There are so many great cars in the past, and plenty of efficient, if unremarkable ones too. But then there are the turkeys. Cars that had perhaps not the worst constitution, but for one thing that adversely affected them: Appearance, or engineering, or assembly quality. Cars with redeeming features in one area or another, but at the same time, having some huge flaw that made them unattractive, unreliable, or–perhaps worst of all–a laughingstock.
They may have sold well new, and made a lot of money for their parent company, like the Mustang II, but became nigh-on universally derided–then and now.
They may have been a shallow attempt at making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear Granada, but at the same time been a well-assembled, comfortable and luxurious car, like the Lincoln Granada Monarch Versailles. And that’s Ver-SY, not Ver-SAYLES!
Or they might have been attractive, useful, and spacious–but with totally terrible execution and baked-in shortcuts, like the FWD General Motors X-cars. Great on paper, but not quite the same in practice.
I think my favorite turkey is the 1985-86 Sedan de Ville and Coupe de Ville. While they looked like “biggie” cars that shrunk in the wash, I found them attractive in their early form, especially if they happened to be that classic light yellow with matching leather! But they had that 4.1L time bomb under the hood, when cheaper and less prestigious Electras and Ninety-Eights offered a much more robust powertrain–and for less money. A turkey? You bet.
The later 1988-93s (1991 CC here) were solid cars with their 4.5 and 4.9 V8s, but they weren’t quite as clean as these 1985s and 1986s, aesthetically.
My least favorite turkey is probably the Vega. Simply because it was such a great-looking car. Stunning, really. A little Italian flair here, a little dollop of Camaro there… It stole your heart with its looks, then broke it in short order when it dissolved into iron oxide before the note was paid off–unless the engine blew up first. And it could have been so good. True, later ones were much improved, but the damage done in 1971-72 resulted in the better, later Vegas being less successful than they could have been. And it all could have been avoided; it’s not like GM didn’t have the cash to make them right the first time. The Vega was like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown at the last instant: Not cool.
And there you have it: My favorite turkey is a car that was let down by its engine, and my least favorite is ANOTHER car let down by its engine. And both are GMs. What can I say, this is highly subjective to one’s taste!
image: lov2xlr8.no
So now I turn the microphone over to you, as it were. What is your favorite turkey, and what is your most derided four-wheeled contraption?
image: lov2xlr8.no
Worst car I ever owned… Datsun B210 wagon. No power, lucky to be doing 30 by the top of a long hill, while dropped down to 2nd gear for any attempt at torque. Then the transmission blew up within the first year. Worst car EVAH in my life.
My favourite American turkeys are the Ford Pinto and the Chevy Vega. They not only looked awful, but were just poorly built. It’s as if car makers didn’t care how well the cars were built as long as it was cheap. My favourite import turkeys are anything being built and sold in the USA today. Not just the Toyotas, but the Nissans, Mitsubishi, the Scion, the Kia, the Infiniti, the Lexus and the Acura. They’re all ugly, they’re all expensive, they’re so poorly built, I wouldn’t buy a brand new car if my life depended on it. 🙁
Least favorite has to be my mom’s 1969 (-ish) Ford Cortina. From day one, the darned thing was almost impossible to start when there was even a hint of humidity in the air. An amazing feature for a car built in England…
I have to assume they probably pushed most of these cars onto the boats that carried them to Canada.
During a painful divorce, my mother bought a remaindered 1969 Cortina in 1970. It disintegrated gradually over the next few years and was replaced by a 1976 Ford Pinto which in turn lasted until about 1982. A pretty depressing pair of car purchases by most standards.
But what precipitated the Cortina purchase was a catastrophic engine failure in a 1967 Camaro, which in turn was preceded by a sudden on-the-road drive train seizure in a 1964 Rambler American.
Take what lessons you will (and it’s hard to believe maintenance wasn’t an issue), but the Cortina and the Pinto both lasted longer in wet and salty eastern Canada than the Camaro or the Rambler. Who would have thought?
British Fords of the 50’s and 60’s were always notorious for poor starting in the UK never mind Canada..In the winter it was always a case of just trying to catch it and pray the thing would fire up before the battery went flat.Some blame the carbs ,others say Ford used very cheap starter motors.Whatever the reasons the Classic Capri Cortina and Corsair were by common consent a nightmare to start on a cold morning.
Leyland Marina,especially the six cylinder versions.A big heavy engine in a car with atrocious handling and reliability.
A friend had a Marina 1.8. Barf, wretch.
Should’ve put the P76 V8 in it. Remember all the ads pointing out how both engines weighed the same? 😉
Tom, a great summary of how most people felt about the Vega, what a disappointing car. I had all the same sentiments about my turkey brown 1979 Honda Accord, the imported Vega. I so wanted to like both of these cars, but they were aggravating to an extent that I hope I never experience again.
This is a tough one. There are so many choices for most favorite. A lot of AMC products to choose from, as well as stuff like the Delorean. There’s even the 1962 down-sized Mopars that were actually called ‘plucked chickens’ by Chrysler’s lead stylist. Can’t get closer to a turkey than that.
But for a favorite, I think it’s a toss-up between the Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Mirage. The i-MiEV works because it’s nothing but an electric golf-cart disguised as a weird, egg-shaped car, while the Mirage gets lambasted by virtually every reviewer. Yet, the Mirage’s cheapness is oddly endearing, not to mention that they’re still in production and you can actually buy a new one. So, I guess I’d go with that.
For ‘least’ favorite, probably the GM X-cars (Citation). Despite their flaws, the most favorite turkeys all have some level of character. The X-cars simply have none.
That is why I built my own car. I took the body that I liked and put in the drivetrain that I liked. I moved the seats back 12 inches, threw away the rear seat, dropped in a V8, standard trans, and 8 3/4 rear. The weakest link is the rear u-joint, but it is satisfactory for a car weighing 500 pounds more so I am probably alright. Now that model is rare so nobody realizes that it is supposed to be FWD but in fact is RWD
Homer, is that you?
“Pictures, or it didn’t happen” as they say. 😉
Maybe the final (1994ish to 1998) Ford Scorpio/Granada Scorpio. The previous car made a decent case for itself (except in the U.S.): It was okay-looking, roomy inside, was lavishly equipped for the money, and had a pretty good chassis that was really just crying out for a better six than the Cologne. The final generation was so monstrously ugly that it was no longer a viable executive car choice no matter what kind of value it may have been. I’m not sure what they were thinking, but it’s no surprise that Ford just let it die without replacement.
There’s also the short-lived Mercury Capri roadster, the peculiar Mazda-based car in the early ’90s. Looked like a shoehorn, didn’t seem that inspiring to drive, and I remember Car and Driver‘s long-termer being a fairly miserable piece of work in terms of reliability. A 323-based convertible wasn’t an inherently bad idea (there had been one in the previous generation and there was a similar Ford Laser ragtop as well), but mostly the Capri was sort of an object lesson in how badly the Miata/MX-5 could easily have turned out.
One recollection I have of the final iteration of the Scorpio: at one point, it was being advertised under the tagline of, “it’s from another world.” Not a particularly inspired slogan, but I did once drive past a billboard ad for the car where someone with a can of spray paint had thoughtfully appended the phrase, “and needs to go back there” beneath the tagline.
The rear was better, but always struck me as a poor interpretation of the same view of the Lincoln Town Car of the same timeframe.
That was the period during which Ford discovered catfish-inspired car design: the Taurus and Aussie Falcon AU were even worse IMHO.
Not to be outdone, Lancia applied the same design language to its Thesis with similar dismal results…
I would be hard-pressed to call the AU Falcon more attractive than the Scorpio, but I can at least sort of see what they were thinking. (Not that it was a good thought, but there is a method there.) With the Scorpio, I don’t know, although based on the later Hyundai XG30 and Kia Amanti, I can only assume it went over well in Korea.
The Thesis takes the cake, though. I had forgotten all about that, perhaps as some kind of psychological self-defense mechanism.
I actually really liked the Thesis. Haven’t ever seen one in person, but from the pictures, I think it’s refreshingly odd. Odd in a good way.
No accounting for taste though. 🙂
It was always best to garage a 1994 Scorpio overnight – even bats could be scared by the thing
The Ford mercury Crapi was only a restyle of the Mazda 323 cabriolet buty Ford AU made a meal of it, they werent weather proof when in production there were multitudes of warranty protest cars parked around Broadmeadows in Melbourne wearing huge lemon decals, Dearborn threatened closure of Ford AU over those and the awful EA Falcon which was junk out of the box.
This stretched, six-door Scorpio gives you 50% more car to hate.
Had the same question on TBS today. Same answer: considered the Henry J, but it sold fairly well it’s first year. Considered the Hudson Jet for unfortunate styling, poor build quality, poor handling, poor brakes and paltry sales. But nope. My nominee for the worst, since WWII at least, for being hoplessly misconceived and a dismal failure, inspite of being produced by a major, well known company, ladies and gentlemen, I offer the Crosley.
Good grief! As if the slab-sided clown-car proportions weren’t awkward enough, who puts red wheels on a green car?
For both favourite and least-favourite, it’s the AMC Eagle. Any model, doesn’t matter which one.
It’s not that they were a bad car, because they weren’t. The one that I owned was awful, but I put that down to that specific vehicle’s previous owners. The reality is that they were a vehicle that was a good idea hindered by its parentage from being truly great. Subaru was already on their way to figuring out the 4WD / AWD car when the Eagle was launched, and VW, Audi, and others would come along during the Eagle’s lifetime and make it a less-attractive proposition – more so as advancing age took its toll on the model range from Kenosha.
To this day, the only way I would ever have one again would be under two conditions: it would have to be a Kammback for weirdness’ sake, and I’d have to have a spare 4.0, AW4 transmission, and NP242 transfer case from an XJ Cherokee laying around. At that point I’d have all the ingredients for a Kammback with about a 4.5-litre stroker motor, high- and low-range 4WD with a locking centre diff, and bulletproof transmission.
The styling on Vegas is great though, all the variations have great proportions. I wonder what a convertible would have looked like.
Or a 4-door sedan and 5-door wagon.
Here’s a wagon P/S by our very own Tom Klockau:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/what-if-chevrolet-vega-and-ford-pinto-four-door-wagons/
Here is a convertible found from GIS:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3902417/1975-chevrolet-vega/#__federated=1
Top up:
Jason beat me to it, but for me it’s a tie between the Pinto and the Vega. Both were monumental pieces of crap, the Vega being a smidgen crappier. Every Vega I ever drove was a sordid claptrap that should have been put to death on conception. A more cynical use of a good brand name has never happened before or since and yes, this includes the almost as bad X cars.
The Pinto was all about Iacoca he man stuff. Hank the Duce wanted to import the Escort even then, but not on ole Lee’s watch. A 1900 lb car for $1900 was the slogan. Costs were saved everywhere, and the body was so weak it was dangerous. At least the early Kent engined cars ran well.
Pinto body was weak? Not on my 1973 wagon. 41 years old, and still solid as a rock.
Least favorite? There are a few but I think Autocars Sabra is very high up on the list. That’s what happens when an entrepreneur with no experience in the motor trade and hailing from a country with no motor sport whatsoever (Israel) decides to produce a sports car: he wanders off into the 1960 UK Racing Car show, finds the strangest kit car body (EB Debonair) and the least qualified of all British chassis engineers (Leslie Bellamy) and contracts a maker of three wheeled contraptions (Reliant) to productionise the sorry result. And to think, over at the next hall they had Frank Nichols (Elva), Eric Broadley (Lola) and Colin Chapman (Lotus), each a capable engineer and who could have designed something with real success chances…
Most favorite has to be the Tucker; innovative but had they produced and sold it in any numbers we would have had the Corvair disaster 10 years earlier – US car buyers were even less prepared for a powerful rear-engined car in 1949 than they were in 1959, after some familiarity with VWs and Porsches has been gained…
I like 3 hated cars,Edsels,70 Dodge Coronets/Superbees(a pink Superbee has been on my wish list a long time),Ford Zephyr 6/Zodiac Mk4(I had a Mk4 Zephyr 6 and it was a good car).I alsohad an FSO 125p(AKA Polski Fiat) again a good car.
Turkeys I hate,the Allegro(Dad had a lemon),Marina/Ital(my ex BIL had 2 which dissolved in 5 years),Princess,Maestro/Montego.
Worst car I had was a Sunbeam Rapier fastback,my only lemon
If nothing else, the British automotive cottage industry would have been poorer without the Zephyr/Zodiac to donate drivetrains.
Anybody who hates on a 70′ coronet or super bee should be forced to ride a bus. They don’t like driving. I would take one even if it was hot pink.
I think 90’s tercels are the worst car with the most hype ever. Gutless with an interior by Rubbermaid. Cheap front end, useless heater, lousy headlights, really uncomfortable.
Nuff said.
1984 Ford Tempo. No redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Favorite turkey?
1979 GMC C-1500 pickup with the Olds 5.7L diesel.
+1 on the Tempo. I have written previously about my unfortunate experiences with the one my daughter owned in college.
Going for a couple of Norfolk turkeys, one of which I haven’t seen or driven in reality. The one I like is the Austin Allegro Van Den Plas, was a pretentiously Broughamised version of the Allegro economy car. It had the full leather and wood interior with picnic tables and an oversized Daimler grille bolted onto the sorry little mistake.
The disliked Turkey was the Rover SD1 series V8- Ferrari Daytona looks, advanced interior design, sweet all alloy V8, appalling build quality, paint peeling off in swatches, cocked up interior package….
Allegro Vanden Plas proof yet again you can’t polish a turd.Uncle Will Mum’s younger brother bought an SD1 and very quickly became a BMW driver after more agro with his new car than any used car he’d had
The 1997 Mercedes A-class. A clown car, inside and out. Mercedes-Benz unworthy, introduced in the heart of their Dark Ages. The exterior and interior were a (bad) Mercedes interpretation of the Renault Twingo. And let’s not forget its moose test and the load of jokes that followed. It never even came close to being a serious VW Golf competitor.
And compared to the almighty W201 and W124 their successors, the W202 and W210, were also turkeys.
Can I nominate the other end of the Mercedes galaxy, the Maybach. No, I haven’t driven one (who has?), but when they were new they briefly littered London’s West End looking like bad dreams until the penny dropped that S-Class was still the superior vehicle, and that if you wanted that sort of status, only a Rolls-Royce would do. How much did Merc drop on the Maybach, I wonder?
Agreed. The upcoming Maybach is a stretched and extra luxurious S-class with a 6.0 liter V12. Called the S-class Maybach. (source: gtspirit.com)
X2. I could never fathom how M-B thought nobody would notice that thing was no more than an (older) S-Class. They seem to repeat the same mistake, for which there really is no excuse. A Maybach should have had a dedicated chassis and styling, totally distinct from any M-B model – just what VW and BMW do with Bentley and R-R.
The vast majority of Bentleys sold are just rebadged VW Phaetons, and the Rolls Royce Ghost is a reskinned BMW F01.
I’ve spotted two Maybachs while driving, and one of those was broken down at the side of the highway. Since half of the Maybachs I see are broken, I concluded that they must be unreliable. 😉
Ah yes, the Maybach, Mercedes’ Edsel. If it was a car to drive, why was it such a boat? If it was a car to be driven in, why wasn’t it based on the Sprinter or Dakota platform so that car services would/could actually buy it? If it was an ultimate luxury halo car to burnish M-B’s image, why style the interior so it looks like an ’80s conversion van in pictures?
One of those jokes. It says “Mercedes’ new logo”.
Love it!
Not sure what you mean by most favorite or least favorite. As was already said, the Vega was a turkey, but a beautiful one. I do not consider the Pinto and Mustang II to be turkeys. The only thing wrong with the Mustang II was it’s name. I loved it’s looks, and it was as reliable as any car of that era. Same for the Pinto, a car I have had a lot of experience with. I have owned 2. Both 1973 models, a sedan model that I bought well used in 1976, and put over 100,000 trouble free miles on, and a Squire (woodgrain) wagon which I have owned for the past 10 years or so. It is 41 years old now, and solid as a rock. I would not hesitate to take it across the country. And ugly? compared to what? The huge proliferation of cookie cutter jelly bean 4 door sedans we have now? Now those things are UGLY.
Another GM turkey was the ’70s Monza. Great looks, the quality was probably worse than the Vega. Most ’70s American cars had great looks, it was their poor quality that caused all the problems. One exception was the Chevette. It was both ugly and poor quality. Oh, and same for the Citation.
And one very remarkable car that most consider a turkey, but I don’t. The Pontiac Fiero. A 1987 base model Fiero was my first brand new car. Not only was it a stunning design, but very well engineered and built. It’s construction was completely revolutionary for it’s time. I seriously regret trading that for a ’76 Corvette. The mid ’70s Corvette, with urethane bumpers, had always been my dream car, but as beautiful as it was, I spent thousands on it, and it seemed the more I did the more it needed. IMO however, it’s looks more than made up for it’s mechanical issues. I just wasn’t wealthy enough to get into the Corvette restoration scene.
I’m with you on Pintos. Had three in my young broke days, bought cheap and flogged to within inches of their lives. Except for one of my two ’73s (it met its fate in a meeting with a late 70’s F100) I got reliable use (and a little fun) from them.
I hear what you say and by the same token I would nominate the Russian Lada as my successful turkey: sold in millions and did the job it was meant to do. Yes it broke down a lot but any Igor or Vasily with a basic tool kit could repair it. And, just like the Pinto (or even the Vega), if you could work on cars it could be relatively easily modified to become reliable and – dare I say it – fun (a Fiat twin cam 2L + 5sp box can be fitted into a Lada in a weekend, you know)…
I actually have a soft spot for the Mustang II, especially the mini-Mark IV Ghia models. But I am in the distinct minority. One thing is for sure: they sold a truckload of them!
+ 1 A car that was not without some charm. The main issue was it shouldn’t have been called a Mustang!
Guess that’s why they called it a Mustang II Even Ford realised it wasn’t worthy of the stand-alone Mustang name!
A ’75 Mustang II was my first new car and gave pretty good service for the first couple of years. We also bought a ’78 coupe for our girls to drive in high school. That was one tough little car that spent a fair amount of time in the body shop. They are not my favorites by any means but they served their purpose and as I have said before, if it wasn’t for the Mustang II there might not be a Mustang now. Besides, without it, what would street rodders do for front suspensions?
I do too….it led the whole downsizing wave, and it was a much better car than the bloated whale it replaced. With Ford’s tough mid-70s financial journey, it may have been one of the two pillars (Granada too) that kept Ford going. At least it kept the Mustang name alive for the superior Fox version introduced in ’79.
The Duce is my good turkey….I would have to say the Citation is my bad one. So much hope and hype…GM blew it beyond recovery…it just took 25 years to ferment.
Well, in terms of cars I’ve owned, it would be a tie between the 1981 Buick Skylark (Xcar) and a 1986 Ford Escort GT. The Buick’s manual transmission was balky from the beginning, then it developed a fuel leak that could have caught the whole car on fire, then the clutch gave up after less than 12 months of ownership – that was it, traded it in on a 82 Olds Cutlass diesel (which didn’t give me one problem surprisingly ….)
The Escort had brake problems at 6 months that the dealer couldn’t figure out, then the whole wiring harness gave up, the A/C went out just after the warranty expired, and then it it began overheating for no reason……..
Both cars highlight what Tom says about looking great on paper but failing badly in execution……..
Most favorite = Renault R8 (my avatar). Lively and comfortable. Often had problems, but every problem could be fixed with minimal tools and expense. She wanted lots of attention but she RESPONDED to the attention.
Least favorite = Ford Fiesta. Lively and uncomfortable. Often had problems, and every problem was unfixable by me and unfixable by supposed expert mechanics. Everything was a mystery. Owned it for 2 years, got about 3 months of drivable time.
You’re baiting me with that photo, Tom! (c:
I’ll have to be the Resident Contrarian on the Vega, given that mine made it well over 200,000 miles, and was always a hoot to drive, both with the original 2300 4-speed (post-sleeving) and subsequent Buick 3.8l/THM350. That said, the other three Vegas we owned (two Kammbacks and a parts-only hatch) were slugs due to the presence of a/c and automatics, and I saw plenty of Vegas over the years being followed by a trail of blue smoke and rust flakes… So definitely a case of YMMV, and my experience was an outlier in reality.
From a pure frustration / high maintenance relationship standpoint, my ’00 New Beetle ranks high on the list. I came close to selling it off several times as I got hit with one quality defect after another during my first 4-5 years of ownership. The car was actually much more reliable the last 6-7 years I had it (12+ years total, 219,000 miles and running great when I sold it). As I previously wrote about here, I bailed on the ’13 Beetle that succeeded the NB after only 18 months, because it had every appearance of becoming the same nightmare of VW quality issues all over again.
The absolute highest-maintenance relationship car I’ve owned to date was my ’64 Beetle, but a good part of that came from the fact that cars of that era simply require more hands-on maintenance than modern cars. Not to mention the car was already 30 years old when I got it and everything was simply worn out.
Other turkeys that were briefly in my possession would include the ’85 Cougar I wrote about recently, and the ’77 Nova (straight six/auto) that was passed around our family for a decade after my grandmother passed. More recently, the ’95 F-150 4WD rustbucket pickup I bought to succeed my ’69 F-100 was an exercise in love/hate, finally getting sold off earlier this Fall.
I figured I’d just vote Vega and I’d be speaking for the both of us. Didn’t expect you to be so contrary.
I also have some turkey fondness for AMC Gremlin as well, particularly since it’s shaped like a drumstick.
Well, I did walk it back if you noticed… (c:
The Vega was a brilliant car in theory, horribly executed in practice.
I owned a 72 Vega and pretty much agree with what’s been said about the assembly quality….or lack thereof. Luckily, I traded mine before it developed any real problems. I also owned a Pinto, a 76 and that was NOT a poorly / cheaply built car. What was sad about that car was that in 1975 Ford launched a series of Pintos and Mustang IIs called MPG. The idea being these models (SHOULD) get better gas mileage than the non-MPG models. My Pinto got the same mileage as the car that replaced it, a 77 Chevy Nova. Both got 22 mpg, day in and day out.
A real turkey of a car? The Ford Tempo. I rented a mid-late 80s model for a few days and while adequate, it was THE most uninspired car I think anyone could ever own. Everything about the car strikes you as almost, but not quite….”there”. Styling that looks 85% finished mated to mechanicals that are adequate. It’s a crime against consumers that it was produced with few changes for 11-12 YEARS.
Between the Vega and Tempo falls the 74 Audi Fox that I owned from new. A great car to drive, with lots of neat little features, like headlights that could be adjusted for heavy loads in the car via biggish knobs (easily accessed) on the back of the headlights and rear light clusters that had “windows” on the back side to shine light onto the trunk floor if the lights were used at night. But the cleverness was cancelled out by things like a fan switch for the radiator that quit at 10,000 endangering the engine. I had to replace that switch 3 times in 3 years at 10, 20, 30 thousand miles. Or hubcaps held on by clips that had to be thrown away because they lost their tensile strength whenever a hubcap was removed. If you didn’t replace the clip and put the hubcap back on it would fall off within about a block.
Worst Turkey – BL Marina. It sold in respectable numbers, but was mediocre in so many ways.
Best Turkey – Rover SD1. It had indifferent build quality, and had inferior rear suspension compared to its predecessor, but it looked like a Ferrari Daytona, and had the lovely Rover V8 (a substantially re-engineered Buick 215). The SD1 was a favorite among the British Police forces during the 1980’s.
Good call!
But was the SD1 a turkey?
My least favorite turkeys–the Chevrolet Vega and the GM X-cars. The Vega ran fairly well until I hit 20K and then all sorts of engine problems started. The ’80 Buick Skylark I owned again ran well until the warranty expired and then became the biggest turkey of my life. Both were awful cars.
Got to be the Marina on one hand, and may be the 1975 Wolsley 2200 (aka Princess) on the other.
Oh hang on, what about the Maxi, the Allegro Vanden Plas or the Vanden Pas Princess R – we’re spoilt for choice here!
Just about any ’70s BL product would do – wasn’t the whole corporation a turkey by then?
Kimberly Tasman X6 twins, P76, Marina 6, pretty much anything Leyland built anywhere was rubbish lots of that was down to build quality or lack there of.
My favorite turkey was my brand new 1975 Chevy Monza V8. It was a sweet little car and great looking. Who knew you had to almost pull the engine to change the spark plugs?
Least favorite turkey? My 1986 Honda Accord Lxi coupe. I had one quality control issue after another, which really ticked me off because I bought the damned thing based on its reliability reputation.
Everyone I know who has owned a Pinto at one point or another had bad luck with the cars. I got to drive one many years ago and found it dull and execrable.
The following picture illustrates the reason why I’ll never buy a Pinto or any other domestic small or compact car from its era.
Pinto body was weak? Not on my 1973 wagon. 41 years old, and still solid as a rock. I love driving it. It drives like a real car. It has manual steering and brakes, you can feel and hear the tires on the road, you can hear the engine. You are not insulated from anything like modern cars where you might as well be in your living room in front of a video monitor holding a fake steering wheel. New cars are not only ugly, but they have no sensations at all. Completely smooth and completely quiet.
Appearance-Turkey: the Toyota Corolla, especially this liftback, from the late nineties.
Its rear then ? Nope…
That is legitimately awful. The sedans we got here were boring and a half, but hardly offensive (unless you’re the sort who flies into a rage at workaday kitchen appliances unless they have expensive designer contours, I suppose).
A few years later it got a facelift. The over-the-top grille and frog-eyed headlights were gone. This hatchback looks OK and with the quality itself was nothing wrong of course.
Two turkeys in my thinking, one obvious, one probably a bit of a surprise (for the version I didn’t pick):
The Austin Marina (I’m talking American market). No performance, no handling, and the build quality of a car that had to have come down the line during a World Cup match the day after a bank holiday. This was when my suspicions about the motor-headedness of my brother-in-law-to-be were fully realized. He didn’t have a car bone in his body.
The late generation Chevy Monza (not the Vega). I owned three of these in a row, watching them get worse and worse as automobiles. My ’73 Vega GT (4 cyl/4 speed) is still a very fond memory, probably helped by my trading it in during the ’76 model year. The replacement ’76 Monza 2+2 (4 cylinder/5 speed) was also an enjoyable car, but the quick realization that it was a few hundred pounds heavier made it a somewhat less enjoyable driver. Still, a good car and a fond memory.
By ’79, I’m still being forced to buy Chevies due to family pressure and limitations on the money dad would loan me (the first two were graduation gifts), so I figure I’ll build something fun: Kammback body style, V-6, 5-speed, full instrumentation, suspension/handling option, big tyres, etc. Figured I’d build a poor man’s Volvo P1800 wagon. Only the car arrives minus the instrumentation package. GM decides that they’ll only offer it with the 4 and V-8 engines. They tried to cancel my 5-speed too, the dealer managed to override that after I told him I’d refuse to take the car with an automatic.
The build quality was abysmal, the carburetor started giving me problems within the first 500 miles, I had to have both entire sides repainted after the first winter (I’d taken delivery in November). And, despite good handling, it was a dog to drive. Suffered through it for the expected three years when I broke and ran for an ’82 Omni four door (automatic – I was married by then and the wife had no interesting in learning to drive a manual). I had to laugh as that Kammback was still sitting on the dealer’s lot 14 months after I traded it in.
And my move to the Omni wasn’t all that radical by then. After a decade of forcing me to buy Chevrolets, dad went for an ’81 Omni – the first non-Chevrolet in the history of my family. Yeah, I loved being his giunea pig.
Turkeys I would love to have:
86 or 87 V6 Cimmarron
81 or so Imperial
An early 80s GM C Body Diesel.
V6 Fiero
Least Favorite Turkey:
Tied between the Vega and the Citation
I had a late Vega, a ’77 notchback with 3 speed automatic. At 28,000 miles, it already had a new factory engine in it. Since I only paid $1,800 and drove it 60,000 miles before the new engine starting burning a quart every 300 miles, it’s hard to say it was a bad buy. Truly a rust bucket, though. If the first ones were worse, God help them.
Favorite I’ve owned: R5 LeCar with the fold-back sunroof. Least favorite: S-10, with Tech-4.
Favourite turkey – Hillman Imp, just so much fun to drive, like a go kart for the road. Dont have a least favourite but suppose it would be either the early Holden Camira J-car or Datsun 120Y.
Yugo and Vega.No most favorite.
My favorite automotive turkey constitutes an engine rather than a particular vehicle: the Olds 350 diesel. I have personal experience with this in our 1978 Olds, as chronicled here.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1978-oldsmobile-delta-88-diesel-in-defense-of-the-olds-350-diesel-v8/
Honorable mentions for my favorite turkey would include the DeLorean, 1961 Plymouth, Cadillac Allante and Zimmer Quicksilver.
My most disliked turkeys? The Chrysler Crossfire, Hummer H3, Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet and Pontiac Aztek all come to mind. I would also add the Nissan Cube and Juke, and the Ford Flex, though I’m not sure if they qualify as “turkeys” since they seem to sell okay.
H3 a turkey? No way! That was the consumer grade Hummer done right. The 4 door Wrangler is more or less a similar concept (although with a topless option) and its selling like hotcakes. The H2 got smeared by the treehuggers and that’s what sullied Hummer’s image. But in reality, it was impractical as an offroader…that’s why enthusiasts never embraced it and it ended up a fad. If only the HX concept would’ve been introduced. Jeep would likely have a fight on its hands!
Favorite Turkey – anything built by Chrysler Corporation in 1957. These cars should have vaulted Chrysler back to it’s No. 2 spot in the U.S. auto industry. Instead, these cars that had so much good in them were underdeveloped and rushed to market. So many buyers were soured on Mopars from that experience. But as awful as they were, there is so much to love about them still, and with enough love and attention, one can be wonderful.
Least favorite Turkey – 1976 Volare. There was nothing about this car as good as the Dart/Valiant that it replaced. By 1979-80, Chrysler had turned it into a decent car, but it still made you think “too bad they just hadn’t kept making the Dart.”
Oops – forgot the 1957-58 Packardbaker. As a Studebaker, it was probably the nicest pre-Egbert Stude since the 49 Land Cruiser. But as a Packard, it was an epic fail, and still is all these years later.
But as a Packard, it was an epic fail, and still is all these years later.
Well, it prevented Studie being sued by the few remaining Packard dealers, so not really a fail. I have read that the Packard body was too long to make the turns in the body plant line, and the Packard powertrain machinery had been installed in Utica, so would have cost $$$$$ to try to transplant everything to South Bend. They did the best they could with what was available.
Trivia note: did you know there was a Studebaker plant in Fort Wayne? The building is at 4300 New Haven, presently occupied by REA Magnet Wire. It and one in Chicago were built by the government, and run by Studebaker to make parts for the Wright Cyclone engines assembled at the Chippewa Ave plant.
Did not know that the Rea Magnet Wire plant in FW had a Stude connection. Growing up, I had a neighbor whose dad worked there as a manager.
Jim, I just finished reading “Studebaker The Life and Death of an American Corporation”. It’s a look at the business end of the company. Tons if interesting information, particularly how the company became dominated by Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers very early on.
Being dominated by financial interests helps explain why Erskine was so determined to pay out more in dividends than the company was earning in 32-.33, which contributed to the bankruptcy, and why Hoffman’s plea to invest in new plant and equipment in the late 40s was ignored in favor of paying large dividends.
It was Lehman that was pushing Packard to do the deal in 54, and provided lots of fantisy cost savings from the merger. You would think that Packard management would have smelled the conflict of interest.
I forgot that the entire 1957 Mopar line-up were considered turkeys. Since I would be quite happy to have one in my garage, I whole-heartedly agree with you! 🙂
I’m very much in agreement with you and JPC regarding the 1957 Mopar line of SweptWing cars. A Plymouth, Dodge, Desoto or Chrysler would be fine with me. Though frankly, a two-tone, 2-door 1957 Dodge would be my favorite. My father, grandfather and a great-uncle all bought new 1957 Dodges, so I have a fond memory of them.
It’s quite amazing that for three years in a row, Chrysler had cars that many consider the worst ever built (’60-’62 Plymouths and Dodges) and the company ‘still’ managed to survive. Of those three, the ’61 Plymouth wins, primarily because it’s both the most outrageous, yet the most cohesive. The other two years seem disjointed and without the same kind of presence. They just look weird while the ’61 Plymouth Fury has a malevolent ‘Christine’ look the other two lack.
Of those three, the ’61 Plymouth wins,
My Aunt was a happy Plymouth owner, after a 50 and a 56, she wanted to buy a Plymouth in 61, but just couldn’t stand the look of the thing. So in 61 she bought her one and only in her lifetime Chevy. In 65. she was back to Plymouth.
Instead, these cars that had so much good in them were underdeveloped and rushed to market.
Sounds a lot like the 55 Packards: radical new suspension, new V8, new transmission, and everything was underdeveloped and rushed, including their new assembly plant. Just pounding the new powertrain around Detroit in a mule for a year would have exposed the inadequate oil pump and weak clutches.
I call these failures of execution, not a failure of the design. A real turkey has to fail at both intent and execution, like a Crosley or Jet. Nasty styling and vile handling, combined with shoddy build quality. Pix don’t to the Jet justice. You really need to see one in the metal.
Biggest and least favorite turkey – Chevrolet Shove-it (Chevette)
My grandmother had a 2 door version from mid 80s when they had certainly had time to work out most of the kinks. It was a tinny, shakey, loud, lawnmower of a car, that made me think of what the cars of the common people living behind the Iron Curtain must have been like.
A girl I went to college with had one as well. Same story but at least I got to spend a little time with her trying to help her with things like windshield wipers that wouldn’t stop (even when the car was shut off) and then wouldn’t go. (Nice girl, she married a guy with an IT degree.)
My FAVORITE turkey would be the Chrysler Crossfire. I actually liked the shape and as cheap as they are used it would be a great weekend, hit the golf course, taking couples vacations with the wife, kind of car. However I have a hobby car.
Most favorite “turkey?”
1984 Chevette, 2 dr. 4-speed, power nothing. Bought it in ’86 with about 37 K miles and drove it until ’93 when I traded it in on an ’89 Beretta. The Chevette never left me stranded or gave me any doubts about whether it would reach any destination. I nicknamed it the Energizer bunny car. The body still had no rust, and I saw it around for a few years after the trade.
Second favorite turkey? The bark-beaten ’74 Datsun B-210 hatchback that preceded the Chevette. It was a mosquito repelling, blue smoke, butterscotch yellow wretch when I got it. Luckily, parts were cheap, so I re-ringed the engine and had the head rebuilt. After that, the little A13 motor ran like a Swiss watch. Best. Heater. Ever. (And didn’t overheat, even in the hottest summer temps.) After the engine was sorted, I did get a couple of good years out of it. Unfortunately, the tin worm ate it for dessert.
Honorable mention for favorite turkey? The Beretta. In red, with a 2.8 V6, auto and A/C, so it was kind of the anti-Chevette. Not exactly unreliable, but it was a maintenance queen. THM125 trans not stout enough for the V6, 2 or 3 bouts with computer or ignition module replacements. Still it was quick and comfortable and lived until 2003, when the transmission was once again on its last legs.
I have to defend the Vega as I factory ordered a well equipped GT. My choices of compact car in 1974 were few. Mustang? Pinto ?(ugh) A boring Toyota Corona? Somebody else on this post agrees with me the Vega was a nice looking car. I tested a 73 GT one summer while still attending Tech school. drove it an entire weekend and took a highway trip back home. That sold me on it.
We all know the car was poorly engineered and designed by committee. As John DeLorean pointed out in his book about General Motors. Robotics helped put together a solid body that’s sadly rusted quickly in many parts of North America. my Vega was garaged for a time as I used a bigger V8 powered sedan because of a radio job in a small town radio station.
Yes my little GT had its issues. It did overheat once in California. But it handled well and took me to eastern Canada and the US twice with no major problems.
My favorite turkey:
And my least… I specifically chose this over its sisters because two of these steaming piles had it out for me.
I honestly think everyone’s interpretation of a turkey is different. Is it the looks of a vehicle (Pacer) or the reliability (Vega) or both (Yugo) that determines a turkey? For me, it is both. The Yugo is my #1 turkey. For me, a car like the Mustang II doesn’t fall in the turkey category because it was good looking, sold like crazy, and was as reliable as most cars were in the 70’s (I know because I owned one).
I can see the Yugo as most favorite, but not least, and here’s why. Some years ago, there was actually an art exhibit that was comprised entirely of sculptures made of old Yugos. When a car inspires that kind of avant-garde art expression, it can’t be the least favorite turkey ever built. Trabants would also fall into the same category.
It’s sort of like the affection someone might feel for a pitiful wretch of a dog. That’s a Yugo. Of course, when that dog is mean and bites, the affection goes out the window (like a Vega or Citation). I can’t imagine anyone making an art exhibit out of Vegas or Citations. In fact, the only GM art exhibit I can think of is that one with all the Cadillacs angled into the ground in a straight line, nose first.
Maybe the art piece was made from Yugos because they could be purchased very cheap. 🙂
Yeah, and that they were small and plentiful were probably the biggest reasons (as opposed to some lofty artistic rationale).
And too light to be worth much at the scrapper 😀 !
There’s a not-terribly-funny black comedy from 2000 called Drowning Mona, set in a fictional town in NY State that supposedly was the test location for Yugo before entering (or should I say infecting) the US market. Consequently, the town has a Yugo population thousands of times that of a normal place. Even the local cops drive them. And a bitchy lady named Mona (Bette Midler) drowns in one.
A montage of Yugo stills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15RdWQDCpgE
Theatrical trailer:
Besides the already mentioned Pontiac Aztek, there are three other, really good, relatively recent nominees, and those would be the Plymouth Prowler, Chevy SSR, and Ford Thunderbird. All three were good-looking cars that held a lot of promise, but delivered little (and all at very steep price). That’s definitely turkey territory.
It would be a tough call between the three, but I think I’d give the nod to the SSR, simply because GM’s decision to build it meant there would be no replacement for the Camaro/Firebird, as well as not building the beautiful Bel Air concept car. Building the Prowler and Thunderbird didn’t kill off any more worthy cars.
Speaking of my favorite turkeys strictly from a good – bad reliability point of view?
Hands down the 2001 Pontiac Aztek I owned was the biggest Turkey ever.
I liked its versatility, and ride, and never minded its looks (really!), but my god I would wear out my fingers typing were I to list its repairs in the three years i owned it.
A turkey of all turkeys.
Now a turkey from a good reliability standpoint?
For me most any 60’s -early 70’s Mopar.
Ugly you say? I don’t care.
Every one I have owned , even the $100 beater cars ,were rock solid reliable.
I had no idea that the Aztek had mechanical issues. I always thought the things that kept them nailed to the showroom floors were appearance, poor packaging, and price.
I think they came with the engines with plastic intake manifolds that were notorious for warping and leaking coolant.
The Azteks came with the same problems their donor U-vans had. Substandard 3.4L V6 upper and lower intake gaskets which usually led to the head gaskets failing shortly after, the famous GM wheel bearing fail, the body control module fail (BCM) and the A/C condenser fail. The Aztek had it’s own problems, as the optional rear air suspension would fail and the retaining clips holding in the headlights would frequently fail, but those were more likely due to being re-installed incorrectly after replacing a headlight.
The plastic manifold incidents are sadly on the 3.8 Buick V6, particularly the Series II. OTOH, GM wasn’t the only one to use plastic intakes on their engines, nor were they the only ones to have problems with said manifolds, but they sure got remembered for it.
We have sold dozens of Azteks at our dealership. Half of them needed intake gaskets and a few needed wheel bearings. We usually avoid the AWD models but otherwise didn’t experience any BCM or A/C failures and have been pretty reliable for our customers.
Surprised the stillborn 2000 Packard wasn’t here.Strange looks and a massive price mean’t there would be few takers
Does it even count? There was only the one prototype vehicle manufactured.
I might be wrong here but weren’t deposits taken and never returned?
My favorite turkey may be the Maserati Biturbo. I liked the looks and the performance, but the lack of engineering and quality were the epitome of European turbocharged cars. Another turkey I admired the styling of was the Chevrolet Monza. Too bad GM built it.
Least favorite turkeys? French cars.
Worst turkey – ANY first gen Hyundai. I wrote service on those piles. The OPSU would invariably fail by 30K – but after the 2 yr 24K warrantee expired. And the subsequent loss of oil would detonate the motor. I literally saw over a hundred Excels come into the dealership on rollbacks with huge holes in their blocks.
Favorite turkey – My 1980 MGB. Yea, it’s about a reliable as a Soviet nuclear reactor, but it’s so much fun to drive.
OPSU is the abbreviation for “Oil pan sending unit,” if I’m not mistaken, right?
Oil Pressure Sending Unit – and the center would blow out and presto, instant major oil leak and because the sending unit failed the warning light failed also.
I have a hard time picking favorites, but here’s a turkey I’m really into: the 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Town Sedan.
The ’49-’51 models are easily the most unloved of all classic Lincolns. It was one of the stretches where Lincoln meant “costlier Mercury” and most people are not fond of the aero face with the recessed headlights. “Town Sedan” also means the complete opposite of what you’d expect : “big, 4-door fastback” – a style that would soon be on its way out. I’m guessing they suffered from the same problems as the rest of the ’49 Fords, and despite being the most popular body style (accounting for ~18k of ~38k Lincolns sold that year), the fastback Town Sedan was not brought back for 1950.
I only discovered these fairly recently, and although I’m no great fan of this era’s Lincolns, I’m a huge sucker for fastback sedans. IMO, this 2-box, “ponton” style is a much better complement to the streamlining suggested by the ’49 front end.
I actually really dig these Cosmopolitans too. Especially that big chrome bullet over the front fender, and the fastback six-window roofline!
I have never seen one in person–not even at the LCOC meet I attended last September.
Another Cosmo lover here.
I’d have to go with the Aztec as being the least favorite turkey if for no other reason than I found it shockingly ugly at first sighting… I remember thinking ‘GM has got to be kidding…
Hard to choose a favorite turkey.. the ’58 Edsel is up there with maybe a ’65 Marlin.
I must be a turkey farmer then…
I’ve had a Pinto, a Topaz (Mercury version of the Tempo), two Yugos and now am on my third Aztek. I’m not going to write some defense of these cars, as they had their good and bad points each. And you could say that about any car… Boring Camry anyone? Maybach? You get the idea.
I’ve also had a fair amount of experience with some of the other North American turkeys mentioned and will agree that they were in some ways more than others, turkeys. Of all of the turkeys that I’ve actually owned my favorite is a toss up between the Yugos and the Azteks. My least favorite was that Topaz, which I have b!tched about extensively on the internet.
I almost forgot – I owned a 1984 Buick Century T-type with the 3.0 V-6, probably the biggest turkey of an engine in any car – ever. It was rebuilt twice and still never ran right. I loved that car, too…..that is why I bought a 1987 with the awesome 3.8 V-6 a few years later. What a difference a few years can make. The two cars were like night and day as far as performance and reliability were concerned.
My favorite turkey(I will accept the arrows) is the first year Chevrolet Citation. I know that they were very much half baked but I found and still find them beautifully styled, very contemporary for the time. The last one that I saw was about four years ago in a Costco parking lot. It was apparently rust-free but had been brush painted a darkish blue. My least favorite turkey can be nothing other than the Pinto. I once drove my great aunt’s Pinto wagon back from my 2nd cousins country place to My aunt’s in Buffalo. It was, by a very large margin the most unmitigated piece of %$#* that I have ever had the displeasure of driving. Much later, I realized that I had to be at least thankful that during that trip I had not been rear-ended.
With a number of people listing a Pinto as a turkey, I’ve got to comment. Although I never owned one, I got to drive one on several occasions. It was 1979, 2-door with a manual transmission, and it was no more than 2 years old. I found it to be quite pleasant to drive considering all my vehicles to that point were V-8 powered coupes or 2 or 4-door sedans, save for one slant-six 1962 Valiant sedan. The Pinto seemed almost like a go-cart compared to my big Mopars.
What an attractive vehicle that original Vega was. Really. Too bad everything else about it was ill conceived and under developed. And if that wasn’t enough , they rusted everywhere. The poor body designer , he/she made a beauty only to have it stuffed with @&@# A nicer looking “turkey” might be hard to find.
One favorite turkey of mine is the Mopar J car trio. The Cordoba LS and Mirada, specifically. Great looking cars that suffered from Mopar’s reputation for building some half baked cars in those days. These weren’t immune…like other Mopars in that era, you either got one solid as a rock, or a clanking pile of doo doo. It wouldn’t have affected sales much, but I always wished the ‘normal’ J-doba didn’t exist at all…they already had the Imperial. The Mirada should’ve been a Plymouth completely unaltered.
And the LS very well could’ve been competition for the contemporary Mustang and Bird/Maro. The LS as the 2nd gen Dodge Magnum would’ve been HOT with the hi-po 4bbl 360 (from the Lil Red Express Truck and Chrysler 300 of ’78-’79), mandatory 4 spd/buckets, no vinyl roof option at all, and optional T-tops. As I said, it may not have been a hot seller but such an item would keep street cred on the menu for Mopar during the malaise era.
I have a hate/love relationship with the Avenger/Sebring coupes. I truly WANT to support them more since they were the only 2 doors from Mopar at the time…even though they were rebadged shitsubishis and a total downgrade from the G body Daytona. Those cars aren’t ‘bad’ in and of themselves…but just a total chud in terms of missing the market entirely. We all know that coupes as a fashion statement (all show and no go) just wont fly, except as the bottom feeder variant of a more serious machine. I mean, if your new car with the options maxed out is barely a match for the crappiest girly mustang or F body, then that’s a recipe for enthusiasts jumping ship for the other guys. And a nicely styled coupe that performs ‘decent’ sitting next to a lumpy 4 door sedan that is the most bang for the buck (SRT-4) sends some pretty mixed messages.
Favorite:
Mopar: Volare/Aspen. Such a good looking car and with a 318, they moved along pretty good after you got it started. IF you got a good one, you got a good one and you were in the minority, at least in the first 2 years.
GM: 71-72 Vega and it would have to be V8 powered, or maybe a Buick turbo six.
Ford: LTD II. I like it, OK?
Most hated:
Its a 3-way tie for my #1 GM:
1980 GM X cars
1985/86 GM C/H cars
1988 GM-10 cars
-terrible, terrible replacements for fine cars.
Chrysler: K-cars and all of their variants. I understand that they sold a lot and they singlehandedly saved the company; I get that, but they were horrible cars and as a Chrysler performance car fan, I am allowed to hate them.
Ford: Tempo/Topaz. See GM reasons. The Fairmont/Zephyr were fine cars too.
If all of the above were RWD, I wouldn’t hate them.
My Mopar L-body (Plymouth TC-3) is V8 powered and RWD. You just have to make them the way YOU want them if they won’t
To me a car that fails in the market place is a “Turkey” and these posts have mentioned many. That is not important to me because I buy used/older cars that are fully depreciated. “Dogs” are cars that are notorious because of reliability issues. And many of those were mentioned in all the posts above.
My Dogs were the 1966 VW Type 3 Squareback that was the family car when I got my drivers license. Why because it would refuse to start when it rained, snowed, or high humidity. Those 6 volt electrics just didn’t cut it. And my second Dog was my first new car a 1969 Fiat 124 Spyder. Parts would literally fall off the car while in motion. It drank oil almost at the same rate as gasoline and the instrument lights had to be replaced on a weekly basis. Good thing that the instrument cluster was easily removed.
During the period of 1976-1977 my employer had two company cars used by the office staff, a Pinto Squire wagon and a four door LTD. I hated these cars! Out of the two I preferred driving the Pinto because the LTD was always a white knuckle ride. You would aim it and hope for the best. A great deal of my time was spent taking these cars to the repair shop, at least once a week.
I’ll just pick 2 my family unfortunately managed to own.
Favorite: My parents’ 83 Chevette Scooter. Total POS of course, died at 75K in 1988. But there’s something endearing about those little penalty boxes.
Least Favorite: One of the two replacements my parents got for the Chevette: an ’88 Hyundai Excel GL. Also a total POS, but unlike the Chevette, so bad you couldn’t even laugh at it. Stolen, at one point. Actually recovered. Lasted 3 more years than the Chevette had, died on the trade-in lot (parents already had cash in hand) at 96K. The Hyundai had been purchased for my mom (both parents had lost jobs and were getting back on their feet at the time) and she got the new car because of the longer commute.
(My dad picked up a beater ’84 Civic hatch. It had 220K when it was sold, still running fine, to a young minister just out of seminary. Funny how the beater put the two new cars to shame. Also, all 3 of these cars and my grandfather’s influence are what drove me to fall in love with big cars from about age 3)
I just noticed the picture of the Datsun B210. Back in the mid ’70s In liked the hatchback model. Now I want the base “Honey Bee” Because of poor build quality, there are no longer any of them around. But if there were I wouldn’t mind having one.
Terrible turkeys are the obvious culprits like the Vega and Pinto and first year 1980 X body GM cars. Truly horrible miserable cars. The 1986 Hyundai Excel ranks a close second to these or any 1978-80 GM 5.7 diesel equipped vehicle. Certain 1970’s Japanese cars make the cut too like the Datsun’s of the era.
Not so terrible turkey’s would be the Aspen/Volare’, 1981-83 Imperial, GM C body’s, The Chevette/T-1000, the Lincoln Granada, The Mustang II, the AMC Pacer or Gremlin or the Omnirizon from Chrysler, especially the 1.7 VW or 1.6 equipped variants.
The Pontiac 301 turbo has been referred to as a turbo turkey by some but as the owner of a mint 1981 Trans Am I actually find this engine to be a decent mill and with proper knowledge it can be a reasonable performer and reliable at the same time.
1988 Eagle Premier. By the time I bought it used in 1995, it had 60,000 miles on it and I got it for $2,000. It was fully loaded. When my sister’s then boyfriend backed into it and shattered the turn signal lens, I wen to the local Jeep/Eagle dealer in Toledo, and the informed my that I must have got the only decent running one with no transmission problems ever built. I would still have it today if was not for a giant F-150 that rear ended me in 1999. With only 110,000 miles on it, the insurance company totaled it. That was one of my favorite cars out of the dozen that I owned.
My biggest turkey: a 1972 AMC Matador wagon, and honestly I don’t entirely understand why. My dad bought it new although I guess he didn’t maintain it all that well. He overheated it until the heads bent. Maybe the machinist he hired to fix it didn’t do it right although I’ve talked to other owners who have had bad experiences with head gaskets in 304s and even when new that 120 something hp engine with a terrible Autolite 2bbl carb was a dog. It had what I considered a truly handsome body in its gold paint, wood and two tone interior and was a homologation of proven Ford, GM and Chrysler components but by the time I got it it seemed none of them would work for more than a couple of months at a time. When the windshield wiper linkage broke on the way to work in a driving rain storm that was it. I pulled her over, totally cussed her out and told her our relationship was over and that if it wasn’t for my dad she would have been gone a long time ago. Lately I’ve been watching my DVDs of ‘Adam-12’ and thinking I might want to try another Matador (although this time maybe with a 401). Am I glutton for punishment for what?