The 50 Worst Cars of All Time?
Sunday-September 09, 2007
Well, here's another depressing list of automotive duds.
Time Magazine pushes this lemon of a slide show out of the garage and hopes you don't realize that it's the same snarky type of "Worst Of" list that BusinesWeek just slapped together. (Together, they're kind of like the Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen combo of insult journalism.)
I actually enjoyed Los Angeles Times columnist Dan Neil's text. Some of the cars on the list really deserve their bug-meets-windshield fate, and Neil hilariously runs them through the crusher.
But other entries are questionable. The inclusion of the '49 Crosley Hot Shot and the '57 King Midget make Neil look desperate to score snarkier-than-thou points. Those cars served niche customers well, and the King Midget managed to sell for decades.
While the writing was good, the list trotted out so many rusty clichés, you might need a tetanus booster shot after reading it. Get ready for more predictable yuks about the Pacer, Gremlin, and Yugo.
The worst part is, Neil seems to really hate cars. He blames the Model T for the popularity of the automobile in general. He includes SUVs on the list while completely omitting the chrome-dripping barges of the 1950s. Keep your darts aimed at the cars, Dan. The clumsy attempt at sarcasm about social trends is as attractive as and well-constructed as the 1911 Overland OctoAuto.
Time Magazine pushes this lemon of a slide show out of the garage and hopes you don't realize that it's the same snarky type of "Worst Of" list that BusinesWeek just slapped together. (Together, they're kind of like the Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen combo of insult journalism.)
I actually enjoyed Los Angeles Times columnist Dan Neil's text. Some of the cars on the list really deserve their bug-meets-windshield fate, and Neil hilariously runs them through the crusher.
But other entries are questionable. The inclusion of the '49 Crosley Hot Shot and the '57 King Midget make Neil look desperate to score snarkier-than-thou points. Those cars served niche customers well, and the King Midget managed to sell for decades.
While the writing was good, the list trotted out so many rusty clichés, you might need a tetanus booster shot after reading it. Get ready for more predictable yuks about the Pacer, Gremlin, and Yugo.
The worst part is, Neil seems to really hate cars. He blames the Model T for the popularity of the automobile in general. He includes SUVs on the list while completely omitting the chrome-dripping barges of the 1950s. Keep your darts aimed at the cars, Dan. The clumsy attempt at sarcasm about social trends is as attractive as and well-constructed as the 1911 Overland OctoAuto.