Hooniverse Asks: What’s a Crap Car Line That Has Had At Least One Redeeming Edition?

By Robert Emslie Jul 15, 2015

AE86
You ever notice that while most of your family is pretty much tolerable there’s that one member that’s always either causing problems or is a total douchebag? Yeah, we all have one, and in fact they’re so common that there’s a name for them – Black Sheep. No offense intended black sheeple.
When it comes to cars and trucks often the opposite exists. Sometimes a dull as dishwater – or perhaps reprobate – model line will have one member that stands out and isn’t really all that awful. It may be in fact that it’s pretty-darn good. That’s what we want to hear about today – the… I don’t know, white sheep? of the automotive world. What do you think are the stand-out models of what are otherwise crap car lines?
Image: PowerflexUSA (Oh Yeah!)

52 thoughts on “Hooniverse Asks: What’s a Crap Car Line That Has Had At Least One Redeeming Edition?”
      1. Was the R5 Turbo offered in the US? Because in yurop we also got the Gordini versions and in the phase 2 R5 (looks like a mild facelift but engine was now transverse like most FWD cars) there was the GT Turbo which was the best variant to still have back seats.

        1. The R5 Turbo could be had here, I don’t know about the other variants. I’ll bet someone here does, though.

    1. The Cosworth Vega was unquestionably the best Vega you could buy, but thanks to lofty expectations and a price to match, it was also the biggest disappointment. Making a Vega into an okay car was no small feat, but it was supposed to be so much more than okay. I still want one.

    1. I appreciate that the HHR Panel exists, but take something that was pretty bunker-like as it was, and removing 4 windows isn’t a great recipe for visibility.

    1. Oh, the GranTurismo memories! Only .000215 RSi Beetles were made for every other type of New Beetle. Nifty.

  1. Dodge Colt Turbo for the win !
    ( one of these little bastages blew me and my firebird off the road in 1983 )

    1. like neight428 posted above, Mitsubishi has sent nothing but crapcans here (USofA)… even the screaming Colt’s rusted to death in months. I made a little montage of some cool stuff made by Mitsubishi below, can we get any ? NOPE… the new command/scout car ( second row, right)
      is super awesome, cant get one – already tried last year.

    1. I just followed a tan over brown four door Citation hatch home. No rust, no dents, looked original. A time capsule. Driven by an old man doing 15 under in a 45. I don’t remember the last time I saw one.

    1. The didn’t all rust, that’s a terrible generalisation….. some of them were torque steered into hedgerows.

    1. Even better, in the 1996-2002 Toyota Camry you could get the 3.0L V6 with a stick. Even in the XLE.
      The Solara is essentially all Camry under the skin, so these TRD parts fit no problem into the Camry as well. We had a customer that had the rare-bird Camry XLE V6 stick that put all but the TRD rims on the car (wanted to still have a little Q-ship to it) and it was absolutely quick.
      The extra parts were nowhere near the $9000 quoted in the C&D article. It was also slightly faster than what they had based on my memory. I want to say he was running low-14s in the quarter.

  2. Suzuki Swift GTi. 1768 lbs of car sporting a twin cam, 16 valve, 1300cc four putting out an even 100 horse.
    Not your average Geo Metro

  3. The RS and Mexico Escorts. They were/are great.
    The standard rebodied Anglia, Escorts with 1.1 and 1.3 very, very much less so.
    Despite the rose-tinted gaze they receive from America, they were like much smaller, lower powered, more rust prone, poorer made Pintos.
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Ford_Escort_RS2000_MkI.jpg/1024px-Ford_Escort_RS2000_MkI.jpg
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Ford_Escort_MkI_1100_1972.JPG/1024px-Ford_Escort_MkI_1100_1972.JPG

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