worst car to do a roadtrip in
Discussion
This thread has been inspired by my current predicament.
Me and a mate are driving the entire length of Germany tonight, in a very dubious skoda something or other with a 1.3 sewing machine hidden under a rats nest of dodgy electrics and rodent droppings.
We just got past Frankfurt and the poor old girl has starting losing power and shaking under load-i think bad hip hop and a spot of Abba has traumatized it.
We just got overtaken by a goat farmer.
Anyone had considerably worse?
Me and a mate are driving the entire length of Germany tonight, in a very dubious skoda something or other with a 1.3 sewing machine hidden under a rats nest of dodgy electrics and rodent droppings.
We just got past Frankfurt and the poor old girl has starting losing power and shaking under load-i think bad hip hop and a spot of Abba has traumatized it.
We just got overtaken by a goat farmer.
Anyone had considerably worse?
Edited by matthias73 on Saturday 15th April 23:12
Did one of those organised runs around Europe a few years back in an E36 318i saloon. Would have been fine but it had a tendency to overheat repeatedly and the other cars were Evo's, Skylines and Bentleys so there was no way we could keep up. We canned it in the end, had a couple of nice days camping and then tagged on the return part back to the UK. Not a bad car to be in, but the fear of engine failure makes for a bad trip.
I did see an Eastern European registered Lada Riva the other day, driving that over must have been a barrel of laughs!
I did see an Eastern European registered Lada Riva the other day, driving that over must have been a barrel of laughs!
I've had road trip issues in a Skoda in the past also, we were trying to catch a ferry from Dover and were driving down from Aberdeenshire in my Volvo V40. We made it as far as The Horn and the timing belt snapped at high rpm and severely munching the engine. The sensible option would have been to rent something and keep going. Instead I decided that the car i wanted was an Octavia 4*4 turbo estate, the machine in question had a remap a smashed headlight and was up for 1500 quid, we bought it after 5 minutes of haggling and the worlds shortest test drive as we had roughly 7 hours to catch our ferry at this point.
Sounds good so far right?
I made a couple of booboos when checking over the car. I read the DOT as 0115, it was 1501, i assumed that the fun choo choo noise was an atmospheric dump valve, it was infact a partially torn diverter valve. I hadn't brought my code reader with me, and i assumed it's ability to throw the radio at you under hard acceleration was normal.
Half an hour south of Edinbrugh and I'd handed the keys over to my buddy who was the second driver for our trip so i could take a nap. We made it to the borders and I was woken up to this horrid humming noise. One of the front brake caliper had seized. Thinking fast I decided that we needed to keep going so grabbed the wheel brace, and prized the the caliper open far enough to not rub. I instructed my friend to not use the brakes and we continued downwards.
Approaching Cambridge and it was my turn to drive again, I got in the drivers seat, jammed my foot on the loud pedal and off we went... for roughly 30 seconds and the Check engine light comes on. Opening the bonnet showed that ignition coil 2 was now sitting about an inch higher than the rest. Easily sorted, pushed it back down again, and didn't use full throttle for a while.
We made it to the Ferry early (i was behaving officer, i promise) and boarded without much fuss. Upon returning to the car when we landed in France the battery had died, I bump started it leaving the ferry and decided that from then on that perhaps parking it on a hill was a good idea.
I'm a bit tired, tipsy, and need to go to bed, frankly I've gotten board of writing, but our 2 weeks climbing in France was greatly improved by the challenge of keeping that stupid car running and every day provided new challenges.
Enjoy your s
t car and the roadtrip.
Sounds good so far right?
I made a couple of booboos when checking over the car. I read the DOT as 0115, it was 1501, i assumed that the fun choo choo noise was an atmospheric dump valve, it was infact a partially torn diverter valve. I hadn't brought my code reader with me, and i assumed it's ability to throw the radio at you under hard acceleration was normal.
Half an hour south of Edinbrugh and I'd handed the keys over to my buddy who was the second driver for our trip so i could take a nap. We made it to the borders and I was woken up to this horrid humming noise. One of the front brake caliper had seized. Thinking fast I decided that we needed to keep going so grabbed the wheel brace, and prized the the caliper open far enough to not rub. I instructed my friend to not use the brakes and we continued downwards.
Approaching Cambridge and it was my turn to drive again, I got in the drivers seat, jammed my foot on the loud pedal and off we went... for roughly 30 seconds and the Check engine light comes on. Opening the bonnet showed that ignition coil 2 was now sitting about an inch higher than the rest. Easily sorted, pushed it back down again, and didn't use full throttle for a while.
We made it to the Ferry early (i was behaving officer, i promise) and boarded without much fuss. Upon returning to the car when we landed in France the battery had died, I bump started it leaving the ferry and decided that from then on that perhaps parking it on a hill was a good idea.
I'm a bit tired, tipsy, and need to go to bed, frankly I've gotten board of writing, but our 2 weeks climbing in France was greatly improved by the challenge of keeping that stupid car running and every day provided new challenges.
Enjoy your s
t car and the roadtrip.Chongwong said:
I hadn't brought my code reader with me, and i assumed it's ability to throw the radio at you under hard acceleration was normal.
Thinking fast I ... prized the the caliper open far enough to not rub. I instructed my friend to not use the brakes and we continued downwards.
ignition coil 2 was now sitting about an inch higher than the rest. Easily sorted, pushed it back down again, and didn't use full throttle for a while.
Upon returning to the car when we landed in France the battery had died, I bump started it leaving the ferry and decided that from then on that perhaps parking it on a hill was a good idea.
Thinking fast I ... prized the the caliper open far enough to not rub. I instructed my friend to not use the brakes and we continued downwards.
ignition coil 2 was now sitting about an inch higher than the rest. Easily sorted, pushed it back down again, and didn't use full throttle for a while.
Upon returning to the car when we landed in France the battery had died, I bump started it leaving the ferry and decided that from then on that perhaps parking it on a hill was a good idea.
Great stuff. What a collection of ridiculous bodges! It's heartwarming to know people still have such adventures!
BMW 120D!
When my S2000 broke down in Austria the other year, Aviva could only get me a 120D to continue my trip in. (Austria to Germany to calais)
Utterly hateful piece of turd!
Noisy (not n a good way), uncomfortable seats, awful ride, massive turbo lagg, but by far the worst bit... The steering, it was just way too light, it felt so numb and no feeling.
When my S2000 broke down in Austria the other year, Aviva could only get me a 120D to continue my trip in. (Austria to Germany to calais)
Utterly hateful piece of turd!
Noisy (not n a good way), uncomfortable seats, awful ride, massive turbo lagg, but by far the worst bit... The steering, it was just way too light, it felt so numb and no feeling.
Fast Bug said:
I drove to Vienna in one of these
Holy mother of god! I suspect the worst bit was trying to drive without being seen 
The only thing I can related to this thread was my weekly commute from Reading to Kent in my first car.. a Fiesta 1.1, 4 speed.. just 2 hours on the motorway in that thing was enough to make my ears ring and my arse numb.
I did that return journey once a week for 16 weeks until it lunched a piston ring on the M4. RIP you hateful turd.
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