when do you think the worst cars was made

I was born in the 70s and I say the worst cars are from then. I recall some of the 70s car with a 350 v8 and only making like 140 hp lol aand getting 14 mpg if that

raggie33 said:

I was born in the 70s and I say the worst cars are from then. I recall some of the 70s car with a 350 v8 and only making like 140 hp lol aand getting 14 mpg if that

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And those engines still alive while super modern Porsche 4.5L and 4.8L V8, VAG V6-FSI 2.4L/3.2L/4.2L all aluminum block suffer poor cylinder work surface cover. And they die after some 100,000 km, 200,000 km at best.

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RBR said:

Real sustainability is no economic goal.

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That's why so many really rich people prefer to drive old fashioned, but rock solid reliable cars

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Right after the 70's oil embargo, up until the late 1980's for American built cars. Corporate Detroit was caught flat footed, and had to scramble to catch up to the Japanese manufacturers in quality, fuel economy, and longevity. There was much denial, and it truly took that long for Detroit to "get it" in regards to passenger cars. Some good designs, a lot of bad designs, and many voted with their wallets after being burned with "Buy American"...

scout24 said:

Right after the 70's oil embargo, up until the late 1980's for American built cars. Corporate Detroit was caught flat footed, and had to scramble to catch up to the Japanese manufacturers in quality, fuel economy, and longevity. There was much denial, and it truly took that long for Detroit to "get it" in regards to passenger cars. Some good designs, a lot of bad designs, and many voted with their wallets after being burned with "Buy American"...

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Building on that theme I used to watch my neighbors fathers constantly working on their Simcas, Audis and other foreign made jalopies every weekend as their was always something breaking, grinding or squealing on them. They got great mpg while they ran though.

From my perspective the 1980's were the worst for American cars. Like those foriegn jalopies of the 70's those 1980's cars always had something breaking, grinding or squealing... or at least mine did anyway.


Now in or about 1975 the GM ceo (I forget his name) made a statement calling Siochiro Hondas cars "toys" when the CVCC engine started cutting deep into GM sales. They were the first to achieve the US governments new emissions regulations... 2 years before the deadline set by Congress (to allow the big 3 some time to catch up).
Word got back to ole So-eech-ee-row who did not see the humor after his motorcycles were sweeping the podiums at every form of pro racing at the time.
He bought a 1973 Caprice and had it shipped to his factory in Japan.
His team of engineers re-designed the engine incorparating a CVCC exhaust system. US DOT inspectors not only rated the new engine legal in terms of emmisions output but noted it had more horsepower and got better gas mileage.

Shortly after Ford, GM and Chrysler were trying to convince ole Soichiro to build engines for their RWD cars. Soichiro refused to build engines that rotated the same direction as the big 3 as his all rotated opposite. All the money in the world could not convince him to change his mind on FWD propullsion automobiles.

Worst cars i've driven (and i've been driving for over 30 years now) are cars from the last 7 years
Electric steering, over servo'd brakes, over wheeled (100% for looks), over geared (i've driven sporty cars that do 60mph in 1st gear :shakehead )

Get's worse with hotter versions of cars, manufacturers seems to think the firmer the suspension the more sporty the car.


I've not driven a car made in the last 10 years that has the subtlety and feedback as my old 94 miata

I can't drive manual transmission anymore, but if governments stopped with the nannying i think a basic car with manual tranny, hydraulic steering, no ABS, no traction control, no auto headlights, and all the other electronic nonsense would go down great.

Was looking for a new car earlier in the year, there was absolutely nothing that i wanted, ended up with a E92 335d, figured it was the best compromise, would still jump in my miata for 99% of the time if it was on the road though.

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scout24 said:

Right after the 70's oil embargo, up until the late 1980's for American built cars. Corporate Detroit was caught flat footed, and had to scramble to catch up to the Japanese manufacturers in quality, fuel economy, and longevity. There was much denial, and it truly took that long for Detroit to "get it" in regards to passenger cars. Some good designs, a lot of bad designs, and many voted with their wallets after being burned with "Buy American"...

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I couldn't agree more with Scout24. Remember how many broken down cars we used to see along the side of the road? You don't see nearly as many now, and that's because Japan kicked our butts in the 80s and taught that we had to focus on reliability to keep up with them.

RBR said:

In respect of European cars late 70s and early 80s have been worst in my experience. Everything was rusting like hell, until Audi showed up with the first full zinc-plated chassis. FIAT und Alfa have been worst in a matter of rust, called to be the only cars that already rust in the brochures, French cars were notorious for hydraulic and engine problems and German cars combined all issues together.

Opel (GM) suffered beside that massively from quality issues caused by the "strangler from Rüsselsheim" in late 80s, same did VW later in early 90s.

Opel's image has even still not fully recovered from that period, Mercedes still suffers from massive corrosion issues, BMW had massive trouble with their N47-family engines... but that's all a child's birthday compared to those clunkers they produced 40 to 30 years ago in my opinion.

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Chuck Norris laughed so hard at that joke, he hurt himself. :twothumbs So did I. :laughing:

~ Chance

I certainly agree the 80's were bad years for US auto mfg,but these new vehicles have way to much electronic gizmos,and way to expensive.

ha I recal when chevy put a Cadillac badge on a caviler

The infamous "Cimarron" iirc... Not a high water mark for GM...

I feel sorry for those who bought 1

I started earning money turning wrenches in 1987. I do have a pretty solid frame of reference here. Had a customer with a diesel Chevette. Remember those? At least we were still building decent trucks back then.

I was born in early 70's. These cars were made late 60's but still plenty around in the 70's.

I bring you........










The Austin Princess!!!! British engineering at it's finest :bow:

RBR said:

In respect of European cars late 70s and early 80s have been worst in my experience. Everything was rusting like hell, until Audi showed up with the first full zinc-plated chassis. FIAT und Alfa have been worst in a matter of rust, called to be the only cars that already rust in the brochures, French cars were notorious for hydraulic and engine problems and German cars combined all issues together.

Opel (GM) suffered beside that massively from quality issues caused by the "strangler from Rüsselsheim" in late 80s, same did VW later in early 90s.

Opel's image has even still not fully recovered from that period, Mercedes still suffers from massive corrosion issues, BMW had massive trouble with their N47-family engines... but that's all a child's birthday compared to those clunkers they produced 40 to 30 years ago in my opinion.

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Aye but at least stuff was fun to drive in those 18 months of ownership before the car disintegrated.

Alfasud was a great example, the car rusted THAT quickly it would be faster at the end of a journey simply because it was lighter :laughing:
But it was a great car to drive, handled better than any front wheel drive had the right to, the engine wasn't powerful but boy it made you want to thrash it to the redline.

It was fun at reasonable speeds, you could go out for a drive, feel like you would give Jackie Stewart a run for his money and STILL be within a reasonable amount above the speed limit

I drove a A45 AMG recently car was mega quick for a hatchback but was one of the dullest drives i've had.
Absolutely zero feedback and feel, car seemed to go between a floaty feel that gave you zero feedback to either spine jarring hits when going over bumps, my steering wheel on my PC gives more feedback :shakehead

Even worse though is the fact that below 60mph it's absolutely dead, you've got to be going over 60mph even on windy roads before your heart starts going above it's resting heart rate.

Toyota made a brave choice building the GT86, on paper it had all the attributes of a great basic, reasonably priced driver's car, in reality the engine ruined the experience and it was/is too expensive.

Obviously i'm biased as i've owned one for the last 15 years, but the only car that seems to value the driving experience is the MX5, the caterham 7 even more so but it's a tough car to live with day to day

Yugo. Never had one, but I remember the TV ads saying they were so inexpensive you could use your credit card to buy one. IRCC, they were $4,999 Cdn.
Never owned one.
My persona worst car was a Renault Le Car. Bought it used, kept it 5 days, and thankfully the the dealership allowed me to trade in in on a new Pontiac Firelfy. Didn't lose a penny on the trade. The Firefly was fun and economical at that time in my life.