Here are the Top 10 Worst Subcompact Cars as chosen by you!
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
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This is my first "Top 10" episode, featuring the worst subcompact cars that were sold anytime between 1980 and 2005. The ranking is based on your suggestions sent in over the past few weeks. The next Top 10 episode will be the Best Subcompact Cars (voting is done for that one), and later I am planning Worst and Best lists for Family Sedans of the same time period. You can send in those suggestions via comments or my email: pomeara1234@gmail.com. Make sure to include the words "WORST FAMILY SEDAN" or "BEST FAMILY SEDAN" with your suggestion.
Note that a segment near the end of the video just before the end credits was removed on May 12 due to a copyright claim.
00:00 Start
00:42 Number 10
02:00 Number 9
03:19 Number 8
04:47 Number 7
06:11 Number 6
07:18 Number 5
08:43 Number 4
10:27 Number 3
11:51 Number 2
13:23 Dishonorable Mentions
14:21 Number 1 
Авто/Мото
I don't think the Geo Metro deserved to be on the list. Sure, they are very lightweight, but they were surprisingly long-lived and not an unpleasant cars to drive. I had one and when I sold it at 225K miles, not all that long ago, it was still in excellent shape. And it had honest mid-40's MPG even with the crappy ethanol gas.
Yep, you couldn't kill a Metro.
I had a metro with 250,000 miles on it, it ran fine but mine was a project so I ended up rebuilding the head and doing a few other things. I agree it shouldn't be on a "worst subcompact list". Nobody who actually owned one hated it.
Agreed. I drove one for many years. Of course it was slow, but that car would not break, and it got excellent mileage.
I had one for a while, it was ok to drive in town but on the freeway it was scary.
A friend of mine had one - it seemed to be pretty good
The Metro and the Festiva were very reliable cars, I still sometimes see them on the road. They may be small and slow and simple, but the fact they last so long makes up for that. For me what makes a car bad is unreliability.
100% agree with you
Fun fact, some Aveo's had a brass colored dipstick for the oil. This of course is monumentally stupid, as the dipstick is the same color as the oil. I had to drain 8 quarts out of a friend's once.
I had a Metro. It was a 1991 model that I bought from a co-worker in late 2012. Bought it for the low, low price of "Just gimme $50 and get it the fuck out of my yard". It ran, but leaked water. I took it home, replaced the water pump and the timing belt - both of which were absurdly easy. Over the following several months, I removed and re-surfaced the head, replaced all six valves, built a muffler for it, and completely removed the interior to clean it. While cleaning the interior, I found $28 in change. The final thing I did to it was replace the wheels - the car came with 12" wheels, which were hard to find tires for. It turns out the wheels from certain years of Honda Accord fit it perfectly, so I bought four steel wheels from a salvage yard, painted them white to match the car, and put some 175/65R14 tires on them. After this the car cornered amazing, rode great, and was returning 55+ mpg highway.
It was also one of the most frustrating cars to drive. With 55 horsepower and three cylinders, one might assume it was frustrating because it was slow, but it actually got down the road just fine. The issue was, with my 55 horsepower, 1.0 liter three pot, it was apparently the fastest car on the road. I was always having to wait for someone with an Ecoboost truck or an R/T Challenger or some other much faster vehicle to get out of the way, or at least stop crawling down the onramp like an octogenarian on the way to the bingo hall. And once one of the clowns saw what passed them, they would all of a sudden find their gas pedal and would do any illegal or dangerous thing just so they didn't have to be behind it. And then they'd slow down again to check facebook on their phone or whatever, and I'd have to pass them again.
At one point I started using this quality to entertain myself. There was a place in town where there was almost always a speed trap when I'd drive home from work. I started using the tiny car to bait guys in lifted trucks so they'd run past the speed trap. It was easy. They'd be putting along thinking about what mod they were going to put on their pavement princess next or whatever, and I'd roll past them - not fast, but fast enough to get by them. And they'd speed up a bit. And I'd open it up. And they couldn't handle that, so they would show how much faster their $50,000 truck was compared to my $50 car. Then they would roll by the cop at 70 in a 45. It was funny every time.
Geez man, you gave more love to that metro than I've seen anyone do. I find it ironic that cars like that and the corolla/camry are beaten on so much because they are mechanically simple and easy enough to work on.
I'm surprised to hear you say is was fast enough, I always assumed they would be dead slow. I know the feeling though, I have a MK3 Supra, but even in my 4cyl 94' Camry I have never had to floor it, people usually drive really slow, even entering into the highway.
@@rushnerd Don't misunderstand, it wasn't a *fast* car, but it was far from being the slowest thing on the road. It didn't weigh much, like 1700 pounds. It was faster than, for example, an F150 with the 300 or a C1500 with the 4.3.
@@Oddman1980 I get it. I just mean I thought it was so slow that highway driving would almost be dangerous. Your story is pretty hilarious and bucks my expectations of the car lol. 1700lbs absolutely blows my damn mind. My fatboy Supra is literally two of those plus more at around 3750lb.
Oh my lord, I love your story. The Metro ain't fast, but it was so light that the tiny powerhouse it had could easily move it forward and that was good enough. I have an Impreza that people say it is underpowered with only 152 hp, but I can easily accelerate enough to get up to speed and pass any slow pokes around because it is still light enough to move around. Never drove a Metro, also haven't seen one recently. They are so rare in the midwest nowadays
My car takes 7.5 quarts of oil..
The fact that the Aveo is the newest car on the list and still managed to be second on this list is very impressive
Well done GM
it was bad, very bad. A friend had his 09 Aveo blow the engine right after warranty was up. He hasn't had any GM product ever since
I own the Pontiac version, and it's not horrible (Cash 4 Clunkers) for what I paid for it, it's greatest flaw is the timing belt. Gotta change that thing every 6 years. If it breaks, it grenades the motor as it's a interference engine, meaning the valves and pistons meet when ran out of time. Other than that, it handles poorly (oversteer is a issue) and economy is so-so (32 on the highway) but has been fairly reliable overall, with the biggest unscheduled repair being the coil pack for the ignition.
I rented one once hated every second of it.
Having owned a lot of 90s and 2000s GM In my family, I can completely agree. Almost always terrible cars, but also some of the best and most reliable drivetrains on the market. Just look at the amount of good running Grand Ams or Buick Century there are compared to competitors like the Taurus or the Cloud Cars from Chrysler
The Aveo is garbage. GM = Garbage Motors
Fun fact: The Yugo continued to be produced until 2008, and is still a very common sight on Serbian roads even today.
Serbian engineering at its peak
@@frost6916 Yugo was a fiat 127 basically. They bought the tool and die
I really wanted to buy a Hyundai when they first came out, went to the dealer and the honest salesman said that if I wanted to carry a few passengers and have the a/c on, then I'd better not get the automatic. I thanked him for his honesty and walked out.
I actually have a 1985 Hyundai Pony with the larger 1.6L motor (automatic though) that has working air conditioning! Unfortuantely, that's one of the few things that work on it and it needs a restoration, but man, after 37 years, it blows ice cold, far better than my 2005 Sonata and 2006 Corolla.
Never buy a Hyundai
I was surprised to see the Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift on the list. In my home country the Suzuki Swift was and continues to be one of the most popular cars. They've always been fun to thrash about and they can take a beating. A few people still daily drive '89 and '90 Swifts there to this day.
I completely agree with this list AND your disagreement about the Chevette. I knew a fellow soldier when I was in the Army ('84-'88) who raised the rear end, put oversized tires with Chrome mags on the rear and dropped a 2.8 litre Chevy Citation V6 under the hood of that '79 2-door hatchback coupe; that was a little screamer! (Until he blew the motor up, that is) Good video!
🚙!
🐰
That's one thing the Chevette had for it, it was rear wheel drive and being a GM, parts from larger (more powerful) cars would bolt on to it with either little to no modification.
Couldn't kill that little engine either, rust was the Chevettes only weakness
I remember when the Aveo came out. Even as a 10 year old I could tell that thing was a piece of crap. I remember thinking that for the money one would spend on the Aveo, they could get a 1998-2002 generation Toyota Corolla, which would be a much better car. Today, I still see 90s Corollas sometimes but never Aveos.
Comment posted April 30, 2022 11:21 am
I test drove an Aveo, since gas was hitting $3.50/gal here for the first time and my Camaro got 19 if it had a tail wind. That thing was horrid.
Why did you put the time at the bottom of the comment?
30/4/22 17:54
@@the_pigs_have_rebelled Cause we want to be cool
April 30, 2022
1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
@@baronvonjo1929 can’t argue with that 30/4/21 18:04 BST.
I agree be in the same age Ratko away is better considering that Davao had crank windows and had a lot of problems
I really don't think the Geo Metro belongs on the list. Sure, it was short on power, but that in itself doesn't make it a bad car. Plus they were very reliable and actually had decent build quality. Plus, as you said about the Chevette, people should have known what they were getting. I would also agree that the Chevette shouldn't be on this list either as people should have known what they were getting. While the Chevette wasn't as good as the Metro, it was still a decent car.
I agree. I think the metro gets a resurgence whenever gas prices go up because they have one that gets 50+ mpg
Agree with you. Can't say it better.
mine was a lemon but mine was $500 only got 33 to the gallon.
And the main reason why the Chevette wasn't as good as the Metro is that it was two generations older, if you had a late one in the mid '90s it was a 10-year-old car with 20-year-old engineering while a Metro was much fresher.
What people didn't know about the Geo Metro is that it was actually made with love versus just being made to sell cars. In Canada, the Geo Metro Inline-3 got a Turbo upgrade. The best version is the Suzuki Swift GTi which matched the Porsche 944's 0 to 60.
I’m surprised and impressed that he mentioned his daily driver being a Kia Stinger GT. It’s a nice car and it’s great to see people break the mold and drive something other than boring cars like Chevy Traverses, Ford Explorers and Nissan Altimas
It's a fantastic sleeper sports car most don't think about, Hyndai makes a cool hot hatch too. Only problem is that it kinda looks like everything else on the road, not very distinctive. That's all up to taste though. Personally of all the choices I had, I went with an MK3 1988 Supra. Not necessary for attention or to be cool, but just because I think it's the coolest looking car there is that is reasonable. Gets WAY more attention than fancy newer cars, I'll tell you that, it's unbelievable.
@@rushnerd Not sure how much a sleeper the Kia Stinger GT is. It's pretty obvious it's a performance car.
A 2003-7 Mazda6S V6 is a sleeper, especially with a manual. (shares a chassis with the Fusion) It matches the specs of 1990-1995 Ford Taurus SHO. It's actually a scootch faster than the SHO. Plus it has better airbags and over a decade newer engineering and metallurgy. It's also far less likely to have been owned by a hoonigan boy racer wanna-be who regularly drove it like they stole it.
The Stinger GT2 is a very fast vehicle! It pulled me in the seat on the test drive! I don't think people realize how powerful the Stinger and G70 are.
@@350zlover2 I have no doubt it's fast and surprising. I just think it doesn't look too different from anything else on the road. Nothing wrong with that, but I would want my sports car to catch eyes.
I'm no one to talk though, I drive a MK3 Supra haha. Not quite that fast.
@@350zlover2 One thing that baffles me about the Stinger/G70 is the G70 'luxury brand' is the one with a manual transmission.
This episode just proves that I am right when I say that certain cars work in some markets, while they fail in others. Renault 5 was a great success in Europe and is considered a classic. In USA it is a laughing stock. In my native Serbia, Yugo is a beloved car for many families and younger people do miracles tuning and modifying them - best examples have ATS wheels, Recaro seats and 150-170 horsepower. Trabant is the most misunderstood car by the American public. While it is a cheap poorly equipped car, it isn't ugly to look at, provides decent fuel efficiency, build quality and space both interior and trunk. Even the performance isn't that bad for city driving. While Americans are used to complete unquestionable reliability and customer service at the dealerships unparalleled with anything we see in the developing world, in countries where people aren't afraid to take a screwdriver in our own hands and fix small issues on our cars, many of these cars are considered absolutely iconic.
I would love to take a Trabant to my local car shows, cruise ins and cars & coffee events. It would be a hit just for being unique. Any time we see a well maintained Yugo in the states it creates a stir in those old enough to remember them when new.
@@tmmurphy I can't imagine what confusion a Škoda Felicia convertible or Škoda 1000 MB or a Soviet GAZ Volga would cause at such an event.
@@stanojevicnatasa2514 There is a segment of us who would love and appreciate all of them. I spotted a Vespa 400 stacked on top of a G20 Chevy van in a junkyard years ago and did not know what it was. All I knew is that I wanted it. Even if it never ran. I looked up everything I could on the micro-car and the only reason I didn't buy it is that I was a college kid living with my parents and they were not keen on me bringing home a lawn ornament and storing it on their property. Hmm...I wonder if it is still there?
@@tmmurphy I know, car people are same in all of the world it is the same in reverse, here in ex Yugoslavia American cars are considered a curiosity - while in USA nobody pays attention to an Oldsmobile Delta 88 from the 1980s, get out of one on a crowded street in Belgrade and you will get more attention then a drag queen in church.
Same here in Spain. The Renault 5 was an absolute classic and even got to compete in rallyies and stuff. People absolutely love the R5 to this day
The metro was actually not such a bad car, always found it pretty fun.
I always laughed when buying Metro spark plugs, as they always came in a package of four.
An older man in my neighborhood still has one & uses it almost everyday! It stills looks great,
but is garage kept & doesn't go far! I rented one in Florida in the 90's, but even on flat highways,
I couldn't get the car over 60 mph, easily! I did get about 50 mpg, though!
@@rongendron8705 Sure they werent great but not that bad either, thats what I think a least
@@twotone3471 Ive basically always owned 4 cylinder engine cars.. However in a world where engines keep getting smaller.. 4 is 4
@@rongendron8705 The Rentals were almost all automatics, and lacked a lockup torque converter, which made them bleed torque on the highway. The 5 speed is 30 MPH faster than the Automatic as a result.
6:46 There is a dealer in Toledo Ohio that sold Daewoo along with Kia. now they sell Hyundai with Kia. A co-worker of mine, at a job I had in the early 2000s had a Daewoo Nubria. He really liked it but years later I ran into him someplace and he said he ended up scraping it because he couldn't find parts to fix it.
I used to work with guy driving Lanos. Same problem. He kept it as long as parts were available. He had Lada Samara before that. It was scrapped 4 years old due to rust and lack of parts. Last I heard of that guy he drove old Accent.
When my dad went on a business trip to South Korea and 91 he wrote in aDaewoo and when I lived in New Hampshire in the 2000sgDaewoo was sold at a Toyota dealer and the Toyota sold more than they did
@@karoltakisobie6638 Gotcha. Yeah those cars weren't good for the long haul.
@@adamroberge1201 Interesting. Yeah Daewoo wasn't in it for the long haul.
From Port Clinton Ohio here, and I can remember
I had a Chevette as my first car. It was a 1978 with a 4-speed manual. That thing was actually fun...I did a little move we called the "second-gear slowdown" by driving around 30 and dumping the clutch in second gear! The rear end would hop around and it made for fun driving!!! Ah, the memories!
I had the same car ('78 w/ 4 spd. manual). It was the SLOWEST car I ever owned. I never got the EPA claimed 28 mpg it was supposed to get either. After the front springs broke in half, I was done with it.
It was slow, it didn't get good gas mileage, it was poorly built. Pretty much anything else would have been a step up, even a Ford Pinto !!
The Chevette was a great car!!!! My dad had a 1978 4 dr and kept it for 7 yrs. Very few issues with it
The Yugo is Fiat 127 based, not 128. But the 128 was also produced by Zastava.
For the American audience, the Fiat 127 was the hatchback (like the Yugo) version of the 128, which had a trunk.
@@syxepop not quite, the 127 was one size smaller than the 128.
In fact the 128 had its own hatchback version and there was a 127-derived sedan (the Fiat Oggi).
Honestly I don’t think the metro and aspire deserve this list. They’re cheap, good on fuel, and I commonly see them get past 300k miles. They did what they were designed for, and did it very well
Aspires were trash. Extremely slow, poor handling, and you only could get power steering with an automatic five door.
The fact you still see metros running around pretty often (I do at least, several in a smaller town) says it all. The MPG still blows my mind. Not a bad car by any means, just the cheapest of the cheap, but not Yugo cheap lol.
I agree too even the festiva, the 90’s was the last decade for properly built cars, the Buick road master wagon is another great 90’s vehicle, the metro and aspire along with the geo tracker all did their jobs quite well, i like these types of cheap cars and prefer a manual transmission and don’t care if it has power steering or not
As far as I know the Aspire was reliable and last for many miles
Both cars were more reliable than a BMW on average. But while on average one would spend $5k to keep a BMW on the road, nobody spend $5k to keep these cars going, so they had a "Reputation" which was generally caused by poor maintenance.
My dad had an 87 chevy sprint as his daily driver while growing up. He paid $100 for it and drove it for like 7 years. Before I had my first car, an 85 Monte Carlo, I used to drive the sprint to school. I once had 5 people in that little thing with me (not sure how, but we were all in there). Had to drive up a hill. Wasn't too steep, but I really didn't think it would make it. By the top of the hill I was down to about 10 mph.
I was given a Ford Aspire as a rental car while mine was in the shop. I gave it back the next day and got something better.
I was quite pleased with my Chevy Metro, and wish they still made them. Literally the only thing I would change on it would be to add a USB player. I got 45 mpg with it all day long, and it was comfortable, even on long road trips. It was quite common for me to go on trips 500 miles or more in it, and the 1.3 liter 4-cylinder ran really well.
12:56
Interesting/ mostly useless information I learned today:
The Pontiac "G" series
number in the name ie "G5"
actually represented what generation those vehicles were...but oddly enough coincided with the size of the cars as well!
G5 compact/5th gen. Sunfire
G6 midsize/6th gen. Grand Am
G8 fullsize/8th gen. Grand Prix
Very Curious & cool
✌🏾
“mostly useless information” ?
The G8 wasn't based on the Grand Prix, but rather the AU / NZ Holden Commodore VE (the Chevy SS was based on the VF version of the Commodore).
Grand Prix was FWD for several of the last generations while the G8 was RWD.
That makes the G3 (Firefly), G5 (Sunfire) and G6 (Grand Am) being more of a "position in the lineup" thing rather than a generation number thing, as normally I use for other cars.
@@baconhairfabfur6548 Sure, mostly useless...where in life would you need that info? What about that are u questioning?
@@syxepop I know what the G8 is (Holden along with the GTO & Chevy SS)and I never said it was based on the grand Prix.
My point is exactly what you said about the numbers following the "G" being a representation of the cars position in the line up AND at the same time they coincide with the generations of the cars they replaced.
G5= replaced the 4th gen Sunfire
G6= replaced the 5th genGrand am
G8 = replaced the 7th genGrand Prix
(Grand Prix last production year was 2008
The G8 1st production year picked up the moment the grand Prix stopped 2008) You with me?
@@averyparticularsetofskills idk really. i just didn't know why "mostly useless information" was on your comment
My first car in 1986 was a '77 Chevette. it was a great little first car. Paid $1000 for it and only had to do the brakes. I traded it in 3 years later for $2000 towards a $7000 Rx7. I basically owned it for 3 years for free.
Best subcompact in recent years would have to be the Honda fit and Ford Fiesta. Great video, my neighbor traded a late 90s Mercury Grand Marquis (not sure what year as I was in elementary school when they had it) for a Pontiac G3 because it was a new car under $10k and she loved small, cheap vehicles. They were both born in Germany and she compared it to the Beetle. She laughed that it had manual locks, windows, mirrors, seats, but had OnStar, as if anyone with a G3 would pay for OnStar.
And the Metro made 55HP, not 70. 70HP is what the Turbo Sprint made, while the regular Sprint pumped out 48HP.
Thanks for another great episode! My favorite Saturday morning/afternoon watch ♥️😊
Have to agree with others that the metro was a huge cut above the rest. I agree with you that the Chevette also wasn't the worst out there! Still a great list! You have the best combination of clips, ads, photos, and information that manages to be informative and enjoyable. Hope there are more lists in the future!
I know a lot of people that had the first and 2nd gen Sephia that made it to 300k. If you actually took care of them and don’t rag them out they were good little cars. They were just cheap so most people didn’t care.
My mom bought one new in the late 90s. Her's had an issue where it would lose power at highway speeds. She had just had me, her oldest son at the time, so this really spooked her. They were never able to fix it, and she didn't want to risk driving it around long enough to lemon law it, so she just traded it in on a 2000 Nissan Altima. Much better car, she had that for about 12 largely trouble-free years.
Agreed. Like the Festiva they were all Mazda under the skin. I had a friend who bought a '97 new. It had something like 125 horsepower and was actually pretty quick by the standards of the time.
First gen Sephia had the Mazda BP 05 engine same as the 1.8 in the Miata. Good cars.
My 2000 Sephia was ridiculously reliable. We called it war pony because it would not die
This is gonna be a good one !! You have one of the best car channels for the everyday person to enjoy !!
Apart from the Geo Metro this is honestly a really good list. I started watching with the assumption I would disagree with many more of the placements but wow - this is remarkably accurate.
My first car was an ‘83 Renault Alliance.
I bought it 3 days after my 16th birthday in year 2000.
It was slow, it was quirky but it was incredibly fuel efficient!
Parts were very hard to find, and I’ve been looking for a another one in decent shape, ever since.
Was it the 1.7L?
@@the_kombinator It was the 1.4L
I damn near bought a 2008 Chevy Aveo, but I couldn't find one. Gas was $4.00 a gallon and they actually sold really well.
I ended up with a Kia Rio, not a car to write home about but seemed to be a lot better then The Aveo, so I think it was for the best that I did not get a Aveo.
You did real good, the 08 Aveo (and pontiac g3) would snap the timing belt and sent the rollers like a grenade through the heads.
@@jackstraw262 That's what I heard, good thing it didn't work out.
@@jackstraw262 You have to change the timing belt at 60k miles and that won't happen
@@jasontylersloan8196 The thing is, GM/Chevy knew of the issue and issued a secret warranty for the belt. It was a limited time offer and only if one complained loudly enough. If not, the cost of repair was on the owner, hoping it did not snap first.
I change the timing belt every 6 years, and the only unscheduled maintenance was when a coil pack went bad. Just depends on your expectations, My G3 (Pontiac Aveo) I got new for $8,200 and if it lasted a couple of years, hey, I broke even. Now, it's 14 years old, and yeah, it's never been a date car, but it's a better car than it's sibling in my Garage, the Chevy Spark ever will be.
I bought a new Geo Metro in 1994. In 2 short years I put 210K miles on it. It was more reliable than my 1990 Honda. My last Metro, I bought in 2001, (it was a 96 year model). I drove it until 08.
The 3 cyl Metro’s always used oil, (about a quart every 3K miles). They were extremely durable little cars. I’d Love to have another one.
Omg! Thanks for mentioning the Robin. Mr. Beans nemesis! I loved how he picked on this vehicle. But my high school girlfriend drove a Lemans for years. It was a surprisingly reliable decent vehicle, we grew to have a lot of respect for it. Knowing the history of the vehicle decades later, I guess we just got lucky?
I had a teal green 90 Lemans like the 1 here. Helped me get thru tough times and never let me down or left me stranded. Nothing but fond memories until the day it was totaled by a pickup hitting it while parked on a street. Luckily I was not in it. And a high point the insurance gave me more than I paid for it lol
Same here. My 88 aero coupe did everything I needed to do. I loved that car. From what I was told by the Pontiac dealership, it was their response to the 2nd Gen Honda CRX. Granted, that the CRX was a bit more of a sportier car
I know, I know, votes and such but I am gonna have to agree with the people who said the Chevette was what it was and people asked too much of it. It really was a fairly solid little car (cause more oldschool engineering) compared to most of the others out there like say the Dodge Omni which were scrimped on in all areas to get the price down while the Chevette was just lacking features more than anything. It wasn't a "Bad" care so much as a boring car. I think most people just weren't used to how stripped down it was and that is what got the reputation. Now I had an 89 LeMans and trust me that was a BAD car for sure! It needed many major repairs and even with proper maintenance was completely worn out by 60,000 miles. Then engine had lost some much compression it just wouldn't start. Evenly too, aka, just worn TF out! Just about like the Chevy Corsica my mother bought new and got rid out at about 60k when the trans blew for the second time!
Love your videos, I actually had a 1987 Hyundai Excel as my first car, and I put 100,000 miles on it in 4 years and never had a mechanical problem, it got totaled due to a minor accident because it was worth nothing, but still drove perfectly, horsepower was pathetic at 69, but it was a reliable ride for me
I worked with a girl who had one of that vintage in the late 1990s. And she was scared to go on a highway because she basically couldn’t accelerate. 😂😂
When discussing the reputation/perception Hyundai used to have, I'm surprised you didn't cut to that clip in the movie Glen Gary Glen Ross of Alec Baldwin shouting, "Because I drove a BMW here, and YOU drive a HYUNDAI!"
My dad's girlfriend still had a running Yugo well into the late 90s. It stayed garaged a lot, however. I remember thinking the strangest part of it being the spare tire was located on top of the carburator.
Subaru used to do that for their 80s models.
I had a 93 metro convertible it was a fun car to drive and I never had any problems with it
It was not in the shop one time and I sold it when it had a 110000 miles on it and the lady I sold it to drove it tell someone run into her and totalled it
I am always surprised how so many Americans car reviews say things like "only 98bhp" for older imports. When the car doesn't weigh ridiculous amounts, 98bhp is more than enough for a commuter car.
The 1989 Pontiac Le Mans weighed about 1000kg - 100bhp/ton. (The equivalent Opel / Vauxhall weighed about 150kg less)
89 Ford Mustang 2.3 - 1300kg and 90bhp - 70bhp/ton
89 Mustang V8 - 1350kg and 225bhp - 165bhp/ton
My second car was a 1984 Buick Skyhawk coupe with a 2.0L engine rated at 86 HP and had a 4 speed manual transmission with no power steering. Car might have been about 2200 to 2400 lbs. sure, in 0-60 and quarter mile time it was slow but it was fun to throw around corners and row through the gears trying to get as much power out that engine as possible. All the cars I’ve had since were more powerful and faster but none were nearly as fun to take on a winding mountain/country road.
People don't realize how morbidly obese cars are anymore. Cars shouldn't weight more than 3500 pounds at the highest end. You don't need "safer" cars (that kill anyone they hit if they don't also drive a 5,200lbs hamplanet SUV), you need safer drivers.
If the car review was written in the 21st century, it makes sense for double-digit power ratings (normally given in hp for Americans, not bhp) to sound quaint. It puts into perspective what accelerrating and merging onto a highway might've been like in one of those things; what was considered normal and ordinary then. (A highway that, back then, was just as big as today, while the car definitely was not).
Edit: realize that power/mass is less and less important (compared to power alone) as speeds increase.
I actually owned a 88 yugo gvl for about a decade. Was a great little car. Ended up selling it to a classic car collector a few years back. I miss driving it as it had a really peppy fiat sohc engine in it that just needed a few tweaks to basically double it's US rated power. What really did them in was people not changing the timing belt at the right intervals.
Geo metro actually good cars run forever good gas mileage. Me and a friend got over 105 mph in his 3 cylinder version both of us over 200 pounds with two golf bags in car as well.
Yep, they weren't "fast", but they were not dangerously slow either. I had a '91 EFI and it got down the road, including highways, just fine.
If anything, weighing it down like that increases top speed (when not driving uphill) due to lowering ride height.
Oh, and as long as the tires are properly inflated.
@@nthgth no it doesn’t not in this case at least. The cars pretty low already. We were on extremely flat road and weight to power is always a hindrance. Unless your using gravity going down hill then more weight will help.
Apparently there were enough leftover unsold Daewoos after the brand was discontinued in the US that I remember a number of Mythbusters episodes where they used Daewoos for testing car myths because they could apparently get brand new ones from junkyards.
I recall the biggest selling point of the Chevette was that it did not have the Vega engine.
It had an Isuzu engine.
The Festiva was freaking awesome little car for the niche it was made to fill. My brother took his off roading a lot and it was great fun to ride in and drive.
i only knew a couple people who bought daewoo lanos in the late 90s but both raved about how great they were, unlike the early kia sophia and sportage owners at the time whose cars were constantly in need of repairs. i was blown away that kia succeeded and Daewoo left the market. even more blown away by Kia's swift change for the in the early 00's
I really can’t express how much that I enjoy your content! Thanks so much!
Do not agree with number 7 at all, that two seat convertible was designed by Suzuki for the California market and the Metro opened up the market of NEW reliable Japanese designed cars to people with limited $ and to the younger market.
I suppose hundreds of people who voted for it to show up disagree with you. 🤷♂️
@@matt_b... Maybe so, always subjective but in polling any data, all views should be captured so those that support it can negate or offset a negative vote.
The Metro was great
Unlike the other variants of the Suzuki Cultus / Swift sold in US the convertible was never sold under the Suzuki brand, only as a Geo Metro (and was sold nationally).
Suzuki Swift or cultus which the metro was derived from was a very reliable car. It was built from 89 to 2001 in some countries it was built till 2013, this implies something different. In fact most of the cars presented here were GM rebadged cars made in the US, maybe it was GM's bad decisions or built quality. After all these small cars are city cars and maybe not suitable for US highways and long distances under constant heavy engine load
The Chevette's sin wasn't that it was a bad car when it was released in 1976, (Similar to cars of its time.)But by 1986 still being the exact same car trying to compete with much more (then)modern cars.
obviously...you never owned one.
I owned 2 Geo Metro’s. The first was a 94 model. In 2 short years I put 210K miles on it. It was more reliable than my 90 Honda. My 2nd one was a 96 year model. I drove it until 08, but It only had 95K on it when I sold it. My 96 was also more reliable than my previous Honda.
Yes they were small and runty, but bc I was driving once a week from Salem, OR to LA and back, I needed something that got awesome mpg.
Both of my Metro’s served me very well and the only time they saw 55 mph was when I passed it to 85 mph.
On 1 tank of gas I got 80 mpg. The rest of the time I consistently got 55 mpg.
I disagree with the chevette. I had great luck with 2 of them.
Hey you didn't kill yourself!
Had only one and the three speed auto failed at 60,000 miles. Gutless but likable. I think the Vega deserves the place on this list occupied by the Chevette.
Fun list, and it brought back many memories of not only seeing these cars on the road, but driving some of them. I owned a 1987 Chevy Sprint, which I bought for $6400 new. With the 5-speed manual it actually wasn't that painfully slow, and honestly got over 50 mpg on the highway. But yeah, it was pretty crappy. My friend bought an '87 Hyundai Excel at about the same time, and it was certainly bigger and more comfortable, it was actually slower since it didn't make much more power. He kept that car for 10 years, so they weren't all horribly built. A coworker bought a Yugo around the same time as I bought my Sprint, and he thought I'd wasted my money since the Yugo was much cheaper. 6 months later, he was on his second transmission and 3rd clutch, and practically everything else was falling apart; I'd had absolutely no troubles with my Sprint. And my mom owned a 1980 Chevette with the 3-speed auto. It could barely make it up steep hills, but otherwise wasn't completely horrible. It did start to fall apart after a few years, though, and went through 3 starters in 6 months at one point (mostly due to a rash of counterfeit GM parts in the late '80's).
I always laughed at the Ford Aspire, wondering what it aspired to be 😜
I had a 2004 Aveo LS. Top model for the time and I liked it. It was the first car I ever put anything into. As I got better at working on cars, I found that the 1.6L engine it had was crap, and the bottom end ended up blowing out. Sold it for $1000 with a blown engine and they drove it away on its own power. Surprising but I do sometimes miss that car.
First car was a Geo Metro, and I loved that little machine. That little car and I had a lot of good times together.
The best Chevette I saw was a baby blue four door on I91 years ago. It had 4 huge fullback types in it, each with one shoulder out the window and an arm hanging down the side. It looked like they were carrying it. The car was riding down on the snubbers and barely maintained 38 mph. But it must have been a fun car, they were having a great time laughing and my thumbs up was well received.
The Geo metro was based on suzuki swift mark 3 and we in India got it as a sedan "Maruti suzuki 1000" because it had a 3 cylinder 999cc carburetted engine producing 46hp in 1990 . This was the first modern sedan India got to see . It had handled well , it was modern aerodynamic and feature loaded but the engine felt underpowered so suzuki gave it a 1.3ltr 65hp engine which turned it into a power to weight Ratio king of the 90s in India as it weight stood at 860kg.It was renamed the Esteem that year in 1993.
It was used in Ralllies in India. Later in 2000 it got MPFi finally 🙌 which boosted the Performance to 85hp and 110nm torque at 870kgs kerb weight. It got new features too again but the competition had already became tough in entry level sedan market with arrival of Ford Ikon, Opel corsa ,Hyundai Accent, Fiat Sienna/petra ,Cheverolet Aveo,Tata indigo etc in early 2000s. It was the ikon ,Accent and indigo which caused the most damage to Esteem's sales which meant that Suzuki had to replace it with Swift Dzire sedan in 2008 which was just a swift with a boot again but this one looked ugly and we all hated Maruti suzuki for it but it sold so well that it is still selling in its 3rd generation now but only as Dzire , glad they dropped the swift nameplate from it. The Geo metro or the Esteem as it was known in India was one legendary reliable fun to drive car for us. Still seen on Indian roads , still the go to car when filmmakers are looking to recreate the 90s and 2000s in their movies and Web series in India.
And about the Cheverolet Aveo we got that as a sedan and hatchback in 2006 but it flopped only because it had no diesel engine back then when Turbocharged diesel was all rage in India otherwise the car sold decently. I still see a few Aveo sedans in Mumbai where I live. It was the sedan version which sold more than the hatchback surprisingly when it's usually the other way round here in India.
I had a Pinto station wagon (1974) and it was arguably the best car I've owned. I drove it all over Europe and England. I brought it back to the US and drove it for a couple more years all over the east coast. Florida rust finally did it in.
My cousin had a '78 Chevette back in the early 80's that he got for $500. He was 18 and managed to get that car up to close to 95 MPH on the Interstate. Of course, the little car nearly shook itself to pieces and he had to replace the motor mounts afterwards. But, as a passenger in it during the attempt it was really weird seeing us pass everybody in that little white box and noticing that the speedo could go past 85 mph.
Dunno, I sure liked my '88 Festiva. It had room for four six-foot guys, fun handling, and if you kept it floored for long enough it would even hit 80mph - which sounded like you were doing 150. I traded mine at 120k miles and it still looked and drove like new.
Here in the UK I bought a Yugo in 1987, ended up calling it ''yugo around me.'' It was the first and only new car of that class that junked it'self within 2 years .
Haha I rode in one once here in America, they couldn't have made it any cheaper quality.
Odd thing though that the Yugo with it's reputation was related to the Lada, the Soviet car which was supposedly a tank on 4 wheels.
@@twotone3471 Ah the Lada, Russia's version of the rebadged Fiat 124.
@@twotone3471 possibly, a window into Soviet manufacturing standards
@@chaosdemonwolf1 "Yugo around me" hahaha
Thanks I’ve been waiting for this! 👏🏼👏🏼
Gotta give it up to you for including the clip for the Lanos!! That was a great clip!
Between my wife and myself we have owned everyone of these vehicles, except the LeCar and Yugo, as what my children called at the time "Kleenex Cars".
Buy them use them and dispose of them.
My wife and I both had 175 mile daily commutes in opposite directions at the time.
We bought inexpensive vehicles that we drove the wheels off of.
None of the vehicles were luxurious but they all provided good service , with routine maintenance, for the 100 to 150k miles that we owned them.
Always started and never left anyone stranded.
175 mile daily commutes? 4~5 hrs per day in a car? Damn, after working from home for 2 years, I'm bitching about a 75 KM commute.
Still, the bar's been set, I can't waste 10 hrs a week driving anymore, not at these fuel prices, and even though I can do 100% of my work from home, nope, come back to the office, back to 1962, except without the 1962 gas prices. F that, done.
What were you two doing to make that kind of commute even remotely attractive?
@@the_kombinator orthopedic surgeon and air traffic controller.
The pay made the commute worth it.
@@williamegler8771 OMG I was on track to be ATC at YYZ airport - decided I don't like having gray hair at 27 and stayed in IT.
I can see why you didn't move though, given you're already living in the middle of two jobs.
I think when it comes to the Chevette, it’s famous as crappy and as a symptom of the Malaise Years. But most people who think that never had one, so don’t know how it really was. Even crappy cars can have their charm, like the Yugo.
Family had a Lynx Wagon, had no charm
I agree about the Chevette, I had a Chevette"S" 4spd. A/C & it was pretty good at being what it was, I drove it hard & it didn't mind at all, in fact it was able to chirp it's tires going into 3rd gear!
Had a ‘78 Chevette. Loved that car. Never let me down. Lived in upstate NY, and it always started no matter the weather. One of my top 10 favorite cars I’ve ever owned.
People who voted the Metro or Festiva as worst cars, more than likely never owned one.
I’ve seen Festivas with over 200k miles running Well. They were kind of fun, cheap, well put together, and efficient.
The Metro was ultra efficient and while a but Slow, could last a long while.
I had a rare 87 Turbo one in red. Sprint model. Sold it 8 years ago running well. Bought it in 1993. It was well made and very quick. I commonly got over 40 mpg, too. Only left me on the side of the road 1 time due to a failed distributor. Ran it into a parking lot to h my own, thing weighed 1670 lbs!
It's very disappointing that people would vote to put the very reliable Suzuki swift/ Geo metro On this list. These were great little cars in my opinion and even though Chevrolet ended production after 2001 you can still see quite a few of these zipping through Miami streeis through Miami streets today. Unlike the other cars on this list missed the metro did not suffer from poor build quality it just was basic basic transportation.
Agree. Lots of them still on the road out here in the Seattle area as well.
@@fehronemo Significant collector/ hobbyist scene with them now too. Definitely should not have even been considered for this list
one of the best channels on youtube. a 1980 chevette was my first car
Great video! Can't wait to see your other top list of vehicles. My favorite cheap compact car is the Toyota Paseo and the late 90's Mitsubishi Mirage coupe. Favorite quirky cars was Subaru SVX, 88 Buick Rivera/ Reatta with the touch screen and 91 Mitsubishi Sigma.
I couldn’t even get a Yugo to do 75mph… drove it off a cliff… still didn’t hit 75! And the only part of the story I’m BSing about, is the fact we “drove” it off the cliff… no one was in it. Still didn’t hit 75 and went airborne at about 35… it was a glorious death of a Yugo!
I once read a story that a car dealer would give away Yugo as a bonus gift to anyone who bought a particular luxury car. One buyer of the luxury car asked if he could get a lawn mower instead of the Yugo.
My dad bought one when I was like 12 super cheap like 300 bucks it was super clean straight car didn’t run he fixed it in couple hours ran perfectly fine got good mileage would break 75 and he sold it for 5 times what he paid.
A guy who used to work with my parents how do you go that he took in for service when he pulled out of the dealership the engine fell out on the highway after service and the people at the dealer did not acknowledge him
@@Thumper68 Your dad was lucky.
@@chaosdemonwolf1 no my dads a master mechanic and machinist lol
I enjoyed this. Always had an interest in the (sub) compact cars sold in North America. All of them except the For Aspire and 2nd generation Geo/Chevrolet Metro were sold in the UK.
One small correction - the Yugo GV was based on the Fiat 127. It was the earlier Zastava models (Skala/311/511/513) that were based on the Fiat 128.
We got the geo as a Suzuki swift
The video was informative and the footage was great! I was saying I remember this or that watching the video. There was a lot of badge engineering going on too. Thank you for a great job.
Learned to drive stick on my dad's 95 Metro... worked at a Napa auto parts for a short time and the had a Kia Sephia with all the seats removed... it was the only vehicle you could put a 10 foot piece of pipe in without it sticking out anywhere... unlike the pick ups trucks they had... and it was a MANUAL!!!... I always grabbed the keys for that in the morning lol
why in the hell is the Geo Metro on this list. there are a few cars on here that don't deserve to be on here, but I can understand. The Geo Metro does not belong on here. They were reliable, practical, easy to work on, parts were cheap, and they were great on gas. There is no reason at all they should be on here, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. They do exactly what they were supposed to do, and there are many of them still on the road with no issues.
Thanks for an entertaining video. My 2 cents, I think the 1982 Dodge Omni could compete with the Yugo for top honors. In my 50 years of driving, the Omni still stands as the worst car I've ever owned. One afternoon, I was working on it (again) and a neighbor strolled over to chat. While I was explaining the car's latest problem, the Dodge emblem inexplicably fell off the grill and onto the driveway. The car was literally disintegrating in front of me. Haha.
The worst car I ever had was a 1980 Dodge Omni 024 with the 1.7L Volkswagon engine. It ran great for about 6 months but once something went wrong on it, other things went on it too and eventually developed a rod knock on it.
Great video! I also loved my first car despite how bad it was! Thanks for the post!
Gotta love waking up to an awesome video on a Sunday morning 😍
10:50
My great uncle loved the Ford Fesitva. He had a bunch of them in a junkyard before he passed.
His pride and joy I assume was this red one that was cut down to be a pickup and painted and had lights to look like a fire truck.
I had one. An 88, the only model that was carbureted. It was neon 🟡 yellow, 5 speed. Bought it for $500 in 2006, and sold it 10 years later. Loved that little car but it was getting too hard to find parts for.
@@jrussellcase I used to get parts from Mazda 121s, Ford Aspires, as well as from Festivas since they're basically the same thing. Parts from a Ford Aspire worked mechanically 90% of the time. They really only looked different from the body aspect, the drivetrain, brakes, all had many interchangeable parts.
The Festiva was better than the Aspire, the reskin added weight without adding power or improved engineering, the rounded body wasn't as space efficient as the old one and the Aspire handled worse.
A Ford escort GT engine fits well in either car.
The Festiva (or Kia Pride) came in a 4 door sedan. First time I saw one 10 years ago in Korea I had to stop and take a picture.
Once again you hit it outta the park w/ this episode. CAN U POSSIBLY DO AN EPISODE ON SPRINTER VANS THANK YOU FROM ALL US CAR LOVERS
The Yugo didn't surprise me.
Thanks Pat.
When they Yugo first came out it really struck me was the fact that the shift lever was made out of plastic, never had I seen such a cheaply made car before
I know a lot of cars that have plastic shifters. My ford Ka from 2006 had that too. So did my fiesta
@@hsvcommodore4111 point made
Thank you so much for mentioning the Kia Sephia! That was my first car and as much as I loved it, it was a big heaping pile of 💩 ! You really made my day!
I love ❤️ this!! I had an Aveo and it so deserved the silver medal 🥈 you gave it! I love it
Remarkable that the Geo ( Suzuki Swift), the Le Mans (Opel Kadett E) and the Chevette (Opel Kadett C) have such a strong reputation here in Europe. Maybe it depends on the factory they where built?
Americans like traffic light drag races and with the 1200cc engine a C Kadett had a maximum speed of only 80mph. Americans would feel embarrassed with its acceleration.
Americans loved to rag on about Japanese cars… But not a Honda, Toyota, Mazda or Subaru on the list.
Who talks bad about those companies? They're not perfect either but are cheap and decently reliable back in the 90s and 2000s. I don't think the new Hondas or Toyotas are all that great. I had a 2005 Honda Accord that I had to replace the transmission in. My first car was a 89 Buick Century and it was much more reliable than my Honda but that was my own experience. It depends on how you treat and maintain them. I bought my Buick from an older lady who took care of it. My Honda was an ex teenager owned used car so I learned the hard way.
I had a Chevette as a company car for a year. I called it a “Shove-It.” It was way too small and uncomfortable for me at 6’5”” and almost 400 lbs. Due to many complaints, the Chevettes were replaced with Chevy Celebriities.
Hah I had a Celebrity stable mate - a Pontiac 6000. I rather liked the car, and the 2.8L had a nice growl to it.
I'm excited to see the list finally post! 😁
The Chevette and the Metro didn’t deserve to be on the list. They were dependable unlike all the Korean cars that didn’t make on the list!
Chevettes were bulletproof
I really think the Chevette doesn’t belong on the list. It was a super basic car but they weren’t terrible. If you had to choose one of those GM 80’s small cars the Citation and it’s Cadillac twin should’ve been on here.
What was Cadillac's version of the X-body car?
The cimmaron was a fancy Chevy cavalier
Here in Brazil, the Pontiac Le Mans was sold as the Chevrolet Kadett and it is considered one of the best cars of its era here.. We only got the hatchback version though, no sedans. There was a station wagon version called the Chevrolet Ipanema though.
A couple summers ago I saw a blue Yugo convertible in Boston. It made my day!
My metro 1.0l 3cyl 5spd made it 467,000 miles all original before it needed work
I feel like people were too hard on the Daewoo imports---if properly maintained, they were quite reliable. So were the Aspire and the 4 cylinder versions of the Suzuki Swift/Metro. One of the biggest problems is that uninformed Americans didn't realize they had to change the timing belt every so often, which would result in catastrophic engine failure if the belt broke. Another problem is that because these cars were so cheap to begin with, nobody maintained them....they were (unfortunately) considered throw-away cars
I'd love to see an episode on the 1980s-era Chevy Nova (later called the Geo Prizm), built in the NUMMI plant (GM-Toyota joint venture) in Fremont, CA.
I had a 2006 aveo that my dad made me get and pay the payments on when I was 16. Thing was a nightmare and a piece of crap. It would stick itself in 3rd gear during the winter and not come out of it until the spring thaw. Dealership service was an absolute joke. The gas mileage was horrendous. The drivetrain was shit. Everything in the interior was flimsy easily breakable plastic, which I understand was going to be a thing on a 13 thousand dollar car. Though my dad still works for GM, I absolutely refuse to drive one of their cars. The old Mercedes 190E I got rid of the Aveo for was a much superior car in every way. These days, I am driving Subaru.
190E was a great car
Wow we have a pretty much the same experience mine was an 05 Aveo LS Blue metalic with "powered" rolled up windows. Piece of Shit car, it was a nighmare driving on a freeway and in the winter, it looks like a deformed egg but we were poor so I had no choice but to drive the pos aveo in highschool. Ugh.
My 2006 Chevy Aveo still looks showroom new, never leaves me stranded, runs great, not fast,but good mpg,not stuffed with tech like all newer cars/SUVs, only see 1-2 others on the road,but hey! Cost nothing to maintain. Bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.
Never tought i would ear somebody defending the aveo :) But you made good points for it!
GM's marketing department has deposited .2c into your account. Thank you.
@@nobodynoone2500 Yeah, i'm a secret agent promoting sale of brand new geo metro...you caught me!
Love the CHANNEL!!!!