50 worst cars of all time - the TIME list.

[keiser31]

The only vehicle with good visibility is the "Popemobile". Unfortunately, there are not enough to go around.

[Reatta Man]

Maybe we should start a list of the "50 Worst (so-called) News Magazines."

My suggestions (print magazines, not a blogger that calls itself a newpaper or magazine):

1. Time

2. Newsleak, er, Newsweek

3. Time

4. Consumer Reports

5. Time

6. New Yorker

7. Time

8.

9.

10.

[Guest Skyking]

Apparently everyone likes to talk about airbags and antilock brakes and energy absorbing crumple zones which would not be needed if you were able to see that you were going to hit something before you hit it.

QUOTE]

Good point! Pretty soon we'll be driving just air bags!

[poci1957]

The visibility issue bugs me and as Linc400 says the magazines never seem to mention it. I often drive new and late model vehicles at work and each new generation vehicle has more blind spots than the last. Ford, for one, started selling backup cameras for trucks and vans and now is offering it on cars. Give me a break, hold the camera and give people some glass area! Todd

[R W Burgess]

The visibility issue bugs me and as Linc400 says the magazines never seem to mention it. I often drive new and late model vehicles at work and each new generation vehicle has more blind spots than the last. Ford, for one, started selling backup cameras for trucks and vans and now is offering it on cars. Give me a break, hold the camera and give people some glass area! Todd

There are no such things as blind spots if you have two side view mirrors with spot convex inserts. My old raggedy '80 pickup had the rear view mirror fall off from the heat.......10 years ago. It has 2 side mirrors, haven't hit a soul yet.

It's important to note, though, that viewing both mirrors at short intervals prevents not "knowing the guy was beside me"!

It's another "soft spot" in our driver education programs, that and the lack of proper turn signal/lane change habits.

Wayne

[LINC400]

There are no such things as blind spots if you have two side view mirrors with spot convex inserts. My old raggedy '80 pickup had the rear view mirror fall off from the heat.......10 years ago. It has 2 side mirrors, haven't hit a soul yet.

It's important to note, though, that viewing both mirrors at short intervals prevents not "knowing the guy was beside me"!

It's another "soft spot" in our driver education programs, that and the lack of proper turn signal/lane change habits.

Wayne

A 1980's pick up is no comparison. Try backing a 2006 Monte Carlo SS out of a grocery store parking lot. You can't see anything out of the rear or rear side windows. Mirrors are useless as they only show you the cars parked behind you, not cars coming down the aisle.

[R W Burgess]

You are correct. I should have noted that my statement applied to driving ahead. All vehicles have blind spots when backing. There is no way to avoid that, although some are worse than others, as noted.

My biggest problem in backing is that my neck is a lot stiffer than it was, making it hard to see over my shoulder. I guess there is something to be said for blowing the horn while backing up.

Wayne

[MarkV]

I have the carriage top on my MKV and visibility is bad, it took a few months to get used to it. Before that time, I nearly crashed into several cars! LOL!

[West Peterson]

You are correct. I should have noted that my statement applied to driving ahead. All vehicles have blind spots when backing. There is no way to avoid that, although some are worse than others, as noted.

Wayne

Wayne, perhaps you should get behind the driver's seat of a 1941-48 Lincoln Continental cabriolet with the top up. The optional right-side mirror can't even be seen by the driver, and the rear window is about the size of a letter opening in the front door of an old house. The blind spot is probably big enough to hid two cars, maybe three. In fact, if you look up the word in the dictionary, this car may be illustrated.

Does that make it a "worst car." No. Not in my opinion. Some other things about the car (especially the postwar cars) might, but not the fact that it has a blind spot.

[Dynaflash8]

QUOTE: Wayne, perhaps you should get behind the driver's seat of a 1941-48 Lincoln Continental cabriolet with the top up. The optional right-side mirror can't even be seen by the driver, and the rear window is about the size of a letter opening in the front door of an old house. The blind spot is probably big enough to hid two cars, maybe three. In fact, if you look up the word in the dictionary, this car may be illustrated.

Does that make it a "worst car." No. Not in my opinion. Some other things about the car (especially the postwar cars) might, but not the fact that it has a blind spot.<!-- google_ad_section_end --> UNQUOTE

All three of my old pre-war convertibles do have a significant blind spot when moving from the left lane to the right and I find it a bit scary. I guess I should hang a passenger side mirror on them. They're beautiful from the outside as they are, but it wouldn't be so pretty with the right rear quarter banged up.

[R W Burgess]

Wayne, perhaps you should get behind the driver's seat of a 1941-48 Lincoln Continental cabriolet with the top up. The optional right-side mirror can't even be seen by the driver, and the rear window is about the size of a letter opening in the front door of an old house. The blind spot is probably big enough to hid two cars, maybe three. In fact, if you look up the word in the dictionary, this car may be illustrated.

Does that make it a "worst car." No. Not in my opinion. Some other things about the car (especially the postwar cars) might, but not the fact that it has a blind spot.

A fellow from New York could have solved part of this problem. He recently opened a new restaurant in my town for a new investor. He was too busy setting up shop to worry about his vehicles mechanical problems. His remedy for the transmission with "no reverse"? He never parked against a curb or parking lot bumper. He got fired and drove the beater back to New York. As far as I know he still doesn't have a reverse.

What does this have to do with blind spots? Blind spots, like some vehicle's trans problems are not important in the scheme of life to some people. If you love your car, you overlook its shortcomings. It's the same with wome.........scratch that...the wife just got up! :eek:

Wayne

[West Peterson]

Wayne, perhaps you should get behind the driver's seat of a 1941-48 Lincoln Continental cabriolet with the top up. The optional right-side mirror can't even be seen by the driver, and the rear window is about the size of a letter opening in the front door of an old house. The blind spot is probably big enough to hid two cars, maybe three. In fact, if you look up the word in the dictionary, this car may be illustrated.

Does that make it a "worst car." No. Not in my opinion. Some other things about the car (especially the postwar cars) might, but not the fact that it has a blind spot.

My bad. I think I meant the 1942 models, which had a known engine problem after the company bored them out to increase displacement. Many, many, many Lincoln V-12s were replaced with something else.

[R W Burgess]

My bad.....................

We won't hold it against you, West! :cool:

[Dave@Moon]

Wayne, perhaps you should get behind the driver's seat of a 1941-48 Lincoln Continental cabriolet with the top up. The optional right-side mirror can't even be seen by the driver, and the rear window is about the size of a letter opening in the front door of an old house. The blind spot is probably big enough to hid two cars, maybe three. In fact, if you look up the word in the dictionary, this car may be illustrated.

I never drove one of those Lincolns, but the worst blind spot I've ever seen was in a top-up Jaguar XK120 I drove into Pittsburgh for a show during rush hour. The back window roughly the same size as the Lincoln's, and while the "C Pillar" of the top looks smaller than the Lincoln's you have to remember that this is a 2 seater and that the top is about 6" away from the driver's head. In fact the driver's head is behind the "C Pillar" fabric, and you have to lean forward off the seat about 4-6" and duck a little just to look 90 degrees to your right or left. As for sticking your head out the window and looking backwards, Swedish bikini models don't have necks long enough to do that!

The Drophead (converitble) top is even worse, with a forward slanting "C Pillar" that restricts side vision even more.

And then you're dealing with shaky, fender mounted side view mirrors which were 4' forward of typical door mirrors with a field of view at the back bumper of about 1/2 a lane tops. And they weren't even on every car.

Oh, getting that thing into the correct lane on Pittsburgh's Parkway West in the rain was a real treat!:eek::eek::eek:

(Note, 1st photo is of a roadster top with later/wide window. 2nd photo is of a convertible XK120 top with earlier narrow window. Picture driving the black-topped car with the tan top's window.)

BTW, This car is #1 on my want list if anyone cares to donate one!

Edited August 25, 2009 by Dave@Moon
added 2nd photo, BTW (see edit history)

[Thriller]

Wayne - stop talking sense about driver education. I live in an inner city area with narrow streets and parking on just one side of the street. While there are occasional issues with poorly parked cars, the biggest problem I have is that everyone seems to figure they need to be in the middle (or to their left) of the drivable area. I drive a GMC K2500 and I typically find it easier meeting another truck on these roads as drivers of full size trucks have a tendency to have a clue about where their vehicle is. The worst ones are the subcompact / miniature cars. This all seems to be because they aren't taught to use the mirror on the passenger side to figure out how far they are from the curb. Actually, SUVs are gaining in the annoying factor as far too many folks are driving bigger vehicles that don't have a clue about where they are.

That all being said, I was a bit surprised to see the Gremlin on the list. I know everyone picks on their looks and that is subjective. Perhaps it was the particular year, but when they created the Gremlin X with the 304 V8, they had a screamer on their hands that did very well in racing.

As for those talking about the Aztek, the service loaner at our dealership for some time was an Aztek, so we drove one occasionally. It was actually quite nice - the minivan without the minivan sliding doors (we had Montanas with power doors that didn't like staying closed when you told them to). Appearance is subjective, but I'd say they don't look any worse than the soccer-mobile minivans...actually, I think they look better. If nothing else they were distinctive and if you had a "different" colour, you could see them in a parking lot, which is a bonus to me.