Car Throttle, an automotive blog from the U.K., had a rather interesting post up yesterday: 3 Cars That Epitomise Crappy American Car Stereotypes. Their list was interesting:
- 1992-2005 Pontiac Grand Am
- 1992-2007 Ford Crown Victoria
- The 1994 Dodge Ram
Here’s their rationale: the Grand Am had become a flaccid, plastic front-driver that didn’t have much going for it except an ability to blow head gaskets at will. Good call. The Crown Victoria was pegged because it was too old-fashioned for being Ford’s “luxury flagship”. Partial credit: true, the Crown Vic in civilian form was meant to be the top-tier car, and in that respect it did fail, but the Panther cars in general were tough, durable body-on-frame cars that can tolerate near-insane amounts of abuse. Besides, Ford had a luxury version: the Lincoln Town Car.
The Ram is a bit more convoluted, so stay with me: they themselves admit that the truck itself isn’t a bad rig, but it was what the 1994 Ram did to the market that left a bad taste in their mouth: the manufacturer’s shifts from cars to trucks, and the “bigger is better” theory that trucks have suffered since the early 2000s. Again, partial credit: Ram did bring a new buying section over to pickups, but I’d wager that the Ford Explorer did more damage in that regard. Besides, this was crappy cars, not crappy ideals.
I know this goes against the grain of loving cars, but you readers have no trouble throwing a car under the bus if you don’t like it. So, here’s your challenge: One car model (or platform, or generation) that honestly qualifies to be considered a true embarrassment, with reasons why. And you can’t pick the Pontiac Grand Am.
Chevy Cavalier, Ford Festiva, Dodge Avenger. Next challenge.
Looks like we’re on the same page!
The Ford Festiva is a Mazda designed car made in Korea by Kia.
Third-gen Chevy Cavalier, hands-down.
This thing is literally designed for the dump: basic maintenance is a day-long nightmare, things that should be serviceable are obscured by major body structures, it eats motor mounts faster than Pac-Man, if anything under the dash dies you have to pull the whole dash unit. It’s honestly cheaper and easier to send a Cavalier off to a scrapyard than to change the power steering pump.
On top of that, its flagship engine was a gutless castrated Iron Duke tied to an anemic three-speed transaxle guaranteeing power at the wheel better measured in chipmunks rather than horses.
Cap it all off with interior ergonomics inspired by The Jetsons and a prison dinner tray and you have the worst car ever made in the US.
Oh, and did I mention fuel economy on-par with an LS-powered Silverado?
Cavaliers never came with an iron Duke, unfortunately as those big 4 cyl motors could annihilate the front tires from a stop!
We had a 96 cavalier z24 from new. Never really had a problem with it. The REAL pos platforms are when they bring the european shitboxes here and rebadge them like the Caddy Catera and that awful Pontiac Lemans in the early 90s.
Those tiny Le Mans’ were awful. The worst vehicle that I’ve personally dealt with was an ’03 Ram 2500 van. Wow was cheaply made and poor functionality from every angle. The strangest part was the aluminum high rise intake on it’s TBI 5.2L.
D’oh – anything with Chevrolet on it!
Dodge Neon
Ford Escort
last gen full-size Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Absolutely, positively, the worst vehicle EVER. Even worse than a Yugo or a Renault.
Geo Metro, Geo Prizm, Geo Tracker. The list of reasons why they aren’t crappy is much shorter, so I’ll leave that list here instead.
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Chevy Vega. What\’s my prize? the crown vic was clearly not worst., just ask 75% of the police departments (many of which still use them), and NYC taxi\’s who used put hundreds of thousands of miles on them. They were not modern designed cars, but they were durable and comfortable. Sorry, author.. As far as the grand am. they were very unexceptional, vanilla cars. They did not rank among the worst reliability, so ordinary does not mean worst. Regarding the Ram, long term reliability has been traditionally lowest of the big three pickups, but not worst for any vehicle. The Vega was far worse and arguably an industry low point for American Car makers.
Dodge Intrepid: When was the last time you saw one running?
My vote would be pretty much everything from 1979-1980. That had to be the darkest time ever for the US auto industry. Build quality was crap for all three, engines were emissions-choked wheezers and even styling looked like cereal boxes on wheels.
Definitely the Vega. Bought a used one (71) in 1973 while in the Army. Thought it would save money on Gas. It blew the engine just a few months after purchase. Couldn’t find a used engine so I put a 327 in it (before the swap kit) and a power glide. I was in Kansas and Dad was here in Ohio. He got the local Chevy dealership to warranty the engine and Chevrolet paid for the swap. He drove to Kansas to pick up the blown engine over a weekend.
I’m going to vote Cavalier too. Sure, the later ones seem to be like mechanical cockroaches and will run badly for longer than many cars will run at all. But they took a design from 1982 and tried to keep it in production until 2005 with very few updates other than some cosmetics and putting in whatever the latest motor was from GM Powertrain. For keeping a mediocre car in production long past its sell-by date, GM gets a prize for epitomizing crappy car stereotypes.
The Neon. Almost bought a first year one, cross shopped it on a Civic. So glad I “dodged” that bullet.
Pontiac Aztec… nuff said
The Corvair was the worst POS ever built! It had the handling capabilities of a dump truck. Oil leaked on the exhaust manifolds bringing smoke inside the cab! The engine ran backwards! I was stopped at a light in San Diego and the clutch cable broke broke which, in turn, sheared the teeth off the input shaft. I had it towed to the junk yard!!!
Plymouth Neon, between the suspension parts falling off, the constant head gasket leaks, and multiple common electrical issues, I vote for this as worst, did I mention the automatic transmission issues?
I’ve owned a 02′ cavalier, I loved that little car good gas mileage while beating it around town. I also work for a local car dealership and have seen some of the world worse 99-02 dodge half tons… EVER.
The Grand Am’s were good cars, if you knew what you were looking for.
You couldn’t go wrong with the iorn duke 4 cylinder in the early 90’s.
If you bought a ’99-’05 the 2.4 was the best engine. All of the V6 models went to the junk yard pretty quickly.
As for the biggest heap of junk that an American auto manufacturer ever turned out, I have got to go with the Ford Tempo.
I do have to completely agree that the cavalier was an epic American POS but I have a great place in my heart for that turd. It was running blocker for years. It was the drunk buddy who would take a punch so you wouldn’t have to . It was the first waves of soliders to get mowed down at Normandy. What the hell am I babbling about you ask? It took the beating for better cars so they could live on. The owners/wackos that body kitted and neon lighted this ‘Merican saint of a car modded them distastefully and dangerous with a smattering of fartcan. Usually falling into disrepair only to be sold off in pieces before the inevitable trip to the wrecker. Thank ya Jesus . Just think scrapping on the ground Camaro with a bunch of holes in it and dents , hydraulics, cut out fender wells for 22s and stereo everywhere. We probably have a decent used F-Body (and others) market because of the Cavalier . So for me it is the Great car that happens to be at the same time a horrendous POS .
8th gen 1988-1994 Lincoln Continental just to stay on point for once.
UM, How come nobody mentioned the Ford Pinto. I am not talking about the ones you see nowadays going down the drag strip I am talking about the ones that were new off the showroom floor. With there propensity to turn into a flaming shish kabob with a minor rearender.
The other car that comes to mind is the corvair. Not necessarily because it’s a bad car(or design) but because of Ralph Nadar.