Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Chevy Vega, worst American car of all time?

Come now. What cars were made one year?

If you had driven this thing, you would, . My wife is gonna howl when I show her this. That car still gets made fun of by our old friends. Good find, Todd
Scott

The Pinto was notable for another reason - it was the car that caused the public to learn that automakers assigned a dollar value for every person killed in flaming gas tank explosions. No joke - it came out in the lawsuits.

A guy I used to work with in high school had a Pinto with huge rear tires and a fart can. Of course he still had the original 4 cyl. in it This was around '89, so I guess he was one of the OG's of rice.

The Vega was one of those cars that could have been cool if they hadn't been such pieces of crap

...ohh that og's of rice line is great....you guys are thinking way too old...how about something more recent...the cadillac catera ...how about another one from caddy..the cimeon(sp?)known to the rest of the free world as a chevy cavalier.. ...some outside of this little circle would say the contour/mystique is pretty bad...not the worst by far..but pretty bad..

do a google search for "worst american cars of all time"...lots of polls out threre you'll get the 74' gto,80-85 citation,84 fiero,gremlin,pinto,edsel 78-87caprice..chryler tc..

I made the slight tactical error of ordering a 1974 Vega new from the factory in the summer of 1973. It was an...interesting...car. Let's see...electrical problems (the seatbelt interlock kept shorting out, requiring you to open the hood and press an override button to start the car); the valve seals lasted about 47 miles, after which it used a quart of oil every, magically, 47 miles; it rusted, especially around the back window (aluminum trim and steel body = nasty electrolysis); the exhaust manifold disintegrated one nice night on the Baltimore beltway, leading to a wild fireworks display as the exhaust system collapsed onto the highway; the trim around the windows, after rusting the body beneath, fell off; the lower right side of the dash fell off on the way home from picking the car up new (yes, a sign...); and it bottomed out on the slightest dip in the road....BUT, it was my first car, had a four-speed manual and disc brakes, and it ran (sort of). At least the air conditioning worked and it usually didn't strand me. So, okay, it may have been the worst American car ever (maybe), but the absolute worst car ever made, ever, EVER, was the 1977 BMW 320i that I bought to replace the Vega. It made the Vega seem like a Lexus. Honestly.