The 10 Worst Road Trips You've Ever Been On

Boosted Boris provided the most in-depth road trip horror story of anyone, offering up a full blog post about his adventures with the Nissan Juke R. It involved driving for two days straight from Holland to Moscow, a complete car rebuild, and a quick hop over to Australia.

2. 1800 miles in a classic Opel GT

CTzen Boots N Trucks went through a hell of a lot with his 1969 Opel GT in order to see his grandfather one last time.

I once drove a 1969 Opel GT from San Diego to St. Louis (1800 miles)

In Payson, AZ, I developed an oil leak, bought a lot of oil, stopped the leak and kept going. In Amarillo, TX, I puked all my coolant. People there are super nice; a guy found me stranded on the road and gave me a ride to Home Depot so I could buy plumbing fittings to fix the car and the then called his wife and had her come pick me up and take me back to my car. Just outside Tulsa, OK, my clutch started to slip if I wasn’t careful. I suspect that this is because of all the oil I was leaking blowing onto it and soaking it. I lost 4th gear (it was only a four speed) somewhere around Joplin, MO.

Electrical gremlins raised their ugly heads right around Rolla, MO. Lost all gauges, taillights and ignition but the headlights still worked. Hot wired the car and took off again. 30 mins later lost headlights. Tried to hard wire them and ended up burning one out. Continue on with the one headlight, hard wired taillights and the car hot wired. Had to keep it running while refuelling. Flat tyre as I was pulling into the hospital.

It is because Opel made such an amazing car that I was able to make it in time to say goodbye to my grandfather (I actually got to have a couple of days with him which was another gift). While she may not sound like a great car with all of the issues she had, when you consider how hard I was driving her, and the long hard life she had lived and that she was purchased for $450, she fought like a champion.

3. Not feeling the car or the company

Having your mates along for a road trip can turn a mundane drive into a memorable experience. Switch your mates out for family members, and it can be rather less exciting, as Matticus Finch discovered. Especially if the car’s a bit of a dog!

I had to travel 7 hours with my 3 brothers 1 sister and Mom. In a Geo.

4. Volvos are safe... right?

Unfortunately, Jantjehoek found out the hard way that no matter how careful you are when buying a car, something can still go wrong…

Went from the Netherlands to the UK to buy a Volvo. I bought it, insured it, drove to the nearest pub to have dinner. After dinner I started the car and when we drove off the car sputtered a bit and after a few seconds big smoke and flames were coming from under the bonnet. In 20 minutes the glorious Swede burnt to the ground, taking some of the pub with it.

5. Proof bikers are more hardcore than the rest of us

Car drivers have the pleasure of knowing that if the weather turns bad at any moment, they’re pretty well protected. Not so for bikers, as proved by Jables TheEpic and his dad. Fortunately, they’re made of hardy stuff and shook off the misfortune like true bikers should!

After my brother’s college graduation, my family met up at Mount Rushmore, SD for a bunch of tourist stuff. Me and my dad decided to go to pick up shirts at the Hill City Harley Davidson shop. (It’s our tradition that on any road trip where we take our bikes, we get a shirt or two from dealerships along the way.)

South Dakota doesn’t have a helmet law, so we were wearing sunglasses and t-shirts because screw the jackets, it was hot! About three miles from town, a goddamn hail storm comes rolling in out of nowhere. And wearing only “protective” eyewear and t-shirts, we got pelted hard. It was like being shot by gravel fired from a constant air cannon. And every time I would open my mouth to scream because of the pain, I would get it in the back of my throat.

Soldiering on, we roll into town, looking like we just went through a sand blasting procedure, and poof! The storm stops. Gone as fast as it came. A very nice lady gave us some ice from her cooler to rub our wounds, AKA, the entire front side of our bodies. Then we went inside the Harley shop, got our shirts, and rode back to the group. And I’d do it again.

6. A deeply ingrained hatred for Saturns

Like any good petrolhead partner should, TheLittleAlfa was quick to reassure his girlfriend that her car hadn’t completely blown up when a little smoke appeared. Unfortunately, it wasn’t such a simple fix…

Last summer, I thought it would be a great idea to drive from Boston to Connecticut with my ex-girlfriend in her Saturn to go to an amusement park for a date. We made it 80% of the way there, and as we were stopped at a red light, her car started smoking. Since she isnt interested in cars whatsoever she thought her engine had blown, but in reality there was just a coolant leak. She immediately started to freak out and cry, but I calmed her down and we went to an auto parts store to buy coolant, and it was temporarily taken care of. We then had to stop every 20 miles or so to refill the coolant and let the car cool down the rest of the way there and the entire way back, turning a 5 hour round trip into an 8 hour pilgrimage. Because of that I now have an infinite hate for Saturns, even though they arent necessarily terrible cars

Sam Matthews has recalled the story of driving with his dad in a 1960 Bentley Continental S2 Flying Spur. The pair had to make it from Belgium to Goodwood, and the trip was all but plain sailing.

8. The little R32 that couldn't

It was a long drive, and a long walk for Jordan Ireland after his Volkswagen Golf R32 died on him at Christmas.

A few years back my (ex) partner and I were driving from Auckland to Wellington (NZ) which is about a 650km trip. We loaded up my R32 Golf with our things and set off. All was going well until we hit Levin 500kms away from home. I shifted down to pass a truck and when I put my foot down, nothing happened… so I slowed down and shifted down again and still no gain in rpm. We pulled over to the side of the highway and the car suddenly died and wouldn’t start again. Turns out my fuel pump had decided to pack it in. I walked for about 5kms before I found a garage that was open (it was Dec 26th and this was small town Nz) and they kindly towed my car back to their yard and let me keep it there until i could come back in a week’s time with a car trailer to pick it up. Absolute pain in the backside. Still loved that little Golf though, great car.

Buying an old car on the cheap and cruising across Europe is a brilliant way to spend a few weeks, and Jochem’s Gravemade did exactly that. He spent €300 on an Audi 100, and drove from Holland to Bulgaria and back… but not without a few issues along the way!

Last summer I bought an old Audi 100 Avant from 1985 for €350 with only one goal in mind. To drive from my home in the Netherlands to Bulgaria… and back! I only gave the car a tune up and changed a faulty wheel bearing. Needless to say we were ready for the road! Just getting there we encountered so many problems:

First the engine sputtered and died on us a few times. The engine sometimes would overheat which forced us to blow full heat in the summer. When we arrived at the Serbian border we were denied entry. The car overheated and we had to push the car over three hours back into Croatia. After a three hour sleep the car started again and we finally got to Bulgaria via Hungary and Romania (another 600km detour). When the car did die the only way to start it up again was to blow into the fuel lines and wait until it shot back in your face… and mouth. Yum.

All in all we made it and even drove it back home. I don’t know how our German lady with coronary heart disease made it after 6000 kilometres, but God do I love that car.

10. Getting lost is an adventure

Most days, getting lost is frustrating, but when you’re on a road trip it can make for some fantastic experiences off the beaten track. When BradHennessey‘s BMW could no longer make it uphill in the snow, he had to improvise, leading him to discover some lovely villages in the Alps.

Last summer I road tripped through England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Holland and Belgium. The trip was a huge success with one of the main highlights being the Nurburgring, however it didn’t all go to plan.

We were in the alps in Italy when it was time to move on and get to Germany, The Stelvio pass was the route we chose to get to Munich from where we were in Bormio. We started to climb to get to the start of Stelvio pass when light rain suddenly turned into a horrific blizzard! We were still climbing past 6000 feet when our RWD BMW could move no longer, we managed to turn around and headed back down as quick as possible!

Our 4 hour journey turned into a 14 hour one as we traveled south through the alps being careful of our altitude as at around 5000 feet the snow would fall. Our sat nav broke and we were saved by a little skiing map we managed to get from a little tourist office - the map wasn’t detailed but had crucial elevation changes marked.

To be honest I was glad this happened, we got to see some stunning scenery such as the little towns in the alps and the numerous vineyards. The whole trip was an adventure! I would love to tell you what happened in all the different countries however there is simply too much to say. If anyone is thinking of doing a European road trip…Go for it!

Check out all the original submissions here.