The 100 worst vehicles of all time

Inside Line has published a list of the 100 worst vehicles of all time with a selection of models that includes (an unavoidable inclusion in any list of “the worst”) the AMC Pacer, Ariel Atom, the EV1, the Saleen S7 or the Ferrari Scaglietti; all vehicles from different eras, nationalities and classes.

As long as this type of list expresses the personal opinion of one or many people, it will never be 100% reliable. For some, the Pontiac Aztek (named the worst of all) will be the worst vehicle in history, but for others it will simply be the best. The type of market where certain models were sold, and even the place where they were assembled in the past, is not enough to demonise them, as in the cases of the Renault 9 or the Renault Fuego (ranked 12th and 17th respectively), which have enjoyed a certain success in Europe. The Aston Martin Cygnet ranks 18th, and we don’t even know for certain whether it will be a failure for Aston Martin, given how little time it has been on the market.

What I mean is that these kinds of lists are very subjective. And I dare to go a little further: each vehicle becomes what its owner makes of it, based on certain personal experiences and memories lived aboard the car, what the owner interprets it to be, and the meaning it has had in history. Some examples: the BMW 1955 Isetta was surely ugly, but it moved 162,000 units built in several European countries and was an appropriate means of transport for its time, enjoyed by many people back then. The second on this list, the Ford Mustang II, is vilified because it did not match the archetype of the muscle car, but was a vehicle responding to a severe energy crisis and to direct competition from the Japanese (which did little good), yet it filled the Mustang’s place, in my opinion, doing a more than worthy job.

That is why it is also not fair to criticise cars that are no longer manufactured (the list should rather be of cars that are still made today), for a very simple reason: the conditions, customs, context and use of each past model have changed greatly over the years.

In any case, you can take a look at the list that Inside Line gives and tell us your opinion about it.