10 of the Worst Cars to Come Out of the United States.

1. Pacer: No, it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But it did have room, and you have to credit AMC, who ran on a nearly nonexistent budget most of the time, for trying something…anything…new.

2. Mustang II: More appropriate in size to the 1964 Mustang, V6 from the Ford Capri, one of the best front suspension setups sold in the 1970s. The four can be turbocharged to the moon, and like any 1970s crap pile in the U.S., one engine swap later you’ll achieve greatness.

3. Citation: Decent plan undone by GM’s mismanagement. Sad tale, but true. What should be noted is how well it sold before the problems cropped up…if GM had actually shaken the car down properly instead of panicking over the gas crisis, they could’ve knocked this out of the park.

4. PT Cruiser: Retro was in and Chrysler was cashing out big time. What else can you say?

5. Aztek: The styling might be questionable and the interior plastics do make Tupperware jealous. But seeing what’s on new car lots today, and I’m not seeing anything prettier, but I’m seeing a lot of the same functionality.

6. Cimarron: This one doesn’t get a pass. There’s a story of a guy high-up within Caddy who has a huge poster of this car on the wall with the words, “Never Again” written on it.

7. Pinto: A solid shot from American manufacturers for a subcompact. It had power, it had space, and it had the right price. Looks are subjective. And the Pinto is responsible for educating American consumers about just how much the auto manufacturers cared about them.

8. Ion: Not a bad car, not a great car. The car for someone who needed a car but cared nothing about a car.

9. Olds Diesel: on it’s own, yes, it’s a royal failure. But re-work the block to run on gasoline and suddenly things get nice and interesting, and the cars they were put into were some of GM’s better efforts (G-body Cutlass, B-body 88 series)

10. Gremlin: Again, styling is objective but again, this was American Motors: Little money, lots of talent. The Gremlin (along with it’s source car, the Hornet) underpinned most of AMC’s lineup from 1970 until the Chrysler takeover in 1987. You can’t kill that six, the 304 can be made into an outright stomper that acts bigger than it is, and for many, the body shape is the entire reason they bought it.

Rutledge Wood became a miracle worker when he converted the downright ugly Aztec into a completely badass off-roader for Top Gear USA. Amen to that!

Honestly, I love the look of the Pacer..

I love gremlins! My grandfather had one and according to him, with the 304 v8, it did great burnouts. My dad had a Pacer (aka Fish Bowl) as well as a winter beater while he had his 76 vette in the 80’s, said it was the best winter beater he ever owned.

For some odd reason I wouldn’t actually Mind a Gremlin!
Citation - My mum actually had one, was passed down to my brother, who preceded to roll it into a ditch.
PT Cruiser - My mum was looking at buying one when they first came out, thankfully she did not!

Came here to see the pinto on this list, was not disapointed.

I actually like the AMC Gremlin for only one reason. ROADKILL!

No Corvair?

1. Pacer. It was a huge hit on it’s first year. but AMC was struggling to exist at the time, and couldn’t really afford 100% complete redesign, so it’s understandable that is wasn’t exactly great.
2. Mustang II. I can agree, It isn’t bad looking car, but it’s not really a Mustang either. and if yuo havn’t prepared to such a turnaround that was needed with the oil crisis, it’s still understandable.
3. Cevrolet Citation. True horrid name, but I kinda like the styling. it’s not great, but those “large hatchbacks” were selling reasonably well few years later. Saab, Toyota Carina, Mitsubishi Galant, are first that pop in my mind.
4. PT Cruiser was an awesome consept, but was ruined when coming in to production.
5. Aztek While I agree about the styling, it was an interesting concept. with better engine and drivetrain more suited to offroad use it could have been something.
6. Cimarron. Well we could also call it Opel Ascona, or Vauxhall Cavalier. with added luxury, which makes it just heavy and weight makes it very slow.
7. Ford Pinto. Claimed that it bursts in to flames if something rear ends it. but it’s actually just as safe as any other car from the era. And I kinda like how it looks.
8. Saturn Ion. Never seen one, never heard anything good or bad. No comment.
9. Cutlass Diesel. At that time America was doing their first experiments with diesel in a passenger car.you should compare it to Mercedes 300D of the era. Yeah, the diesel version wasn’t really too good.
10. Gremlin. read what I wrote from Pacer. the fact is that AMC was always “small” company, it never had truly competetive model compared to “the big three”. and just enough sales to keep the company going. and at this time just designing a new model was either keep afloat if it sells, or go backrupt if it doesn’t.

Honestly, I think the list is kind of lame. Why hate a car for either it’s looks or name? The veyron and gtr, both r34 and r35, are the ugliest modern cars to me, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the worst cars to come out of their countries. The only one’s I agree on in this list are the aztek and pinto. They’re both ugly lemons. But cars like the ion and pt cruiser, though ugly, are cheap and semi-reliable and very fuel efficient. In fact, I’d say for what they are or what the company was aiming for, they’re excellent cars that cane from the states.