15:07 The Pinto was never rear engine, the problem was a metal spike that would rupture the gas tank upon a rear accident with the fix being about $15.00 but instead, Ford came up with a price per person to give to the families of the dead after an explosion.
This wasn't as big of a deal as history has has made out, first of all not all Pintos were desgned the same. Also it obviously didn't effect the Mustang II built on the same platform. Plus if you were a really good journalist you would know this was debunked back in 1990 and close to that time Hemmings Motor News did an article showing the Pinto had less fires than other cars of the time period.
Some of these on the list are pretty subjective. For a few if them the only argument given was poor sales. Just because a car didn't sell well doesn't necessarily make it crappy. There have been several models that sold very well that were bad.
Jeep Wranglers are one such vehicle - they sell like hotcakes but by all accounts they're not a very good vehicle (for a daily driver at least.) But they don't make lists like this because people love them.
I love the DeLorean I’d love it more if it came stock with a GM 350 V8 lol but even with all its issues I love it and it is irrational rating cars is definitely subjective. I agree with you. My first car was a 1985 Chrysler Fifth Avenue, gunmetal gray, gray leather interior (corinthian leather Lol) the real name of the company was Mark Cross a fact I’m sure nobody cares to know lol I would love to buy another one. Of course I would stuff the hemi in it (lol) but I am probably one of the very few that feel that way about that model.
@@jeffb.6642 I had a Cherokee kind of like the wrangler with more boxes. It made more sense, but like you said not great for a daily driver, especially if you were suffering from any back issues at all with that said, I’ve owned two Cherokees, because the in-line six is a solid engine, and if you’re pennypinching, you can rely on this vehicle to last as long as you need it to just don’t look at the gas gauge.
The reason why the Reliant had three wheels was a very clever marketing idea. In the UK you didn’t need to have a car licence to drive it - a car would have four wheels so the with the Reliant people with a bike licence would be able to. It also worked out cheaper.
I remember the Reliant Robin. When i was a kid we had an old guy who lived up the road from us who owned a blue one and he used to floor it past our house every morning. Damn it was loud! 😂😂 I think i preferred the name it became known as. 'Plastic pig'
Earlier Saturn cars (not the Ion from this list) were actually very good. They were cheap, reliable, and had a dealer experience which competed with luxury brands. It was only later when GM did its usual cost-cutting and rebadged other vehicles with the Saturn name that ruined the Saturn brand. I had a friend who was still driving his first-gen Saturn sedan as late as 2015. He said the shop where he took it told him to hang onto it because the engine was so good. Leave it to GM management to ruin a good thing.
Thanks to those who pointed out to us that The Ford Pinto was not a rear engine car, rather we meant that the gas tank was the issue from the rear, which is why it was dangerous in collisions. This is the video error equivalent to having the air bag go off after hitting something avoidable. Thanks again!
I got what you meant! No harm!😉 One of my aunts always rented Pintos whenever she came for visits when she had to travel to different places and the worst thing she experienced was her own sense of direction! Haha!
I feel you did the Isetta a disservice by not showing Steve Urkelle driving his in Family Matters 😂 Also the Mirthmobile from Wayne’s World should’ve been shown as the AMC Pacer.
I would like to point out that the Pinto was front engined not rear enginged as this video stated. My sister had a Pinto and it was reliable and it did not burst into flame when it ws totalled in a rear end collision at a traffic light. A few did but not all of them.
@@DonMachado Good to know. Hey, I howled laughing at "The Boys" raking Communist Cars over the coals but I'll say this; Better Yugo (You Go) then Nova (Won't Go).
The Ford Pinto is front engined. It is the fuel tank that was placed at the very back of the car. When the car is hit from the rear in an accident, the fuel tank will be hit and will be damaged, causing the fuel to spill out which can cause the fire hazards that the Pinto is known for.
Thank you for the update, WatchMojo..!! I had no idea Dodge Neon received that low rating in terms of safety. @.@ My friend used to own one back in the mid-90s, and I only have positive memories of riding in that car. I remember thinking it was a reliable and fun vehicle for its time, with its unique styling and peppy performance. 🤣
@@RamenWolf1485 best memory of my grand mother who took the term strict victorian lady to heart, she was taking care of us when mom was in labour and took us to see this movie and she nearly bit a chunk out of the seats she was laughing so much
Since the video asks why the isetta came about (and why bmw chose to license it)…basically it’s a question of time and location. The car was developed in Italy shortly after WWII and both Italy and Germany were not in terribly good economic shape at that time (having your infrastructure bombed back into the stone age will do that to you.) so the idea of small and cheap cars such as the isetta or the ‘Kabinenroller’ type cars that Heinkel and Messerschmitt produced for a while had some virtue. By the mid-50s, the economy picked up a bit the general ubiquity of the beetle and the fiat topolono and later the 500 rendered these sort of coffins on wheels obsolete. The Trabant is also some similar in this regard - from a mechanical standpoint, it’s a 1930s DKW (one of the erstwhile Auto-Union brands; we know it’s western descendent as ‘Audi’) with a 1950s body made out of materials that the East Germans were able to source more readily. As such, it’s a stupendously easy car to maintain - it’s about as technologically complex as an old lawnmower. But manufacturing quality was low and it has to be said, the 1939 DKW F8 which the Trabant powertrain derived from was an under powered car even by 1939 standards. Imagine how things were 50 years onwards…
God Bless You for keeping it running, but this is survivor bias in action. Ford built millions of Pintos (surprisingly, the explosion scandal didn't hurt sales that much) and 99% of them are long gone.
One I can think of is the Volkswagen Thing. Actually designated the Type 181 it was sold under different names in different countries. I remember the ad campaign in the U.S. in the 70's, showing it as a fun, sporty but economical car that could be customized a lot of different ways. Never really caught on and its safety record was.pretty dismal. It had a tendency to catch fire from poorly designed wiring.
My dad had both the Yugo and Ford Pinto, he told me he had the Yugo in college, and despite its legacy, it was perfect for younger people who didn't have money, and was super easy for getting out of snow
I disagree with much of this video (Azteks were good and I will die on that hill) but I applaud WatchMojo for acknowledging the timing belt issue with the Yugo. Most owners didn't follow the recommended service intervals, resulting in disaster.
The Ford Pinto is not a rear engine car. The Ford Pinto would explode if you tapped it on the rear end because Ford decided not to spend $8 and put a baffle in the gas tank.
Ford also cut corners by using a filler tube that was too short and would break free from the tank on impact. And, they also goofed by using overly long bumper mounting bolts that would pierce the tank and by not including external tank shields.
My wife and I bought a 1985 CHEVROLET SPECTRUM ( an import by ISUZU ) back in the late 1990's for $100.00 . This was a fixer - upper as it had been abused / mis - used and needed a lot of work . The first thing that it needed was a battery and all four brand new tires . The engine had very poor performance and so I changed the following : spark plugs , spark plug wires , distributor cap , distributor rotor , and fuel filter ( the fuel filter was black rather than an off- white look ) . This still did not fix the poor performance so I set the timing , which also did no good . The last item to target was the carburetor so I bought two cans of carburetor cleaner from AUTO ZONE and I started the engine . With the engine running , I revved up the engine and generously sprayed cleaner into the intake . Within about a minute , there was a bit of backfire from the engine and then it began to race at about 3000RPM ! I tried to rev the engine to get it to stop racing , but it was no use . I decided to go ahead and drive it and after about fifteen minutes of driving , it settled to a smooth idle . This car finally ran great and it got thirty - four miles to thhe gallon of gas as it had a 1.5 liter four cylinder engine. The other best thing about this car was the air conditioning was so cold on very hot days that it would freeze you out in fifteen minutes . My wife had to learn how to drive a stick shift as it was a five speed manual transmission !
I loved my Neon, don't know if it being a manual made any difference. My Mustang was about 20 years old and rescued from junk. Never got the Yugo to run. It was more of an experiment. My Pinto was a wagon at least.
Its location wasn't even the problem. (Many cars have the gas tank in the rear.) It's that Ford cheaped out on protecting it from collisions. My aunt and uncle had one of the last Pintos (1979 or 1980) and actually quite liked it. As with the Chevy Cavalier, it stayed in production so long that the company eventually figured out how to build them properly.
It's funny that the dodge neon entry was all about safety cause one literally saved my life. My mom had one and I was using it when mine was in the shop. A truck lost a steel winch on a steel cable off the back of his truck. His tire kicked it up and hit exactly where the roof and windshield meet. If I was in just about any other car I'd be dead.
I had a Neon. Had to have the ac replaced, but it was under warranty. I enjoyed driving it, probably because my previous car had been a Hyundai Excel, which was just like a Yugo. Also had a Highlander that had the Takata airbags. I guess don’t let me pick a car for ya. 😆✌️
Former Aztek owner here. I LOVED that car. Compact on the outside, comfy and slick on the inside, and the hatchback was insanely spacious. Drove it til the engine gave out.
The local dealership got into selling the Yugo and had a giant tent sale event to get public interest in the cars. They sold 30 of them on Friday and Saturday. Monday morning, 15 of them were back at the service center because they broke down and had to be towed. At one point, if you bought a new Volvo from them, they would give you a Yugo for free. Most people declined the offer.
Drove a Yugo. It's worse than you'd think. I owned a Saturn LS1, the larger sedan model. It was a nice car to drive but lemony, some lasted forever, some failed miserably. The plastic doors were intentional.
My parents had a Vega. I remember the head gasket blew so my dad pulled the head off and used JB Weld to "fix" the damage to the cylinder walls - and glued the new head gasket down. The car was sold very soon after that. I owned a 95 Neon and at 50,000 miles the head gasket blew. Cost me a few hundred to fix with the dealer picking up the rest. Sold that car off soon after. Never bought another Chevy or Dodge and never will.
Avoid anything Stellantis, they somehow managed to have all of the least reliable car brands worldwide under one roof. It seems like Chevy trucks hold up well but their compacts like the Cruze and Sonic were junk.
No mention of the Chevy Chevette (GM's own unintended version of the Pinto)... It's design flaw was similar (and worse) in that if it was rear ended, parts of the frame would jam into the doors essentially trapping the occupants while the vehicle caught fire.
Yeah, I had a '79 Chevette. Those things were awful. If you lived in a northern state where they salt the roads, the shock towers would rust and then break away from the wheel well. Another contender that wasn't mentioned is the Chevy Sprint/Geo Metro. The 3 cylinder engine was lucky to last 125K miles.
I sell auto parts. A guy pulled into my parking lot a while back with TWO Pinto wagons on his car trailer. Had just went and loaded them up. One was 80% rusted out, and the other was going to be restored from both. He was super stoked, and I wanted to be enthusiastic for him, but all I could do was look them over as the time machines they are now, and think about how much money he was about to flush down Le Toilet. The one he was restoring had solid sides in place of windows, like a panel wagon, and it had a diamond shaped bubble window on each side like the old hippie vans use to back in the '70's.
I didn't need the Pinto reference for that scene from Top Secret (1984) to be hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣 But finally realizing the Pinto part makes it painfully hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣
I loved the Chevy SSR. I was one of my favorite cars as a kid. Some people thought it was weird but I loved it because of how different it looked. And I actually got to ride in one and it had some pretty good get-up-and-go.
Me too. And contrary to popular belief, it was a huge hit when it first came out. Problem was, everyone who liked them bought them in 1975 and 1976. Sales plummeted after that. The uglier resigned grille didn't help.
I'm of mixed opinion with the Pinto. My dad had one that, frankly, felt like a rickety death trap. Conversely, of the cars I've had, my Pinto has always been my favorite. A solid workhorse that fit me like a glove. Sometimes the car chooses the driver. (If only it had AC...)
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Dodge Neon?!? Hell, no. Yeah, it's quality and safety is lacking, but these cars are surprisingly capable on the track. They've won multiple championships in SCCA, auto-x and more. It's an excellent platform for modding and hooning, which can't be said of anything else on this list. Super fun cars and I preferred my parents Neon to my Integra back in the day.
My parents being in collision, I drove many of these cars. The worst was Yugo, followed by the neon. They were crap on wheels. The Cimarron wasn’t terrible but it was a huge joke that looked like a Cavalier!!!!
I'm here to offer a correction: The Ford Pinto did not have a rear-mounted engine, it was in the front, just like most cars of the time. The problem with the Pinto was the gas tank. It was designed without any kind of reinforcement or impact protection, which subjected it to risk of catastrophic failure (i.e.: explosions). Ford could have spent just a few bucks per automobile to provide a properly protective fuel tank, but they did not, thinking that it would be cheaper to settle a lawsuit than it would be to recall the car. Ah, the 1970s: When men were men and car manufacturers couldn't give two shakes of a rat's tail about the consumer.
When I graduated from college, my employer provided a fleet vehicle to me for my work. It was a Mustang II. It wasn't a muscle car, but it looked okay. It was very easy on fuel (4 cylinder) & easy to handle. Essentially, it drove like, & the interior identical to the Pinto I had in college. I liked it. It had the economy & handling of a Pinto without the hazardous placement of the fuel tank.
I loved my Saturn Ion. As a poor college student/graduate, I was able to look past the ignition issues. It looked like a modern car for years after, and its milage was GREAT!
There was a car sold here in Canada called Lada. I owned a 1983 with a 1500cc engine, that I bought in 1986 for $1600 in mint condition and only a little over 57,000 kilometers on the odometer. It was capable of around 100 mph, however it was, in my opinion, a rolling piece of junk, especially the rear breaks. I sold it about a year and a half later for 90 bucks, just to get rid of it.
Ladas were great if you had the time and the know-how to work on them yourself. They were an *extremely* basic design based on the 1966 Fiat 124. Canada-bound Ladas actually underwent "final assembly" right here in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. In practice I think that meant they were given the once-over to fix building defects, and some of the components (like tires) were replaced with higher-quality Western and Japanese parts.
When I was a boy around 1993 or 94 my mother had a Yugo, I remember everytime we would have to speed up as fast as we could just to get up a small hill. Then one day the steering wheel feel off when we was trying to trade it in.
The Trabant is a chad. They were cheap to produce, easy to produce, and were indestructible. One man actually escaped the Soviets because the bullets bounced off his traby. There were rumors that they were edible due to them being made out of cardboard.
Back in the day, the Trabant had extremely high resale value- because new ones were hard to get(a very long waiting list)but a used one could be had right away...for a price!
No, they were not made of cardboard . The bodies were made of plastic. Just like toy cars. When the commie empire broke up and people in Eastern Europe could get "better"cars like Fiats and Renaults, people were abandoning Trabants on the street by the 1000',s. Just left them to be towed away. Too much toxic air pollution from incinerating the bodies, and also, while they were running, toxic emissions from their 2-stroke engines. Those cars were bad news all around.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 was a rather special model of Ram from 2004-2006, and may not have sold tons of units, which was a shame. Still, Dodge made a limited amount of the Ram SRT-10, which was actually what caused its own downfall. Only 10,00 or so were made and sold, which was what made them more of a "Holy Grail" when it comes to finding used Rams. I wish Dodge could bring back the Viper and the Ram SRT-10.
I was driving a Pinto from Berkeley to Dallas and got only to Tehchapi in 1978. The car hit a guard rail and soon burned much as it was to reortedly do when the bolt hit the gas tank. I had symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, so the fire may have begun when I was driving. I don't know all the circumstances.
I had one of the first Plymouth Neons that came off the line in February 1994. Loved that car more than I can express. Wasn't a dog at all - still not sure why it was on here.
I wanted one badly that year. I was looking for a commuter car for a sixty mile trip to work every day, but the local Dodge dealer didn't want to go to the trouble of ordering what I wanted, so I bought a 1994 Toyota.
9:05 Q: How do you double the value of a Trabant? A: Fill 'er up. 12:19 President Lyndon Johnson had an amphicar and loved using it to play practical jokes on people - specifically by pretending that he lost control of the car and promptly driving it into a lake. That may be the amphicar's only legacy. 11:21 And the funny thing about the DeLorean is the same issue as the British Police Call Box: Both designs are today more renowned as time machines, and, just like the TARDIS, there will soon come a generation that will not even remember the DeLorean was anything else.
@@tenossos I loved that Manta. Never had a problem with Buick as I never visited again. Parts were easy to find. Learned how to set new points with a dwell meter and tweak the distributor w/o a light. She always ran top notch.
@@tenossos Marketing Opel by Buick was a bad business decision. Opel was owned by GM from 1929 til 2017 and was often a GM cash cow often being the best selling car in Europe but never marketed in the USA. When the 70's gas crunch hit they brought it to America but not under Chevrolet as it would compete with the Vega and Nova so they shoe horned it into Buick known for conservative gas guzzlers and not where people searching for forward thinking and sporty cars. Pontiac would have been a better choice with an eye on creating its own dealerships in the future.
I had the pinto... my father "bought" one for me used way after the pesky "explodes on impact" issue was discovered... It was pea soup green and i had to replace 2 clutch cables in it... contrary to popular belief.. it was not a blast..😂
Wait a minute, the Pinto had a "rear engine design"? Did you do any research on any of these, or are you just going off of internet dudes' lists of what they consider "bad cars"? LOL
My sister had a Pinto when she was in high school, it wasn’t too bad as far as being dependable. I was 13/ 14 when she had it and I learned how to drive a four speed in that car, actually pretty fun to drive.
That it's on here just validates the rest of your list for me, though I'd have listed it higher, so to say the Aztek was ugly is an understatement to my retina burnt eyes. It was an automotive abomination.
My first car was a Chevy Vega school bus yellow. A rust bucket for sure and needed oil so much that my father made sure I carried extra. It was a manual and the gear shift knob would always come off. Those were the days.
Selling cheap cars to people that had no concept of small car maintenance, and salespeople never explaining about the cam belt service , killed a huge number of them. I've owned 5 and have #6 in my garage waiting for my time to finish and install a bigger Fiat engine and Yugo 5 speed. An easy 115mph + result.
We have a GM dealership in my hometown that tried to sell the H2. They only sold one in 5 years, and that was to the owner of the dealership. They decided to send them back to GM.
If this list includes obscure foreign brands, then what about the Moskvich? That Soviet-era car company made several models for export and none were regarded as very good. Usually they had underpowered engines that broke down easily and the steering systems didn't handle well.
Here in Canada we got Dacias from Romania. Not the modern Renault-based ones so beloved by James May, but the Ceausescu-era copy of the ancient Renault 12 design. When people say Yugos were the "worst car of all time," I tell them they have absolutely no idea what else was being produced in the Eastern Bloc back then. (Yugoslavia was Communist, but not aligned with the USSR and had at least a somewhat more open market economy.)
@@Telecolor-in3cl They were awful. ARO 4x4s were briefly sold in Canada, too, but they're extremely rare. I wish modern-day Dacias were sold here, though. From what I've read they are quite good cars for the price.
I had a 74 Vega GT. I loved that little car! It looked like a baby Camaro. The motor had an aluminum engine block that was crap though. Died in 1983. RIP 😢
I think the bad reputation of the Mustang II was undeserved. If it had not been made, the Mustang name would have likely disappeared. It sold very well. And by 1978 it had a V8 . It wasn’t that powerful. But Most cars were underpowered in the mid mid to late 1970s. So the mustang wasn’t that different in that regard. As for being based on the economy car Pinto, that was no different than the original mustang being based on the Falcon which was Ford’s cheapest car during the 1960’s . 🎉
No FSO Polonez, your list is wrong! LOL! The Polonez was voted worst European car at least 7 years running *& that was up against the Yugo, the Trabant & the Russian Lada.* The BMW Isetta was made by a bankrupt Europe for a bankrupt Europe after WW II. It’s small size & tiny engine classed it as a “Quadrocycle” a vehicle that could be bought on a cheaper motorcycle license & qualified for tax brakes, so it (& other “bubble cars’) got people back on the road after the financial devastation of WW II. My grandfather had one before he had kids & honestly loved as cheap, nimble, easy to park transport. Like the Plymouth Prowler the Chevy SSR wasn’t great but at least they tried something rather than sticking with the same stale formula everyone else was building. FYI: the Pinto was not rear engined, it had it’s gas tank at the rear that created the safety problem.
Holy shit, I own a 2003 Saturn Ion that I've had for about a year now. And now I see why it's been recalled, every other time I take my key in and out of the ignition, the damn key keeps getting stuck inside ignition. It even made me late for work last year. This countdown shows me why it got recalled. 🤬🤬🤬
The Pinto was a rear engined design? Son-of-a-gun. My old one must have been really rare with its engine in the front!
They were a "blow up from the rear design" still better than the 3 wheel car
Gas tank too unprotected in the rear but you are right the Pinto was not a rear engine car!
Vega's also had the gas tank in the rear of the car.
@@dianewright6204 as do lots of cars. It's a fairly common place to put the gas tank
Yeah. Only half of what this guy says is actually correct. 😆
Your pronunciation of “gas” as “gaz” has shaken me to my core. I may never recover.
Those damn Canadians have to be different, even if it sounds stupid.
15:07 The Pinto was never rear engine, the problem was a metal spike that would rupture the gas tank upon a rear accident with the fix being about $15.00 but instead, Ford came up with a price per person to give to the families of the dead after an explosion.
the funniest thing was the slogan. "it leaves you with that warm feeling".
The "metal spike" was the rear end housing. The "fix" was to install a plastic shield to deflect the gas tank away from the rear differential.
Wonder how they missed something like this LOL but not the first time iv seen WatchMojo get there info wrong.
This wasn't as big of a deal as history has has made out, first of all not all Pintos were desgned the same. Also it obviously didn't effect the Mustang II built on the same platform. Plus if you were a really good journalist you would know this was debunked back in 1990 and close to that time Hemmings Motor News did an article showing the Pinto had less fires than other cars of the time period.
They found after research it was no more prone to explosions than anything else. Ford just got painted bad. Lot was pushed from competition.
Some of these on the list are pretty subjective. For a few if them the only argument given was poor sales. Just because a car didn't sell well doesn't necessarily make it crappy. There have been several models that sold very well that were bad.
I can't say now, but the Pinto regardless to it's one drawback is/was the Shepard of all muscle cars including the ones of today.
Jeep Wranglers are one such vehicle - they sell like hotcakes but by all accounts they're not a very good vehicle (for a daily driver at least.) But they don't make lists like this because people love them.
@@jeffb.6642 I refuse to buy a truck the has more than two doors on it.
I love the DeLorean I’d love it more if it came stock with a GM 350 V8 lol but even with all its issues I love it and it is irrational rating cars is definitely subjective. I agree with you. My first car was a 1985 Chrysler Fifth Avenue, gunmetal gray, gray leather interior (corinthian leather Lol) the real name of the company was Mark Cross a fact I’m sure nobody cares to know lol I would love to buy another one. Of course I would stuff the hemi in it (lol) but I am probably one of the very few that feel that way about that model.
@@jeffb.6642 I had a Cherokee kind of like the wrangler with more boxes. It made more sense, but like you said not great for a daily driver, especially if you were suffering from any back issues at all with that said, I’ve owned two Cherokees, because the in-line six is a solid engine, and if you’re pennypinching, you can rely on this vehicle to last as long as you need it to just don’t look at the gas gauge.
“Rear engine design” Pinto. Fire your researchers!!!!!
Fire
Yeah no doubt
keyword fire
The reason why the Reliant had three wheels was a very clever marketing idea. In the UK you didn’t need to have a car licence to drive it - a car would have four wheels so the with the Reliant people with a bike licence would be able to. It also worked out cheaper.
Also it was much more stable than Top Gear let on because they modded that Robin to tip on purpose...
@@CDeezntz - if it does tip over then always make you have Phil Oakey on standby to help out …..
I remember the Reliant Robin. When i was a kid we had an old guy who lived up the road from us who owned a blue one and he used to floor it past our house every morning.
Damn it was loud! 😂😂
I think i preferred the name it became known as.
'Plastic pig'
Earlier Saturn cars (not the Ion from this list) were actually very good. They were cheap, reliable, and had a dealer experience which competed with luxury brands. It was only later when GM did its usual cost-cutting and rebadged other vehicles with the Saturn name that ruined the Saturn brand. I had a friend who was still driving his first-gen Saturn sedan as late as 2015. He said the shop where he took it told him to hang onto it because the engine was so good. Leave it to GM management to ruin a good thing.
Rebranding Opel as Saturn was so dumb.
@@blackshadow7192Now I see why GM sold Opel and Vauxhall to Groupe PSA.
I owned a Saturn SL1 from 1994 until 2017 and I've still seen some on the road, as well as the Ion and other models.
@@mvanh1956 I have a 2002 SL1 and it's rock solid. Won't win any races, but it's a commuter car and I don't expect it to.
I have a 2006 saturn vue 4cyl fwd. with over 290,000 miles on it and is stil running strong!
My mother received a Ford Pinto as a high school graduation gift in 1974. My uncle end up wrecking it, but luckily it didn't explode.
I won a new 1976 Pinto in a drawing that year. It was rear-ended three times, twice while moving & once parked. The fuel tank never exploded.
Thanks to those who pointed out to us that The Ford Pinto was not a rear engine car, rather we meant that the gas tank was the issue from the rear, which is why it was dangerous in collisions. This is the video error equivalent to having the air bag go off after hitting something avoidable. Thanks again!
This video is kinda the same from the previous, but even more cringy, misleading, and stupid.....💀
Lol nicely handled mea culpa! We're cool
Except a pinto that is ba-da-bump
I got what you meant! No harm!😉 One of my aunts always rented Pintos whenever she came for visits when she had to travel to different places and the worst thing she experienced was her own sense of direction! Haha!
So when's the apology to Count Dankula?
That's not why the Pinto exploded! It had to do with the position of the fuel tank. An easy fix that Ford chose to ignore!!
Plus, the doors jammed shut after being rear ended... Deathtrap
Three girls in Indiana were killed in a horrific crash in the early 80s.
I feel you did the Isetta a disservice by not showing Steve Urkelle driving his in Family Matters 😂
Also the Mirthmobile from Wayne’s World should’ve been shown as the AMC Pacer.
If I recall I don't think the pinto had a rear engine design. But I believe the rear fuel tank did not have enough insulation for rear impacts.
And the fuel tank was right by the rear suspension which would punch right through the tank in a rear end impact
I would like to point out that the Pinto was front engined not rear enginged as this video stated. My sister had a Pinto and it was reliable and it did not burst into flame when it ws totalled in a rear end collision at a traffic light. A few did but not all of them.
guess it must be higher speed when it would go up in flames.
I think he confused it with the Chevrolet Corvair!
Know why the Yugo had a rear window defroster? That's so it could keep your hands warm while you were pushing it.
One of my coworkers in the 90's had a Yugo. She kept it pristine looking and never said a bad word about it.
😂👍
Damn😂
@@DonMachado Good to know. Hey, I howled laughing at "The Boys" raking Communist Cars over the coals but I'll say this; Better Yugo (You Go) then Nova (Won't Go).
A fellow Jameskii viewer, I presume.
You should have included the Chevrolet Citation, the Lancia Beta, the Moskvich cars, the Dacia 1300 and a few British Leyland models on this list.
Yes, but then car normies *really* wouldn't have gotten the video.
Ah yes, good ol' British Leyland... From when our motor industry had a "yeah, that'll do" attitude to manufacturing 😂
And every single Tesla
ZASTAVA!!!!
Don't forget the Chevette.
The Pontiac Fiero had, I believe, an over 10% burned to the ground rate at the time of manufacture!
hahahahaha, 10%
You know watchMojo are not car people when they say that the Ford Pinto was rear engined
The Ford Pinto is front engined. It is the fuel tank that was placed at the very back of the car. When the car is hit from the rear in an accident, the fuel tank will be hit and will be damaged, causing the fuel to spill out which can cause the fire hazards that the Pinto is known for.
Thank you for the update, WatchMojo..!! I had no idea Dodge Neon received that low rating in terms of safety. @.@ My friend used to own one back in the mid-90s, and I only have positive memories of riding in that car. I remember thinking it was a reliable and fun vehicle for its time, with its unique styling and peppy performance. 🤣
Seeing the Amphicar on this list brings to mind that classic line from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; "This is no place for a convertible!"
God im so happy to hear someone mention this movie... Probably my second favorite movie.
@@RamenWolf1485Same
@@RamenWolf1485 best memory of my grand mother who took the term strict victorian lady to heart, she was taking care of us when mom was in labour and took us to see this movie and she nearly bit a chunk out of the seats she was laughing so much
In the 1990s, the wind blew a Yugo off the Macinaw Bridge in Michigan and killed the driver.
I was just waiting for someone else to mention this. 😉
Really?
Since the video asks why the isetta came about (and why bmw chose to license it)…basically it’s a question of time and location. The car was developed in Italy shortly after WWII and both Italy and Germany were not in terribly good economic shape at that time (having your infrastructure bombed back into the stone age will do that to you.) so the idea of small and cheap cars such as the isetta or the ‘Kabinenroller’ type cars that Heinkel and Messerschmitt produced for a while had some virtue. By the mid-50s, the economy picked up a bit the general ubiquity of the beetle and the fiat topolono and later the 500 rendered these sort of coffins on wheels obsolete.
The Trabant is also some similar in this regard - from a mechanical standpoint, it’s a 1930s DKW (one of the erstwhile Auto-Union brands; we know it’s western descendent as ‘Audi’) with a 1950s body made out of materials that the East Germans were able to source more readily. As such, it’s a stupendously easy car to maintain - it’s about as technologically complex as an old lawnmower. But manufacturing quality was low and it has to be said, the 1939 DKW F8 which the Trabant powertrain derived from was an under powered car even by 1939 standards. Imagine how things were 50 years onwards…
I still own my Pinto. Almost 50 years old and still driving. Can't say that about most modern cars.
Modern cars aren't 50 years old yet
God Bless You for keeping it running, but this is survivor bias in action. Ford built millions of Pintos (surprisingly, the explosion scandal didn't hurt sales that much) and 99% of them are long gone.
You must not live near me. I haven't seen one in decades.
I had a Pinto wagon a long time ago and I enjoyed driving it. Reasonable handling and comfort for its time
Well, we never see Pintos anymore though. I still see a ton of 90's Hondas and Toyotas on the road though.
One I can think of is the Volkswagen Thing. Actually designated the Type 181 it was sold under different names in different countries. I remember the ad campaign in the U.S. in the 70's, showing it as a fun, sporty but economical car that could be customized a lot of different ways. Never really caught on and its safety record was.pretty dismal. It had a tendency to catch fire from poorly designed wiring.
It had such a throwback look, like all the way back to WW2! I always imagined Colonel Klick or Sargent Schultz at the wheel. What a mess.
My dad had both the Yugo and Ford Pinto, he told me he had the Yugo in college, and despite its legacy, it was perfect for younger people who didn't have money, and was super easy for getting out of snow
I got one for free because they couldn’t sell them , and other then it iced up on the inside , it did go , it moved and I didn’t have any issues. 🤷♀️
I disagree with much of this video (Azteks were good and I will die on that hill) but I applaud WatchMojo for acknowledging the timing belt issue with the Yugo. Most owners didn't follow the recommended service intervals, resulting in disaster.
cheap spare parts
@@zombiedodge1426 To say nothing of the Yugo dealers over-charging for the Cam Belt Service.
@@heathermichael3987 You didn't read your Yugo manual. You had the heat misadjusted
God help the Amphicar driver who encounters a tidal wave
The Ford Pinto is not a rear engine car. The Ford Pinto would explode if you tapped it on the rear end because Ford decided not to spend $8 and put a baffle in the gas tank.
Ford also cut corners by using a filler tube that was too short and would break free from the tank on impact. And, they also goofed by using overly long bumper mounting bolts that would pierce the tank and by not including external tank shields.
My wife and I bought a 1985 CHEVROLET SPECTRUM ( an import by ISUZU ) back in the late 1990's for $100.00 .
This was a fixer - upper as it had been abused / mis - used and needed a lot of work . The first thing that it needed
was a battery and all four brand new tires . The engine had very poor performance and so I changed the following :
spark plugs , spark plug wires , distributor cap , distributor rotor , and fuel filter ( the fuel filter was black rather than
an off- white look ) . This still did not fix the poor performance so I set the timing , which also did no good . The last
item to target was the carburetor so I bought two cans of carburetor cleaner from AUTO ZONE and I started the
engine . With the engine running , I revved up the engine and generously sprayed cleaner into the intake . Within
about a minute , there was a bit of backfire from the engine and then it began to race at about 3000RPM ! I tried to
rev the engine to get it to stop racing , but it was no use . I decided to go ahead and drive it and after about fifteen
minutes of driving , it settled to a smooth idle . This car finally ran great and it got thirty - four miles to thhe gallon
of gas as it had a 1.5 liter four cylinder engine. The other best thing about this car was the air conditioning was so
cold on very hot days that it would freeze you out in fifteen minutes . My wife had to learn how to drive a stick shift
as it was a five speed manual transmission !
The Yugo was so underpowered that it would slow down when you pushed in the cigarette lighter.
really?
@@mattalan6618yep. That's what happens when you put a lawnmower engine in a car.
i heard it was prone to tipping over@@johntracy72
You had to push on the dash to help it accelerate faster.
If that's true I guess the alternator working harder bogged it down.
I loved my Neon, don't know if it being a manual made any difference. My Mustang was about 20 years old and rescued from junk. Never got the Yugo to run. It was more of an experiment. My Pinto was a wagon at least.
The Pinto was a front engined car, not rear engined, and it's infamous explosive personality was because of where the gas tank located.
Its location wasn't even the problem. (Many cars have the gas tank in the rear.) It's that Ford cheaped out on protecting it from collisions.
My aunt and uncle had one of the last Pintos (1979 or 1980) and actually quite liked it. As with the Chevy Cavalier, it stayed in production so long that the company eventually figured out how to build them properly.
It's funny that the dodge neon entry was all about safety cause one literally saved my life. My mom had one and I was using it when mine was in the shop. A truck lost a steel winch on a steel cable off the back of his truck. His tire kicked it up and hit exactly where the roof and windshield meet. If I was in just about any other car I'd be dead.
My mom and dad owned an Egale Premier, three sets of CV joints and two transmissions later convinced them to get rid of it.
I had a Neon. Had to have the ac replaced, but it was under warranty. I enjoyed driving it, probably because my previous car had been a Hyundai Excel, which was just like a Yugo. Also had a Highlander that had the Takata airbags. I guess don’t let me pick a car for ya. 😆✌️
We had a YUGO. Spend more time in the shop than at home. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've had my 88 Yugo for over 15 years and it's never broke down and runs good with great gas mileage. The AC still works.
Former Aztek owner here. I LOVED that car. Compact on the outside, comfy and slick on the inside, and the hatchback was insanely spacious. Drove it til the engine gave out.
say my name.
So you had it for almost 50k miles
The styling killed its sales.
The pinto wasn't a rear engine car. It was the fuel tank that made it dangerous.
The local dealership got into selling the Yugo and had a giant tent sale event to get public interest in the cars. They sold 30 of them on Friday and Saturday. Monday morning, 15 of them were back at the service center because they broke down and had to be towed. At one point, if you bought a new Volvo from them, they would give you a Yugo for free. Most people declined the offer.
9:37 That original version of old Top Gear is made from 1977 to 2001. You put 1997 instead of 1977.
Drove a Yugo. It's worse than you'd think.
I owned a Saturn LS1, the larger sedan model. It was a nice car to drive but lemony, some lasted forever, some failed miserably. The plastic doors were intentional.
My parents had a Vega. I remember the head gasket blew so my dad pulled the head off and used JB Weld to "fix" the damage to the cylinder walls - and glued the new head gasket down. The car was sold very soon after that. I owned a 95 Neon and at 50,000 miles the head gasket blew. Cost me a few hundred to fix with the dealer picking up the rest. Sold that car off soon after. Never bought another Chevy or Dodge and never will.
Those models were an example of just how badly something can be made.
Avoid anything Stellantis, they somehow managed to have all of the least reliable car brands worldwide under one roof.
It seems like Chevy trucks hold up well but their compacts like the Cruze and Sonic were junk.
No mention of the Chevy Chevette (GM's own unintended version of the Pinto)... It's design flaw was similar (and worse) in that if it was rear ended, parts of the frame would jam into the doors essentially trapping the occupants while the vehicle caught fire.
Yeah, I had a '79 Chevette. Those things were awful. If you lived in a northern state where they salt the roads, the shock towers would rust and then break away from the wheel well.
Another contender that wasn't mentioned is the Chevy Sprint/Geo Metro. The 3 cylinder engine was lucky to last 125K miles.
My neighborhood was full of bad cars. My dad had a Vega Wagon, from his dad. Neighbors a Chevette, Pinto wagon and Monza, Pinto and Fuego, Alliance
I had the Pontiac version of chevette as my first car. It was a great car
I sell auto parts. A guy pulled into my parking lot a while back with TWO Pinto wagons on his car trailer. Had just went and loaded them up. One was 80% rusted out, and the other was going to be restored from both. He was super stoked, and I wanted to be enthusiastic for him, but all I could do was look them over as the time machines they are now, and think about how much money he was about to flush down Le Toilet. The one he was restoring had solid sides in place of windows, like a panel wagon, and it had a diamond shaped bubble window on each side like the old hippie vans use to back in the '70's.
The 70's
I didn't need the Pinto reference for that scene from Top Secret (1984) to be hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣
But finally realizing the Pinto part makes it painfully hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣
I loved the Chevy SSR. I was one of my favorite cars as a kid.
Some people thought it was weird but I loved it because of how different it looked. And I actually got to ride in one and it had some pretty good get-up-and-go.
I'll die on this hill - I LOVED the Pacer, and always will!
Party on, Wayne!
me too
Me too. And contrary to popular belief, it was a huge hit when it first came out.
Problem was, everyone who liked them bought them in 1975 and 1976. Sales plummeted after that. The uglier resigned grille didn't help.
I'm of mixed opinion with the Pinto. My dad had one that, frankly, felt like a rickety death trap. Conversely, of the cars I've had, my Pinto has always been my favorite. A solid workhorse that fit me like a glove. Sometimes the car chooses the driver. (If only it had AC...)
Did you ever drive or own one of these cars? Feel like defending them? Let us know in the comments!
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Love your work 🎉🎉❤❤❤❤
dodge neon
in GDR you had to wait for 15 years to get a trabant delivered :D
I loved the Mustang II. We had one. It was cheap, easy to fix, and solid.
It's a Reliant Robin, not the other way around, and had a facelift to make it the Reliant Rialto.
Dodge Neon?!? Hell, no. Yeah, it's quality and safety is lacking, but these cars are surprisingly capable on the track. They've won multiple championships in SCCA, auto-x and more. It's an excellent platform for modding and hooning, which can't be said of anything else on this list. Super fun cars and I preferred my parents Neon to my Integra back in the day.
Fun fact: donut media debunked top gear about the reliant robin , because they made it rollover modification to it. Still dangerous 😅
The Pinto was not rear engine designed.
My parents being in collision, I drove many of these cars. The worst was Yugo, followed by the neon. They were crap on wheels. The Cimarron wasn’t terrible but it was a huge joke that looked like a Cavalier!!!!
If it's worst than Yugo,I don't wanna see that engineering abomination
I'm here to offer a correction:
The Ford Pinto did not have a rear-mounted engine, it was in the front, just like most cars of the time. The problem with the Pinto was the gas tank. It was designed without any kind of reinforcement or impact protection, which subjected it to risk of catastrophic failure (i.e.: explosions). Ford could have spent just a few bucks per automobile to provide a properly protective fuel tank, but they did not, thinking that it would be cheaper to settle a lawsuit than it would be to recall the car. Ah, the 1970s: When men were men and car manufacturers couldn't give two shakes of a rat's tail about the consumer.
The Pinto wasn’t rear engines as stated in the video. The gas tank would rupture if you were rear ended in a accident
When I graduated from college, my employer provided a fleet vehicle to me for my work. It was a Mustang II. It wasn't a muscle car, but it looked okay. It was very easy on fuel (4 cylinder) & easy to handle. Essentially, it drove like, & the interior identical to the Pinto I had in college. I liked it. It had the economy & handling of a Pinto without the hazardous placement of the fuel tank.
I loved my Saturn Ion. As a poor college student/graduate, I was able to look past the ignition issues. It looked like a modern car for years after, and its milage was GREAT!
Back in the 1980s my sister had a yellow Pinto with a white vinyl roof. I called it the lemon meringue pie.
Sorry, but the Mustang II saved the line. It was actually the right car at the right time.
There was a car sold here in Canada called Lada. I owned a 1983 with a 1500cc engine, that I bought in 1986 for $1600 in mint condition and only a little over 57,000 kilometers on the odometer. It was capable of around 100 mph, however it was, in my opinion, a rolling piece of junk, especially the rear breaks. I sold it about a year and a half later for 90 bucks, just to get rid of it.
Ladas were great if you had the time and the know-how to work on them yourself. They were an *extremely* basic design based on the 1966 Fiat 124.
Canada-bound Ladas actually underwent "final assembly" right here in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. In practice I think that meant they were given the once-over to fix building defects, and some of the components (like tires) were replaced with higher-quality Western and Japanese parts.
When I was a boy around 1993 or 94 my mother had a Yugo, I remember everytime we would have to speed up as fast as we could just to get up a small hill. Then one day the steering wheel feel off when we was trying to trade it in.
LOl
😂 Fell apart just like the country that made it.
The Trabant is a chad. They were cheap to produce, easy to produce, and were indestructible. One man actually escaped the Soviets because the bullets bounced off his traby. There were rumors that they were edible due to them being made out of cardboard.
Back in the day, the Trabant had extremely high resale value- because new ones were hard to get(a very long waiting list)but a used one could be had right away...for a price!
No, they were not made of cardboard . The bodies were made of plastic. Just like toy cars. When the commie empire broke up and people in Eastern Europe could get "better"cars like Fiats and Renaults, people were abandoning Trabants on the street by the 1000',s. Just left them to be towed away. Too much toxic air pollution from incinerating the bodies, and also, while they were running, toxic emissions from their 2-stroke engines. Those cars were bad news all around.
Pinto was a front engine car. It had problems with fires because of the gas tank location.
The Yugo was the biggest POS I ever test drove. It was nearly impossible to shift.
The Ford pinto was not a rear engine vehicle, you got that wrong it's front engine, the problem was the fuel tank placement
I got a 1974 mustang II as a graduation gift from high school. It was a great car and I wish I still had it!
The Pinto WASN'T REAR ENGINE!😅 The problem was the rear gas tank exploded when rear-ended 🎉
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 was a rather special model of Ram from 2004-2006, and may not have sold tons of units, which was a shame. Still, Dodge made a limited amount of the Ram SRT-10, which was actually what caused its own downfall. Only 10,00 or so were made and sold, which was what made them more of a "Holy Grail" when it comes to finding used Rams. I wish Dodge could bring back the Viper and the Ram SRT-10.
Ion wasnt that bad.
Why didn’t Ford build the European Ford Capri in a USA factory to be sold in USA as the Mustang II instead of the Pinto Mustang?
Before I watch this, I am guessing that the AMC Pacer is on this list
I was driving a Pinto from Berkeley to Dallas and got only to Tehchapi in 1978. The car hit a guard rail and soon burned much as it was to reortedly do when the bolt hit the gas tank. I had symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, so the fire may have begun when I was driving. I don't know all the circumstances.
I had one of the first Plymouth Neons that came off the line in February 1994. Loved that car more than I can express. Wasn't a dog at all - still not sure why it was on here.
I wanted one badly that year. I was looking for a commuter car for a sixty mile trip to work every day, but the local Dodge dealer didn't want to go to the trouble of ordering what I wanted, so I bought a 1994 Toyota.
9:05
Q: How do you double the value of a Trabant?
A: Fill 'er up.
12:19
President Lyndon Johnson had an amphicar and loved using it to play practical jokes on people - specifically by pretending that he lost control of the car and promptly driving it into a lake. That may be the amphicar's only legacy.
11:21
And the funny thing about the DeLorean is the same issue as the British Police Call Box: Both designs are today more renowned as time machines, and, just like the TARDIS, there will soon come a generation that will not even remember the DeLorean was anything else.
I remember watching the evening news as they showed the first Yugo being rolled off the ship and failed to start. Knew it would last.
I test drove a Mustang II in 74, it was a dog. Bought an Opel Manta Rally. My brother who owned a Datsan 510 and was a rally enthusiast was impressed.
The 510 was an amazing car, but not in stock form. The Manta was a great car, but suffered by being sold by Buick dealers.
@@tenossos I loved that Manta. Never had a problem with Buick as I never visited again. Parts were easy to find. Learned how to set new points with a dwell meter and tweak the distributor w/o a light. She always ran top notch.
@@edwardcanavan I think the Manta would have sold much better if there had been separate Opel dealers in America.
@@tenossos Marketing Opel by Buick was a bad business decision. Opel was owned by GM from 1929 til 2017 and was often a GM cash cow often being the best selling car in Europe but never marketed in the USA. When the 70's gas crunch hit they brought it to America but not under Chevrolet as it would compete with the Vega and Nova so they shoe horned it into Buick known for conservative gas guzzlers and not where people searching for forward thinking and sporty cars. Pontiac would have been a better choice with an eye on creating its own dealerships in the future.
@@edwardcanavan Yup, same way Ford screwed up Capri marketing by calling it a Mercury.
I had the pinto... my father "bought" one for me used way after the pesky "explodes on impact" issue was discovered... It was pea soup green and i had to replace 2 clutch cables in it... contrary to popular belief.. it was not a blast..😂
The saturn ion was a great car. Had an the 04 saturn ion tier3 and that thing lastes 215k miles and the engine was still good before i flipped it
Wait a minute, the Pinto had a "rear engine design"? Did you do any research on any of these, or are you just going off of internet dudes' lists of what they consider "bad cars"? LOL
Dodge Neon: only car that could be sold at the dollar store
Some cars may look awesome but they're really not
I haven’t watched the video yet, but I’m going to guess a few of them the Yugo , Ford Pinto and the Chevrolet Vega.
My sister had a Pinto when she was in high school, it wasn’t too bad as far as being dependable.
I was 13/ 14 when she had it and I learned how to drive a four speed in that car, actually pretty fun to drive.
That it's on here just validates the rest of your list for me, though I'd have listed it higher, so to say the Aztek was ugly is an understatement to my retina burnt eyes. It was an automotive abomination.
Really blew it there on the Pinto, right mojo?
The original saturn like thr sc was amazing. Saturns orginal debut before they became rebadged opels and chevys they were awesome
My first car was a Chevy Vega school bus yellow. A rust bucket for sure and needed oil so much that my father made sure I carried extra. It was a manual and the gear shift knob would always come off. Those were the days.
A cousin of mine had one that was an orangish-yellow with a black stripe on the hood going back to the trunk lid. She drove it for EVER.
Pinto, Pacer, and Trabbie are my favorite; they and those alike greatly influence my scale modeling. X)
Also the pacer was one of the most solidly built compact cars ever.
Do you think many Yugos actually made it to 40,000 miles to have their timing belts serviced?
Selling cheap cars to people that had no concept of small car maintenance, and salespeople never explaining about the cam belt service , killed a huge number of them. I've owned 5 and have #6 in my garage waiting for my time to finish and install a bigger Fiat engine and Yugo 5 speed. An easy 115mph + result.
We have a GM dealership in my hometown that tried to sell the H2. They only sold one in 5 years, and that was to the owner of the dealership. They decided to send them back to GM.
If this list includes obscure foreign brands, then what about the Moskvich? That Soviet-era car company made several models for export and none were regarded as very good. Usually they had underpowered engines that broke down easily and the steering systems didn't handle well.
Here in Canada we got Dacias from Romania. Not the modern Renault-based ones so beloved by James May, but the Ceausescu-era copy of the ancient Renault 12 design.
When people say Yugos were the "worst car of all time," I tell them they have absolutely no idea what else was being produced in the Eastern Bloc back then. (Yugoslavia was Communist, but not aligned with the USSR and had at least a somewhat more open market economy.)
@@zombiedodge1426 I'm from Romania.
I guess those "Dacia" where of very poor qualty.
@@Telecolor-in3cl They were awful. ARO 4x4s were briefly sold in Canada, too, but they're extremely rare.
I wish modern-day Dacias were sold here, though. From what I've read they are quite good cars for the price.
I had a 74 Vega GT. I loved that little car! It looked like a baby Camaro. The motor had an aluminum engine block that was crap though. Died in 1983. RIP 😢
1976 Ford Mustang II Mach 1 Hatchback Coupe 0-60 mph: 10.4 seconds
2017 Toyota Prius 0-60 mph: 10.05 seconds
top gear power lap times
slowest regular production car
aston martin DB6
2nd slowest
Mk1 E-type Jag
When I was a kid back in Pittsburgh, radio station KQV had an Amphicar. They called it the KQVehicle.
The Mustang II was a huge seller and it came out after the oil/gas crisis.
The car was not a muscle Mustang and that is why it was called Mustang II.
I think the bad reputation of the Mustang II was undeserved. If it had not been made, the Mustang name would have likely disappeared. It sold very well. And by 1978 it had a V8 . It wasn’t that powerful. But Most cars were underpowered in the mid mid to late 1970s. So the mustang wasn’t that different in that regard. As for being based on the economy car Pinto, that was no different than the original mustang being based on the Falcon which was Ford’s cheapest car during the 1960’s . 🎉
No FSO Polonez, your list is wrong! LOL! The Polonez was voted worst European car at least 7 years running *& that was up against the Yugo, the Trabant & the Russian Lada.*
The BMW Isetta was made by a bankrupt Europe for a bankrupt Europe after WW II. It’s small size & tiny engine classed it as a “Quadrocycle” a vehicle that could be bought on a cheaper motorcycle license & qualified for tax brakes, so it (& other “bubble cars’) got people back on the road after the financial devastation of WW II. My grandfather had one before he had kids & honestly loved as cheap, nimble, easy to park transport.
Like the Plymouth Prowler the Chevy SSR wasn’t great but at least they tried something rather than sticking with the same stale formula everyone else was building.
FYI: the Pinto was not rear engined, it had it’s gas tank at the rear that created the safety problem.
The neons with the glow ignition was the easiest car to steal I could do it with it's seat belt
Holy shit, I own a 2003 Saturn Ion that I've had for about a year now. And now I see why it's been recalled, every other time I take my key in and out of the ignition, the damn key keeps getting stuck inside ignition. It even made me late for work last year. This countdown shows me why it got recalled. 🤬🤬🤬
How many editors did this go through and non of them know the pinto was not rear engined.
Who remembered the 1(800) My Lemon Commercials or the 1(800) Lemon Law Commercials?