Which is the Most Pathetic Car?

Which is the most pathetic car? Candidates are the Plymouth Duster, the Dodge Dart or the Dodge Valiant circa 1971. Other suitable candidates will be considered.

Certainly not the Dodge Dart, a car I fondly recall from childhood that took us all over New York State and elsewhere.

My uncle had a car back in 1976 when the "crisis" was going on. It had this moronic meter that had one area in green and one area in red. Red indicated bad MPG and green indicated good. For the life of me I can't recall the make or model, but it was one of those real crappy cars, not the well built Dodge cars.

Maybe it was the Plymouth Duster

I was going to say Yugo as well, till I saw the year. Yeah, Pintos were bad, that would be my pck, but since I don't drive I never really paid attention to a lot (and I was too young backt hen anyway.)

Of your three, I'd say the Valient. But consider the Pinto, the Pacer, and the Gremlin.

It was a tough choice, but I think the kewpie doll goes to the 1970 AMC Gremlin. AMC distinguished itself by getting two cars on Time Magazines 50 Worst Cars Ever. Here's the description and a click if you want to see this beauty for yourself.


American Motors designer Richard Teague — remember that name — was responsible for some of the coolest cars of the era. The Gremlin wasn't one of them. AMC was profoundly in the weeds at the time, and the Gremlin was the company's attempt to beat Ford and GM to the subcompact punch. To save time and money, Teague's design team basically whacked off the rear of the AMC Hornet with a cleaver. The result was one of the most curiously proportioned cars ever, with a long low snout, long front overhang and a truncated tail, like the tail snapped off a salamander. Cheap and incredibly deprived — with vacuum-operated windshield wipers, no less — the Gremlin was also awful to drive, with a heavy six-cylinder motor and choppy, unhappy handling due to the loss of suspension travel in the back. The Gremlin was quicker than other subcompacts but, alas, that only meant you heard the jeers and laughter that much sooner.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658498_1657865,00.html

The Cube.


Anti-Big car. (Or whatever the heck it's called)

Well, for newer cars, there's no candidate better than the Prius. What a joke of a car

Can't believe no-one's suggested the Citroen 2CV. Seriously, if you can't get it in a parking space, get out and get three averagely strong men to help you pick it up and put it in there.

the Citroen made my day!

Volkswagens are usually pretty good, but the last VW Rabbit I saw driving around looked pretty pathetic.

Pacer
Nova
Edsel

Pinto. Enough said.

Um, I think Nissan Cubes are pretty bad (so ugly).

However, I love the scene on Top Gear about the Reliant Robin's self-righting system - you open the door on the side that it's fallen over on and it rights itself. That may not be pathetic but it's funny.