Worst Cars of all time....

I actually kind of dig the Cube, but then I drive an Element which looks like a toaster.

The back end of the Soul looks like a hearse. Hideous design.

 

My dad bought my sister a Vega as a college graduation gift back in the early 70s and it was the biggest piece of crap ever. I knew a lot of people who had them (I was too young to drive) and nobody had a good word to say about them.

 

My first two were disasters. A 1988 Mustang was worthless in snow, rusted like crazy and drank oil. And a 1995 Dodge Stratus, the first year it was out, had engine problems like crazy. They fixed them all by 1997, but by then I was long past my warranty and had sank thousands into it.

 

My Gremlin was a '76. It was brick red and covered in Dead stickers. I drove it all over tarnation for a year.
Eventually, it developed a huge hole in the muffler, which I could not afford to fix.
Then the head gasket went and black oil smoke used to pour out of the hood.

I looked so cool when I rolled up to a stop sign or traffic light.

 

My Uncle Benny's car, right down to the banana yellow paint.

I have still never forgiven GM for this abortion from my childhood, with the bald spot on the roof where the paint rusted off, the headliner that sagged thanks to the cheap-ass glue they used, and even the dorky yellow tab that used to cover up the odometer whenever it was time for catalytic converter service.

 

My cousin had one of those. After a while, the pop-up headlights stopped working. They would get stuck in the "open" position, often one at a time. Looked like her car was winking at you if you approached it from the front.

 

My cars ranked from worst to best:

1. '91 Cutlas Calais (in '97)
2. '89 Ford Probe ('99)
3. '05 Impala
4. '97 Dodge Intrepid (00-06)
5. '02 Trailblazer

 

Ford Probe is the worst name by far, though.

 

That's a matter of personal preference.

 

The original name was the Ford Anal Intruder, but it didn't test well.

 

1. 70-something Dodge Omni. Ended up letting my sister drive it ('85).
2. 92 Mercury Mystique ('99-'02).
3. 95 Pontiac Bonneville ('06-'09, died for good one week after I paid it off)
4. 78 Chevy Caprice ('86). After-factory AC and cruise rigged in. Made in Canuckistan so I was always reading the wrong numbers on the speedometer (speedometre?)
5. 86 Chevy Caprice ('95). Not as bad as the 78. Not much difference, either. Amazing how cars made 8 years apart were so similar.

 

In all seriousness, the original name was going to be "Mustang" and it really didn't test well.

The car that became the Ford Probe (based on the old Mazda 626/MX-6) was going to be the 1988 or '89 Mustang before sales of the Fox-platform rear-drive Mustang picked up ... and before the predicted oil/gas crisis of the 1980s evaporated and prices dropped to all-time lows. Once that market changed and customers who knew about the plan objected (loudly) to the ultimate American pony car becoming a reskin of a front-drive Japanese car, the name change happened.

Before that, there were five different Ford Probe concept cars in the early 1980s exploring future design possibilities (Taurus, Sable, Ford Sierra/Merkur XR4ti). None had any bearing on the production Ford Probe's design; they needed a name quickly and grabbed one.