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Classic Cars 50 Worst Cars of All Time
298 messages, Last post on May 11, 2009 at 1:53 PM
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Replying to: graphicguy (Nov 18, 2008 3:57 pm) 
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Replying to: graphicguy (Nov 18, 2008 3:57 pm) Yeah, from what I've heard, by 1983 the X-cars were pretty much up to "average" in the CR ratings, which was about as good as it got out of a domestic in those days. And for some reason, the Buick Skylark didn't suffer the same stigma that the others did. The Phoenix and Omega became such losers that they were dropped a year earlier, in 1984, their names never to rise from the ashes again. The Citation did make it through 1985, but once it was gone, its name was retired as well. The Skylark managed to sell about 100,000 units in 1985, which was fairly impressive considering the stigma the X got. And the name still had enough equity to get carried over to the 4-door version of the Somerset Regal. And before too long, they called the coupe Skylark as well. And when you figure the A-body (Century, Ciera, 6000, Celebrity) was based on it, and some of those made it up through 1996, that showed the platform had potential. |
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Replying to: grbeck (Nov 18, 2008 1:31 pm) Aluminum block, cast iron head, for cost-cutting reasons. Good cars have the reverse. The Vega's block had no cylinder sleeves, just treated aluminum. Exterior surface rust showed within the first 90 days. By 1974, they had cured the engine problems (sleeves added). The next GM car I bought was a ..., uh, no, I haven't yet bought a GM car since then. In contrast, I knew a Chevette owner with more than 100,000 miles, and one with over 150K. The early Vega with its tissue-paper engine must surely be one of the 50 worst cars of all time.
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Replying to: captain2 (Nov 18, 2008 2:53 pm) |
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Replying to: graphicguy (Nov 18, 2008 3:57 pm) With all the Vega talk here, I have to say I thought the wagon version wasn't a bad piece of styling, its unreliability aside. |
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My 1st car was an 1963 Austin Mini (850). It needed 3 valve jobs. 1st week the font wheels fell sideways at a stop sign/ The drivers chair legs went through the floor due to rust. Going down the Westmount hill (Monteal) one night was murder as I had to zig-zag down the hill using my left foot, because the brake fluid resevoir sprung a leak. My 2nd car was a 1965 Morris 1100. When the valves went the Austin repair shop broke the 2nd & 3rd gear syncromesh bearings and I had to swallow 75% of the repairs. The a garage left the oil drain plug loose and the motor seized up on the hghway.The 3rd car was a 1967 Plymouth Valaint (not the Dart disguized as a Valiant) with no fins. Great car except the body rusted out in a year. The yellow colour went to orange. The next car was far better, a 1972 Datusn 510 automatic. Until it's accident it had no major problems. after these - 1979 Mercury 4-door Zephyr 1982 Ford E150 Triple E travel van modification ( after 7 years the doors and window trims rusted out) 1992 Ford Taurus long-stroke 6 (forever in for wiper motors, brake jobs) 2002 Honda Odyssey EX (current) (had a transmssison go at 180,000 kilometers) |
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I think one of the worst cars is the 1986-89 Hyundai Excel. My aunt had a 1988 Excel and she babied that car and it still was always breaking down on her. Hyundai had to keep alternators in stock because they went out around every 10,000 miles. Not only that the cv boots wore out very quickly. Thankfully Hyundai has turned things around and builds some pretty good cars now. So I think the biggest question is this. If we can forgive Hyundai for building some horrible cars in the 80's and 90's can't we forgive GM and Ford?
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Replying to: joshuag (Nov 19, 2008 1:56 am) I don't know that the car buying public has really forgiven Hyundai just yet, there is a reason why they continue to have to discount them (and warranty them) heavily, and why their resale values are crappola. Same thing has been happening with the US manufacturers - big discounts and big warranties. The car buyer usually has a long memory and little tolerance for unanticipated problems/expenses on something they generally pay so much for. It is the 40+ folks that remember what Hyundais were or FTM what the Vega/Pinto/Chevette were, for example. The next generation would not have those memories (or experiences) , and are not nearly as likely to swear off Korean or 'American' cars - which undeniably have both improved to some point of acceptability even if it is still short of those 'Japanese' standards.
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I had a friend at work who had one. Her engine blew at about 20 -30 (?) thousand miles. They tried to brush her off by telling her that she had to have receipts for all her oil changes. She had them. Then they had to admit it was going to take more than a month because they couldn't get any replacement blocks. The demand for them was huge. Didn't the Fiero have similar engine failure problems? I seem to remember an exsalesman telling me about having 15 of them behind his Pontiac dealership waiting for engines at one point. This little fact was the determiner in his leaving the car sales business - forever.
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Replying to: captain2 (Nov 19, 2008 6:39 am) The Pony was actually imported to Canada and sold here in the mid 80s. I guess we were used as a gunea pig for the North American market. The cars here were junk too, and some people I know will still not touch a Hyundai because of the memories they had with the Pony. This is from Wiki about the Pony in the Canadian market: The Canadian version of the Pony had to be changed slightly to meet standards of that country. the Pony was released for sale in Canada for the 1984 model year and ended in 1987. Differences between the Canadian Pony versus its European counterparts were left hand drive, 8 km/h bumpers, sealed-beam headlights, different locations of marker lamps, and slight alterations in interior instrumentation and trim application. Initial projections for 1984 called for 5,000 sales, but the final total was an astounding 50,000, and it incredibly became Canada's best selling car that year.  Now that I look at it, it had very similar looks to the European market Volvo 300 series: 
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