Skip to main content
driving it home

2002 Pontiac Aztek

And the worst car of all time…

The 2001 Pontiac Aztek. That's the verdict at Edmunds.com, a U.S.-based website. The list, compiled by veteran writer John Pearley Huffman, is an interesting ride down a nightmare alley littered with some pretty awful monstrosities. But the Aztek worst of all time? A stretch.

Huffman argues that the Aztek's interior is the only thing uglier than its exterior. A hideous mess of an SUV, the Aztek is worst of all time "because it's the only car on the list to kill an 84-year-old car company. This is the vehicle that "drove the biggest and last nails into Pontiac's heavily side-clad, plastic coffin."

Shockingly, half of Huffman's top 10 worst cars of all time were produced by General Motors since 1971. They include the 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Diesel (No. 10), The 1982 Cadillac Cimarron (No. 8), the 2003 Saturn Ion (No. 6) and the 1971 Chevrolet Vega (No. 5).

The diesel Cutlass, some would argue, killed any chance of an American love affair with diesel-powered passenger cars: "Sold only in the '79 Cutlass, the 4.3 diesel made 90 hp before shattering into shrapnel," notes Huffman.

The Cimarron, meanwhile, was a "redecorated version of the front-drive, four-cylinder Chevrolet Cavalier," and the Ion was so bad "your foot could get stuck in the gaps between the plastic body panels." And the Vega: "It's the car that invited Americans to buy Toyotas and Hondas."

Huffman pulls no punches and in doing so delivers an entertaining and argument-inducing read. Yes, the Edsel, the Yugo, and Ford's horrific Mustang II all made the top 10 list. On the big list, the top 100 worst of all time, you'll find the usual suspects, the AMC Gremlin, Ford Aspire and Geo Metro to name three. No. 100 is the 2006 Pontiac Solstice, which was "overweight, underpowered, crudely engineered."

So two Pontiacs bookend this list of the worst 100 of all time. No need to wonder why the Pontiac brand is dead. Here is Huffman's list of the top 10 worst cars of all time and you'll find the full 100 here ( http://www.insideline.com/).

10. 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Diesel

9. 1957 Trabant

8. 1982 Cadillac Cimarron

7. 1958 Edsel Corsair

6. 2003 Saturn Ion

5. 1971 Chevrolet Vega

4. 1987 Yugo

3. 1955 BMW Isetta

2. 1974 Ford Mustang II

1. 2001 Pontiac Aztek

Interact with The Globe