We’re on the home stretch on the most amazing and productive turkey hunt ever. As the car makers stepped up their game, the first decade of the new Millennium may have had the least turkeys yet, but they’re there. And I know who can ferret them out. But save current production cars for Sunday, the grand finale.
The 2000 – 2007 Monte Carlo. A stylistic abortion if there ever was one.
I feel too close to the aughts to judge properly but let’s back up for a min… Would any of us care what the styling of the Monte Carlo was if it had been RWD, perhaps with standard 3800 power and optional V8 power? Imagine how GM would have been hailed if they had built a modern unit-body RWD coupe? And they could have introduced the GTO sooner and spread out the costs across several divisions.
Agreed, Dan. I’d probably own one if that had been the case.
And as it was, there were some pretty hot Chevrolet W-Body combos such as supercharged Montes and the 303-HP Impala SS.
GMH resisted building a 2door car they dont sell well in Aussie but the RWD platforms been around for ever
The 06-07 Monte is a nice looking and reliable car. It’s just a two door Impala. This car does have it’s haters but there is nothing to justify it’s inclusion on a “worst list”.
I think the debatable point is “nice looking.” It’s a matter of opinion, but the attempt to add 70’s Monte side-sculpting and proportions to a modern design just doesn’t work.
I think I read somewhere that the styling was inspired by NASCAR. I’d like to meet the guy who made that brilliant decision. It just looks like a plastic toy NASCAR with a couple of half-assed Monte Carlo styling cues painted on.
Cadillac XLR.
Pontiac GTO.
Pontiac G8.
Pontiac G3.
GMs lack of direction in tangible form.
I thought the XLR was kinda cool.
Come on, the G8 is good looking, relatively fast, semi-exotic (since it is from Austrailia), and is practical (because it is a sedan).
sedan wagon or coupeute take er pick
Oh yeah, you Aussies got the utes from GM.
Respectfully Sean, you’d put the XLR, GTO and G8 above the U-Bodies or Aztek?
I’m with you on the G3 but looking from the context of most of Pontiac’s history, it was just the latest in a decades-long line of Chevy badge jobs.
To the Poncho fans: kindly remember that originally, Pontiac was pretty much conceived as a deluxe Chevrolet and might have been killed off fifty years ago had it not been for Bunkie Knudsen and John DeLorean re-focusing Pontiac as the performance and excitement brand. Also worthy of note is that Pontiac dealers usually wanted a version of whatever Chevy offered. The dealers demanded the G5 and GM obliged. Most likely the G3 had the same story.
Let me add to your comment Chas. The G8 is far from a turkey. Now, three years later the V8 versions still command something like 80%+ of their original value. The GXP versions are even higher. The G8 is one of the few sedans not from Germany that can easily run with the bigger BMW’s and Mercs.
As a Pontiac fan, I’m well aware of what they became in the 50’s and 60’s. But things like the G3 may have been ordered by dealers, I would guess most likely that it was part of a plan to comply with CAFE rules to achieve fuel economy targets.
For what I could tell of the local Pontiac dealer, they were usually forced to take x number of G3s to go with the popular cars they ordered. The local dealer couldn’t sell the G3s untill Pontiac was dead and they were trying to clear them out.
By the time of Pontiac’s demise, all Pontiac dealers also had GMC and Buick under the same roof. Of course they wanted whatever the Chevrolet dealer had. It enabled them to bid against said Chevy dealer with Pontiac and GMC. Never mind that it was hurting the corporation like crazy – nothing like giving two dealers less than a mile apart the same stock and letting them try to underprice each other.
Pontiac was the prime example of the old Sloan system falling apart. Where, when I was a kid, a Pontiac was a dressed up (and a half step above) Chevy, by the end they were nothing more than restyled Chevy’s.
The Aztek wasn’t bad in it’s second generation. If anything maybe the Aztek was just too early. It seems that there is a serious market for hideous vehicles now.
I don’t quite get the hate for the minivans but I’ve never considered buying one either.
The GTO would have been a hit if it were brought over here in the late 90s, it’s styling just wasn’t a match for the 00s. The Jelly Bean had both feet in the grave by 2004. If you parked an 04 GTO next to an 04 Mustang Mach 1 or 05 Mustang GT you’d have to be a heck of a salesman to get me into the Poncho.
The XLR was as needed in the Caddy lineup as much as Caddy needs a truck. It was cool but they could have used it’s development resources to make their lineup at the time more relevant. You can’t hang your hat on the CTS and Escalade forever(Something they just figured out).
I like the G8 but it was too little, too late and a bit pricey. Overall it’s a great car.
“Second-generation” Aztek? There was only one generation, thank goodness.
The second generation Aztek was called the X6.
Pontiac Aztec
I’m with Fuzzyman on the Monte Carlo. The later (2006-7?) versions that had the exact same nose as the Impala were arguably the worst of the lot.
PT Cruiser
Aveo
Bangle-ized 7 Series
Funny, I thought the 2000 -2005 were worse, what with those blobby headlights and taillights. Using the Impala grille and cleaned-up headlights at least made it tolerable to look at from certain limited angles.
Although it debuted for 1999, I nominate the second-generation Honda Odyssey. It was full of bugs that buyers of Hondas simply didn’t expect, the most notable being the five-speed transmission that many hapless owners had to replace two, even three, times.
Like turning lead into gold, or sending a man to Neptune, the Odyssey achieved what many had previously thought impossible – make owners wish they had bought the comparable Chrysler product instead.
***************************** MAYBACH *************************************
An overpriced, uglified, S-Class for folk with more money than taste.
Turns out there aren’t as many around as had been thought.
And, as of yesterday, they’re officially history. 2012 will be the final year.
The Chevrolet Uplander, Saturn Relay, Pontiac Montana SV6, & Buick Teraza! Blech! The biggest turkeys ever! Noisy,ugly as sin,cheap feeling, rusty, badly built, the ride is HORRENDOUS! The list of problems goes on and on and on….. Good news, I can do a CC on my mom’s stripper Chevrolet Uplander.
I have to admit, those were horrid. Typical old-school GM beancounter-think, Put a big nose on a minivan and change the name so that stupid people will mistake it for an SUV.
If these things aren’t a GM Deadly Sin, they should be.
From the moment these U-bodies hit dealer lots, I thought…”that’s what an automotive abortion looks like”.
The love child of Satan and GM beancounters. Rosemary’s Baby on wheels.
Reeking of cynicism and arrogance from every angle, I’d have been embarrassed to have carried these on my lots. Even if they had been well-built, economical and reliable as dirt, the styling still screamed “We are GM and you’re a fool who’ll buy whatever we offer because we’re GM!”
Which is pretty much how the company acted from 1971-2000. For this one reason alone, the U-bodies are a Deadly Sin, perhaps the worst one of all because of when it took place.
Old habits die hard, I guess. At least the current large crossovers are winners.
Oh yes, and I forgot the Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Oldsmobile Bravada (2nd gen), Buick Rainer, and the Saab 9-7x
And, of course, the Isuzu Ascender
Escalade, Avalanche, Expedition, QX56, I’m probably missing others…and then the One True Turkey to Rule Them All:
Really?
I think the Avalanche is great.
The Hummer was so venally, cynically horrible, it deserves worse than turkey.
We have one locally half a block long, I dont know why
You know what they say, the bigger the car, the smaller the…..
I think I might have taken any of those over what I did have the misfortune to buy. After owning two Saturn SL’s and being very taken with their Honda like attributes (I swear mine were great/ sorry about you), I was quite taken with the looks of the 2002 Saturn Vue. I was taken but unfortunately my wife was smitten. Those of you that are married understand what that means. I never buy the first year of any model, however, the threat of sleeping on the couch was more than I could bear.
We had a number of factory recalls and even though they were inconvenient, I was happy that Saturn was attending to business. Less than a month after we bought it we took off from SE Texas to Vancouver for an Alaskan cruise. Nothing but positive comments. It was the perfect car and we told everyone so. About 30mpg and it could haul a half ton trailer without breaking a sweat. Just after our second trip things started happening.
Computers failed. There were several and we replaced 3 or 4. Slave cylinder on the hydraulic clutch went out. About $800 there bcause they had to remove the bell housing
to change it. I changed the one in my Nissan truck laying in the driveway. I was told that they never went out and something obviously was wrong. Somewhere about here the sun roof started leaking and it wasn’t the drain.
Then the transmission set up a howl. They told us that the transmission was the same one that came in the Saab sports sedan and that it never went out. Ours went out. The last thing that I fixed was an inside computer. Not long after being assured that the bugs had been worked out of the view by 2004 and that mine was being constantly updated, the car died on the way to school.
Turns out the timing chain had snapped. There had not been any warning. To pull it out the mechanic told me that it required pulling and disassembling the engine because it was in the center. I sold it to one of the mechanics for pickapart ‘s price.
When the car wasn’t broken it always reminded me of why we bought it. It was attractive, effective, and efficient. When it broke which was often, it was terrible. It was expensive to fix and designed that way. I had bought an opel – not a Saturn. Won’t make that mistake again.
Honda’s transmissions, Toyota Echo, GM U-bodies (2005-2009)
What else what else……Ford Freestar, Freestyle, Five Hundred.
The Dodge Avenger for sure! Oh the 2004 Nissan Quest for the win!
The U-bodies are obvious. A family member owns the Buick version. First, the door handles were braking, next the radio went out since it wasnt properly wired. Eventually the transmission slipped and the brakes failed, followed by the tailgate collapsing. The power sliding door failed and drivers seat stopped reclining. Just recently two speakers blew followed by the hood coming undone on the highway. Its been a mess for them and they regret trading in their Colorado and Cobalt for that disaster.
A neighbor of mine owned a Freestar. The headlights were constantly going out, the timing belt on the 3.8 went out three times, the transmission failed in my driveway, and after it ate two head gaskets she traded it in for an Uplander and that too had transmission problems, burned up oil, ate brakes, leaked antifreeze, after just 30k miles it blew a rod. She then traded it for an Oddysey and had transmission problems with that, the tailgate collapsed, on her back, and the radio never worked right. She gave up on minivans and but a Fusion in 2007. That has been nothing but good to her.
My 2007 Cobalt was a turkey. The interior fell apart like no other, lights were always burning out, and after it ate brakes and burned oil consistently i gave up on it.
There is no timing belt in a 3.8 they have a chain. I’m guessing that if it was a belt that failed it was the accessory belt and if it failed multiple times that the actual culprit was a bad tensioner, bearing in an idler or driven component, or an alignment issue with one of the components.
I guess i got myself mixed up. I totally meant accessory belt. Oh well everyone makes mistakes sometimes i suppose.
Yup everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Personally I recently made a mistake on my own car similar to the one that likely caused the need for 3 belts on the Freestar. I had been ignoring the belt in my Crown Vic that had started squeaking when cold was progressively getting worse. So one day when I got back from lunch I heard some noise under the hood. Popped the hood to find the belt separating. I chalked it up to getting my moneys worth out of it and ordered up a new one. Things were busy that day so at the end I hastily threw the belt on w/o checking anything. A couple of days later that belt started to fail as the original problem was the bearing failing in the water pump which had got to the point where it started leaking and pretty heavily. Again thankfully it happened on the way back from lunch. So this time it went straight in the shop the tensioner and idlers were checked before ordering another belt and the new pump.
Remember kids, do as I say not as I do!
I never buy the first year of any model, however, the threat of sleeping on the couch was more than I could bear.
Sounds like a new wife would have been cheaper.
I nominate the Jeep Commander, BMW X6, Subaru Baja, Acura ZDX, Buick Rendezvous and last gen Dodge Durango (the new one is sweet). I’m not sure what any of the stylists were thinking, although any/all may be highly functional vehicles.
The discontinuation of the Buick V6, AMC I6, and Rover V8.
Fiat Chroma
Fiat Multipla second generation – the first gen was at least very distinctive
Fiat Punto Evo – I have never before or since seen such a terrible mid cycle facelift, it literally transformed the best looking supermini into the worst looking supermini.
Renault Laguna III – the blandest car in the known universe
Mercedes R class – the car which looks like a hearse in any colour.
BMW 5, 7 GTs – what are these?
Peugeot 1007 – amazing they had courage to build it
Toyota urban cruiser – supposed to be hip but beige and some more.
Toyota yaris verso – the most ridiculous looking car ever
Nissan Almera Tino
Renault Vel Satis
and finally, is Renault Avantime a turkey?
no no no no! the Renault Avantime is not a turkey! it’s gloriously, gorgeously and radically insane and just because of that, and with roughly 8k built only, it will be one of the most sought after cars of its time! stow one away now, this investment will perfom better than many stock. my bet.
I see the inclusion of the Cobalt and raise with the ultimate Chevrolet Turkey named Aveo!
Have I shown my contempt for the GM U-bodies clearly enough? 🙂
Really, there aren’t a lot of clear turkeys coming to my mind besides the U-Bodies and the Aztek.
Lotta engineering issues depending on model. I keep reading about Honda Odyssey transmissions. Was that a particular model or did all of them come with the same gearbox?
Sludgy Toyota engines…I didn’t care enough to even remember which model it was but my initial reaction was “really?” But come to learn Toyota’s fallible too…which makes them just another car company to me.
Subaru finally did something about its 2.5 head gaskets around 2004. My wife, who LOVES Subarus, owns an ’05 Outback and it’s been a good car for us.
I’m a little surprised to read horror stories ’bout the Ford Five Hundred and Freestyle. Everything I’d heard was positive. Hard not to be cynical about public tastes upon hearing that when the cars were renamed “Taurus” and “Taurus X”, sales exploded. Other than a name and a grill change they were the exact same cars as the Five Hundred and Freestyle, weren’t they?
The 2000’s may go down as the decade in which Detroit finally woke up, just as Japan Inc got a little too complacent. All while Hyundai/Kia became true contenders.
Yes the “new” Taurus and Taurus X are pretty much the same vehicles as the 500 and Freestyle but with some notable differences in the power train. The 3.0 was replaced with the 3.5, the CVT trans disappeared.
The CVT, terrible road noise, poor handling, and rock hard interiors to name a few. When it was renamed Taurus some things improved and the 2010 redesign did a lot but handling is still a sore spot.
My wife’s 2000 Legacy has gone through two sets of head gaskets. Otherwise it’s a decent car. It seems like the newer Subarus don’t have this problem.
Dodge Ram. For making dashboards that shatter after 3-4 years. You would think after nearly 100 years of making automobiles, Chrysler could get that problem under control.
Pontiac Aztek is an easy one…like catching fish in a barrel.
Pontiac Solstice, for trying to compete with the Miata, despite having a horribly awkward convertible top and a trunk/boot of an unusable shape (a guy on TTAC once argued that it was of a larger volume than the Miata’s…yeah, but two inches deep?!?).
2008-2010 Chrysler Sebring/Dodge Avenger, for replacing a bland, boring-yet-competent vehicle with one that is bland, boring and thoroughly wretched.
Dodge Caliber/Jeep Compass/Jeep Patriot, for spreading a meager amount of resources among three separate models. Hey, why build one or two good, solid vehicles when you can build three mediocre ones?
2000-2007 Ford Taurus, for being allowed to wither on the vine, and suffer both a lack of development AND brutal decontenting.
Ford Five Hundred/Freestyle, for reminding me of the cake we took out of the oven a bit too soon on Thanksgiving: Good ingredients, well put together, but the sum of the parts collapsed…and sadly, all they needed was a wee bit more development time.
I can’t believe you’re the only one to mention all the terrible Mitsubishis that were passed off as Mopars or Jeeps. The Fords were awful too, particularly the 500s and Freestyles with CVTs.
Chevrolet SSR
I’ll have to nominate the 500/Montego/Freestyle. Not so much that it is a bad car, other than the CVT. But it just missed the market at the time by a mile. Conservative styling with a focus on maximum efficiency at a time when the US market was turning to bold, brash and powerful. By the time they had addressed those issues to one extent or another the market had shifted to the other way. Had the 500 came out with an optional bigger engine I think it would have done better. Conversely had they retained the 3.0 as the base offering in the new Taurus I think it could have done better too.
Toyota Yaris. Had one of these as a rental car once. Horrible little tin box. What kind of idiot places the speedometer and all the other gauges and lights the driver needs to see in the middle of the freaking dashboard? And I don’t ever want to hear how good Japanese car interiors are after driving that POS. Plastic, plastic, and more plastic that did not fit together well at all. And I’ve yet to mention the power, or lack thereof. A Versa is a far superior vehicle!
I could be wrong, but I think the Yaris at least had a good excuse: It was also sold in right-hand drive countries. I think that, by undoing some hardware, the entire cluster can be rotated to point at the “passenger” seat, making it one less thing that needed to be redesigned.
The Saturn Ion, on the other hand, was only sold in North America, but had a center-mounted instrument cluster to be “cool”. I got one as a rental once. I hated it. In addition to the awkwardly placed gauges, the engine clattered like a diesel. I would have excused this if it was a diesel, but it wasn’t — it was a particularly gutless 4cyl gas engine.
I would like to nominate the Saturn Ion.
EDIT: I see MadHungarian actually beat me to it.
The “Smart” Car. One of the final insults DaimlerChrysler inflicted on us.
As a city car in Europe it makes sense. On American streets and highways it’s just silly. People naturally think such a small car must get great mileage, but it only musters 36 mpg, and demands premium fuel.
Even Consumer Reports hates it, “…a transmission that has the worst shift quality we’ve experienced. It shifts slowly, causing the car to pause and heave, rocking the occupants fore and aft.” Reliability has been poor.
I forgot about the Smart…truly the dumbest thing Daimler-Benz ever tried to inflict on the public.
The Saturn Ion. Replacing the S-series with this badge engineered rental lot queen left absolutely no doubt that GM had given up on Saturn being anything special. The styling department does deserve some credit for figuring out how to make a Cobalt look uglier and cheaper.
Holden Vectra 3.2 V6 my sister bought a 2003 endless trouble new trans waterpump alternator and it was totalled at 70000kms lucky break that.
2009 Mazda Tribute, bought it new with a 5 yr bumper to bumper extended warranty. Within 2 months and 7000 km the transmission was leaking fluid from the vent tube and pass. side drive axle seal. Rear window leaked and the RF door filled with water when it rained. There were other things but those are what sticks out in my memory right now and I don’t care to try and recall any more about the experience. Our daughter was 2 at the time and my wife was pregnant with our son so we had our hands full as it was.
Dealer replaced transmission twice (3 in total) and still leaked from the vent tube. Had to go back 4 times to get them to send it to a body shop to have the door drain unplugged. It spent one week on the dealer’s lot awaiting parts or repair for every month we had it (7/7) and when I got it back after the last transmission swap the top engine mount bolt fell out as well as one of the bolds between engine and trans.
The Mazda rep basically told us to pound sand and the dealer said there was nothing else they could do. At that point I decided it was not a safe (let alone dependable) vehicle for my family so was traded for a lightly used 2008 Sienna.
I lost thousands on the deal including the extended warranty. Since there is no such thing as consumer protection in Canada i.e. lemon laws (we have an arbitration process called CAMVAP but it’s basically a façade) it was the best way forward. Keeping the Tribute any longer was not an option.
I’ll never buy a Ford product again because of the deplorable build quality and I’ll never buy a Mazda again because of the way we were treated.
I think the Pontiac G3 is the perfect illustration of why Pontiac died. They were rolling out imperfect but cool cars like the G8, Solstice, and GTO, and they were steps forward, if not the best. And then that rebadged pointless dealership-pleasing turd was a leap backwards that just showed everyone that the brand was pointless in the end.
Another vote for the Aveo.
I have some exposure to that turkey…when my third, best and last Geo died unexpectedly, just at the time I was returning to work after extended medical leave (and as such, needed to be AT work, on time, reliably, to defuse any urge to release me for cause)…
…I needed a car. Like, THAT AFTERNOON. I could have rented, but I pretty much knew what I wanted, or thought I did – cheap and throwaway. Spending another 500 bucks on long-term agency rentals wasn’t going to help my situation. And a used car is a gamble; and many not-so-happy returns to the shop.
So…I ambled down to the Chevy store, and traded in by busted Geo for an Aveo.
Yeah…Daewoo. But GM did okay by importing a Suzuki into the Geo, din’t it? And before that, there was the LUV truck. Not a prize-winner, but honest value. So, let’s give it a try.
The manual-tranny 5-door was in stock; two hours and I was on my way.
Now, I’d rented an Aveo sedan before that; that was one reason I did NOT want the automatic. Primitive, and sucked gas and power. Also…the rental had front tires out of balance. Speeds over 45 put a shimmy on the wheel and a shake in the ride. No biggie…just a balancing job.
I thought.
Funny thing, though…my new 5-door hatch had the SAME shimmy. Even funnier, was after I took it back to the dealer for balancing, it was no better.
Nor my mood. I took it from there to an independent tire shop, have THEM balance the wheels. $40 later, and it WAS STILL SHIMMYING.
Now I’m p-o’d. First I get in the tire-store guy’s face….he rides with me, talks to the tech, does it over again with him watching it. And tells me there’s other problems, because those tires are balanced.
Then…I go back to Chevrolet Hell…where the service writer plays dumb. You know, the “What vibration?” game.
I gave it up. One more thing to live with; along with the throttle that didn’t close immediately (for emissions reasons) when letting up on the gas to row through the gears. Like a sloppy shifter. Like no directional stability.
When a vandal got into the company parking lot and used a concrete chunk to do a couple thousand dollars of damage to the car, four months later…I called the cops, had them make a report…and THEN got another chunk of cinder block out and did MORE damage. The cop hadn’t taken pictures.
The insurance company totaled the car. And I took my insurance check, over to the Toyota dealer. Good riddance…to an un-economical, poorly-designed, poorly-constructed POS with driveability problems.
Had a rental Aveo in the UK that also had a bad front end vibration…
Aveo
Aztek
Volvo XC90 T6 AWD (quite an appetite for transmissions!)
Mitsubishi Galant – they just couldn’t figure out how to slaughter this turkey, could they?
Mediocre cars from the 90s that stuck around longer than they should have, including the Sunfire and Windstar/Freestar.
I nominate almost every single American GM car made from 2000 up until 2007 or so, especially the Hummer H2, Aveo, Aztek and the horrid U-body vans. The only cars that stand out for me in that group would be the C6 and the Pontiac Vibe and that’s it.
BMW went from being a car that appealed to as many enthusiasts as it did status seeking leasers to being a car that appealed to as many know-nothings as it does status seeking leasers in the past decade. Quality and durability had been on the wane through the ’90s, but only in the past decade did they become toy laden gin palaces that were only worth driving if you were being bribed to write flowery prose about them.
Porsche got the troublesome VW crossover that led to the current horrors.
Mercedes was ahead of the curve by building awful cars in the mid to late ’90s, but they took on Korean styling only in the past decade.
Toyota’s first generation US market Prius was flawed to the point of not being worthwhile.
Ford Excursion and Thunderbird
Chevy SSR
Cadillac STS, DTS, XLR, CTS
Lincoln Aviator and anything else they killed in time not to be eliminated by still being available.
Buick & Mitsubishi
Jaguar X350(even sounds like a Hyundai name for some reason) XJ8
Nissans with CVTs
Land Rovers that came and went in ignomy.
I would certainly not put the Ford Excursion on this list. It was probably the best full-sized SUV ever made, when equipped with the 7.3 Powerstroke diesel engine (and these are still sought after in the used market). If you had serious towing to do and needed to take the family along, you couldn’t find a better vehicle to do it in.
And I’m not sure what you think is flawed about the 1st generation Prius – sure it has some teething problems, but it was the stepping stone to where they are today, and a successful one IMO (unlike other automakers, they didn’t declare the car a failure and take them all out to the desert to be crushed). I know somebody who has had one since new and it still runs flawlessly (no transaxle, cat converter or battery issues at all).
And yes, I’ve defended both the Excursion and the Prius in the same blog posting! Each has its purpose.
I would nominate the 2000-2005 (and probably later) GM vehicles with the overly-multiplexed electrical systems having multiple distributed power modules scattered around the vehicle that are all programmed with the vehicle’s VIN, for the express purpose of completely shutting down the aftermarket and used parts markets. It’s adding insult to injury when you first have to pay $150 to a dealer for diagnosis (because the in-car system is manufacturer specific and most scantools can’t read it), $300-500 for the part itself, and then another $75-150 to the dealer to program the VIN into the new module. Somehow a simple switch directly controlling the trunk light isn’t sophisticated enough for us these days, we now need a microcontroller and a 1000 lines of code to make it all better . . .
My experience with the Excursion was driving a V10 powered one that could always seemed at war with itself. I had high hopes for the engine, but the reality was the usual painfully thrashing Ford truck unit that runs longer than expected, but always seems ready to die. Whoever designed the tailgate should be put somewhere that they can’t do any more harm too. Why three pieces that interfere with each other to do the job of one or two that can operate independently? It was a reminder any time I had something to put in the back that the purchase was a mistake. I’m 6’2″, and I wasn’t about to lift a suitcase over the tailgate sides and into opening of the flip up window. Who was? Maybe the diesel addressed one of the problems, but those diesels were nothing to write home about in my experience with trucks that had them. Injectors?
I don’t like the Echo style Prius because of the tires. People put regular 185/65R14 tires on them, but they shouldn’t. That car weighs 600 lbs more than anything else its size, and it needs a special Yokohama high load range construction tire that is lucky to last 20,000 miles. Any money saved on gas will instead be spent on keeping tires on the thing, a fair indication that energy consumption is a push. You can save money by fitting high mileage radials in a normal load range, but you’re taking your life in your hands if you ever carry 4 people or a full load of luggage.
I’ve ridden in a first gen Prius several times and I think they’re pretty good cars. Too boring for my tastes though, as with all the versions of the Prius. The Excursion can go eat it though.
Good call on modern BMWs and Benzes. It used to be that people who wanted flash over substance bought Jags. Now Lexus is the “sensible” (in quotes because I can’t see any new car that costs more than 30k as sensible, but that’s a rant for another day) choice among luxury cars. And German is the new British.
Well said!
Has anyone mentioned the Subaru B9 Tribeca? Proving that is WAS possible to build a failure of a crossover in the 00s.
Yes, but thanks to the Tribeca, we now know what Edsel would have been building had it survived into the SUV era.
Exactly! The 1st-generation Tribeca I refer to as the Tredsel, due to the obvious similarities in the front and rear styling between the two.