My first car. Thanks, dad.
(Not the actual photo)
Posted on 07/29/2002 10:41:16 PM PDT by doug from upland
CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE AND ALL 10 OF THE DISHONORED PIECES OF JUNK
No. 10 - VW Bus
"If everyone had to own one of these as a first car as I did, there would be no traffic jams anywhere. At least half of us would be so turned off by the experience of owning a car, that we would seek alternate means of transportation."
"There was no heat--unless, that is, the auxiliary gas heater caught fire."
"The flower stickers were the only things that held the car together."
"The bus had no heat, blew over in the wind and used the driver's legs as its first line of defense in an accident."
"It was a death trap on the highway-you could never go fast enough. The chances were good that you'd be hit from the rear."
No. 9 - Renault Dauphine
"Truly unencumbered by the engineering process."
"At the time, it cost about half the price of a Volkswagen... which was half the price of everything else. How could Renault do this? Simple. It had half as many parts."
"This car topped out at 45 mph. Since the minimum speed on the Florida Turnpike is 40, patrol cars would follow me, waiting for me to hit a hill so they could ticket me."
"From a historical perspective, it's a shame that the French spent their Marshall Plan dollars on automaking."
"A side impact by a bicycle totaled my Dauphine after only one year."
No. 8 - Cadillac Cimarron
"GM thought they could take a Chevy Cavalier, slap some Cadillac stuff on it, add an extra $5,000.00 and sell a bundle. Tragically enough, they pulled it off-for a while."
"Hands down, worst car for the money spent. Yugos were junk, but at least they were cheap. This heap had a Caddy price tag!"
"A stupid marketing ploy. Nothing more than a Chevrolet Cavalier, which Roger Smith gussied up and called a Cadillac."
"When we traded it in my wife was upset because we didn't keep it long enough for her to buy a gun and shoot it."
No. 7 - Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare
"This car began to rust while it was still in the showroom."
"The stalling problem was so bad that I had to take a clockwise route to work so I could make all right turns, and not risk stalling on a left turn in front of oncoming traffic."
"After the floor boards rusted out in the rear, they would fill up with water and freeze. I ended up putting soda crates on the floor in the back to keep people from falling under the car."
"The only useful purpose this car served was as the model for the car used in National Lampoon's Vacation."
"Owning a Volare was total ego death--the theme song, the vinyl Landau roof, the inability to pass another car on the highway."
Nol 6 - Renault Le Car
"I'm convinced that the body metal for this car was supplied by Reynold's Aluminum."
"Like any French restaurant in America, it was overpriced, noisy, moody, and would put you in mortal danger if you had an accident with anything larger than a croissant."
"Our Le Car couldn't climb a hill fully loaded, so the passengers had to get out and walk up."
"I left it unlocked overnight, and it was finally stolen. The insurance check paid for a textbook."
I don't know, but if it did this is the single greatest accomplishment of the Clinton administration.
My first car. Thanks, dad.
(Not the actual photo)
My vote goes to the Zaporozhets, the air-coolered, rear-engined Ukrainian Corsair. Here's the luxury stretchoviy model. A close second would be the two-stroke East German Trabant. Wenn mein trabbi schneller waere, dann heist er 'galoppi'!
The fact that it look like crap (as did those horrible AMC Pacers) was a contributing factor.
There's something disturbing about a car that rusts on the showroom floor.
No air conditioning, no radio, can't pull a trailer, and if you touch it, it will blow up . . . .
I had a '64 Falcon convertible, 260 V-8, bright yellow with black interior ... it was special.
1984 Hyundai Excel...my mom has one. Cant even find it in Google image search. It still looks ok, and starts, and runs, but this car has no power, never has. I hate this car.
I cant believe the S. Koreans are still making these cars. I suspect they have improved over the years, cause there are lots of them on the road here in CA.
One week I was in a hurry to make a flight from MSP to LGA and left the keys in the ignition and didn't realize it until I was in the air over Ohio. I spent all week wondering if the insurance was up to date.
When I returned, I went to the parking area to ascertain that the VW had indeed been stolen before I entered a stolen vehicle report. To my dismay, it was still there! I retrieved my luggage and went to the car and found a note on the steering wheel that read: "You've got to be kidding!"
A friend of mine was an engineer for Shell oil and they had Chevy send over some new Vega engines for testing.He said they were so bad out of the crate he sent them back and said "NO Thanks".
Chevy finally wised up,probably after spending $Millions on warranty repaires and started using iron block engines.They turned into decent little cars finally.
Me too! My dad had two in the 60's, and the problem was with the people that drove them, not the car.
We went all over the state of California in that car. It did have a nasty habit of breaking down at inopportune times though.
But since it is the car I learned to drive on, it will allways have a place in my heart.
Oh, sure, that and some 20 other 1975 GM models.
That, and the RUST. Few cars before or since rusted as easily and thoroughly as the Vega.
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