Hagerty Insurance Poll

[circmand]

Thought you might enjoy this. Hagerty Insurance did a poll asking what were the worst cars of all times. All are well known so no obscure ones are listed. Do you agree? Disagree? Any other nomnations?


1. AMC Pacer – The Pacer’s interesting styling prompted one respondent to wonder “I’d like to know what planet the designers were from.”
Yugo – Mechanical flaws and poor quality put the Yugo near the top. “My 2. Yugo improved my mechanic skills greatly,” said one respondent. “Somedays I miss that car, but then I remember the bad ride, poor brakes, no guts and bad interior.”
3. Ford Pinto – The majority of respondents cited a notorious design flaw that caused explosions in rear-end collisions. “Underpowered, cheap plastic, bodies prone to rust and, oh yeah, they blow up too,” said one.
4. Pontiac Aztek – The unique styling of the latest model on the list prompted its addition, according to most respondents. “There must have been a front-end design team and a rear-end design team. And the two teams never spoke to each other,” said one.
5. Chevrolet Vega – Poor design, construction and mechanical failure were the main reasons behind its inclusion. “There seemed to be a competition between the engineering and assembly teams as to who could be the bigger screw-up,” claimed one respondent.
6. AMC Gremlin – Commenting on its styling, one person called it “the most hideously ill-proportioned car of all time.”
7. Chevrolet Corvair – For most, it was mechanics rather than appearance at issue. “Reliability and safety mostly, as it wasn't that bad looking,” was the reasoning of one respondent.
8. AMC Matador – Design was the main reason behind the Matador’s inclusion. “Even as a kid in the '70s, I recall it being particularly offensive to the eye, from its bug-eye headlamps, through the overly thick landau roof, ending with a droopy decklid and taillamps that appear sourced from a boat trailer,” said one respondent.
9. Edsel – A notorious design and marketing failure, one respondent said the Edsel “equals the standard by which all other automotive brand failures have been judged (and ridiculed) for fifty years.”
10. Chevrolet Chevette – Mechanical unreliability was the reasoning of most who voted for the Chevette. “When the car went into any type of water puddle it would suck water into the engine. They fell apart after 40k miles,” said one.

[VehiGAZ]

I got that Hagerty e-mail today too!

My sister bought me a little book called Crap Cars a while back, and some of the ones from the Hagerty list were in that book too (it's basically the top 50 or top 100 all-time crappiest cars). There are lots of bad ones out there beyond Hagerty's top-10.

[nfpgasmask]

Well, I would agree on all fronts, but for some reason I think the Gremlin is kinda cool and unique looking....

Bart

[etlsport]

id mostly agree.. although i hate to admit.. everytime i see an aztek these days i think how much they remind me of VXs.. a couople times i looked at them and thought wow that paint would look good on a vx

[Ldub]

id mostly agree.. although i hate to admit.. everytime i see an aztek these days i think how much they remind me of VXs.. a couople times i looked at them and thought wow that paint would look good on a vx

Whatever you're smokin', I want some...asstek & VX look alike ? ...

On a more serious note, I think the Ford Granada should be on that list somewhere. First wife had one when we met...married her anyway.

She wasn't so bad, car was total POS.

[Mark B]

The list is BS.
I had a 1973 AMC Gremlin X. 304 V8. Lots of power. That car was fast.
I bought it for just under $ 3,000. I sold 15 years later and got I thing around $ 1,500. I also had other AMC car and they treated me good.
When you are in your teens, who cares what the car looks like, you just wanted any car. Not like the kids today that want a brand new $ 30,000 car with no concept about maintenance and insurace costs.
Besides, those cars in the 70's, were made to be serviced by yourself and not take them to the dealers to be ripped off.

[circmand]

While in HS I would take any car I could get I still had awareness of the cool uncool factor. As for an AMC Gremlin POS my 68 Javelin would smoke it. The 70's cars had to be built to be worked on because they were always breaking down. Back then the average car lasted less miles than the current cars have warranty for now. The autoworkers union is responsible for the poor state of American car companies today because they protected lousy workers and for 20 years did not put out anything reliable. Hell a Toyota Corolla back then cost half of what the American cars were going for but outlasted them by 3x the number of miles.

[Techy-D]

I still got my 74 Gremlin. It's got atleast 234,000miles and the only major things I had to do was to replace the lifters and rear wheel bearings. It had enough power to bark the tires on the 1st to 2nd shift. It sat for about 6 or 7 years and is in fairly poor shape now, but I recently drove it about 25miles to my new place.
As with any car, Some were bad & some were good, but the looks never bothered me.

[Zorak]

I would agree the list is BS. Who are these "respondents"? 3 AMC's but no Italian or French cars? Styling is subjective, so labeling a car the "worst car of all time" just because you don't like its looks, is crap. Those AMC's all had love-it or hate-it styling (like, um, the VX ) but they had and still have their fans.

And the Pinto sold well for 10 years and the Vega nearly as long, so they must have not been that bad. It's easy to criticize them now, in 2007, but by 1970's standards they were actually pretty good considering what they cost. And Corollas and other Japanese cars from back then rusted out with a vengeance, even if they kept going mechanically.

Imo, a car for this list would be one whose styling neither pleased nor offended, just sort of bland, but whose mechanical reliability was so horrible that it was discontinued after only a few years due to poor sales, and hardly anyone now is interested in it. That would include the Renault Alliance/Encore, Eagle Medallion and Premier, Austin Marina, and Fiat Brava. In fact, just about any Renault or Fiat sedan from the 1970's or '80's would probably qualify!

[circmand]

Those in the know would know Hagertys from their great contribution to the era of collector cars. They sell inexpensive insurance to car collectors around the world. They also sponsor many programs and activities for these same enthusiasts. Their thousands of voters who decided the list are made up up of people who own vehicles from past eras and are quiet capable of deciding what they think are the standards for the voting. All vehicles on the list were chosen and voted on. The Poll sponsor did not name them or control what standards were used for voting.

[CrnCnn]

A guy i used to hang out with had an edsel he got from a coworker for like 500 bucks. I drove it home for him cause he didnt know how to drive a car you shifted from the column (3 on the tree?)

[nfpgasmask]

Speaking of AMC, an early 70s Javelin is still on my list of cars to own one day....

Bart

[Ldub]

Speaking of AMC, an early 70s Javelin is still on my list of cars to own one day....

Bart

May as well go "whole hog" & get an AMX. (AMX is to Javelin, what Cobra is to Mustang)