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Classic Cars 50 Worst Cars of All Time
298 messages, Last post on May 11, 2009 at 1:53 PM
You are in the Classic Cars Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 23, 2008 3:04 pm) My guy got it running as decent as could be for $75. But he also told me that the turbo was shot, and compression was low in two cylinders, and to not sink another dime into the car! Within a month or so it started blowing sickly-sweet white smoke out the exhaust. In its defense I guess, the car did make it to about 115,000 miles and 9-10 years (it was late 1997 when it finally gave up). The light brown/champagne colored paint was still shiny, but you could see spots where it was starting to wear thin. I'm sure in a year or two it would've really gone to hell. That car had also gotten stolen a few times and taken on joyrides. Miraculously, it never got torn up in the process, but I'm sure it got driven hard. Oh, and the '75 Dart my grandparents bought turned out to be the worst car they ever owned, in their opinion. They had always been Ford people, but started liking Pontiacs in the 60's, so they bought a '67 Tempest and then a '71. The Dart sent them running back to Ford though, and they never strayed again! It used to stall out, and the dealer's service department never could find the problem, so they gave up and traded it on a '77 Granada, that promptly ate its transmission.  I think '75 was the first year that Chrysler put Lean Burn on the slant six, so that might have been what was causing it to act up so bad. |
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The problem with your grandparents' '75 Dart may have been that their car didn't have a catalytic converter, and the better engine tuning the converter permitted. The '76 Aspens and Volares could be ordered with or without a catalytic converter, or maybe some came with one while others, with the same engine, came without the converter. I know this seems awfully strange, but it's true for the first year ('76) AspensVolares, so I'm guessing it may be true for the '75 and '76 Darts as well, since they used the same engines. Why this was, I don't know. I know this to be true of the Aspens/Volares because my father-in-law bought a new '76 Volare. I had read that it was best to avoid the ones without converters because, in order to meet the prevailing emissions requirements, the engines were tunes to run very poorly. In addition to the driveability issues they didn't accelerate as well as the converted equipped ones. Anyhow, my father-in-law heeded my advice, and his Volare, a 318 V8, was a strong performer. In fact, it had surprising acceleration. Much quicker, for example, than my '78 LeMans with the 305. Build quality was awful, if not worse, however, but that's another matter. To its credit, that Volare also rode and handled very well for a family sedan of its day. The ride and the steering were much better than the Dart's. My parents had a Dart, so I was able to compare these two cars. The Aspen/Volare had the potential for being excellent cars if they had been assembled better and had inner fenders for rust protection. Inner fenders were added for '77 or '78, but the early ones rusted like the Vegas.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Nov 23, 2008 9:23 pm) |
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Replying to: texases (Nov 20, 2008 8:16 am)  My brother and I used to joke that "EXP" stood for "EXtensively Plastic!" The Ford marketing people had enough chutzpah to have the original two-seater Thunderbird pictured alongside it in the brochures. |
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So true. You can't speak in terms of the best of those pre-fuel injection cars, but the least bad. The introduction of catalytic converters for '75 was a notable step forward (for example, my '78 LeMans 305 V8 started and ran fine), but fuel injection delivered a major improvement in driveability. Many of the '73 models had driveability issues, and delivered weak performance and poor fuel economy to boot. However, as they continued to tighten emissions standards it seems that the nadir was the '74 models, plus the '75-77 models that weren't equipped with cats. |
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Replying to: ldl20 (Nov 21, 2008 12:31 pm) 1975 slant six Dart? No way is that among the worst. My Mom had one and it went forever, or at least until the moaning sounds from the rust holes convinced her to trade up. Got $400 for it from her mechanic in the late '90s. It had become a cult car, desired by young people. |
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Replying to: jj2me (Nov 18, 2008 4:54 pm) http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/reader_rides/4293188.html "...Vegas were being junked so aggressively that some salvage yards in Southern California had signs up saying they wouldn't accept any more" This 50 worst list is just wrong in leaving off the Vega. I gave away a Pinto at 105,000 miles, and saw it go 220,000 miles before I lost track of its ownership. The SSR could also exit the list to make way for the king of junk, the Vega.
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Replying to: jj2me (Nov 25, 2008 1:14 pm) I remember the early price leader Chevettes (from ym old car magazines) didn't even come with a back seatr, it was optional!! I guess it'd be a good car for pizza deliveries and parts drivers.
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Replying to: boomchek (Nov 25, 2008 1:40 pm) Wasn't that one called the "Scooter"? Or something like that 
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Replying to: texases (Nov 29, 2008 3:37 pm) 
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