What cars were you expecting a lot from and didn't deliver... mine comes from living in California.

I briefly had a Ford Mustang 5.0 1995 model in red, looked the biz, sounded great, but turned out to be bolux around corners, so I took it back to Hertz (long term contract rental) and got a Honda Accord instead which was much better!

 

Yup, similar experience when I was in california, had a 1997 model of the above, same, completely gutless and handling, nope.

 

I used to drive a ... Fiat 126 ...

It was free (used to be my nans :eek and only a fill in after i wrote off my first Mini and brought the next one...

Wasn't really much of a disappointment though, i expected it to be crap... and it was!!

 

Scooby ?

(Runs and ducks for cover)

Cheers

Ian

 

309 GTi

Fantastic car to drive, but the thing almost literally fell to bits around me. I swore to never buy another French car again.

Jerome.

 

Ford Capri Mk1. I really wanted one when I was younger ie about 17, but my mate got a 1.6XL or something and it was pure tat and about as exciting as painting a fence.

 

Porsche Boxster 2.7...

...overtyred, overweight and over here

Rannoch

 

Diablo (not sure what type) - Probably only because I was expecting so much for the wrong reasons.

Porsche 944 - had it in my head it was a super-car

Integrale - I only drove my first one about a year ago and was absolutely gutted. I had spent most of my adult life dreaming about driving one. But... I then drove an Integrale EVO and was blown away by it, so it all worked out ok in the end!

22B (first few I drove I hated, then rsquire came along and provided the best Impreza i'd driven. Since then I've driven a few more and disliked them except for chuckster's which is a (can be) great car (if he'd just have the bump-steer sorted!! )

As with the other topic on the more positive side, I am sure there are more.

Cheers

Simon

 

Escort Cosworth

I had a ride in one. It looked really good but felt so slow might have something to do with the 18 inch wheels. It was fairly standard engine wise bar exhaust and filter

Mark

 

Austin Princess...

Uncle had one and it was like a wedge of cheese, used to wear dark glasses & hat on the school trip.

 

Best get your backside in my passenger seat then!!!!!!

Shaun.

 

Audi S4 & S3 - Over engineered
BMW E36 M3 - 321bhp successor to one of the finest handling cars ever (E30 M3) Expected so much, missed by so much
Lotus Elise - again expected so much, great chassis, but seemed so gutless
Escort Cosworth - BIG reminder how much technology has moved on in 10 years

 

Audi S3. Terrible gear box and generally far too 'polite' to have some fun in.

Otis.

 

It really galls me to say this, but it would have to be a Testarossa. Unless you have very short legs and long arms, you'd never be comfortable in one. At 6ft 3" I struggled just to dit in it! Steering is/was appalingly heavy and gearshift just pants.

Did sound great though.

Matt

 

Last post should've read "sit", obviously!

 

Porsche 911, it was a 3.5 non turbo 1990, but I was gutted. It was a liability over 90 mph, all over the place.
After years of dreaming I felt robbed.
I'm sure a new turbo would be better !
It was my mates colleagues who left the car with him for 2 weeks to ' look after '
The Falkon tyres were.......interesting.
Andyp

[This message has been edited by Andy Porter (edited 20 February 2001).]

 

After I'd just written off a Nissan 200SX in 1997 while trying to avoid a dog, the insurers lent me a Rover 100.

Scared the cr@p out of me driving it back on the motorway - felt exposed and vulnerable (especially as I'd just written off a car as well).

I had no idea that a modern car could be so bad.

[This message has been edited by AWD (edited 20 February 2001).]

 

Scooby Pickup 2.2.....WTF

Megana coupe.......vvank

 

Have to agree about 944s -- nice looks, nice handling but no character at all.

My all-time disappointment was a mate's JPS Esprit Turbo. He'd spent a fortune on it (like you do) and it was a pain to drive. My size 10s didn't fit in the pedal box, and the lack of go below 3500 rpm & turbo lag was unbelieveable. Maybe you got used to it but every throttle input needed about 2 seconds warning before anything happened.

 

I thought that the 944 turbo wasn't bad (250BHP). Can't say that I liked the looks though - very dated.

 

AWD -- never drove the 944 turbo, just the NA 170bhp S2. Felt very flat. Of course, if anyone's willing to lend me a turbo, I'd happily give 944s a second chance ;-)

Once had a very quick go in an '81 911, non-turbo. Weird -- pedals, steering column at an angle. Like to have another try ...

 

The pedals are off-set on Porsche 911s. This is made more extreme if you are used to driving a car like a BMW which has its pedals off-set the other way.

Last time I tried a 911 I was driving a company 318is - and the change of pedal off-set from one extreme to the other made it feel very uncomfortable.

 

AWD -- spot on. I had a company 320 for a while but didn't like the pedal offset or the non-adjustable column ... couldn't get comfortable in it. Oddly enough, replaced with a Mondeo Si, which I preferred driving ....

 

I must say the MY00 Scooby after having the MY98 what a let down. The MY00 had very bad hesitation problem the car was sooo slooow. Also Subaru cannot fix the problem.

 

Not sure that I had particularly high expectations of either, but two spring to mind:

1. The first hire car that I had in the US - a Ford saloon of some sort back in the 80's, laughingly called a "compact" but larger than a Granada, with a 3 litre engine. An 850cc Mini would have left it for dead! Should have known, I guess, as the speedo only went up to 80mph.

2. My Dad's Allegro. Nuff said!!!

 

Disappointing - my mother's XR3i, which started rotting away when it was less than 6 years old!!!

I really can't understand the negative comments about the porsche 944. I owned a 2.7Lux for 18months and drove a 3.0S2 (which are 211bhp BTW, not 170). In standard 2.5Lux guise, it's no fireball agreed, but in terms of handling, feel of controls and build quality would rate them very highly.

Gary.

 

Shaun

Tell me next trackday you're at and I'll be there to experience the real deal!

Mark

 

Golf GTi & Pug 205 supposedly the definitive hot hatches... until you drive the little known Fiat Strada Abarth 130TC which makes them both feel like repmobiles.

Audi TT and S3.. oh dear , seem to have little in the may of feedback . The TT seems to have better steering but is still a bit vague. S3 had most horrible brakes I've ever encountered . Very odd springy weighting to them and all on nothing , like switch ..oh and that gearchange like a tractor.


AllanB

 

'97 Toyota Celica GT

On paper 177 BHP sounded good, was pants - even a Fiat Marea Weekend spanked it. All show, no go.

'71 Pontiac Firebird 6.6L

Sure, was a firebreather (no pun intended) in it's day, but a bag of ****e now. Heavy, slow gear change.

 

Escort Cosworth - big turbo - so unreliable in the electrical department