8 Cars That Were An Embarrassment To Their Brands

At long last, the Aston Martin Cygnet has been killed off. While we get the unofficial principle behind it - to lower Aston’s collective CO2 emissions - there's something decidedly depressing and absurd about a re-bodied Toyota IQ wearing the ubiquitous Aston grille, and a scarcely believable £30k price tag.

Glad as we are to see the back of this car, it also got us thinking. What other cars are an affront to an otherwise decent badge? Here's what we came up with...

1. Porsche 924

The biggest issue with the little 924 was the wheezy 2.0-litre inline-four under the bonnet. This was a sports car, a Porsche no less, with the engine from a van. It only had 125bhp, and in a Porsche, that isn’t really enough. That didn't stop buyers snapping up 924s as fast as Porsche could make ‘em. The boys in Stuttgart shifted 150,000 of the things over 12 years. Thankfully, Porsche did eventually redress the balance with the 944-engined 924S.

2. Maybach 57/62

From 1921 through 1940, Maybach was Germany’s Rolls Royce. It made some of the the most opulent, most expensive cars in Europe. Daimler bought the rights to the name in the 1960s, before halfheartedly resurrecting the brand in 2002 as a maker of needlessly re-skinned S-Classes. Naturally, most sane people went for either a Rolls-Royce Phantom or Bentley, so buyers for the 57 and long-wheelbase 62 were in short supply. With the revived marque losing money, Merc’ canned the Maybach brand earlier this year.

3. Jaguar X-Type

Jaguar is on something of a roll these days, what with awesome cars like the F-Type, XF and XJ. Things haven’t always been so rosy, however. In desperate need of a BMW 3-Series rival, Jag came up with this - the X-Type. To save cash the then Ford-owned brand pinched the front-wheel drive underpinnings of the humble Mondeo. While the Mondeo is a good car in its own right, as the basis for a luxury car with the famous Jaaaaag name? We think not. Here’s to hoping Jag’s next 3-Series-fighter is something a little more special.

4. Maserati Biturbo

The Biturbo marked a low point in Maserati's long and illustrious history. Short on time, cash and imagination, it was engineered with all the care and love a typical holidaymaker shows his rental. Reliability was woeful, and the car quickly became something of a motoring hate object. It has appeared in numerous lists of the worst cars ever made over the years, and its inclusion is more than justified.

5. CityRover

The once great Rover brand had already fallen a long way when the CityRover came along, but this heap was the final nail in the coffin. Too short on cash to develop its own new car, Rover decided instead to re-badge the Indian Tata Indica and flog that as its own motor. Rover were reportedly paying £3k for each one, but charged UK punters more than twice that. So what did CityRover buyers get for this massively inflated price? A shockingly dated interior, an appalling ride and ropey handling. It was probably the worst car Rover ever sold, and few left the dealer forecourts before the company went bust in 2005.

6. Mk4 Golf GTi N/A

While the turbocharged Mk4 Golf GTi is a reasonably swift car, the same can't be said for the rubbish naturally aspirated versions. Quite how VW could find the gall to sully the legendary Golf GTi name by affixing it to those cars, we'll never know. The non-turbo 1.8-litre offered up a miserable 125bhp, and the 2.0-litre a truly pathetic 115bhp. That's actually a fair bit less power than the old Mk2 16-valve Golf, and only a tiny bit more than the eight-valve, but with roughly another 200 kilos to haul about. The worst couple of cars to wear the Golf GTi badge? We think so.

7. Ferrari Mondial

Even the famous Prancing Horse gets things wrong from time to time, as evidenced by this, the Mondial. Its mid-mounted, 3-litre V8 produced just 214bhp, and with a fair amount of weight to haul around, it was hardly what you might call ‘brisk’. Meanwhile, its transistor-based electronics were incredibly iffy - catastrophic failures of the entire system weren't unheard of. Like a fine wine, the Mondial did get better with age. But it's never been able to shake that poor reputation, and is considered by many to be the worst car Ferrari ever built.

8. Dodge Charger LX

For many, even the slightest mention of the words ‘Dodge’ and ‘Charger’ conjure up mental images of the iconic muscle car flying though the streets of San Francisco, trying desperately to get away from Steve McQueen’s dark-green Mustang. Now, the Charger is this. A four-door saloon. Bland styling, lackluster engines and poor quality meant the 2006 Charger simply wasn't worthy of the badge.

And four doors? Please. All self-respecting muscle cars should only have two.