6 of the Worst Cars Ever Made

This week at Rear View Prints we decided we are sick to the back teeth of positivity. There’s too much to go around, and quite frankly, it needs to be curbed. Oh, we just love Italian sports cars, especially iconic and vintage Lambos. We just adore heritage British engineering and the Jaguar E-Type.

Enough of what we love.

It’s time reader, to talk about what it is we hate. Cars are bloody good, aren’t they? Except sometimes, they’re not. That’s what this week's blog is all about! We’ve rounded up some prime examples of some of the worst cars ever made. 6 to be exact.

We have to admit, it was tough to find a proper consensus on what makes a car so bad as to be labeled on one of the ‘worst cars ever made’, but we think we’ve got a few good contenders. Now without further ado, here’s that perfect compliment to this deary wet end of summer’s afternoon. Enjoy!

Reliant Robin

True to British cynicism and all-around glumness, we’re starting off a list of some of the worst cars ever made with a true British staple.

The Reliant Robin was a creation of pure horror. Some type of tax-avoiding three-wheeled monstrosity that bridged an entirely unnecessary gap between cars and motorbikes. It looked horrible and drove even worse. Jeremy Clarkson once remarked that driving it was as dangerous "inviting your mum 'round for an evening on chatroulette". Quite. 

Pontiac Aztek

Not even a brief appearance as feared drug lord Walter White’s vehicle of choice in Breaking Bad could save this from a list of the worst cars ever made. Let’s just look at the bloody thing for a start. It’s hideous.

The faux futuristic design makes it look like an aborted space-shuttle prototype design. It was released to the market with an eye-watering high price tag too, making itself a firm fixture of one of the most disliked automobiles in history. 

The Yugo

A cheaply priced plastic atrocity, complete with interior carpeting to boot. The Yugo was bad, alright. A 1.1-liter engine generated 55 horsepower that was prone to failure more than Tottenham Hotspur on a cup run, this communist invention has nestled itself nicely into a staple example of some of the worst cars ever made. 

Saturn Ion

A lesson in what happens when you try to poorly imitate exceptional Japanese engineering and design. Yes, the Saturn Ion was supposed to be America’s answer to Honda and Toyota’s much-loved compact exports, but it pretty much failed to come anywhere close. Bad build quality. Bad interior design. Just...bad, all round. 

Ford Pinto

We’ve laughed at some of the entries on this list but the Pinto is not one of them. Probably the most sinister cars you’re likely to read about, the Pinto was a mechanical disaster with a fatal flaw of a dodgy fuel tank. It was tested before release and discovered that every time it was rear-ended at a speed of more than 25MPH, the fuel tank ruptured.

Now-Infamous documentation called the Pinto memo was made public in an investigative article for Mother Jones, which showed that Ford had weighed up the price of redesigning the rear end of the vehicle versus the cost of compensation towards potential victims of the design flaw, and duly decided to let the public burn. Human life? Versus monetary profit? Pfft. We told you this was sinister.

Trabant

‘The People’s Car’ they affectionately named it. Communist East Germany’s answer to the VW Beetle had done nothing to earn this jolly nickname of course, except being a car that was driven by people, perhaps.

If you were lucky enough to drive one of these poorly designed knock-off Beetles, you’d soon discover the strange omission of basic safety standards, like no brake lights. Or turn signals. Oh, and body paneling that fell off when it reached higher speeds. Worst cars ever made, indeed. 

Once again we hope you enjoyed our blog and would love to hear your thoughts and comments below as always.

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Until next time, folks!