10 Cars With the Worst Reputations, and Whether They Deserved Them

Some cars are remembered for speed, some for beauty, and some because people still use them as punchlines decades later. Here are ten cars famous for the wrong reasons. We've split them by what went wrong: safety, quality, scandal, pop culture or plain image. Each gets a fair hearing and a verdict.

One ground rule: several of these stories involve people who were hurt or killed. Those parts are treated straight. The jokes are aimed at the cars and at corporate decisions, never at victims.

1. Chevrolet Corvair (1960–1969): the safety scare

How it earned it: The rear-engined Corvair was the star of Ralph Nader's 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed. Nader argued that early cars with rear swing axles had dangerous handling. The book made Nader famous and made the Corvair shorthand for "deathtrap."

Did it deserve it? Mostly no. A 1972 Texas A&M study done for NHTSA found that the 1960–1963 Corvair had no greater potential for loss of control in extreme situations than other compacts of its day. The book changed auto safety forever. The car got the bad reputation.

2. Ford Pinto (1971–1980): the fuel tank

How it earned it: A fuel-system design that could leak and catch fire in rear-end crashes, a 1977 Mother Jones exposé, a 1.5 million-car recall in 1978, the Grimshaw punitive-damages case and the first criminal trial of a US corporation, in which Ford was acquitted.

Did it deserve it? Partly. The flaw was real and people died. But the widely repeated death toll was far higher than NHTSA's count of 27, and later analysis found the Pinto comparable to other 1970s subcompacts. We tell the whole story in The Ford Pinto: A Brief History of Ford's $2,000 Gamble.

3. Yugo GV: the quality joke

How it earned it: It went on sale in the US at $3,990 in mid-1986, complete with a "39-90" ad campaign. It was voted Car Talk's worst car of the millennium, and it made Time's list of the 50 worst cars of all time.

Did it deserve it? Honestly? Yes. That's what $3,990 bought you, and everyone could tell. But it did what it promised: it was very cheap. Nobody bought a Yugo expecting a Mercedes.

4. Audi 5000 (1980s): the 60 Minutes report

How it earned it: On November 23, 1986, CBS's 60 Minutes aired "Out of Control," a report on sudden unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000. The incidents were linked to six deaths and 700 accidents. US sales collapsed after a series of recalls.

Did it deserve it? Largely no. Later investigation pointed to pedal misapplication, meaning drivers pressing the gas instead of the brake in a panic or because they weren't used to the car. At the time, NHTSA was investigating sudden surges in 50 models from 20 manufacturers. Audi moved the pedals further apart, extended warranties and finally renamed the cars the 100 and 200 for 1989. Few brands have ever had to change a name to escape a TV segment.

5. Suzuki Samurai (US, late 1980s): the rollover rating

How it earned it: A scathing 1988 Consumer Reports review called the tiny, tall 4x4 unsafe and prone to rolling over.

Did it deserve it? Still disputed. Suzuki fought back. In 1996, Suzuki of North America sued Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, for libel. The case ended in an inconclusive settlement, a fitting result for an argument that's still going on in Samurai forums.

6. DeLorean DMC-12: the scandal

How it earned it: Stainless steel, gullwing doors, a company in trouble and then a founder in handcuffs. By February 1982, more than half of about 7,000 cars built were unsold, the company was $175 million in debt and the Dunmurry factory in Northern Ireland was in receivership. In October 1982, John DeLorean was charged with cocaine trafficking after an FBI sting.

Did it deserve it? The car didn't do anything. DeLorean was found not guilty on August 16, 1984, after successfully arguing entrapment. There's more in our DeLorean DMC-12 Quirk Database entry.

7. 1990s Ford Bronco: wrong car, wrong moment

How it earned it: On June 17, 1994, O.J. Simpson failed to turn himself in to police. He became the subject of a low-speed police pursuit as a passenger in his friend Al Cowlings's white Ford Bronco. TV networks cut away from Game 5 of the NBA Finals to air it live, and around 95 million people watched.

Did it deserve it? No. It was an ordinary SUV that ended up at the center of one of the most-watched TV events of the 1990s. It's the only car on this list whose reputation comes entirely from a news broadcast.

8. Pontiac Aztek (2001–2005): the face

How it earned it: It looked like a minivan and an SUV had argued and nobody won. A 2008 Daily Telegraph poll named it the ugliest car of all time, and Pulitzer-winning critic Dan Neil put it on his 50 worst cars list.

Did it deserve it? For the styling, yes. But Neil also wrote that "under all that ugliness, there was a useful, competent crossover." Then Walter White drove one in Breaking Bad, and young used-car buyers started wanting them. There's more in our Aztek Quirk Database entry.

9. Trabant (1957–1991): the smoke

How it earned it: East Germany's people's car had a two-stroke two-cylinder engine and body panels made of Duroplast, a hard plastic made from recycled cotton waste and resin. It was slow and very smoky, putting out nine times the hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxide of an average 2007 European car.

Did it deserve it? For pollution, absolutely. But it also became the symbol of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as TV broadcast East Germans crossing west, so history gave it a better reputation than its engine did. There's more in our Trabant 601 Quirk Database entry.

10. Reliant Robin (1973–2002): the TV tumble

How it earned it: Three wheels, one of them at the front, and a famous Top Gear segment in which it kept rolling over.

Did it deserve it? Not really. Jeremy Clarkson later admitted that Top Gear's Robin had been modified to tip over for comic effect, as MotorTrend reported. Read our full Reliant Robin story.

Honorable mentions we didn't include

The AMC Gremlin, Chevrolet Vega, Cadillac Cimarron, Hummer H2 and Austin Allegro all have fan clubs and critics. We skipped them for now because we couldn't cleanly source specific reputation-making moments to the standard above. The Austin Allegro is in the Quirk Database if you'd like to judge for yourself.

The verdict: a bad reputation is often more about timing and TV than engineering. For more misunderstood machines, see Glorious Mistakes.