Underpowered, slow, and going up hill in first gear. These are some symptoms of slow cars and I’ve driven a few.
So dear readers, What is the slowest car you’ve driven?
Give us your take in the comments section below. Like my high school history teacher always told me, “There are no wrong answers.”
My Take? Chevrolet Aveo. I had it as a rental from the Sacramento airport and I was terrified it wouldn’t be able to get to highway speed. In hindsight I realized why it was the cheapest rental on the lot, but it had solid gas mileage. I also advise avoiding crosswinds if you drive one.
Datsun Honeybee 210 back in the day. I was appalled at how utterly gutless it was.
I learned to drive a manual in a church parking lot on a B210, boy that was one gutless machine.
82 Datsun Sentra. Rental car, so maybe it had a governor
2005 Jeep wrangler 4 cylinder with automatic transmission. What a dog. Barely made it up our mountain in low. What a slow mover!
My mother’s 1947 Hudson Super Six
1967 Envoy Epic, even the wind would slow it down on a level stretch.
An old VW Beetle. It was slower than my 72 Honda 600 coupe that had 2 cylinders.
Renault Dauphine that struggled to make it up many of the hills in my hometown.
Volvo 145s, station wagon. Bought it used with 85k, ran for 50k more but never at more than a snail’s pace.
My Dad’s 1968 AMC Javelin 6 cylinder.
Mike C.: The first ‘learner’ vehicle my parents bought for me to drive. A 1964 International Pickup, ‘fresh’ from U.S. Forest Service duty, with a six cylinder and manual transmission. Based on the gearing, and its’ intended use in the forest, would barely hit 40+MPH – which is EXACTLY what my parents intended – bless their hearts..!! Still was in the ugliest USFS green and gray color scheme, and had the Service Number (to ID the vehicle) masked and sprayed over on both doors……….What a starter..!!
You showed a picture of it. I had a Mustang II and a Pinto. Pretty much the same thing.
Chevy Corvair
64 Corvair Monza had twin carbs and was “quick” off the line.
My first car was also the slowest car I ever owned.It was a 1963 Volkswagen that I drove my senior year in high school,1971-1972.I also had a motorcycle that I rode like I didn’t have good sense.That’s probably why my dad bought this car,which I ended up wrecking anyway.
1975 Ford Pinto. First car. 4 cylinder auto. I bought it in 1982 and couldn’t get her over 65 mph. Awful!
Must have had that gutless 1600cc lawnmower engine
The slowest car I ever drove was a 1982 Plymouth Horizon TC3 Hatchback with the 1.7 Liter engine with about 70 horsepower. I remember always having to downshift into 3rd gear just to make it up some very small hills. It did however get about 42 MPG on the highway.
My 1970 VW Beetle with an automatic transmission. Plus that car almost killed me twice, first on the Maryland Turnpike (I-95), when a gust of wind blew the frunk boot lid up and shattered the windshield, and one final time when the gas line separated from the fuel line and caught on fire.
A 1950 Chevrolet 4 door sedan. Also, a Desota Fluid Drive 4 door sedan.
Automatic 87 944
1971 Ford Pinto with a 1600cc engine. Glorified lawn mower on wheels!
My 1983 Mercedes 300D. The definition of slow.
61 VW micro bus
1930 Model A pickup truck.
My first car! 1932 Austin 7 2-door saloon. 45 mph downhill with a good tailwind.
A 1966 Mustang with a 6 cylinder. To reach 55 mph you better have a downgrade and lots of straight road. But with the pony interior and a full floor console, it looked real fast when parked.
1982 ford Escort,4cyl,auto, with ac,almost had to get out and push it uphill.
Mini-Cooper. Had to floor it to keep from rolling back the way we came on a none-too-steep little hill.
I had a new 1970 VW Karmann Ghia with air conditioning & automatic transmission. And it would never make it up any hill with the air on & not much better with it off.But it was still a very nice car a used one is now going for a lot of money.
1981 Plymouth Reliant. Pretty sure it would lose to a foot race lol!
3 VWs but the Renault Alliance was a close 4th
1975 Toyota Corolla. 0-60 time – about 4 minutes!
How about a motorcycle? I had a Honda 50 when I was going into Boston 10 miles ea day. I could start it in 1st or 2nd, didn’t matter. I had a 4 cyl Volvo 244 in the 80s and now drive a gutless Subaru Crosstrek, which I love. I don’t care if it’s 0-60 in a fortnight.
My mom’s 1976 Chevy Chevette the with a 1.4l sewing machine motor. I think my 90cc Yamaha dirt bike would have out run it.
My 1962 Chevrolet 3/4 ton, antique V6, 3-on-tree manual panel truck, with high 4, low 5 series rear axle gearing. Completely out of breath, bouncing off redline, valve floating at radar measured 62mph. The ’68 327 I installed did no better, was done at 57mph. Would yank a house off it’s foundations, but couldn’t get out of it’s own way. Such a cool body, wish I’d kept it.
FIAT 850 196? was very slow, it has to be the slowest.
I was blessed to drive some of the slowest cars ever created when I was a kid. Fiat 128 sedan that would redline and overheat at 55 mph. A ’73 Super Beetle that was dreadfully slow but at least cool to look at. My Dad had an Olds 98 Regency Brougham with the converted 350 diesel. That car would be outrun by school buses. And finally a VW Rabbit Diesel. Unbelievably slow. Loved them all.
It is a tossup between the 80 Plymouth Champ (70hp 1.4L/4MT) and the 87 Suzuki Samurai (63hp 1.3L/5MT). Neither could get up to 100 and 0-60 times were near the half-minute mark. But, they were both good on gas and the Champ was a car that I’d first seen as a high schooler, when my Dad’s boss gave him one ( wasn’t running) that he fixed up and gave to one of his brothers, who had a penchant for running cars into the ground. I think he spent $100 to get it running and my uncle drove it a couple years til he slammed it into a parked car. The Samurai, I just liked the way it looked- but it really couldn’t get out of its own way. Merging onto highways generally required me to downshift and floor it and hope I could fit that narrow wheelbase in between moving cars. Good times.
My slowest car was a 2CV Citroen with a 600cc /aircooled/ engine.
Gas mileage was fantastic. Sea sickness was the worse problem…LOL
1979 plymouth valarie. Unless you let it warm up ten min. Even in warm it would die around corners. I got pulled over . cop said i was doing 45 coming out of school. I laughed and said this car wont do 45 mph in a quarter mile. Lol lol
Early 80s Renault 4 in Italy
It is a three way tie
– Oldsmobile Fierenza automatic
– Ford EXP automatic
– Mercedes-Benz diesel sedan automatic
Slowest car ever. We bought my father in laws Honda Insight 3 cylinder ( I think ) but pulled out in to traffic and was like OMG I’m gonna die. We got rid soon after. Definitely a snail.
My wife, then finance’s VW Rabbit! Had a good laugh reading your line of 1st gear to go up hill!!!
VW Beetle my college bud had. We once got it up to almost 60 going down a long hill. And that was scary.
First gear uphill was a reality when I drove my ’87 Jetta up any steep incline. So slow, but good gas mileage.
Easy one, my grandfather’s Pinto back in the 80’s. It was a manual but still gutless!