U.S. Presidential Candidate Barack Obama recently called the Ford Granada "the worst car Detroit ever built," providing us with his answer to a question that every American pistonhead asks himself at least once in a while. The Free Republic has its own list of "worst American cars" including such luminaries as the Chrysler TC by Maserati and the Chevette. MSNBC's poll of automotive excreta lists the Vega as the worst ever. But Obama's busy with campaigning, and it's been a long time since the Illinois Senator learned to drive in his grandfather's Granada. So, the question goes over to you, the Best and Brightest. Has a nastier hunk of metal than the "tin foil" Granada rolled off Detroit's production lines? I'd say the Caddy Cimarron should be up there, but then the Volare/Aspen twins have to be in the running too. Worst ever? I'll say the X-body Chevy Citation. What say you?
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I vote the Pinto! The original Ford “Exploder!”
Odd you mention those cars. Had an uncle with a Mercury Monarch, another uncle had a Dodge Aspen, and a cousin had a Chevy Citation.
I used to tell the women at the club that I drove a ‘vette. They were quite disappointed to learn that it was a Chevette.
I’m going to go with the Aspen/Volare and their subsequent spin-offs.
yep, I’ll go with the ‘first Chevy of the 80’s’, the excerable Citation and it’s clones. Awful cars.
Uhhh, yeah…the Vega is much, much worse. You still find Granadas in the junkyard, meaning they can survive 30-ish years of life.
Not to mention most Japanese cars from the 1970s have rusted to nothing by now.
Since it was mentioned in the previous blog, Obama The Car Guy should tell us how many miles were on the Granada’s front suspension before telling us how poorly it drove/felt at 80mph. :)
Aztec comes to mind, but but wasn’t so much bad as ugly.
I think he may be right!
I have to vote for the Pinto, cause I was building them. Floor pans and rear inner wheel wells had gaping holes from stretched metal, we covered them with black tape. A quarter of the gas pedals were put on with one fastener instead of 2, because the studd welded to the floor twisted off, with cross threaded nuts. Wiper motors all in with 2 screws instead of 3 because they designed the installation without sound deadener but the motor jammed on the deadener. Car was designed on the fly to meet the first gas price shocks of the 70’s. But it did sell for $2195.00 Candian, about the price of a real good bicycle today.
What ever it is, its definitely not the Granada. As the Granada is to a large extent the same chassis as a classic Mustang, they make great donor vehicles for low-cost heavier-duty parts. For example, my ’66 convertible now runs the front disc brakes, 8″ rear with big drums and electronic ignition from a ’78 Granada. This alone keeps it from being the worst car ever, IMHO.
Tom
The Vega has to be up there with its alum block, iron head engine and the amazing rusting abilities. At least it looked rather neat as a 2/3 scale Camaro.
The Chevrolet “Copper cooled” ones were a disaster. Most were bought back and converted to “normal” water cooled engines. Nice little article on them – http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/bv/copper.htm
In recent times the Ford Windstar is pretty nasty – poor gearboxes, shoddy build, etc.
If we are looking at American built cars, the Ford Focus and BMW X5 compete for the title of most recalled. I would give the edge to the bimmah on the basis of its price.
Of course, South Carolina ain’t Detroit, is it?
The Granada wasn’t a bad car…just an unexciting one. It was based on tried-and-true mechanicals, so it was reliable (for that time) with bulletproof drivetrains. It was a simple, sturdy car that did what it was supposed to do.
The Vega, Aspen/Volare, Pinto, X-cars and any 1980s Cadillac with the variable displacement V-8 or 4100 V-8 were all MUCH worse.
Based on my ownership of one, I would say, without a doubt, YES YES YES!
On the good side it got 100 miles per gallon!
(10 driving, 90 behind a tow truck).
John
But it did sell for $2195.00 Candian, about the price of a real good bicycle today.
A really good bicycle will set you back $4K to $7K or even more. That is about $400 a pound.
I was lucky to work in the parts department of a large GM dealer in the early ’70s. First it was the Vega engines that went about 10k miles before needing a bore and sleeves, mostly under warranty. The Chevette came along just a bit later and while being crap, at least the engines held together, and were fairly easy to fix. The real icing on the cake however, was the Cadillac Seville in 1975. It was GM’s early attempt at using fuel injection from Bosch, I believe. These would intermittently and regularly quit for some reason still unknown. At the time, we just thought that was the way things were done. Dave
Like I said in the other thread, I owned Pontiac Astre (Chevy Vega’s brother). Obama doesn’t know what he is talking about.
What is the car that pushed GM over the tipping point? The one that, after it was released, you knew they’d crossed a point of no return and from here on out, it was only a matter of time?
All those 70s cars were terrible, but GM turned profits during those eras. There was always a hope, a miniscule chance that money would be rolled into a bona fide Japan-beater. And it was always possible.
For me, the point of no return was the last model Pontiac Sunfire/Chevrolet Cavalier. It was the battle of Normandy. Except this time, Japan was on the winning side.
Cimarron!
I don’t know what Obama’s frame of reference is, but the Granada is nowhere near the worst car Detroit has ever produced.
The Ford Pinto, Chevy Vega & Citation, Cadillac V8-6-4, Chrysler Aspen/Volaré, and Oldsmobile diesel are all Detroit iron that easily eclipses the Granada as far worse (mechanically, anyway).
I’m not sure I’d include the Cimarron as being one of the worst because even though it was a huge marketing mistake which GM is continuing to pay for to this day, the Cavalier it was based upon wasn’t particularly more horrible than anything else at the time (and certainly not as bad as any of the aforementioned). It’s rather like including ugly AMC products like the Gremlin or Pacer, or the Pontiac Aztek when, although not aesthetically pleasing, they weren’t prone to any particular mechanical malady and didn’t have a penchant for stranding their drivers.
I’d say the Granada is indeed in the top tier of worst cars built in the US. I’ve know those who had some and their record of woes equaled those I know who owned Vegas, Pintos etc. The car rusted when hit by a moist breeze, broke down constantly, was ugly and cheap.
Samir:
Normandy was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, although most of the heavy lifting wearing down the 3rd Reich was done on the Eastern Front.
Perhaps Midway or the Destruction of Turk? Midway was the high water mark for the Japanese in WW2.
The destruction of Turk would be analogous to how Toyota is currently trashing the last bastion (pickups) of the Big 2.8.
No, the worst car Ford ever built was the 1980 Mustang. POS from day one, cracks in rear seat bulkheads (“they are all like that”), 1-bbl 3.3-litre L6 prone to stalling on a good day, gutless all the time.
Worst POS GM ever made was their vans (Vandura, I think the name was). Made essentially out of iron oxide, you didn’t have to worry about A/C ’cause the floorpans would die and you got natural ventilation as a result.
I would have to go with any early 80’s GM car that had a diesel engine. I have yet to hear of a good ownership experience with those cars. On the flip side, I did see more than my share of Vegas in upstate New York during the late 80’s and early 90’s.
The Ford Grenade.
Truly, they are marketing geniuses.
It was bad, but not even close to the worst. Based on the Maverick, which was itself based on the original Falcon, the Grenada was actually a step forward in packaging. By aping the general dimensions of the then equivalent of the Mercedes E Class, the beast was actually pretty space efficient. But dynamically, it was a turd.
Vega, absolutely. Learned to drive on one. Amazing that I became a pistonhead despite that. The wonders of therapy, I guess.
I know it wasn’t built in Detroit, but the Korean Pontiac Lemans has to be the worst, and it spoiled the name of a classic car.
I call your Grenada and raise you an AMC Pacer.
RedStapler:
“Perhaps Midway or the Destruction of Turk?”
What happened to Turkey – or do you mean the Battle of Truk?
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_history_ww2_ops_battles_1944truk.php
Citation was an absolute lemon car.
The Granada is pretty bad. My mother drove a Vega Wagon (orange with wood grain…) and it was pretty bad. We also had a 1972 Dodge Polara that was pretty bad.
I would have to put my vote up for cars like the Mustang II, the second generation Dodge Challenger (1978-1983). They were watered down, crappy versions of legendary cars and were a disgrace to their names.
The high (?) point of my career as Editor of Car and Driver was when I single-handedly wrote the cover blurb for our photo of the original Chevette: “The Most Important Car That Detroit Has Ever Built.”
What did I know?
A 76 Granada was my first American car. I drove it back and forth between NY and DC for a summer and I have to admit that it was terribly unreliable. It broke down constantly and we couldn’t get it to pass inspection in New York, so had to park it in Jersey City during the week. But I do have good memories of it too. For a $200 car it was pretty comfortable and smooth.
I’ve had a Pacer(75) AND Granada(78) . They were not bad cars-the Granada was great on the highway,I’d love to get a Pacer for summer cruising.I would say any early 80’s GM product. As chairman ,Roger Smith did more damage to GM than any Japanese company.If pressed, I’d say Cadillac Cimmaron.
Pinto – hands down.
OK…get ready…
Now, I want everybody to enjoy my links as I think it will allow for a nice trip(s) down memory lane.
Also, visit the web sight yourselves when you have time and go through the pages to see ALL the wonderful designs from around the world.
Designs we have forgotten today.
Now, although you may not agree its the worst car of the 70’s…it was a design I would have sworn made me feel somebody at Ford was TRYING to kill the Mustang.
1975 Mustang 2
First, they made it sooo large, it was horrible, then the made it so weak it was pittiful to drive.
Your thoughts…?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clampants/211381889/in/pool-47502304@N00
The fish bowl…AMC Pacer
Ot the Gremli…not sure which was funnier looking.
The gremlin looked like it fell off the table when a wax model and they liked it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveseven/1833091243/in/pool-47502304@N00
1975 Lotus Elite
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulreynolds/1697229305/in/pool-47502304@N00
And I don’t care what anybody says, the VW rabbit and other imports all bored me to death with their squared off cheapness.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveseven/1261625208/in/pool-47502304@N00
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenthepostman/1085077978/in/pool-47502304@N00
And what really was in the drinking water of Citroen during the 70’s???
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr38/304063992/in/pool-47502304@N00
And you gotta love to visit the countries to drink and eat…but their cars!!!
The Italians and the French…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr38/288054285/in/pool-47502304@N00
Folks…do remember this!!!?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonesthecamera/528367529/in/pool-47502304@N00
And, to end this…why don’t they make cars like these anymore…well, I guess Mazda does.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr38/574005141/in/pool-47502304@N00
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr38/272069053/in/pool-47502304@N00
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr38/272677850/in/pool-47502304@N00
I don’t know about the worst, but it’s not the Grenada. In defense of the Grenada, if it weren’t for Grenadas, there would be no “Grenada brake swap” for people who own classic Mustangs with drum brakes. The Grenada disc brakes are a classic cheap way to upgrade to disc brakes on the 60’s Mustangs.
The Granada was no prize but it wasn’t the worst either. I’d have to go with the Vega.
BTW, the six cylinder Granadas sucked, but the 302 V8 version was alright.
X-car.
No way. I had a buddy who owned a 78 Mercury Monarch in high school. In 1984 we drove it from Ohio to Myrtle Beach and back, never had a lick of issues.
My brother had a 73 Civic – now that was a complete piece of crap – Honda built junk back then.
I give the nod to the X-bodies of 1980. Sure, Detroit built several lousy cars prior to ’80, but they were just bad implementations of then-current engineering.
The X-body represented a paradigm shift for GM – into total awfulness.
Too many choices for worst Detroit car. This should be upgraded to an official poll with statistic results. And the poll might be organized by decade, or manufacturer, or style of vehicle, or worst last chance missed etc.
I think Japan lost the war on December 7, 1941, about halfway through. On that day they were doomed, no escape.
If automotive folklore is correct, the worst car sold by a Detroit company would likely be a European one.
http://www.opelclub.com/html/opel_kadett.html
I’ll let the Car and Driver alums fill in the blanks of this one. I believe that the one shown in wikipedia is a unique shade of brown.
As for the worst car of the last ten years in the NA market, I would go with the Suzuki X-90.
I think I had one, I dont remember, i think it was sorta gray. If its the one i’m thinkin of, it had 4 doors and a strong 6 straight 6 engine… wait, i DID have one! It ran like a tank! It was ugly as sin, but it ran and ran and ran, I replaced it with a front drive VW Golf, never looked back for a second. UNtil now.
There were many American cars that were much worse than the Granada, bad as it was.
My vote goes to the Renault Alliance, an Americanized version of the R9 manufactured by AMC in the 80s. My father owned one briefly.
Oops, does Kenosha count as part of Detroit?
Candidates for worst would be the Vega (original name was supposed to be Gemini – GM Mini – get it?) and the Aspen/Volare. These Mopars managed to match the Japanese of the time for rust, plus the added bonus of horrible reliability. How ironic because the Aspen replaced the Dart, one of the most durable cars ever. In parts of the country where rust doesn’t exist, these cars still can be seen in daily use…
Aspen/Volare gets my vote. My cousin had one and after two winters she went over a railway crossing and the front subframe broke in two. Odd when you think that the Duster, which it replaced, was actually a better car.
I’d go with the Vega for this one. The Vega lacked the only thing the Pinto had, a decently reliable engine.
Oh, big time big time the X-cars: Chevy Citation, Pontiac Phoenix et al. Horrible cars.
I want to also nominate today’s Dodge Caliber and Chrysler Sebring. Taking “technological inflation” into account, they suck big time. Had a Caliber loaner, and couldn’t believe that 1. someone conceived this; 2. someone designed this; 3. someone approved this; 4. someone built this; 5. someone sold this; and most mystifying 6. someone bought this.
Big LOL@JK43123 :
On the good side it got 100 miles per gallon!
(10 driving, 90 behind a tow truck).
Can’t believe I haven’t heard this one before…
’63 AMC Rambler (“Car of the Year”). Floor pan rusted out in two years. Maybe, though, better than my previous car, a ’62 Simca, which blew head gaskets with scary regularity, once in the Holland Tunnel.
I actually thought the Granada (and especially the Monarch) were great — all of the luxury of the big beasts, without all of the enormity. A rare glimmer of common sense from the big US manufacturers.
I’d go with the X cars as the worst, though I do like Kman’s thought about the current Caliber and Sebring — with all of the choices in the market, I just can’t even begin to comprehend how anyone could choose one of those. Seems that those people ought to be WATCHED….
Hey! lay off of Pacers. The car-star of Waynes World II was cool! And wasn’t nearly as bad as a Vega.
’57 Plymouths were pretty bad. Not as bad as Vegas, but my parents had one, and it was all rusted out at 4 years old. Holes in the floor through whih you could see the road. Needed engine rebuilt around 50k. (The rebuild was a pretty good engine though, thanks to a local shop.) Monster clutch–and I had to learn to shift on that thing!
The Vega, Pinto, Volare/Aspen (what on earth was Chrysler thinking when they resurected the name Aspen?)are far worse than the lowly Granada/Monarch. Later in the decade GM built the X-Bodies in case the Vega wasn’t bad enough to win the ‘Worst Car Detroit Ever Built Crown’.
I’m going to have to say the Vega was the worst, followed closely by the Aspen. Thankfully, no one in my family owned either of them. However, my did did own a Granada for a while, and while it rusted quite well, it worked fine, and kept me and my young (at the time) sisters safe enough… I mean, we’re all still here…
As for the worst car ever (not to open up an oil barrel of worms), I’d have to go with the original Beetle. Even though American iron rusted apart, at least they kinda ran, most of the time. The Beetle, as my Dad can attest to, didn’t.
It looks to me like the Vega gets the most votes here.
Second the motion that this QOTD should be upgraded into a poll à la TWAT.
I really wish I could offer some real insight into this, unfortunately, I was born in 1988, so I’m a bit young for this stuff.
That said, I have always thought the Mustang II was a cool idea for a car. Thrifty four cylinder engine, Mustang-ish styling, built on compact chassis. Lightweight, sporty in theory.
I will always like the Mustang II a little bit, even though I shouldn’t. A car that tries to be sporty and even a little bit cute but fails in the end has this certain appeal for me I will never understand. Maybe when Ford redesigns the ‘Stang a la the Mustang II, they’ll make it truly sporty (RWD Focus platform anyone?) with a little uniqueness and maybe a little 4 liter V-8. And maybe a teensy little four banger with a bit of turbocharger mixed in.
Mustang II will always be the Jeep Patriot of muscle cars: Wasn’t what its predecessor was or even close to what it should have been, but damned if it doesn’t have an underdog type appeal.
either the ford aspire or the ford pinto
the aspire simply because it is, and the pinto because it is a self cremation device
It’s so hard to decide; there’s been so doggone many really awful cars built over the years.
Consider any Studebaker with their supercharged V8. That’s the poster boy for “short engine life”. Even the lowly Vega and it’s ill-conceived aluminum engine outlasted these.
Ever see a Taurus with a bad transmission? And back to GM – consider the Cadillac V4-6-8 or the 350 diesel.
How about French cars? Renault Dauphine anyone?
But the very worst – so ridiculously bad that it’s inconceivable that they actually were manufactured – were the early Japanese vehicles. Maybe they were OK in Japan, but on our roads they were less than useless while they lasted.
Geez, compared to a Cadillac Cimarron the Granada was a paragon of mechanical virtue.
Worst ever: Vega, Pinto, Aspen/Volare twins. Out of this group, the Vega has to be the absolute worst. From personal experience, I know the Aspen/Volare was awful. My Grandparent’s Volare looked like it was hammered together by a bunch of drunks rather than assembled.
The GM X-cars were bad, but not as bad as those.
The Chrysler K-cars (Aries/Reliant) were pretty bad. They were the very essence of “cheap.” Omni/Horizon and all of their derivatives were just as bad. But still not as bad as the Vega, Pinto or Aspen/Volare twins.
The Granada was bad, but nowhere near the bottom as far as awful cars go. It was at least solidly built. It was very poorly thought out, though. Ever take a good look at the dash in one of these? It’s an ergonomic disaster. It’s as if the designers blindfolded themselves and played “pin the control on the dash”…and then just went with the resulting mess and called it a day. This is but one of its many flaws. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned how these things ate ball joints and tie-rod ends like candy, although most Ford products of that era did. But even with these flaws (and more)…nope, still not as bad as Vega, Pinto or Aspen/Volare.
The Dart may have been reliable but it was a death trap. I owned one. Anything over 60 you were taking your life in your hands. Not enough weight in the rear for the suspension so it handled like a jackrabbit. The Gremlin actually was a peppy car with decent reliability. It was ugly as heck though. Worst car ever from Detroit? Ford Fairmont. Not even close really. Second would have been the no power steering, aimed at teenage girls Ford Maverick. I think everyone of those were wrecked before they died. They handled terribly just like the Fairmont. It was weird because they were based on the Fairlane frame and those handled very well. Pintos actually were a little better but you didn’t want to get hit from behind. Vegas were terrible junk for the most part but they made a few that had V-8’s in them. Those were awesome. There were just a few of them though but many of the Vega based Monzas (which replaced the Vega) had V8’s. Lots of power for a car that size.
The late sixties Pontiac Tempest Sprint. Rust, and a lousy engine, that was a mystery to GM mechanics.
According to Morrison, it was Midway that did it fot the Japs.
I’m curious, can anyone name a decent American built car from the second half of the 70s? Or at least a desireable one. I can think of a car from part of every decade that I would love to have but I’m having trouble with the later half of the 70s.
Hands down, the 1982 General Motors F-Bodies: Firebird and Camaro. A FOUR CYLINDER STANDARD??? My ownership of a 1982 Trans Am is what put me into my first Toyota in 1984; it was a Corolla GT-S 16-valve, which may have been the BEST car ever built (except maybe the 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R).
Have you ever been in an AMC Pacer?
Too many choices, too little time. Based primarily on styling perceptions…. my podium finishers are….
1…Aztec (..ok that didn’t take a lot of mental effort .. Duh!)
2…mid-90’s 2 door Buick Skylark. (What were these people thinking? Seriously, what were they thinking!)
3…1982 Caddy Cimarron 4speed/4 cylinder.
(I was but a callow youth not yet in the biz and oblivious to concepts like branding, platform sharing, badge engineering, “there’s a sucker born every minute”, etc…. but I remember thinking that this was just a Chevy Cavalier with leather seats….at twice the price.)
…Hmmmm… all GM metal …. makes me recall the quote…can’t recall which exec said it; “We’ve been going out of business for 20 years, we just didn’t realize it.”
My Dad had an 82 Citation that I rode around on as a kid, burning my thighs on the navy vinyl seats and stainless steel seat belt buckles blazing in the hot summer sun. It replaced his Olds Omega…both were shite. I had an 85′ Renault Encore in highschool, $200. Cops took it away after a night of “rooting” when we abandoned it. Then I went to college and bought a used 83 vette (Chevette) for $250. Total garbage, but had over 100k on it, and started and ran nearly every day. It leaked every fluid, brakes went out unannounced, car would die constantly, windows fall inside the doors…but we drove it for a couple years until we had a party one night and flipped it over in the yard for fun and beat it to death with an aluminum baseball bat. We replaced the vette with an 83 Olds Toronado, bought for $100. On the first night we had it, my roommate drove over a curb, which ripped out the starter and fried some electrical circuits. Car never started again.
My good friend had a late 70’s Volare that he just replaced two years ago. We’d ride around Appalachia listening to bluegrass, 3 across up front…it was perfect.
I guess my standards are really low…i think my current 98 Blazer is reliable at 140k, but only in comparison to the crap I’ve been around and driven in the past. Crap cars are good fun, though. I’ve never heard anyone tell a funny story about a Camry.
The Luigiian : Mustang II will always be the Jeep Patriot of muscle cars: Wasn’t what its predecessor was or even close to what it should have been, but damned if it doesn’t have an underdog type appeal.
Except the Mustang II sold by the hundreds of thousands. It was a great car for about 2 years, and was a reliable and durable platform.
Aside from that, well, history speaks for itself.
I’m going to toss in a vote for the Lincoln version of the Granada, the Versailles. Imagine a Granada with double the amount of breaky shit all over it. I was starting a career as a tech at a Lincoln dealer in the late 80s and there were still a few of these things floating around that would come in every now and then. Every time one came through the doors we would all stop and see who the poor schmuck was who was getting to work on it, knowing that he wouldn’t be making any money that day.
The legacy of the Granada/Monarch/Versailles in our shop was that the fittings on the supply and return lines for the power steering were the same. This facilitated the frequent reversing of those connections after servicing. Legend had it that if you did that, and subsequently reached through the steering wheel from outside the car to start it, the wheels would snap so hard to the right that it would break your arm. I think everything subsequent to that car had unique fittings for each line.
The 1988 Continental will always reign supreme in the minds of many a Lincoln tech as the biggest POS of the late 80s Lincoln/Ford stable. I fed my family on warranty power steering line replacements, air struts, and AXOD transmission overhauls on that car. I guess from a mechanic’s perspective it was a pretty nice vehicle. It was stinking pile of crap whose owners had enough money to fix when it broke. We always pittied the guys at the Ford dealership having to deal with Escort and Tempo owners.
Sajeev Mehta: Except the Mustang II sold by the hundreds of thousands. It was a great car for about 2 years, and was a reliable and durable platform.
The real problem with the Mustang II was that it carried a legendary nameplate, so it was always compared to what went before. By itself it wasn’t a bad car, and probably wouldn’t be singled out for nearly as much criticism if it had been called, say, the Ford Pony or the Ford Lynx.
I can’t speak for the very early X-body cars, but the one I owned, a 1985 Buick Skylark, was my 5-5-5 car. I paid $500 for it, put just under $500 into repairs, and had it 5 years.
An ugly POS with lousy paint, but it was reliable and it got 25 mpg in town (If I drove it. One of the 2 kids who used it probably got that much–the other perhaps 15).
The Granada wasn’t even close to the worst car of the ’70s–early ’80s. The only thing that kept me from buying one was that a neighbor who had one said he was disappointed that it got no better gas mileage than the old big Ford he traded for it. He otherwise liked the car pretty well.
My nominee for worst would be those cheapo Mazda wankel cars that looked just like the PlymSubishi
Colt, cost $1500 more,got much worse gas mileage than a Colt, and maybe got a whole 20,000 miles before a major engine overhaul.
The bodies on those things were as bad, if not worse, rusters as any of the other crappy Japanese cars of the era.
As for ther being “nothing” from the ’70s that anyone would want, I’d say that if I could have my old gold ’77 LTD Landau back, with engine-management upgrades to improve economy, I’d take it!
Ford Assfire I mean Aspire
who Aspired to own one of those things?
A small car done as Detroit does them – horribly.
geeber,Sajeev Mehta,The Luigiian…
But the reality is/was, the II was called a MUSTANG!
And as such, it wasn’t supposed to be anything else.
It had baggage to confront and a reputation to uphold.
If I wanted otherwise, I would have gotten the economy cars.
I had one…purchased used from a brother…and it was a hollow memory of my 1967 and 1970 (way to large!) mustangs.
It was, really, a sad period in the Mustang’s history.
That’s a tough question actually.
There are just so many choices …..
Kman :
May 7th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Oh, big time big time the X-cars: Chevy Citation, Pontiac Phoenix et al. Horrible cars.
I want to also nominate today’s Dodge Caliber and Chrysler Sebring. Taking “technological inflation” into account, they suck big time. Had a Caliber loaner, and couldn’t believe that 1. someone conceived this; 2. someone designed this; 3. someone approved this; 4. someone built this; 5. someone sold this; and most mystifying 6. someone bought this.
I believe a very large percentage of both cars end up in rental fleets. Rental car companies don’t actually care-at all-about the cars, beyond that it fits in the size category they need and has an automatic, A/C, and a radio of some sort. So they buy whatever they can get for dirt cheap.
I found stats for 2006 that state 35.0% of Calibers and 72.4% of Sebrings went to fleets, although that’s the end of the last gen of Sebrings and the Caliber was brand new then, so the numbers might be different now.
http://www.automotive-fleet.com/Statistics/StatsViewer.aspx?file=http://www.automotive-fleet.com/fc_resources/stats/26-Registrations.jpg&channel=Vehicle-Research
I think the Pinto is getting a bum rap. Sure, the first two model years were automotive flambes, but after that, the Pinto was a decent car, at least for the time. So unless you want to narrow it down to early Pintos, I think it should be left off the list.
Also, maybe the early Ford Explorers should be included. They roll over real easy, and they decide to burn up whenever they so desire (along with every other Ford built over the past 15 years or so.)
Hey! I had a Pontiac Astre (aka Vega badge engineering). It wasn’t THAT bad. I was in highschool shop class and constantly tinkering with it. It was easy to fix. I managed to get 120,000 miles off it with one engine rebuild (to insert steel liners) and then traded it in, still in running condition.
But a friend had a Ford Grenade and I would say it was better than the Astre. I thought a Pinto with automatic transmission was worse.
I would say the worst car I have ever owned is my current Buick Century. There are way too many problems happening with it that I don’t know how to fix.
My nomination for worst car ever built by Detroit is the Chrysler/Dodge K car. It was a totally unreliable POS. It would kill dead at stop lights and not crank back up. The a/c exploded at a drive-thru. Extended warranty not honored. Letters to Lee Ioccoco were not answered.
It turned out this new car purchase had been in a wreck before I purchased it and Chrysler put it on the lot as new. The odometer had been rolled back–which also broke a few months after purchase.
Gotta be the GM diesels.
As someone who sold Ford parts for 35 years, the only problem with Granadas was the Variable Venturi carbs used in 1977/80 302’s.
Then there was this.
I remember a new ’75 Granada 4 door backed into a concrete pole at a supermarket parking lot, tapping the right rear bumper end.
None of the doors could be opened.
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Pinto’s: The cars were NOT recalled till 1975 to “correct” the exploding gas tanks (the wagons were not affected).
A plastic shield was installed between the seam of the gas tank (the tank was made of two pieces spot welded together, forming a seam) and the center of the rear end housing, a longer fill pipe was installed.
That’s it.
The Granada had the most ludicrous advertising I have ever seen.
I remember a Ford ad in a magazine around 1978 comparing the Granada to the Mercedes 300SD. The ad showed them both parked in the driveway some rich guy’s mansion, with rich guy explaining how he drove the Merc and bought his wife a Granada (I bet that marriage lasted) because they were so comparable: “The kids call it ‘Mama’s Mercedes!\'”.
I was about nine years old at the time and loved all cars, but even I found this scarcely credible.
My parents owned a Dart in the late 70s and it was great for them, solid and reliable and they didn’t challenge its dynamic limitations. In the 80s I was given a Pinto van, which was somewhat interesting to look at with its fishbowl windows, but horrid to drive and terribly unreliable – it went to the junkyard before it reached 70k miles.
Actually, the Grenada/Monarch weren’t the worst cars, from a mechanical standpoint, of that era.
The honor (or shame) of the worst car would go to the Pinto and Vega.
Mustang II? Pretty sound, mechanically, but unfortunately, and a brave step in downsizing the vehicle when it had gotten bigger and heavier over the years, but in terms of image and impression, perhaps didn’t live up to the expectations of the original Pony car.
silverkris: “The honor (or shame) of the worst car would go to the Pinto and Vega.
Mustang II? Pretty sound, mechanically, but unfortunately, and a brave step in downsizing the vehicle when it had gotten bigger and heavier over the years, but in terms of image and impression, perhaps didn’t live up to the expectations of the original Pony car.”
I’ve now seen a couple of posts where the Pinto has been reviled as horrible and the Mustang II praised as ‘okay’.
You guys all know that the Mustang II was based on the Pinto, right?
I thought everybody would enjoy this link’s favorite all time car design horrors
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&story=topScary&subject=more&