Pacer leads the pack

Beats out Gremlin "...after being voted the worst car design of all time." The Gremlin came in sixth and the Matador eighth; AMC was sure on a roll (downhill):

According to an online survey of nearly 2,500 car enthusiasts, the discontinued Pacer - most familiar to the post-production generation as "the mirthmobile" from the 1992 movie Wayne's World - is the most ill-conceived vehicle in automotive history.

Survey respondents likened the Pacer to a "pregnant roller skate" that went "0 to 60 in 4 1/2 hours," with one person observing, "AMC's only conceivable excuse for this engineering and stylistic horror would be if their 1970s design crew was tripping on massive quantities of acid."

The survey was conducted by Hagerty Insurance, the largest U.S. provider of insurance to classic-car collectors. Respondents were all policyholders with the company.

[...]

Ranking second on the "ugly duckling" list was the Zastava-manufactured Yugo...

The criterion actually was “The Most Questionable Car Designs of All Time”--so much for media accuracy.

In fact for the former Yugoslavia the Zastava 45 (based on the Fiat 127 of course) was a decent design, as I can attest from personal experience clanking around in taxis in Belgrade.

Rallye on!

Mark C.

Damian adds: whatever its other faults, I wouldn't say the Yugo was ugly. Dated and plain, yes, but not particularly offensive.

Now that the Aztek is gone, who makes the ugliest cars in 2007? Subaru makes some excellent vehicles, but they also inflicted the hideous B9 Tribeca and pointless Baja upon the world in recent years. AMC's spiritual successor, however, is Korea's Ssangyong.

Posted by markc at August 29, 2007 05:58 PM