Good car/Bad car

[Gavster]

What have been your best and worst cars and why?

Best: E39 523i auto. Bought via an ebay auction for a good price from a dealer who really couldn't care less as it was a p/ex he wanted rid of. Drove perfectly and was absolutely faultless for about a year, at which point I sold it for the same as I paid for it, to buy something more fun.

Worst: E91 335i Sport Touring. Constanrtly problematic. It must have been a Friday afternoon car and thank god I had an extended BMW warranty as during one visit to the dealer to resolve a mysterious engine problem it clocked up 40 hours of labour at BMW Chiswick. When I sold it, the guys test drove it, then paid. They went back to the car to drive home and the brake warning light came on immediately. Lemon. Only saving grace is that it barely depreciated in the time I owned it.

[McSwede]

I bought an E39 523i Manuel for my wife. A super car until she wrote it off

My favourite has been my M140i. 84,000 in 3 yes. I ragged it as often as I could and nothing broke or fell of. It was plenty fast, fun and ultra reliable. It headbutted the speed limiter with nonchalant ease and I'd have liked to have had a go with no limiter.

The worst by far was my first company car. The previous incumbent of my roles had a DCR Vectra, 1.7d with wing up windows and no Aircon. It's only saving grace 2as that it was so reliably unreliable that I spent more time in better pool cars than in that hateful shitbox. The Vectra was an incredibly awful car.

[Gavin]

Best car is probably the current E class in the sense it does everything so well and is more than fast enough. (I felt like I aged as I admitted that to myself) with a possible 2nd place to my first decent car a 1989 AS GT which was when I was about 21 or so and just made me feel like a driving God after the 1.3 Maestro it replaced, fast, frugal, plastic boot and mahoosive Kenwwod 3 way speakers a a Kenwwod tape deck that ...wait for this... you could change the illumination from green to orange.

Worst - probably a Saab 93SS diesel. It was low miles, FSH and immaculate and I have never owned a car that made more trips to the dealer.

[Sundayjumper]

Is this purely based on reliability ? I've had a few cars that were reliable, but just awful at everything else.

Mazda6.

[Matty]

Are we talking "Best" as in, subjectively speaking as a car? If so....

Best? Probably my Up! GTi. 60mpg, pennies to run, well built, easy to drive/park, still has a few toys and just works every time. Even does motorway relatively well.

Worst? S1 Exige. Just broke down constantly, gave me a headache either through noise or anger. By the time it was finally fixed I just wanted rid.

[Gavster]

Is this purely based on reliability ? I've had a few cars that were reliable, but just awful at everything else.

Mazda6.

Any interpretation of ‘best’, whatever makes you happy.

When cars break down it makes the baby Jesus cry so reliability is one of the most enjoyable traits I find in a car. Even the cars which have been the most fun have been sullied by unreliability. I’d prefer a less fun and more stability in a car. I’ve got enough instability in my life already

[Gavster]

Are we talking "Best" as in, subjectively speaking as a car? If so....

Best? Probably my Up! GTi. 60mpg, pennies to run, well built, easy to drive/park, still has a few toys and just works every time. Even does motorway relatively well.

That sounds like my perfect car!

[Matty]

That sounds like my perfect car!

It's not my favourite car, but they are great. Guys like AutoPap and Jackal on Twitter rave about them being the best since sliced bread, even given their rather expensive fleet they own.

At £13k new, they were a bargain. Things have...changed a bit since so they're not the value they were
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 3304121887

[240PP]

Are we talking "Best" as in, subjectively speaking as a car? If so....

Probably my current A5 3.0Tdi then. It’s fairly quick but ok on fuel (45mpg average). It’s great on long journeys, I like the auto box, comfy, decent ride etc. I also think it’s a great looking coupe in a gunmetal type grey and 19s.

The car I’m most glad I owned is my S2 Elise.

[DeskJockey]

The worst by far was my first company car. The previous incumbent of my roles had a DCR Vectra, 1.7d with wing up windows and no Aircon. It's only saving grace 2as that it was so reliably unreliable that I spent more time in better pool cars than in that hateful shitbox. The Vectra was an incredibly awful car.

I learnt (officially anyway) to drive in one of them!

[Beany]

Best: Puma
Enough power to waken up the chassis but not enough to get you into trouble regularly even if you drive it wide open throttle everywhere, cheap to run day to day, looked good, drove wonderfully, especially on small back roads where you could take huge liberties and it'd flatter you every time.

Worst: Puma
Rust, rust, rust, rust, rust, rust, ate front end suspension components, which ate tyres, fuel lines perished after 20 years (!), Engine accessories (alternator, starter) died, not the finest in terms of NVH, could do long trips but wasn't it's raisin d'etre by a long sea mile.


I'd have another tomorrow

[dinny_g]

Best - C350 Sports Coupe

270hp, RWD, made a lovely noise and had it when 99 Octane Tesco fuel could be got for 85p/l with a voucher.
Loved that car

Worst - Seat Ibiza 1.4l

And only gets the worst tag because it died not long after I got it. But it was a lot of fun while it lasted. Had a hugely enjoyable blast through Ravi’s old stomping ground. The A590/A595 towards Wasdale. Foot to the floor the whole way. Carrying speed through corners but rarely exceeding the speed limit - it was a 1.4 after all.

I’ve liked all my cars really

[speedingfine]

Worst - 328i coupe

Thought it would be a worthy successor to the amazing E30 Das Beast 325i. Alas it was a lazy boring saloon car with two doors. It was very unreliable to boot and marooned my mates and I on the M6 at Shap while on holiday.

Best - Caterham 1600 obvs
Still got it and throwing some cash at it. Admittedly going off driving it in the winter months!

New exhaust planned and a carbon fibre seat is on its way. Yellow one was in pretty crap condition so not really a contender compared to the red one, but I'd still kill for its engine

[Rich B]

Worst - RX8. Not fast enough for the amount of fuel it drank. I never really connected with it and preferred my Navara that I had at the same time.

Best - any of the M cars. The e46 M3 did everything well and was cheap overall. The e92 M3 did everything a little better and was less cheap overall. The M2 does everything a little better still (apart from noise) but is far from cheap.

[Shlergen]

Best - Difficult, I really liked my Mk1 Mx5, Mk1 Octavia VRS, Focus ST Mk3 mit Mountune, Octavia Mk2.5 1.9tdi PD and my current Superb. Good at different things.

Worst - BMW 330i e91, as above lemon

[Jobbo]

I suppose technically my Alpina should be my worst, but despite rejecting it and getting my money back I did like it. So I’d say my Peugeot 205 or my Puma; both came with high expectations but felt like shopping cars.

Best was probably my original Audi A6 Allroad (hence buying another). But I have very soft spots for my Scirocco, Corrado and E39 540i Touring.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Best: E91 330i. Most reliable, cracking engine, practical, handles well, has great feedback. Had it 10yrs this year and have done about 75k - still seems insane to me to have had a car more than twice as long as the previous longest I've owned one. But it's just been so adept and feels so well built. It might not be as quick as the Superb or even the F20 125i we had, but it is soooooo much more enjoyable and involving to drive.

Worst: Clio 197. On paper far from the worst. But I just didn't get on with it and the typical French reliability just made ownership worse. Every other French car I've owned has been more rewarding to drive and you can kind of accept the reliability issues. Arguably the reliability was also worse than any other of the frenchies I've had, affecting more critical parts to the act of driving.

[Brannen]

Best is my current car, F20 125i. Although I wouldn't mind a change at some point, had it for almost 6 years now (longest I've ever had a car).

Worst is a toss up between my first 2 cars, 98 Clio or 01 Corsa. Both were pretty rubbish. The Clio was pretty abused as it was my first car! I don't know why I bought the Corsa, didn't really like it when I bought it from my neighbour at the time. Didn't have either for that long thankfully.

[drcarlos]

Best - 1999 Civic VTi (5 door MB, almost Rover 400), fun, fast and practical. Kept it for 3 years did 50k in that time and caned it everytime I drove it. It never needed anything more than servicing and consumables.

Worst - 2005 Fabia VRS Fast (surprisingly so as it was mapped) but if understeer was an olympic sport it would win hands down, ate tyres too and all because the PD130 and 6 speed box were heavy lumps in a small car. Also broke for fun, driveshafts, CV's, radiator, brake calipers, various broken wires (due to poor quality wiring) and gearbox all failed in less than 2 years of ownership (and it had over 9k spent on it as the main dealers in it's life before I got it so had been loved). Off loaded it for a supposedly poorly built Saab 9-3 which was not poorly built or unreilable.

[JonMad]

Tricky, not had anything I really hated and they were all good choices at the time.

Best?
306 Rallye, for doing everything fun and reliably for 90,000 miles, from track days and evo meets to 250 mile weekly commutes to Blackpool when I was working up there.
MX-5 for rwd shenanigans
CX-5 or Yeti as great family wagons

Worst?
My Skoda Estelle was probably the worst car I've owned, in that is was pretty crap and unreliable, but it'd be amusing to have one (that was reliable) now.
My Escort (1.8i LX, no less) understeered rather a lot, but it was my first warm-ish car so fond memories there.
My CLK55 kept rusting but it had a V8 and a comedic ability to shred rear tyres, so how could that be 'bad'?
My A8 was similarly V8 endowed and lovely for the job it was given (commuting up and down the M3) but it had a continual stalling issue that I never got to the bottom of (that the previous owner omitted to mention to me when asked about any issues). Got rid when it failed the MOT on a load of stuff.