The worst cars ever

The Pinto's tendency to explode during rear-end collisions earned it a reputation as "the barbecue that seats four." The lack of a real rear bumper or reinforcements surrounding the gas tank meant that it was vulnerable to puncture and, thus, explosion on impact. In other words, a fender bender could lead to an inferno. Poorly reinforced doors were also susceptible to jamming in an accident. Multiple lawsuits were filed over the Pinto's safety issues, and Ford came under fire when a memo revealed that the automaker had decided it would be cheaper to pay off lawsuits for any Pinto deaths than to pay for a redesign of the vehicle.

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A part that reportedly cost $6 was the difference between a Corvair that maintained its decorum while cornering at high speeds and one that grossly oversteered. The decision to skimp on the part came back to haunt Chevrolet when Ralph Nader highlighted it in his 1965 book, "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile," which accused car manufacturers of resisting safety features such as seat belts and generally balking at spending money on safety measures. Among the Corvair's other problems: Its steering column might impale its driver in a collision, its heating system flooded the car with dangerous fumes and it hemorrhaged oil.

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Warnings were issued regarding service issues for the Strada (known internationally as the Ritmo) before it even hit the streets in 1978. It was riddled with rust — floors, engine mounts and suspension were all susceptible to premature oxidization. Coupled with the fact that it was a real slug — it maxed out at 75 horsepower — it's no wonder the Strada helped hasten the fall of the Fiat brand in the U.S. Lawsuits regarding the rust pushed the Italian carmaker from the American market. The Strada also managed to give robots a bad name: It was the first car built exclusively using robots.

Watch Video: The Latest U.S.-Bound Fiat?

Leading up to its 1970 release to U.S. consumers, the first Vega prototype fell to pieces just eight miles into a shakedown drive on a General Motors test track. The aluminum 4-cylinder engine on the Vega (producing only 90 horsepower) had an insatiable need for oil and was practically guaranteed to fail — if it didn't rust out first or if the car didn't literally fall apart. "My Chevy Vega actually broke in half going over railroad tracks," one listener of the NPR radio show Car Talk commented on its Web site. "The whole rear end came around slightly to the front, sort of like a dog wagging its tail." GM was hoping to break into the subcompact category with the Vega, but instead, the car may have done irreparable damage to the automaker's reputation: The Vega is widely credited as having contributed to GM's downfall.

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Cooling problems, lubrication issues and problems with the ignition system and the quality of the rubber and metal were all liabilities for the Stag. Triumph already had a shoddy reputation (British cars weren't known for their quality), and eventually the company both discontinued this convertible coupe in 1978 and ceased existing as a car manufacturer altogether in 1984. But what the Stag lacked in utility it more than made up for in aesthetics: It was a luxury sports car designed to compete with the Mercedes-Benz SL class models, and it held up that part of the bargain relatively well.

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"I once test drove a Yugo, during which the radio fell out, the gear-shift knob came off in my hand and I saw daylight through the strip around the windshield," a Car Talk listener wrote on the show's Web site. The boxy Yugoslavian vehicle sold for less than $4,000 when it hit the U.S. market in 1985. It was the cheapest new car for sale — and you got what you paid for. A litany of performance problems (not replacing the timing belt every 40,000 miles killed the engine, for instance) resulted in a harsh review from Consumer Reports (an editor said it would be "hard to recommend at any price"), and quickly made it the butt of car-geek jokes. One popular one: What comes with every Yugo owner's manual? The bus schedule.

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The words Fiero and fire are inextricably linked, and not just for the obvious reason. If, in the mid-1980s, you were an unlucky owner of this 2-seater and you weren't diligent about changing the oil, drove aggressively and also ran out of oil, you might have ended up with a broken connecting rod. Oil might then spill all over the engine and send it up in flames. One theory about why the Fiero was such a firebox pointed to user error: Fiero drivers were riding the car hard and over-revving the engine. Another was a major oversight in the owner's manual, which called for three quarts of oil instead of the necessary 4.5.

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Urban legend had it that the East German-manufactured Trabant was made of cardboard. The car was East Germany's most popular for nearly 30 years, and it could be seen tooling around the other Communist bloc countries. A 2-stroke engine gave it all of 18 horsepower, and while it wasn't made of cardboard, its fiberglasslike construction and reinforcements of recycled cotton and wood gave it an exceptionally flimsy aesthetic. A dearth of basic features such as turn signals and brake lights didn't help. To fill the gas tank you had to lift the hood, add gasoline and oil, and shake. This would be your prize for enduring a 15-year waiting list before taking delivery of the compact 4-seater.

Watch Video: A Trabant Comeback?

The technology behind rotary engines, primarily the domain of airplanes, was becoming obsolete by the 1920s. Still, Mazda decided to use the rotary engine (it runs in circles versus the up-and-down of pistons) in its RX-2, which debuted in the 1970s. The RX-2 had some major liabilities — things such as high carbon emissions, poor fuel economy, leaky rotary seals, catching on fire. To solve a problem with the O-ring seals (which allowed coolant to leak into the combustion chamber and eventually made the car undrivable), Mazda tried to get drivers to buy new seals for $1,000 — a third of the vehicle's $3,000 sticker price. Many opted to walk away from the RX-2 instead.

Watch Video: Mazda's Rotary-Powered RX-8

A hot rod that doesn't have more than 250 horsepower isn't much of a hot rod. This may have been the Plymouth Prowler's biggest liability, due in part to the automatic transmission. But its hideous design likely also had something to do with the public's underwhelming response to the Prowler. BusinessWeek magazine named the Prowler, first released in 1997, to a list of the ugliest cars of the past 50 years, describing it as "a pie wedge on wheels . . . The sharp, angular front . . . draws attention to the squished headlights, jarring grille and seemingly pasted-on front bumper." Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

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Claire Martin has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Outside magazine. She's the former deputy editor of Men's Journal and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she covers technology, travel and food.

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