The 10 Worst Cars To Ever Exist

Pontiac Aztek

The face only General Motors could love.

GM tried to predict the crossover future with the Aztek and succeeded, albeit 20 years too early. At the time, its poor proportions, cheap interior materials, and questionable styling made it a joke. Even Breaking Bad couldn’t save it, but the hipsters sure tried.

The split headlights and deconstructed grille are now featured on many modern crossovers, as is the sloping rear hatch that predates the modern crossover coupe craze.

Chrysler Sebring Convertible (2007–2010)

This was retirement expressed in car form.

Named after the famous Sebring International Raceway, site of the 12 hrs of Sebring, this convertible couldn't be more disassociated from its namesake if it tried.

Mushy steering, plasticky interior, and a suspension that wobbled like grandma's bad hip. It was never cool—and even Chrysler seemed to forget it existed halfway through the production run. It's a shame, the first generation was at least attractive.

Smart ForTwo (1st Gen USA)

Big disappointment in a small package.

Terrible highway manners, jerky transmission, a price tag that made people ask, "Why?" But the worst part was that your legs were included in the crumple zone.

The ForTwo promised European cleverness, but delivered American regret.

AMC Gremlin

A poor response to the cheap Japanese imports of the time.

AMC basically took a Hornet, hacked off the rear, and sold it anyway. Add in cheap build quality and sluggish engines, and the Gremlin lived up to its name in reliability, too.

It had four-wheel drum brakes, an unrefined three-speed transmission, and an optional rear seat. No wonder the Civic became so popular.

Chevrolet Chevette

You get what you pay for — and then some.

Slow, noisy, and built with the kind of precision you'd expect from a drunken LEGO binge. Another car built in response to the growing threat of cheap Japanese imports, the Chevette was cheap transportation that you paid for in shame.

GM literally had no clue how to build a small car, and it showed.

Cadillac Cimarron

Badge engineering gone horribly wrong.

Take a Chevrolet Cavalier, add a Cadillac crest, and triple the price. It cost the equivalent of $41,000 in today's dollars and for that cash you got 85 horsepower, a 1.8-liter engine, and a three-speed transmission that felt like a punishment.

The Cimarron tried to be a compact luxury car but came off as a cynical cash grab, and customers noticed.

Renault Alliance

Oui, this was a tres, tres, bad idea.

A French car built in the U.S. by AMC—it actually featured more than 70% U.S. content—what could go wrong?

Practically everything. The Alliance rusted, leaked, failed, and flopped — all with Gallic flair. It offered 55 horsepower from a 1.4-liter fuel-injected engine that could get you to highway speeds in like 20 seconds if you were lucky—but it did promise stellar gas mileage.

It was even crowned Car of the Year in 1983. Yikes.

Dodge Caliber

Aggressively mediocre.

It looked like a mini SUV but drove like a wet sponge. The interior was a sea of hard plastics, and the CVT made every drive feel like a lawn mower symphony.

For a time, it was the official car of single moms and divorced dads across the nation. It still might be.

Ford Pinto

The one that went boom.

Infamous for an exploding fuel tank in rear-end collisions, the Pinto was the subject of lawsuits, recalls, and public outcry. It’s the poster child for automotive design failures — literally.

Like the Gremlin and the Chevette, it was built in response to cheap Japanese imports and the growing fuel crisis.

Saturn Ion

GM’s quiet collapse in compact form.

The Ion replaced the well-liked S-Series with a weird center-mounted gauge cluster, clunky interior plastics, and doors that sounded like they were cut from soup cans.

It marked the beginning of the end for Saturn and General Motors as we knew it. After just a few short years on the market, GM was bankrupt and Saturn was dead.