MSNBC has a pretty good article on viewers opinions of the worst lemon(s) produced here in America. I won't spoil it for ya ;) www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10139923/ I will say that the "king lemon" (according to this article) was made by the General :D
Dano :beers:

Well the Vega was pretty bad, but the people who voted for it obviously never had a K-Car. I had one that was the biggest POS ever. I kept a box in the trunk that was full of parts that fell off, most of which I couldn't identify. I figured as long as it ran, the loose parts weren't too important. Stupid thing only made it to about 45,000 miles before the head gasket blew. I had to put the car out of it's (and my) misery after that.

The driving school I went to had a fleet of brand new AMC Pacer's. This too was a horrendous automobile. Top speed was about 45mph, hindered by the weight of 95 square feet of window glass.

And how about the Mustang II? The wife had one when we met. I made her sell it as a condition of getting married.

Kevin

Well as a Vega lover that hurts. I must admit they were not exactly high quality and the engine was a very poor idea. They are still a VERY good looking car (IMO). After reading the e-mail responses I am not so sure many of those people knew what they were talking about ie... "The 1972 Chevrolet Monza is my choice. It had a rough running, 4-cylinder motor and I never got more than 16 miles per gallon. It had a very rough shifting transmission that would continually shift while I was driving in traffic. I sold it in less than a year. My next small car was Japanese and I have never gone back to GM.
—Jimmy Thompson, Lenoir City, Tenn."

Being a Vega and Monza fan (owned 2 Monzas and 2 Vegas), I don't think the Monza was produced in 1972. I think they started in 1974.

The worst car I have owned by a wide margin was a 1985 Pontiac 6000 STE.

In the space of 2 years: 2 steering racks, oil/fuel/water pumps, regular ignition problems causing the car to shut off, radio, power door locks, trunk lock, power antenna all failed and the a/c never worked for more than a few months. The Pontiac dealer I dealt with could not have cared less.

After the last rack I drove it straight to the nearest Honda dealer and traded it for an Accord. I still drive an Accord, never a problem.

IMHO GMs massive quality problems of the '80s [remember the 305 cams?] and their refusal to stand behind their products is one reason they are in trouble today. They alienated many people in their late 20s-early 30s who swore they would never buy another GM car and haven't. Toyota is rolling in cash and is looking to add capacity.

Today I believe GM quality is right up there with Honda/Toyota. They have not managed to win back buyers though.

A friend had a vega wagon other than the motor (burned alot of oil) it wasn't that bad. It never left us stranded.
I think the person doing the article had an agenda against American cars. Look at some of the replys. "My family once owned a 1961 Mercury with the worst quality control you could ever imagine. I now own a 2005 Nissan Sentra with a high-quality build and exceptional performance." Yea lets compare 60's technologies to todays.
How many 70's, 80's, and 90's Japanese cars are still on the road. Everybody and their brother had a 4x4 Toyota truck in the early 80's, I haven't seen one in years. How many same year Celicas were sold and where did they all go. I see alot of 70-80's chevy and ford cars and PU's, must be alot of pissed of people unable to admit they are driving lemons and they should get one of those Japanese cars.

Scott, I agree. I didn't look at it that way until your post. My mom bought a 197* Toyota Corolla, what a piece of junk that was. A big German Shepard ran into the side of it one day when she was down the street, just about totalled the car.

Plymouth Horizon or Dodge Omni, circa 1980ish? Absolutely the biggest POS I have ever driven, it belonged to my ex-wife, and I still hate her for it.......:angry:

OK, the half a V8, 4-banger was the 389 Pontiac engine cut in half!!

NOW to get down to the nut-cutting!!

Has anybody ever really thought that just maybe all these poor attempts at making small cheap cars was on purpose b/c ALL of them except AMC was in the BIG CAR and BIG TRUCK selling business!! AND just how long did AMC last???

Now, you can buy little corn-popper cars ALL over the world that get 50 mpg and last for years and years, but do you notice NONE of them are sold here!!

The main reason the automakers are in the mess they are, TO ME, is b/c when times were good they didn't give a rats-as- about selling costs b/c people had to buy them regardless so they just made more money off their percent profit!!

They passed on Labor's expensive demands for better and better bennies b/c they had a captive market!!

And they didn't have to improve anything b/c they sold everything they made!! AND at the profit level they wanted!

WELL as Bob Dylan said, "The times they are a-changing"!!!

AND fwiw, GM was taken to Court AND was found guilty back in the mid '50's over predatory monopolistic practises when they almost single handedly destroyed this nations light-rail public transportation network so they could sell Gimmy diesel motored powered BUSSES!!

Bttt, K'cars, they were the 60,000 head motor jobbers!! Every 60,000 miles you had to put a new head on it!!

Pinto's, my little brother had one and after the back cylinder scored from lack of oil he raised h-ll and they installed a new motor for him when he found out that Ford had onna those unwritten warantee jobbers that they didn't tell you about unless you bitch-d!!

Of course, that didn't hold a candle to the gas-tank problems the bean-counters got Ford into!!

Don't forget the early, man/kid killing swing-axle Corvairs!! My Buddy had one and sure enough, just like in Ralph Nadars book, "Unsafe at Any Speed" he rolled it!!!

I guess I am most mad about Suzuki coming right out and telling the World they aren't in the little corn-popper commuter car business anymore since GM has about a 35 percent stake in them. I figure that if GM won't build a little car, then they also try to make sure there aren't any little cars made or at least don't let them get imported to here! (AND Suzuki sold every little Metro corn-popper they made, DIDN'T they!!).....

It's going to be real interesting when China finally gets their automobile export industry going and starts selling cheap $8,000 to $10,000 commuter cars here AND we try to stop them by trying to close our market to them..

GM and Ford better get their act together or they will only be making cars and trucks in other parts of the rest of the world AND NOT here!!

And they won't be able to export to here b/c most people won't be able to afford to buy them..

I am not happy at all over this!!

pdq67

The worst vehicle I ever owned was a 2000 Dodge Conversion Caravan. It has had been in for warranty repair inexcess of 15 times and has had over 35 warranty repairs done. It didn't qualify under the lemon law. I wanted to get rid of it, but for some uncomprehendable reason my wife likes it.

Any Luv truck, sold by Chevy. I had a 71 Pinto I drove while in college in Indiana. I drove it home and back every weekend from Elkhart to Dayton. It was a great car. Good on gas, never broke down, carried four of us and luggage. If anyone read the actual testing data on the Pinto gas tank problem, you would find it took a direct rear crash at speeds above 45 mph to create the problem. Not much different from the 92 and up Crown Vic (cruisers).