The American automobile industry is one of the largest in the world, important enough that the number of vehicles sold annually serves as an indicator of the country's national health. There are countless models, under various brand names, pumped into the market every year. Against this backdrop, carmakers would be unrealistic to assume every one of their models would end up a success on the market.
Some cars just end up being mediocre in a congested market space but at least, they are still able to generate vital cash flows. However, there are a few who fail so spectacularly in terms of sales that they rocked their brand to its core and ending up as an embarrassing chapter, best forgotten, in the carmaker's history.
10 General Motors EV1
You don't become a corporation as big as General Motors without a few knocks along the way. However, the EV1 episode was a particularly hard lesson on how even the best ideas can unravel so quickly.
The GM EV1 was a brilliant concept; an electric car at a time when it was still quite a novelty. The car debuted in 1996 and was meant to represent a new chapter in GM's history. Unfortunately by 1999, the dream had been extinguished with almost all the produced units recalled and subsequently destroyed.
9 Lincoln Blackwood
The only bright spot in the Blackwood's story just might be the fact that Ford quickly realized their error and pulled the car from the American market barely a year after it first launched.
The Lincoln Blackwood was the division's idea of a luxury pickup that it thought would appeal to a particular market segment. It didn't. Potential customers shied away from paying over $50,000 for a truck that was seen as merely a spruced-up Ford F-150. In the end, only 3,356 units of the truck were made against a sales projection of 18,000 pickups.
8 Chevrolet SSR
In 2000, this strange pickup made its first appearance as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show. The response was positive and Chevrolet were convinced to go ahead with production.
If only they had given the idea a bit more thought, they would have realized how impractical the retro-styled pickup was. It also cost a hefty $42,000 which was simply outrageous back then. The car lasted only 3 years in the market before it was discontinued due to poor sales - no surprises here.
7 Ford TH!NK
The TH!NK was actually a line of electric vehicles produced by TH!NK mobility from 2002 to 2011. That time frame included a period when the company existed as a Ford subdivision.
Ford did try to make the subcompact city car a success; employing several different strategies that just did not work out. In the end, Ford was left with an unwanted excess of glorified electric 'golf carts' that no one bought. They actually wanted to crush and destroy the inventory until a Greenpeace protest convinced them to just ship the whole lot to Norway.
6 Saturn Sky
General Motors launched this preppy sports car to compete with the Mazda MX-5 Miata. That never really happened. The Saturn Sky lacked enough arsenal to go up against the car that was arguably the most dominant car in its segment at the time.
GM was struggling at the time and cost-cutting measures during production meant the car was never really able to live up to its full potential. It only lasted 3 years, from 2006 to 2009, before it slipped away with the demise of the Saturn automobile division.
5 Plymouth Cricket
One can only wonder why any of the company executives would sign off on a name like 'Cricket' in the first place. In the end, though, that would turn out to be the least of the car's many problems. The Cricket, also known as the Hillman Avenger in the United Kingdom, is another classic example of when badge engineering fails to come together.
The Cricket was introduced in 1971 and was gone by 1973. In its first year, 27,682 Crickets were sold which might not be such a bad figure until you consider the fact that its main rivals, the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega, sold 352, 402 units and 274,699 units respectively.
4 Chrysler Aspen
2007 marked the start of a severe global economic meltdown; a financial tsunami of epic proportions. It certainly was not the year to introduce a luxury SUV into the market. Yet that was exactly what Chrysler did with the Aspen.
The car did not fare well in the first year as customers flocked to fuel-efficient alternatives. Chrysler responded to this by launching the Aspen Hybrid, a car that utilized a combination of cylinder deactivation technology and a hybrid system made up of two electric motors. That still failed to stimulate the intended sales volume and Chrysler was forced to scrap the Aspen in 2009.
3 Pontiac G3
The unremarkable G3 is fully deserving of a spot in the list of the cars that eventually ruined the brand. It is no coincidence that it also happened to be the shortest-lived car in Pontiac's history.
It was introduced in 2009 and was gone before the end of that same year. The G3 was simply a rebadged Chevrolet Aveo; only this time, the build quality was much worse. It carried a basement sticker price but even that failed to sway enough buyers in its favor.
2 Coda EV
Coda was a California-based company with a vision of mass-producing electric vehicles. It was a dream that generated several million dollars from investors who did believe in the viability of the project.
In March 2012, the company released its first car, based on a Chinese car known as Hafei Saibao. By May of the following year, however, the company had run out of its funds and filed for bankruptcy. The company's woes did not end there as they had to recall every single one of the 117 vehicles sold to fix an airbag problem.
1 Cadillac Catera
The Catera debuted in 1996 and was marketed as 'the Caddy that Zigs'. The logic behind this curious tagline was that the Catera would slot in as an entry-level model for the luxury brand to snag younger buyers.
GM spent a fortune to promote the Catera, a rebadged Opel Omega, but it was like pouring money down a drain. Early sales success quickly tapered off as the cars suffered from reliability issues and numerous recalls. By the end, Cadillac could not even sell 10,000 Cateras a year. The was essentially the death knell for the car and production finally ceased in 2001.