Is there a car out there that **NOBODY** likes?

Nobody liked the '72 Challenger...

jimbob_racing said:

Mitsubishi iMiEV.

Did anyone actually buy one? I've never seen one on the road.

They were sold nationwide. I remember seeing one new at a Mitsu dealer outside of New Orleans. 

I see them pretty regularly in the Chicago area. I think they're a great choice if your needs match their capabilities.

I'm restricted on parking space, seldom drive more than five miles in a day, most of that driving is under 35mph, I have a garage with a 110v outlet in it. I really would do better with a healthy i-MiEV than with the CR-Z now that I have the Birkin.

In my situation just before I moved, I had 50 miles, mostly highway, each way, five days a week, with no charging at work. I would have had to take the 55mph highway and leave earlier, then taken time after work to charge, just to hypermile home. I'd hate every single day of it.

Outside of major cities, it's not a great car. 

This thread has been fun. I really missed you guys. Stupid Facebook takes up way too much of my free time. Y'all are much more entertaining.

The Pontiac (Daewoo) Lemans was the commuter car of choice for my friend's dad. He had about a 100 mile round trip daily commute, and it only got scrapped when the harmonic balancer flew off going down the parkway. He managed to limp the car home, and try to find a replacement.

Only there weren't any. They checked every parts store, online, even the junkyards were void of this car. So off to the shredder it went. At 440k miles. My friend took a picture of the odometer when it went on the trailer. So there's proof, somewhere.

Mike (Forum Supporter) said:

Appleseed said:

In reply to Mike (Forum Supporter) :

There are more than a few freaks here that apparently lust over them. They've never driven one. They make you question God.

Then how about the Grumman LLV?

Regular cars had an episode with a guy who legally owns one. After the watching the video, I'm interested. Strictly for the novelty. Looks awful in every single way. 

 Only a couple of votes for my front-runner: the Corsica, so I'm going to call it. 

 There is **not** a car that nobody likes.

(Forgive my bad grammar, I'm more of a math/science and I don't want my sentence to end up on the grammar-thread...)

I went through most of the "worst cars ever made" listicles and.... yeah. There is no consensus.

I mean several of the lists had the Mk14 Lotus Elite and those are desirable expensive collectibles. 

And I for one would totally daily a modern Fiat Multipla.  Show me another 6 passenger people mover with that much cargo space and that kind of fuel economy.

Trent said:

I went through most of the "worst cars ever made" listicles and.... yeah. There is no consensus.

Woah woah woah.  Nobody ever said anything about "good" or "bad", just desirability.

I mean several of the lists had the Mk14 Lotus Elite and those are desirable expensive collectibles. 

For instance 

I am sure a 1.6 Diesel Vanagon runs forever, which is important because it would take forever for you to go anywhere.  On the other hand, there is probably some weirdo somewhere who cherishes the idea of owning one of those, probably because it would get 50mpg by dint of being physically unable to use fuel more quickly, so never mind.

Says the weirdo who is into Quantums, which are vehicles you cannot buy parts for because even Volkswagen wants to deny that they ever existed.

In reply to Trent :

The Datsun 1200 was listed on a couple of "worst cars ever made" mostly because they were allegedly top heavy and easy to roll. 

I searched worst *selling* cars lists to try and correlate some type of consensus of a car that nobody liked based on sales when new.

*BUT*

Anything sold in tiny numbers is usually some bespoke handcrafted piece that is highly sought after in todays age, or it was produced in such small quantities that there are no examples left to not like (which, by default may actually make it the most not liked), which again I vote on the 618 examples of the Studebaker Wagonaire.

Most vehicles touted as 'worst selling' in a previous time period has risen to a cult status as cool and even desirable today. (DMC-12, Rampage, Baja, Edsel) 

P3PPY said:

Ugliest are AMC Eagle 

I want an AMC eagle. I kick myself for not buying a couple when I was a teenager when they were still cheap and available. 

My sister and I look for Mitsubishi iMiEVs regularly because we wanna slap tons of our half-broken mitsubishi parts onto it to troll around at car meets 

As for that Studebaker wagon- I actually knew of one for sale in Omaha and I saw another riding around once, seafoam green colored (!). The thing I was most taken by, is just how SMALL it still is despite the wagon back. Seriously looked like it gained only a handful of cubic feet.

So cars that did not sell in high numbers, were unexceptional, and were met with indifference?

How about the Pontiac G3? Basically a Chevy Aveo, released to little fanfare directly into a dying brand, produced in really limited numbers, no real unique value against the Aveo to make it stand out on its own.

The longer this list goes on the more I realize it's a list of cars I'd like to own.

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Forgot about the Chevette." They are hateful in every way, and anyone who denies it needs mental health care." I got mad just remembering that POS but since you said that I feel better.

I knew a girl in school who had a Chevette. I had way more fun driving it than I had with her, but that was at least partly my own fault. 

I'd willingly own a Chevette though. 

I worked with a guy that loved Chevettes.  This guy didn't care what anybody thought about him.  He knew every line to every rock song and every line of every Monty Python movie.  He said he could buy a Chevette for $500 and drive it until it died, and then buy another.  I looked under the hood of his one day and he had channel locks holding part of the steering gear together.  His wife was a vet and owned a horse, so he ended up with a lot of used hypodermics in his car.  I tried to explain the seriousness of this but he didn't see it that way.  We ended up becoming good friends and he may be one of the smartest people I know.  We were working for a consultant doing asbestos air monitoring and inspections.  Not a great profession.  He ended up getting a PhD in Plant Physiology or something like that and became a big wheel at one of the large chemical companies.  He later went back to law school and worked in patent law dealing with plant genetics.  

FWIW, I had a 15 Nissan Versa Note manual for a few years after my CX-5 was totaled and it wasn't terrible to drive with the manual and was pretty reliable as a commuter appliance.

In reply to Mike (Forum Supporter) :

My son likes those for some reason and I try to talk him out of it at every opportunity. Same motor as the Lanos which had enough of a following  that I was grinding cams for them when they were current. 

In reply to Peabody :

The Aveo WAS a Lanos.

So was the Pontiac LeMans.

The LeMans was an outright build on Opel designs/tooling.  I do not know about the Aveo, but Aveo underpinnings scream "alternate universe late 80s Golf" so probably a lot of Opel DNA in there too.  (I like Aveos.)

The engine is very similar to older Opel designs.  The LeMans actually DID use an Opel design engine, it was the same engine family as the 1.8/2.0 SOHC used in early 80s J-bodies.  And yes, some people have bolted the 2.0 turbo engine from a Sunbird into a LeMans.

Automotive genealogy is fun!

I sort of like the Blackwood, the F150 for people who want to pay more! Ford took a shot at catering to wealthy customers who still wanted to drive a "truck".  I do recall new ones sitting on dealer lots for a long time. 

In reply to Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) :

I recall the sales were expected to be pretty large but fell WAY short very quickly. I dont hate it, but it was a prettt unloved vehicle as far as purchases go. 
 

honorable mention, the murano convertible. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to Peabody :

The Aveo WAS a Lanos.

Automotive genealogy is fun!

I used to think the same thing but the Lanos was a predecessor to the Kalos which was the Aveo. T100 vs T200 platform.  Those Leman's were interesting. Outside North America they were available with a pretty hot 2.0l (?) DOHC engine and were not the forgettable little turd we got over here.

Yes, I find that stuff fascinating. 
 

The irony that I drive a Spark while I try to dissuade him from looking at Aveos is not lost on me. 

In reply to Peabody :

Good point re: renaming. 

We used to joke about that at work.  We'd call Focuses "Es-corts" (let's see if the filter eats that), we had a pair of AMC Concords for some damn reason and we'd call them Spirits or Ramblers or even, when feeling saucy, Hornets.

Peabody said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to Peabody :

The Aveo WAS a Lanos.

Automotive genealogy is fun!

I used to think the same thing but the Lanos was a predecessor to the Kalos which was the Aveo.

Those are words I think. 

This is the best pic I could find, but the Sprongl brothers ran a Swift+, an Aveo, in the Canadian rally championship. When I spoke to them about it they told me the car was, aside from the cage and some associated strengthening, predominately stock, and had been very reliable and capable. 
 

I still don't like them. 
 

Duke said:

Second-gen AMC Matador.

Dick Teague designed that.  AMC wanted to compete in NASCAR.  Dick turned to his old friend Colin Chapman who had famously said "just add lightness".  Only problem was, Dick misunderstood and thought he said "frightness "