Worst car in the World? !

[marcus]

According to this reporter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=Y16ObVRvgOE

He seems to me to be a bit of an irritating, exaggerating, melodramatic prat, not "The Worst reporter in the World" but certainly a long way down the list! 

I reckon there are plenty of odd-ball cars which are better contenders for that title, not all of them even bubbles and micros.

Show this uninformed twit up, let us know which car you think is the "World's Worst Car"....

[steven mandell]

I LOVE it!
The only one I saw was at Bruce's museum.
I thought that I remember that it had an intentionally asymmetrical front body shell in the area of the windscreen and roof.
I didn't see that on this one.  Am I confusing it with something else, or could Bruce's have possibly been built or repaired that carelessly after a roll over?
I was interested in buying it, but everything went for astronomical prices, and Jeff Lane became its proper curator, so it can be now viewed in his wonderful museum of the unusual.
Anyone know who the owner of the one in the video is?

My Minicomtesse closed the festivities by winning  "WORST OF SHOW' at the annual Concourse DeLemons in Monterey the day before Pebble Beach in 2014.
It was the most highly coveted award of the show.

I will be checking this column for suggestions for future winners for this Concourse.
 

[Jim Janecek]

there is only one Hoffmann.
Bruce Weiner acquired it years ago and later sold it to Jeff Lane a year or so before the auction.

[Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)]

According to this reporter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=Y16ObVRvgOE

He seems to me to be a bit of an irritating, exaggerating, melodramatic prat, not "The Worst reporter in the World" but certainly a long way down the list! 

I reckon there are plenty of odd-ball cars which are better contenders for that title, not all of them even bubbles and micros.

Show this uninformed twit up, let us know which car you think is the "World's Worst Car"....

Glad I'm not the only one with that opinion! This is a home-built one-off based on what must have been a very derelict pre-war Goliath three-wheeled van with some Heath-Robinson engineering to try and drive it in reverse so that it could be transformed into a more modern car like conveyance. Like all of these restorations, you wonder how much was lost or gained in putting the thing back together and just wish there was a comprehensive set of photos to see of the before and after.

I hope Mr Lane's very interesting collection of vehicles remains intact for very many years to come, even if it's on the wrong side of the atlantic!

http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/hoffmann-1951

http://www.microcarmuseum.com/tour/hoffmann.html

[marcus]

I should make it clear that as far as I am concerned being the "worst" most certainly does NOT prevent it from being liked and interesting to myself and probably many other micro fans! It might even have some genuine merits!

Let's have your nominations for the "Worst" car in your opinion!

[steven mandell]

there is only one Hoffmann.
Bruce Weiner acquired it years ago and later sold it to Jeff Lane a year or so before the auction.

Thanks for the correction.  As always Jim has his facts straight.
Which is more than I can say about the symmetry of its windshield angles and roofline.
More endearments for us to treasure.
What was the other "one off" of approximately similar dimension with the sidelong engine that Jeff did buy at the auction?
Another contender for this award?

[1bubble10 (paul smith)]

This is a tricky one as who decides on what collection of factors constitutes the worse car (ugly, poor handling, weak mechanicals, unreliable, noisy, uncomfortable, unconventional, hindered/plagued with technology an so on). The list would probably be different for everyone. For me I don't particularly lean to one vehicle that wins that award but could name a few for different items on my list.
(i)  The new fiat 500 diesel - In 2008 I bought one of these as a town runabout. I think that this was one of the first diesels fitted with the dreaded DPF. Like most people in 2008 I did not know what a DPF was or that  the car even had one. Totally unsuitable for a town car and that is exactly what the car was marketed as. Needless to say I sold the car after 12 months (fingers burnt and scarred), and never to be repeated. I have a hate for any vehicle that has an ECU - I own two vehicles (at present) with ECU's but when they start to get unreliable/expensive to repair I shall replace them with older technology.
(ii)  Once the Fiat 500 was moved on I bought a microcar virgo (one extreme to the other). This car was very weak mechanically. One of its weakest components was the gearbox and gear change. I was having to adjust the gear change cables almost weekly which never really improved it much, the design was hideous. The brakes which were disc at the front and drums at the back were equally poor. I thought there was a problem with them when I bought it, so replaced the rear cylinders shoes and front pads, checked over the calipers and bled the brake just to find the brakes were no better. The gas struts for the tailgate were unable to hold the tailgate up. When I went to buy replacements I was advised not to bother as the new ones would be no better.

[Big Al]

Ligier Ambra has to be the worst car I have driven. Not because it is the worst car I have driven, though. There are worse, purely through age and crudity. The Ligier has no excuse to be so crap, as it has access to all of modern technology to the date of its manufacturer. Indeed it takes advantage of it, in same very good parts. Yet in other areas, and in selection of what is important for the weight limits, it completely misses the point and shows up the huge problem of a product made to sell into a artificially restricted market. At the same time the Japanese were making similar sized cars into a differing limited market and producing designs full of fantastic innervations. Not all worked out, but it shows up these French microcars badly. I am picking on the Ligier as I had interment experience of one. It was so bad it could not keep up, nor compete with my KR200 - giving it twice the engine, volume and benefits of 40 years of technical developments (or does that show how good the Schmitt was in its day?). The BUMS agreed that driving the engine cover-less Reliant Ant, that jumped out of gear, was a better driving experience, as you new where it was going and when its handling failed. The noise level was about the same!
For total and thorough disappointment, I offer the Ligier Ambra.

However I could list several De Tomasso, Lamborghini and Ferraris, which stylistically got so up there own bottoms they forgot a car is designed to transport a person, rather than be a torture chamber to demonstrate an expensive lack of taste to attract rather unpleasant plastic enhanced females and attention seeking TV presenters.

[marcus]

I agree that some "super cars" are actually "worst" cars, "car" being short for "carriage" i.e. a device for the carriage of people and/or goods. This word also has an implication that the "carriage" is good enough to carry the occupant(s) and/or goods all the way to their destination in a tolerably good, safe and convenient way. A superca in a traffic jam is likely to overheat and/or burn out its clutch and is therefore not fir for the purpose of conveying the uncomfortable occupant!

The Shelter was a pretty poor vehicle. A praise-worthy effort for an individual and far better than I could do, but it did miss the mark badly on its engineering.

[Rob Dobie]

And all the other Peel P50 Copies. 

[p50fan]

Sorry Rob I have to differ, but I might be a bit biased 

[Big Al]

I wonder which is the best Peel derivative, and why? Maybe that should be a different topic!

[richard]

I guess that one could end up in litigation

[Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)]

The worst car I ever drove was a Japanese people carrier we had at work one morning as a loan vehicle a couple of years ago which (as usual) I had about 2 minutes to try to acclimatise myself to before taking five students with ADHD and learning difficulties off to college and trying to make sure that they weren't late. Usually, I can master things like opening the doors quite quickly, but this flash new sparkling contraption with every extra under the sun had the optional electrically powered sliding doors for the passengers. Unfortunately, it was immediately obvious that they didn't work with the car remote. I did manage to get them open with the old-fashioned method of inserting the key into the lock on each side individually, but my passengers quickly found that once inside, they couldn't open them again. It took about 25 minutes wading through the seemingly 10000 page instruction manual before I managed to fathom out that it had been delivered with the child locks set on and with the electronic doors switched off and then to find out where that little childlock button was hidden (in the central consul above your head in-between the interior light switches with some very ambiguous symbol on it -obviously) and where the control for the electronic doors was - under the passenger seat - simple! Admittedly my impressions were probably coloured by the baying mob of students who were all fighting to help me open the doors with any mechanical implement they could find and who ended up catching the bus, but I think you can have too much sophistication. Give me a Ford Transit any day.

[AndyL]

I have a hate for any vehicle that has an ECU - I own two vehicles (at present) with ECU's but when they start to get unreliable/expensive to repair I shall replace them with older technology.

How will you do that then? ECU's are essential on modern engined cars, you just can't get the right air fuel ratios required for modern emissions, plus the driveability benefits.

ECU's are very rugged and reliable these days, because a lot of R & D went into ruggedising components so they stand up to the punishment out in the field. Goinf back to clockwork ignition and carbs is a real step backwards.