I had a beater just like this one!
Posted on 07/29/2002 10:41:16 PM PDT by doug from upland
CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE AND ALL 10 OF THE DISHONORED PIECES OF JUNK
No. 10 - VW Bus
"If everyone had to own one of these as a first car as I did, there would be no traffic jams anywhere. At least half of us would be so turned off by the experience of owning a car, that we would seek alternate means of transportation."
"There was no heat--unless, that is, the auxiliary gas heater caught fire."
"The flower stickers were the only things that held the car together."
"The bus had no heat, blew over in the wind and used the driver's legs as its first line of defense in an accident."
"It was a death trap on the highway-you could never go fast enough. The chances were good that you'd be hit from the rear."
No. 9 - Renault Dauphine
"Truly unencumbered 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 totaled my Dauphine after only one year."
No. 8 - Cadillac Cimarron
"GM thought they could take a Chevy Cavalier, slap some Cadillac stuff on it, add an extra $5,000.00 and sell a bundle. Tragically enough, they pulled it off-for a while."
"Hands down, worst car for the money spent. Yugos were junk, but at least they were cheap. This heap had a Caddy price tag!"
"A stupid marketing ploy. Nothing more than a Chevrolet Cavalier, which Roger Smith gussied up and called a Cadillac."
"When we traded it in my wife was upset because we didn't keep it long enough for her to buy a gun and shoot it."
No. 7 - Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare
"This car began to rust while it was still in the showroom."
"The stalling problem was so bad that I had to take a clockwise route to work so I could make all right turns, and not risk stalling on a left turn in front of oncoming traffic."
"After the floor boards rusted out in the rear, they would fill up with water and freeze. I ended up putting soda crates on the floor in the back to keep people from falling under the car."
"The only useful purpose this car served was as the model for the car used in National Lampoon's Vacation."
"Owning a Volare was total ego death--the theme song, the vinyl Landau roof, the inability to pass another car on the highway."
Nol 6 - Renault Le Car
"I'm convinced that the body metal for this car was supplied by Reynold's Aluminum."
"Like any French restaurant in America, it was overpriced, noisy, moody, and would put you in mortal danger if you had an accident with anything larger than a croissant."
"Our Le Car couldn't climb a hill fully loaded, so the passengers had to get out and walk up."
"I left it unlocked overnight, and it was finally stolen. The insurance check paid for a textbook."
I had a beater just like this one!
..I..had...one..Denim seats. Levi's style. I have never been so happy to get rid of an automobile!
Had an 80 Citation. The first time I braked hard in the rain the tendency for the brakes to lock and the tires to hydroplane took me for a couple hundred yard terrifying ride of my life. It did stay straight though.
My wife had one of those things when we met. What a piece of crap that car was, you had to drop the skid plate just to get to the oil filter. I hated that car. But not bad enough to not let my sister buy it.
She's over it now.
The body is of a compressed wool and resin mixture, and the engine is a three cylinder two-strok abomination. It sounds, and smells, like a lawn mower. Not too hard to figure out how communism is evil when you see the cars they produced. What's esp. damning is that if you wanted one, it was best to have your father request one when you were born. That way, by the time you were 18 or so, you might have a decent shot at getting one. That's right - they had a waiting list for this wonderful creation.
I drove a '74 Fiatsco. It burst into flames while I was driving it, and it had less than 20,000 miles on it. The only decent thing I can say about that car is that I could park it anywhere, it was so small. Another odd thing about that car was that the spare tire was up front, right next to the engine. I had it stolen once and didn't know it until I checked the oil.
Wow! I trust you didn't buy it.
From a Mercury Capri enthusiast page:
The Chevrolet Monza and its stablemates were introduced in 1975. Once again, GM had a good idea, then implemented it badly. Probably the best thing about these cars was the nice body styling. Initially, they were only available as a handsome fastback/hatchback, with the first rectangular headlights legal in the US.
Any car financed for 60 months.
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