The Truth About Cars (TTAC) TWAT Award Selection Committee has convened. Fifteen members of our cadre of car critics and commentators carefully considered the full horror of your 131 nominations. They then selected 20 vehicles that deserve your consideration for the final 10 winners/losers. And so, now, we turn to you, our avid devotees and unshakeable critics, for your knowledge, passion, honesty and sarcasm. It’s time to VOTE for the ten vehicles which will be anointed TTAC’s top TWATs for 2006.
As you may have noticed during the nomination process, some vehicles practically dripped with TWAT-iness, bobbing to the top of the toilet bowl and staying there for the duration. Many of these execrable rides made it all the way to the top 20. Others kept a fairly low profile, but were decreed fully TWAT-worthy by my esteemed colleagues. The list of finalists shows that bad taste, poor design and questionable construction know no price, market segment or country of origin. So without further ado, here are the 20 finalists, listed in alphabetical order:
Buick Rendezvous
Cadillac Escalade
Chevrolet Aveo
Chevrolet Cobalt / Pontiac G5 / Saturn Ion
Chevrolet Impala
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Chrysler Aspen
Chysler Crossfire
Ford Ranger / Mazda B-series
GM Minivans
Hummer H2
Infiniti QX56
Jaguar X-type
Jeep Commander
Jeep Compass
Lincoln Mark LT
Lincoln Navigator
Saab 9-7x
Subaru B9 Tribeca
Subaru Baja
Selecting 10 of these worst of all possible vehicles from such an undistinguished list will be tough. How do you decide which cars are the crème de la crap? To help you separate the chaff from the toxic waste, here are some factors to consider when voting. [Fair Disclosure: we’re providing this guide simply to give the award gravitas amongst any media spies who may be monitoring our efforts.]
Market segment suitability/competitiveness Is it a badly badge-engineered bodge born to placate greedy, boneheaded dealers looking to sell something, anything in a particular market? Does it live up to the claims of the marketing goons? (Then again, can anything?) Is there any justification whatsoever for its existence?
Reliability/Safety Has it been recalled more times than a favorite fairy tale? Does it have a reputation (anecdotal or statistical) for dying (perhaps of shame)? Would you put your loved ones in one of them for a cross-country trip, assuming you're not planning on collecting on the insurance?
Build quality How does the overall quality of construction, fit and finish compare with other vehicles in the same price class/market segment or, say, a Walmart sofa? Does the vehicle rattle, thrum, drum and hum so much you could dance the conga to its beat?
Quality of materials How do the materials used compare with other vehicles in the same price class or, say, a K-Mart suit? How well do the controls work? Is there obvious cost-cutting everywhere you look or touch? Can you look or touch it without puking?
Styling When you look at the vehicle, do you feel yourself slowly turning to stone? Could it be a useful tool for interrogators at Guantanamo Bay?
Performance/handling How well do the acceleration, handling, fuel economy, and drivability compare to other vehicles in the same price class/market segment or, say, one of those rolling tables teachers use for overhead projectors?
Design How well does the vehicle’s overall design (interior, ergonomics, exterior styling, space utilization, visibility) work? Is it an exercise in wretched excess or a paean to bad taste? Is it a modern design or does it hearken back to ye olde days of crapteryear?
Desirability How would you feel about owning this vehicle? Would you rather walk/watch The Wiggles than be seen behind the wheel? If a rental agent handed you the keys, would you consider it an insult?
Je ne sais quoi Does the vehicle have that certain “something” that makes you throw up in your mouth a little when you see one drive by? Should it be sent to the crusher on general principles?
Yada, yada, yada. It’s time to vote for your TWAT. Click here and you’ll link through to the polling site. Again, vote for ten choices from the list. Once you’ve made your choices, you’ll be magically returned to the TTAC home page. Obviously, your votes will be held in the strictest confidence and tabulated with mindless electronic impartiality. You are, of course, invited to list your choices below with a short explanation of your decision making process.
The poll will be online through next Wednesday evening. We’ll announce the winners (losers?) on Monday. Thanks you for your help in this important experiment in journalistic freedom and, let’s face it, payback.
90 Comments on “TTAC’s Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) Award: The Polls are Now Open!...”
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I would think a simple vote would suffice by this time. We’ve certainly been opinionated to death over the past couple of weeks on what and why constitutes a terrible car.
Just vote, shut up, and allow the results to speak for themselves.
Thank god the Camry (or any Toyota) isn’t on there.
But it’s still gonna be a tough choice between the Compass and those hideously awful GM Minivans.
ash78: I’m down with that. The Aspen is one of my top TWATs, but the Durango doesn’t bother me that much. I guess I’ll still give it my vote, ’cause the Aspen is bad enough to sink the Durango with it (and Chrysler, but that’s another story).
When voting, please keep in mind that the Buick Rendezvous is a badge engineered Pontiac Aztek.
Oh don’t worry Frank, my votes are unchanged. Thanks for the explanation though.
RF,
Why did you associate recalls with lack of reliability ?
Let see 8 GMs 0 Hondas or Toyotas some Fords and a few from the Dodge family interesting.The Impala makes it and the Camry doesn,t?Yeah should be some good reading for next couple of days.
Not a single Mitsubishi? For shame!
I suppose they are so far off the radar that noone really cares..unless somehow the whole company gets a pass due to the Evo.
Also shouldnt it be Compass/Caliber?
Vote once, vote often…
Having not driven or even sat in many of the 20 finalists, I will refrain from voting, and I hope others in my situation will do the same.
To be honest, I’m not even sure why RF put voting criteria in the post above, because this is going to end up an ugly car contest, or an “it’s-cool-to-hate-GM-cars” contest.
Also, any list without Kia’s awful Amanti and Hyundai’s utterly worthless Tiburon is not a list of the Ten Worst Automobiles Today.
u folks are too f’n much
alot of those cars dont seem that bad the subarus definatly should be there but not all the cars are bad
Camry or no Camry, the Impala is a disaster, that’s why it was included. Do you guys actually think the Impala doesn’t belong on the list? Haven’t you ever rented one?
I will admit to driving the Subie Trucklet, Saab97, Impala SS, JagX, Cobalt ss(lower case mine), Navigator and Aveo. None deserves this ranking. The Jag was decent, with a superior interior, the Cobalt way more car for the $$ than you would expect ( at true transactional $$) etc., etc. These are not the holy grail an auto engineer would aspire to, but each in their real world price range is competitive. I think that people paying $4-5K premium for an Accord or Camry over an Impala or Malibu need their next CAT scan free. Stats show that at 39-44 month trade intervals, that would buy the gas for operation. So, I vote for the Rendezvous, reluctantly, and only because it is so damn ugly.
I agree that Nissans are ugly, but they do very well as the “excitement” arm of the Japanese invasion. They just take everything the others do and add 20hp. Profit.
Kias aren’t great cars if you’re comparing them to average, mid-$20s cars…but if I were shopping under $15k right now, they’d be at, or near, the top of the list.
The new Camry may be ugly to some (I’m indifferent), but the Impala is the ultimate, bland, camel-committee vehicle in every possible way. At least the Camry TRIES. The Impala is basically everything the Camry was 5-10 years ago. I’ve rented them a few times. GM today is doing a terrific job competing with GM from 5 years ago, but not so hot when compared to the real competition.
VW? All their new models are getting good reviews. I HATE the styling (longtime VW owner), but it’s good for business and the market seems to be loving it, too.
Hutton Wrote:
Camry or no Camry, the Impala is a disaster, that’s why it was included. Do you guys actually think the Impala doesn’t belong on the list? Haven’t you ever rented one?
I’ve rented many Impalas, a very innocuous, large FWD sedan. The Impala is certainly not a “bad” car. It is similar to the Camry, which I’ve also rented. The problem with the Camry is that giant wart/tumor/zit on top of the grill in addition to all the weird lines, angles and swirls on the car. I think Toyota hired the old Hyundai styling department to work on the new Camry.
ash78:
VW? All their new models are getting good reviews. I HATE the styling (longtime VW owner), but it’s good for business and the market seems to be loving it, too.
I included VW for one reason, PRICE. Every car they sell in the US is insanely overpriced.
“Come on down to your local VW dealer and fold yourself into the world’s best compact, for the price of all of our competitors full size cars!”
Yes Mr Hutton I have rented them I have seen them assembled I have seen them crushed and crash tested.
The Impala is the best vehicle GM has made in years and will
beat Camry in every aspect.
It would be helpful to know what form the voting takes. Do we vote for one, vote for up to ten or rank up to ten?
Vote for ten vehicles on the list.
Seriously no Aztek. That was going to be my vote
Mikey: The Impala is the best vehicle GM has made in years
Hence, deathwatch.
The Saturn Ion should not be teamed up with the Cobalt/G5. The Ion is distinct enough to be on it’s own – suicide doors on coupe, dashboard design, etc.
The Impala should NOT be on this list at all, it deserves the Camry treatment. It is not a car I want to own, but it is selling well and it meets a need (modestly priced large car) in the marketplace.
Guys, the list is what it is. We voted for the cars to be on it and the editors of the site made their decisions based off what we had to say. It’s not going to change so quit bitching about it and vote.
SS3: Good call — the dash on the Ion is so bad, that if the car was otherwise perfect, I would still vote it a TWAT.
Sadly for Saturn, that’s not even the worst part about the Ion.
this is one of the funniest things i’ve ever read about cars, much less participated in. Thank you, i am greatly amused.
The fact that there is great confusion and angst is even more hysterical. The great seriousness that alot of folks seem to have about it, all the self righteous sword waving about a favorite brand, now dissed into infamy.
this is so much fun!
It’s not about how well the car sells or how successful it is with soccer moms/small wee wee dads. It’s about the cars that deserves the title of worst car of the year.
And think of this exercise as having as much relevance as all those magazine “best car of the year”.
The 1997 malibu was “car of the year” of some sort. If you don’t agree it was the worst car of the year you should consider reviewing your value system.
The list contains alot of huge numb gas guzzlers. That makes me happy. Hope the Escalade wins!
75-80% domestic. It seems that they actually do know a country of origin.
Think I’ll abstain. Auto elitism is not something I want to participate in.
Some of you guys need to lighten up.
I don’t agree with the whole list but some of ‘em are pretty bad. Just vote you opinion, to each thier own, after all. Heck, I’m one of about 4 people in America that thinks the Aztek looks good…
Jeep Compass is my vote.
Market segment suitability/competitiveness – CDX Sells out the Jeep name. In fact the Caliber is such a ho hum Neon Wagon as a Dodge and just warmly works it over to sell as a Jeep. This Jeep CUV just stabs Jeep’s heritage in the back and is the start of blurring Jeeps image. In fact Business Week gave it a 1/2 star rating.
Reliability/Safety – the Caliber/Compass is too new really to get a good gauge, but it’s predecessor the Neon was abysmal in reliability. Wonder why the Neon disappeared after selling so well. No repeat business!
Performance/handling – the 2.4 liter with 172hp sounds good until you hear that tractor engine start up and get the most power soaked up by a poor CVT transmission – this thing is slower than 109 hp econoboxes and it is supposed to be an R/T model (same engine/drivetrain from the Caliber R/T).
Design – Very minimal changes from it’s Caliber foundation.
Desirability – None at all…Jeep is becoming sysnonymous with Cheap and this all but starts the downward spiral to oblivion.
Note: The Chryshler Asspen was a close 2nd…a blingy rebadged Durango (sorry DCX but you missed this rapper movement 5 years ago). Welcome to the late 90’s!
I hope GM is paying attention, there are no less than 9 entries on the TWAT list not including derivatives. That’s a lot of negativity. I am not sure the Impala deserves the rap but if it trully is the best car GM has made in years, then all I can say is God help GM because it is fast getting to the point where only God Himself can save them.
$0.02 worth.
I was given a stripper model of a white plastic ION the other day from Hertz… I had reqested a Mazda 5 with Sat Radio for a 4 hour driving day… No substitutions were possible and I almost cried.
I haven’t actually driven a lot of these cars but it is pretty easy to use the other criteria to make some judgements.
The only one I have any real issue with including is the Baja, sure it’s a useless ugly variant, but the Outback it’s based on is a great car. That should count for something.
Hutton to Mikey: The Impala is the best vehicle GM has made in years
Hence, deathwatch.
Ouch!
…but he has a point.
If the Impala is on this list, shouldn’t the Grand Prix be on the list as well? Pontiac’s W-body is a much, much more egregious offense. It’s way uglier than the Impala and the interior quality is even worse. So how about making the Impala option Impala / Grand Prix / LaCrosse in honor of the horror of all of the surviving W-bodies?
As bad as some of the cars on this list are, there are some true TWATs that got overlooked here. If market suitability is our metric, is the Suzuki Reno suitable for any market?
In case you guys didn’t notice, the Compass is now stand alone, so not all platform mates will be mentioned.
Mikey:
The market votes with their wallets. Based on sales and resale values, the Impala is not competitive.
As for the Reno, Tiburon, etc., first a car has to be noticed to be nominated.
I suspect the folks who come here don’t have such cars on their radars.
Infiniti QX is definitly on the top of the list, I could not believe the bean counters/marketing dept actually think people will buy that POS for the price, come on, at least put some nice sheet metal on it.
Baja is also a bad one, too ugly, too small of a bed as a pickup, and too small of a cabin space as a wagon. Why not just get a crew cab pickup and san the 4wd?
Not really sure where the Baja hate comes from. It’s such a niche-y, low volume car and underneath is the perfectly capable legacy/forester platform, why waste a TWAT voting slot on it? They barely advertise the thing.
The Tribeca, on the other hand, is indeed a “throw up in your mouth”. So agrees me the twice in a row Subaru owner.
Zarba – the Impala has been in the Top 10 in vehicles sales in 2006, it’s the 6th best selling car in the U.S.A. And that’s despite reduced fleet sales. AND it’s built in the highest quality manufacturing facility in North America (Oshawa, Ontario).
Nope, the Impala should not be on this list.
Hey Robert, how about a TWAT-like award for the worst automobile manufacturer website. Just a thought. I vote for http://www.vw.com
I almost keeled over when I saw the QX56 on this list. If anyone has ever driven that vehicle they’d understand that it is one of the best executed large SUV ever, if that’s your cup of high test.
Likewise the Tribeca is Gawdaful ugly, but it’s a very nice vehicle. The Escalade is just anti-SUV backlash, while the Navigator really is a POS from a build standpoint.
The Ranger is the true dinosaur on this list and the Jeep Commander wins the what were they thinking award now that the Aztek is gone.
Tough call but I’d have to vote for the Hummer H2 as it scores for being a re-badged last generation Tahoe, has lousy build quality inside and out, has the driver visibility of a tank, drinks like fish and cost $50K – now that is a major TWAT.
a FWD V8 Impala SHOULD be on this list……that alone makes it a TWAT. What would you be saying if the Mustang GT was FWD? or the 300C/Charger/Magnum??? they would neer have been a success. IF GM would have put the drive wheels in the bak they would have had a HUGE hit….but….they didnt
SS3:
They sold a lot of Vegas, too. Doesn’t make it a good car.
See resale value of the Impala vs. Accord or Camry.
Zarba;
Your criteria, not mine: “Based on sales and resale … the Impala is not competitive.”. Based on sales the Impala is very competitive.
I am not sure about resale values on the 2006, I have been told (by persons in the business) that the traditional Impala residual values are improving.
Nope, the 2006 Impala should not be on the list.
I’m not entirely sure I understand why Subaru’s solid, yet misunderstood (and therefore poorly selling) Baja made the list, while the awful Kia Amanti did not. I mean, Baja isn’t a looker, but Amanti in my opinion would fail on all the listed criteria.
I’m also not sure about the Ranger/B-series nomination – are they really that awful? They don’t really stand out in their design or capabilities and seem like perfectly average small trucks.
Anyway, I voted, and it’s a good thing that Lincoln’s Mark LT was there to make my 10th selection easy. From what I’ve seen around here, it seems to be going the way of the Blackwood (anyone remember Blackwood? anyone?)
The H2.
It displays as much disdain for the environment as the Prius displays pomposity and pride in caring for it. Virtually no one who owns one owns it for any legitimate reason. Other SUVs perform better off-road. Other cars and SUVs are more luxurious on the inside, have better engines, and more exciting features.
No, the only reason one owns this hideous space is the schoolyard bully-like pride one gets in taking two parking spots and looking “bad.” It isn’t even a testosterone mobile, like a raised pickup, or a mid-life insecurity vehicle, like a Corvette. It is just a tribute to the low-mindedness that all of us wish we left behind in kindergarten but know is with us til the grave.
People my age will be shaking our heads and beginning sentences with “those were different times” when we try to explain the H2 to our grandchildren.
My suggestion is that if you want to parade around like a rooster ruling his roost, get some feathers, and if you want to play army man, sign up–they can use the extra help.
Hopefully, Karma will provide each and every current H2 owner with a Kia for their next car, and will provide us with all the scadenfreude we can handle as we chuckle at the terrible repair records of this shitbeasts.
Definitely, definetly: the H2.
Here’s what I mean about Kia Amanti (I know,it’s not on the list):
Market segment suitability/competitiveness
A “luxury sedan” that starts at $28,675 (according to Kia’s site) that has to go against cars like Infiniti’s G35. It does not do anything that it’s slightly higher priced competitors can’t do much much better. For less than $3K extra, you’ll get a G35 with 280hp, much better looks, interior
quality, overall reliability, and resale value. And you won’t be embarrassed to tell your coworkers that you drive a Kia.
Reliability/Safety
It’s a Kia.
Build quality
It’s a Kia.
Quality of materials
It’s a Kia.
Styling
A horrible combination of a blatantly copied Mercedes front and generic late 1990s car design. Please refer to this image: http://www.kia.com/amanti/images/amanti1-1024.jpg
Performance/handling
Kia manages to squeeze a thundering 200 hp out of its 3.5 liter V6. For comparison, the G35 manages to produce 280 hp from its 3.5 V6. G35 is also RWD, while Amanti is FWD. The price difference between the cheapest G35 and Amanti is just $2775. Also, Kia has 16 inch wheels, while G35 comes with 17s
Design
Awful – the aforementioned faux-Mercedes front (which is reason enough on its own) is bad enough, but the car looks like it could have been made in 1996. There are no modern styling cues present anywhere in its sheetmetal. The interior looks very dated as well, especially the stereo – (warning-huge image) http://www.kiamedia.com/secure/images/amanti2004/2004amantisema11.jpg
Desirability
It’s a Kia. When has a Kia been desirable?
Je ne sais quoi Does the vehicle have that certain “something” that makes you throw up in your mouth a little when you see one drive by? Should it be sent to the crusher on general principles?
Yes. Come on – just look at that thing
I don’t believe that cars which are no-longer manufactured, ie., which the manufacturer has pre-ordained a TWAT, should be included.
So the Crossfire goes and the Baja goes….what else?
There is plenty of GM crap left to pick 10.
>>Camry or no Camry, the Impala is a disaster, that’s why it was included. Do you guys actually think the Impala doesn’t belong on the list? Haven’t you ever rented one?
I rented one which I drove for a couple of K miles. While it’s not particularly exciting, it was quite decent. The only way it’s a disaster is when the styling is compared to impalas of the late ’50s and early to mid-60s.
>>SS3: Good call — the dash on the Ion is so bad, that if the car was otherwise perfect, I would still vote it a TWAT.
>>>Jonny Lieberman:
Sadly for Saturn, that’s not even the worst part about the Ion.
If there were an award for entire brands, I’d give it to Saturn for the way GM dumbed down the original concept and car. No wonder GM is on death watch.