Hot on the heels of TTAC's Ten Worst Automobiles award, Forbes has released their fourth annual "Automotive Turkeys" list. Their selection process is much more boring scientific than TTAC's reader nomination/voting method. Forbes bases their selection on such factors as NHTSA recalls, reliability ratings from Consumer Reports, depreciation and crash-test ratings. Like TTAC's Ten Worst, Forbes' is heavy with Chrysler products– althought the Ten Worst-winning Jeep Compass is conspicuous by its absence (the donor Dodge Caliber made it, though). Unlike TTAC's Ten Worst, the automakers had formal responses to Forbes' list, reacting "with surprise and some resistance to being included." Here's their take on 2007's ten worst, in numerical order.
1. Chrysler Sebring*
2. Dodge Nitro*
3. Jeep Liberty
4. Dodge Caliber**
5. Dodge Magnum
6. Ford Crown Victoria
7. Chevy Aveo*
8. Nissan Quest
9. Hyundai Entourage
10. Grand Prix**
*TTAC Ten Worst Winner
**TTAC Ten Worst Finalist
Today’s theme: Turkey Monday, not Cyber Monday. What next?
The Entourage, Quest and Crown Vic? WTF? Is Forbes on expensive, designer, hallucination-inducing crack?
uhh, what is a Hyundai Entourage?
Mrb00st:
uhh, what is a Hyundai Entourage?
A badge engineered Kia Sedona minivan. They got good reviews but have been laggards on the sales lot despite $3k-$5k discounts – both which they have in common with the Nissan Quest.
I had to laugh at the Sebring as #1. My wife and I rented one last week on vacation. She doesn’t pay much attention to cars but got in and said “who makes this piece of crap?” The plastic crap interior was accentuated by a leaking windshield washer tank and a sticky turn signal lever (with only 1,000 miles on it). Yay Chrysler!
John
Forbes – the ultimate big money dilbert “clean hands” type auto “enthusiast” magazine.
To them, a BMW 3 series is an economy car.
Long live the Panther!
Perhaps the most entertaining part of the Forbes article were the manufacturer responses. Lame spin worthy of a Senator :).
It would be interesting to see the numbers behind the tally. I suspect that some models got on the list primarily because of one factor, such as depreciation, where others are likely all-duds doing poorly in all four ranking categories.
jthorner:
It would be interesting to see the numbers behind the tally. I suspect that some models got on the list primarily because of one factor, such as depreciation, where others are likely all-duds doing poorly in all four ranking categories.
If you go to the slide show displaying each winner, they give the rationale behind each being included.
I know that the Nissan Quest has worse-than-average reliability rating at CR — one of the Forbes criteria.
I think it is hilarious that the top 5 cars are Chrysler products.
Taxman100: “… to them [Forbes], a BMW 3-series is an economy car…”
Not according to this Forbes article.
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Nissan still makes the Quest? Who knew? I can’t remember the last time I actually saw one.
1. Chrysler Sebring
2. Dodge Nitro
3. Jeep Liberty
4. Dodge Caliber
5. Dodge Magnum
Damn, that’s got to hurt. Poor Chrysler.
I object to the Crown Vic being there though.