Let's play WORST CARS MADE BY.....

[VladTepes]

Ok the idea is to name a company and say what you think is THE worst car manufactured by that company. 

Feel free to elaborate. Do as many companies as you like.

I'll start.

[VladTepes]

Aston Martin Cygnet (2011).  Because WTF?!  The worst case of badge engineering EVER is was this means of purchasing the world's most expensive Toyota micro-car with added bling.  The AM website stretches the truth more than a little when it claims "Cygnet was conceived, designed and built as a true Aston Martin" No. Just no.

Maserati Biturbo (1981). Gutless, hideously unreliable, and build quality of house of cars. Just awful. The Ghibli may be equally bad.

Triumph Stag (1070). All show, no go. Reliability was 100% - that is 100% guaranteed to have several things wrong with it at ANY given time.

Lancia Dedra (1993)  Not a truly terrible car, but most certainly the worst Lancia. Unlike the occasional Stratos and Delta Integrale, you'd be hard pressed to find a Dedra even if you wanted to, as you'd need to be an alchemist to covert the pile of rust in the corner of the garage back into a car. The Dedra was in no way worth preserving. This car was the death knell for one of the most iconic car brands of all time. 

Ford (US) Taurus (1996) Blob-like, in much the same way as one might imagine dinosaur poop to have been. An apt analogy certainly. It had been (previous body shape) a very high selling car for Ford in the US, but this shape wasn't well received at all. Naturally this was the first (and thankfully only) model of Taurus we got here in Australia. I can only assume a quick RHD conversion was cobbled together to offload excess production.

Pontiac Aztek  This is certainly a car that fell out of an ugly tree, and was hit with every ugly stick on the way down. It's acres of black plastic side mouldings (and rear and front) emphasise it's awfulness. It's a shame because the original styling concept was quite nice, but then the engineers and accountants got to it and tedium was triumphant. It did enjoy a resurgence of popularity (if not sales) thanks to 'Breaking Bad' and prices have remained higher than possibly justifiable. That is to say – if you pay for one, you've already lost at life.

Datsun. Where to start? I had a 180B which was 'not great' but as MY first car, it gave me the freedom young men so crave, and so I can't bring myself to rate it badly. Even if it deserves to be (and it does). Many rate the 120Y as the worst Datsun – and one nearly killed a girlfriend when she rolled it. Or maybe it saved her – who knows. But I have to agree it was a terrible car. Sure the styling was OK, but everything else pretty much wasn't OK. It wasn't even fair. It was bad. Steering as precise as that of an early ocean liner, the handling qualities of a christmas trifle, and asthmatic powerplant. On the other hand Japanese cars are known for their build quality.  At this time Datsun was certainly 'bucking the trend' on that front.

Nissan Murano. (especially the CC version). Any year. Ugly, with a terrible and notoriously unreliable drivetrain. The answer to any question you might ask about this car is "no".

Dodge Challenger (1978) – a badge engineered Mitsubishi Galant. A sheep in sheep's clothing, named 'wolf'.  Top of the line engine 4 cyl / 105hp. Though you could get less powerful engines if that was a concern

Citroen C3 Pluriel (2003). Designed as the spiritual successor to the 2CV (in much the same way as the new and old beetle, nothing alike) the party piece of this car was the ability to remove the roof pillars (and slide the roof away) for that full open car experience.
Of course there was no room in the car to carry those pillars, other than the back seats if you HAD to. if you had passengers you had to leave the pillars in the garage. And if the weather turned nasty well, bad luck you got wet.

Suzuki X-90 (1995).  Ugly, handled like a wet blanket, stupid, and ugly. If you google a pic you'll see why it's on this list and have no argument with my call.

Ford (Aus).  Most Aussies would say that the Falcon AU (1998) is unquestionably Ford's worst effort. They are wrong, but it certainly bears discussion. Ford softened the Falcon's styling in an attempt to attract more women drivers, which did little other than drive away traditional male Falcon buyers. It looked cheap and nasty because it was. Ford realised their mistake and hurried through some facelifts in an attempt to fix the many things which should have stopped the car's public release in the first place. The AU Falcon was actually quite a triumph for Holden's Commodore.

      Ford Capri (1989) The name Ford Capri is associated with some of the most wonderful mid-size cars coming out of Europe in the 70's. The Aussie built Capri convertible, was another matter. The plan was that these cars would be built in Australia, exported to the US where they would become an overnight success, and pull Ford out of its financial woes. It broke new ground in this regard, a move which Holden later did much more successfully.
Some blame the failure of the Capri on the fact that the Mazda MX-5 arrived on the scene at the same time. And while the Ford certainly suffered in comparison, Ford has to take responsibility for their own issues – the Capri's convertible roof was ill-fitting and was about as effective as a mozzie net. Front wheel drive, (boo, hiss!) and excessive use of black plastic on the body panels. Predictably it was a failure in the US. Not everyone agrees with me of course, as Ford persisted with these through to 1994.

Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabrio (2005).  The PT Cruiser was mundane, ugly and gutless despite it's 'nod to the hot rod' aspirations. Take off the roof and it looked worse, handled worse (despite 'additional bracing') and was much less practical. It's everything that's wrong with 'retro' designs. 

Holden Commodore VC Starfire. For those worried about the relatively high fuel consumption of large Aussie cars Holden held out this 4 cylinder engine option as the solution. It was far from that. The engine design was ancient even at the time – a cut down pushrod six. As it still had to drag around the weight of the Commodore it revved higher and thus was pretty much on par with the 6 in fuel consumption, but couldn't pull the skin off a custard.. And it was noisy in all the wrong ways. Naturally the engines wore out in the driveway of the dealership as you drove your new car away.  While we are here though I'd be remiss if I didn't give honourable mentions to the awful diesel TE Gemini and VN Commodore.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Discovery "5".  Its lopsided, over-priced and will be discontinued when the new Defender takes hold.  Still has the same issues as the D4 its meant to replace, engine failures notwithstanding.

[KiwiCol]

   VN!!!  I had a VN V8 & it was an awesome car, bloody magic! 

[Hooli]

Volvo 340/360 utter piles of shit unfit to be on the road. They handled like a greased brick in the hands of a 5 year old, drank fuel without moving, couldn't stop as they weighed as much as the moon & smelt of piss from new.

[grog]

Hooli, also on them, lower ball joint  at front, located not in a hole but open ended recess. If you reversed and tyre hit something, ball joint popped out. Volvo, safest car.

[grog]

Vlad, 49 yrs now fixing cars. Simply not enough time to write about the failures, pieces of crap, badly designed stuff i know about and have seen. Been some shockers. Maybe the worst was Morris Marina, everything bad. I worked at AMI shop, we sold Toyota, Triumph, Rambler. Aust. Motor Industries. Stag  were so bad, head gaskets and a mile long failing timing chain. AMI answer was a pallet with a new 3.5 Rover motor. Before sold new, Triumph motor removed and Rover motor fitted.

[Tally]

Austin Allegro, my mate had one , his dad added bonnet pins to it cos anything over 40mph the latch would give way and the bonnet would hit the front screen. Another mate had a Vauxhall chevette we called it a shove-it cos it would never start on the button.

[Dusty ST]

Probably the Nissan/Alfa Romeo joint effort - Italian rust and electrics combined with Japanese handling. What could go wrong?

[Cykik]

1970's BL output all crap. Allegro, Marina, Maxi  & Princess. I had a 3 speed Maxi  3&4gears went AWOL then the drivers seat snapped a bracket so had to use the rear seat to prop it up.. Had a 1984 metro that I put 130k mls on. It would eat front hydragas units. (Had one snap its fixing bolt) Got airborne in it & drivers seat went through floor in 1 corner.Other than that it was ok..

[Kiwifruit]

Friend bought a Lada.....we all took the piss out of her for buying an ugly Russian crappy car.
I think she must have had that car 15 years. It never missed a beat.
Leyland P76 or Austin Allegro.... junk !!

[DP1400]

Without doubt the worst car i`ve ever driven was my stepdads FSO/Polski Fiat 125P back in the early 80`s.......

......I borrowed it one very wet night. I swear the gearbox had at least 30 gears, very few of which actually propelled the vehicle! My girlfriend wasn`t the least bit impressed but i did manage to find a nice spot (read secluded!!) at the end of a country lane. I parked head-on in front of a railway line fence just off the lane. Big mistake. We got ourselves together ready to leave a while later, rain lashing down, pitch darkness, not another soul for miles, (and no moble phones in those days!). I got the car started, but do you think I could find reverese gear? Not a chance. No room to go forward. Panic ensued. Long story short, i had no option than to get out and push the damn thing backwards up a slight grade. My girlfriend grabbed the handbrake, i jumped in, eventually found a forward gear and off we stumbled back to the house.

Still soaking wet i made the excuse in as casual manner as i could muster that i had a little trouble trying to reverse out of the pub car park. I confessed that i couldn`t find `reverse`. Oh, my stepdad said, yes, it does that sometimes, i must get it looked at!!!

Worst car ever made