We spent some time this weekend sitting in front of the TV watching various Christmas DVD's as we allowed the vast amounts of food consumed settle.
One of the movies we watched was "Bad Santa" with Billy Bob Thornton from several years ago. Certainly not appropriate for children, this DVD was put in when my son was sleeping and the adults were able to enjoy some time without the kids.
If you have seen this movie, you know that while profane Billy Bob Thornton is hilarious. There is a scene were he attempts to replace the candy in an advent calendar for the kid whose house he is currently residing. When the kid goes to open the appropriate day on the advent calendar, he is greeted with some candy corn that Billy Bob Thornton had placed there after eating the chocolate in his drunken state the previous night.
The kid looks at the candy corn with disgust, and Billy Bob says to the kid, "...they can't all be winners." It is a funny line, and if you have seen the movie you know the scene, but it got me thinking about the car companies.
It would be nice to think that every model brought to market is a winner, but we all know that is not the case. I thought it would be fun to look at some of the mis-steps brought to market that turned out to be losers. Yeah, I know there are some obvious ones out there, but lets dig deep and find the true losers that the car manufacturers want you to forget about.
Here are some of the cars I came up with, but I know I am missing a lot of cars on my list.
Pontiac Aztec - There really is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said about this car. Let's face it, aside from the incredible incentives to move the inventory off dealer lots, there really was no incentive to buy this eyesore.
BMW 318ti - Hatchbacks may sell well in Europe, but here in the USA hatchbacks tend to denote cheap. Although this car served as a great entry level BMW, the fact is this concept never really gained traction here in the US and as such BMW was smart to pull it from the lineup before it could dilute the brand image. Mini is a much better way to bring a hatchback to the US, and one that ultimately compliments the BMW brand.
Pontiac G6 GXP - Pontiac may want you to buy this car, but I assure you this is one you (and eventually they) will want you to forget about. The sheer amount of gaudy body work adhered to this otherwise good looking car is an embarrassment to GM. Bob Lutz should immediately pull this model from the showrooms, it symbolizes the perception of Pontiac of years gone by.
Acura TL - We have been pretty critical of Acura's current design language, we hope it will resolve itself into a more palatable look, but for now I suspect the 2009 TL will be one of those cars that Acura will someday hope you forget about. It really is ashame because from any angle other than the front, this is actually a decent looking car, and the interior is killer.
Of course there are about 500 other cars that could probably make this list, but if I listed them all there would be no room for you, so go ahead and wow us with all the cars I missed.
Going on the notion that they all can't be winners, each and every manufacturer has a car or two that if they were really honest with the rest of, they'd admit they were ashamed of.
Have some fun and call them out on it here because remember...
"...they can't all be winners!"