1981 Maserati Biturbo: Kind of like a BMW 3 Series, only hideously unreliable and powered by a twin-turbocharged 2.5-liter V6 that only made 185 hp. This was cynical rebadging at its worst.Ĥ1. 1974 Ford Gran Torino Elite: Desperate to grab some of the personal luxury market, Ford swiped Mercury's Cougar coupe sheet metal, gave it an uglier nose and then misnamed it. 2003 Chevrolet SSR: Spoiled by its ridiculously heavy retractable hardtop and underwhelming TrailBlazer chassis, the SSR could have been great. That's 90, thrashing, noisy, crude horses - total - in a Camaro.Ĥ3. 1982 Chevrolet Camaro Sport Coupe: The base third-generation Camaro was powered by the 2.5-liter "Iron Duke" four-cylinder rated at 90 hp.
Plain in every way, it's the most boring car ever made.Ĥ4. 1983 Plymouth Caravelle: A stretched K-car that no one noticed when it was in production and no one misses today. According to Road & Track, it took 22.3 seconds for the 1962 Dauphine to reach 60 mph.Ĥ5. 1957 Renault Dauphine: The rear-engine, 32-hp Dauphine-made VW's Beetle seems quick. Paint hardly stuck to it and the electrics lasted a few weeks if you were lucky.Ĥ6.
#Japanese top 100 models series
1987 Sterling 825: A rebadged Rover 800 series based on the V6-powered Acura Legend, but without the reliability or resistance to rust. Initially available only with V6 engines, it was slow, too. 1989 Ford Thunderbird: It was too big, much too heavy, and too expensive to produce. Basically a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine and four wheels bolted to a bubble made from repurposed plastic straws and disappointment.Ĥ8. 1993 Ford Aspire: Built by Kia, sold by Ford and ignored by everyone. The base 2.0-liter puked out only 77 ponies.Ĥ9. The top-of-the-line engine? A 2.6-liter four-cylinder making - wait for it - 105 hp. 1978 Dodge Challenger: A Mitsubishi Galant coupe that wore the name of a muscle car legend. But it's a good idea betrayed by half-hearted engineering, haphazard quality or cynical compromises.ĥ0. The diabolical nature of these machines, however, is that there's a good idea at the heart of all of them. That doesn't mean that all the cars here were big sellers, only that their undeniable stink made everyone notice. Terrible, for this list's purposes, is loosely defined as a car that shaped American automotive culture around its bad example. And a few would melt into a pile of rust before your eyes. If there weren't bad cars, how could the world appreciate the good ones? We've ranked the top cars you can buy and given awards to the best of the best, so we thought we'd revisit the worst of the worst.