This morning, Forbes.com released their list of the Worst Made Cars on the Road as a public service to perspective car – and car company – buyers. While they titled the article the worst cars, is turns out that, based on their criteria, almost all the worst are trucks. What’s even worse for the worst is that almost all are GM products. What could be worse for America’s Car Company?Forbes based their decision on several statistical criteria gleaned from Consumer Reports magazine research on reliability, safety and performance. They then cross referenced the bottom dwellers there against JD Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study, and the winners (or losers, as it were) were tabulated from the vehicles which had the lowest combined score.
The list, per Forbes, is the following dealer lot of lack:
Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Aveo (the only actual car on the list), Chevy Colorado, Dodge Nitro, Ford F250, GMC Canyon (same thing as the Chevy Colorado, that’s just being mean), and finally, Jeep Wrangler.
Now lots of these cars have been sold, and it’s unlikely that all their owners are ruing the decision to purchase, but according to Forbes, Consumer Reports and JD Power, a statistically relevant portion of them are. Consumer Reports publishes an annual compendium of car ratings, and most people feel their stomachs sink when they see their vehicle of choice appear with a line of red circles next to it, indicating lower than average ratings. After all, who wants to be, or be associated with, lower than average?
Of course, the cars that CR usually rates highest are the ones that driving enthusiasts typically rate lowest on their fun scales, so there’s probably a trade-off there somewhere. Still, you can’t have driving fun, if the damn thing refuses to run.
Based on your observations, or direct experience, do you think these vehicles identified in the Forbes article suck ass as much as they say they do? Or, do you have your own list of craptacular cars and trucks that are TBAAAC (To Be Avoided At All Cost)?
Image sources: [cargurus.com, thetorquereport.com]
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