[DavidP]

I still can't believe the list they came up with of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time !!!

I'd love the opportunity to own or just a chance to drive quite a few of the cars listed in the article !!!

Makes me want to check to see if it was an April 1 publication date ... ;-)

Please don't 'kill the messenger' ( me ), this is a link to the article in TIME ... it certainly is not my own opinion !!!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/20...658545,00.html

[Mark Huston]

Do not read the Time article on The 50 Worst Cars of all Time if you have a weak heart or are on blood pressure medicine. It is very clear from the couple of car reviews that I have read in this article that the author is very biased and hates cars.

An example is this quote from the review of the Model T Ford “A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers' boots. And by the way, with its blacksmithed body panels and crude instruments, the Model T was a piece of junk, the Yugo of its day.”

It is quite plain to see that this article is anything but informative journalism, it is at best a hatchet job on the auto industry and another biased attempt at promoting the environmentalist agenda.

I will not waste my time reading any of the other informative car reviews. In my opinion, this entire article belongs in the top ten of The 50 Worst Journalism Articles of all Time.

[Leonard Shepherd]

Business Week also just compiled a listing of the 10 worst cars of all time. They considered style as well as design flaws. There were 3 AMC's (Pacer, Gremlin and Matador). Also included were the Vega, Corvair, Pinto, Edsel, Yugo, Chevette and Pontiac Aztek.

[Mike Cullen]

This author likely thinks that the Prius is the greatest car of all time. He slams the rear engined, air-cooled horizontally opposed four cylinder corvair, OK skippy, you tell us all about it. I liked his slam at the ford explorer and the model T, totally bizzare! it's a shame that people who think in such a convoluted fashion get paid to opine. Pulitzer prize winning author? they must not have any meaningful standards anymore.

[De Soto Frank]

Well, it'll ruffle some feathers, I'm sure...

It is worth reading, out of morbid curiosity, if no other reason.


I think the author (Dan Neil - Pulitzer Prize-winning auto critic for the Los Angeles Times [img]<>/whistle.gif[/img] ), is out-of-line for his inclusion of the Model T Ford, at least for the year he exemplified: 1909.

Regardless of the philosophical issues he takes with Ford and his Flivver "putting America on wheels" and forever changing our socio-economic existence, he suggests that the Ford of 1909 was a bad car, poorly designed, of questionable build-quality, and under-appointed...

I would ask: how many other car makers had anything better to offer the motoring public in 1909 ? And how much did those better cars cost ?

Yes, folks, the Model T was SO awful that Ford Motor Co. only kept it in production for a mere 19 years, selling only some 15-million of them, and the public kept buying them(though in declining numbers by 1927)... [img]<>/crazy.gif[/img]

Ford was one of the first major manufacturers (after Henry Leland) to insist on precision measurement and standardization of the parts used to build his Fords... and while Old Henry certainly wanted to minimize his production costs, he did not believe in offering a shoddy product.
(making the distinction between "shoddy" and "eventually antiquated, yet still in production").

Okay; now that I've gotten that off my chest, go read the article and see what you think about "the list" !

[img]<>/cool.gif[/img]

[31Ford]

This is unreal. Are you sure this guy doesn't belong to Greenpeace? LOL

The Model T is one -- if not the best car of all time.

It was designed well, altho the technology was outdated by 1916 or so people kept buying.

The article mentions William Klann. But what about Walter Flanders, Charles Sorenson, Ed Martin? They did more than Klann did. Sorenson pulled the rope on the first trial chassis!

The T body panels were stamped out- by presses not some Blacksmith shop taking a break from making horseshoes as this guy makes it out to be.

The Airflow-
While styling back then was not it's strong point. These are extremely well built cars as well as solid mechanical design. I'm doing a '34 Airflow for a customer right now.

The others I can't comment on as I don't know much about them.

I'm surprised he didn't mention the Model A for being a poor man's car or the Early Flathead Fords for being an oil burner.
This guy has an axe to grind!

[Skyking]

I won't even comment on this idiotic list..........
Maybe he's Al Gores brother.

[MCHinson]

OK, for morbid curiosity I did read a little. Now I remember why I don't subscribe to Time Magazine. [img]<>/grin.gif[/img]

[Mike Cullen]

If his opinion on the T is based on the 09 year, he got it wrong, Ts were available in several colors, the black only Ts were after several years of production. He got so many facts wrong that his opinion is worthless, if he cares so little for technical accuracy why should we care what he "thinks" (using the term loosly) about cars in general. Time Magazine on line? CNN? is it a shock that they are clueless? Most car people worldwide, like them or not would likely list the Model T Ford one of the top 3 best and most influential cars of all time.

I think I looked at 6 or 7 specific cars, he had incorrect facts as a basis for his opinion in over half of them. He also mentioned that Corvairs had a habit of spearing drivers because of the solid steering column, I sure remember the trouble I had removing the steering boxes from series 01 and 10 Ramblers,(American and Classic) as late as the 67 model year because the steering shaft was one piece, from the nut under the horn button all the way to the worm inside the steering box. They were fine cars, and sold well. Almost any car could make you a shish-kebab in a front ender back then. (not just a 61 corvair)
The 87 Yugo was a far better car than the 86, why the 87 not the 86? the 87 had a rear window defroster that would keep your hands warm when you were pushing them home in the winter. (very valuable feature!)

It would be fun to have a good e-mail addy for that putz so we could send him some helpful information for his next masterpiece

[De Soto Frank]

Well, he's credited as being an auto-reviewer for the Los Angeles Times, so we should be able to reach him through that august organization...


("Let's round- up a posse of T-Model Fords an' go git 'im, boys !" ) [img]<>/grin.gif[/img]