I think the Ford Edsel (named after Henry Ford's son) comes pretty close to the top of the all-time worst car list.

Went like, and sold like, a lame duck.

And then there are Rovers (at least from 1980 onwards).

I had a Rover 2000 which had electrics that'd cut out just at the hint of a rainy weather forecast.

Just cut out. Dead as in parrot.

Which meant the engine went. But the worse thing was the power steering went too.

Great fun when cornering and you suddenly have no power and a dead steering wheel that doesn't do anything. Loved that car so much I paid to have it carted away.

Volkswagen Beetle. I had 2 and they were both unreliable, crude, noisy, uncomfortable and totally unworthy of their cult status. Good riddance to them.

The Bubble car! Weird little thing that opened at the front, had no room for legs and probably made 20 mph on a steep downhill slope! Very fashionable in the early 60s.Came in all sorts of pastel colours to match the owners nail varnish!

One thing worse than your Allegro - MY Allegro!

I had rust in the floor of the boot too; but mine also had a tendency to burn out exhaust valves (previous owner might have been running it on 2-star fuel). At every MOT it needed new rebound straps.
It used to use 2.5 pints of oil per 100 miles; when starting on a cold day it could fill the street with smoke.

And that's before you consider the nicer features like the Naugahide interior (does anybody know what a Nauga looks like?) or the SQUARE STEERING WHEEL!

And that horrible Hydrasag (sic) suspension, which meant that if you hit a pothole while cornering, TWO wheels lost traction.


It was still better than the Mk2. Escort which I bought in a hurry a couple of years later. I lost the jack on that one when it fell through the boot floor!