[yankeedame]

Got this off of AOL today. Realize it's not "new" but still though an oldies it's still a goody! (Frankly I wounder by a Datsun B210 wasn't on the list. That sure would hve gotten MY vote!)

P.S. Not sure how to cut-and-paste a multipage article, so keyed this whole thing in by hand...So please forgive any typos and/or other techno boo-boos. Thanks!

[tacticalogic]

How can you have a "10 Worst Cars" list, and not have a Trabant on it?

[Mike Fieschko]

keyed this whole thing in by hand

wow, a true labor of love

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Not sure how to cut-and-paste a multipage article, "

If you're really interested in learning, let me know. It requires you to download one small MicroSoft utility and I could teach you in one lesson.

[shaggy eel]

,,, can't agree with the slagging given to Renault's R5 or "Le Car" as it was marketed in the US as. There were over 500,000 of them made for world consumption and they served their purpose quite well. The hot version, called the Gordini, was something I never had the pleasure of driving. From the time that model left the showroom floor it was a collector's item.

[Ford Fairlane]

I have to dispute the comments about the Gremlin. While admittedly UGLY, it was available with the AMC 360 V8 as an option. A friend of mine has one & loves to outrun kids in their Mustangs & Camaros. (The even UGLIER Pacer was also available with this engine)

[Bogey78O]

Datsuns were fun. My mom and dad owned one of the really small ones. For fun my dad and his friend would pick it up when my mom got in it. To get it moving he'd open up the door and push it like the Flintstones.

[BornOnTheFourth]

OMIGOSH, that's funny!

My first car was a 65 MBG, it was sooooooooooo fun--both days it worked! (right, Dad???)

[aomagrat]

I had a '71 Pontiac Firebird. It got about 5 gallons to the mile. It would overheat while cranking.

[AppyPappy]

My sister had a Volare Station Wagon

Yup

[GaConfed]

Just bought an 86 Cimmaron. Don't have any problems yet except it needs a new muffler. It will flat out get on up to about 80 mph in a great big hurry. Thought I was in a 67 Chevelle with a 396 there for a minute.

[Dialup Llama]

At Laguna Seca I actually saw them race, not the Chevette, but the model that was smaller. They went abt 80 mph.

[LibWhacker]

I remember the Fiat used to be called the Fiasco. Must've been for a good reason.

[Buggs]

Thank you for a good afternoon laugh! I drove a lime green pinto in college, and would have loved to have had that bumper sticker.

[Rule of Law]

What about any Fiat?

[general_re]

The B210? No way - my father bought one new in 1975, and sold it 13 years later, with well over 200,000 miles on it. For all I know, it's still running.

Ugly as sin, but just ran and ran and ran and ran. And that was with my father's idea of "maintenance", which consisted of changing the tires when white nylon patches started showing through, and changing the oil once a year, whether it needed it or not. You could have driven it through a minefield and it would have kept going.

[el_chupacabra]

Proud former owner of a 1979 Ford Fairmount -- engineered using nothing but 90-degree angles. A thing of beauty.

[GTXfan]

When I was in high school I had an 80 Dodge Aspen with a 340 4 barrel in it. That was a fast, and fun vehicle even though it had a slushbox in it.

[Francohio]

Boy, when Click and Clack are wrong, it's just tragic.

The Renault R5, aka leCar, was a brilliant little thing that got 40mpg and could cruise all day at 80. Click and Clack are nuts to put this little wonder on their list. This was actually a good car, just not for Americans. It's older cousine the Dauphine was an absolute dog .. but that should not prejudice people.

The Pinto could be a very sweet running car. It was built with good (mostly English, but some German) components from the Ford World Parts Bin. It was crappily constructed, but you know, they ran pretty good, and having no resale value, were definitely an excellent used car buy. Some tendency to explode when hit from behind, but for that kind of money, so what?

Nothing illustrates the wimpiness of the American Car Buying Public more than the universal disdain in which the YUGO is held. They were assembled in the old Yugoslavia on worn-out FIAT machinery, from a happy marriage of running gear from the 50's FIAT 126 and the 60's FIAT 128 engine and trans. They were a dirt cheap utility vehicle, overpriced at $3995 (Especially since Bricklin was buying them for $800 cash from the Commies.) But on the used car market, hey $200-300, and you got wheels, pal. Yeah they needed a little work, but if you thought of them as a "Car Kit" rather than a total car, you'd be all right. I especially liked the way little fuzzballs from the always orange/yellow/mustard brown upholstery stuck to one's clothes ... a badge of ownership, or shame. Parts were dirt cheap, what with the junkyards full of them, and the FIATS that shared their components. Equipped with TIGAR Radials, which were 50's-type Pirellis, the YUGO was actually a bit sporty. (TIGAR Radials, @$100/set of 5, including tubes, mounted and balanced, were dead-on perfect for my MGB's, too.) It's kind of sad that the 5-6-year Golden Era tradition of Yugoslavian car and tire manufacturing is over now. Oh yeah, the Yugo had one other attribute that made it a natural Balkan Best-Seller. It was, and remains the only vehicle an Albanian would not steal.

BTW,I just saw an AMC Gremlin Station Wagon in perfect condition. It looked darn good! So take it off this list of shame, too.

Other than that I, as usual, agree with the Magliozzi Brothers.

[Pres Raygun]

I saw a Yugo driving around Chandler, AZ about a month ago. Needless to say I was stunned.

[CTO XYEB]

How come no Eastern European cars, besides Yugo, made the list? They'd blow the competition away ...