This one was mine, a 1998 Mercedes W208. The nice things about it were the cool Mono-Wiper, the engine (supercharged 2,3L M111) and the seats that were perfect for my height. It had a terrible ASR system but came with a LSD, so it was lots of fun in the winter.
The not-so-nice things about it were that the ignition randomly would not recognize the key, a missing catalytic converter, two fist sized rust holes in the front control arms, rust all over the underbody and the absolute worst 6-speed manual transmission I have ever used.
It also had multiple alignments but it didn’t take long for the steering-wheel to be off-center again. You could see the tail end “crabbing” in the rear view mirror. There was something very wrong with it, which can probably be attributed to one of the 7 previous owners.
This isn’t even counting all minor annoyances like the frameless windows not lowering themselves when you open the doors (that was only a thing after the 1999 model year), the wind noise, the awful interior materials, the broken seat latch in the rear, the trunk lock not working… I could go on for an hour like this.
So anyways, what is the worst car YOU have ever owned?
It’s still so crazy to me how these generations of Jettas were either some of the most bulletproof cars ever made, or some of the most average ones. The mk4 ones with the 1.9TDI and the manual transmission that I see on marketplace all have AT LEAST 400 000km on them and un-matched body parts.
It’s a shame that they are all so worn now because they are truly amazing to drive. I drove my uncle’s mk4 with the 1.9 + manual and wow, the visibility in this thing is insane. His has ~200k km I think and it felt so tight for a 20 year old car. We had one with my family earlier too, but a burglar stole it and couldn’t drive manual and it was kinda wonky after sadly. The car was found a few days later at a Tim Hortons parking lot. These also look great in my opinion.
