1. 1899 Horsey Horseless

This bizarre vehicle was intended to soothe the nerves of horses that shared the road with automobiles. From the crackpot mind of inventor Uriah Smith of Battle Creek, Michigan, came a buggy with a wooden horse head attached to the front. Hoping that this would cause the buggy to resemble a horse drawn carriage. Smith even recommended that the horse head be hollow and full of fuel, because that wouldn’t be dangerous or anything right? “The live horse would be thinking of another horse,” said Smith,”and before he could discover his error and see that he had been fooled, the strange carriage would be passed.” History isn’t 100% clear on whether or not the Horsey Horseless was ever built or if it was just a pipe dream from a nut job, either way it’s a terrible idea.

http://www.carophile.org/the-worst-cars-of-all-time/

2. 1911 Overland OctoAuto

Designer Milton Reeves rejected the general consensus that automobiles only needed four wheels, feeling that six or eight wheels was a better idea. Under the auspice that more wheels would equate to a smoother ride, Reeves began modifying a 1910 Overland. Welding in some parts, adding two more axles and four more guncart-style wheels, Reeves gave birth to the OctoAuto. He displayed the Frankenstein monster of a car proudly at the Indianapolis 500. The OctoAuto measured over 20ft long. Zero orders for this hideous vehicle were made, but Reeves didn’t let that stop him. The following year he tried again with the Sextauto, which was a six wheel, single axle design. As evidenced by the lack of six wheels on normal cars today, the Sextauto was also a flop.

3. 1913 Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo

The Scripps-Booth Bi-Autogo was a massive 3,200 lb motorcycle with training wheels, a V8 engine, and copper tubing everywhere. This crazy idea is the brainchild of James Scripps-Booth, an heir of the Scripps publishing fortune and a self taught auto engineer. The two-wheeled Bi-Autogo carried the weight of the vehicle on 37-in wooden wheels. When going slow, the driver could lower smaller wheels on outriggers to stabilize the vehicle, preventing it from tipping over. Even for 1913 this was a bizarre vehicle. One good thing that came out of the creation of the Bi-Autogo is the V8 engine. This was the first vehicle to come out of Detroit with a V8 engine in it, making it at least somewhat important to history.

4. 1920 Briggs and Stratton Flyer

By time 1920 rolled around we had started to get the hang of building automobiles. Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, and Voisin were all producing luxurious automobiles and pushing forward with technological advancements. On the other end of the spectrum was the Briggs and Stratton Flyer. Compared to other automobiles you could hardly call the Flyer a car, it was pretty much a motorized bench with bicycle tires on it. No body, no suspension, no windshield, and no style, this vehicle was an attempt to make a very cheap automobile. The Flyer was powered by a tiny 2 horsepower engine driving a traction wheel, similar to a boat with an outboard motor. No actual power went to the Flyers axles.

5. 1933 Fuller Dymaxion

Designed by R. Buckminster Fuller, the Fuller Dymaxion was initially conceived as a flying machine. The plan was to install jet engines and inflatable wings, so you could drive it like a car and then inflate the wings and fly away when you want a plane. The wings never became a part of the production model, and without them the Dymaxion looked like a goofy pill rolling down the road. The Dymaxion was a three-wheel vehicle, with a levered A-arm carrying the rear wheel, which swiveled like the tail of an airplane. The first model had a terrible wobble from the rear wheel, the next two built were bigger and heavier, while the third model had a stabilizer fin on the roof. A fatal accident involving the Dymaxion ( due to unknown causes) killed the vehicles chances of public acceptance.

6. 1934 Chrysler/DeSoto Airflow

Truthfully the only reason that the Airflow is labeled as a “worst” car is that it was ahead of its time. The design of the Airflow is similar to cars that were developed in the 50’s. Aerodynamic body, steel subframe, 50-50 weight distribution, and light weight are all features of the Airflow. For whatever reason though, in the 30’s Americans did not get on board with the Airflow’s dramatically different design style. Some of the issue likely was derived from the major problems that plagued the Airflow. It’s never good when an engine falls out of a car. The radical construction techniques used to craft the Airflow had yet to be perfected. Chrysler and Desto tried to restyle later models, but there was no coming back from the bad taste already in the consumers mouths and sales never took off.

7. 1949 Crosley Hotshot

The Crosley Hotshot was the first postwar America sports car, and it was a pile of garbage. The Hotshot was slow, dangerous, and weighed very little for a steel car, clocking in at 1,100 lbs. The Hotshot can be seen in the 1961 driver’s ed video Mechanized Death, where it appears mangled and smashed up. The Hotshot was designed by Powel Crosley Jr., of Cincinnati. Crosley had radio fame, but he wanted to build cars, which he did, poorly. It had CIBA (Cast-Iron Block Assembly) which was average at the time. There was good things too… A Super Sport (Hotshot with doors) won the Efficiency Index at the 1951 LeMans race.

8. 1956 Renault Dauphine

The Renault Dauphine is a french made vehicle that originally was to be named the Corvette. Luckily that name was used for a much better vehicle. The Dauphine was so rickety and the metal used was so paper thin that rust was guaranteed. The design was similar to other cars of the time, it just used low quality materials. Worse than the shoddy construction was the Dauphines performance. It took the drivers of Road and Track 32 seconds to reach 60 mph. That’s slower than even the weakest vehicles sold today. Somehow this super cheap, poorly built vehicle managed to sell over 2 million units around the world. Just goes to show that at the time people would buy any car, just to say that they had a car.

9. 1957 King Midget Model III

In the 50’s, Caud Dry and Dale Orcutt, of Athens, Ohio, decided that they were going to create cars that everyone could afford. They started with the Model I, offering the vehicle as a home-built kit. The kit contained a frame, axles, and sheet metal patterns that needed to be crafted by someone with fabrication skills. Any single-cylinder engine would power the vehicle. It was like a giant do-it yourself model that you could drive down the road after you built it. Somehow they remained in business until the late 60’s, with their crowning achievement being the Model III. The Model III was a folded steel box with a 9 horsepower motor. Thankfully government safety standards caused the King Midget to become nothing more than a memory.

10. 1957 Waterman Aerobile

Waldo Waterman once heard aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss remark how he would like to drive and airplane away from the airfield. After hearing this Waterman went to work and spent years developing the Aerobile. In 1934 he flew a prototype, the “Arrowplane”, which was a high wing monoplane with tricycle wheels. The wings folded against the fuselage when it was on the ground, like an insect’s wings. The fact that the wings folded backwards is terrifying to think about, considering a failure in the air would just fold the wings back and plunge you to your death. Decades later in 1957 Waterman perfected his design, the Aerobile. No one wanted to tempt death by buying one of these machines, so the one working prototype resides in the Smithsonian as the first flying car.

11. 1958 Ford Edsel

The Ford Edsel was doomed once the hype machine surrounding the car got rolling. The marketing department at Ford led everyone to believe the Edsel would be a fantastical car of the future, a plutonium powered scientific wonder. What they delivered was a Mercury. The Edsel wasn’t that bad a car. Sure it looked kinda plain, it drank gas, and it was far too expensive, especially during the 50’s recession, but it wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Some critics blame the Edsel’s failure on the grille,which resembled a vagina. Apparently 50’s America was really phobic about the female nether regions. In truth it was probably a mixture of all of the above as well as the public jumping on the bandwagon with critics.

12. 1958 Lotus Elite

Back in the 50’s, fiberglass was used as an alternative to steel when building sports cars. It was durable, versatile, lighter than steel, and cheaper than aluminium. Fiberglass was the carbon fiber of the 50’s and Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, was all about using it. The Lotus Elite was built primarily out of the material. Weighing 1,100 lbs and powered by a 75 horsepower engine, the Elite was a very successful race car. It was also a very popular little coupe, that was until the suspension mounts couldn’t handle the strain of the vehicle and broke through the body. Weight reduction is a good thing in race cars, there is a line that crosses into the unsafe and the vehicle is no longer structurally sound. Chapman found this out the hard way with the Lotus Elite.

13. 1958 MGA Twin Cam

The original motor offered in the MGA was a fine engine, but someone at MG decided that the MGA needed more power and the company offered an optional high-performance engine with dual overhead cams. This motor was not the upgrade that MG wanted it to be. The engine leaked, burned pistons, fouled spark plugs, and caused all kinds of headaches for owners. Unless you were a gearhead and routinely checked timing, fuel octane, and made sure to stay within RPM limits the Twin Cam motor would break apart and puke oil all over the place. Long after the vehicle was retired, the problem was narrowed down to the carburetors. At certain RPMs the fuel would froth, causing a lean condition and burning the pistons.

14. 1958 Zundapp Janus

Zundapp was a well known motorcycle manufacturer based in Nuremberg, Germany. During a low point in motorcycle sales the company decided to try its hand at building a car. Based on a Dornier prototype, the Janus was powered by a 250cc 14 horsepower engine, with a top speed of 50 mph. If you actually wanted to go 50 mph, you needed plenty of road and time on your hands. The backseat had a rear facing bench seat, so passengers could watch traffic go around this slow moving pile of metal. The Janus’s design resembled a trapezoidal shaped VW Bug, with less charm. Sales were dismal, and the Janus was discontinued, ending this rolling hazards life as an automobile.

15. 1961 Amphicar

The Amphicar was designed to be a car and a boat, the problem was it wasn’t very good at either of these jobs. As a car the handling was average but the engine wasn’t particularly great and it wasn’t much of a looker either. As a boat the Amphicar was incredibly slow, with a top speed of 7 mph. It maneuvered through the water rather well considering it was a boat-car, but the biggest problem was that the Amphicar was not water tight. The car leaked from various places and the only reason the car stayed afloat was because the bilge pump was able to keep up with the leaks. If the bilge pump wore out, or was unable to keep up, the Amphicar would cease to be a boat and turn into a sinking car.

16. 1961 Corvair

One of the main reasons the Corvair was such a terrible car was due to Chevrolet neglecting to put a decent rear suspension in the vehicle. Due to the power of the rear engine 6 cylinder the Corvair was packing, it was very easy to spin out. This is a common issue with rear engine vehicles, and the best way to counter it is with a good suspension to make the issue manageable. On top of being hard to control, the Corvair was prone to oil leaks and there were claims that the single-piece steering column could impale the driver in a frontal crash. The heating system had a tendency to pump fumes into the car as well, due to a gasoline-burner heater located in the front “trunk.”

17. 1966 Peel Trident

The Peel Trident looks like it belongs in a low rent science fiction movie. Shaped like a flying saucer, the Trident was designed and built in the Isle of Man in the 1960’s. It was the second three-wheeled microcar developed by the Peel Engineering Company. The Trident had a clear bubble top made of plexiglass, and as much as it looked futuristic, it was a terrible idea. The sun beating down on the plexiglass made the interior uncomfortably hot. The engine was a 49 cc DKW engine, and had a top speed of 28 mph. The trident was also cramped, turned out being one of the smallest cars in the world was a negative feature. One the plus side the Trident did get 83 mpg.

18. 1968 Subaru 360

The Subaru 360 was a tiny, adorable, bubble-shaped car that resembled the Volkswagen Beetle. The 360 looks cute, but don’t be deceived by looks, this car is terrible. Less than ten feet long and powered by a 25 horsepower two-stroke engine, the Subaru 360 goes nowhere fast. Top speed of the 360 was 55 mph and it took 37.5 seconds to go from zero to 50 mph. The doors are hinged at the rear edges and open into the wind. There are no burst-proof latches and the drivers door cannot be locked from the inside. God forbid you didn’t fully latch the door before you started driving, as a burst of air at as low as 20 mph would fling your door open with ease. If you encountered a vehicle you needed to pass (which would probably be a feat in itself) it took over 30 seconds to go from 30 to 50 mph.

19. 1970 Bond Bug Three-Wheeler

The Bond Bug is the product of car designers being captivated by the idea of making cars with fiberglass. Since they didn’t have to deal with the expensive process of bending sheet metal, or be held down by the limitations of sheet metal, they could make a vehicle look however they wanted. The result was a vehicle that looked like the nose of a spaceship from a sci-fi movie on wheels. In order to save money, the manufacturer used only three wheels, because British tax law made it cheaper to license a vehicle with only three wheels. The Bond Bug came in only one color: neon orange, further adding to the bizarreness of the vehicle. If the goofy looks weren’t enough, the three wheel design made it easy for the Bond Bug to roll over, making it an ugly car that was also unsafe.

20. 1970 AMC Gremlin

Richard Teague designed some cool cars like the Oldsmobile Rocket and the AMC Hornet, he also designed the horrible AMC Gremlin. Trying to beat Ford and GM to the market with an affordable subcompact, AMC created the Gremlin. The Gremlin had an odd shape to it, with an elongated front end and a stunted rear end. This lead to weight distribution issues and caused handling problems. The six-cylinder motor was heavy and choppy, but had some power behind it. The Gremlin was faster than the others in its class, but a rubbish suspension and poor handling made it dangerous to go too fast. The Gremlin is a good example of a car manufacturer trying to cut corners to save a buck and ending up with a subpar vehicle.

21. 1970 Triumph Stag

Debuting in 1970 the Triumph Stag was marketed as “A Different Kind of Triumph.” They weren’t wrong, the Stag is different all right, just not in a good way. Previous Triumphs were regarded as handsome, while the Stag was awkward and rather ugly. The Stag was a convertible, but because the chassis was weak, a fat roll hoop was attached to the windshield header in order to give the chassis more rigidity. This took away the convertible look and turned it into something unique and weird. A newly developed V-8 engine was used in the Stag, which was more powerful than the V-6 usually seen in Triumphs. Unfortunately the V-8 engine was terribly unreliable. Timing chains broke and main bearings were known to seize. The Stag marked the beginning of the end for the Triumph brand.

22. 1971 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Two-Door Hardtop

The Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Two-Door Hardtop was a ugly as it was unreliable. The exterior was boxy and plain, with some of the longest fenders in automotive history. The LeBaron Two-Door handled like you would expect a 19 foot road boat to handle, poorly. Steering was very floaty, adding to the turn radius of the over-sized vehicle. The suspension did an admirable job of absorbing road feel, resulting in a comfortable ride at least. It was powered by Chrysler 440 V-8 engine, which had a history of problems ranging from leaks to engine failure. For a vehicle with a 350 horsepower engine, the LeBaron was rather slow; taking 10 seconds to reach 60 mph.

23. 1971 Ford Pinto

The Ford Pinto was a mediocre car at best. It handled ok enough, the suspension was decent, and the engine while not powerful, was reliable. What makes the Pinto such a terrible car was the safety risk involved in driving one. When involved in a rear end collision, the Pinto had a tendency to burst into flames. This was due to the rear end not having enough reinforcement to protect the fuel tank. To make matters even worse, there was a memo sent out by the Ford company to its senior management regarding this problem. In the memo the powers that be at Ford outline that it would cost $70 million dollars less to pay the families of those injured than it would cost to reinforce the fuel tank.

24. 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV

The previous model Lincoln Continental’s were well made, popular vehicles. The Mark IV was a misstep for the Lincoln company. Stylistic choices are among the top complaints for the Mark IV. A tacky opera window, a standard vinyl roof, and flip-up headlights that didn’t always work were the among the top offenders. The Mark IV handled horribly, needing plenty of room to navigate a corner and requiring constant attention to keep it from veering off the road. The Mark IV had a decent engine, producing 365 horsepower, but the tightening emissions restrictions crippled the engine, After all the changes to comply with emission standards, the Mark IV was reduced to a whimpy 212 horsepower engine.

25. 1974 Jaguar XK-E V12 Series III

The Jaguar E-Type was a fantastic car in the 60’s, with a sleek design and powerful engine. In 1974 it had become a shadow of its former self. Trying to meet the strict emissions standards of the U.S., Jaguar replaced the reliable 4.2 liter six-cylinder that was used in previous E-Types for a 5.3 liter V12. The oversized engine added a great deal of weight to the front end, making the sports car nose heavy. The engine was also difficult to keep tuned, as there were now double the valves. The exterior was unappealing, with a stretched out nose (needed to house that huge engine) and oversized fenders. The body lines were a mess and the bumpers were made of rubber, this was not Jaguar’s best outing and the sales reflected it.

26. 1975 Triumph TR7

Five years after the failure that was the Triumph Stag, Triumph delivered the TR7. Shaped like a wedge, the TR7 was just as poorly built as the Stag. The electrical system was a nightmare, with short circuits a common occurrence. The carburetors needed constant maintenance to keep the car running properly. Timing chains snapped, the roof leaked, both the oil and water pump were known to fail, and the flip up headlights refused to flip up. There was even a report of the rear axle falling off the car. The TR7 was one of the last vehicles sold by Triumph in America, and was one of the last vehicles made by the company before closing its doors in 1984.

27. 1975 Bricklin SV1

The Bricklin SV1 was the creation of Malcolm Bricklin, a millionaire who had previously founded Subaru of America. The designer of the Bricklin was Herb Grasse. The plan for the Bricklin SV-1 was to make a safe and economical sports car; the SV stood for “Safety Vehicle.” Unfortunately due to the weight of all the added safety features, the Bricklin was just a safe sports car. The roll cage, motorized gull-wing doors, and 5 mph bumpers proved too heavy for the V-8 engine to handle. Bricklin tried to bond fiberglass to acrylic plastic, which had yet to be perfected at the time, resulting in higher failure rates and production costs. The radiator was small and had only a single opening, causing many Bricklins to overheat.

28. 1975 Trabant

Meaning “satellite” in German, the Trabant’s name was inspired by the Soviet Sputnik. The vehicle was produced in East Germany and is an example of a vehicle created by communism. The engine was outdated and inefficient, with only 26 horsepower, and the exhaust was incredibly smoky and full of pollutants. The Trabant produced nine times the hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxide emissions of the average European car of 2007. The two-stroke engine didn’t have an oil injection system, so oil needed to be added to the fuel tank. Speaking of fuel tanks, the lack of a fuel pump in the Trabant meant the fuel tank needed to be placed above the motor in the engine bay. This is so fuel could be gravity fed to the carburetor. The fuel tank being in that location increased the risk of fire in front end accidents.

29. 1975 Morgan Plus 8 Propane

The Morgan Motor Company made some great cars during it’s time. With wing fenders, wooden-frame bodies, and single pillar front suspensions, Morgans are built to emulate the old fashioned way cars were built. If you didn’t know better you would think their vehicles were built in the 30’s. In the early 70’s the U.S. emissions and safety standards became more strict, and Morgan ended up having to stop selling cars in the US. In an effort to continue the life of the Morgan Plus 8, Bill Fink, a rich car dealer, managed to retrofit a Buick/Rover 8 and get it running on propane. For a few years people were driving around with a tank of propane hanging behind the rear bumper, making the Morgan Plus 8 almost as dangerous as the Pinto.

30. 1976 Aston Martin Lagonda

Designed by William Towns the Aston Martin Lagonda was described as an extreme interpretation of the classic 1970’s “folded paper” style. When it came out and to this day the Lagonda is considered an oddly designed car. The interior was awash in leather and the electronic instrumentation was state of the art for its time. The problem is the electronics failed constantly. The Lagonda was outfitted with digital LED dashboards and touch pad controls, that were great when they worked, but for the most part they didn’t. Mechanical failure was a common problem with the Lagonda as well, with the engine needing constant repairs. On paper the Lagonda was a great idea, but the technology wasn’t fully fleshed out at the time. Unless you had a background in electronics and auto mechanics, you would have a hard time keeping the Lagonda on the road.

31. 1976 Chevrolet Chevette

The Chevette was constructed to be an inexpensive economy class vehicle. While the succeeded in their quest, the end result was an unreliable pile of junk. Light switches shorted out, transmissions failed early in the vehicle’s life, and sometimes the car just wouldn’t start. The Chevette had a slow top speed due to its tiny 51 horsepower engine and weak four-speed transmission. The brakes were terribly inadequate, making it difficult to stop the vehicle. looks wise, the Chevette was a rather ugly little car,with a long snout and stumpy body. Due to brand loyalty, plenty of people bought the Chevette when it came out, and because of their experiences with it many ended up switching car brands to get the bad taste of the Chevette out of their mouths.

32. 1978 FSO Polonez

The FSO Polonez is a Polish vehicle, that was considered by many to be one of the most undependable, unstylish cars ever made. The car’s name comes from the Polish dance, polonaise. The materials used to build the Polonez were cheap and resulted in the car being relatively unsafe. Jeremy Clarkson of BBC’s Top Gear had these choice words to say about the Polonez: Built by communists out of steel so thin you could use it as a neck curtain, it is as reliable and long lasting as a pensioner’s erection. I can only assume that here, [the stylist] was experimenting with trying to design a car after consuming four liters of absinthe.” Even though it was a rather terrible car, the Polonez was produced until 2002.

33. 1978 AMC Pacer

It may have been the car Wayne and Garth drove in Wayne’s World, but the AMC Pacer was far from a good car. Even with the icon status the Pacer has achieved due to those films, it is still regarded as one of the ugliest cars of all time, as made evident by a poll done by Hagerty Insurance. The large, bulbous windshield acted like a magnifying glass and rapidly heated up the car’s interior and not even the A/C system could save you; that is, when the A/C actually worked. The Pacer had asymmetric doors – the right was longer than the left, so passengers could climb into the back more easily. But the oddball design feature had unexpected consequences. When the Pacer was converted into a station wagon, items stored in the back fell out when the right door was opened.

34. 1980 Corvette 305 “California”

Thanks to the strict federal emissions requirements of the 70’s, many of the gas guzzling muscle cars we all love from the 60’s ended up as underpowered shadows of their former selves in the 70’s and 80’s. Of the cars depowered in this way, the Corvette was hit hardest, even worse was the “California” edition. Due to even stricter standards in California, the Corvette ended up with a weak V-8 motor that put out 180 horsepower and a power-draining three-speed automatic transmission. This was a Corvette in name only, the essence was stripped out of it and it’s dead husk was sold to the public. Thankfully as technology advanced we found ways to make the Corvette comply with emissions regulations and be the powerhouse we love.

35. 1980 Ferrari Mondial 8

Ferrari isn’t a company you would expect to have a car on this list, but even the italian supercar company made some mistakes. The Mondial was based on the 308 chassis and was big, heavy, and weak for a Ferrari. The mid-engine V-8 only had an output of 214 horsepower. The electronics had a habit of failing and the smell of burning wires wasn’t uncommon. The engine itself had its fair share of problems as well. Some of the blame for the Mondials shortcomings can be blamed on the decision to make a more affordable Ferrari, leading to a cheap vehicle. Seems like anytime a high end sports car company tries to make a low cost sports car they end up with something like the Mondial.

36. 1981 Cadillac Fleetwood V-8-6-4

The Cadillac Fleetwood V-8-6-4 was a pretty reliable, well made car, with the exception of one thing: the cylinder deactivation technology. Here in 2015, cylinder deactivation is a stellar idea. When the engine is under light load, the on-board computer deactivates a cylinder bank and the car saves on gas mileage. In 1981 however, on-board computers were still in their beta stages. The V-8-6-4’s cylinder deactivation was anything but smooth. The ECM lacked the programming and processing power needed to manage the system efficiently. The car would jerk, buck, stall, shudder, and in extreme instances fail. Cadillac issued thirteen updated PROM chips for the ECM to correct the issue, but it still wasn’t enough. Luckily the vehicle could be taken to the dealer to have the system deactivated.

37. 1981 DeLorean DMC-12

The DeLorean may be an iconic car due to its role in the Back to the Future films, but as a real world car the DeLorean was nowhere near as cool as its time traveling counterpart. The brainchild of John Z. DeLorean, the first DeLoreans were produced in a factory in Northern Ireland. The car was heavy, under powered and over priced. The little 2.8 liter Peugeot V-6 under the hood was ill-equipped to move the massive stainless steel monster. Without some modifications, it’s questionable if the DeLorean could actually get up to 88 mph. The one thing the DeLorean had going for it was that it was a cool looking car, especially the doors. The only problem with the gullwing style doors was that once the struts wore out, you needed to have plenty of arm strength to open and close them. Dropping one of those steel doors on your leg would not feel good.

38. 1982 Cadillac Cimarron

In an effort to get into the luxury compact market during the 80’s, Cadillac rushed production of the Cimarron. They took a GM small car platform and covered it in glitz. Leather upholstery, air conditioning, alloy wheels, intermittent wipers, and anything else that they could cram into the car were added. Customers saw right through Cadillacs ploy and immediately recognized the car for what it was: a Chevrolet Cavalier covered in glitz and glam. The engine was the same little four-cylinder found in the Buick Skyhawk and the Oldsmobile Firenza. Cadillac tried to keep the Cimarron alive, even adding in a V-6 option in 1985, but consumers never took the bait. In 1988 the Cimarron was discontinued. The Cimarron was such a colossal failure that Cadillac product director John Howell kept a picture of it in his office with the caption “Lest we forget” written on it.

39. 1982 Camaro Iron Duke

The Camaro is a car known for having a big powerful motor and the potential for speed. The 1982 Camaro Iron Duke was the exact opposite of this. The engine was a 2.5 liter, four-cylinder that had a underwhelming 50 horsepower. The Iron Duke was the smallest, weakest, most un-Camaro engine ever placed under the hood of a Camaro. To make matters worse, the Iron Duke was mated to a three-speed pile of garbage transmission. With a zero to sixty time of over 20 seconds, the Iron Duke went nowhere fast. It’s pretty embarrassing when you’re sitting behind the wheel of a Camaro and a grandmother in a station wagon blows past you like you’re standing still.

40. 1984 Maserati Biturbo

The Maserati Biturbo is another example of a luxury car manufacturer trying to build smaller, more affordable cars. In a bold move, Maserati stopped making supercars and focused on smaller vehicles, resulting in the creation of the Biturbo. The Biturbo was an awkward clone of the BMW 3-series, with rear wheel drive and a six-cylinder engine. The engine was equipped with a twin-turbo, the first ever twin-turbo on a production vehicle. If anything, Maserati deserves a little credit for being the first to stuff a twin-turbo into a production vehicle. The Biturbo would have been a good car, if it wasn’t so poorly made. If it could leak, break, burn out, seize up, or just stop working, it would do so on the Biturbo

41. 1985 Mosler Consulier GTP

Built by Warren Mosler, the Consulier GTP was a race car built of of bits and pieces of other cars. The engine from one car, a steering column from another, mix matched gauges, a suspension from here, and a transmission from over there. His intention was to save money and make the car lighter. In this he succeeded, the car had a superior power-to-weight ratio and was eventually banned from racing. The issue with the Consulier GTP was the looks. This was one of the most hideous cars ever built, looking like something that was slapped together in the backyard of an eastern bloc country. This experiment proves that building a car is much harder than it looks, and requires more than just technical knowledge.

42. 1985 Alfa Romeo GTV 6

Usually the GTV badge is worn on powerful Alfa Romeo vehicles, having been proudly worn on rally champions in the 60’s and 70’s. During the underpowered 80’s the badge was worn on the less than impressive GTV 6. The exterior of the GTV 6 was praised, the fastback body was aggressive and fitting for a vehicle wearing the GTV badge. Unfortunately the engine of the GTV 6 was a disaster. The gaskets, hoses, and belts were all brittle and prone to failure, resulting in the GTV 6 leaking constantly, in some cases suffering engine failure. To make matters worse, Alfa Romeo left the U.S. market in the 90’s making replacement parts difficult to locate.

43. 1985 Yugo GV

Imported by Malcolm Bricklin, the same guy who designed the Bricklin SV1, the Yugo GV was a terrible car. Built in Soviet-bloc Yugoslavia, the Yugo GV seemed like it was thrown together quickly so the assembler could go somewhere else, perhaps to assemble a better car. The engine was weak, resulting in poor acceleration and a low top speed. The engine also routinely failed, due to the timing belt snapping. The electrical system was known to have shorts, resulting is that wonderful burning wires smell filling the cabin and sometimes pieces of the car would just fall off. There’s some people who claim that rigorous maintenance of the Yugo will keep it running with no problems, but a pile of junk that you need to constantly maintain is still a pile of junk.

44. 1989 Eagle Premier

There was nothing redeeming about the Eagle Premier. There was no style to the exterior design, with generic body lines and boxy edges. The engine was a 2.5 liter AMC four-cylinder that produced an underwhelming 111 horsepower. The interior was plain and without frills, even though the car was marketed as a luxury vehicle. Everything about the Premier was underwhelming, it was as though the designers didn’t even try to make a car that consumers would want. This car looks like the generic silhouette of a vehicle in which you would spot only on a 25-year old poster that has been hanging in tired DMV, generic and apathetic in nature, faded and defeated from years of exposure to fluorescent lighting and the restless complaints of impatient souls.

45. 1990 Ford Explorer

The Ford Explorer is one of the top selling cars in Ford’s stable, and rightfully so, the Explorer is a great vehicle. The reason the Explorer is on the list is due to the Ford/Firestone tire controversy. When first sold in 1990, Ford internal documents show the company engineers recommended changes to the vehicle after it rolled over in tests prior to production. Rather than follow through with these changes, ford lowered the recommended psi of the tires to 26. The lower pressure led to the tires getting hot, which led to tread separation, leading to the vehicle rolling over. Over 240 deaths resulted from these failure and over 3,000 estimated catastrophic injuries also resulted from the issue.

46. 1991 Subaru SVX

Subaru is not known for making bad cars, if anything they are lauded as one of the better car makers on the planet, but the SVX is a definite misstep on their part. The SVX stands as a monument to misguided styling, with odd panel breaks and complex windows that defined the car – and killed it in the showroom. The windows were a two-part design, with fixed outer sections that had sliding panes set within them. They might have made sense to the stylist who came up with them, but to everyone else, the windows seemed ridiculous. Like the fashion of wearing clothes backwards during the mercifully brief reign of the hip hop duo Kris Kross, the SVX’s radical window design died a quick death: The car was taken off the market in 1995, just four years after it was introduced.

47. 1995 BMW 318ti

Introduced in 1995 the BMW 318ti was a three-door hatchback targeted at customers who couldn’t afford the more expensive 3-series. BMW tried to get away with making an incredibly cheap car, and assumed that people would but it just because it had a BMW badge on it. Consumers saw through this marketing ploy, as the car looked cheap inside and out. It looked like an E36 3-series that had the rear end chopped off and replaced with a hatchback. The only engine was a weak 1.8 liter 138 horsepower four-cylinder that took more than nine seconds to reach 60 mph. The interior was covered in mostly tacky plastic and the seats were uncomfortable even on short drives. Sales where dismal as they should have been for this pile of junk.

48. 1996 Ferrari F50

After making the awesome F40, a supercar capable of speeds upwards of 190 mph, Ferrari tried to capture lightning in a bottle a second time with the F50. The engine was powerful, with a whopping 513 horsepower at the rear wheels. The Suspension perfectly tuned, letting the F50 handle corners like the supercar that it is. Those faithful to Ferrari gobbled up the less than 400 produced by Ferrari without batting an eye, but the F50 was a hideous car. The Ferrari F50 is without question the ugliest Ferrari ever built. The troughs on the hood, the deep cavities in the side panels, and the wing that was a part of the rear fender all add to the hot mess that is the Ferrari F50.

49. 1997 GM EV1

The EV1 was ahead of it’s time when it came out. It was the best electric vehicle anyone had ever seen. Designed to comply with the strict zero-emissions-vehicle mandate in California, the EV1 was a decent car. Decent power, giving it a nice amount of speed, while also being fun to drive. GM made claims that the EV1 was the next step in all electric cars, eliminating pollution causing gasoline engines. Unfortunately, GM was off the mark. The battery technology was not sufficient at the time to deliver on GM’s claims. The lead-acid batteries couldn’t give drivers the range they needed for the car to be useful. The later nickel-metal hydride batteries couldn’t handle the load either. The EV1 was also incredibly expensive to build, leading to GM terminating the project.

50. 1997 Plymouth Prowler

In the late 90’s Chrysler engineers were given free reign to design whatever they wanted in a “hod rod” or “sportster” type vehicle. The result was a design from Thomas C. Gale, the Plymouth Prowler. The Plymouth Prowler looked like a hod rod from the 30’s, only it didn’t have a hot rod engine under the hood. Cutting corners and pinching pennies, Chrysler plopped a 3.5 liter V-6 under the hood of the Prowler, giving it a less than impressive 250 horsepower. The open wheel front end and hot rod fuselage looked nice, but the lack of power made the Prowler an unappealing dud. To make matters worse, the Prowler was cursed with an automatic transmission, so you couldn’t even drive the vehicle like the speedster it appears to be.


51. 1998 Fiat Multipla

If there was an award for weirdest looking car the Fiat Multipla would have won it. The high-beams were situated at the bottom of the A-pillars, the A-pillars themselves wrapped under the windshield and connected, resulting in an ugly bulge on the hood, the rear was bulky and odd shaped, and the whole mess sat on small wheels. The whole vehicle looked like a car that was bombarded repeatedly by radiation until it mutated. Mechanically, the Multipla was a decent car. The suspension handled whatever was thrown at it, the engine provided adequate power, and the interior was comfortable. If it wasn’t such a horrendous looking vehicle, the Multipla wouldn’t be on this list. I’m not sure what Fiat was thinking when they designed this mess.

52. 2001 Pontiac Aztek

Another hideous vehicle, the Pontiac Aztec was almost universally disliked when it was unveiled at the Detroit auto show. The car was an awkward, bulky, plastic mess, that looked like nothing else on the road. Rather than embrace the unique look of the Aztek, most recoiled. Interviews with GM designers revealed that the original design for the Aztek had been fiddled with, altered, and had corners cut to reduce costs resulting in the mess that we have today. Oddly enough years after the Aztek had been removed from production, a resurgance in popularity and public interest happened, all thanks to its association with Breaking Bad. After watching lead character Walter White drive an Aztec, suddenly the car became cooler than it ever was when it was in production.

53. 2001 Jaguar X-type

The Jaguar X-Type was designed to compete with rear wheel drive compact vehicles. The problem is Jaguar, or more accurately Ford, didn’t want to spend the money to develop a new platform. Instead Ford used the Ford Contour platform to create the Jaguar X-Type. Ford upgraded the engine heads and added all-wheel drive in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. The interior was spruced up with wood veneer and a healthy dose of leather, while the exterior was giving a chrome grille similar to other Jaguar vehicles. Sales in the first year were good, with a healthy 33,018 units sold, but it didn’t last. The X-type was ridiculed for being nothing more than a re-bodied Ford and not a “real” Jaguar. Sales eventually fell off and the X-Type was put to rest.

54. 2002 BMW 7-Series

The 7-Series was and still is an awesome car. Fast, comfortable, great suspension and handling, and the standard great German engineering. What makes the 2002 7-Series one of the worst cars is the iDrive system. First introduced in 2002, the iDrive system was a goofy joystick/dial in the center console that controlled practically everything electronic in the car. Climate control, audio controls, navigation, interior lighting, the sound of the door chime, if there was a way to adjust something electronic in the car, the iDrive did it. The problem was the iDrive was a nightmare to control. Trying to navigate sub-menu after sub-menu to get to where you wanted to go was so aggravating there was a chance you would just give up and accept the car the way it was. Over the years BMW has made changes to the system to make it more user friendly, but the initially released system made the 7-Series a terrible car.

55. 2003 Citroën C3 Pluriel

The Citroën C3 Pluriel is a variant of the C3 supermini built by Citroën. While the regular version of the C3 is an efficient little car, the Pluriel variant was a disaster. The roof was removable to turn the vehicle into a convertible, but there was no room inside the car to store the roof pillars. In the event of a sudden rainstorm, the occupants were getting wet. There was a retracting fabric top that ran along the middle of the vehicle’s top, but it was prone to leaking and offered little shelter from the rain. If the roof design was built better, the Pluriel wouldn’t be on the list, but making a convertible that you can’t put the roof back on mid-trip is unforgivable.

56. 2007 BMW X6

Called “The stupidest car in the world” by Top Gear the BMW X6 is an odd design choice for BMW. Dubbed a sports activity vehicle by BMW, the X6 is a mixture of SUV and sports sedan. Sadly the X6 doesn’t perform either of those functions well. Looks-wise the X6 succeeds, with a mixture of SUV stance and sports sedan styling, performance-wise it’s another story. The tall driving position gives the X6 too high a center of gravity to be able to navigate corners like a sports car, while the off-road capabilities of the X6 don’t compare to a standard SUV. Over the years the X6 has found its stride, becoming better with each revision, but the first run X6 was a less than impressive merging of two worlds.

Ok o!

Nothing worse here o. Try me with some and see what will happen