“1984 Jag XJ12 – my neighbor bought a new one. I remember it being towed out of his garage about once every two months for the first year and a half he owned it. Lots and lots of repairs at the dealership. The straw that broke the camel’s back for him was when the gas tank rusted at 18 months. Gas leaked onto the sidewalk and firefighters responded while he was at work. It disappeared after that and was replaced by a new BMW 5er.

“At the same time, my other neighbor had a then new (1984?) Alfa Romeo GTV6. It was beautiful and it sounded good, and it was also generally broken. I remember the air conditioning compressor loudly and publicly killing myself the first month he had it, one summer in Philadelphia in August. It went to the dealership for 5 weeks. After that the exterior trim fell off and the power windows stopped working, he developed a hot hard start problem and the gauges intermittently did their own thing, unrelated to reality. His garage was open to the street, so I knew when the hood was up, and he had some serious art with swearing. This car also disappeared in about 18 months.

“The ’77 Rabbit we bought new was a miserable piece of shit, with exhaust valve issues and a myriad of brand-new electrical issues. And no A/C, the puking brown basket weave cheap vinyl seats would burn the vinyl design directly and painfully into your thighs after sitting in the hot beach parking lot in the summer sun.This is a mistake you would only make once a year, on your first trip at the beach with the family.

Three good suggestions of three awful European cars. It’s pretty unlucky to end up surrounding yourself with three big piles of junk, but we pity you.

Suggested by: edvf1000r