The Worst Cars Of All Time

Forbes.com ^ | 1/27/04 | Dan Lienert

[Chi-townChief]

Which of these cars do you consider to be the worst?

1975-1980 AMC Pacer

1970-1974 Chevrolet Vega

1970-1972 Citroen SM

1978-1988 Fiat Strada

1983-1989 Ford Bronco II

1957-1959 Ford Edsel

1971-1980 Ford Pinto

1978 Honda Accord hatchback

1971 Mazda RX-2

1979-1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88

1984 Pontiac Fiero

1956-1968 Renault Dauphine

1957-1962 Sachsenring Trabant P50

1981-1991 Yugo GV

[Beck_isright]

"No crappy car list is complete without the 1975 Ford Mustang with it's all new aluminum exploding engine!"

Amen.

[FReepaholic]

My vote would go the the Chevy Chevette.

Or, as some would call it, the Sh*tvette or the Shoveitt.

To get to the distributor you had to remove the darn A/C compressor. What a pain.

[RightWingNut]

There is a saying "If Lucas made guns, there wouldn't be wars". LOL

Besides, a very good friend of mind had an AMC Pacer !! Red and white two tone !! A real babe magnet !! ROFLMAO !!!!

[dirtbiker]

Chevy's first diesel trucks (the ones with the "dieselfied" 350 gas motor) had a habit of snapping cams every 20,000 miles. You could set your calender by it!

[Muleteam1]

In fact this was the reason I sold my '97 Tacoma and bought the old '92 F250 4x4. As a retirement hobby, I've sort of gotten into restoring old Ford tractors. Sometimes I have to tow them long distances from whereever I find them and, except for the gasoline, the Ford provides for an inexpensive towing vehicle.

Muleteam1

[Scannall]

Though the Vega may be one of the safest cars ever made in head on accidents.

It was always behind a tow truck.

;-)

Dan

[Beck_isright]

1978-1982 Plymouth Sapparo

All years, Dodge Omni

Ford Fairmont any year

Chevy Citation, any year

[reagan_fanatic]

My vote for the ugliest car of all time.

[blackdog]

When I first had kids, I went station wagon crazy. I bought one of those Cutlass wagons with the little V-6. It would sound funny and I'd check the oil immediately and the dipstick was dry. I'd pour in three quarts, drive off and the car would die, spraying oil everywhere. An hour later it ran fine until the whole scenario repeated.

The oil return ports had become sludged up and once all the oil was in the valve covers, it would turn on the oil lite. In the ten minutes that would transpire the oil in the valve covers plus the oil I added would now make seven quarts which was disasterous.

[motzman]

The 1984 Dodge Daytona Turbo.

My first new car. So bad, the steering wheel coming off while I turned into my driveway was one of the "funny" things it did...

[FReepaholic]

>>...puke-green Fiat 128's. They broke down religiously on Fridays....<<

I had a 1977 128. Constantly in the shop.

I swore FIAT stood for Fix It All the Time.

It was in the shop an average of two weeks of every month for over a year. Hell, they even had to order special tools from Italy just to work on the darn thing.

I traded it in on a new truck. When I pulled it in to the dealer's lot there was smoke boiling out from under the dash. I parked it behind the building so the salesman wouldn't see it.

Less than a month later I saw it back at the foreign car shop.

[LizardQueen]

My friend had a Chevette - the starter was under the master cylinder and if the master cylinder started to leak it would short the starter out by dripping onto it.

That car was even worse than my Datsun.

LQ

[timydnuc]

My Daddy sold Chevies in '63 and I got to drive a 63 Corvair SS for a while. I loved it! I had a 60 Ford Fairlane Hot Rod (great from stoplight to stoplight but it sucked on the open road). The Corvair made me a grand prix driver. I'm telling you that the first American rear engine was a winner, Ralph Nader or not. That baby took curves like was on rails!

[shiva]

but I'm a huge fan of the late-60's

Me too. I have a 1958 Belaire, 1961 Chevy Impala and a 1968 Chevy Malibu. All run but the '58. I love my Chevy's.

[Dan from Michigan]

Write in. Pontiac Aztec. Damn that's ugly.

[blackdog]

My wife's 76 Toyota Corolla went 370,000 on the same engine and transmission. The floors had rotted out so bad that driving in the rain soaked the interior.

Once yellow jacket bees made a nest in the foam seat and I hopped in wearing shorts I decided it was her time.

I could not keep the bees out. A lot of spilled soda and beer I guess.

[connectthedots]

My first car was a '70 Maverik. It was a great car for what it was. Bought it used in '73 and drove it for seven more.

[Richard-SIA]

It took GM an inordinately long time to learn how to make a good alloy engine.

They abandoned the 60's vintage 215 V8 because they scrapped as many blocks as made it into cars.

Rover bought the design, reworked the manufacturing process, and built a zillion of them without any problem.
They eventully punched them out to 4.6 litre's for later Range Rovers!

The Vega had the worst American engine in modern times.

The worst modern American car was the 8-6-4 Cadillac, none made it past the warranty period!
The engine itself was not so bad, just the insane PC attempt to pretend a Cadillac could be an economy car, resulting in the stupid idea of cutting ignition and fuel to some cylinders whild cruising, then dumping a full load on cold cylinders when the driver hit a hill, or needed to pass.
The pistons tops holed or came off in VERY few miles.

I find the list very poor, too many of the cars are listed only because they are ugly. Many ugly cars work great.

I have owned and enjoyed a lot of the cars on this list, I woulkd buy many of them again if they had not become such expensive collectors items.

[xzins]

I always hated the looks of the Chevy Corvair.

The Ford Fairmont was a POS.

The favorite of all cars I've owned was a VW Passat.

[Soylent Democrats]

Cadillac Cimmaron = Chevy Cavalier with Cadillac emblems