What's the Worst Car Everyone Bought?

[Blake Noble]

Let's counter the other thread with the Jalopnik-sourced article for a second. In your opinion, what was one of the worst cars ever built that everyone seemed to buy in droves?

I'm going to have to go with the Mustang II.

Yeah, this and the Pinto are some of the most successful lamentable American cars that just about everyone loves to bash. But, honestly, they deserve it. First year 'Stang IIs didn't have a V8 option and came standard with a four-cylinder engine that made an oh-so-mighty 88 horsepower. Ford had to wind up scrambling to re-engineer the Mustang II to accept the 302 V8 for next year's model and, at that point, it only made 140 tired and weary horses with a two-barrel carb.

It's ironic that the man who fathered the Mustang, Lee Iaccoca, was also the same man that raped Ford's iconic American sports coupe. Iaccoca had the right idea early on in the Mustang II's development; the car was initially going to be based on the compact Maverick because it was closer in size to the original Falcon and would bring the Mustang closer to its original MO established in 1964 and address criticism from Mustang fans. But somewhere in this brainstorming session, Iaccoca apparently thought it would be best if the Mustang was brought down the ladder a few pegs and would be made over as a Toyota Celica competitor. So, in order to that, he said the car should be based on the sub-compact Pinto. This decision only had one true merit: the Mustang, for the first time in its history, would have rack-in-pinion steering versus the old recirculating-ball steering.

Ford wanted to reverse the Mustang II's disgusting and crippling performance decline, so special editions started hitting the market in 1976. The Cobra II was the first of those special editions and featured the 302 option (although you could have one with a four or six-cylinder engine, perhaps if your wallet and your balls were buried deeply within your wife's purse or had jumped on the chicken-little, gas is gonna be umpteen dollars a gallon next year bandwagon) and a host of tacky, disgusting appearance mods including, but not limited to, window louvers and a tack on hood scoop. The King Cobra reared its ugly head in 1978 as a sort of half-assed answer to a real man's car, the Pontiac Trans Am, and featured a Cobra decal similar to the Trans Am's giant Phoenix decal. It, unlike the Cobra II, could only be had with the 302 V8 and if you wanted to pussy out and buy one of the smaller engines, you were simply up stinky $h!'s Creek with a big, old brown turd for a paddle.

This generation of Mustang is always going be surrounded in a nasty funk. Most car collectors think of them as worthless and the car's current values reflect that. Car enthusiasts find little to love. Most of the surviving cars have either been deregulated to the crusher or to drag-race duty with heavy modifications. The King Cobra, with all of its slapped-on flair and emasculated V8, has managed to find some love, but not much more than its other Mustang II brethren.

Somehow, this generation Mustang ranks high-up on the list as one of the better selling Mustangs, with four of the five years of Mustang II production in the top-ten section of that list. I have to wonder why, exactly.

So now it's your turn. Bash 'way, fellas and have at it.

Edited August 9, 2009 by YellowJacket894

[Intrepidation]

There's a guy with a flat black Mustang II who thinks he's the $h!...and I just laugh every time I see it.

[Blake Noble]

There's one in the field behind my house. I actually feel good that it's out there in the elements, rusting away. Is that bad?

Edited August 9, 2009 by YellowJacket894

[regfootball]

i've never bought what i thought was a bad car.

but i did rent a rav 4 once that i hated.

[Drew Dowdell]

None of the cars that I've purchased have been bad. The worst car I owned was a 1983 Caprice that my great grand father gave me when my Toronado was stolen and totaled. It was in perfect shape with ~140k miles on it. The only reason it gets listed as "the worst" is because it had the 3.8 liter V6 in it. I was outrun by a VW Rabbit diesel. But, for a full size 1983 vehicle, it got amazingly good gas mileage. IF you kept it at 65mph on the TPK you could get into the very high 20s.

[Camino LS6]

The worst car I ever owned was an '86 Ford Escort - pure junk in every way.

Like Oldsmoboi's example, the car was given to me - I didn't buy it.

It was sort of like being given the flu.

It was the only car I have ever owned that I gave away.

[trinacriabob]

I've either bought new cars (LaCrosse, Regal) or received cars that my parents bought new (Cutlass Supreme, Cutlass Supreme Brougham). They have all been excellent cars.

Except for ONE.

Along with having the Cutlass, I bought a 79 Camaro with a 5.0 litre V8 and slightly used at 34,000 miles. In my mind, it was not broken in correctly. I bought it from an Armenian chick in Van Nuys CA (San Fernando Valley). It was the metallic blue with the color-keyed rally wheels and a blue interior. It was a beautiful car. HOWEVER, it had a problem with the valve seals, emitting a belch of blue in the morning, and there was a drone in the differential that no one could diagnose. Adios, Camaro. I have not bought a used car since then.

[Robert Hall]

My brother had a Mustang II Mach 1 30+ years ago.

My '84 Ford Escort diesel was a great little car, super efficient, handled pretty well, great steering, great in snow. The downside was it was so darn basic--am radio, vinyl interior, manual everything. But as a teenager in high school and college it was fine.

My '86 Mustang LX 2.3 and later my '88 Bronco II were probably the worst cars I owned just because as they aged, more went wrong. And the Bronco rusted like crazy. The Bronco II was a car my folks had bought new for themselves and passed down to me after the Mustang LX was totaled in '94. My '87 Mustang GT which I've had since new had a number of issues at around 55k miles, but other than that, it's been good (though I've only put about 6k on it in the last 10 years).

Rob

Rob

[toesuf94]

The Chevette and early ( in my mind ALL) Corollas come to mind.

Basic crap boxes on wheels...at least the Chevette you could power slide on slick surfaces.

Possibly the ugliest, leakiest, downright horrid cars I can recall have to be the AMC cars of the late 70's...the Concord, the Eagle and Eagle wagons...popular for the 4wd here in the midwest...20 years before the SAV's hit the market..they rusted and they leaked and they rusted some more. And I have to admit: The AMC Matador was so ugly that I want one just to say I owned it and could show people how bad stylists on acid could be.

[ocnblu]

Everyone bought a Vega, and shamefully, the worst car, imo, was made by GM, based on the European Opel T-body platform.

[Lamar]

The worst car that sold in droves?

Jeep Compass.

[Blake Noble]

Can we have some hate for the K-Car in here?

Sure, it saved Chrysler, but it more than answered the question that goes, "How many times can we market the same POS over and over again?" Badge engineering at its best.

[Intrepidation]

You could say that and it is true, but the K car spawned many other variants that helped the company, refereed to ass EEK. This includes the Caravan.

Also the original K cars were small, simple, practical and fairly reliable. Which was what the market was looking for.

[ocnblu]

I cannot hate on the Aries/Reliant, as they were tough, simple little cars in the old Valiant/Dart vein, however, by the time we got to a K-car based CHRYSLER IMPERIAL, for crying out loud, that was completely beyond the pale.

[regfootball]

Everyone bought a Vega, and shamefully, the worst car, imo, was made by GM, based on the European Opel T-body platform.

we had 2 or 3 vegas and 3 chevettes in our fam growing up, and i liked em all. the vegas rusted and the motors you'd have to keep rebuilding. but ya know, the vega was a hoot to drive. my chevette scooter was fun too. i wish i had a car like the chevette scooter these days.

[regfootball]

k cars = epsilon today (apparently)

[2005 EquinoxLS]

I didnt really have a bad car but a 1981 Caprice with a 229 V6 is not a performance car. It wasnt too bad until you got in the highway. The 307 in the Bonneville sometimes is almost as bad for performance. You can make it go but you have to force it.

[SAmadei]

I didnt really have a bad car but a 1981 Caprice with a 229 V6 is not a performance car. It wasnt too bad until you got in the highway. The 307 in the Bonneville sometimes is almost as bad for performance. You can make it go but you have to force it.

Its funny, as I always felt my '81 Bonneville Coupe was spritely enough with the Buick 3.8 V6. My 307 is in my Buick station wagon... and always was a dog accelerating... but once it got a head of steam, it worked great... regardless of load... but you would cringe if you had to hit the brakes and then reaccelerate. Obviously, while both B-bods, there is a significant weight difference.

[capriceman]

i had a 80? yellow Chevette and it ran to 170000 miles. those cars were tanks and kind of fun to drive. Not a chick magnet though. those were great cars. I loved my Omega though.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

The worst cars I bought were my first Ninety Eight Regency and my first Toronado.

[A Horse With No Name]

The worst car that sold in droves?

Jeep Compass.

ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.

Chris

[2005 EquinoxLS]

If the Jeep Compass is the worst vehicle people have see or been in then they must not have ever been in some of the older junk thats around. The 1980s Ford Escort is but just one example. Come to think of it I never rode in a decent K-car either. The Chevrolet Corsica or the 1986 Toyota Camry all come to mind as rolling pieces of crap I have been forced to drive at one time or another.

[87Chevette]

1991 Mercury Topas GS.

Great car if you dont like getting where you're going.

[mustang84]

As much as I liked driving it, the '94 Lumina was the worst I have owned out of 3. My '90 Lumina only needed a new water pump and muffler during the 3 years I drove it @ between 150-200K miles, but the '94 was feasting on my checking account the last year or so. Between 120-150K miles, it needed a new water pump, new head gasket, new hoses, two new rear rotors & brakes (after warping the previous ones), and new rear struts all in the span of a year and a few months. Also, the turn signal indicator was starting to go bad and I had a freon leak that was severe enough to deplete all the freon less than a week after getting it recharged. KBB said it was worth about $800, but I sunk about $2000 into it over that span of time.

[intrigued]

The three cars I have payed for

2001 Alero GLS, 2006 Malibu SS and 2005 Mustang GT (Owned in this order)

Were and are all great cars. The alero was a fantastically fun plus compact/small midsize to drive with very good handling (it had the sport suspension) and the v6 gave it quite a bit of punch.

The malibu was a very competent car though its suspension wore pretty fast and it never handled like my alero. (While it was not a bad car at all I much prefered my alero by the end of both their ownerships.)

I love my mustang GT manual. So much fun to drive, it has tight but truly usable back seat, and is suprisingly practical for a RWD v8 coupe. It's going to be my car for another 4 years or so.

The only car that's ever been "my car" that I HATED was a 94 Accord DX my dad gave me. It drove like $h!, accelerated like $h!, and boy was it unrelaible not to mention completley stripped of options.

Hated it so so so much. It was one of only 2 non american cars my family has had in the last 30 years. We hate them both. (the other was a 70's volvo that the driveshaft fell out of while on the highway.)

[Intrepidation]

N Body Malibus.

[SAmadei]

Am I the only person here who has liked the cars I bought? I suppose my expectations have been quite low, as I've owned not one... not two... but THREE cars purchased for $200 or less (I could have bought better cars... but why?).

If I owned, say, a K-car or a Chevette... yeah, I would've hated it... but why would one buy a car one wasn't going to like?