The 50 Worst Cars of All Time

[Old Moparz]

I just ran across this & didn't think too much of it until I started reading the way the writer described a few of the cars. I love the sarcasm they used, it gives the full sense of why some of these cars really do belong on the list.       

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/completelist/0,,1658545,00.html

I highlighted the cars with a few of my favorite comments in red.   

1899-1939
1899 Horsey Horseless
1909 Ford Model T
1911 Overland OctoAuto
1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo
1920 Briggs and Stratton Flyer
1933 Fuller Dymaxion
1934 Chrysler/Desoto Airflow

1940-1959
1949 Crosley Hotshot
1956 Renault Dauphine
1957 King Midget Model III
1957 Waterman Aerobile
1958 Ford Edsel
1958 Lotus Elite
1958 MGA Twin Cam
1958 Zunndapp Janus

1960-1974
1961 Amphicar
1961 Corvair
1966 Peel Trident
1970 AMC Gremlin
1970 Triumph Stag
1971 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Two-Door Hardtop
1971 Ford Pinto
1974 Jaguar XK-E V12 Series III

1975-1989
1975 Bricklin SV1
1975 Morgan Plus 8 Propane
1975 Triumph TR7
1975 Trabant
1976 Aston Martin Lagonda
1976 Chevy Chevette
1978 AMC Pacer
1980 Corvette 305 "California"
1980 Ferrari Mondial 8
1981 Cadillac Fleetwood V-8-6-4
1981 De Lorean DMC-12
1982 Cadillac Cimarron
1982 Camaro Iron Duke
1984 Maserati Biturbo
1985 Mosler Consulier GTP
1985 Yugo GV
1986 Lamborghini LM002

1990-Present
1995 Ford Explorer
1997 GM EV1
1997 Plymouth Prowler
1998 Fiat Multipla
2000 Ford Excursion
2001 Jaguar X-Type
2001 Pontiac Aztek
2002 BMW 7-series
2003 Hummer H2
2004 Chevy SSR

1920 Briggs and Stratton Flyer
And then there was this, the Flyer, which is no more than a motorized park bench on bicycle wheels. No suspension, no bodywork, no windshield. 

1956 Renault Dauphine
Its most salient feature was its slowness, a rate of acceleration you could measure with a calendar. It took the drivers at Road and Track 32 seconds to reach 60 mph, which would put the Dauphine at a severe disadvantage in any drag race involving farm equipment.

1961 Amphicar
A vehicle that promised to revolutionize drowning, the Amphicar was the peacetime descendant of the Nazi Schwimmwagen (say it out loud — it's fun!).

Its single greatest demerit — and this is a big one — was that it wasn't particularly watertight. Its flotation was entirely dependent on whether the bilge pump could keep up with the leakage. If not, the Amphicar became the world's most aerodynamic anchor.

1982 Camaro Iron Duke
There was a time when 90 horsepower was a lot, and that time was 1932. Fifty years later, it was bupkis, especially under the hood of Chevy's beloved Mustang-fighter, the Camaro.

So equipped, the Iron Duke Camaro had 0-60 mph acceleration of around 20 seconds, which left Camaro owners to drum their fingers while school buses rocketed past in a blur of yellow.

[Charger_Fan]

I still want an SSR if I can find one cheap.
Why is the Exploder & Excursion on that list? Nothing terrible about either one of those & making the list has absolutely nothing to do with them being lemons. Instead it has to to with the greenies perception.
Oh & the 1971 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Two-Door Hardtop...those guys are just jealous, I want to snag one of those sometime too, just not in that color.

I guess they got it pretty accurate with the Prowler description...BUT I'd still take one if I could.

The description of the '74 Jaguar XK-E made me laugh.

[hemihead]

Notice there is no Jap Scrap on that list ? Talk about bias   

[Old Moparz]

Yeah, some of the cars on the list shouldn't be there, but I still had fun reading one person's opinion of why they hated them.   

The Trabant was also a good read. 

1975 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!

[bull]

Plymouth Prowler? WTH is that car doing on the list?

[pettyfan43]

Plymouth Prowler? WTH is that car doing on the list?

the list was written by a non car person, with NO SOUL!!!!!!

I think it has gotten to the point, that most of the car companies have had their own "Concept" car with a definite street rod flare.

[Hemidoug]

What no E bodies???

[squeakfinder]

97 Prowler and 71 Imperial with its "silly big 440"  .

No doubt there are some funny comment's in there. But some of it seems like somebody's personal opinion.

Some of it is wright in line with the list thats on Car Talks "Worst cars of the millennium"

Here is what I found on there web site:

http://www.cartalk.com/content/columns/Archive/2000/April/06.html       

Sorry, not trying to hijack, just hopefully adding to the humour. Especially like how the VW bus uses the drivers legs as it's first line of deffence in a frontend collision.

[squeakfinder]

Good thing the Yugo had a rear window defroster so your hands can stay warm when you push it. 

[RallyeMike]

The list was written by someone without much thought or research, tho I admire the humor....

The Edsel was actually a decent car for the time in terms of performance and reliability. It was just so overhyped and then didnt look so pretty or sell well. I cant see why that would make it one of the worst 50.
The Pinto was a reliable, fuel efficient car that sold well. It got a bad rep because of media hype around the gas tank. Meanwhile, 60's and 70's Mustangs where the trunk floor is actually the top of gas tank and have probably killed and injured a lot more people in fires than the Pinto.
I also don't see how you could possibly put specialty cars on the list like the Amphicar and Prowler. You can't rate them in the same way as a standard production car.

And an unforgivable oversight: How about the entire line of Daewoo junk that sold briefly in America in the 90's !? The cars died so fast that nobody even remembers them a few years later.

[Old Moparz]

Plymouth Prowler? WTH is that car doing on the list?

I like the Prowler, but it's a slug.   

1997 Plymouth Prowler
By the mid-1990s, car designers had powerful new computer tools at their disposal, allowing them to pursue low-volume, high-zoot projects that before would never have recovered the development costs. The Prowler was one such project. Inspired, if not plagiarized, by a retro-roadster design by Chip Foose, the Prowler looked like a dry-lake speedster from the 22nd century, with an open-wheel front end and low-slung hotrod fuselage. Except they forgot to make it a hotrod. Intent on containing costs, Chrysler stuck its standard-issue 3.5-liter V6 under the hood, good for a rather less than spectacular 250 hp. The Prowler didn't even have a manual transmission, which made it almost impossible to lay down the requisite stripes of hot rubber. The result was a flaccid little jerk of a car that threatened much but delivered little.

[pettyfan43]

Plymouth Prowler? WTH is that car doing on the list?

I like the Prowler, but it's a slug.   

1997 Plymouth Prowler
By the mid-1990s, car designers had powerful new computer tools at their disposal, allowing them to pursue low-volume, high-zoot projects that before would never have recovered the development costs. The Prowler was one such project. Inspired, if not plagiarized, by a retro-roadster design by Chip Foose, the Prowler looked like a dry-lake speedster from the 22nd century, with an open-wheel front end and low-slung hotrod fuselage. Except they forgot to make it a hotrod. Intent on containing costs, Chrysler stuck its standard-issue 3.5-liter V6 under the hood, good for a rather less than spectacular 250 hp. The Prowler didn't even have a manual transmission, which made it almost impossible to lay down the requisite stripes of hot rubber. The result was a flaccid little jerk of a car that threatened much but delivered little.

What nobody says anything about is that that little 3.5 is a great torquey little engine, and the car would cover the quarter mile faster than the much vaunted and loved Impala SS. (Big ugly whale of a car) and the fact that 85% of street Rod builders just want cool cruisers ANYWAY. I'd LOVE to have a new Prowler, and the little 5.7 Hemi would be a killer in that thing!

I think I feel a model idea coming on!!!!

[moparstuart]

  i'll take alll the airflows and prowlers they want to give me
  no problem at all

[sick dawg]

I want one of these!

[squeakfinder]

I can still remember the adds on TV for the AMC Gremlin   "Hey mister wheres the other half of your car?." 

There add strategy was lets insult are own product before customers do.