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Top Ten Cars That Were As Bad As Their Engines


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10: 4-cylinder Porsche 914

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Ugly enough to make a train take a dirt road, and a VW motor at Porsche prices.

 

9: Subaru 360

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Consumer Reports called it the most dangerous car in America. It came with a two cylinder, two stroke motor.

 

8: Yugo

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'Nuff said

 

7: 1958 Toyopet Crown

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To demonstrate this vehicle's reliability they staged a Los Angeles to New York publicity stunt. They called it off when the car fell apart outside of Las Vegas.

 

6: 1976 Cadillac Eldorado coupe

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Over eighteen feet of car and a cramped back seat. Almost as bad as 500 cubic inches of engine and only 190 horsepower.

 

5. Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen w/318 Lean Burn engine

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Motor Trend's car of the year in 1976. In case you thought that the COTY award used to be legitimate

 

4. 1983-1989 2.2L Chrysler New Yorker

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Creepy robot voice, pillowy plush button tufted velour, and the style and grace that only a 96hp four banger can provide.

 

3: The Cadillac Seville with V8-6-4

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The design was obsolete the moment it hit the lots, with the worst 4, 6, and 8 cylinder gas engines that GM has ever made. Chrysler & Ford copied the bustle-back look in knee-jerk fashion and produced the Cordoba & Continental.

 

2: The Renault Le Car

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Just be thankful the US was spared the 36hp .8L model sold in Europe.

 

And, of course, the worst car and engine combo of all time is the 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass with the 260 cid 90hp Diesel

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Edited by RichardJensen
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7: 1958 Toyopet Crown

ToyopetCrown.jpg

To demonstrate this vehicle's reliability they staged a Los Angeles to New York publicity stunt. They called it off when the car fell apart outside of Las Vegas.

Ah - the car Retro-man would most like to own. Actually, on the left of that picture is a Toyopet Tiara. Retro-man did own one of those. Wonderful car. It did not fall apart. I had 225,000 miles on mine.

 

6: 1976 Cadillac Eldorado coupe

449966687_301ef5fea7.jpg

Over eighteen feet of car and a cramped back seat. Almost as bad as 500 cubic inches of engine and only 190 horsepower.

I have a comical memory of driving one of these. It was the summer of '76. I was working at "The Hungry Turtle" restaurant in Seattle. A customer had gotten drunk and his wife had come to pick him up. She wanted me to move his car further away from the road - said she wouldn't drive it herself. I got in - started it up: lights were coming on, doors were locking, brakes were releasing - all without my participation! (remember this was 1976 and my own car was a Toyopet Tiara). I moved the car forward, initiated a turn - I cranked the wheel hard a-starboard, and after a few seconds delay the front of the car, which was already in the next zip code, began to slowly swing around. Like Joseph Hazelwood on a 3-day binge, I maneuvered the car into a spot next to the building, threw a line off the bow, threw the engines in reverse, and stopped. I couldn't figure out how to turn the headlights off..... they turned themselves off eventually. What a car!

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I have a comical memory of driving one of these.

 

A friend of mine in Ohio still has his. It's sky blue with a white convertible top and blue interior, and has a set of bull horns on the front (for extra length).

 

It's definitely a highway cruiser, albeit at somewhere around 10 mpg.

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5: 1976-79 Ford Granada

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There is no excuse for this car. Especially the 3-speed manuals with the 200 cid 6.

 

A high school friend of mine had a 1980 (he said 1980, but it looked the same, so it may have been a 79) with the V6. That car was (literally) indestructible. He hit curbs, walls, other cars, the ditch (all at speed), and the car never broke.

 

I never saw him do anything other than put gas in it and it never failed to start. If it ever did finally die, it deserved a 21-gun salute, imo.

Edited by RangerM
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A high school friend of mine had a 1980 (he said 1980, but it looked the same, so it may have been a 79) with the V6. That car was (literally) indestructible. He hit curbs, walls, other cars, the ditch (all at speed), and the car never broke.

 

Ford didn't have any V6's back in 1980 (except for the European 2.8L V6 used in some Mustangs, and I believe the Mustang switched to the 3.3L I-6 during the 1980 model year). The 1978 to 1980 Granada would have had a 250 I-6.

 

People ridicule the Granada but I always found it attractive. I think it used the 1960 Ford Falcon platform.

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A friend of mine in Ohio still has his. It's sky blue with a white convertible top and blue interior, and has a set of bull horns on the front (for extra length).

 

It's definitely a highway cruiser, albeit at somewhere around 10 mpg.

 

 

One of my neighbors had a '76 Eldo Convertible in Sky Blue with a White interior. They paid something close to $20 k for it because it was supposed to be one of the last convertibles and a guaranteed collector's item. It didn't quite work out that way and these cars are pretty cheap these days.

 

I don't know anything about the Granada 6 cyl 3speed but my dad had a '77 Monarch with the 302 that was a great car.

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I had an 80 cutlass with a 260 cid gas engine and it was horrible! I think that one should be included. It was smooth as silk like a typical small block gm engine but was as weak as anything I can remember. It sucked gas like a big dog also. I think this car had the Th200 tranny and a 2.29 rear end ratio.

 

The car drove great but was sick and I had all sorts of problems with it. The headliner fell out, the AC went out numerous times and just the general problems with GM cars back in the day. The tranny held up suprisingly and the engine ran great up to about 90K miles when I sold it and never burned a drop of oil. It was just sick from day one. I think GM rated it at 105 hp. :hysterical: Pitiful if you think about that even back then.

 

It was brown like the one Richard Jenson posted and was the top of the line model. Back then, I thought this was the car to have as they were very popular. What a huge mistake that was.

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