bagwell

The 50 Worst Cars of All Time

On the 50th anniversary of the Ford Edsel, TIME and Dan Neil, Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive critic and syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, look at the greatest lemons of the automotive industry

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/20...#ixzz0bwAUwtA3


Full List
1899-1939

1. 1899 Horsey Horseless
2. 1909 Ford Model T
3. 1911 Overland OctoAuto
4. 1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo
5. 1920 Briggs and Stratton Flyer
6. 1933 Fuller Dymaxion
7. 1934 Chrysler/Desoto Airflow

1940-1959

1. 1949 Crosley Hotshot
2. 1956 Renault Dauphine
3. 1957 King Midget Model III
4. 1957 Waterman Aerobile
5. 1958 Ford Edsel
6. 1958 Lotus Elite
7. 1958 MGA Twin Cam
8. 1958 Zunndapp Janus

1960-1974

1. 1961 Amphicar
2. 1961 Corvair
3. 1966 Peel Trident
4. 1970 AMC Gremlin
5. 1970 Triumph Stag
6. 1971 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Two-Door Hardtop
7. 1971 Ford Pinto
8. 1974 Jaguar XK-E V12 Series III

1975-1989

1. 1975 Bricklin SV1
2. 1975 Morgan Plus 8 Propane
3. 1975 Triumph TR7
4. 1975 Trabant
5. 1976 Aston Martin Lagonda
6. 1976 Chevy Chevette
7. 1978 AMC Pacer
8. 1980 Corvette 305 "California"
9. 1980 Ferrari Mondial 8
10. 1981 Cadillac Fleetwood V-8-6-4
11. 1981 De Lorean DMC-12
12. 1982 Cadillac Cimarron
13. 1982 Camaro Iron Duke
14. 1984 Maserati Biturbo
15. 1985 Mosler Consulier GTP
16. 1985 Yugo GV
17. 1986 Lamborghini LM002

1990-Present

1. 1995 Ford Explorer
2. 1997 GM EV1
3. 1997 Plymouth Prowler
4. 1998 Fiat Multipla
5. 2000 Ford Excursion
6. 2001 Jaguar X-Type
7. 2001 Pontiac Aztek
8. 2002 BMW 7-series
9. 2003 Hummer H2
10. 2004 Chevy SSR




Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/20...#ixzz0bwAhumiR

The G Man

Somebody plz refresh my memory, what is wrong with the 2002 BMW 7-series?

bagwell

2 things...iDrive + Bangle butt

The Munich company's flagship sedan was nothing less than everything the company knew about car building, and that was quite a lot. Perfectly constructed, astonishingly fast and utterly besotted with technology, the big, gracious 7-series had but two flaws: The first was something called iDrive, a rotary dial/joystick controller situated on the center console, through which drivers adjusted dozens of vehicle settings, from climate, navigation and audio functions to things like the sound of the door chime. The reason for iDrive and similar systems is that designers were running out of room for switches and instruments. The trouble was that the iDrive was hard to work. Damn near impossible, in fact. Drivers spent many hair-pulling minutes driving to figure out how to add radio presets, for example, or turn up the air conditioning. When confronted with complaints, BMW engineers said, with barely disguised contempt: Ze system werks pervectly. Dis is no problem. Since 2002, BMW has gradually improved iDrive to make it more intuitive, but it's still a pain. The other flaw? The silly bubble butt, called the Bangle Bustle, after lead designer Chris Bangle.


if you click the link to the article it gives an explanation of why there on the list...

here's the info on the Model T



Uh-oh. Here comes trouble. Let's stipulate that the Model T did everything that the history books say: It put America on wheels, supercharged the nation's economy and transformed the landscape in ways unimagined when the first Tin Lizzy rolled out of the factory. Well, that's just the problem, isn't it? The Model T — whose mass production technique was the work of engineer William C. Klann, who had visited a slaughterhouse's "disassembly line" — conferred to Americans the notion of automobility as something akin to natural law, a right endowed by our Creator. A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers' boots. And by the way, with its blacksmithed body panels and crude instruments, the Model T was a piece of junk, the Yugo of its day.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/20...#ixzz0bwEO0dQQ

The G Man

But isnt the 1st gen iDrive + Bangle butt in other BMW besides the 2002 7 series?

bagwell

I believe the 02 7 series was the first to have it/them...not sure tho.

PS -- I don't agree with everything on the list...interesting to read tho.

LexFather

It also was a very very unreliable car with only later models fixing some of the quirks. It also was ugly.

IS-SV

That was an amusing list.

Lil4X

The cars seem to fall into categories:

• Early models being judged against modern standards - Yes, the Model "T" was a crude attempt at mass-produced private transport, but it has to be judged in the context of its time, when automobiles were hand made, often by unskilled workers. Note that radios and airplanes of that era were similarly crude by our standards.
  
  
• Bold attempts to push the envelope produced many cars that were introduced well before their time. Building a production automobile as a showcase for your engineering innovations is not the key to wide popularity. The Chrysler Airflow and the Corvair were "clean sheet of paper" designs that were probably doomed from the outset, thanks to being a large collection of innovative parts that overlooked a few basic requirements. Corvair's gasoline-fired heater, Horsey's idea for the fuel tank out front (and Morgan's propane tank out back) simply ignored good sense, and Lincoln (and Edsel's) HVAC controls as well as BMW's i-Drive, made rather simple controls into maddeningly complex exercises in engineering excess.
  
  
• Minimalist cars, from the Pinto/Vega era and the post-war European designs that were all developed to be "affordable" cars. They serve as illustrations that whacking away the fat often cuts through to the bone. Cheap cars are usually cheap cars, others are conceptually flawed. Colin Chapman was a master of automotive efficiency, once opining that a proper race car should fall apart as it crossed the finish line - otherwise it was overweight and fell short of its performance potential. The Lotus Elite subscribed to this theory and obediently fell apart every few hundred miles.
  
  
• Finally the marketing mistakes and the models sold long after their expiration date like the Edsel, Hummer, and the like. Most of the time going to the parts bin to create a new automobile out of what's already available is a bad idea. Edsel, Gremlin, Cimarron, and a couple of Triumphs make the point.

I disagree with over half of the selections here, but everyone's entitled to their own list.

mmarshall

I won't go into all the questionable lists and omissions (there are too many of them), but where is the notorious junk Chevrolet Vega? And the equally junk Chevy Citation/X-Body cars? And the even worse GM 350 diesels? And the silly (Pinto) Ford Mustang of the mid-1970s the people laughed at? And the Datsun F-10 and Subaru 360.....two of the silliest Japanese cars of all time.

On the other hand, I fail to see wat was wrong with the 1971 Imperial...a massive, plush, luxury car, though it did have (at that time) rather shoddy construction compared to the Cadillac and Lincolns. The 1971 Imperial and Lincoln Continental introduced the first American-designed anti-lock brake options (those options did not sell well).

I also fail to see what was wrong with the Edsel of the late 50's (and why the public snubbed it), considering that it was basically the same car as the popular Mercury sedans of the period, just with a different grille and trick push-buttons in the steering column for the automatic transmssion.

I've got many other problems with this list, but I won't go into all of them here....there isn't time.

bagwell

well at least they got the 76 Chevy Chevette

1993ES300x

was the 1997 Plymouth Prowler really that bad of a car??? i always like the look of the thing.. i know it was an over price POS but still... it's something you don't see everyday..

LIMS407

i thought hummer h2 was alright...it was hot car for min...

ekc

iTrader: (6)

Take the H2 out and replace it with the 1995 Ford Aspire please.

2000LEX

iTrader: (2)

Its not the style its the lack of performance, that was there main complaint.

IS-SV

Most of these cars are best forgotten.