http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...motive-history

All American made ... *shurgs* well maybe not Renault but ... hmm ... *shurgs*

 

if u had to pick one which would it be

 

Caddy Catera.

I believe it was actually assembled by the bolshevics at GM's Vauxhall plant in England.

I remember when it came out, it was SO badly put together, that when Jean Jennings (Lindamood then) tested it around Ann Arbor, she reported that on the highway, the headliner had started to slump down over the steering wheel, driver, and eventually fell right off......that would have to be a first in road testing history.

S

 

from the list or outa all the years?

if from the list, I pick the 02 T-bird. That **** was an epic failed. (like I know any of those cars in the 70s, I wasnt even born yet!)

outa all the years ... hmm too hard to pick.

 

xr4ti.

definitely.

the only complaint is that it was peculiar and not widely popular. not that it sucked. and im sure we can think of another car that fits that profile.

 

The XR4Ti was probably one of the best things (or at least more interesting) to come out of a Lincoln/Mercury dealership. Too bad the high performance version of that car (Ford Sierra Cosworth) had its wings clipped, as usual, before being put on sale in America. The US emissions regulations and erratic exchange rate meant it had no chance.

 

When I lived in England, I drove a Mondeo for a year so I could live with the Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique. Not a bad car at all.

 

I still can't get over how ANYBODY thought the "new" T-bird was a good-looking car. It's ugly as ****...

 

xr4ti was a pretty decent car. keep in mind that it was a euro homegrown car for the euro market. the sierra was their bread 'n butter car. compared to american cars at the time, sure it was odd, but it really was more just different than odd. plus the sierra cosworth was pretty awesome; they never sold that here and even if they did i doubt people would've bought into those at the time. the scorpio was pretty cool, too, but again too euro for its own good. the contour/mystique was a truly good car, tho...at least in design and engineering. it's basically the same as the european ford mondeo, and it handled pretty good. the later svt version is pretty sweet; i'd buy a used one to use as a daily driver. the only thing ford did wrong w/ those was they designed the contour to be a bit funky looking, and the build quality probably wasn't too great

the rest on that list were pretty much jokes. the caddy that zigs? what a p.o.s. that malibu? i could've drawn a more attractive car in 4th grade. t-bird? great idea, awfully executed

a fun read

 

I have had the unpleasant experience of being stuck with a few Malibu rentals during trips. Not since I have had my 8, but compared to the P5, that thing has the steering precision of one of those circular snow sleds. All American cars I have driven have that lack of steering precision, but the Malibu was the worst one by leaps and bounds. Seriously, it was somewhere around 10 degrees of steering wheel rotation before the wheels would start responding.

I instantly knew where those old movies got the idea that driving down a straight road involved a ton of steering input.

Yeah, I read it earlier today, and I also noticed the 100% American population of the list

 

T-bird has to be the biggest f%$*K up of the bunch. "What the hell were they thinking?" doesnt quite cover it.

 

I have to echo that the XR4ti and Contour portions didn't sound very "embarrassing." I guess they had to fill out ten cars. Great handling with European sensibilities, but small rear seat- how horrible! Ironically, I once owned a '98 Contour followed by a '99.5 Audi A4 and noticed no improvement in rear seat room (although there was in improvement in interior style/materials hence the price difference).

 

i had done something dreadful and was beholding to my wife in 1980. she saw a two door citation on the show room floor and said in a loud voice "my car". out comes a salesman with the biggest grin. end of story is. that was the worse car i have ever had and the biggest POS GM ever made. it also was the last GM i ever had.

 

did your wife like it?

 

rx8 is #3 for best brakes 70-0

 

she did until it popped out of first gear in the middle of a main intersection with a semi coming at her. they did a recall on that later. she liked it less when the air and heat unit quit working right after the warranty went off. there also were the door handles that fell off and the headliner falling down.

 

WHAT? You mean u let her buy that POS over the uber cool, new rotary rocket from Japan (SA-RX-7)?? LOL. In 1980 i was 3 yrs old, i have 83 GSL and wonder sometimes what people thought of the 1st Gens back when they were "fresh".

LPCOKIE, Did you know much about the RX-7 back at that time?(off topic i know)

 

no i didn't know about the 7. at the time i was driving a pinto and had kids. i f i had any money i would have gone after a alfa or min cooper.

 

The Euro Ford Contour <> US Ford Contour. The Euro one like the Euro Focus is actually very good.

 

Especially the one that I had as it was the ghia X with the V6, heated leather seats, sunroof and alloy wheels. That was straight pimpin' back in 1999 by UK standards.