Cars that You Won’t Believe Were Made

Automakers didn’t become successful overnight and most of them had some pitfalls along the way. Even though the leaders of an automaker feel like a car is a good idea and will sell well, the public opinion and reaction are what counts in the world of mobility. Here are several cars that you won’t believe were made by the automakers that made them.

Ferrari – The 1980 Ferrari Mondial was probably the worst car to ever come from Ferrari. This car came with a four seat setup and a mid-mounted engine and a serious lack of performance in this model that thankfully did improve over time. This was one miss you wouldn’t have expected from Ferrari, but even this brand has its missteps.

Aston Martin – The original Lagonda wasn’t one of the models that would have made its way into a James Bond film unless it was being used for comic relief. The Lagonda did offer a great digital dashboard that was the height of technology at the time, but it seemed to always be on the blink, working only about half the time.

Acura- In 2010 Acura introduced the ZDX crossover SUV that was odd shaped, weird looking and a cramped backseat and a price that didn’t match the vehicle. the ZDX was never one to catch on or be thought of as a great vehicle and with the lack of refinement was doomed from the start to be deleted from the lineup after only a couple years in production.

Mercedes-Benz – For some reason one of the most impressive automakers in the world chose to build what appears to be a bargain priced hatchback. The price certainly wasn’t a bargain and the car appears to be a bubble on wheels which didn’t even pass the testing in Sweden because the car rolled over from being too top heavy.

Jaguar – The X-Type was built off the Ford Mondeo, sharing a platform and only adding the skin and features that were supposed to be Jaguar. this was built at a time when the brand was owned by Ford and most of what was built for Jaguar at the time was botched. Thankfully Jaguar has separated from the Blue Oval brand and now offers us much better offerings.

Lexus – The 2002 Lexus SC430 was a slow, complicated, heavy and expensive were the words to describe this car from Lexus. This car had an eight-cylinder engine that should have given it some fun on the road and it was billed as a grand touring car, but it was cumbersome to drive and wasn’t a fun car by any stretch of the imagination.

Saab – The 2006 Saab 9-7x was a rebadged body on frame SUV which was based off the Chevrolet Trailblazer. In true GM fashion this platform of an SUV ended up being the Trailblazer, the 9-7x, the Rainier, Envoy, Bravada and Ascender to be an SUV build that drowned the market with a vehicle that wasn’t a fitting successor to the original Blazer.

Toyota – The Toyota iQ was lacking in some of the IQ needed to build a quality car. This was supposed to be a rival to the Smart lineup and was simply a tiny prison of a car that wouldn’t allow you to have a good ride at all. Surprisingly this car ended up being the Aston Martin Cygnet and was even branded for Scion for a period of time as well.

Cadillac – The Cimarron of the 1980s was a great example of a car that shouldn’t have been built at all. It was fine as a Chevrolet Cavalier but was used across the various brands at GM to end up being one of the worst Cadillac cars ever put on the road. The Cimarron didn’t do much to help the Cadillac brand and GM was certainly drowning during the 1980s.

Chrysler – The Chrysler TC by Maserati was a horrible car and one that Maserati should have been ashamed to have their name on. This was a K-car with style that was all Chrysler and not really good to have the trident badge on the front of the vehicle. Although it had some Italian style the high price tag that wasn’t appropriate shouldn’t have been built.