Posted on 06/13/2012 9:59:05 AM PDT by doug from upland
Don’t forget the Yugo station wagon - known in the South as the YallGo.
My wife had a 72 Chevy Vega when we got married. Drove it from Texas to Oregon and back with absolutely not problems. The engine was easy to work on and never needed to do much with it. May have been the only Vega that never had any rust.
Biggest complaint was that fully-loaded log trucks could pass us on the hills in Oregon.
The BMW Isetta is still made.. it’s now called a Smart Car..
While listening to the melodic "Drip drip drip" of the oil leaking from the Vega?
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The 1974-78 Mustang II has always gotten a bad rap - but why? When it was introduced in the fall of 1973, it was the most advanced Mustang Ford ever did. It had nice body structure refinements that got it high marks and even Motor Trend's Car of the Year for 1974. Mustang II had the Mustang's first bolt-on fascia courtesy GM's Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudson, hired away from GM by Henry Ford II to run Ford Motor Company. Bunkie brought the bolt-on fascia to Ford. He also brought hidden windshield wipers to Ford - which ironically the Mustang II did not have. The Mustang II's greatest engineering feat is what Ford called the "toilet seat" due to its shape. The toilet seat was the engine/transmission front subframe, which isolated engine vibration and road boom, making the Mustang II the quietest and smoothest Mustang ever. And would you believe the Mustang II was more advanced than even the 1979-04 Mustang to follow because it had engineering refinements that went away in 1979?
Mustang II had a suspension system on a par with GM's Camaro, Firebird, and Nova - which also had a front subframe for good vibration isolation and handling. These are refinements Knudson brought with him from General Motors. Sadly and unfortunately, Knudson didn't survive Ford's political mill and was let go long about 1970. That's when Lee Iacocca became President of Ford Motor Company.
Mustang II was a great car for its time. Criticisms include mostly the absence of power and overdrive in the 1970s. Emission control systems caused stumbling and poor driveability in those days, making the Mustang II something of a dog performance wise. Being someone who drove new Mustang IIs in the 1970s, these cars were great fun to drive because they felt good. They handled very well and had a nice tight feel. Inside, they had the most elegant Mustang interior ever - even better than the 1965-66 Interior Decor Group (Pony Interior), which is a matter of opinion. The 1974 Mustang II's steering wheel felt better than the 1975-78 wheel to follow.
When the history books say the Mustang II was the right car at the right time, this is true. Mustang II was perfect for its time - and still great fun to drive today in an age of overhead cam engines, fuel injection, and McPherson strut/four-link suspensions. Had the Mustang II been fitted with more power and fuel injection, it would have gone down as one of the nicest Mustangs ever.
Read more: Mustang Blog
The truth is that most cars, whether foreign or domestic, tended to rust. Rustproofing wasn’t terribly common until the 1980s. Cars like the renault Alliance and the Le Car rusted badly. Toyota even had some rustbuckets in the 1970s.
Can’t believe a Renault or Fiat didn’t make the list.
A friend had a Dauphine back in the 50s. Slower than a VW beetle. And that was saying something.
Pinto, yes. Smart car, nope. Love the car. It is very ugly, but the gas mileage is great, have taken several long trips in it, not a single problem. However, I can’t get it past 95 mph.
There must be a minimum threshold based on the number purchased by the general public to be considered. No other explanation for the Volt not being on the list.
Just don't do that on a day when it is well below zero. All the commercials showing things bouncing off the Saturn door must have been done on warm days. The plastic just shattered when a van backed into my car. Fortunately, the body shop just had to get a new door panel and mirror and it was as good as new.
Diesel Cutlass? ‘T ain’t nothin’. We had a 1978 diesel Chevette. Look it up somewhere. It really existed. It sounded like a bus and rattled like hell, but it got 44 mpg hwy. No kidding! I’m glad my dad was cheap. That came in handy back in the late ‘70s oil crisis.
Oh yeah, my HS friend had a Vega with “splash around.” Eventually he put his foot through the floor.
Another friend had a ‘68 Newport. You could hold your let’s out straight in the hack without touching the front seat.
Good times.
LOL! Actually, my wife had a pinto - when she graduated college, I sold it for more than she paid for it.
Only done that with two cars - her pinto, and the old truck I drove. Sold both for more than we paid.
It’d be funny to see updated, retro productions of these cars made with electric motors so they can be even worse than before!
The funniest part of that scene was the little *ping* sound right before the explosion.
Notice how GM dominates this list? My Dad was a GM man and I basically saw him get ripped off after years of buying these crappy GM cars. It is why I have never ever purchased a GM product.
It would be interesting to chart the creativity and innovation of auto companies against the safety and fuel consumption regulations. I would bet that is what is killing quality design.
Another thing is whether or not car guys are running the company as opposed to the finance guys. I remember a story about some engineers at Dodge in the early sixties that were building hotrods on their own time and using their tools and data from work to make them go as fast as possible. The head of the Dodge division found out what they were doing and put them to doing it for Dodge. I think it was this bunch that designed and built the Max Wedge.
so did I, I now own a Honda.
'nuff said.
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