German Car Zone

RICHBOY · 09-08-2007, 10:01 PM

Time tackles 50 worst cars of all time

One of the staples of the magazine business is generating lists. There are lists of sexiest, richest, overrated, upcoming and more. Time magazine is no stranger to such lists and their latest effort is a list of Top 50 Worst cars of all time. They obviously put some thought into this one having come up with fifty members of the list as opposed to the usual top ten.

The list features most of the obvious suspects like the Pontiac Aztek, the AMC Pacer and the legendary East German Trabant. The list also includes some much more obscure models like the 1899 Horsey Horseless pictured above. There are some real surprises on the list too. Who would expect to find the Model T on a list of worst cars ever? Or that environmental icon, the GM EV-1?

Even if you don't agree, they actually provide some decent rationales for choosing these cars. As popular as the Model T was, it wasn't very sophisticated even for it's time. There is also the issue of the societal and environmental costs that have come along with mass adoption of cars.

Kowalski · 09-08-2007, 11:31 PM

It's just another pointless stupid worst car list from another pointless stupid American magazine.

Oh and there has never, ever been a bad BMW 7-Series.

RICHBOY · 09-08-2007, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kowalski

It's just another pointless stupid worst car list from another pointless stupid American magazine.

Oh and there has never, ever been a bad BMW 7-Series.

I've always wondered considering no one respects are publications in the U.S.(MT, R&T, C&D, etc...) why does damn near every international outlet appear to be so concerned with America's market place?

Kowalski · 09-08-2007, 11:55 PM

It's TIME Magazine we are talking about here.

Next up, Hugo Chávez.

Yannis · 09-10-2007, 04:12 AM

Don't think that 7 series deserves to be on the list.

2002 BMW 7-series - The 50 Worst Cars of All Time - TIME

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kowalski

Next up, Hugo Chávez.

What's wrong with Chávez? I 'm a big fan of that guy.

PanterroR · 09-10-2007, 04:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Times

The Munich company's flagship sedan was nothing less than everything the company knew about car building, and that was quite a lot. Perfectly constructed, astonishingly fast and utterly besotted with technology, the big, gracious 7-series had but two flaws: The first was something called iDrive, a rotary dial/joystick controller situated on the center console, through which drivers adjusted dozens of vehicle settings, from climate, navigation and audio functions to things like the sound of the door chime. The reason for iDrive and similar systems is that designers were running out of room for switches and instruments. The trouble was that the iDrive was hard to work. Damn near impossible, in fact. Drivers spent many hair-pulling minutes driving to figure out how to add radio presets, for example, or turn up the air conditioning. When confronted with complaints, BMW engineers said, with barely disguised contempt: Ze system werks pervectly. Dis is no problem. Since 2002, BMW has gradually improved iDrive to make it more intuitive, but it's still a pain. The other flaw? The silly bubble butt, called the Bangle Bustle, after lead designer Chris Bangle.

Haha and that make it one of the worst cars ever?

Take some computer lessons, you idiots!!!

cawimmer430 · 09-10-2007, 04:32 AM

I actually think this was written more for laughs than seriousness.

The Renault Dauphine for instance is one of the most appreciated classic Renaults in Europe with many fan clubs. Notice how the author complains about the performance as if someone should "drag race" with any car.

32 seconds to 60 mph was very common for post-World War II European cars. What was important was that people had a means of transport to get from A to B efficiently and with as little costs (fuel) as possible. The Renault Dauphine and others excelled at this.

The most ineffective bit of French engineering since the Maginot Line, the Renault Dauphine was originally to be named the Corvette, tres ironie. It was, in fact, a rickety, paper-thin scandal of a car that, if you stood beside it, you could actually hear rusting. Its most salient feature was its slowness, a rate of acceleration you could measure with a calendar. It took the drivers at Road and Track 32 seconds to reach 60 mph, which would put the Dauphine at a severe disadvantage in any drag race involving farm equipment. The fact that the ultra-cheap, super-sketchy Dauphine sold over 2 million copies around the world is an index of how desperately people wanted cars. Any cars.

cawimmer430 · 09-10-2007, 05:03 AM

Oh yeah, and this:

They shoot horses, don't they? Well, this is fish in a barrel. Of course the Pinto goes on the Worst list, but not because it was a particularly bad car — not particularly — but because it had a rather volatile nature. The car tended to erupt in flame in rear-end collisions. The Pinto is at the end of one of autodom's most notorious paper trails, the Ford Pinto memo , which ruthlessly calculates the cost of reinforcing the rear end ($121 million) versus the potential payout to victims ($50 million). Conclusion? Let 'em burn.

Was friggin funny!

cawimmer430 · 09-10-2007, 05:16 AM

1975 Trabant

This is the car that gave Communism a bad name. Powered by a two-stroke pollution generator that maxed out at an ear-splitting 18 hp, the Trabant was a hollow lie of a car constructed of recycled worthlessness (actually, the body was made of a fiberglass-like Duroplast, reinforced with recycled fibers like cotton and wood). A virtual antique when it was designed in the 1950s, the Trabant was East Germany's answer to the VW Beetle — a "people's car," as if the people didn't have enough to worry about. Trabants smoked like an Iraqi oil fire, when they ran at all, and often lacked even the most basic of amenities, like brake lights or turn signals. But history has been kind to the Trabi. Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Wall fell, which made it a kind of automotive liberator. Once across the border, the none-too-sentimental Ostdeutschlanders immediately abandoned their cars. Ich bin Junk!

Kowalski · 09-10-2007, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yannis

What's wrong with Chávez? I 'm a big fan of that guy.

Are you kidding me? He is the Latin American Kim Jong Il.

German Car Zone

50 Worst Cars Of All Time