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've always thought the Kharman Ghia was the ugliest car ever made.
My sister had one, scared the hell out of me driving the backroads into Bloomington, IN from from Yellowwood state park. I was used to going fast on twisty roads; but in a Firebird Formula, not in that death trap. How she survived it I'll never know.
I've actually seen one Trabant on the road: on a Swiss freeway, shortly after the Wall fell. It was keeping up a good speed, so I suspect the owner had a new engine in it.
With it's noisy vibrating engine and a Weber carb that would allow the fuel needle and seat to back out and let the engine starve for fuel and die just about anywhere.
Torque steering that was so bad you had to steer right to go straight every time you pulled out.
Wiring by the tempermental and always drunk Luigi who only would work with red and white wire that was cut into 40 foot sections no matter if only a foot was needed. The excess was wrapped around stuff and then made into a ball.
Then there was the body. The finest recycled tin cans rolled to exquisite thinness by the best pastry chefs in Italy guaranteeing the the Strada's D ring door handles would rot off and come loose in your hands when you opened the doors.
I demand a recount and reparations.
Simple reason for its best seller status. FordMoCo owns Hertz rent-a-wreck. Fleet sales to Hertz was the reason the Taurus showed such high sales numbers.
The 265 Chevy was an option on all of them I'm pretty sure.
I don't remember a turbo 4 cyl. engine. The only 4 cyl. they had back then was the 151 Iron Duke.
I had a friend with a '61 Falcon.He found out one day that the floor of the trunk was also the top of the fuel tank. Seems that the trunk leaked rain water and the floor rusted out.
He put the gas pump nozzle into the filler and put the 'auto' cutoff on it.
Thirty five gallons later he had a trunk full of gas. LOL
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