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18 Awful Cars That Should Never Have Been Made
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http://buzzdrives.com/18-awful-cars-tha ... been-made/

#6

1971 Chevrolet Vega



The 1971 Chevrolet Vega was falling apart shortly after it left the shop. Originally thought to be the savior of the American car industry, the constant recall scandals nearly sunk Chevrolet. This is the reason American started buying Japanese cars right here. When a car cannot even hold its own oil, you know its bad news. Chevrolet should have been ashamed of themselves, but at least it could hold its own on the short tracks.

Yeah; that's a tad harsh don't you think? Blame the Vega for driving American car buyers to the Import showrooms. I know they rusted quickly, and a lot of them burned oil. But we love 'em anyway.

I agree, yes the cars rusted badly and early (my sister had the front fenders of her 71 replaced under warranty as they did not make it thru 1 Michigan Winter!) But I seem to recall all the Japanese cars of the early 70's rusting just as badly but no one holds that against them, the engine issues are another story we all know about.

Yup, they must've been horrible cars - the only sold a million of them by the third year of production!


Chuck

plus, how popular are they now eh?

It all boils down to potential; the Vega was cheap, sporty looking and easy to shoehorn a SBC into. The poor old Pinto just never had the "look" or the popularity. I'm sure Ford sold almost as many, but where are they now? I see the odd one at the track, but almost never see one on the street or at a car show.

Auto critics were just that, critics...and a lot of hoopla over nothing really...there's bad in evry make and we've all seen it over the years. They sold over a million lemons of evry brand, and the euro models weren't even good enuf for our Canadian winters lol...now evry carnutt wants the good ole H body for fun and excitement.
( really pretty unique in that we were able to preserve such a" terrible" car, idiots ). and still find parts around and evry time one of these comes out of the woodwork, wow!.. because ppl loved them so much that they rat-holed them away to keep it, ..ya real bad cars...pffff
...glad to have one....and it's still worth what it was new and then some...36 years later ....maybe the next gen. of "critics" should take a realistic look, and deal with crap like bathtub surrounds that peel, faulty microwaves, light fixtures that flame out, replacing anything new that contains a micro chip..oh wait, that's everything!...the "disposable world that they helped to create in the first place!
...Critics are Over Rated!.....a product these days is only as good as it's warranty....oh yah, they didn't mention how terrific the warranty was on this terrible car did they! ....critics...don't need'em.

Yep, same old crap, by a different uninformed source. I've owned three of the cars on the list, and they all have been pretty decent machines, even if they were a bad idea (Cimmaron) or ugly (Aztek). but hey, the last guy said they were bad, so they must be. I'll add a little more hyperbole to his list, call it mine, and sell it to a click bait site. If they could do a little research, or even better, put the cars into perspective with the times, they might learn something. Take the Mustang II, was it comparable to the original? No. Was it perfect timing on Ford's part to kill the bloated one in favor of the little, fuel efficient one? You bet. I doubt anyone at Ford thought the Mustang II was a mistake when they were selling a few hundred thousand a year during the 70's.

This article should have never been made..LOL

Al

He's not wrong. The 71 Vega should have never been released as it was built.
The beancounters eliminated the inner fender, radiator overflow and cut corners on the engine. The car would have been about $65 more expensive done correctly, but Chevy done screwed the pooch and got the black eye they deserved.
Solid rotors and those caliper pins that rattled like a mofo weren't exactly great either.

That being said, I grew up right in those days and those early Datsuns and Hondas were pretty shitty too. The Corolla was a bit better in the early 70's, they had a few years to refine it by then.

I always wonder why the first Hyundia and Kias never make these lists. Cars built in the 90's that can't even get to 100k? They were pathetic. Hell, I'm not sure a Rio can get to 100k yet!

To me, the styling of Vega is really good. It can be compared to the Italian coupes of the same era.

Oddly enough three other engines were on drawing board for Vega, the old chevy 2 4 cyl with better crossflow head, same with ohc conversion (actuall engine was straight up dyno sucess), or 4cyl version of Pontiac ohc 6cyl. It was even pointed out in testingvegas engine needed steel sleeves, but bean counters would not allow it. From a GM guy i was told some replacement bare blocks even got sleeved due to aluminum cylinders failing to properly etch. Even came with special instructions for "before building". I bet old nova 4 cyl would have been sweet ,saw couple once . Husband and wife had matching deuces destryoed by tornado, decided to buy 2 clen vega trade ins and had engine/trans swapped. Hubby said wifes ran fine but dealers couldnt used vegas away. So she drove it for few months, popped timing belt by then insurance settled on novas and hubbies vega blew first so had swap scienced out and hers took weekend. Same mileage, more reliable, same or better power.

Quit posting this crap.

"From a GM guy i was told some replacement bare blocks even got sleeved due to aluminum cylinders failing to properly etch. Even came with special instructions for "before building".

That GM guy makes no sense what so ever. Even if it was true that some 'etching failed', and I don't believe it, it was far cheaper to throw the block away than to sleeve them. The bean counters were in control.

Dick

A article on aluminum engines http://www.enginebuildermag.com/2016/04 ... um-blocks/

Al