The Greatest Automotive Flops of the Last 25 Years-“My other Maserati is also a piece of s**t.” —bumper sticker seen on a

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ­—Truman Capote

“My other Maserati is also a piece of s**t.” —bumper sticker seen on a Chrysler’s TC by Maserati in Berkeley, California

As nouns go, “flop” is a good one—short, peppy, and to the point. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines a flop as “an act or sound of flopping,” or “a complete failure.” It implies a cheeky, jovial kind of bad, a light-hearted crappiness of fate that goes beyond simple notions of success or defeat.

By the same token, in the automotive world, a flop isn’t necessarily a bad car. Bad cars come and go all the time, but flops are something more—they’re an unholy convergence of economic, corporate, and design conditions; a perfect storm of bad luck, bad planning, and—say what?—engineering. Four-wheeled flops don’t have to be miserable to drive or vomitous to look at (although it certainly helps); they just have to be a no-questions-asked sales disaster.

With that in mind, we give you the greatest vehicular face-plants of the past quarter-century. Welcome to the big, floppy machine—try not to touch anything.

Vector (1971–present)
Click to enlarge picture


Vector W8
Vector Motors founder Jerry Wiegert has been compared to P.T. Barnum, his company to Never-Never Land, and his cars to—well, most of the
[link to editorial.autos.msn.com]