Worst Cars

andre1969 · June 2006

57, 58 and 59 Chevy models looked very different. For worst cars discussion, might add the 59 Chevy, with its rear weird wings to top 50 worst designed cars of past 50 years.

That was a really unique time for Chevy and Pontiac in particular, because in '57, 58, and 59, they WERE totally different cars! It used to be that GM would usually redesign the Buick/Olds/Cadillac cars a year earlier than the Chevy/Pontiac models, and 3-year design cycles were pretty common.

The '57 Buick/Olds/Cadillac models were on time, as the previous style ran from '54-56, but Chrysler rushed out its dramatic 1957 models a year early, having only used their previous body style for '55-56. As a result, I think a decision was made for GM to rush out the next body style, which meant that the '57 Buick/Olds/Cadillac body would only last through '58. A decision was also made to get Chevy and Pontiac on the same cycle as the other cars and for them to be more substantially similar underneath as a cost savings measure, so that meant that Chevy/Pontiac would only see their new '58 body for that one year, after having had the same body for '55-57.

Back in the '57-59 timeframe I think Ford actually got some pretty good mileage out of their platform. The '57-59 was the same body, but it was heavily revised for '58, and for '59 was given a Thunderbird-like squaring off, which made it look almost like a completely different car.

The '59 Chevy was a pretty awful looking car IMO, but I think it also proves that sometimes, the devil is in the details. It cleaned up quite nicely for '60-61, and the '62-64 Chevy is actually pretty much the same thing underneath.

But yeah, for '58 I'd say the Impala was probably GM's best looking car. The cheaper models weren't bad either, although the Bel Air hardtop's roofline wasn't as attractive IMO as the Impala's. I do like the Cadillacs too, although I think the '57's were better. And the only thing I don't really like about the '58 Pontiacs are the headlights, which kind of jut out too far, giving it a bit of a bug-eyed look.

Another thing that I thought was kinda odd, considering that GM was trying to make the cars more similar underneath, is that in '59-64, Chevies and Buicks used a wasp-waisted "X-frame", and had the gas tank mounted somewhat vertically, between the rear axle and a deep-well trunk floor, similar to the Crown Vics of today. Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles used a perimeter frame and in back had a somewhat shallower trunk floor, with a more conventional gas tank mounted horizontally under the trunk floor. I just thought that was strange since usually, Pontiacs and Chevies were more similar, as were Oldsmobiles and Buicks.

andre1969 · June 2006

Is this not close to buggy whip analogy of early 1900's.

I'm sure there's still a demand for buggy whips in the leather community, and I hear that it's one of the tools of the trade for many dominatrices. :P

british_rover · June 2006

Oh man I was going to make that joke. Grrrr.

andre1969 · June 2006

I remember years ago, we had a company newsletter that would have cartoons and comics in it from time to time. Well, one of them was a scene of a break room, with vending machines. One of the machines said "Whipped Coffee" on it, and had a guy in leather with a whip and a big smile on his face standing beside it, at the ready. There was a poor sap standing there, coffee in hand, with a shocked look on his face.

I remember we thought it was the funniest thing and laughed our you-know-whats off, but in the next issue of that newsletter, man I've never seen so many people write in and whine about being offended and shocked!

I wish I still had that newsletter, but unfortunatley that was three companies ago.

xrunner2 · June 2006

uh...I still wear a suit and occassionally a hat. Too bad people are such slobs these days.

Last wedding we went to, invitation specifically stated that dress was casual and men did not have to wear suit/sport coats and ties. As I recall, only people dressed up were bridal party and their parents. So, as it is going, will probably not be needing suits too much for weddings in future.

I would agree that business dress in office has deteriorated badly. Men went from dress slacks, dress shirt and ties in early 90's to casual Fridays then to casual everyday then to everyday slobs. See guys coming in in summer in shorts, t-shirts, sandals no socks, and a "baseball cap". Some wear baseball caps at their desks. And, the cap lid has to be curled into a half-circle. These folks are internal and do not see customers.

I should add that a couple of the sloppy dressers also have poor taste (IMO) in vehicle choice and might be driving things that this board considers to be on a "worst" car list.

andre1969 · June 2006

in the "corporate world" back in 1992, I usually dressed pretty nicely. I also had a part time job at a department store, so I could get my clothes at a discount. It wasn't too long before they told me to stop dressing so nicely, because I was making some of the upper-level managers look like bums on the street! I think I wore a tie three times last year. To a wedding, to a funeral, and for when they wanted to take a picture of me at work to put in some high-level publication.

And oh, you should see what some of these young interns wear nowadays! I'd say it's borderline harrassment! But in a good way. :P

au1994 · June 2006

since we're already off on the dress code rant, I'll continue it. When I entered the full time workforce in the mid 90's, slacks and a tie was the rule M-Th. Friday was jeans day. Now it seems that slacks and a golf shirt will suffice for men. In one company a the engineering group, that did not meet with customers, had deteriorated to sweat pants and t shirts. That got stopped. From what I have noticed in my travels the Northeast still tends to be a little more dressy. West Coast is very casual. I'm sure there are exeptions all around.

I will say, based solely on my experience, that womem's office dress has gotten a lot more casual. I can see more belly buttons at the office now that at the beach.

PF_Flyer · June 2006

If we want to go off into worst dressed cars.. maybe

goodegg · June 2006

Ok - I saw 1976 Cadillac Seville with huge rims and LoPros the other day. The rims/tires gotta be worth more than the car. Since when does slapping $1600+ worth of wheels and tires elevate a POS to something above a POS with expensive feet?

rockylee · June 2006

They do have the percentage of Chinese content on the window sticker.

Rocky

nippononly · June 2006

Thank you! I'm glad someone else has said it. I "love" when I go out to the central valley and get in some of those towns where every second car is a POS Caprice or Lumina worth maybe a couple hundred $$ with about $2000 worth of "footwear" on it. What do they do when that pile finally gives up the ghost? Just pull the rims off and move them to the next car? I suppose they do.

Oh, and let's not forget the $1000 worth of stereo improvements, with the thumpin' sub rattling every loose piece of trim and metal on the car as they drive down the road.

Saw a late 80s Seville like that quite recently - half the windows were broken out and had been covered with opaque plastic, the suspension was shot, this car was "walking dead", yet they had spent the obligatory 3 grand on rims and stereo. With that much money to blow, didn't it ever occur to them to maybe fix the windows? How about fixing the sagging suspension and the mechanicals a bit?

These cars are to me the worst cars in general. No one brand in particular, but among the crowd that does this sort of thing, it seems to be mostly the big-engined domestic cars that are the ones of choice.

imidazol97 · June 2006

>Caprice or Lumina worth maybe a couple hundred $$ with about $2000 worth of "footwear"

> obligatory 3 grand on rims and stereo.

And they complain they are poor--ain't poor, they just have always made bad choices. They'll have a cell phone, money for cigs and other smokes and pharmaceuticals. But if they hit your car or damage you, they shouldn't be held responsible for anything in life; they're gone and can't get money from them.

If the car craps out, they sell the rims or get another one to fit.

fintail · June 2006

Who says these wheels etc are purchased...

john_324 · June 2006

...actually made fun of this recent phemonenon of cars with accessories that cost more than the value of the car.

It was one of the "umpimp my ride" ads, and featured a guy talking about how he realized he had a sickness...he had spent $10k on a $2k car. :P

I love how for different "enthusiast" groups, there are different "gold-standard" mods that are de riguer for the crowds they run with...

For the above-mentioned group, it's the gigantic chrome bling-bling wheels. For the "fast and furious" types, it's the clear taillights. For the monster-pickup truck guys, it's aftermarket dual exhausts that stick out below the bumper...

pony_pirate · August 2006

My worst car, hands down was my first, a 1967 Volvo 144. And my brother didn't have much better experience with his, a circa 1970 model. I wouldn't touch a Volvo with a ten foot pole with an oil filter on the end of it!

I have since owned a V8 Chevy Malibu, fuel-injected, pancake engine Volkswagon fastback, numerous Hondas, and a 2005 Mustang GT, the last being my favorite.

blaze07 · August 2006

My worst car, without a doubt, is my 2000 Ford Taurus SES. I had to put 4 new sets of brakes on it, the transmission is lousy, there have been many recalls, and the door-panel on the rear driver side door is loose. That's just the beginning of it.

I also have 3 Hondas and an Acura, all of which are lightyears better.

bigbutr · August 2006

What I find fascinating is that when these people go and buy rims and tires, they only get four. So invariably, when they blow a tire from all the riding, they either park it or put on the donut since they weren't smart enough to buy an extra one just in case. On one of my mail routes there are two Caddies on jacks, each missing a rim and tire on the front passenger side. They've been there at least a month now.

fintail · August 2006

I think that shows one of the worst domestic car problems - inconsistency. My mother has a similar car...admittedly she's only put about 40K on it since she got it late in 99, but it's had very few issues. Some odd front suspension creak when the car was a few months old that was fixed under warranty (struts?) and an intermittent water-sloshing sound from inside the dash that can't be diagnosed. Other than that, just routine maintenance. Fit and finish of the car is OK, but the interior is very el cheapo.

the_big_al · June 2008

Used to live in a state where this was the norm...

The other thing that was also common that drives me nuts is to see a car with custom parts abound. Now granted there are some "custom parts" out there that can enhance a car's appearance, but more often than not I see it taken way overboard. Think "Fast and Furious" gone over board.

The obligatory 4 inch, sometimes dual exhaust (on a 4 cyl), the overly large and non functional, unpainted, cracked and barley hanging on front spoiler. The unpainted tacked on side body fenders and door body cladding. The gaudy wing that sticks up beyond the roof the car that again is not painted and adds no performance value to the car. The primered "repairs" and the chromed tailights that you can barley tell are red when they light up. And the people that drive these things think they have to race everyone to every stoplight.

Oh and I forgot the tacked on hood scoops....

If I wanted to go the other way I could also mention the pickup trucks that I see... with the over cab visor and running lights, the grab handle just outside the cab, the overly large viser vents over the doors, the thing ( I have no idea what it is called) that is bolted to the cab of the truck and sticks out over the bed (Think Avalanchish but GM did it right. It is kind of a half-bed topper sort of. Supposed to improve areodynamics. The toneau cover and the wing mounted to the back of it. The bondoed over and primered tail lights because a new LED strip was installed just just below the tailgate. The chrome everywhere scheme including (in not shaved first) the tailgate handle, the door handles, the wheel wells, and door outlines. The overtly huge tires - not mudders, but more like wide racing tires. ANd don't forget the black out covers for the headlights and turnsignals in front and the light bar attatched to the roll bar in the bed and the fog lights bolted to the grill. ALong with the cab width rear view mirror in the cab. With flamed tint on the windows. Oh yeah and tubular rear bumper and tubular step plates under the doors. And the bed rails and chromed gas cap door (I think I already mentioned chromed anything that was possible to chrome). I have actually seen a vehicle almost as I have described and they had found a way through cutting, welding, bondoing, and duct taping everything I have just mentioned. They also had the tacked on hood scoops and redone interior that recovered everything from the dash to the door panels and headliner, along with the boomin stereo to rattle all thier handiwork.

stever · December 2012

Dusting off another dormant discussion here to spend some time yakking about the Edmunds.com NHTSA Complaints Activity Report.

Because consumers' descriptions and categorizations of their experiences vary, are not expressed in a consistent manner and are not adequately aggregated and analyzed by NHTSA-ODI, Edmunds recognized that there was a need to engage in a further review of the complaints and a deeper analysis of the complaints database. Edmunds did such a review and has re-categorized the complaints using new standard categories that Edmunds defined. Edmunds began with complaints submitted to NHTSA-ODI since January 1, 2005 for vehicles commencing with the 2005 model year. Edmunds continues to retrieve, review and categorize complaints data from NHTSA-ODI weekly, adding to an in-house database that now consists of more than 90,000 consumer vehicle complaints.

This month, Chrysler's 2.8 complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold is an all time low for this manufacturer in the history of our complaints reporting, which started in May 2010.

uplanderguy · December 2012

What's going on at Nissan?

stever · December 2012

Ghosn is known as "le cost cutter". Cutting back too close to the bone perhaps?

Those kinds of complaints translate into warranty claims and those can come back to bite you.

berri · December 2012

Personally, even when there was more difference between Japan and Detroit, I always felt Nissan was closer to Detroit than Japan. They just seemed to start losing some of their edge after renaming from Datsun. It seems to me that Nissan's tend to have more owner complaints around 60K than Toyota and Honda. That seems to even be the case in these blogs. Some of their new seats are pretty nice though.

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