VW Vans just look like illicit drug use on wheels

What was the slowest car that you've even driven?
 

OK, this is my first thread that I'm starting for the new year, 2012, as well as my first post on CSS for the new year.

As far as the slowest vehicles that I've driven, or among them, would be a Chevrolet Chevette from the early 80s, one that someone rented, but I got to drive; so slow moving that it was frightening.

Some other very slow vehicles would be a couple of small GM vehicles with an Iron-Duke four-banger, in an X-car (Pontiac Phoenix that a relative owned) and a Buick Century (A-Body, I believe, which was essentially an extended X-Body), also from the 80s. There was not only slow, but very rough and unrefined, where the engine vibration would be transmitted to you through the steering wheel, and the harder you accelerated, the more intense the vibrations would get. The same would go for a Ford Pinto from the mid-70s, which a friend's father had, and this car was already several years old when he got it, slow and vibrations through the steering wheel, and the excuse was, "this is the price that you have to pay for if you want fuel economy".

A former girlfriend once had a late 80s Dodge Shadow (successor of the Omni and precursor of the first-generation Neon), and this car was a dog, too, not as much vibrations transmitted to the cabin and steering column, but very, very slow off the line, and unrefined.

Others I can say were a couple of Chevrolet Novas that friends had, and these cars were from the 70s, and were already old when they had them, and these had 250-c.i.d in-line sixes. These were surely weak off-the-line, but at least they did not vibrate like the 4-bangers mention in the above paragraph. Yet, I've driven some cars of he period with in-line sixes, and, though not tire-smokers, they did have adequate pep, and that would include a could of AMC models with in-line sixes. I've even once had a 1976 Dodge Aspen (Aspen, the car-range that succeeded the Dodge Dart - though this name is being reused for an upcoming compact that's succeeding he Caliber - and not the recent SUV that was a Chrysler counterpart to the Dodge Durango) and it had an in-line, slant-six that was a famous Mopar six (and these had great longevity), it wasn't fast off-the-line, that's a fact, but when in motion, it performed fairly decently, a smooth idle, as well as a unique engine sound where you also knew one driving up.

Others I can add to this were a couple of mid-sized, BOF, RWD GM vehicles from the 80s, which had the Buick Division-sourced V6 (likely the 231-c.i.d), which did not vibrate like the unrefined Iron-Duke 4, but were sinfully slow.

I learned to drive on my mother's 2000 Ford Econoline.....and it's a V6 rated at only 200HP when new.

Slowest I've owned was probably a 1993 VW Golf that managed a whopping 80bhp from a 1.8l engine and weighed far too much.
Was slower than my 60bhp Metro I learnt to drive in due to the weight.
I used to have to turn right across 4 lanes of duel carriageway and dodge the Dutch trucks tanking along at 90mph in doing so, think that Golf nearly killed me on several occasions.

Not slow but another memorable drive (for the wrong reasons) Was a FIAT Ducato 3.5tonne pickup with hydrolic bed. A vehicle that should not be FWD. Driving up steep wet Devon hills with the loadbed full was interesting to say the least

'02 Ford Focus 1.4 5dr, our current family car that we've had nearly 6 years.

Never driven or even been in a car that's had to be floored as much. Lovely cruiser though.

Hmm...Slowest car I've driven would probably be our '91 Volvo 240 wagon. It's sluggish but not terribly so. My dad's five cylinder GT Coupe is more responsive with its manual tranny but at times it can feel very slow. I haven't driven a grand diversity of cars yet, though.

Slowest was Lada Zhiguli 2106 when I was learning to drive. Switching into 1st gear was a real challenge, but you really learn how to drive manual.

Slowest car I've personally driven..Dodge Caliber.. the CVT is tremendously tedious, making it feel A LOT slower than it should.

Yugo. I was driving about 75 miles a day 5 days a week and was going to get something cheap to put miles on. During the test drive, I was nearly redlining the engine to keep up with traffic. Needless to say I did not buy one.

1958 Puch 500 (Fiat 500 with Austrian Boxer engine) - with 17 hp when new, non assisted drum brakes and only 3rd and 4th with syncro mesh a quite different way of driving. Not even close to quick, but given it weighs about nothing and lacks any isolaion, you still feel "fast enough".

Still quite lovely, even though with my 1,9m of height I was maybe a bit above what the car was forssen for driver size wise ;-)

Next would be a Ford Transit Pick up with a 3, something m high tent on the bed, and a 85hp Diesel. I hardly managed to keep up with traffic on a crowded city highway...

This is probably the slowest thing I've ever driven:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4062/5...57ece1cf_m.jpg

But since that's not technically a car, I'd go with my old Infiniti QX4...168hp in a 5,000-pound truck does not a drag racer make.

One of the cars I drove in driver's ed was a circa-1998 Geo Metro sedan. Oh my god. I remember trying to climb a freeway entrance on-ramp and just thinking that either (1) the engine was going to explode or (2) I was going to get rear-ended by an 18-wheeler.

Probably my Dodge Caravan.

My dad's got one (Dodge Grand Caravan) and the transmission is going, occasionally dies and free-wheels for a while before jerking back into action.

Here are some other slow vehicles I've driven, though not the slowest ever, but actually slow vehicles with V8s!

When I was very young, and towards driving age, one of our vehicles that we had a 1973 Chevrolet Nova, and with a 307-c.i.d. V8 (around 5.0L) with a 2-bbl. carburetor (remember those?) and a three-speed Turbo Hydra-matic tranny, that was already older at that time I drove. However, for a V8 mill, it was lethargic, and, I'll go as far as to say, a dog! It only had 115HP (SAE net rating) and it's two-barrel carburetor had a tiny throat, likely no more than 4" in diameter. I'm not clear as to what the torque rating was. This was not only slow-moving, but it was also a trouble-prone vehicle, and it even had a valve-tap, which was very typical of older Chevrolet-Division engines at GM. That may have also contributed to the result of the slowness.

Also, when I was employed with AT&T, for the employees, there was a terrific van-pool/commuter programs, and the fleet included full-sized Ford Club Wagons (passenger vans based on the Econoline range), and this is going into the 1980s. There was a 1984 Club Wagon that had a 351-c.i.d (5.8L) V8 and a 3-speed automatic, but I believe it was carburetor'd, and not F.I. These were driven by employees like myself, that had company driver's licenses (I later got one), and I remember some drivers stating that it didn't get out of it's own way. I drove it, it, though not the fastest, for a mill it's size, it had some torque going for it, especially in motion, but, it was so long ago.

After while, newer Ford Club-Wagons were added to the fleet (which also consisted of GM/Chevrolets and Dodge full-sized vans, and few then-RWD Ford & GM minivans for routes with lesser riders), and these then-new Fords had a large 460-c.i.d, (7.4L) V8s, possibly with F.I., hooked to a 3-speed auto (if I remember that correctly) which were an obvious improvement over the older vans with the 351-c.i.d. engine, moved much faster, but, were more designed for towing more than for speed, for, of course, this was a truck-based set-up.

I would believe that my record has to go to the Chevette that I mentioned upthread. I never drove a Yugo or a Geo Metro. I've ridden in Geo Metros/Chevrolet Sprints, tiny as all hell. I once rode in the back-seat of a 3-cylinder Geo Metro that a cousin rented, back in the late 90s, two cousins were in the front seats, and I was in the back with my girlfriend at the time. While driving, the diminutive car hit a bump in the road, and my then-girlfriend and myself, unbelted, were thrown up from the rear-seat and our heads bumped into the roof; a little experience that I had to share.

The GM vehicles with the "Iron-Duke" (later Tech-IV) four-bangers, that I drove, with their very lumpy, vibrating, obtrusive, and agricultural, noisy feel, rate close up there, too.

The Club Kombi

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...n/VECDemo5.jpg

Renault 4 Tl.

A Kia Pride. Where 100kph/60mph is forever to reach and feels like 160kph/100mph to some cars. hahahaha