In the car world, there is a huge amount of competition among automakers. Naturally, as consumers, we tend to form our own opinions on these companies. In the U.S., there are a few notable automakers we tend to look to for the best quality cars to come out.

Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge are all headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Each of these three manufacturers are held to a higher standard than most, simply because they are our domestic automakers.

However, there are times when we get disappointed by each of them in different ways with the type of cars that come out. This is something that we all don’t want to admit, but the cars that come out of Detroit can sometimes be disappointing.

Today we're going over 25 times Detroit disappointed us. There are many cars we tend to dislike, however, these 25 are just plain bad. These cars span the automakers we’ve talked about, and a few that we haven’t. The only thing we do know is that Detroit has major hits, and times where they completely flop. Fortunately, you don’t have to look anywhere else to find some of the biggest flops to come out of Detroit automakers throughout automobile history. To start things off, we're looking at a fairly common car that's almost always considered quite bad.

25 Ford Edsel

The Ford Edsel is a car that we've started to see more and more as one of the worst Ford cars ever produced. This car had all the right ingredients at the time to be great. However, it just plainly missed the mark.

Aside from all of the problems the car had, even its looks weren’t popular for consumers at the time it came out. It's unfortunate since the car could have helped Ford elevate its business, as long as it was done right. Sadly, that mark was missed early on.

24 Ford Pinto

Another car coming from the Ford Motor Company is the Ford Pinto. This car from the start had bad news written all over it. From the random fires that would start due to the faulty ignition system that it came with, to the overall unreliable design, the Pinto was soon forgotten.

Since this car was on the same track as the oil crisis that the country would soon go through, the Pinto unfortunately never gained much traction among buyers in the US. This ultimately led to its short-lived production, and no car has ever been a Pinto since then.

23 Oldsmobile Cutlass Diesel

Switching brands, we're going to look at a car Oldsmobile produced. The car in question is the Cutlass Supreme Diesel. This car was based on the popular Cutlass of the time, however, it had a diesel engine. Now, doesn’t that sound a bit odd?

The Cutlass Supreme Diesel was a car we soon forgot since it was no longer offered outside of a few model years. However, a car with a diesel engine at the time was rare; not to mention the slew of problems that this Cutlass had. Yet again, this was a flop for Detroit as customers never caught onto this car.

22 Cadillac Cimarron

A car that we might never have known about until now is the Cadillac Cimarron. This car simply wasn’t produced at the right time. The Cimarron was Cadillac’s attempt to attract new customers to the brand by offering a smaller, less luxurious car that ended up getting a ton of negative feedback.

In fact, we end up buying a Cadillac for the luxury, right? This was the same mentality the majority of customers had at the time. Where most of them wouldn’t want to buy a Cadillac that was, in a sense, cheap. However, this car wasn’t long-lived due to waning demand and diminishing sales, which ended production of the Cimarron.

21 Dodge Omni

When you think of a hot hatch, what comes to mind? Surely it isn’t a Dodge Omni. This is a car Dodge produced in order to fill that void of a small hatchback with good handling and performance. However, they completely missed the mark when it came to the Omni.

It featured a vague steering system that definitely didn’t handle well. You could also count on a terrible braking system that wouldn’t let you stop at all. Putting these things aside, Dodge had a good idea when it came to producing a smaller hatchback like the Omni, despite the extremely disappointing design flaws.

20 Ford Explorer

One of the worst cars to have ever come out of Detroit are the early models of the Ford Explorer. This is an SUV that was meant to fill the void left by the Bronco in the Ford lineup. Yet it was one of those SUV’s that didn’t quite hit the mark they were going for.

Not to mention how unsafe the Explorer was when it originally sold. Based on a truck chassis, this SUV was too tall and tended to roll over quite frequently. This didn’t stop customers from buying them, but it wasn’t long before a major design change hit the Ford Explorer in the later 1990s.

19 Pontiac Aztek

Switching gears to another manufacturer that we don’t often think of any more in Pontiac. This is a brand that has hit and miss designs since its inception. However, one car that was a huge miss was the Pontiac Aztek. It was originally meant to be an innovative crossover type vehicle.

On paper, the Aztek seemed like it was going to be one of the highlights of the brand, yet when it came to execution, Pontiac missed the mark. This was one of those times where the plan was good and the execution completely missed the direction they were aiming for. Fortunately, this car didn’t make it passed a few model years.

18 AMC Gremlin

A car that you might not have heard of is the AMC Gremlin. This was a car that was also meant to be a fun little hot hatch that could be enjoyed by the likes of many. However, as you know by now, the AMC brand is no longer in business. This was largely due to the lack of success of the Gremlin.

This seemingly lightweight car actually wasn’t really light at all. It featured a heavy V6 engine which completely threw off the entire weight distribution of the car. This wasn’t the ideal platform for a car that was meant to be fun driving around, in fact, it was quite scary when it came to handling and cornering.

17 Chevrolet SSR

This was another complete disappointment out of Detroit: the Chevrolet SSR. This car was meant to be something fresh for the market with a retro design. I’m sure you already know that the SSR wasn’t quite the car that we were hoping it would be.

The Chevrolet SSR was overwhelmingly mediocre. The design was flawed, it didn’t come with many options in the realm of trim and engine, and most of all the convertible was a complete flop. However, this car was actually extremely overpriced for what you were getting as well, which doesn’t win any points in our book.

16 Pontiac Grand Am

Another car coming from Pontiac is the Grand Am. This car was another attempt by the brand to remain afloat in the U.S. It didn’t quite do that for Pontiac, however. In fact, this car may have signalled the impending doom that would come for the automaker.

The Grand Am was extremely heavy and overwhelmingly slow. The engine only produced around 150 horsepower. That, paired with the heavy chassis, prevented the car from even getting up to speed in traffic quickly. All of this led to the Grand Am being just another car that we were disappointed in when it came out by the now gone Pontiac.

15 Ford Aspire

A car that was supposed to do big things was the Ford Aspire. Unfortunately, this one didn’t aspire to do much when it came to the U.S. market. This car was another one produced during the oil crisis as Ford’s answer. This was a car that was light, had a small engine and good fuel economy.

However, in the rest of the world, this car was a platform shared by both Mazda and Kia under different names. This gave the U.S. market something that they weren’t too fond of when it came to the Ford Aspire. It was extremely poor quality and dreadfully slow. This made it scary to get up in speed while on the highway.

14 Chevrolet Aveo

Another car like the Aspire that was equally as bad was the Chevrolet Aveo. This car was along the same lines as the Aspire but made by Chevrolet, of course. Only the Aveo was a car that featured similar problems in regards to quality.

This car was a small compact sedan that was affordable to many different types of people. The Aveo featured an overwhelmingly cheap interior that would have problems and break quite easily. It also had a tiny 1.2 litre engine powering it, which again, is a big problem when it comes to traffic on the highway.

13 Chevrolet EV-1

Another Chevrolet vehicle is the EV-1. Now, this was a car that was meant to be the future. The EV-1 was the first all-electric car produced by Chevrolet in the 1990s. This car didn’t quite make the cut though when it came to stepping forward.

The EV-1 was a car designed with little drag, which gave it a mediocre range of around 40 miles. However, the styling of the car was simply poor. The EV-1 was received negatively by many of the members of the public during the time, which hurt the progression of EVs for quite some time.

12 Ford Probe

We're going to look at another Ford vehicle made in the 1990s: the Ford Probe. This car, from the looks of it, was meant to be fairly sporty. This wasn’t quite the case, however, as the Probe came with a slew of drawbacks right out of the factory.

Not to mention the Ford Probe had a weak V6 engine and was dreadfully front-wheel-drive. This was in an era where Japanese automakers dominated with sports cars; it could have been Ford’s answer to many of these, yet it didn’t quite make the cut.

11 Chevrolet Monte Carlo

During that same time, Chevrolet came out with another legendary car--sort of. They introduced the new version of the Monte Carlo. This car was supposed to fill the large shoes that the older Monte Carlo vehicles had left behind. However, this Monte Carlo wasn’t quite the same muscle car anymore.

The Monte Carlo was powered by a V6 engine and had front-wheel-drive. This gave the car less than overwhelming performance while disappointing many of the Chevrolet purists that wanted to have another muscle car.

10 Dodge Caliber

The Dodge Caliber was another car we didn’t quite know what to make of. Starting in 2006, we got the Caliber, which was supposed to be along the lines of a Ford Focus, right? Well, not quite. This car was something of a mystery to come out of the notorious muscle car brand. It did have its positives, however, even if it didn’t quite do well in the market.

From an overwhelming amount of blind spots to using the world design motor of the time, the Caliber wasn’t exactly a hot hatch, not until the SRT4 version came out a few years later. However, this didn’t help the darker interior, which was made of poor quality material on the base models.

9 Chrysler Imperial

Sticking to the Dodge and Chrysler brand, we are going to go into another car that disappointed us out of Detroit: the Chrysler Imperial. This car didn’t quite have its own identity, which is why it didn’t quite make the cut for great cars coming out of Detroit.

The Chrysler Imperial was intended to be a luxury sedan. This is something that the Dodge and Chrysler brands weren’t exactly known for at the time. This also leads to the biggest disappointment of this car: the engine. It was powered by an extremely sluggish V6 that pushed out 147 horsepower.

8 Dodge Journey

The Dodge Journey was another car that didn’t quite hit the mark that the brand was going for. This, on the other hand, was an attempt to break into the crossover SUV market. Similar to the Pontiac Aztek, it wasn’t quite the car the Dodge brand had hoped for. This one featured quite a few unrefined design flaws.

These, along with dated interior features and old technology, were some of the major drawbacks of the Journey during the time it was made in. This led to a big gap in the product line that Dodge offered, mainly due to the lack of buyer confidence with the Journey.

7 Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible

A car we've always questioned is the Chrysler PT Cruiser. This was a car that never quite hit the mark for U.S. buyers, which is unfortunate since they surprised us with another trim of the car. The convertible version of the car was a complete flop.

This was a poorly designed convertible that led to many issues with the drop top in the first place. Plus, it added on the flaws of the original car, which were plentiful nonetheless. This is just another car that we chalked up as a complete disappointment out of the Detroit automaker.

6 Jeep Compass

Next up, we have the 2006 Jeep Compass. Jeep has always been fairly independent under the Dodge umbrella. They continued to add more cars to their lineup, however. This led to the Jeep Compass.

This car wasn’t the best-designed Jeep to hit the market. The Compass also got a weak 4 cylinder engine that many different vehicles in the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep lineups also shared. Plus, there was a front-wheel-drive base model that didn’t quite do it for Jeep purists.