Posted on 06/13/2012 9:59:05 AM PDT by doug from upland
Ford Pinto
I had a Ford Pinto for years~one of the best car I ever had in regard to maintance and care~;)
Had a Prius haul all it was worth to chase me down just to pull up nex to me and shout out his slightly lowered window how I was a Gaia murdering A-hole.
[I drive a V6]
I told him I also eat bacon and drove off.
He got really angry about that.
He forgot Renault. Any model any year.
I agree with a poster way up above: The Ford Fairmont I owned was terrible. I kept it for about 3 weeks then dumped it off at the dealership, and refused to make anymore payments. I hired a lawyer friend to deal with the dealership, and they left me alone.
They knew it was a POS.
IMO, Hondas are very good (I’ve owned an Accord), but my best car is a 2003 Toyota Highlander, which still rides and drives like new even with more than 110,000 miles.
But, I hear Ford is more competitive these days, though I doubt I’ll buy one when my Highlander dies at about 300,000 miles.
You bought a British car and expected reliability? That was just a bit optimistic don't you think?
FROM - 10 WORST CARS OF THE MILLENIUM
9th Place: Renault Dauphine
“Truly unemcumbered by the engineering process.”
At the time, it cost about half the price of a Volkswagen...which was half the price of everything else. How could Renault do this? Simple. It had half as many parts.”
“This car topped out at 45 mph. Since the minimum speed on the Florida Turnpike is 40, patrol cars would follow me, waiting for me to hit a hill so they could ticket me.”
“From a historical perspective, it’s a shame that the French spent their Marshall Plan dollars on automaking.”
“A side impact by a bicycle totalled my Dauphine after only one year.”
My dad bought it’s replacement the R-10. It really was one piece of junk LOL.
No, I bought an American model (Plymouth) from an American dealer in the middle of the country, not knowing that it was Brit made. It was the first year the model was out; for a young Marine living on corporal’s pay the price ($1950) was right and comparable with a Volkswagon bug (wish I had gone with the bug).
Funny.
I had a 1978 MGB (bought new in 1979). It was a fun car but I had to work on it every weekend. Best thing I did for it was put an early Accel Electronic Ignition in it. The directions optimistically said, “Easily installed in 1-2 hours”. I started late on a Sunday night and barely got it running in time to make it to work.
I am sure I have the unique distinction of being the only idiot who purchased 2 NEW TEMPOS consecutively.
I bought an ‘84...then when it had completely fallen apart with 50,000 miles 3 years later...I was forced to trade it in for a new ‘87 Tempo.
I was upside-down in the ‘84. I remember being insulted and laughed off the Toyota lot when I inquired about trading my ‘84 for a new Toyota.
Photo shot by an IHOP. Nitwit customer got the stuff at Home Depot and didn't want to pay $75 delivery. Besides the lumber, he put 10 80-lb bags of concrete in the back seat. Two back tires exploded and the shocks were pushed up through the floorboard. Total cargo weight for the poor Jetta was about 3000 lbs.
It is no coincidence that five of these Top-10 worst cars were made by General Motors.
A recent poll by Hagerty Insurance asked enthusiasts to name the worst car design of all time: This glassine bolus of dorkiness is the pathetic winner. Remember Richard Teague, designer of the amputated Gremlin? Him again. But, come on, the Pacer, it's Wayne and Garth's Mirth-mobile, for Heaven's sake! You can't hate on that. Indeed, my family owned a dark green Pacer with that Navajo-blanket upholstery, and it worked just fine until I drove it through a ditch, after which the heavy doors hung off their hinges like beagle ears. What I remember of this car is that, in the summer, it was like being an ant under a mean kid's magnifying glass. The air conditioning was non-existent. You could actually see fumes of volatile petrochemicals out-gassing from the plastic dash. Wayne, I feel woozy. Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658533_1658042,00.html #ixzz1xmXs6zSY
My sentiments exactly. I will continue to seek the highest utility possible for my dollars. Purchasing a car from a US company would be contradictory to that philosophy.
I currently own a Toyota Sienna and a Toyota Corolla. The Corolla gets 43 mpg as long as I keep the speed just below 60 mph. Both vehicles are flawless. Both were bought 'used'. Both were manufactured in the US.
I promised myself as a teenager back in the 70s that I would never buy a GM product (including Frigidaire refrigerators). Thirty-five years later, I see no reason to go back on that promise. GM designs and manufactures crap.
I am reminded of the story of the Mazda Miata. From the day that the concept of the Miata was first etched out on a dinner napkin during an employee lunch break until the day the first car ran off the production line, a grand total of 18 months passed. Compare that to GM's Saturn where that same period took ten years. And the Saturn program was GM's response to the Japanese dominance in the US auto market which began two decades prior. GM is a failed company that should have been put out of our misery back in the 80s.
I believe that idea came from someone who thought that it would reduce the complexity of making cars with a right-hand side steering wheel (England) and cars with a Left Hand driver (US and many others). On paper, it seems reasonable. But, in practice it's exactly like you indicated - a death-trap.
No Smartcar? I just bust out laughing when I see one of those.
——No Smartcar? I just bust out laughing when I see one of those.——
The name was a marketing masterstroke. I bet 50% of its sales can be attributed to the product name. May this be a lesson to the engineers who scoff at marketing. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.
AZTEC VIDEO AD - http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/classic-ad-pontiac-aztek/
In this Sunday’s Automobiles section, Lawrence Ulrich welcomes the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet into the Pantheon of Ugly Cars. Somewhere in that temple of misfits there is a Pontiac Aztek waiting to greet it.
The Aztek, which made its awkward debut for the 2001 model year, was Pontiac’s play for Generation Y. The ads featured Sam and Kate, a fictional young couple in the thrall of the boundless activities (and quippy asides) they could share behind the wheel of their crossover vehicle.
But no matter how many exotic locales they explored, and no matter how many mangos they stuffed into the rear hatch, there was no escaping the fact that Sam and Kate had bought themselves one hideous car. Our own James G. Cobb reviewed the Aztek in 2002 and quickly got a sense of the zeitgeist:
Shortly after I picked up a silver test vehicle, I paused at a stop sign in Upper Manhattan, near a traffic island where skateboarders congregate each evening. “Ooooh, it’s an Aztek,” one teenager announced with a touch of scorn. Another addressed me directly. “Yo, man, your car is ugly,” he said solemnly, his tone one of pity more than hostility.
The Aztek couldn’t survive the ridicule and production was ended in 2005. (The actor playing Sam, Gale Harold, would fare better than the car; he went on to star in “Queer as Folk” and has made appearances on a variety of other shows, including “Deadwood” and “Desperate Housewives.”)
Elsewhere in this week’s Automobiles section, Rob Sass eulogizes the Ford EXP, which earned its way into the regrettable car pantheon in 1982. “Ford broke several rules of sporty car design,” Mr. Sass writes, “most notably that the new coupe should not be uglier than the car from which it descended.”
So take heart, Murano CrossCabriolet: You are not alone.
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