Doug Ross @ Journal

The Worst cars ever Made

The brilliantly-named AutoMotoPortal (doesn't that roll trippingly off the tongue?) has an intriguing list of the worst cars ever made. Among them:

* Yugo: this very, very inexpensive tin-can compact car was plagued by every type of maintenance problem imaginable. Good news: it only exploded on very rare occasions.

* Ford Pinto: well, this car actually did explode with frightening regularity. The location of its gas-tank was the primary culprit. I could be mistaken, but if memory serves, the gas-tank was cleverly secreted within the rear bumper.

* Chevy Vega: many believe this car was constructed with shaped rust. You don't see many of these on the road anymore for the same reasons you don't see snowmen in the summer. These cars would disintegrate as you drove them.

I'll add a few more:

* Buick Century: GM made the brilliant decision to keep manufacturing the exact same car for about 25 years straight. I'd call the design dated and horrifically ugly, but that overstates how attractive it looked.

* Merkur XR4Ti: I don't know what XR4Ti stands for, but it easily could have been labeled X-cruciatingly ugly. The X came from the school of design that said, "Hey! If one spoiler doesn't cut it, try two!"