What's The Worst Car You've Ever Driven?

Photo: VinFast

Cars are fun. Not everyone agrees, but those people probably aren’t reading a car site anyway. At least they can be fun. Let’s just say I enjoyed myself significantly more when I was tracking an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio than I did tracking a Toyota RAV4. Why was I tracking a RAV4, you ask? Because I have a weird job, and it was an important part of a comparison test against the Honda CR-V. I’ve also jumped a Camry for work-related reasons, too, but that’s beside the point. I don’t want to talk about having fun in cars.

I want to talk about bad cars. The ones that make you miserable. The worst cars you’ve ever driven. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for me, I haven’t had the chance to drive the VinFast VF8, the Fisker Ocean or the Cybertruck, so those of you who have will have to fill me in. Instead, I’m going to make a lot of people mad and say the worst car I’ve ever driven was a 1946 Beetle that Volkswagen let me take out for a spin on a press trip for a much less interesting car.

Am I being mean to a very old car that wasn’t built to modern standards? Sure. You can’t expect a nearly 80-year-old vehicle to drive like a Lexus ES, but still. It’s objectively the worst car I’ve ever driven. If I remember correctly, it had problems starting at first, so an employee had to get it going for me. The seat was uncomfortable. The driving position was uncomfortable. Shifting was a challenge. Visibility was bad. The brakes were bad. And when I got back, the door refused to open, so they had to send someone to help me get it open.

I’m sure it was good by the standards of the 1940s, but sometimes it’s better to leave things in the past. What about you, though? What’s the worst car you’ve ever driven? Let us know down in the comments.