A Labor Day list —The ten worst cars of the decade

By Jim Prueter

(September 6, 2015) Today it’s nearly impossible to find a really bad car.  For all the news about recalls, gas mileage and J. D. Powers quality rankings, auto manufacturers make very few mistakes and are turning out cars where the worst ones today would have won you a quality award a decade ago.  

About the worst I can say about a car today is that I don’t like the styling, or it isn’t as much fun to drive as its competition.  Gone are the days where cars like the Ford Pinto that caught on fire with a rear end crash, or the Chevy Vega where the front end of the car would break off, or the Dodge Aspen that you could almost watch it rust before your very eyes.

Still, we go out on a limb and take a stab at listing our top ten worst cars of the decade.  If you think we’ve missed a car that should have been on the list but isn’t, just drop us a note.   

#10 - Jeep Compass – (2007 – Present)
When is a Jeep not a Jeep?  When it’s a Compass.  Sure, it comes with the signature seven-slot grille up front but all similarities end there.  It’s even built on a Dodge assembly line in Illinois rather than Toledo, Ohio and is basically a re-badged Dodge Caliber.  The odd styling looks frumpy and the interior is nothing but hard plastic. Simply put, the Compass gives the iconic Jeep brand a bad name.  And contrary to its name, it doesn’t even come with a Compass.

#9 - Jaguar X-Type – (2002-2008)
Looking for an entry-level luxury car to compete with the likes of BMW’s 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz’s C-Class and Lexus ES, Jaguar came out with the X-Type.  But the X-Type even with its all-wheel drive wasn’t anywhere near the sportiness, quality or cache enjoyed by competition and additionally suffered with quality issues.

#8 - Subaru Baja – (2003 – 2006)
Is it a car?  Is it a truck?  No, it’s just, well…This automotive conflation is easily one of the most bizarre looking vehicles we’ve seen.  It can’t decide if it wanted to be a car or a truck.  We’re sure the heavy plastic cladding along the lower body was meant to make the vehicle look rugged, but instead it made the vehicle look more like a Nike running shoe.

#7 - Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler – (1997 and 1999-2002)
Built as a Plymouth it was discontinued in 2001 and then sold as a Chrysler Prowler for the 2001 and 2002 model years. Less than 12,000 total Prowler’s were built, all with a retro-roadster hotrod design except they forgot to make it a hotrod.  Completely underpowered with a V6 engine it didn’t even have a manual transmission, which made it completely impossible to smoke the tires with the requisite burnouts.  Hotrodding rule #1 – “There is no such thing as a factory hotrod.  Hotrods are homemade only.”

#6 - Toyota ECHO – (2000 – 2005)
This inexpensive subcompact proves that even Toyota can make serious mistakes.  With odd proportions and cartoonish looks the tall, narrow ECHO had tiny tires, felt “tippy” on the highway and excessive body roll when cornering.  ECHO was meant to capture the young drivers but they rejected its weirdness.  

#5 - Chrysler Sebring – (1995 – 2010)
Unfortunately everything about this car screams airport rental.  Did anyone ever actually buy a new one from a dealer?  Exterior styling was awkward at best, interiors were cheap plastic, uncomfortable seats and equipped with noisy underpowered engines.  As one critic wrote “it’s not just bad, but a veritable chalice of wretchedness, a rattling, thumping, lolling tragedy of a car.

#4 - Hummer H2 – (2003-2009)
If ever a vehicle was a target of cultural excess and completely out of step with our nation’s social and environmental conscience the H2 was it.  Arrogantly huge with an unquenchable thirst for gasoline, the H2 not surprisingly elicited the scorn greenies everywhere.  While Toyota was building the Prius, GM was opening stand-alone Hummer dealerships.  All in all a complete public relations disaster for GM.  Last year, Hummer ran out of gas and closed its doors forever.

#3 - Pontiac Aztek – (2001 – 2005)
Arguably the ugliest, most hideous production vehicle of all time.  This automotive cetacean was clad in more plastic than the entire 90210 zip code.  It’s nearly impossible to imagine what GM designers were thinking when they came up with this mess and then got GM brass to approve it.

#2 - Daewoo – (1999 –2002)
Actually any Daewoo model built between 1999 and 2002 (pictured at top).  Daewoo products were known for extremely poor build quality, cheap materials and significant safety issues.  The Korean automaker declared bankruptcy in 2002.  Even most car rental agencies refused to buy their cars for their fleet.

#1 - Smart – (2008 – Present)
Sure it looks cute and I actually like driving small cars like the Mini Cooper for example.  But one trip behind the wheel and you won’t be smiling for long. The diminutive Smart with its annoying sequential transmission, scary-small road presence, and unimpressive gas mileage is overall the worst car we’ve ever driven.

Jim Prueter is a freelance auto and travel writer living in Arizona. He is retired from AAA (American Automobile Association) Arizona where he served as senior vice president from 1998 through 2012. He currently writes for numerous magazines, blogs, newspapers and periodicals.