The Worst American Cars - POLL

Forbes ^ | 10.21.02 | Michael Frank

[Non-Sequitur]

How did the Chevy Vega avoid the list? I swear that car body was made out of compacted rust.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

62 Rambler American Classic. Worst car ever to hit the road.
'64 corvair=car of the future.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

If they can get it down under $2000 I'll take a look at it. ;)

[Media Insurgent]

An uncle of mine bought an AMC Eagle Wagon abck when they first came out. The thing was in and out of the shop constantly. He was always bumming rides or driving loaners. After a while it became a running joke in our family, and we kidded him mercilessly about what a lemon he had blown his money on. To this day you can still elicit a groan and a pained look by just mentioning the AMC Eagle to my uncle.

[dead]

I saw one of those Aztecs on the road the other day, and I immediately thought it looked like something the white Power Ranger would drive.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[ladtx]

I had a 1963 Corvair Spyder. 1 barrel carb with a turbo sitting on top. Had it up to 120 mph on the highway once, and still had accelerator left. The frontend starting floating on me so that was the last time I pushed 'er that hard. I really loved that car.

[fabriclady]

In April 2002 I bought a new 2002 Honda Accord, loaded.
Big mistake, I could easily list my car as #11.

[MadIvan]

Oh well, at least you didn't have this on the list:

The Austin Allegro

Taste somehow died during the 1970's.

Regards, Ivan

[bankwalker]

Before I even opened this thread, I thought "Pacer or Gremlin."

What about the "Hornet"? Everybody that bought one got STUNG!

[E.Allen]

I think you're describing the Caddy Seville

[dljordan]

Yes! These thing are UGLY! That's pronounced YOU-GLY.

[FreeTally]

Hey honey, lets go camping in the back of the car!

LOL!!

I have never been able to figure out why anyone would buy this vehicle over something else. What possibly could possess someone to buy this horrible looking thing when there are plenty of other good vehicles out there that would serve the same purpose?

[Go Gordon]

They forgot about the Chevy Vega and the melting aluminum engine block....

[keyesguy]

Exactly, I drove a 77 pinto in high school. If I floored it I got to about 62 miles per hour - and it shook pretty badly.

[newgeezer]

This will likely be one of those hit-and-run (read no one else's posts) threads but, just in case...

Not that we think the Maverick is necessarily as bad as what came afterward--the abysmal Fox-platform Futura/Fairmont

Funny; they didn't bother to mention the fact that today's Mustang is still built on that same, abysmal Fox platform. (Which is one reason why the seating position remains so abysmal.)

[niteowl77]

A friend of my wife had a Pacer which inherited one of my sets of aluminum slots and 50-series radials. It looked wider than it was long, and the dumb thing actually did corner pretty good. It couldn't get out of its own way, but it always worked... and wasn't really too offensive as a "chick's" car.

[narby]

You've got to add the late 90's Ford Ranger with the 1970's vintage 2.3 liter 4 cyl.

I had one of those pieces. They updated the ignition and injection with recent stuff, but the idiots that wrote the software for the controller did a lousy job of it. It would run OK cold, but after a minute, it would suddenly loose 20hp.

Then at 20k miles, it started pinging like it was running on white gas. After the girl dummy maintenance clerk tried to tell me it was "normal". They finally took it in the shop to "fix" it. Turns out, she was right, it was normal. You "fix" it by pulling a jumper out of the wiring harness that reprograms the engine controller with even less spark advance, giving even less HP, and less gas mileage. I guess the 70's vintage engine can't take modern gas after a little carbon builds up.

When the "check engine" light came on at about 25k miles, and I took it to an independent garage, they basically cut the wires to the idiot light, because there wasn't anything wrong. Another owner of a Ranger had the same experience. I guess Ford programs the light to come on so they can make money in their service depts. and maybe sell you a new car while you're browsing through the showroom waiting on a bogus fix.

I will NEVER buy a Ford again for the rest of my life. Own a Toyota Tacoma with not a single problem at 85k miles, and love it.

[chilepepper]

There are a few important omissions:

o the Chevrolet VEGA made the Chevette Mercedes-reliable in comparison o any Chrysler Aspen/Volare: cheap metalwork would rust immediately

Also, i would dispute the Corvair and the Gremlin - these cars had their problems but were fairly solid, particularly the later Corvairs. The Gremlin was basically a chopped Hornet, which was *really* solid (at least mine was)...

[Psalm 73]

I voted Pacer, but what a great line this was:
"Were the designers at AMC blind? How could they consistently turn out so many hideous cars?"
I often wondered that myself - what the hell were they thinking? Anyone know of a good book on the AMC debacles?