50 Worst Cars of All Time

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50 Worst Cars of All Time

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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by 4onthefloor »

Some of those don't belong on the list. Sure there is no comparison to the cars of today, but back then they were innovative and ahead of their time. Some of the new ideas of the 60s and 70s had their flaws but that's what made them cool and unique.

And they put the Bricklin on the list :evil: That was Canada's car.

They also rag on some cars for having to quickly meet new government regulations. It's not the car makers fault the engines were robbed of power, and dumb looking bumpers had to be put on.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by watkins »

4onthefloor wrote:It's not the car makers fault the engines were robbed of power, and dumb looking bumpers had to be put on.
Agreed. But it IS the car makers fault that such things were dealt with so poorly. A much nicer bumper could definitely have been put on the Jag, for example.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by 1974Alfa5spd »

I want a Lagonda...

And how funny, not one Alfa on the list. :mrgreen:
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by six »

I lawled on quite a few of them. Not really the car, but the snide remarks about them...
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by Rope-Pusher »

watkins wrote:
4onthefloor wrote:It's not the car makers fault the engines were robbed of power, and dumb looking bumpers had to be put on.
Agreed. But it IS the car makers fault that such things were dealt with so poorly. A much nicer bumper could definitely have been put on the Jag, for example.
Go look at other cars from the same era before you judge any of these cars. Big black rubber baby buggy bumpers were not just to be found on Jaguars. It takes time to integrate styling, engineering and customers preferences with changing safety, emissions, and fuel economy regulations. You also have to consider the economics of the times - when fuel prices doubled, buyers panicked and Jaguar was in dire straits (no, Dire Straits was not in dire straits at that time). They went with an affordable solution, not an elegant one. For some buyers, the exclusivity of owning a vehicle with a V-12 was the reason TO buy the car, BBRBBB's or not.

It would be interesting to see the criteria used to rate vehicles toward inclusion in this list. The writer has an anti-auto bias, blaming the Model T Ford for promoting personal transportation and the Ford Explorer for promoting SUVs - that would put those vehicles on my 50 best list, as I am not a car Nazi (No SUV for YOU!).

I can't imagine that a car that was built for 10 years could be such a terrible car - 2.5 Million buyers voted for it with their wallets and they had a lot of samples out on the road to review before they bought their Chevettes.

Ford Model Ts almost single-handedly created the used vehicle market which made them obsolescent after 19 years - reliability and durability must not have been that bad.

And lets face it, an Iron Duke 4 cylinder Camaro was and still is the perfect car for most High Schoolers, comparable in it's days to the market niche occupied by the recently departed 4.0 V-6 Mustang. Go watch what happens in a High School parking lot when school lets out - kids start up their cars, put them into reverse, back out of their parking spaces and then look and see what they hit.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by Tups »

I threw up a little in my mouth every time they mentioned the 3-speed automatic gearbox.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by Rope-Pusher »

Tups wrote:I threw up a little in my mouth every time they mentioned the 3-speed automatic gearbox.
Them's Fitin' words, Mister! The first Amish car I drove had a 3-on-the-tree. If it had had the optional slushbox, that would have been a two-speed. I can't imagine how many millions of those powerglide transmissions Chevy sold. How many gears a trans uses is product of the times. Yes, some times more ratios are utilized without much of a performance or fuel economy benefit - didn't we have this same discussion about rear drum brakes a while back? Same can be said for dual vs single OHC vs cam in block - is what it gets you worth the extra cost?...the packaging space?...the weight?...the build complexity?...yadda, yadda, yadda.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by beowulf80 »

I like the idea here, but the execution is terrible. WTF is the Model T doing on there?

When I agree with everything RP says I start to get worried...=]

At least I can disagree on the automatic 3 speed!
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by Rope-Pusher »

beowulf80 wrote:I like the idea here, but the execution is terrible. WTF is the Model T doing on there?

When I agree with everything RP says I start to get worried...=]

At least I can disagree on the automatic 3 speed!
Sure you could, but that's where you'd be wrong. I mustart tolled ya about how stupid my dad was when he bought an '83 Pontiac Parisienne with a 3-speed slushbox instead of the 4-speed. What a cheapskate dope. Then again, Dad hardly ever took long trips and only worked 5 miles from home, so I softened my stance on it. After Dad passed away, I drove the car out to my sister in Portland, OR. Dad always gave her his cars when he replaced them. Car was getting tank after tank at 28, 27.5, 28.5, 29 MPG - and we crossed the continental divide a couple times cruising around Yellowstone Park. That dead bastard was sure smart for not shelling out the extra bucks for a 4-speed. With the great highway fuel mileage that big boat got, I really can't see how it would have ever saved a couple hunnert dollars of gas to pay for the price of the option.

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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by theholycow »

The Parisienne probably had a 2.73 or taller rear end. I bet either first gear was lackluster or the ratios were very far away from each other.

My Buick's 3 speed auto has decently spaced ratios, a tall rear end, lackluster first gear, and highway cruising well beyond its torque peak.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by IMBoring25 »

It was built when a national 55 mph speed limit was in effect. Does that still put it above the torque peak in cruise?
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by theholycow »

I think that probably puts it right at the torque peak at 55mph...but is torque peak's RPM necessarily the most efficient cruising RPM? It certainly isn't in my VW, that's for sure. That's why I was talking about being above it...I imagine it should really cruise well below torque peak.

Which, BTW, it will soon. Image I'm actually concerned that it might be a little TOO tall but I'm willing to take that chance. Image
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by Rope-Pusher »

IMBoring25 wrote:It was built when a national 55 mph speed limit was in effect. Does that still put it above the torque peak in cruise?
Who nose? That car had no tach. 2-sumpin axle ratio. Lock-m-up torque converger. 4.3L V6 TBI. Torque peak in the 2500 rpm range. Tall tires with a few extra slices pumped into them. And I was cussing about 65 MPH. The back seat was big enuff to keep the two kids separated when they wore their belts. The trunk was big enough for all our luggage AND two (2) dead bodies (I was helping to finance the trip by making a delivery for my Uncle Vinny, capiche?). Life was good, Dad was dead, but he had the last laugh.
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Re: 50 Worst Cars of All Time

Post by IMBoring25 »

Most economical cruise should certainly be well below the torque peak. However, if you're interested in the car maintaining speed climbing hills without what, given the wide ratios of the gear box, is likely to be a pretty clunky downshift, torque peak might be a good compromise to strike.
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