50 Worst Cars of All Time [slideshow]

50 Worst Cars of All Time [slideshow]
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Reply to
Jim Higgins
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The slide show would have been better without the authors sarcastic, tree-hugging, idiocy.

Reply to
Paul

Reply to
Erness Wild
1971 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Two-Door Hardtop This wasn't a worst car either. I've also driven one of these, owned by my boss. This car was a beauty, designed for long trips. It was over powered, I admit that, but so quiet on the road you had to check the speedometer to make sure you weren't going too fast. It would go from 0 - 100 very quickly, but you never felt it in the extremely comfortable seat. I've only seen one over the last few years and it brought back fond memories. It wasn't much fun to get into my four banger vw for the ride home after a ride in an Imperial. What a let down. Oh, and potholes? What potholes? This car never knew they existed.

Jim Higg> 50 Worst Cars of All Time [slideshow]

Reply to
Erness Wild

Someone else posted a link to this article last November. The article's writer is obviously an English major who knows nothing about cars. I had the following comments the first time the article came around and see no reason to change my opinion:

First complaint - can anyone actually know what are truly the worst

10, or 50, or 100 cars of all time? What is you frame of reference?

Second complain - some of the "worst cars" were not even real cars or production vehicles.

Comments on some specific selections:

1909 Model T - come on, no way this make any list of worst cars if you keep it in context. Was a 1929 Model a fairly poor car compared to other cars in 1929 - probably. But a 1909 compared to other 1909 cars in its price range? No way.

1933 Fuller Dymaxion - this wasn't even a production vehicle.

1934 Chrysler/Desoto Airflow - Maybe unpopular, but worst? No way.

1956 Renault Dauphine - horrible in America, loved in France. I'll admit I hated them, but hardly one of the worst 50 WORST OF ALL TIME.

1957 Waterman Aerobile - not a real production vehicle.

1958 Ford Edsel - Like the Airflow, unpopular, unsuccessful, but not one of the worst 50.

1958 Lotus Elite - ??????? A great car for it's intended use.

1958 MGA Twin Cam - If this is on the list, you might as well list every other Post WWII British Sports Car, and then they would fill the whole list.

1961 Corvair - Geez. This is ridiculous. Compared to anything from Japan in 1961 and most things from Europe, a 1961 Corvair was a great car. It shows up on these lists because a wacko liberal wrote a misleading book trashing the Corvair.

1970 AMC Gremlin - Odd looking, yes, one of the worst 50, no way.

1971 Ford Pinto - on the list based solely on lies. The Pinto was not particularly fire prone, and the memo alleged to exist in the article never existed. A lazy journalist repeating the lies of another lazy journalist repeating the lies of a liar....

1976 Chevy Chevette - although it was actually more likely to catch fire than a Pinto, it wasn't a bad car at all.

1980 Ferrari Mondial 8 - if this is one of the worst, I want to be bad....

1995 Ford Explorer - this is on the list because the guy hates SUVs, not because it is inherently a bad vehicle. So it seems at least some of the vehicles are on the list because they are not politically correct.

2000 Ford Excursion - same sort of BS as with the Explorer. He basically says there was nothing wrong with the vehicle, except the wrong people bought them.

2002 BMW 7-series - another car on the worst list that makes me want to go over to the dark side.

After looking through this worst list, I am convinced it is mostly a list of the most "Politically Incorrect Cars" with a few "Poor Marketing Decision Cars" and a few truly bad cars thrown in by a lazy writer trying to meet a deadline. Any "worst car" list that doesn't include the Copper Cooled Chevrolet cannot be trusted. How many cars are so bad that the company buys them all back and sinks them in lake Michigan (well all but 2).

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

The Corvair had the engine in the back which made the front end lite, so when turning a corner at speed the front had the tendency to keep going straight, but the VW Beetle use to do the same thing, but the Beetle was never a target of Nader. The VW was also cheaply made but heck it was foreign made so that made it special.

Reply to
Al Falpha

Reply to
Erness Wild

The Corvair was a target for Nader because his friend, a well known comedian who was an absolutely terrible driver was killed driving a Corvair. No other reason. Nader didn't target terrible drivers, instead put all the blaim on the Corvair in his bid to gain fame and fortune. Sadly, that bid succeeded and he became a folk hero for idiots and irresponsible people.

Reply to
PeterD

I've owned both a beetle & Corvair. Beetle is a mega death trap compaired to the Corvair. Other than being rear engine cars it's a no contest. Corvair was a dependable car, and a Monza w/turbo car was a lot of fun.

Reply to
Repairman

The Beetle was always dependable, not comfortable but dependable.

Reply to
Jim Higgins

I never had engine or clutch problems but the heat exchangers rusted first and then, much later, the body. Kind of pointless to have an engine sans body.

Reply to
Jim Higgins

Not much to go wrong. Except the jugs allowing blow-by and compression loss after about 60-70k miles, requiring engine rebuild. Clutches weren't the most robust either. The mechanically bent found them easy to work on with that one book as a guide. I used it to rebuild my engine. Zen something? But I believe they were popular for most others not because of dependability, but because they were damn cheap to buy. The one I had - a '64 - was bought new by a buddy when he went to college for $1300 as I recall. By the time it got to me in '70 the jugs were worn out - with about 70k miles. Think I paid $400. The body dissolved - Chicago - by '74. Jeez. When I think of the crap cars back then, you're exactly right. It WAS dependable.

--Vic

Reply to
Vic Smith

Reply to
inclai

I had a Karmann Ghia with much of the body shot but it still ran great. It was a convertible and with the top down, I could grab the top of the windshield frame and make the headlights move up and down.

Had a '62 Corvair Monza. Great car and handled well. I was broadsided by a TT and survived with a small scratch.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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