How could this beauty made to “Worst List”???

[J. Gomez]

I personally DO NOT agree with comments made on slide 10 of USATODAY Photo gallery..! 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/gallery/autos/flash.htm?gid=46&aid=4799

[Walter Youshock]

I agree with you, however, in 1959, it was a love-it or hate-it reaction.  Plus, the style didn't age well in the used car market.

But, who wouldn't want one 50 years later?

[Otto Skorzeny]

I'll agree with most of those. Copper cooled, Vega both almost killed the Chevy name. Deisel was a loser.

[wrefakis]

so a 59 is gm's worst,list one for sale and see what happens!!

[homeonprunehill]

TRRIVLA TIME; Which of the BIG-3 AUTO-MAKER  produced a new car in 1957,1958,1959and1960 JIm

[Rusty Shepherd CLC 6397]

I definitely agree that the '59 Cadillac should not have been on the "Ten Worst" list, but probably instead on the "Ten Best" list.  They are not my favorite Cadillac model, but over the years I've come to like them, particularly the coupes and convertibles and they are without any doubt the "iconic Cadillac", the one model most people would be able to identify as a Cadillac. I also think to be on the "Ten Worst" list they would have to have serious engineering shortcomings, like the Vega did, and, of course, they don't; every part of the car was the best that America had circa 1959.

[Jim Salmi #21340]

So, the '55 Cheviy introduced V8 performance to the low priced end of the market.  I wonder if Ford Motor Company would agree.  Kendall didn't do his homework.

[David #19063]

I'm surprised the exploding Pinto's didn't make the list.

Nothing much "worst" than having your car incinerate you and your family...

[J]

well when i was younger if you told me you drove a big pink car with fins i would think "how ugly would that be"  but after seeing it WOW how good looking of a car the most beutiful i ever dreamed of looking at     I can't wait till we see our kids restoring yellow Aztecs  YUK!!

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

The picture Number 4 must have been taken in New Zealand

Bruce.

[Misfit]

If "USA Yesterday" lists a 1959 Cadiilac as one of the worst automobiles made......Then why do I have to constantly turn down offers for mine. And it's a 4 door sedan. Not even a coupe' or convertible.   

The Editor in Cheif is in serious need of a high colonic !!!

MisFit

[Walter Youshock]

So, while WE disagree with this list, why not compile OUR OWN?

BEST:

1912 Cadillac-Self-Starter and electrical system
1929 V-16 and all afterward
ANY Duesenberg
1937 Packards
1956 Packards
1957-'58 Eldorado Broughams
(Heaven help me) Continental Mark II's
The current Maybachs
Phantom VI Rolls-Royces
...leaving it open that #10 is yet to come

I have never owned one of these cars and probably never will.

WORST:

Vegas
Gremlins
Pintos
Yugos
Grenadas/Monarchs/Versailles (is that one or 3?)
Cimmarrons
Late 1970's-early '80's GM diesel

[Ted in Olympia WA]

I'm surprised the exploding Pinto's didn't make the list.

Nothing much "worst" than having your car incinerate you and your family...

I think that they are talking GM.  I think the Pinto was a much better car than the Vega was.  The fact that it exploded was a classic case of the fact that Ford did not care what happened to it's customers.  They compared the cost of fixing the problem, a simple shield behind the gas tank and different rear end bolts, to the cost of the lawsuits and decided that in the long run the lawsuits would be cheaper.  This was true until the truth came out and then the courts ordered very large settlements to teach Ford a lesson.  But the 2.3 engine lived on and on as a very good engine.

The 59 should not have been on the list and is an insult to America to put it there.  If GM continued to build unique cars every year instead of cookie cutter designs they would still be going strong.

TED

[Rusty Shepherd CLC 6397]

I just read another one of those GM lists that are so popular right now and this one was five vehicles that supposedly contributed to the company's current situation. The first one was the Corvair and no one can convince me that a car that was last made (in miniscule quantities) in 1969 helped bring GM to its knees forty years later.  The best evidence that it didn't was GM's sales record in the 1970's when Oldsmobile sold a million cars annually for several years in that decade and Chevrolet sold a million Impalas and Caprices most years in the '70's in addition to their several other lines of cars and trucks.

[Ted in Olympia WA]

People do have very long memories but I don't know of anybody that would say they did not buy a GM becasuse of the Covair. 

Now I would say that GM is solely responsible why there are few diesel cars on the US roads.  I would also say that a lot of people got burned by the Vega and they did not buy another GM because of it; and this could be the cause that the American car companies do not make a good small car.  During the 70's people went from the Vega to a Honda/Toyota/Datsun and found a much better car.  I'm not saying a better car than all American cars but a better small car.  Then after that they made a bunch of questionable mid-size cars and did not upgrade the style for years.  Even my 2003 Chevy Venture mini-van is a piece of shit and I would have been much better off buying a Honda for more money.

So in my opinion I would say that GM did more to destroy the confidence in the American car companies than any other make.

TED

[Jim Salmi #21340]

The Corvair, per se, did not sink GM but it did make a contribution.  The Nader/Corvair fiasco, combined with the Vegas fiasco, the almost universally underpowered and crummy cars of the late '70's and '80's, the X car, J car, etc., etc., all combined to create the perfectly reasonable consumer conclusion that American cars were not worth considering.  It happened right at the point in time when the baby boom generation was getting out of college and buying their first NEW cars.  The timing couldn't have been worse.  A major chunk of a whole generation was lost to the foreigners.  And, until something changes, their children are apt to follow in their parent's footsteps.  Combine that with the fact that the government would like to prevent them from building the stuff that they are good at, namely large vehicles, and you have a very dismal picture.  Commodity small cars that aren't yet fully competitive with the imports, either in quality, design or price.

The biggest thing GM has lost in all of this is its credibility.  They look like losers, and Americans don't like losers.

[Rusty Shepherd CLC 6397]

I think the '70's and '80's lost GM customers that they never got back with the Vega, the 5.7 and both 4.3 diesels (V-8 and V-6), the HT4100, THM200 transmissions, etc. although there were some very good GM cars during that period, particularly the '77 and later B and C body cars that didn't have the engines above and the '78 and later A bodies without those engines.  I'm reminded of the Cadillac-Pontiac-GMC dealer near me who, while his service man was putting the coolant pills and "revised coolant system maintenance" sticker in all of the new '84 HT4100 cars in his lot per a factory bulletin/recall, told the Oldsmobile dealer and me that he had had a customer who owned three Cadillacs in a row, a diesel, a V8-6-4, and an HT4100 and the man was now driving a Lincoln and he didn't blame him at all.  About a year later, he sold his GM dealership and bought the Lincoln-Mercury one in the same town. 

[Stampie]

why do I have to constantly turn down offers for mine.

MisFit

Just shows that bad taste travels in crowds.

Stampie

[Misfit]

That's the best you can do Michael?

Stick with your unwanted '60.

MisFit

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

The only reason Ralph Nader went for the Corvair was that he couldn't go for the VW because it wasn't American Owned.

The only thing wrong with the Corvair was that people couldn't adjust to the manner of driving them.   Just like all the Rollovers of the SUV's when they try to lane-change the same way they did in their lower centre of gravity cars they previously owned.

Bruce.