. I suspect it was the company who originally owned it following the ridiculous 18k oil change intervals that caused the turbo to blow up.

I've got a 2005 Vectra estate and it's still going as of 2021, the only thing that isn't working: Cruise Control. that's it.. Though over the years, it's had new brakes, Turbo (which hadn't gone but using oil and only £600).

Worst car I purchased was a 2005 Jetta mark4 TDI. In 5 years the leather cracked and the plastic was peeling inside. The roof was fading. I would wax it a few times a year and took good care of it. I paid 24k for it and sold it for 11,500. Moved on to BMW.

The worst car I ever owned was an Audi 100GL, the most unreliable piece of motoring misery ever conceived. The only thing it did well was mop up fuel at a horrifying rate. In a state of near financial ruin I got rid of it for peanuts, and yes the bloke who bought it kept it for a couple of years and was quite happy with it. I replaced it with a very well used Renault 12, and for £90 I got a runabout that was cheap to run and totally reliable. The R12 then got turned into a rally car and competed faultlessly for two years......until I crashed it!

The worst car I have ever owned was a terrible Mexico Brown Rover P6 2000TC, a rusty one that cost a hell of lot of money having the engine, rear brakes and other items rebuilt, swapped a one owner from new 1971 Triumph Herald 13/60 estate for it. I must point out when it worked it was superb but it kept breaking down.

Our lemon was a 2017 Ford Fiesta Titanium ecoboost, looked great and had shed loads of kit but wallowed like a boat, was slower than April, the drivers seat came off while driving it and it had the TPMS light on constantly after six months. After the dealer tried to get us to drive it to them to have the seat reattached and After 14k miles we part ex'ed it for a 2015 Mini Cooper and never looked back!

Just came across this video and channel by chance. I had a second generation Mini Cooper D (58 plate) and coincidentally the turbo went on that! The warranty was well gone and the cost of repairing well out weighed the value of the car (even though it was only 6 years old at the time). I was left with no option but to cut my losses and sell the broken car to my dad, I mean on autotrader.

Lovely Jubbly, made me think of all the dodgy cars I've owned, the worst was a Vauxhall Astra J - 61 plate, it was at the dealership more than in my garage.

I've had quite a few cars, 90% of them made by PSA. They're far from faultless, but I've kind of learnt their tricks so I don't usually find them too bad to work on. And despite being dirt cheap up here they've always been reliable so I've sort of stuck with them. I've also had an Alfa 156 2.5 V6 which I absolutely loved. It was quick, amazing to drive even in snow and didn't have any reliability issues while I had it. Unfortunately it did have a serious rust issue hidden by a thick layer of underseal so I had to pass it on. My worst car ever was either a MK2 Polo or a MK1 Renault Scenic. The Polo had an amazing amount of electrical problems considering not much was operated by the means of electricity. The carb was also horrible and never seemed to work quite right. The Scenic too had it's share of electrical problems and the interior panels were so rattly that it nearly drove me insane. And I never got it to run properly unless I had the throttle position sensor unplugged - I tried several different new ones and redid the wiring but it just refused to work with one plugged on. The final nail in its coffin was the rust that pretty much spread everywhere over the course of two winters.

Worst car I ever had. 2003 MG ZT 260 V8. Mediocre in the dry but when it rained it leaked through sunroof, boot lid, rear lights, windscreen, rear window, even the holes the side strip clicked into. Even with the drain holes clear it leaked through plenum and heater, the carpets were soaked. It leaked onto ECU and left you without lights and wipers and eventually died. Wasn't impressed.

This puts you off getting a BM. Best car I have had was a Skoda Octavia 1.9TDI bought it with 10,000 miles and did nearly 300,000 miles in it with little more than basic servicing. Still using the original turbo although it was fussy about what diesel I used. I have an similar A3 pushing on for 170,000 again will little gone wrong. I do think dealer servicing has been stretched too far for fleet managers. I just serviced my 2019 A4 Quattro yesterday with 20,000 miles on it and it needed it. Dealer serviced it at 10k and will do it again at 30k but they need at least an oil change every 10k. The air filter was only 50% through its life but needed replacement as will all the other filters. Just considering if 40k is too long for the gearbox oil change.

Only ever owned 1 BMW. A 318SE great looking car with leather interior. After 3-4 months got rid of it, problems with electrics. Alarm would go off, on board computer stopped working. Diagnosed as major electrical fault. Because it was pre-owned would have cost me thousands of pounds to fix!

Alfa 164 though not really the car's fault entirely. The previous owner upgraded the radio. Apparently he went to Hack and Splice Technical college and majored in bodgery. The amplifier pulled power from somewhere so the lights dimmed when the radio came on. Nothing was soldered so the radio cut out over bumps. He didn't want to pay for the plug adapter so he just cut everything. Later the head gasket blew. The parts supplier sent me the wrong gasket three times. A lovely car to drive with a truly great V6.

I had old Peugeot Diesels, either the 1.9TD in the M Reg 306, and the old 2.0HDi in a newer estate variant. Both were totally flawless with yearly services. I found a really nice 7 year old 3 series 318d tourer on 68,000 miles top spec, which is the eco tuned 2.0 litre. Touchwood the only major issue has been the rear demister which no longer works and has cost me £180 in labour just to diagnose a new rear screen for £500. Otherwise, it's been mostly well behaved. I think the big problems come with modern BMW's around the 3 to 5 year mark it seems.. get through the danger zone and they tend to behave. I think I may sell her next year and put towards a Japanese car.

My most dangerous was an '07 Discovery that had the habit of having complete electrical/ mechanical shut-down (usually at night on a motorway) and you have to somehow navigate on to a hard shoulder (thats if it's not a smart motorway) with no ability to freewheel so very rapid engine braking. Terrifying.

We had a 58 reg, 520D saloon, had it for like 6 months, and my dad said it was the worse car he’d ever owned. There was a massive electrical issue that was only while driving and it wasn’t detectable while the car was still. So that car went to auction as far as I’m aware. He bought it at 3 months old. Shows how bad those E60/61 cars are.

Understand you completely! The worst car I have ever owned was also a BMW, the 318tds E36. My first car was a Audi A80, what a tank of a car, old, but reliable as a car can be. Never had any issue at all with it, put over 1 million km on that car, and the only time it let me down was because the fuel tank was dirty and it was not allowing the fuel to get into the motor so the car stalled and shut down. Fuel tank out, cleaned, back in and all good. Sure by the time the car was over 1 million km, it was so worn that it "drank" oil and water as well as diesel, lots of smoke on the exhaust, but as long as you had fuel on the tank, some water and oil spare on the boot, you could go to china and the car would not stop or let you down. Great car, but it was time to give him the rest it needed, so I started browsing for another one, I saw the very very beautiful E36 BMW 318tds, with 80 000 miles on it, so I thought well thats it, this will be my next car and an upgrade to the Audi. My God, I cannot tell you all the times the car let me down on every road I driven.... brakes, rear axel, alternator, starter engine, fuel pump, water pump, oil pump, clutch, engine rebuild...it came to a point where the car was in the shop one month for every three I was using, and the cost of repair was more that I could afford! SO I just almost gave it to the mechanic and bought a Volvo S80 T5 (another tank of a car). You might say that the BMW was not bad, I am a terrible driver, who knows? But than why my Audi and my Volvo are just mile eaters, with no problems at all, and the BMW was such a pain???

After I bought my Hyundai ix35 I realized how well engineered this car is. Everything is built so straight forward. Simple and easy to work on. And after two years nothing went wrong or broke. Never even change a light bulb. ( it woul'd take 30 seconds to do it ) So until now the best car I ever owned.

2008 Chevrolet TrailBlazer there was always something wrong with it although to its credit it was never engine/ trans until ECM failed but not before getting me home still that was the last straw i bought Mazda 110k miles now, 0 engine issues 0 electrical issues, had to replace tie rod once, rattles here and there but it was battered by ppl who are not bothered by traffic lights, parking lanes etc

Mine was an MG ZS180. . The rubbish Rover with the rubbish badge. . both taillights broke the first time i opened to boot, Neither rear doors would open, gearbox leaked , the plastic sill covers started to fall off, rear bumper cover dropped, and worst, THE THROTTLE USED TO STICK OPEN. Total junk which is weird as the second best car I've owned is my new MG5. . Built by the Chinese 🥇🥇