We endure in a time when most cars are reasonably sound , and lots are middling with child . The day of cars that would rattle apart as you drove , and radiocommunication knobs that would come off in your hand , and lack engine piece seem to be behind us .
But in put together a list of the bad cars of the 20th century , spanning the hundred years when auto and car companies were still stress to find themselves and Americans were desperate to own whatever had four wheels and an engine , you realise the wondrous wealth of option there are for in truth crappy cars . You kind of have to give the very early years a laissez passer , since every car on the road was an experimentation , and every buyer the research laboratory rat . But by the 1950s , the cars should have been pretty unspoilt . But take a look at this tilt – a third of the railway car hail from that decade alone . Another third hail from the 1980s , which was a terrible decennary in many ways , and most of all in American cars .
As we move past the age of the automobile and into the age of theHyperloopand flee cars , it ’s deserving noting just how stinking some machine really could be .
10: Dodge La Femme
" Do n’t be farcical , " said another guy wire with too much Brylcreem in his hairsbreadth . " Broads do n’t buy elevator car . Have you ever regard them take ? "
But when the ad human being finally stopped guffawing long enough to sip from their glass ofscotchand think , they recognize they should have some kind of machine for serviceman to buy their wives when a really prominent apology gift was call for . And thus the 1955 Dodge La Femme was born from the costa of the Dodge Royal Lancer . They were the same railcar , but the La Femme software package include pink - and - white key , pink tapestry seats ( that wore through quickly ) , a rain ness , rain hat and an umbrella ( women were really averse torainin the 1950s ) , and a matching purse stocked with a compact mirror , light and lip rouge . This kind of pandering did n’t even wing in the 1950s ; the La Femme only lasted two years .
9: Jaguar XJ220
The poor Jaguar XJ220 make the leaning of sorry cars only because it was so hopeful – and then it let people down harder than a " Star Wars " prequel . An underground group of after - hour Jag intriguer created the car with almost no input from the suits . When it was unveiled in 1988 as a concept , masses buy the farm mad for it . It had a V-12 locomotive , all - wheel driving force and all - wheel steerage ( in the 1980s ! ) , and the hallmark of a supercar , nerveless room access that opened upwards , scissor - style . It had a half - million dollar price tag , but citizenry with that variety of cash on - hand plump down nigh $ 100,000 just to earmark one .
Those buyers in all likelihood also had enough money to buy themselves a new hobby to pass the meter , because the XJ220 was n’t really bring out until 1992 , and then it was a massive disappointment . Thanks to expelling regulations , the XJ220 locomotive engine was swapped out for a six cylinder . It was rear - rack movement like any old brawniness car , and – most unforgiveable – the doors opened like normal . As expected , those people who paid six figures to reserve an XJ220 up to four old age prior now refused delivery – and in a classy move , Jaguar action them for breach of contract .
8: Edsel
No list of terrible gondola is complete without anEdsel . Everyone hates it , even the people who love it . From the Edsel Owners Club : " The name Edsel has become synonymous with calamity and failure . " From Time Magazine : " Cultural critics hypothesise that the car was a flop because the erect grill looked like a vagina . " Even that venerable Gray Lady , The New York Times , said the car " became a synonym for bold , big ideas not long after it was introduced in 1957 . "
What made the thing so terrible ? Well , Ford hyped Edsels as if they had superpowers adequate to of ending theCold Warand getting the hot girl all in the same day , but people catch on pretty quick that these were the poor - world ’s Mercury . There were rumors that the cars were built and shipped to dealer with notes explaining that parts were missing , but the franchise could make the car whole in a few easy steps ! Ford poured so much money into this pail of chum salmon that the Edsel ended up as a striking loser .
7: Cadillac Cimarron
Here ’s another selection from the Greatest Hits of Rotten Cars . This metre , Cadillac ’s luxury brand name was losing its lustre in the early 1980s . So General Motors enter it would be a right idea to take a Chevy Cavalier , do it in Cadillac pull and charge twice as much . Now , the Chevy Cavalier was never a great car , but it never pretend to be a slap-up cable car – until it became the Cadillac Cimarron . This was not the 1980s flick where the grind contract a makeover and becomes prom king or female monarch ; oh no , this is more like " Weekend at Bernie ’s , " and the Cavalier is Bernie . And this craptastic Cadillac was suppose to compete with BMWs and Audis ? It did not .
6: DeLorean DMC-12
TheDeLorean DMC-12was created by John Z. DeLorean – he was the automotive whizz behind the Pontiac GTO , so he had some serious street cred . Then he go away scalawag and create the sports car ( humbly refer after himself ) which was make up in Northern Ireland , during one of its less stable periods , by workers who were never trained to build cars . The DMC-12 ’s powered gullwing doors were , at best , leaky and , at worst , trapped the driver inside when the electrical system failed . add sound injury to this automotive affront , John DeLorean was finally brought down in a money laundering sting that call for that most fourscore of clichés , cocaine .
5: Kaiser-Frazer Henry J
The Henry J was so terrible it ’s scarce utter of anymore , and even then , it ’s mentioned in struggle disgust by older , blanched - haired car guys . This is the kind of car that even 10 - class - onetime male child being take for privileged ride in the 1950s could pinpoint as awful . The kind of elevator car that got a bozo ban from a frat just for showing up in a Henry J. The car sold was brassy when it debut in 1950 , and it show . The painted metal fascia had no boxing glove boxwood , and it would do wonderment for yourteethin a cowcatcher bender . Not that you ’d be going tight enough to do much damage , since the auto issue forth with two small - engine option that bring home the bacon just 68 or 80horsepower– if you were feeling kittenish . The Henry J could n’t ever go fast enough to outrun its own vileness , and it was put down after just three year .
4: Mustang II
This elevator car is one of the most reviled of all time . In gain to being on every self-propelling hate listing , it has the dubious laurels of being number one in a book called " Crap Cars . " The original Mustang musculus car was undisputedly cool , while the Ford Pinto was not . Why not mash ‘em up and see what you get ? Here ’s why not : TheMustang IIshared the Pinto ’s notorious gas armored combat vehicle design . You hump , the one that blow up like a Michael Bay stunt auto when it was rear - ended . And thanks to the oil embargo of the 1970s , the Mustang II got a lank little engine . The chrome horse on the wicket could probably outrun this car – and it ’s non-living .
3: Trabant
necessitate any group of old car guys what car is worst , and they ’ll probably ask you with a strabismus , " Does it have to be a car sold in America ? " If you say no , because you desire to have sex what buggy thing they ’ll derive up with , they will all say , " Trabant . "
As if cutting Communism and barbed wire were n’t enough to break the disembodied spirit of the East Germans , they also had to wear the Trabant . The car had bodies made of recycled cotton plant and wood fibers backed into plastic call Duroplast , they lacked such fancy refinements as bracken lights and they smoked like they were elect a Polish pope . The Trabant also emitted an eau du two - slash scent , since like a chain saw , their engines ask an crude and gas mix . Getting one of these cars was as easy as putting your name on a 10 - year - long waiting inclination at the government - footrace factory . Getting free of one was as easy as waiting for theBerlin Wallto fall , potter across the border and then running like inferno aside from that ugly little railway car toward exemption .
2: Chevy Vega
Oh , hey look ! John Z. DeLorean gets a bit of this dreadful car , too ! But this prison term , it really is n’t his fault . He inherit the mess that was the Chevy Vega when he was put in bang of Chevrolet in 1969 . It had been design by a corporate squad at GM , which is only one nick above a railroad car designed by the U.S. Congress on the scale of awe-inspiring . Its sail metal was so thin , and the rust - substantiation coating so spotty , that fender would need to be replaced after only a winter or two on the piquant streets of the Northeast . These motorcar were so amazing they could evenrustin Arizona . No prank . Oh , and the engine could get spicy enough to contort the head gasket , which is kind of an important part . Oh , and have ’s not forget that there was a project dispute at the plant that build the Vega – one that ensue in employee sabotage theproduction line . Why , hello there , well - made , fuel - efficient Nipponese cars . Please , abuse right this way – into American service department .
1: Yugo GV
It ’s not easy to make up one’s mind which of Malcolm Bricklin ’s self-propelling visitations was defective : The Bricklin SV1 , a Canadian - construct soft touch - wing sports railroad car that routinely trapped its resident inside , or the Yugo GV . Bricklin did n’t cook up the Yugo , but in 1985 he did begin import these super - cheap cars from the Soviet satellite state of Yugoslavia in an patent endeavor to make Americans preferwalking . There was n’t a single part of these little atomic number 50 - can cars that the American mass could actually get behind , from the engine to the electric system to the frame quality – unless you counted getting behind the integral car to push it to the side of the street after it inevitably died .
Lots More Information
On Wednesdays , there are about a half 12 old guys who get together in my neighborhood to have luncheon and talk about cars . And even though I am a young(ish ) woman , I get a pass to come to lunch , too . So I asked them , " What ’s the spoiled auto ? " I filled two Thomas Nelson Page of my notebook computer with their suggestions , some of which ( like the Henry J ) ended up on this lean . But some of their answers were n’t as helpful , even if they were screaming : " Any Cadillac from 1982 to 2010 , specially the one I had . " Or , " Ask Paul . He keep buying them . " Or , " Any kit car – especially Cobras ! Make certain you put that in there . " They may not be a true source , but these guy wire are a reliable starting point . Far more reliable than the car on this list – or any of Paul ’s car .
