10 Worst Cars of All Time

thestreet ^ | 6-2012 | ted reed

[Army Air Corps]

That Porsche looks sweeeeet.

[doug from upland]

Cute but this was pretty much a piece of crap.

[KYGrandma]

It also had a French transmission that was the pits. My sister had so many problems with her ‘74 Mustang. A Ford engineer told her to get rid of it.

[nascarnation]

Some GM engineer (who probably still works there)

No, we're all retired now.

That program was done 35 yrs ago.

[Darksheare]

An accident in small cars like the Yaris, Isetta, and Smart car one would become a new automotive term: Seat Pizza.

[BwanaNdege]

That’s why Ziebart was invented!

[publius911]

now I’ll enjoy my revenge for the remainder of my life. I don’t care what the cost is ... I will never buy another American car.

I have not bought a new American car since my '74 Pinto. I loved that car. My ex-wife, who knew that she was a good driver totalled it.

My next car was a '77 Civic which lasted until 1990 when my daughter left for college.

What sealed my permanent anti-American car choice is the number of REPEATED (and ongoing) abuses by Union Thug workers drinking beer, doing drugs and lounging at coffee bars doing crossword puzzles from ALL three major manufacturers during lunch breaks and while on the clock!

Even the paternalistic Japanese culture would not tolerare such abuse from any worker more than once. As do I.

Add to all that the fact that before a GM car starts to be assembled the buyer (me) already owes $1300 to cover overinflated pension and health benefits to the army of losers, and the non-deal is sealed.

[basil]

It’s hard to realize, but I bought that car more than 50 years ago—LOL!

[basil]

It’s hard to realize, but I bought that car more than 50 years ago—LOL!

[razorback-bert]

Hmmm, that could have been part of my ex’s Vega’s problems, blew head gaskets right and left. Finally it coughed, stopped on a hill and water and oil just ran out the exhust, last time it ran as far as I know.

[publius911]

Who the F thought that it would be a good idea to have the instrument panel at the dead center of the dashboard.

That's an easy one to answer. It's the internationalization of industrial products. Cars, specifically, are extra sensitive to the bean-counting influence and bottom-line design.

Half the world drives on the "wrong" side of the road, and a center instrument pod solves the left-side-right-side driver position problem.
Although with electronic instrumentation there is no extra cost, any more, to run wires to the proper side of the car together with the speed and RPM displays.

[Army Air Corps]

Seat Pizza.

I am stealing that.

[Army Air Corps]

I am reminded of the relocatable instrument “pod” of the Rover SD-1. All the instruments were in a single pod-like unit; this made it easy to build a car for left or right hand drive because the dashboard was the same on left or right-hand drive models. The factory just had to bolt the pod to the appropriate side of the vehicle.

[Army Air Corps]

True enough!

[Darksheare]

LOL, steal away.

[razorback-bert]

My ex had one of those too, the electric windows would go down on their own accord, we came out of the grocery store in a rain storm to find the car soaking wet. Mercury could find nothing wrong, they dried it out for us. Got rid of it when we took a long trip in summer and all the windows went down and wouldn’t come back up, three days later coming home they deceided to go up.

[nascarnation]

The instrument panel is pretty easy.

Switching the steering linkage and brake components is way more involved design-wise, especially because you’re getting into the structure of the chassis.

[gnickgnack2]

Apparently, trying to sell the Vega (Spanish for “No Go”) in Mexico didn’t enter into the equation.

[andy58-in-nh]

The Mustang II was so underpowered that if you took it up over 65 mph, it shook like a tub full of Jell-o in an earthquake.

[RightField]

I have been waiting for a good thread to post this picture. I pulled up beside this guy and was able to click off a good picture before he saw me. I was laughing my head off ... Mr. Cool in a pink convertible.