The Worst Car Ever Made

What is the worst car ever produced? It’s a question that gets the grey matter going for motoring enthusiasts like myself, and, truth be told, is not an easy one to answer.

For example, what defines a ‘bad’ car differs from one person to the next. Compromised design and engineering can make a car a candidate (the Austin Allegro springs immediately to mind); sheer blandness and absence of imagination on the part of the designer is enough for some to ‘award’ a car such as the Nissan Sunny the automotive wooden spoon.

In truth, then, this is a wholly subjective topic, just as with the issue of what the best car ever made is. And after a good deal of head scratching and considered thought, I’ve decided that the worst car in the history of the world is… the Vauxhall Sintra.

You may have forgotten about the Sintra (lucky you), so let me give you a brief history of the model. Launched in Europe in 1997 to help Vauxhall cash in on the growing demand for so-called multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), the Sintra wasn’t even a proper Vauxhall. It shared its platform with other MPVs from the General Motors stable, namely the Chevrolet Venture and Pontiac Montana, and was built in the USA. A rebadged ‘minivan’. Feel those erogenous zones being tickled…

Admittedly, the MPV was never the ultimate in sex appeal, but that was not what made the Sintra such a disaster - in fact, with its grafted-on Vauxhall ‘face’, it actually looked fairly handsome. No, its faults lay predominantly in its American origins.

Open the door and the sheer proliferation of shiny, cheap grey plastic would’ve made an elephant feel right at home. The cabin boasted all the style and decorum of a public lavatory, and the quality and robustness of the trim was clearly influenced by those of a toy car.

The Sintra’s reliability record was truly abysmal, too. For two years on the trot between 2000 and 2001, the model was right at the bottom of the table in the famous and hugely influential Top Gear and JD Power owner satisfaction survey, with owners complaining of poor mechanical and trim durability and unhelpful dealers. The Nineties was not a good decade for Vauxhall, what with the Vectra and Omega, but to ‘achieve’ the lowest score in the history of that reliability survey was the final nail in the Sintra’s coffin.

Or was it? Perhaps the Sintra’s safety (or rather, its lack thereof) contributed to that. It scored 3 stars out of 5 in its EuroNCAP crash test, but with that third star struck through due to the chance of fatal neck injury in frontal impacts.

Ultimately, the Sintra’s decent practicality and range of Vauxhall engines couldn’t save it, and it was withdrawn from sale in 1999. I can’t remember the last time I even saw one in the flesh and, to be honest, that is no great shame. The worst car ever made? It’s a very strong contender.