Worst Car of the Millennium Nominations
POSTED BY: Ken Hehmeyer
Actually, any Fiat would probably rank high (low?) in any "worst cars" list. But the 850 Spider was especially bad because it was actually a really nice- looking car and was something of a babe magnet, so hopeful (read: horny) idiots like me kept pouring money into it in a futile attempt to keep it operational for more than a few days at a time. They not only looked like toy cars, they were designed and built as though they were toys. It does not surprise me that the Italians had some problems in WWII, especially if anybody connected with Fiat was involved.
POSTED BY: Carl Eilo
Even though I purchased a new MGB in the mid-Ô70s, I immediately found a need for a sack to collect the parts that fell off the car the first week I owned it. Although it ran poorly, overheated constantly and was totally unreliable, I did learn how to work on cars as an MGB owner. Ever since, I've wondered how I would react if I stepped onto an airplane or space shuttle and saw Lucas gauges, realizing that the pilot would be "flying blind."
POSTED BY: Bob
I'd have to vote for the 1974 Chevy Vega in this category. As near as I could tell, the car was built from compressed rust. The windows leaked and the engine had to be rebuilt annually. It had no acceleration and was too small for a full-size human. I can't think of one good thing about that car, except perhaps that used ones were very cheap.
It was a great starter car--for a mechanic.
POSTED BY: Steve Sozanski
The Chrysler Reliant qualifies as a true oxymoron and one of the worst cars of the millennium. This series could be the poster child for underbuilt cars: Door hinges welded to the frame and the door with hinge pins the diameter of vermicelli. Door handles made of pot metal that break off in your hand. A suspension package that after 30,000 or 40,000 miles feels like driving in a tornado six inches off the ground. More rattles than a babies convention. All and all, trash. But I do have to give my worst vote to Yugo, and second to the early Hyundais with the blow-apart motors and fall-apart transmissions.
Just a note on your Friday column in my local paper. As a fan of old Volkswagen buses, I think they have a special place as bad engineering that was fun. But my real question for you is: If the driver's "front legs" were the "first line of defense in an accident," where were his back legs?
POSTED BY: Bob Friedman
I'm a former college professor turned attorney. I used to teach, among other things, business ethics. The Pinto was a reliable case study, discussion-starter and general bad example of moral reasoning.
As an attorney, I know that the Pinto made both product-liability and criminal-law history. (Ford got a not-guilty verdict when they were prosecuted in a small town in Indiana. Big surprise: they spent a ton of money on their defense--probably more than the county's entire yearly budget!)
The Pinto is the only car I know that lends itself so well to infamy in both my careers. A car that kills, maims and scars for want of a known, dirt-cheap fix has got to be the worst. It is a car that will live in infamy.
POSTED BY: Loren Orvik
The Chevy Vega has my vote as the worst car of the last 1,000 years. My 1975 Vega actually broke in half going over railroad tracks in North Little Rock, Arkansas. I knew something was wrong from the cracking-splitting sound, and even more so when I tried to shift down for a stoplight--the whole rear end of the car came around, slightly, to the front. Sort of like a dog wagging its tail. This action was even worse when I applied the brakes. I drove the car--very slowly and carefully--to the Chevy dealer there, and they put it up on the rack. There I discovered, to my horror and that of the repairman, that the entire frame on both sides had cracked from the wheels up.
POSTED BY: Ingrid
Dad had a baby-poop-orange Pinto around 1974, the year the Car Thieves hit our block. In one night a dozen cars were stolen (this in a relatively crime-free neighborhood). They broke into Dad's Pinto, started to pull out the ignition, then figured (dope slap) "What the hell am I doing?" The car was there the next morning, on a strangely empty street ...
POSTED BY: Jack Kryst
My nominee for Worst Car of the Millennium is the 1970 (or was it '71?) Plymouth Cricket. This mini-compact was manufactured in Japan by a company that carefully refrained from identifying itself. The car was the first fully biodegradable vehicle. It began to recycle itself as soon as the purchase agreement was signed. Most major moving parts were replaced in the first year, and the car literally spent more time in the dealer's garage than in mine during its first year. There was no second year of production.
POSTED BY: Andy Gallien
The 1972 Ford Galaxy was the only car I know of that would let you watch the road slip by through the gap between the front and rear doors. Rear-seat passengers would freeze from the wind that blew in on winter days and roast on summer days. Interestingly enough, Dick Butkus needed a 15-yard charge to get the doors to slam shut.
Add to that nonexistent handling, feeble brakes, rotten mileage, rotten sheet metal and 10 miles to the gallon, highway.
The Renault Dauphine should not be considered since it was not a real car, but rather the French government's covert attempt to reduce traffic in Paris. They figured only one in 10 would be running at any one time.
