The next member of our Awful Cars, Awful Ads hall of shame is the Renault Alliance. This putrid heap of shoddy French engineering was sold through AMC dealers after Renault took at 46 percdent stake in the company and essentially gutted it for the dealer network.

The cars never had an engine that made more than 100 horsepower. They were introduced with a 1.4 liter engine in the early 1980s, and by the introduction of 1987’s “sporty” GTA model, were packing either a 1.7 liter mill or a 2.0 liter “big block” that made 95 horsepower.

They overheated and leaked, the electronics sucked out loud, and they really helped bury the AMC name. That’s sad and ironic, because AMC had nothing to do with their design and construction.

It should be noted that when we were kids, our neighbor’s dad drove an Alliance and for fun we used to push it up and down our dead end street like an oversized go-kart. Mind you, we were like nine at the time, so that gives you some indication of the solid nature of their construction.