Six months ago, this website published its Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) awards. While the resulting publicity pretty much killed our access to press cars, it had to be said. As we ready ourselves for readers' '07 TWAT nominations and the eventual awards dinner (yes, you're invited), let's see how last year's "winners" have fared since TTAC named and shamed the Ten Worst Automobiles Today.
10. Chevrolet Aveo: alive and, uh, well
"In the case of this captive Korean import, you pay little and get even less."
Driving a Chevy Aveo5 was like pedaling a bicycle through a Hell's Angels' motorcade: slow, noisy and frightening. And yet, since scoring a TWAT, consumers have shown their desperation for cheap, high-mileage vehicles (and their ignorance of TTAC's editorial wisdom) by sending sales up 53%.
9. Lincoln Mark LT: fading fast
"The Mark LT is a rolling testament to Dearborn's short-term, suicidal reliance on bean-counted engineering."
In 2006, Lincoln unloaded about 1k florid F-150’s per month. Only about 700 customers per month are currently looking at $9800 worth of first year depreciation, minus a $4k rebate. Still, anyone who loves their LT isn’t likely to care. At least not yet.
8. Saab 9-7x: doomed
"You know what I hate most about the Saab 9-7X? It's a Chevy Trailblazer with the ignition key between the seats."
Badge-engineering this mutant must be a low-cost proposition; GM's still building 9-7x's despite selling fewer than 500 per month. The model will surely die with the rest of the Trailblazer clones in 2010, to be replaced by the 9-4X. With Saab's DNA DOA, can another TWAT be far behind?
7. Subaru B9 Tribeca: struggling for survival
"The fact that the B9 is also slow, thirsty and cramped proves that repulsiveness can be more than skin deep."
Tired of TTAC-inspired sniggering and lackluster sales, Subaru is about to modify the Tribeca's infamous "flying vagina" grill and slot-in a bigger engine. The B9-no-more (if it ever was) will still be as ugly as current sales figures. Subie sold just 3606 examples in the first three months of ‘07, down 22.8% from last year's miserable total. We reckon it's only a matter of time…
6. Chevrolet Monte Carlo: dead
"The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is a wrong wheel-drive engineering joke from the late ‘80's."
The darling of the NASCAR set heads for the big pit stop in the sky this June. Dale Jr. fans need not despair. Chevy has a brand new set of Impala SS decals ready to plaster on NASCAR's generic "Car of Tomorrow." How great is that?
5. Hummer H2: doomed
"While the H2 doesn't come with hair plugs, it tells the world that the man behind the wheel has a small penis, or brain, or both."
When gas prices went up, H2 sales went down– 27% from last year. Quelle surprise! With the smaller, less hideous H3 on the market, the H2 is destined for retirement.
4. Chrysler Aspen: DOA
"It's a perfect example of the old adage ‘Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.'"
A huge, thirsty, expensive, poorly-built, Pacifica-faced SUV based on the Durango, one of the worst-selling SUV's on the market? I'll take two. Meanwhile, Chrysler sold just 7244 Aspens in the first quarter of '07. The just-announced hybrid Hemi Aspen won't do diddley to ressurect this stillborn syllogism.
3. Buick Rendezvous: dead
"The Rendezvous embodies everything that's brought GM to the brink: penny pinching, brand dilution and chronic neglect."
GM is shutting down the plant where this minivan-based SUV is manufactured. The dubiously port-holed Enclave replaces both the Rendezvous and Ranier (a Chevy Trailblazer with the key on the ignition column, right where God intended).
2. Jeep Compass: struggling
"The Compass stomps all over Jeep's reputation as America's purveyor of authentic off-road vehicles."
When a company known for “Trail Rated” off-roaders bases a vehicle on a front wheel-drive family car, only L.L. Bean fashion victims need apply. Apparently, there aren’t a whole lot of buyers answering to that description. At the start of April, Jeep had a 117-day supply of the not-so-cute-ute languishing on their lots.
1. GM Minivans: dead
"For their… cancerous effect on not one but four GM brands and their abject inability to hold a candle to their foreign-owned competition, GM's minivans earn The Truth About Cars' accolade as the worst vehicles currently for sale in America."
These vans were so bad they caused their manufacturer to abandon an entire market segment. After this year, they're toast.
Speaking of toasts, in six months time we'll be raising our glasses to TTAC's 2007 TWAT award winners. It's too early to tell if last year's survivors will make it onto this year's list. But it's not too early to begin thinking about which vehicles will become one of TTAC's Ten Worst Automobiles Today.
[NOTE: TTAC is not asking for official TWAT nominations at this time.]
Click here for all articles about the '06 TWAT Awards
102 Comments on “TTAC’s Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) Awards: Six Month Update...”
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I won’t argue with anything on the list. It’s a shame, but the tough part would be coming up with much more than ten 2007 vehicles that don’t deserve a TWAT.
The funny thing is that here in northern New England I don’t see too many of the Top 10. Some (like the Aspen) I have never seen on the road here without dealer plates.
The only exception is the Aveo – I see more and more of them on the highway during drive time. Many of them have self-depricating vanity plates too – I saw one a couple of days ago that said “TINCAN”. Talk about truth in advertising!
2007 # 1 TWAT, Ford Taurus.
Can the new Camaro go on the list simply for being an unrelenting joke played on the car buying public?
To point out the obvious, only 1 import is on the list.
Will the gm 900 pickups be on the next list? They were just introduced in Jan. and now have an 85 day lot life. At least the subaru tribeca has been out a year for their 117 day lot life. No, gm will up the (already large) rebate to dump them. However, these trucks were to be sold at retail for at least the first year to bail gm out, as this was where the profits were to be. The aveo never was to make money.
Can I also add GM’s Canyon/Colorado twins? The mid-size pickup truck seems, at least in these parts, to be a popular market segment. The S10 and Blazer were pretty popular. Then GM replaces them with this anemic, uninspired duo.
I’d also like to nominate the Jeep Commander and Nitro. Bricklike styling, cheesy interiors, and that oh-so-desirable combination of having a surprisingly cramped interior relative to it’s external dimensions. I might give the edge to the Nitro.
The Canyon/Colorado twins are a good candidate – Aztec inspired styling, overpriced, and disappointing powertrains. I thought the Big 2.5 knew all about making trucks. This segment is bound to heat up once again, where is the old S-10 when you need it.
guyincognito,
Definitely. The “Taurus/Sable” deserves to be on this list even more than the Tribeca for sheer idiotic name recall, but not quite as much as 9-7x. (Shame on you for destroying a unique brand, GM. You’re like the Borg with your soulless assimilation tactics). I’m also tempted to nail Ford and Mazda for the B Series dinosaurs.
Oh, and how about that elongated Escalade/Suburban monstrosity?
jerry weber, ejacobs:
Concur with GMT-900 trucks and SUV’s, because despite all of Lutz and Wagoner’s posturing, they won’t be enough to keep the General out of bankruptcy.
So many bad vehicles, so few spots!
It’s too late to nominate the 02-05 Ford Explorer, but I found out that I now know a second person who died from a rollover following overcorrecting when going off the right side of a higway.
My family and I were given a lift in that Explorer last June – shudder.
I’m not sure we should pronounce the Tribeca just yet. The redone exterior and improved engine fixed exactly what everyone squealed about. The exterior is definitely a huge improvement from the ‘ohgod!’ reaction the original provoked. Among the Subaru people, who gnashed their teeth and pulled their hair at the sight of the ‘08 Impreza, the reaction went something like, “Huh, that’s ….not too bad. Decent looking, in fact.”
Besides the Aveo and H2 (which I will hold to being good ideas for either profit or image), these are certainly easy pickings.
The thing that will send the H2 tanking (down in sales, because it is always tanking in another sense of the word) will be the discontinuation of the beautiful business tax credits that apply to its purchase.
While I have not driven the Aveo, I can say that I think it is attractive (the 5 door, at least–then again, I think the “B” in B-segment stands for Beautiful) and darn pretty well made (interior-wise, at least) for the price (the latest gen 4-door that I showroom evaluated). The Aveo isn’t exceptional, but it is a good entry into the “cheapest new thing on wheels” department–better and cheaper than a Reno or Rio! Encourage GM to expand their car lineup…please.
maybe its time for the Buick Lucerne to be added to that list. The last Top Gear found it to be gutless in spite of having a V8, handling nonexsistant and a crap 4 speed auto – it was reported to be having trouble in keeping up with a Prius in normal traffic.
The Lucerne could be added just for the name. Who decided to give a car the same name as Safeway’s store brand. Every time I see Buick Lucerne I think of milk.
I second the Ford/Mazda B-Series. I honestly can’t think of a worse driving car/truck/anything that moves.
Gotta throw in the next nominee for thsi year’s TWAT awards: Ford Freestyle/Taurus X.
With Ford already pimping the Escape, Explorer, Edge, Expedition, Expedition EL, and the new Flex, the Freestyle/Taurus X will be toast.
Slow, boring, and utterly forgettable.
nocaster, I thought the exact same thing about the Lucerne the first time I heard the name. I know it as my wife’s favorite cottage cheese, not a car. It made me wonder, with no Safeways near Detroit, did they simply not know they were sharing their name with a dairy product?
Indeed, the canyon/colarado duo.
I seem to see quite a few Rendezvous around here. Or maybe I just think I see quite a few because I can’t help checking for the “.cx” trim badge.
The Aveo… well, the engine is awful, and makes it inexcusably thirsty for a car of that size. The Kyundai twins are at least making an effort; GM/Daewoo isn’t. Its success in spite of everything shows the same thing as yesterday’s TTAC article: there’s a big bug-shaped hole in the American auto market.
On styling points alone, because it’s an otherwise excellent vehicle, the newest CR-V. Same for the new Highlander. Reliability should not make up for styling that makes Edsels look like Ferraris by comparison.
The new Sebring. ‘Nuff said.
About the Aspen hybrid (and the upcoming Tahoe hybrid for that matter)…I think it’s going to flop. Not due to technical merit, but because 25% better mileage when you’re starting near single-digits just isn’t so great.
I also think the public’s taste are shifting and after another summer or two of $3-$4 gas driving huge vehicles – two mode hybrid or not – will be out of fashion in favor of CUV’s and sedans.
well i couldn`t agree on tribeca for it`s a high quality fuji heavy product. and even that grille was nice and individual, at least not worse than alfa romeo` flying vagina. now for 08 they watered down the tribeca`s daringness closer to some aspen territory.i hope they didn`t drop this star trek Zorg type dasboard with illuminated circular digital screens for A/C controls.
And of course gm minivans are a laughing stock. they are nothing more than antique rebadged 94 opel sintra, that`s been killed in europe ages ago.Jesus Christ can`t you euthenize that agonizing minivan? the biggest so far manufacturer hasnot been able even to design a single minivan in it`s history. well you have chevy express then. still alive. but it`s not that minivanish, you know..
well aveo has nothing to do with usa or detroit, or gm for that matter, so a spank goes to korea.
well they have tried to make hummer look more quality oriented with new dasboard and stereo and ac controls, and hummer looks big thanks to small windows, and is as heavy as a CVS anchor.
what comes to my mind that any american made and designed car could go for this list if it has more than 50 per cent domestic contents. except z06, maybe new cts , but it`s not 50 per cent domestic content anyways.
I am puzzled….
how bout chrysler sprinter van? ( those gyus even didn`t have money to change the name of the old venerable mercedes mediocrity)
at least there are some definite symptoms how to pick a pure american vehicle- OHV, rust dipped even on dealer`s lot, 4-speed auto, fwd – even over my dead body, drum brakes ,shiny leather( paled grey, paled brown), huge ventilation gaps even where they are not supposed to be( like between fenders and headlights, etc), rubbermaid plastics, huge thick , chewed up door door gaskets, remote gas cap is a taboo, so do foldable ,painted mirrors, stereos with huge primitive rhino- paw oriented buttons with ventilation gaps around them, rear live axle ,leaf springs, metal and wood veneer is artificially flavoured as all food in usa.
well, you can`t make a wrong choice now!
Even though I’m not an import basher, Id like to propose an import car, just because all we’ve seen so far are domestics. But except for the Tribeca and a few cases of disgusting styling/less-than-perfect-but-not-quite-that-bad cars, it’s hard….
Mercedes class R, perhaps, a glorified 55k minivan that does not even have sliding doors.
Oh, and on looks, the future Audi Q3 is a winner: it makes the Aztec look well proportioned.
‘The new Sebring. ‘Nuff said.‘ Now that first place is locked up, we can focus on the other nine.
Incidentally, any manufacturer that bans TTAC from the press fleet for putting one of their cars on the TWAT list should gracefully exit the car business and not embarrass themselves any further. Gutlessness will get them nowhere.
Had TTAC called it the “Flying Veejayjay”, would the people at bimmer be such bummers?
The Aveo is just flying off the shelves. The profit isn’t even beer money for the Exec’s college kids let alone pay the costs for a proper engine.
There seems to be more than a few tasteless designs for 2007 to compete for the TTAC TWAT award…The voting will be fierce.
Mr. Williams: Great idea and execution for the “Where Are They Now?” follow up. As long as there are 10, 20, 30, or 200 cars being manufactured by Detroit there should (has to?) be a TWAT.
AVEO number one and sales up 53%?It looks like GMs are a shoe in for the top 5 for 07.
If that translates into sales increases I’m all for GM going 10 for 10.
The Nitro, a bad CUV(I gues that’s what it is?) with even worse advertising to try and sell it. This car has found a way to annoy me even though I don’t own one and rarely see one on the streets where I live.
In the battle of cars with little-to-no profits, YTD Aveo (19,944) is behind Yaris (26,418). For comparison, Corolla/Matrix sales are 120k.
Just who is buying these Aveo’s? Obviously those in favor of purchasing an inferior GM product over the better Accent/Rio twins made in the same motherland.
And a MB R350 AWD starts at $44K, but I imagine it gets pretty close to 55K when completely optioned out.
Kia Amanti–the Studebaker Face and Body By K-Mart make me laugh everytime I see it
Boredlawstudent I can’t see how you can state the Aveo is any better or worse than the accent/rio.
They are what they are, litle tiny,economical cars people buy em for just for those reasons.
Only, cause they make em in Korea[labour cost] car companys foreign or domestic are barely breaking even.
If you compared all of the sub compacts car for car thier ain’t a whole lot of difference
I nominate the Mitsubishi Galant, if not only for ugliness but because here is a company which should easily be churning out Camccord beaters but aren’t even in the same ball park. Pity.
starlightmica: I’m sorry to hear of your friend’s unexpected death. But before I blame the Explorer and its design, I need a lot more detail about the accident and conditions. SUVs have a high center of gravity…..I drive probably one of the worst offenders (Trooper). I KNOW I can’t drive my truck like a sports car, and I know exactly what its limitations are. All too often I see people drive like idiots in SUVs and pick-ups. It’s just a matter of time before gravity and dynamics take over……
the limited info in the article said his Explorer flipped over a guard rail. The vehicle had to really have been moving….
Again, sorry for your loss….
Tell us, which manufacturers actually deny TTAC access to press cars as a result of perhaps unflattering editorials and reviews?
It would be interesting to see who the cowards are. If I was a manufacturer, I would sit up and take notice of the criticisms levied when conveying the truth instead of insulating myself surrounded by ‘Yes’ staff.
@nocaster: Yep, that’s exactly what I think every time I hear Lucerne, milk. In fact, conjuring images of cows when thinking of a Buick product isn’t so leftfield after all.
I don’t like the Lucerne name either—so many iconic Buick names could have been chosen (Electra etc) instead.
That said—-car name is a pretty shallow reason to include the Lucerne on the TWAT list. It is actually a very competent vehicle (esp. w/ the V8)that pefroms just how the target audience wants it to perform; its competing against the Avalon not the 5 series. Even domestic basher Consumer Distorts gave it a favorable review in this months issue
Dave M:
Thanks, Gary Sellers wasn’t a friend, but the owner of a local pick-your-own cherry orchard our family would visit regularly which made for a wonderful outing. Last June, I got our minivan stuck in a ditch coming down the mountain, and as we were unable to get a tow that Sunday, Sellers had one of his farmhands drive our family home in that Explorer. That road he died on is a fairly straight limited access highway, some details in this obit.
The other death was a client of our company, whose just-licensed child overcorrected to the right their brand-new ‘04 Explorer merging onto a highway, resulting in a barrel roll with ejection and death of the parent.
Can we just vote for the Jeep Compass again? Or is this like all the other car rags whose “vehicle of the year” needs to be all new or significantly redesigned? Now that the GM vans are dead, the Compass is King (of the TWATs!)
It’s always fun reading the editorials on this site. Thanks for the laugh.
The Aspen deserves to be counted as DOA. Hand on heart, I can say that I have never, ever seen one other than on Chrysler’s website.
And at a laughable $49,995 Canadian as the base price, they have little to no chance of improving that status here.
Humourless- 50 grand and 1.O7 a litre fuel. No wonder I thought they were only sold in the states.I guess why we havn”t seen one
How’d the Chrysler Sebring not make it on the TWAT? It’s got to be the only car out there that can’t do ANYTHING right!
lprocter1982:
How’d the Chrysler Sebring not make it on the TWAT? It’s got to be the only car out there that can’t do ANYTHING right!
The the 2006 TWAT awards were limited to vehicles on the new car market between Jan 1 2006 and late October when the votes were cast. The current Sebring came out too late to be included in the that vote. Rest assured, though, it’s sure to be a front runner for the 2007 awards!
Turbo G:
Can we just vote for the Jeep Compass again? Or is this like all the other car rags whose “vehicle of the year” needs to be all new or significantly redesigned?
Yes, there can be repeat winners. If a manufacturer hasn’t worked towards fixing whatever made their offering a winner, they deserve a second award! The only thing they can hope for is that someone has put something even worse on the market. We’ll find out in October when the next round of nominations starts.
With its awkward proportions, inch-wide panel gaps, center-mounted instrument cluster, and low-end-of-mediocrity performance, the Saturn Ion could make the list, too.
Am I the only person that likes the look of the redesigned Tribeca? It’s got the cutest little Pokemon face now…
Pokemon?I thought that was a Jamaican proctoligist.
I love the Lucerne..yogurt that is, specifically the peach flavored. Agree, dumb name for a car. One of my employees bought an Aveo (I guess I need to increase her wages), and hates it after a few months of ownership, too “tinny”. Agree also, the Sebring is butt ugly. Are you going to have a TTAC “worst” autos hall of shame? Seems like 2.5 continue to provide on on-going supply of candidates and joke fodder. (By the way who is the genius who thinks a hybrid in a Yukon is a good idea?)
The Aspen deserves to be counted as DOA. Hand on heart, I can say that I have never, ever seen one other than on Chrysler’s website.
And at a laughable $49,995 Canadian as the base price, they have little to no chance of improving that status here.
Wait, there is one! I saw it lumbering around the parking lot of Yorkdale Plaza, desperately seeking a berth.
‘With its awkward proportions, inch-wide panel gaps‘
I heard was specially designed as a ’smokers car’.