User:SunStar Net/Automotive industry failures
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The automotive industry has seen its fair share of failed models and brands. While some cars flopped for being unreliable (Yugo), others flopped for design defects plaguing the car (Pontiac Fiero), missing their target audience (Edsel, Buick Reatta), poor design (Pontiac Aztek, Acura Vigor), while others don't really have a reason for flopping, but instead they had poor sales (Suzuki X90). Many of these cars however have built a cult following, such as the Plymouth Superbird, AMC Pacer, Pontiac Fiero, Corvair and the Subaru SVX.
[edit] Vehicles
[edit] Acura Vigor
The Vigor was a mid-size sedan introduced in 1992 that fit between the Integra sedan and the Legend in Acura's lineup. Sales were slow due to the car's 5-cylinder engine, small size, and lack of rear legroom. It was cancelled after only 3 years in production.
[edit] AMC Pacer
Introduced in 1975 as the "first wide small car", the Pacer was a small car that was heavy. Designed for a Wankel rotary engine that never materialized, it bulged even more to fit a 6-cylinder or V8. It was too bizarre for most tastes in looks. As a two door model, the passenger's side door was 4 inches wider than the driver's door (supposedly to encourage rear seat passengers to enter and exit the vehicle from the safer (curb) side. Sales were good the first two years before they fell dramatically. In the end, it became a commercial failure
[edit] Amphicar
The Amphicar was mixture of a car and a boat. Made in West Germany. "A failure in Canada due to high price."[1] The floorboard was very prone to rotting which could cause the car to sink. Water could seep through the hood into the engine, causing the engine to seize. Sales faded away rather than starting a trend. Today they are prized collectibles common at public boating events, and new cars are trying out this idea again. A mint example fetched $115K plus 8% buyers premium in Scottsdale [2]
[edit] Bricklin SV-1
This safety/sports car from Canada suffered from quality problems. Just 2,857 were sold in 3 years.
[edit] Buick Reatta
The Reatta was an aerodynamically-styled car originally made by Buick to attract "mature" buyers. But the car's controversial styling and heavy amount of computerized features worked against the car in its intended market. The car was mostly handbuilt and the Reatta sold just 21,751 units in a 4-year run from 1988 to 1991.
[edit] Cadillac V8-6-4 variable cylinder engine
Poor reliability and dubious benefit doomed the variable displacement concept for a decade.
[edit] Cadillac Allanté
Cadillac's first convertible for almost 20 years, an effort by General Motors to enter the 'MB SL' product slot. It was a collosal failure [3]. The Allante was introduced for the 1987 model year and was by far Cadillac's most expensive vehicle. All parts for manufacture were shipped from Italy to the US where the vehicle was assembled by hand. The relatively high price alongside the lack of an engine as powerful as those commonly found in the price range at the time caused sales to be only 21,000 units over a 4 year run. The Allante also was poorly built, and it is known for its roofs leaking. The Allante also was no help to Cadillac's reputation since it was severely hurt due to the Cimarron debacle just before the Allante entered production. The Allante was second in a number of moves that nearly lead to the discontinutation of the brand Cadillac successfully relaunched the idea of an upmarket convertible with the Cadillac XLR.
[edit] Cadillac Catera
A rebadged Opel brought to the US in the late 90's, "the Cadillac that zigs instead of zags." The advertising is mostly blamed for the failure of the Catera.[4]. Reliability was poor and so were sales. The Catera was dropped in 2001.
[edit] Cadillac Cimarron
The least successful model in the history of Cadillac was developed as part of GM's mid 1980s downsizing. GM rushed the Cimarron into production about three years ahead of schedule, denying Cadillac time to develop a more refined car and requiring the use of a four-cylinder engine as the V6 would not be ready for a few more years. It was initially sold as "Cimarron by Cadillac", implying a lack of confidence on Cadillac's part. Sales were disappointing as its size and styling did not prove popular with Cadillac buyers. Not only was the vehicle perceived as being too small for a Cadillac, it shared many design components with its much cheaper Chevrolet cousin. Though the Cimarron was eventually improved to the point of complete competence, sales never improved and its initial impression on the public continued to hurt Cadillac's reputation as a builder of luxury cars in the important 35-45 demographic segment. After seven years, the Cimarron was discontinued.
[edit] Caterham 21
Intended as a modern, more practical alternative to the Caterham/Lotus Seven. Unfortunately, Lotus successfully reinvented the Seven themselves at the same time with the Lotus Elise.
[edit] Chevrolet Corvair
While the Corvair was an early sales success, design flaws highlighted by Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed proved to be the car's downfall. Despite fixing the problems that Nader detailed in his book, and the successful 1965 redesign, General Motors halted future development of the car and sales declined for the Corvair for the rest of its lifetime. The '65 design still looks modern, and has a loyal owner following. [5]
[edit] Chrysler Airflow
Despite the airflow's current recognition as one of the watershed designs of the automotive age, its advanced aerodynamic design made the mistake of being too far ahead of its mid-1930s; during the depths of the Great Depression consumers avoided the car because of its odd appearance and falsly rumored unsafe conditions. The failure of the Airflow pushed Chrysler design the conservative extreme, resulting in the "three-box" designs launched in 1949. Despite this, it is considered one of the most influentail cars ever made.
[edit] De Lorean DMC-12
Roughly 9,000 were built before John De Lorean's arrest on charges of cocaine-smuggling (for which he was later acquitted) closed the factory two years after its launch. After it's discontinuation, it appeared in the film Back to the Future, which made the car famous.
[edit] Dodge Dakota convertible
In 1989, Dodge created a convertible version of its popular Dakota pickup truck, with a ragtop in place of a cab with a small rollbar installed. The general public thought that the design was too awkward and that the idea of a convertible pickup was absurd. Only 2,000 units were sold in two years.
[edit] Dodge Charger Daytona / Plymouth Superbird
The Charger Daytona and the Superbird were built to be the best at NASCAR, and they were. As street cars, however, they had radical styling. The rounded nose caps could lead to overheating easily. NASCAR wrote the design out of their rules. Production ceased, with 500 Charger Daytonas and 2,000 Superbirds built. Many Superbirds were converted to Road Runners just to get them to sell. Today they are among the most valuable of any kind of car, with an all original Superbird recently being sold at over US $200,000 on eBay.
[edit] Dodge Rampage
The Dodge Rampage was a mixture of a car and a pickup truck; it was based upon the Dodge Omni. The Rampage was a front-wheel drive truck, which is not normally used for trucks because a heavy load on the rear of the truck can cause traction problems. This is mainly considered to be the downfall of the Rampage, along with a weak engine. Its Plymouth Scamp twin only sold around 2,000 units, making it one of the rarest Plymouths ever created.
[edit] Buckminster Fuller's 1933 Dymaxion car
Original and innovative, but a fatal crash and safety issues with rear-wheel steering aborted investor interest and further development. A total of three were built.
[edit] Ford Ranger EV
Ford's only electric-powered pickup truck. There were numerous problems with the NiMH battery-equipped Rangers associated with an inability to accept a charge in hot environmental conditions, and some other problems requiring replacement of major components, but Ford successfully addressed these problems early in the vehicle's life cycle. There were some range issues around the 25,000 mile service life with the NiMH batteries, and due to the great expense of these batteries, Ford elected not to fix this range problem (a valid response under the lease terms). Some leases elected to continue the lease despite the shorter range.
[edit] Ford Taurus Ghia
Since its introduction in 1986, the Ford Taurus has been one of Ford's most successful models. But when Ford tried to sell it in Europe in Austraila as the "Taurus Ghia", it was a massive failure, due to its high price, which also lead to the model's downfall in North America as well.
[edit] GM EV1
Introduced in 1996 as a fully electric plug-in car, leased (not sold) by General Motors though it's Saturn division, but badged as GM. The design for the EV1 came mostly from the prototype "Impact" made by AeroEnvironment. General Motors claimed it proved unpopular despite the fact that all of the EV1s offered for lease, about 800, were leased. The first generation, the '96 model year, had a range between 45 and 75 miles. The second generation had a range between 90 and 140 miles. The range between charges has been stated, by some, as the EV1's greatest flaw. In late 2004, the last of the leases of the EV1 ended. General Motors donated some EV1s to museums and universities. The majority of the remaining EV1s were crushed despite offers from former lessees to purchase them.
[edit] GMC Envoy XUV
Despite the groundbreaking retractable roof feature first seen on the 1963 Studebaker Wagonaire, the XUV failed to sell like in sufficient volume to justify the expense to General Motors to continue marketing the vehicle. This vehicle was discontinued after only 2 years since introduction.
[edit] Hudson Jet
With its race proven step-down bodied full-size cars in their sixth year, Hudson gambled almost everything that it had into the development of the Hudson Jet, a compact car designed by committee. While Hudson sold more than 40,000 units, the impact to the bottomline was so negative that the company was forced to merge with rival Nash in 1954 to form American Motors.
[edit] Hudson 1956-1957
Following a poor showing in 1955 when Hudson's nameplate was applied to modified Nash bodied cars, AMC hired designer Richard Arbib to create a unique personality for Hudson. The designer christened his design motif as the v-line style, which applied liberal amounts of chrome in "V" patterns from front to fin and everything in between. The resulting cars were both grotesque and a burlesque of design gone awry. The public reacted by shunning Hudson, which saw its sales drop to 10,671 units (92% off its 1949 production) for 1956 and just 4,108 in 1957.
[edit] Isuzu Axiom
The Axiom, a rebodied Rodeo, was aimed at too narrow an audience to save the sinking Isuzu nameplate.
[edit] Jaguar XJ220
The XJ220 concept car was unveiled to great response. Because of this, Jaguar put it into production to compete with Lamborghini and Ferrari. Jaguar expected it to be the next McLaren F1 or Ferrari F40. But unfortuneately, the XJ220 ended up being a giant embarrasement for the company. In fact, potential buyers were so amazed by the concept, that they gave Jaguar a 50,000 GBP down payment on one, and would pay the rest when they took delivery, but when they were to take delivery of their new XJ220s they were so dissaponited by it, that they didn't even care to ask Jaguar for their 50,000 GBP down payments back, but instead just upped and left, leaving Jaguar with the finished car. This turned out being very common, so Jaguar had to rent a storage space to keep 78 finished cars that their owners didn't want, which was roughly a quarter of the XJ220's planned production numbers. Jaguar cut production short, and sold off the 78 cars in storage at very low prices, mostly to collectors, predicting that this would make these cars very collectible in later years. While super sports cars are almost never profitible for the company, the XJ220 turned out to be a major disaster for Jaguar, and a rare flop in the super sports car market. Because of this, XJ220s are today very collectible, and are highly valued.
[edit] Leyland P76
Infamous in Australia as a commercial flop.
[edit] Lincoln Aviator
The Lincoln Aviator was a mid-size luxury SUV made by Ford's Lincoln luxury marque. Since the market for a luxury midslze SUV is almost non existant, sales were poor, and the Aviator only lasted two years.
[edit] Lincoln Blackwood
The Blackwood was intended to be a luxurious version of the Ford F-150, much like the Lincoln Navigator was to the Ford Expedition. A velvet-lined bed, low towing capability, and a single exterior color led to the cancellation of this model after 15 months with 3,356 sold. Lincoln successfully relaunched the idea of a luxury pickup with teh Lincoln Mark LT.
[edit] Lincoln Versailles
The Versailles was introduced for the 1977 model year as Lincoln's new mid-size sports sedan, meant to compete with the Cadillac Seville. The vehicle failed however, due to its many similarties in terms of exterior and interior design with its lesser Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch cousins. The Versailles featured the same dashboard and exterior contour as the much cheaper Ford Granada and failed to meet the standards of Lincoln buyers. Lincoln slightly modified the rear sail panels hoping that the modification would reduce the visual relationship to the Grenada and Monarch, however the change failed to attract consumers. Production of the Versailles ended after the 1980 model year.
[edit] Mazda Navajo
The Mazda Navajo was a two-door SUV that was a rebadged Ford Explorer Sport. Even though the Explorer turned out to be a major hit, the Navajo sold poorly. When the Explorer was redesigned in 1995, the Navajo was discontinued and the capacity given over to producing the new Mercury Mountaineer, in 1997.
[edit] Mercury Marauder
The Marauder was introduced in 2003 as a modern day muscle car. However, it wasn't the success that Mercury hoped, and it only lasted two years.
[edit] Mitsubishi Raider
This Dodge Dakota clone sold so poorly that Mitsubishi reportedly stopped production after just four months.
[edit] Nissan Axxess
Although this model was successful in Canada and Europe (where it was known as the Nissan Prairie), it flopped badly in the United States. Sales were so poor, that Nissan cut this model after its first year on the market, and later brought in the Nissan Quest, which was a successful venture into the minivan market.
[edit] NSU Ro 80
A stylish and advanced car that was plagued by early reliability problems with its revolutionary Wankel engine. The resulting financial crisis lead to the company being acquired by Volkswagen.
[edit] Oldsmobile 5.7 L diesel engine
Also marketed as the Olds 350 Diesel, it was offered in General Motors automobiles between 1978 and 1985. Because it was a modified gasoline engine rather than a proper diesel design, the unit had a tendency to tear itself apart. So poor was this engine's reliability record that small diesel engines were shunned by U.S. consumers for a generation.
[edit] Pontiac Aztek
Controversial styling resulted in just over 27,000 sales per year instead of an expected 50,000 to 70,000. GM Vice President Robert Lutz regularly referred to the Aztek as looking like "an angry appliance" and a symptom of what was wrong with GM's vehicle styling programs. Discontinued in 2005.
[edit] Pontiac Fiero
Originally conceived as a commuter car, the Fiero was initially a sales success. However the car received negative reviews by Car & Driver and Motor Trend magazines for not having enough power in acceleration tests. In mid-course, Pontiac began to remarket the car as a mid-engine sports car. A design defect in the car's 4-cylinder engine caused it to catch fire. While the V6 version didn't suffer from this problem, the Fiero's reputation was damaged, and even after GM worked out all the flaws, sales fell from earlier levels. The car turned a profit every year it was sold. GM discontinued it in 1988. It is, however one of few collectible GM cars of the 1980s.
[edit] Renault Avantime
Renault teamed up with Matra to build the next modern European MPV. Many buyers didn't like its strange styling which sacrificed passenger room. Matra later went bankrupt, and Renault scrapped the Avantime after two years in production. Only 8,450 Avantimes were produced.
[edit] Subaru SVX
The Subaru SVX was the only production car to date to have an all around glass canopy. The car failed in every market it was sold in due to lack of marketing dollars, concerns of safety in a rollover and radical styling; the car's introduction also came at a time when American consumers were beginning their love affair with SUVs. It was also plagued with known reliability problems due to its heavy weight. Worldwide production of the SVX never topped 25,000 units through its six year run. The SVX is one of the few 1990s Japanese collectible cars however, and the only 1990s Japanese car that is currently increasing in value.
[edit] Suzuki X-90
This 2-seater sporty mini-SUV was not welcomed in the market. Just 7,205 were sold in 3 years, making it among the slowest-selling full-production vehicles in history.
[edit] Toyota Project Genesis
A series of three automobiles born in the late-1990s/2000 - which included the Toyota Echo, Toyota MR2 Spyder, and redesigned Toyota Celica - intended to make inroads to the younger Gen Y market segment. All three models failed to meet sales expectations and have been discontinued in favor of the separate Scion line. The MR2 Spyder was imported to the United States at only 5,000 units per year from year 2000-05.
[edit] Vauxhall Firenza hpF
Just 204 built instead of the projected 30,000+. Killed by the fuel crisis, its rarity has at least assured it classic status in modern times.
[edit] Volkswagen 412
Volkswagen's last rear-engine, air-cooled car. Although it had interesting and novel technologies at the time (MacPherson struts in front, independent rear suspension, fuel injection, a supplemental heater powered by gasoline), the car was only produced from 1969 until July 1974.
[edit] Volkswagen Phaeton
The Phaeton was Volkswagen's attempt to compete with other luxury marques, especially fellow German brands such as Mercedes Benz and BMW. Unfortunately, VW had a entry-level image dating back all the way to the beetle, and the fact of a luxury Volkswagen was plain looked at as a joke. [6] Worse than that, the VW Phaeton pitted VW against the Volkswagen Group's own luxury marque, Audi. While it didn't match sales expetations in any of it's markets, sales in Europe have been good enough for production to carry on, although importation to North America has ceased after a three year run, making the Phaeton one of the biggest flops to ever come out of Volkswagen. In fact, reaction to the Phaeton was so bad that Volkswagen completely stopped advertising the Phaeton midway through its debut year. Jeremy Clarkson summed up the reason why the Phaeton flopped to plainly being that a 68,000 GBP VW was just never meant to be. Despite poor sales, the vehicle itself gets high reviews.
[edit] Yugo
This Yugoslavian car was sold in the United States from 1986 to 1990, and quickly gained a reputation for being as unreliable as it was cheap.
[edit] Brands
[edit] Daewoo
This Korean marque flopped badly in some markets, especially the United States. When Daewoo made its U.S. debut for the 1999 model year, it sold cars through independent contractors on college campuses rather than at conventional dealerships. U.S. sales ended in 2002 when Daewoo Motor America went bankrupt. New owner General Motors has dropped the Daewoo name outside Asia in favor of its Chevrolet brand. However, Daewoo sales have been moderately successful in some regions, such as the UK and Ireland. Daewoo cars are successfully being sold in the U.S. as Suzukis and Chevrolets.
[edit] Eagle
The Eagle brand was formed by Chrysler from the remains of AMC. Aimed at the enthusiast driver, the state of the art Brampton Assembly plant was built at great expense for the Eagle Premier that was largely ignored by K car and Taurus buyers. Sales of the largely badge engineered cars faltered and the marque was folded after 11 years. Only the Eagle Talon sports car was a sales success, due in part to the fact that offered the AWD version of the Mitsubishi Eclipse and Plymouth Laser. However a plant Eagle used to use now produces the successful Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger models.
[edit] Edsel
Named after Henry Ford's son, the Edsel was one of the biggest and most lavish new car line launches in history quickly became a legendary flop. Just over 100,000 were built in three years. In 1960, Edsel's final model year, only a few thousand were built, enough to use up the parts backstock. The last Edsel rolled off of the line in November of 1959.
[edit] Liberty
In May 1985, hot on the heels of General Motors announced partnership with Toyota (NUMMI) and the launch of the Geo nameplate, Lee Iacocca announced the formation of the "Liberty", a new Chrysler marque targeting younger, import-loyal car buyers. Before the Liberty could get to the formation stage, Chrysler acquired American Motors for the rights to Jeep, and Liberty quietly disappeared, when Chrysler decieded to launch Eagle as its youth-targeted brand.
[edit] Merkur
This was the U.S. marque of European Fords sold by Mercury dealers. The Scorpio sedan had a a reclining back seat, while the XR4ti was a turbo coupe with biplane spoiler. Despite this, it was quickly overshadowed by the launch of the revolutionary Ford Taurus and Merucry Sable, which made the brand highly unnoticed. It was discontinued after only four years.
[edit] Sterling
This American version of the British Rover 800 and Honda Legend sold as poorly as the Legend sold well. It suffered from poor build quality, feeble performance and a lack of brand recognition. Sales dropped from 15,000 in 1988 to fewer than 2,000 in 1991.
[edit] Tucker
Preston Tucker's streamlined automobile with a rear engine and then-innovative safety features. Tucker's attempt to launch a major automobile company failed, either due to conspiracy by the major manufacturers, shady financial maneuvers by Tucker or both. A total of 51 were built.
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ ebay listing
- ^ colossal failure
- ^ failure of the Catera
- ^ What's the real reason that the Corvair failed???
- ^ Top Gear road test of the VW Phaeton
[edit] See also
- Flop
- List of successful automobiles Longest running
- List of bestselling vehicle nameplates
