Thursday, December 15, 2011

First the 100 best cars . . . and now the 100 worst!


Back in August, Edmunds Inside Line published a list of 'The 100 Greatest Cars of All Time'. Being an American publication, it was heavily weighted towards cars made or marketed in the USA - not surprising, I suppose. However, having a broader perspective on automotive history than most US motorists, I didn't agree with many of their classifications (which is why I didn't mention it here at the time).

However, I'm forced to laugh and agree with many of the cars they selected for their just-published follow-up article, '100 Worst Cars of All Time'. Here are a few examples.

100. 2006 Pontiac Solstice: Star-crossed idea executed with parts bin technology, a ridiculous top, goofy cockpit and a trunk taxed by a single T-shirt. It was supposed to save Pontiac. Instead this overweight, underpowered, crudely engineered P.O.S. helped kill it.

. . .

97. 1999 Daewoo Nubira: For a brief, not-so-shining moment, Korea's Daewoo sold cars in the United States. No one noticed and the Nubira is why.

. . .

88. 1993 Ford Aspire: Built by Kia, sold by Ford and ignored by everyone. Basically a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine and four wheels bolted to a prison cell.

. . .

50. 1955 Dodge La Femme: The Custom Royal Lancer all girly with pink trim and a special calfskin pink purse. Few were sold because, apparently, transvestism isn't good marketing. Discontinued after the '56 model year.

. . .

22. 1997 Cadillac Catera: An oafish 3,900-pound German Opel with a 200-hp English V6 slowly lugging it through a French four-speed automatic. It took three countries to build this crap — and GM to call it a Cadillac.


There are many more at the link. Amusing and entertaining reading. However, I still wish they'd paid more attention to some of the worst cars in the rest of the world. They could have doubled the size of their list, and still had plenty more candidates . . .

Peter

7 comments:

Old NFO said...

Yugo... nuff said...

Joe in PNG said...

The Atom is on the list? In the words of the great Clarkson, "Wrong."

perlhaqr said...

Continuing Joe's line of reasoning...

The Vector W8? The '53 Corvette? What ignorant crackhead made this list?

Anonymous said...

The 1999 Toyota Echo? I loved my 2000 Echo. It was just the thing for a daily 2 hour each way commute. It was roomy, high gas milage, and comfortable for those long hours in the seat. I wish they still made them.

HeroHog said...

I LOVE my 06 Ion Quad Coupe! The interior is fine, the body gaps are a bit large but not THAT bad! Otherwise, she kicks butt!

CGHill said...

Must be something about the Aspire: when I did my own link to the Inside Line list, that was the item I quoted. I'm sure neither Ford nor Kia misses the little penalty box.

Anonymous said...

I remember the ads for the Catera. They had animated birds that looked as if they had come from a New Yorker cartoon and the tagline was "Catera: The Caddy that Zigs!" Apparently it was aimed at YUPPIES who did not want to be seen driving a large car. My impression at the time? "Lame."

LittleRed1