WHAT'S THE WORST CAR OF THE MILLENIUM

Car Talk dot com ^ | unknown date | Staff

[medved]

A few more candidates for worst car awards:

• Pinto and Vega, probably designed to teach people to avoid small cars; beancounters running Detroit at that time believed they could not make money selling small cars.
• Corvair Monza. Nader was 100% correct in his assessment of this ultimate lemon.
• All French cars, not just Renaults
• Rover 3500S (called worst car ever sold in America by Car and Driver)
• Triumph Stag ("Swagger up to a Stag, and Stagger Away")
• Humber Super Snipe (clutch based on principle of magnetism)
• Next year model of Super Snipe (clutch based upon principle of sand)
• AMC Marlin (zero-traction "sports car")
• AMC Gremlin (how to die in a 5mph crosswind)
• Saab 99E with coal-mine pump engine
• 50s and 60s Volvos, pure ugliness award
• 80s 6-cylindar Volvos ("Gee, I didn't know ElProducto made cars...")
• Early Audis with 4-stroke engines (No law of physics prevents Germans from building trash if they put their minds to it...)
• 80's model large Mercedes (500E or some such if memory serves, couldn't get from D.C. to Richmond on a full tank of gas)

[gc4nra]

... but only the V-8!

[PhilDragoo]

The first 140 posts have stirred memories:

The early 'sixties Renault with the hand crank for its rear engine--got it going at three in the morning in deep snow with its dead battery.

That little Renault rolled off an on-ramp without killing my friend.

The Karman Ghia that ran swell all day at 80 back from Tucson with that blonde--then blew: BANG! clangetyclangetyclangetyetc

An F-150 only eight years old but so rusted by Cleveland the hood blew off at three in the morning going home from Fat Albert's--what a rush.

A '57 Ford which fought hard not to start but was uncontrolable when Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" came on the radio.

That nasty aluminum engined Vega.

The great '55 Chevy Nomad (if you overlook the automatic transmission constantly breaking).

Another hand-cranker, an early 'sixties aluminum-bodied Land Rover.

A girlfriend's Rambler with the front seats that go down.

A '55 Buick Century so stable it stayed flat doing a donut in the Interstate median (hit a patch of scotch thirty-five years ago).

[2Trievers]

You know I LOVE your little rag-top Shagster ... I ALWAYS will ... but as I grew up, I guess my personal taste for sophistication and panache did too! &;-)

[shaggy eel]

,,, cutting! OUCH. You're not telling me there's a four year waiting list for Porsches are you?

[sultan88]

"...perhaps the 49-52 Chevy Fleetline (we called them fastbacks) being the most sought after today."

One of my earliest memories (I was three years old) was my Dad driving home in his just-purchased green '51 Chevy Fleetline. I have a picture of me standing next to it. My Dad really loved that car.

[2Trievers]

LOL ... not unless you are on this list. &;-)

[shaggy eel]

,,, "this list" comes up as "can't access data".

[2Trievers]

Sorry ... my bad ... I forgot ... it doesn't let you access the site unless you're a Porsche owner! LOL It was just a pic of the Porsche Cayenne. &;-(

My dealer tells me he has a slue of orders/deposits, sight unseen. Nutso!

[oyez]

Q. How do you make a Yugo accelerate from zero to 60 mph in less than 15 seconds?
A. Push it off a cliff.

Q. What is found on the last two pages of every Yugo owner's manual?
A. The bus schedule.

Q. What did the parts dealer say when the customer said, "I'll take a set of wiper blades for my Yugo"?
A. "Sounds like a fair trade to me."

Q. Why do Yugos come with heated rear windows?
A. To keep your hands warm while you're pushing them.

Q. What do you call a Yugo at the top of a hill?
A. A mirage.

Q. What do you call two Yugos at the top of a hill?
A. A miracle.

Q. How do you double the value of a Yugo?
A. Fill up the gas tank.

Q. What do you call a Yugo with brakes?
A. Customized.

Q. How do you make a Yugo go faster downhill?
A. Turn off the engine.

Q. Why don't Yugos sustain much damage in a front-end collision?
A. The tow truck takes most of the impact.

Q. What do you call Yugo passengers?
A. Shock absorbers.

Q. How do you improve the appearance of a Yugo?
A. Park it between two 914s.

[doug from upland]

Lots of laughs.

[doug from upland]

I was waiting for someone to mention the Citroen. It is even more disgusting than Hillary if that is possible.

[HardStarboard]

Need to add "Lotus" here!

Heard a Brit talking on a car show program once say that the reason that Lotus went bankrupt periodically was that....

LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious!

Never owned one - but they do spend most of the time in the shop....British engineering. "Well, they got the Spitfire right". Yea, but that was 60 years ago!

[BluesDuke]

A vintage Nash for which I have a fondness...the 1955 Ambassador sedan...



And, another view...


While I'm at it, don't ask me why, but I'm fond of this one, too...1956 Ambassador Super

[snowtigger]

One of the better ones!

IMHO Absolutely Chevrolet's finest hour!!

[BluesDuke]

Here's the car I'd love most to own - if a) I could be sure they're putting it into production, and b) I could afford to pay $200,000 for the beastie...this, believe it or not, is a new model Packard sedan, called the Packard Twelve (yep, it's a 12-cylinder engine - the original Packard company experimented with a 12 in the late 1930s, in a beautiful touring car)...a new concern in Arizona bought up the Packard marque and trademarks and associated rights and began to design and build this car in 1999

[BluesDuke]

Here's a crate I haven't seen mentioned yet, unless I missed someone mentioning it, too, would withstand the detest of time: the AMC Javelin.

[connectthedots]

I think we had this exchange when someone started a 'The ugliest car ever' thread.

[2Trievers]

Super! ... your taste is cars coincides with your taste in Mixmasters. The beat goes on! &;-)

[L.N. Smithee]

So what? I'll say it again: That and some 20 other 1975 GM models (every Cadillac, most Buicks and Oldsmobiles, and some Pontiacs and Chevrolets)!

So which one was the first?

Don't believe everything you read on the Web. ;-) :-)

I don't. I read your post on the web, and I don't believe it.

I remember the TV commercial for the Monza vividly, and the rectangular headlights were brand spankin' at the time. The other GM models' switch from round to rec were after the rollout of the Monza.