Many of us dream of owning that perfect classic car we can spend hours and hours wrenching on, then get rewarded with an unrivaled driving experience once we are done.
Sadly, it isn’t often that we achieve the optimum balance between wrenching and driving, most classic cars need attention, all affordable classic cars need constant attention. In some special cases, the pain is worth the pleasure, but more often than, it just isn't. There are certainly bargains to be had, but in the case of these 10 cars, if they are selling at a bargain price, it is best to leave them well alone.
10 Lancia Fulvia Berlina
The Berlina is a pretty car, but if the body is straight and there isn’t any rust, the prices will go sky-high.
The only other way they will stay affordable is if they have a few mechanical problems, and with these tiny V4 engines, even small problems can quickly turn into costly frustrations. For most, the Coupe is more desirable, more fun to drive, and generally worth the fuss. If you want to deal with the fiddly V4, best get one of them.
9 Triumph Stag
British sports cars can be really fun little cars to drive, sadly most of them were made by people who just didn’t really want to work in the labor force.
The result is more often than not shocking build quality, the odd leak and spot of rust is understandable, but the glaring engineering flaws are not. The Triumph V8, in particular, did not like life much, and would commit suicide on a regular basis.
8 AMC Pacer
Unsure if we even should call this particular pile of ugliness a classic, but since AMC went the way of the dodo, pretty much anything they made is getting classic status. Initially, the little Pacer was conceived as a rotary engine car (bless them) but understandably, they backtracked on that idea.
So they had to find a way to squeeze their inline 6 (their only non-V8 engine) into a small engine bay, this resulted in limited accessibility everywhere, and pretty much no accessibility to two of the six spark plugs.
7 Triumph TR7
When it started its life out in the UK, it looked pretty good, a fun little wedge of a two-door sports car.
It was sadly a child of the malaise era, so when it arrived in North America it got uglier to meet safety spec, and slower, to meet emissions spec. By 1984, Triumph was dead, thanks in no small part to this little gem.
6 Alfa Romeo Alfasud
Famed for returning to the earth faster than a discarded piece of a Saturn 5 rocket, finding one that is still whole will in itself be a commendable achievement.
Simply finding one does not mean you should purchase it though, with a now rare flat-four engine that is difficult to access at the best of times and wiring that was seemingly cursed by an in-house witch, these cars are not usually worth the effort.
5 Trabant 601
In some ways, this little car is a hero, providing cheap transport to generations of Eastern Europeans who had no access to decent vehicles. In others, it is the villain that kept punishing generations stuck with this as their only car option.
It is, in a word; awful. Hopelessly underpowered and constantly falling apart, needing repair or rebuilds far too often, the two-stroke Trabant engine proved to the world why the two-stroke was not suited to cars.
4 Lotus Esprit
Pretty much every single Esprit is gorgeous, designed by Giugiaro while he was at Italdesign, it is a classic wedge of the 80s.
It was also a solid performer but could be a deceptive bargain, firstly they were made of fiberglass but had rust-prone metal frames. Looking toward the engine bay, you will notice accessibility is another issue, the winner though is the fact that Lucas supplied all their electrical components. So diagnosing electrical faults is both a challenging and frequent task.
3 Citroën DS
Its main claim to fame was its hydropneumatic suspension, it was also its Achilles heel. Early cars shipped with hygroscopic fluid leveling the car, so over time, the moisture would cause corrosion and eventually failure.
Nothing looks sadder than a DS lying pancaked on the floor. Fixing this is a major challenge, as the entire car relies on the fluid to flow smoothly to operate properly, one small hole or busted seal means you will have an impromptu low-rider.
2 MGA Twin Cam
Although the MGA now has a known fix, it is still a major gamble buying one of these cars, as the likelihood of them having been rebuilt several times is very high.
It is therefore most likely you will be inheriting a rat's nest of problems. The key issue was the fact that at a certain rpm, the fuel in the stock carbs would froth the fuel, leading to a host of different issues including plug-fouling, piston burning, and naturally, catastrophic failure. Changing out the carbs is a benefit of hindsight, but knowing what happened along the way is virtually impossible with cars this old.
1 Jaguar XJS V12
How the Jaguar E-Type evolved into this mess, nobody will ever know. The lovely British sports car had turned into a long, heavy land yacht.
Keeping these monstrosities going is a full-time job, with the big grandfather clock of a V12 always going out of tune, and even with it in tune, it hardly made enough power to make the car fun.