So I'm driving along the other day, and I get up behind a Saturn Relay. For those of you who aren't familiar with this vehicle, imagine a minivan with 1992-era styling and a 1994-era interior and 1996-era switchgear, except it inexplicably came out in 2005. Seriously: it was the kind of thing where, when it debuted, you checked both sides of the van just to make sure General Motors knew everyone was doing dual sliding doors now.
So anyway, as I'm sitting behind the van, I realized something: there isn't a single Saturn I would buy. Not the awful S-series models, which were great in the 1990s, but have about as much modern relevance as Palm Pilot. Not the L-Series, which came later, and looked worse, and transformed Saturn from a cute, cool, forward-thinking car company into the kind of thing your middle school gym teacher drove. Not the Astra, not the Vue, not the Relay. No Saturn at all.
And then I remembered the Sky. Do you remember the Sky? This was right near the end of Saturn, when General Motors realized that by God, if we're going to stay out of bankruptcy, we'd better come up with some cars that people will actually buy. So they developed the SSR.
But they also developed the Sky and the Pontiac Solstice, which were these cool little roadsters that had two-seats, and rear-wheel drive, and eventually a 260-horsepower turbocharged engine which made them surprisingly enjoyable on the road. I loved these things, and I especially loved the Sky, which still looks like an exotic sports car when you see it all these years later.
So maybe there are some Saturns I would buy, but by God there aren't any Mitsubishis. I mean seriously: you have that electric thing shaped like the egg, God only knows what it's called, but there are a bunch of lowercase "i"s as if it's an Apple product. You have a couple of SUVs, all of which are indistinguishable from one another. There's the Mirage, which is generally agreed to be the worst car on sale; equivalent to a laundry basket on wheels, when it comes to driving dynamics. And maybe there's a sedan or something, I don't know.
So all this got me thinking: is Mitsubishi the car company whose products I would least like to own? I mean, does Mitsubishi really manufacture the fewest vehicles I would actually purchase for myself? And I thought, and I thought, and I thought, and I briefly considered Dodge until I remembered the Viper, and I thought some more, and I thought, and I thought, and then I remembered I am trying to hit a word count here so I thought thought thought thought some more, and then in the end, I reached the conclusion that by God, yes, Mitsubishi is the brand whose cars I'd least like to own, at least ever since Plymouth came to an end.
And so now I pose the question to you: whose cars would YOU least like to own?
And before you answer, I think a rule clarification is necessary. We aren't talking about all-time automakers here. You can't say Edsel, or AMC, or some obscure car brand that only existed in the 1920s and manufactured cars out of satin. I'm talking modern, current, presently existing automakers that make modern, current, presently existing vehicles that comply with at least some of the federal government's safety regulations.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, the floor is yours: which automaker makes the most cars you'd never buy? Which brand has so few desirable products that you'd never consider one of their vehicles? Which car company is so mediocre that you'd never set foot in their showroom?
And why is it Mitsubishi?
The post Question Of The Day: What Brand Has The Most Cars You'd Never Buy? appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
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