The Pinto was the worst, exploding gas tank and all.
I remember a comedy short where a guy in a pickup barely tapped the bumper after a valiant attempt to stop, and after hitting it you saw film of some nuclear test.
I'm not kidding: I drove a 1973 Ford Pinto Wagon through college. I bought it with 78,000 miles on it and proceeded to put about 150,000 over four years on it myself. Drove the wheels off that thing.
Ugly as sin, reliable as all hell. Had the 2.0 Liter 4 banger in it with a 2bbl carb. The only things I ever had to do to it was replace the timing belt 3x, alternator, water pump, battery, brakes, tires, plugs and wires. All normal maintenance for a vehicle with so many miles.
Sure it was nothing special to look at but it got great gas mileage (which I needed at that time) and best part of all: I could work on it myself easily.
BTW: it was the Hatchback and Glass Hatchback models that had the fire risk when they got rear ended. The wagons didn't have that problem.