Time Magazine's 50 Worst Cars

[Acolyte]

My daddy got a Chevette one time when I was little because mom started working and they needed a second car and we didn't have a lot of money. It was turd brown and we called it "the bomb" because it sounded like it was going to explode every time he turned it on. We always knew when he was coming home because we could hear the "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" from about 2 blocks away. Mother never, ever let me or my sister ride in it.

My parents' second Chevette was just like that. Who decided to make the stock colour shit brown, anyways?
But, I have to admit, for a car that looked, smelled, sounded and drove like crap, it was a tough little vehicle.

And, yeah, why isn't the K-Car on there? We had one of those at one time, and it sucked noodles!

[protege]

And Ford Tempos....we don't even need to go there. A good idea gone way bad. Anything and everything will go wrong, all at one time or evenly spread out throughout the years, you will spend thousands more than what you paid for the car to fix it, but it will NEVER just die for good.

Mine died for good. There apparently wasn't any quality control at Ford in those days--it seemed to be hit or miss. I know people who had (and some still *have*) Tempos that weren't too bad. Those cars have a well-deserved reputation for having a poor cooling system, and lots of brake issues. Mine went through several sets of brakes, plus at least one head gasket. I wasn't sorry to see that piece of shit go after the engine blew up () in '94.

As for the DeLorean, if it had been developed properly, who knows. The engine in it wasn't exactly suited for a sports car--it was meant for big sedans. Back in the 1980s, my parents had a '79 Volvo 264GL with the same "PRV" V6--it would cruise all day at 90mph...sometimes without the driver even knowing it. It was that smooth. However, it also had a reputation for blocked oilways, and required more maintenance. Didn't stop ours from racking up 200,000 miles (we got it with 100,000+ already on it!) until lack of maintenance and rust killed it.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

My parents' second Chevette was just like that. Who decided to make the stock colour shit brown, anyways?
But, I have to admit, for a car that looked, smelled, sounded and drove like crap, it was a tough little vehicle.

And, yeah, why isn't the K-Car on there? We had one of those at one time, and it sucked noodles!

Some of the Chevettes were actually quite good . . . we had a 1982 5-door hatchback that Mom bought back in the late 80's . . . it ran pretty good. Ours was white, and to me it looked like an egg on wheels, so it was named "Eggshell."

We kept it for about 5 years, then Mom decided to sell it . . . by that time, we'd acquired 5 vehicles and she thought that was too many . . . so Eggshell went.

Only thing we ever had to do to it besides regular maintenance was we had to replace the glass on the hatchback b/c my then stepdad's brother was moving his stereo and apparently didn't realize that a corner of the cabinet was sticking out a bit high.

I also recall my ex b/f Onslow had one . . . a red one that had been his late mother's . . . he drove it whenever his car screwed up. It didn't look the greatest in the world, but at least it got us from Point A to Point B.

[blas]

Totally agree, Fuzzy Kitten. They're all ugly.

Back in the day...ok maybe just a year or so ago, Protege and I used to post a lot about our old Tempos. I had an 87 and a 92. They both shit the bit, only after having everything imaginable go wrong with them. They did however get excellent gas mileage for their age, though. I was impressed with how seldom I had to fill up.

[Acolyte]

We had a Topaz (Same as a Tempo) as well, and it actually did pretty well, too. That thing toted our family, including often trips to Northern Ontario with a trailer or boat in tow, for a good 13 years of hard driving before we replaced it with a Civic and donated it to the Teen Challenge Farm. Granted, it was teetering on the brink of death at that time, but with what we paid for it, we got a good run.

Actually, our K-Car aside, all of our domestics have had below-average amount of problems. Our old Crown Vic is 15 years old now, and still has plenty of life left in it.

Still like the new imports better, though.

[AFpheonix]

They didn't have the silly tippy Bronco II's on there, either.