Eight cars that became sales flops what’s up everyone we’re all familiar with cars like the Camry in the f-150 being massive sales successes there are some cars however that completely missed the mark eventually becoming massive automotive flops far under-reacting the manufacturers sales expectations here they are.
1 Number one Pontiac Aztek a car
that played a major role in Pontiacs
demise was definitely the Aztek a
strange-looking SUV built from 2000 to
2005 its daring design was the biggest
issue with this car and despite its
functionality the ugliness is what drove
this car to the rock bottom of US sales
figures with features such as built-in
competent bicycle and snowboard racks
the Aztek was supposed to speak to
adventurous widely considered as one of
the ugliest cars ever built the Aztek
was a major flop despite being a decent
car many people argue that the Aztek
failed because the market wasn’t ready
for something new but we believe that it
was just about the bland execution of an
amazing 1999 concept its appearance in
Breaking Bad earned it a dose of ironic
popularity today but sadly Pontiac isn’t
with us anymore.
2 number two Chevrolet SS are in the midst
of the mid-2000s retro craze Chevrolet
development team came up with a crazy
idea to produce a nostalgic two-seater
convertible pickup for the muscle car
performance and a 40 1995 dollar
starting price the result was the SSR a
vehicle that looked unlike any other car
on the market which a lot of people
didn’t like the 1950s inspired design
didn’t work so well for most so the SSR
was considered ugly I love it though
personally the idea behind this
lifestyle pickup was that it would
attract younger bias but it quickly
turned out that it mostly appealed to
aging baby boomers that made it even
more uncool despite the fact that it
packed three hundred or even 390 horses
from the ls2 v8 engine despite many
efforts to make the SSR appealing to the
intended audience Chevrolet managed to
sell just around 24,000 of these
oddballs in a painful realization that
they need
more than simply a wild imagination to
make that concept work.
3 number three DeLorean dmc-12 one of the most famous
and also the most spectacular car flops
in history was John DeLoreans personal
project called dmc-12 the xgm executive
behind the pontiac gto wanted to make
his own flamboyant sports car with
brushed stainless steel body and gull
wing doors but the project was plagued
from the very start
first of all DeLorean chose the worst
time to build a sports car smack bang in
the middle of a recession next the car
ended up with a rather disappointing v6
engine and finally there were a lot of
early quality issues since the car was
being built by inexperienced workers in
Northern Ireland the dmc-12 was produced
from 1981 to 1983 but the company
eventually went bankrupt and his founder
was arrested with large quantities of
cocaine which he planned to resell in
order to save it from closing its doors
despite all its flaws and poor reception
the DeLorean dmc-12 became an automotive
legend thanks to the Back to the Future
movies.
4 number four Volkswagen Phaeton
who wouldn’t expect a brand whose name
literally means people’s car to enter
the market segments such as ultra
luxurious limousines
but Volkswagen did exactly that with the
Phaeton built as a halo model as well as
the foundation for Bentley Continental
Flying Spur sedan VW Phaeton was a flop
from the very beginning and a missed
opportunity the market really wasn’t
ready for the brand that gained fame on
affordable models to introduce a
luxurious land barge but the Phaeton
failed worldwide despite being a
fantastic car as much as it was a flop
it was also a missed opportunity imagine
it being marketed as an Audi 810 for
example sound more reasonable yeah it
does but VW didn’t think so killing the
brilliant Faison in the process but hey
at least their failure gave us one of
the best affordable luxury sedans on the
second-hand market.
5 number five Suzuki
kisses with the name that roughly
translates as a sign of something great
coming but also omen and warning the
2009 esta su ki Kizashi was more off the
latter it was a midsize sedan with
sporty aspirations being powered by
2.4 liter engine with a hundred 85
horsepower and optional AWD and his
design was beefed up and dynamic while
all of that was rather good on paper it
couldn’t translate to sales figures
because of bad marketing and rather
bizarre recalls due to a possibility of
spiders weaving webs in the fuel tank
also the Kizashi usually sold within
hyundai and subaru dealer networks so
buyer simply chose brands they were more
familiar with all that led Suzuki to
pull out from the American market in
2012 and the Kizashi was left without a
replacement.
6 number six the maybach 57 and
62 historically speaking Mercedes have
never made a market mistake at least
until they decided to revive the Maybach
brand built to compete with BMWs
revitalized rolls-royce phantom and the
Bentley Continental Flying Spur owned by
VW the urban luxurious Maybach was a
revival of a long defunct German
manufacturer with the name familiar only
to true automotive connoisseurs
this was the first step towards its
demise next both models looked almost
exactly like the s-class only bigger a
bit more luxurious under their double
six figures a whole lot costlier of
course lack of brand recognition and an
uncanny similarity to a mass-produced
model didn’t do so well with the world’s
richest so the production was halted in
2013 after years of disappointing sales
figures.
7 number seven the Lincoln
Blackwood although pickups have become
as luxurious as SUVs or premium sedans
their main selling point is still
functionality back in 2002 when the
Blackwood was introduced pickups weren’t
that big on luxury and linking
completely forgot about the
functionality parts causing it to
completely flop the Blackwood was based
on the f-150 underpinnings with looks
inspired by the much more popular
navigator SUV and it was only available
in black double cab configuration black
of versatility the virtually unusable
covered truck bed and a huge price tag
of 53,000 dollars killed the first
Lincoln pickup really fast the model
sold for one year only with just 3356
manufacture examples.
8 number eight Fiat 500l vietze
returns a US soil was marked by several
models such as the 500 city car the 1 to
4 roadster and it’s rather fantastic
sporty Abarth versions then there was
the 500l the car had failed to establish
itself in the compact crossover class in
Europe let alone the USA the 500 L was
to compete with the MINI Countryman but
unlike this retro style crossover.
It couldn’t offer any performance driving
the feel or any form of excitement Fiat
had to be much better in order to
conquer the American market but they
failed because the 500 L was the worst
selling car in the segment for years the
500l is still in production due to
somewhat better sales figures in Europe
but is slowly being replaced by the more
exciting 500 X but there you are what
other cars became sales disasters let me
know in the comments.
