Ever had a vehicle that was nothing but bad luck?
This isn’t necessarily the easiest question for the Hagerty Community to answer. Referencing Christine, a book by Stephen King about a 1958 Plymouth possessed by supernatural forces, is also an extreme case that has no peer. But how many times have you considered that your car might be possessed?
And even if the car didn’t wind up hurting you, have you ever felt like a vehicle “had it out” for you?
Personally speaking, many of my projects give the “I have it out for you” vibe on certain occasions. I know old cars have specific defects, either by design, with neglect, from poor repairs, or just due to the effects of time. But I had all four of those hit me in rapid succession: a failed window regulator, a collapsed engine mount, a leather re-dye job that didn’t stick, and a leaky power steering system.
Oh, and all of them crashed down on me in less than a week, and two happened at the same time. The window regulator broke as I was leaving the leather restoration shop. Saying goodbye to the owner cost me a pretty penny!
Running around town in 95+ degree weather with an open window was no fun, and the hot, sticky leather seats gave my clothes a dark blue parting gift when I got home. Maybe my car wasn’t possessed, but Essex Continentals are indeed plagued with bad luck from the moment they rolled off the assembly line. Thankfully, I don’t need this car for daily driver duties, so the moments of bad luck make its story more interesting. In hindsight, it’s even quite fun at times.
So let’s end this with a final call for your thoughts: Did you ever have a car that was nothing but bad luck?
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am enjoying reading these……Not a car, but a 1974 Ural Sidecar Motorcycle rig, a Russian copy of a WWII era BMW sidecar rig with a very interesting story. I ultimately nicknamed it the ‘anti-Christ’. I’m fairly mechanically inclined and these are basic units, I carried spares and tools galore but the number of times that thing stranded me were countless. Having to find my way home, get my truck, drive back, secretly hoping someone stole it by the time I got there, left the keys in it once. Then have to disconnect the sidecar, shoe horn it all into the back, bring it home and often enough to be frustrating as hell, have it fire up and run like a……well tractor. It leaked gas purposely from the carbs, called ‘tickling them’ to get it started. I popped the valve covers off and peered into intake ports and have never seen rougher interior castings, how that thing ran at all is a mystery. When it did, it could pull a stump out of the ground. It would go through anything including snow banks but that was usually because brakes were SO bad…….my palms are sweating just typing this despite a parting smile of recalling “flying the chair” around corners ..
John, you and several other contributors deserve a writing award. I’m rolling off MY chair here….
Not a car, a person . . .
Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet, gentle, well mannered, worked as a chef on yachts. Not a hot-rodder, even though he was gentle to machinery, vehicles hated him. He bought a gently used MB diesel, had it checked out first, mechanic said this is a good one. Next day, the “good one” spectacularly blew the engine halfway between Miami and Naples on Alligator Alley.
He bought a BMW R60/2 with a sidecar, low mileage, well maintained. Two days later, the engine died (bad crank). I replaced the engine for him, two days later, the rear end blew (and that’s the ONLY /2 rear end I have EVER seen die.) I found him a replacement.
Then it got worse. The yacht owner wanted to have his boat delivered up north, he took the motorcycle and tied it to the deck of the yacht (tarpaulin to keep some of the salt air off it). They hit a sand bar about 20 miles off the cost of Virginia, the yacht came to a sudden stop, the BMW didn’t . . . it broke loose and cleaned EVERYTHING in front of it off the yacht, including our guy the chef. They fished him out of the water, he was OK, the motorcycle is still in a watery grave somewhere in the Atlantic. Someday some scuba diver/treasure hunter is going to come across a BMW with a sidecar 20 miles off shore from the nearest land and ask “What the (insert appropriate adjective here) happened here???”
my ’55 Mercury gives me fits…it dies any time it wants….usually at the most importune times. My only regret is naming the car after my ex………..Christine.
One more and I’m done . . . a car that was bad luck for someone else and good luck for me.
Bought an absolutely pristine low mileage CLK 350 convertible at a very right price from a Honda dealer where someone had traded it in on . . . wait for it . . . a Honda Fit.
Who in their right mind . . . ? OK, it will be a mystery.
A year later I dropped a pen and it rolled under the driver’s seat. I reached WAY under there, retrieved the pen and a business card from a local massage parlor with a hand written note on it “Thanks for a great time, see you again soon, Bambi.”
Mystery solved. The guy got caught and his wife told him that he was going to trade that convertible in on a car with negative sex appeal OR ELSE and DO IT NOW. I guess he liked living, so he did.
Every time I see a Honda Fit, I say “Thank you Bambi, who ever and where ever you may be.”
My sister bought a new 67 T-Bird that appeared to have a sign on it saying hit me. She was never in the car when it was hit, it was parked, but she would return to a new dent. One hit caused the rear right fender to occasionally rub the tire so she made an appointment to get it fixed. The weekend before the appointment she flew out of town and when returning the cars rear right fender was it again causing it to bend in such a manner it no longer rubbed the tire so she canceled the body shop appointment. She gave up have the damages repaired and by the time she traded the car off it looked more like a prune that a T-Bird.
I sold my beloved 1986 Peugeot 505 Turbo due to the lack of proper French mechanics left in Toronto, and replaced it with a 1988 VW Jetta Slalom… pretty enough in Orly Blue, the 14″ VW mags plus a tail spoiler… but it lacked excitement (100HP), and on the occasions that we had snow, it was abysmal to drive. My wife and I enjoyed it, kinda, for a few years until everything started to go on it… I had a good mechanic located a block away from our house, for whom I paid for his swimming pool with that car. It seemed like a quarterly thing that there would be a $400 bill to fix something. Everything. Also, it kept getting in minor accidents (never my fault)… I.E. a dump truck crumpled the rear quarter at a light because the driver didn’t notice my car stopped there. Finally, with 155,000 km on the clock, as it was literally falling apart while I drove it, I traded it in at a VW/Audi dealer to get $2,500 off my URS4 Audi… which lasted me for 18 delightful years before I sold it to another appreciative soul (for $8,500!!!) I now have another Audi and a Volkswagen, with both of which I am smitten.
Our first new car in 16 years and our very first GM vehicle: an 85 Buick Century, V6, custom ordered, dark blue, heavy duty everything–except reliability. Took the dealer two years to find a persistent thump from the engine–a defective serpentine belt. Never did find the random electrical glitch that caused the lights to dim, engine to hesitate and the radio to go bonkers
Worse of all, within 18 months the paint started to crack and flake. Despite numerous requests to Buick, they wouldn’t make good on this new water base paint they were field testing on their customers. So we sold it to a co-worker and bought an Acura Legend which we kept for 18 years. Oh, within two months of selling it, the transmission died at 64k miles. It was our last GM car…
I bought a 1981 Corvette from a hunting buddy of my dad. It was in Wichita Falls, and I could not undo my seatbelt. Honked the horn, and the attendant offered me a knife to cut it off after trying for half an hour. It released just as I was ready to cut. I burned through all 4 tires on the way back to Ga. The computer fried itself, the suspension was crap. Mechanics expressed fear when they looked at it. The alarm went off only when parked, and at 3:00 AM. Had to be some nasty demons in that ride. I had it trucked back to Texas.
65 MGB – Such a nightmare I repress my ownership; can’t even remember how I disposed of it.
European delivery of two 600cc BMW motorcycles. First year of a new model. When my travelling companion bent his front fork tubes in a small crash, we spent June, July and August in a Munich campgrounds while we should have been touring. We waited for the parts they wouldn’t sell us – evidently they could sell more of these new models than they could produce so they weren’t about to squander some new parts to fix our problem. My machine had countless problems with handling, clutch, diff lube leaking on rear brake, carb flowing gasoline onto my foot, unopenable seat lock. Worst of all the ignition points would be burnt every 600 miles due to oil leaking around the camshaft seal. We also learned the bikes were hard starting in the cold since locals were calling it winter by the time we were finally able to get to Scandinavia. We experienced so much dishonesty and apathy at the source of BMW that I now often repeat my vow from back then: “I wouldn’t buy even a rollerskate if it said BMW on it”. The tale of my experience offends some fans of that marque. Sorry, not sorry.
1977 Lotus esprit. I don’t think I need to say anything else
My 1970 Fiat 850 Spyder, supposedly an advance over the 1968 model that I’d enjoyed, developed an insatiable appetite for waterpump shafts, replacement of mag (?) wheels (turned to chunks and dust on Ontario winter roads) and tires (Pirelli had allegedly sold Fiat a batch of improperly compounded tires). It was nice when it was running, I think. Fiat abandoned the North American market soon thereafter. You may recall “Fix It Again Tony.”
Oh my, where to start. Let’s see, chronologically? ’76 VW Scirocco, carbureted, fun when it ran, which was random and rare. The dealer actually removed most of the smog system just to get it to start and idle, apparently under some secret TSB, Volkwagen was cheating even then. Sold it after a year of not getting to drive it much. Replaced with a ’77 Camaro that blew a fan clutch, heater core, 2 batteries, AC compressor, rear diff seal, U-joint and a couple of wheel bearings, all in the first year and 7K miles. Replaced that with an Olds Cutlass, with sorry, the 5.7 diesel engine, need I say more? Under a year old, after spending most of the time at the dealer (I really liked the gasoline loaner cars), it hydro-locked and literally blew the heads off of the block, while idling in the dealer service drive. Olds bought that one back and the following string of GM A bodies were remarkably less exciting to own (then again, all were leased with a firm “goodbye date”). Fast forward a bit to an early 2000’s Chrysler T&C minivan. Properly named Christine, it would periodically start honking the horn, flashing the lights, running the wipers, spraying wiper fluid, playing the radio at full volume, while changing stations and locking the doors. Delightfully, while sitting in a parking space or my driveway (neighbors loved this one). The only way to calm the beast was to manually open the rear hatch, climb thru the seats and start the car with a key. That somehow reset the agitated circuits, until the next outburst. After almost 3 years with this insane vehicle, the dealer finally replaced the entire steering column, to solve a “spurious digital signal issue”. The good luck, all of the cars were still under warranty.
OMG Yes I’ve have a nightmare car before , a 1967 Austin Healey 3000 BJ8.
Never did find a new windshield and wiper blades for it, even in England and that Wit-worth thread hardware and tools were almost as elusive as any other part for it . The Snap on guy looked at me like I had a third eye when I asked about Witworth spec tools and even Fastanel had to order what ever hardware I needed .
The tools and whatever hardware I had went with the car shortly after and think I only kept that car for about 1 1/2 years before I found someone more adventurous than me !
About the only thing I was able to find commonly was oil , spark plugs and filters then I normally had to order the filters special . Don’t get me wrong now , it was blast to drive and show off but Man-O-Man what a bear to find parts for.
As fun as it was , I’ll never own another one !
My company provided me with a first year Taurus (‘88?) but with a 6-cyl engine. The first day I had it the power steering hose broke. I went back to the dealer to get a replacement but because that model was just introduced, there were no spare parts to be had at the dealer. They had to order it from Ford & would take a few days to get it in. As it was Christmas time, I was traveling from Boston to NY for the holidays. Because it was a leased car but not from the dealer, they wouldn’t give me a loaner. My only option was to buy a can of brake fluid & keep filling up the reservoir. From that point on, I had to replace 3 trannies & the exterior paint finish was completely cracked! The car was only 20 mos. old when I turned it in around 60K (end of fleet lease). I’m sure there were other issues that I forgot. Since then my daily drives have been Hondas or Toyotas.