8 Luxury Cars That Embarrassed Their Brands
1. The Iconic De Lorean DMC-12 (1981)
John Z. De Lorean, the man, was an engineer, inventor, and executive in the U.S. automotive industry. He is responsible for the cool-looking flop Back-To-The-Future Car, The De Lorean, which cost $175 million dollars that was never made back. Over 8,000 De Loreans were unsold in the end. It had a number of shortcomings including its weight, its weak 2.8-liter Peugeot V6 engine, and its price tag. De Lorean himself, too, found himself in hot water with the FBI for drug trafficking in 1982, just one year after The De Lorean went to market.
The company that owns the rights to the De Lorean name, however, announced it would build a limited number of new models sometime in the future. Will they design a better model or does history repeat itself?
2. The Cheap Trick Jaguar X-Type (2001)
The Jaguar X-Type was supposed to be to the entry-luxury vehicle that the 3-series was to BMW and the C-class was to Mercedes-Benz, but cutting corners in the design left Jaguar consumers feeling duped. The platform they'd use was a world car called the Mondeo, known to Americans as the Ford Contour. Jaguar tried to turn this front-drive compact car into an all-wheel-drive sports sedan and it failed miserably.
3. The Meathead Hummer H2 (2003)
Consumers love and hate the Hummer, but The H2 was hated most, mainly for its timing. The Hummer H2 was introduced shortly after the terroristic event of 9/11 and during a time of America's heightened greed for oil. The GM manufactured model not only made GM look bad, but did no favors to the American image either. The model is gluttonous in size, militant-looking, and unapologetically burns 10 MPG in the city and 13 MPG on the highway. The backlash resulted in one Hummer dealership in Southern California going up in flames. 20 brand-new Hummer H2s were sacrificed, over $1 Million in damages.
4. Chrysler Crossfire. More like Chrysler's BACKfire. (2004–08)
The Chrysler Crossfire was created from borrowed parts of other Mercedes Benz models and did nothing to stand out. Its body was borrowed from the better SLK and due to its lack of performance, most consumers just bought the SLK or similar models by other brands because they were more fun to drive. The model was so undersold, the company had to resort to selling them on Overstock.com.
5. The Money Pit Buik Regal (2010)
Although affordable, this luxury car will cost as much as you paid for it in maintenance and repairs. The early models had poor quality parts under the hood and in the cab, such as unfixed trim, cheap leather, and weak transmissions.
6. The Pre-Bankruptcy Dodge Nitro (2007-2012)
The early years of Dodge Nitro's release captured the Chrysler era perfectly. They filed bankruptcy in 2009. The model was described as "appalling", even "a chore" to drive by Consumer Reports. When the reviewer was asked if the model had any redeeming qualities, he was unable. It had a small cab, no get-up-and-go, and felt cheap. Most consumers dodged this bullet.
7. The Luxury Fail Mercedes-Benz CLA x (2012)
You cannot win purchasing the Mercedes-Benz made CLA x because for $32,000 you can do much better. Although the model looks great and is whippy enough, you'll need to spend closer to $40,000 for it to perform like other Mercedes-Benz models and for that kind of money, you're better off with another model altogether. The 3-pointed star logo of Mercedes-Benz stands for quality, comfort, and luxury and The CLA's failure to score very highly in any of the three categories landed it on Consumer Reports' 'Worst Of' list multiple years.
8. Smart ForTwo. Smart at all? (1998-2008)
Nearly half of the luxury models on this list that were deemed an embarrassment to their brands are from or associated with Chrysler who "merged" with Mercedes-Benz in 1998 in a $36 million dollar deal. The Smart ForTwo model was also released in Europe in '98 and had a brag-worthy 38 miles per gallon, but by the time it was released in North America, the model was in the middle-class of economy cars. Its gas mileage and lovable qualities were overshadowed by its lack of storage and a transmission with a bad rep. A new model has since been released and while Consumer Reports say it's "still not a smart buy", there are reviews elsewhere that give the Smart ForTwo debut a 4.7 out of 5.