50 worst cars of all time

The Leyland P76 is a standout in Australia.

Ultimately, the P76 was a good car that suffered from a poor image. Perhaps the marketing team should have given the car a more significant name, so that it could effectively compete with the Kingswood, Falcon and Valiant. But more important in the public's perception of the car was the poor assembly quality, and problems with reliability and parts supply. The Leyland showrooms became deserted - and BMC made the decision to cease production

Today it is something of a "cult car" collectable.

I saw that JD Powers listed the RAnge Rover as Todays worst made car with like 300+ defects per 1000 vehicles (most of these serious). They also listed the Hummer as "most improved". I like that , with the Hummer, GM is now the Dick Cheney of the auto manufacturers

I'm especially fond of the Flyer ("parkbench on wheels") from that list. I think it's a splendid idea!

oh, and this one, too, seems like a stroke of a genius!

Happy to see some of my personal choices made the list. Pacer and Crosley, in particular.

About 1974 Jaguar XK-E V12 Series III: " Not finished ruining the lines, Jag plumped up the fenders, spoiling the smooth, aero-sleek contours of the original. The piece de resistance, Jag affixed hideous rubber bumpers ?- Dagmars, really ?- in a lame attempt to meet 5-mph bumper standards. To which car enthusiasts can only say, "You bastards!"



Dagmars? Why Dagmars?

Oh, I see.

From wikipedia:

TRABANT : "This is the car that gave Communism a bad name. Powered by a two-stroke pollution generator that maxed out at an ear-splitting 18 hp, the Trabant was a hollow lie of a car constructed of recycled worthlessness (actually, the body was made of a fiberglass-like Duroplast, reinforced with recycled fibers like cotton and wood). A virtual antique when it was designed in the 1950s, the Trabant was East Germany's answer to the VW Beetle ?- a "people's car," as if the people didn't have enough to worry about. Trabants smoked like an Iraqi oil fire, when they ran at all, and often lacked even the most basic of amenities, like brake lights or turn signals. But history has been kind to the Trabi. Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Wall fell, which made it a kind of automotive liberator. Once across the border, the none-too-sentimental Ostdeutschlanders immediately abandoned their cars. Ich bin Junk!"

The Duroplast was abandoned after a few years, as it was discovered that in accidents it splinters into triangular shapes that often impale and kill people... And there is plenty of Trabi nostalgia in the East still, with big meetings and rallies.... though certainly not in everyday use by sensible people.

Damn

My AMC Hornet didn't make the list..

lucky you edgar, your Pacer got in. Do you know anyone who had a Gremlin


Hey, did your Pacer have the "desert only" feature on the air conditioner?

I didn't have a Pacer, but, I did buy a Gremlin. I loved the way it handled on the road, and thought the engine was essentially good. The things that went wrong? A fan blade snapped off and punched a hole in the radiator, as I cruised down the freeway at 70 mph. Had to get the valves ground. Back window hinge snapped. Had the carbuerator worked on after a year. The mechanic at the dealership wired the choke open and had me believe he had rebuilt it. Came back next day to find the mechanic no longer worked there. The pull handle to the driver's door broke off. Mostly, I enjoyed that car.

Iknow some people who still have an MG twin Cam in their garages. Pitiful really. Here are these people , approaching 65 still hanging on to dreams that they can once again get these POS to actually run again, and it wasd all because of the carbs. Thats why anyone who wanted to retain their old MGB's or MGC's would hastily recarb their little cars.


Why wasnt the ISetta on that list?

1973 Capri V6 (Lincoln Mercury) Wow..what a POS, which cost me 2 yrs savings. things just kept on breaking. Of course, the crappy mechanic I had didn't help out much .

Fiat Mulptipla.... all I can say is that it's a privilege to belong to the club of its owners. My sister had one. The thing was comfy and fun, even though things were falling off of it. Owners greet each other on the highways. They know that the 'outside' folk consider Multiplas butt ugly, but the owners they know better. There is beauty in this irradiated tadpole. I loved the thing, it was so ugly it made you love and cherish it.

Ford Reintroduces Model T Line That Made It Great
Ford Reintroduces Model T Line That Made It Great
September 12, 2007
:wink: The Onion Issue 43•37

DEARBORN, MI?-Still reeling from a $12.6 billion loss last year and a steadily declining customer base, the Ford Motor Company announced plans Monday to invest its entire third- and fourth-quarter manufacturing and advertising budgets into reintroducing the Model T, one of history's best known and most innovative car models.

A Ford spokesman poses with the once-revolutionary automobile in a Michigan showroom.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/ford_reintroduces_model_t_line

"Today's drivers want to get in touch with the experience of sitting behind the wheel of a finely crafted, planetary-gear vehicle with manual crank shafts," said Ford's president and CEO Alan Mulally, who expects the first line of Model Ts to be available for sale by mid-December and safe for driving as soon as it is neither snowing nor raining. "We're getting back to the basics, bringing the quality and elegance of 1908 into the 21st century. We want to show the country why, at one point, every single car driven in America was a Ford."

Although market analysts have for months predicted that the struggling company would sell off its less successful subsidiaries and expand into hybrid cars in order to remain economically viable, the Michigan-based auto producer decided instead to open 12 new factories and retrofit another seven at a cost of more than $100 million in order to produce parts such as the oil-lamp headlights and wooden artillery wheels for the two-speed Model T.

While Mulally admits that the initial cost of producing the so-called "Tin Lizzies" will be an enormous investment, the company will save millions of dollars by paying workers on the man-powered assembly lines?-once considered a revolutionary breakthrough?-wages at 1911 rates. Working in back-to-back 10-hour shifts, employees should be capable of producing 20 to 25 units per week, meaning the 32,000 Model Ts that Mulally believes will lift the company out of near bankruptcy will be on the road within six years.

"Frankly, I think we've gotten so concerned with adding frills like GPS navigational systems, seat belts, and exhaust pipes that we've forgotten what really matters: open-air bench seating," Mulally said. "We promise that each Model T that comes off the line will last much, much longer than today's cars. Face it, we just don't make them like we used to."

Though the company planned to make the announcement this spring, it was delayed after a number of parts could not be secured from their original, early-20th-century suppliers?-many of which, after two world wars and one major economic depression, no longer exist. Throughout the process, Mulally personally spent two hours on the phone trying to track down rubber from the Belgian Congo, and sent top executives all the way to Mandalay to find a company that still produces magneto generator parts.

But despite the Model T's need for coil boxes, crank ratchets, and spring shackles that cost nearly five times as much as today's standard auto components, Ford executives are hopeful that a combination of the automobiles' "interchangeable parts" design and low $950 sticker price will propel the company back to the success it enjoyed a century ago. In an effort to convince the American consumer that automobiles are "not just for the scion sons of wealthy robber barons anymore," Ford will unveil a massive advertising blitz this fall, including a series of black-and-white ads, short news strips shown between double features at the nation's leading silent-film houses, and so-called "barkers" who will shout the Model T's praises through megaphones on street corners across the country.

"Everyone from schoolchildren to quiz-show participants has been hearing the name 'Model T' for almost a century now," Ford marketing director Patricia Curtis said. "You can't buy that kind of name recognition."

To compete with the Model T, several other major auto manufacturers have begun reproducing their own classic car lines, including Chrysler's DeSoto, Karl Benz's original Motorwagen, and BMW's World War II-era German U-boat.

I have to say that I am enjoying seeing all of these 'american made' cars on the list.
Ford, GM, Chrystler ........

Love it.