You might be right about the Nano. I did a little googling, and people are like "I love it, but in 6 months A, B, C, D, and E broke". Starter solenoids and starters, heater control knobs breaking off in the persons hand, doors that are hard to shut (which could be an adjustment to the latch, except the repair places don't fix it), and so on.
The US one.. well, they may start selling them in 2012-2013 time frame. But they plan to replace the engine with a US-spec (bigger) engine -- the one in India gets 56MPG, I'm sure this'll reduce that. And to make it US street legal, all the mods (air bags, different bumpers, stronger roof, and on and on) Tata says it will increase price from $2200 to over $8000. A base Hyundai Accent is $9985.When I was younger, early 60’s, one of my first cars I was dumb enough to buy an English ford Anglia slightly used. It was the worst car I ever had. I have had many cars since then too numerous to mention. That car had something go wrong on the average of every 2 weeks. I cost me a lot of hard earned money. A neighbor across the street backed into it smashing the front end when he was drunk. He inadvertently doing me a big favor therefore ending what was becoming a serious financial problem.I bet you never heard of a drunk driver actually doing someone a favor.
Being a missleman doesn’t necessarily make him a rocket scientist. He is a Kansan after all.
I am probably one of the few here who will admit to having owned a Yugo. It was an '87 that I bought used in late '87. It served me all that winter, and never failed to start in sub zero F temps. I sold it in the spring before the war got into full swing in Yugoslavia. After that, their value went way down hill.
I have to agree that the Renault Dauphine was the worst car I ever drove. The boss of my very first job had one. I drove it a lot when I was in my teen years. It was only slightly younger. It literally would only make 50 MPH DOWNHILL. Parts had to have Charles de Gaulle’s stamp of approval before they could be shipped from France, so they took forever to get and were too expensive.
While the unibody frame of the Trabbi may have been metal, the body was made of a plastic they called Duroplast. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duroplast That’s why they didn’t rust. It was either that, or cardboard.
See also this under Trabant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant
Dear Chiaventone: Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany. That’s his “home town”. He spent time in Wittenberg in training, where he also nailed his 95 theses to the church door on the day before All Saints , October 31, 1517, I believe.
After the Pope declared him a fugitive (that nasty Diet of Worms) whom anyone could shoot, he was taken in by the local duke at the Wartburg castle, and spent the rest of the time translating the Bible into German, composed “A Mighty Fortress is our God” (Ein Feste Burcht ist Unser Gott) and slowly became a hero of both the Reformation and the rise of German nationalism.
Hyundai LISTENS! Renault never did and the Communist carmakers did not feel the need to listen.
The Hyundai Pony was a biodegradable car, like the Renault “Le Car”.
Hyndai built their first Sonatas in a new plant in Canada. A very brave act; new car, new country, new plant. However, the labor scene in that region was very poisonous, and out of step withe Korean work ethic; these guys came into work on Saturday morning.
As a result, the Sonata did not have enough build quality to succeed. However, the production was moved to Korea, and any design faults ironed out. Successive models have all been better, and are now made in the US. The Canadian plant is still up for sale, to may knowledge.
Also, from the dismal Pony, to a better, but still not great Excel, then to the very good Accent portrays Hyundai’s continuous Improvement process in car design.
The Elantra was already a not too bad car when introduced, and it went better from that level on.
By comparison, Jaguars overheated in California traffic in 1949 (Clark Gable bought the first XK-120), and it took the company till 1963!!! to design a car (the XK-E) that would meet he climate needs in its largest export market.
We used to joke about Skoda before they got taken over by VW. " How do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill it up with gas "
Here’s what the BBC found when they surveyed the UK for the Top 10 lemons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2004/10_october/crap_cars.shtml
You won’t have heard of the Allegro or Marina in the US. We wish we hadn’t! They represented the death throes of UK car manufacturing in the 1970’s. State-owned British Leyland turned out a number of underwhelming lemons with plasticky interiors, tired styling and lacklustre performance. The Allegro was a family car with a square steering wheel and all the pizzazz of a rainy day. Due to poor management and strike-happy workers every car was a “friday afternoon special”.
BTW everyone raves on about the original Mini ( not the steroid BMW version ). I used to get a lift in one which filled up with water in the rain and the door opened by tugging on a rope!
Another friend had an MGB with a unique feature - the cassette player went at the same speed as the car! The music would slow down when he braked at the lights. Then the singer would go from Leonard Cohen to the Chipmunks as he put his foot down!
Had the Robin been there, it would have blown off too, being lighter than the Yugo 
Actually the bridge thing wasn’t so much the Yugo’s fault as much as bad design of the bridge.
But the Robin does have one thing over on the Yugo - - A yugo has never been an integral part of a rocket assembly:
The phrase “First is the worst, second is the best” certainly applies to my vote: the 1886 Benz. Here are some of its features:
<1 horsepower–Probably not enough to get a Tata Nano moving.
<10 mph top speed–The slowest 2011s can probably make at least 100.
CHAIN DRIVE–COMPLETELY absurd!!! They had gears then; couldn’t they figure out how to build a transmission?!?
3 wheels…Tiller steering–Both completely outdated features.
OK, so this car was state-of-the-art technology in 1886. However, It lacked nearly all of the parts that are found on modern cars. I, for one, do not want to have to drive this car.
ShiftKicker
Sounds like you gotta take better care of your bus dude! The fire is very likely due to bad/ un-clamped fuel lines, or damaged rubber grommets through the firewall. These are very easy things to address and are frequently overlooked. (This is coming from someone who has had 5 aircooled vws and had one catch fire.) If you do any VW forum browsing, people have taken up the mantra: REPLACE YOUR FUEL LINES!!! I do it yearly, it takes 30 minutes, costs $20 and gives me sound mind.
Parts falling off, well thats on you too! Its an antique, if you want something to be maintenance free, go get a new toyota! These are well built vehicles, and when properly taken care of can last for hundreds of thousands of miles. How many other early 70’s cars are still on the road? And even older… my 64 does 30k miles a year and is my year round daily driver here in Massachusetts!
Worst US-branded automobile: Chevrolet Chevette
Most improved in last few years: Hyundai.
Temporary Kansan. I was in the Air Force at the time.