Car manufacturers don't always get things right when they build, design and manufacture a new car. In fact, there have been plenty of cars sold in the UK that have been genuinely awful.
What actually makes a bad car, or indeed one of the worst cars ever to roll off a production line destined for UK shores, is open to debate. It could be its styling, how it drives or how (un)reliable it is. Maybe the whole concept was at fault or there were flawed business decisions behind it. Hopelessly optimistic pricing or shaky build quality will not help a car's reputation either, and if the net result is abysmal sales levels, so much the worse. Basically, bad cars can be bad for any number of reasons and the worst cars are usually afflicted in many of these areas.
So to pinpoint the worst cars ever sold in the UK, we need your help. The shortlist has been assembled by the highly experienced automotive experts in the Auto Express office but we need you to cast the decisive votes. Just vote for the car you think is the worst ever sold in the UK in our poll below. You'll also find some details on the terrible machines in the shortlist to help you make up your mind.
What are you waiting for? Click or tap the car on the poll below that you think deserves to be the worst car ever sold in the UK! For the full list of contenders, and why they made the poll shortlist, just scroll down...
Alfa Romeo Arna
The Arna was part of a less-than-shrewd business deal between Nissan and Alfa Romeo in the eighties. Instead of a small hatchback boasting Italian design and Japanese reliability, we got a car with frumpy Nissan styling and Alfa underpinnings that weren’t exactly trustworthy.
Austin Allegro
The Allegro was the poster child for everything bad about British car manufacturing back in the seventies. It looked awful and handled dreadfully, and when the Volkswagen Golf landed in dealers, this car was shown to be hopelessly outdated.
Chrysler PT Cruiser Cabriolet
The retro-styled Chrysler PT Cruiser was hardly pretty, but the 2005 Cabriolet was a real ugly duckling. Add in a lack of refinement plus a poor-quality cabin and you had a novelty car that was best avoided.
Citroen C3 Pluriel
The C3 Pluriel’s USP was its flexible roof configurations. However, the clunky mechanisms and the fact that you couldn’t take the roof bars with you if you wanted to travel in full convertible mode made you wonder if Citroen were making a joke at buyers' expense. That, plus the oddball styling and low rent interior quality made for an undesirable mix.
FSO Polonez
Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych (FSO) was a Polish car maker, and it sold its Polonez – a rebodied Fiat 125p, over here in the eighties. The car was cheap, performed poorly and lacked any desirability at all. The Polonez was actually in production for 24 years, but don’t take that as a mark of its quality.
G-Wiz
The G-Wiz is classed as a quadricycle, and is a common sight on London roads thanks to its electric drive and low running costs. But it’s slow, not very safe and ugly as sin. Plus, owners still get stuck in the capital’s jams, and they’re in a tiny, uncomfortable box.
Hummer H2
The Hummer H2 was everything wrong with Western excess in the early noughties. It was big, ungainly to look at and had a thirst that even a second Gulf War couldn’t quench. Admittedly the H1 (known as the Humvee in military-spec) had similar attributes, but at least that had strong off-road, go-anywhere abilities.
Kia Pride
The Kia Pride was the Korean brand’s first car to be sold in Europe and it was far from an excellent start. It was only a budget car, but even so it had uninspiring looks, limp-wristed engines and driving dynamics that were old even before the Pride’s time.
Lada Riva
Eastern Bloc countries in the eighties gave us some highly questionable cars and the Lada Riva was amongst them. It was poor to drive, uncomfortable and basic in the extreme. Virtually any car of the same age will trump this Lada saloon in any category.
Morris Marina
When it was on sale in the UK, the Marina was a top seller. However, that was more down to the lack of choice buyers had elsewhere, rather than it being a great car. In fact, terrible handling and poor build quality meant it was an utterly awful one.
Nissan Micra C+C
The mid-noughties saw a rise of technology that allowed small hatchbacks to be fitted with folding metal roofs, whether they should have been fitted with folding metal roofs was another question. The Nissan Micra C+C was just one of the convertible superminis that got the treatment but it made the odd bug-eyed Micra car look even worse while adding considerable weight for the small engines to handle. You could even get it in vomit-inducing pink.
Peugeot 1007
Peugeot brought a new idea to the small hatchback fray that didn’t work well in practice: electric sliding doors. The gimmicky doors blended with a car that was heavy, expensive and slow to make a less than convincing package. The styling was awkward and so was as having to call it “one thousand and seven” due to James Bond-related copyright issues.
Perodua Nippa
Similar to the Kia Pride, the Nippa was a budget car when it was released in the UK in 1997. Its only plus point was that it was the cheapest car on sale at the time, but that didn’t save it from being a crude tin box with some wheels on it.
Reliant Robin
The Reliant Robin did have its plus points; it was cheap and you could drive it with a motorcycle licence until 2001. However, its three-wheel layout and weird shape quickly made it the butt of many jokes in popular culture.
Rover CityRover
The CityRover was launched in 2003, as part of the long and painful death of the manufacturer. A rebranded version of the Tata Indica supermini, it was poorly received from the off, with its build quality coming in for particular criticism.
SsangYong Rodius
When we last did our worst cars list, readers crowned the SsangYong Rodius worst car on sale and it’s not hard to see why. The styling was enough to make children cry – one reader even said it looked “like a melted hearse” – while the cruddy safety record and its ocean liner driving dynamics left a lot to be desired.
Suzuki X-90
The original Suzuki Vitara SUV and Cappuccino roadster had niche appeal, but the X-90 took that hunt for niche markets a bit too far. Who wanted a two-seater convertible mini-SUV? Nobody, especially when it had awful handling and zero off-road ability.
Vauxhall Frontera
The Vauxhall Frontera was born during the time when 4x4s were starting to become more like lifestyle vehicles than mud-pluggers. Granted it was cheap, but the iffy styling, barn-door mechanics and the fact that it had to be manhandled to move anywhere swiftly counted against it.
Vote in our poll now and tell us if we've missed any terrible cars in the comments section below...