Obama: Ford Granada "Worst Car Detroit Ever Built"

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Barack Obama is something of a car guy. According to The Detroit News, one of Obama's (likely numerous) regrets about running for President: the Secret Service won't let him drive. "It's a drag because I actually enjoy driving." But it wasn't always so. "The car I learned to drive on was my grandfather's Ford Granada," Barack told Indianapolis radio station WFBQ. "It may be the worst car that Detroit ever built… This thing was a tin can. [Detroit was] trying to compete with the Japanese. They wanted to keep the cars big, so they made them out of tin foil… You basically couldn't go over 80 (miles per hour) without the thing getting out of control." Their perfidy didn't end there, though. "Detroit ended up making investments in SUVs and large trucks because that's where they perceived a competitive advantage," Obama told Meet the Press. "And that's where they felt they could make the most profit… I think it was a mistake for them not to plan earlier, and now we're seeing a huge growth in fuel-efficient cars that is benefiting the Japanese automakers and Detroit is getting pounded." For all of Obama's Motown-mauling, the Senator from Illinois' one with the the industry's belief that the gas tax is probably a good thing. Still, Hillary's desperate offer of an industry bailout probably makes her the top Dem choice for industry types. We're waiting to hear her take on malaise-era metal.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Tonycd Tonycd on May 08, 2008

    I agree he was off with the tinfoil comment, but geez! It was a car opinion. It was no sillier than a lot of other people's car opinions, and as someone suggested here, a lot more real than a lot of other comments by politicians. C'mon. As for the car, back in the glory days of C/D the magazine gave me one of my best laughs. They were testing the embarrassingly "Mercedes-styled" "sports" models, the Granada ESS. Their subhead: "Ford takes aim at Stuttgart and hits Muncie, Indiana." I believe these cars traced their lineage to the pre-Fox/Fairmont era Ford Falcon (also the sire of the Mustang and Maverick). My personal nominee for Worst Car Ever, at least from this automotive family tree: the Granada's illegitimate offspring, the continental-spare-equipped Lincoln Versailles. Its magazine ad used the word "engineering" about four times, presumably to overcompensate. Evidently Iacocca was determined to have his own Cimarron-level embarrassment. OMG, what an awful car.

  • Beken Beken on May 08, 2008

    Umm...80 miles per hour. Wasn't that the age of the double-nickel? I wonder how many speeding tickets he got.

  • Duncan36 Duncan36 on Jul 10, 2008

    People are defending the Granada? It was one of the worst American cars ever. It was designed to look big and slightly opulent, but was cost cut to the bone everywhere. Crap steering, crap suspension, crap sheetmetal. It was uncomfortable to sit in with anything but the tip top trim and was huge but had 0 space inside. The way it drove made my '83 Cutlass Cruiser feel like a sports car. I daresay if he had one with the 351 in it he wouldnt be so hard on it. But the V6 models were truly one of the worst cars ever. Also one I was riding in broke down in the middle of an intersection. I had to push it in 100 degree weather under a hail of honks and curses. So yeah I am with Obama I hate this car whats it to you.

  • Randall Burbank Randall Burbank on May 23, 2011

    I have a 1980 ford granada and still run pretty good. Let me know if you want to buy it from me???

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