Here Are The Most Disappointing Cars You've Ever Bought

2015 Tesla S. I really wanted to love that thing, but the constant repair issues ruined it for me.

It became a game of whack-a-mole: A failed MCU which saw me stranded by a rebooting car on at least three occasions, seven door handles (yes... seven), an autopilot that would randomly turn on and accelerate, and two sets of failed headlights — all under about 50,000 miles.

The last straw was an issue where the drivers-side rear door wouldn’t stay latched - you’d close it and it would just open itself again.

I probably just got a bad example, but Tesla was ruined for me forever.

Submitted by: Bongo

And...

Ahh, quality!

Submitted by: Big Block I-4

In 2012 I bought my first BMW, a CPO 2009 328i (E90) xdrive with a stick. This was not my most disappointing car, and in fact was possibly my (so far) best automotive purchase ever. It had low miles, had space gray metallic paint, and was the apple of my eye. I loved that car. The xdrive handled MN snow like a champ, and my wife and I would look for excuses to go tear around in the snow in winter, and on long drives in the summer, taking corners with glee. It was spartan on features, but I felt more connected to the car when driving it than any car since. 18 months into owning it, I got t-boned in an intersection by a woman in a Taurus who ran a red light, and my baby was totaled. I went to the BMW dealer and bought a new, manual, 2013 328i (F20) xdrive. It was everything the 2009 wasn’t; it had electronic steering that hardly felt like I was actually driving the car. It had whiz-bang features that did nothing for me, and was comparatively awful in the snow. It had more power, but was less fun. What a disappointment that car was. I still pine for a fun space gray metallic BMW.

Submitted by: threeserious

And...

Bought new 2017, way below MSRP.

I really wanted to love it, E9x was my dream car for almost 10 years.

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#savethemanuals

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Bought winter tire-wheel set, ready for many years of joy.

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it was a 340i, plenty quick, excellent adaptive dampers ... but that steering. It had a surprisingly large dead zone on-center. The resistance does not build naturally through a turn. I took it to multiple twisty mountain roads. It almost ruins the fun roads. I thought maybe it was me. Nope. Almost any other car is more enjoyable through the same roads. This car is only fun over 80 mph. It has amazing fuel efficiency considering the power. Sedans can be terrible. I sold it a year later at a big loss. I have never felt relief after selling a car, until this one.

Submitted by: DLu

2004 Dakota SLT+, 4wd and crew cab.

Only had about 120k miles on it when I bought it in 2016 just before a cross country move.

I sold it by the following summer. There was a coolant leak I couldn’t track down (probably, but not verified to be a cracked head) and the solenoids in the transmission kept throwing codes, leaving me with only 2nd and 3rd gear. Not even looking in to the cracked head, the transmission issues were going to run like $2k.

I genuinely loved that truck, but the fixes were going to cost more than it was reasonably worth. I traded it in at a dealer in the rare gap in time that the check engine light didn’t come on and after I had topped off the coolant.

The next vehicle was the extreme opposite, a Ford Fiesta. That thing was way more fun than it should have been and got nearly triple the gas mileage, which means since I travelled for work the car was paid for within a year.

Submitted by: IstillmissmyXJ

And...

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2006 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab I owned for a few months in 2009. This one. The one in this picture. The only picture I have of this vehicle. A vehicle so utter forgettable that I forgot I owned it for a year when it popped on on my Facebook feed on the 10th anniversary of me posting the picture right after I bought it. It was bland. It burned through front brakes far more quickly than it should have. It rode like a motorboat, and there was zero aftermarket support to alleviate that. I couldn’t get rid of it fast enough

Submitted by: Along with Martin, Dutch Gunderson, Lana and Sally Decker

A 1989 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe, purchased I believe around 1994. It was, for the time, a beautiful automobile, quite fast and handled well. It also shed parts like nothing I’ve ever seen. From water pump, steering rack, electrical issues, radiator, air conditioning, things would fail faster than I could get them repaired. A Lincoln mechanic friend of a friend finally told me, it’s a Ford, the parts we put on aren’t any better than the ones we take off.

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Submitted by: J-Bodybuilder

2019 Chrysler Pacifica Touring Plus with the S Package.

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Bought it lightly used November 2022 with around 60k miles, had full maintenance records and had clearly been taken meticulous care of as it looked showroom inside and out. I was a little concerned it was going to be a gamble, but knowing Mopar minivans, I figured given the maintenance history, it would be a solid van.

It now has 85k miles. In that short 25k miles, it’s needed:

1.Brakes on all 4 corners.

2. A complete suspension rebuild.

3. Lost an EGR valve that ended up leaving it bricked on the side of the road.

4. Had the AUX battery kill the main battery without warning, again leaving it bricked on the side of the road.

5. Lost it’s rear head gasket due to the terrible engine bay design on these that causes them to run excessively hot.

Turns out the Pacificas are utter shit. Now I’m stuck with a van I can’t drive because it needs a $4k+ repair that won’t actually be a permanent fix.

Submitted by: ThatVanGuy

My wife wanted a Benz SUV back in the day, and I was too much of a BMW fanboy to ever consider a Benz of any kind. Anyway, we decided to get a lightly used, fully documented / maintained 2002 Benz ML 320. Also, these MLs were used in the original Jurassic Park movie, so it somewhat “justified” the “cool” SUV for our personal use. To keep it short, it was a piece of shit. Even in AMG form, they were still pieces of shit. My next Benz I bought for her, right after the ML was a W211 Benz E500 / E550. Was a good looking sedan that was an excellent daily, very comfortable. But became more expensive to maintain than my B6 Audi S4 at the time. I ultimately converted my wife to BMWs, with an awesome E83 X3 (M-sport & 6-speed manual) and we haven’t bought a Benz since. MLs were terrible !

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...I quoted the wrong Jurassic Park. Thanks for that. Still, we bought the Benz because it was once a movie car :D

Submitted by: Da Car Guru - 15,000 RPM daily driver

And...

These were not in the original Jurrasic Park movie—they were were in Jurrasic Park: The Lost World. Basically Jurrasic Park 2. Jurrasic Park primarily featured two vehicles—square headlight Wrangler and the boxy 90's Ford Explorer.

Submitted by: Wierdisgood

1970 Ford Galaxie 500 conv. bought in 1992

...nope just floor vents

Submitted by: 4jim

And...

But, did it have Air Conditioning?

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Submitted by: IstillmissmyXJ

For me it was a 1995 Ford Escort wagon that I bought off of a mechanic.

The issue was the former mechanic owner did things to hide issues the car had Such as varying the tire pressures to hide an alignment issue) that I discovered not long after. And the stuff the previous owner did do, was done in the cheapest way possible.

Still it wasn’t TERRIBLE as the mid 1990s Escort was still a decent design... just not as good as I anticipated it would be.

But that experience caused me to prefer used cars NOT being sold by mechanics.

Submitted by: Manwich - now Keto-Friendly

A Pontiac Firebird, it didn’t pull any tail in the trailer park I lived in, should’ve gotten the V8 I guess.

Submitted by: CitronC

Daewoo - but not for the reasons you might think.

My wife and I bought one Brand new in the year 2000. Daewoo was a globally successful Korean Car company that had made the move to try the US Market.

My Grandparents had already owned the bigger Sedan for a year, a close family friend was working for a dealer and I had heard nothing but good things about the brand.

We picked up a brand new top of the line Nubira Wagon, leather, sunroof, etc, etc. The car was great for our needs, we took it on a few road trips, my wife used it for some volunteer work, etc.

about 2 years into owning it an oil leak developed that should have been an easy warranty repair. The problem was Daewoo USA had declared Bankruptcy and the Chrysler/Daewoo dealer was your typical stealership style dealer who cared less that THEY sold me the car with a warranty - they did not offer to help in any way, just showed me the door(they went out of business btw). Since Daewoo was faltering they denied me any help. I had one mechanic say it was a oil pan gasket - then it took use weeks to find one. Once installed the oil leak was not fixed. I am still not certain what the issue was, maybe a seal?

Other than the leak the car was great.

The leak would not have been a big deal if it did not drip onto the exhaust and create a nasty oil burning smell.

We could not live with that smell, the car had to go. When we offered it as a Trade-in the first dealer offered us 1k, the second offered 2k.... we owed 10k on the vehicle.....

Finally we found a used 2000 Chevy S-10 Blazer (86k miles on the vehicle) at Paradise Chevrolet in Ventura, CA. They offered us 4k for the car and we dumped the rest of the owed money onto the loan for the Blazer. I will be forever grateful to that dealer as they offered some great service for a minor issue that came up on the Blazer after we bought it.

On the complete opposite side of this conversation my wife and I drove that Blazer until it had 255k miles on it and sold it for $3400. Outside of a Transmission rebuild that was the most reliable and one of the best vehicles I have ever owned.

So the worst vehicle purchase of our life lead us to the best one.

Submitted by: klurejr

1st gen Nissan Versa. It’s not like I was expecting much from this bare bones economy car. We needed a cheap reliable car so we bought one used in “good” condition with lower miles. I was still under the impression that Nissan was a reliable brand, and didn’t get the memo that it had gone down hill in terms of quality. It was one problem after another.

Submitted by: ShaneB

2002 MK IV GTI VR6. Bought in 2002 brand new, traded it in 2004. So many issues in that short time and just a 2 year warranty. I had no interest in owning it without that safety net. ( not mine but close enough)

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Submitted by: Tacofan

2013 Nissan Maxima. Only non-GM car I’ve ever owned, only car I’ve ever had severe mechanical issues with. Entire engine had to be dropped and replaced 3 months into ownership and the car was never the same after that. Also, the CVT was awful.

Submitted by: Cam

2000 VW Eurovan Multivan. Yes, it was great on so many levels (good packaging, the club style seating with the flip up table, the fold down rear bench turning it into an instant mini-camper, small footprint with lots of space inside, good road trip mobile). But I sold it after about a year and 20K miles because I really didn’t want to live the post warranty VW life after spending an inordinate amount of time at the shop with it during that time.

My sister in Germany had the same van, but with the big turbodiesel instead of the VR6 we got here. That thing was even neater (we didn’t know about the emissions cheating at the time), with insane torque (she towed big ass horse trailers without breaking a sweat) and even more insane efficiency. But she had the same issues I did (lots of electric bugaboos - they skimped on everything back then).

Submitted by: G42dog