The 50 Worst Cars of All Time
01-09-10, 08:59 AM
#19
Lexus Fanatic
No offense, as I know you own one, but the one I test-drove several years ago was like a dinosaur. It bobbed up and down over the slightest road imperfections, wandered all over the place, thumped and crashed over bumps, and, coming to a stop, you could actually watch and feel the nose bob down. It was difficult for me to drive. From what I could tell, the enormous weight (some 7000 lbs., even unloaded) was just too much for the chassis/underpinnings, making it perhaps the sloppiest-handling mass-production vehicle I've ever driven.
01-09-10, 11:54 AM
#20
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What do you think of the Excursion's road manners?
No offense, as I know you own one, but the one I test-drove several years ago was like a dinosaur. It bobbed up and down over the slightest road imperfections, wandered all over the place, thumped and crashed over bumps, and, coming to a stop, you could actually watch and feel the nose bob down. It was difficult for me to drive. From what I could tell, the enormous weight (some 7000 lbs., even unloaded) was just too much for the chassis/underpinnings, making it perhaps the sloppiest-handling mass-production vehicle I've ever driven.
No offense, as I know you own one, but the one I test-drove several years ago was like a dinosaur. It bobbed up and down over the slightest road imperfections, wandered all over the place, thumped and crashed over bumps, and, coming to a stop, you could actually watch and feel the nose bob down. It was difficult for me to drive. From what I could tell, the enormous weight (some 7000 lbs., even unloaded) was just too much for the chassis/underpinnings, making it perhaps the sloppiest-handling mass-production vehicle I've ever driven.
01-09-10, 03:49 PM
#21
Lexus Champion
Thread Starter
What do you think of the Excursion's road manners?
No offense, as I know you own one, but the one I test-drove several years ago was like a dinosaur. It bobbed up and down over the slightest road imperfections, wandered all over the place, thumped and crashed over bumps, and, coming to a stop, you could actually watch and feel the nose bob down. It was difficult for me to drive. From what I could tell, the enormous weight (some 7000 lbs., even unloaded) was just too much for the chassis/underpinnings, making it perhaps the sloppiest-handling mass-production vehicle I've ever driven.
No offense, as I know you own one, but the one I test-drove several years ago was like a dinosaur. It bobbed up and down over the slightest road imperfections, wandered all over the place, thumped and crashed over bumps, and, coming to a stop, you could actually watch and feel the nose bob down. It was difficult for me to drive. From what I could tell, the enormous weight (some 7000 lbs., even unloaded) was just too much for the chassis/underpinnings, making it perhaps the sloppiest-handling mass-production vehicle I've ever driven.
01-10-10, 02:37 PM
#23
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The cars seem to fall into categories:
- Early models being judged against modern standards - Yes, the Model "T" was a crude attempt at mass-produced private transport, but it has to be judged in the context of its time, when automobiles were hand made, often by unskilled workers. Note that radios and airplanes of that era were similarly crude by our standards.
- Bold attempts to push the envelope produced many cars that were introduced well before their time. Building a production automobile as a showcase for your engineering innovations is not the key to wide popularity. The Chrysler Airflow and the Corvair were "clean sheet of paper" designs that were probably doomed from the outset, thanks to being a large collection of innovative parts that overlooked a few basic requirements. Corvair's gasoline-fired heater, Horsey's idea for the fuel tank out front (and Morgan's propane tank out back) simply ignored good sense, and Lincoln (and Edsel's) HVAC controls as well as BMW's i-Drive, made rather simple controls into maddeningly complex exercises in engineering excess.
- Minimalist cars, from the Pinto/Vega era and the post-war European designs that were all developed to be "affordable" cars. They serve as illustrations that whacking away the fat often cuts through to the bone. Cheap cars are usually cheap cars, others are conceptually flawed. Colin Chapman was a master of automotive efficiency, once opining that a proper race car should fall apart as it crossed the finish line - otherwise it was overweight and fell short of its performance potential. The Lotus Elite subscribed to this theory and obediently fell apart every few hundred miles.
- Finally the marketing mistakes and the models sold long after their expiration date like the Edsel, Hummer, and the like. Most of the time going to the parts bin to create a new automobile out of what's already available is a bad idea. Edsel, Gremlin, Cimarron, and a couple of Triumphs make the point.
01-10-10, 06:07 PM
#24
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hahahaha reminds me of a story. When I first got that truck the gas prices was about 1.75/gallon give or take. And the truck had like a 40 gallon gas tank. It also averaged around 10 mpg, mind you I bought the v10 not the diesel. So what I distinctly remember was that back then before gas prices sky rocketed, the gas pump would stop at $50 and I would have to swipe my CC again and pump twice. And my wife would look at my CC statement be all confused....
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