No wonder how many sales they must have gotten and how many people bought them, they came with a terrible design but were sold well.
Contents
Overview
There are good cars and there are bad cars. You may think that bad cars always turn out to be a huge disaster for carmakers, but there are many of them which have sold in hundreds of thousands in numbers despite their poor design and engine choices. Seems strange? Well, this phenomenon has struck many gearheads for several years and left them in wonder, how did these flop designs find a place in people’s garages? They jumped to a conclusion that this could’ve happened because the cars landed in a time and thus increased the number of sales during their time of being produced. It could have been the price and value for money, or it just could’ve been good luck. Leaving that for another discussion, here are the cars that carried a flop design but were still sold in number and were bought by hundreds of thousands of people.
8. Chrysler PT Cruiser
Chrysler was making good cars in their time with a good durable body and tried and tested design. And then they made the Chrysler PT Cruiser. The regular car didn’t sell much but it was a decent car. The design wasn’t good, it was really ugly. But the fact that we have added the PT Cruiser to the list is because the company sold $1.3 million during its nine-year run.
7. Ford Pinto
With bad driving and poor performance, the Ford Pinto is maybe one of the most terrible cars Ford has ever made. Despite the poor driving and mediocre handling abilities, the Pinto really scored if you talk about sales. Ford sold more than 3 million Pintos between 1971 and 1980.
6. Ford Mustang II
You know when you have a really solid and capable first product and then you ruin it by making a successor of it. That’s what happened with this iconic car. Considered one of the best muscle cars of all time, the Ford Mustang has gone through many overhauls to this date as we know it. After the huge success of the first-generation Mustang, Ford decided to make the next-generation Mustang. Though it carried the name, it was based on the Ford Pinto, and just like the Pinto, the Mustang II was a disaster when it comes to design. Some people even called it the worst Mustang ever made by Ford. But as it is on the list is because of the sales it grabbed. Ford sold more than a million units of these during its run.
5. Smart ForTwo
There are still some questions regarding why Smart made the ForTwo but believe me, the car was not made for people who wanted to fit two adults in the car. It came with a 61 hp three-cylinder engine and a really bad cabin design which didn’t have any space to call it a cabin at the first glance. Regardless of the design and cramped space, people bought the Smart ForTwo which sold over two million of these till now.
4. Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle was built as an affordable and compact car for the Germans during the time of the World War. Since then VW has sold millions of Beetles across the globe. After many years in production, Volkswagen revived the Beetle in 2001 with new looks and improved engine and interiors. With many good reliable and powerful cars on the market, the VW Beetle sold like cakes after the company introduced it. It was mainly due to the nostalgia and the legacy of the name that this compact car carried with it.
3. BMW 2-Series Active Tourer
BMW has a legacy of making one of the most sports-driven and athletic vehicles on the market. The BMW 2-Series Active Tourer spoiled that methodology. The Active Tourer wasn’t very spacious compared to the BMW X3, it wasn’t as fun to drive and didn’t carry the powerful specs as the competition. BMW however, didn’t make this a failed car, as it carried the similar sporty looks and the reliability the brand is known for. The 2-Series Active Tourer is still in production and has sold more than 500,000 units.
2. Nissan Juke
The Nissan Juke is one of the good-looking cars made by the Japanese automaker. But the first-gen model wasn’t the one we know today. It carried a pretty powerful 200 hp four-cylinder engine which was capable of going from 0-60 mph in under eight seconds. It didn’t have the best looks for that matter, but the good news is that Nissan made improvements over it for the next generations.
1. Hummer H2
The Hummer H2 is probably one of the most overhyped cars of the time. Hummer introduced the H2 after the huge success of the H1 which was one of the most well-built cars of all time. The Hummer H2 packed a really dull design that was rather cool from the outside and “you know it” from the inside. With a poor ground clearance and a bad engine design with poor off-roading capabilities, Hummer sold more than 150,000 units in the US.
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