[EldoFan]

Not to politicize things at all......but a certain candidate for POTUS recently had some harsh words for a heavily promoted late 70's Ford product, declaring it to be Detroit's worst product ever......

Article Here: Read Me

His arguments may hold water, they may not.......as I've never driven a Ford product that old. There are many here who are older than me though and would almost certainly have some colorful opinions on which is the worst car ever to be built.

Go ahead and jump in though with your 'worst' cars!

 

[blank disk]

The worst product ever?

I doubt it.
I had a piece of crap too that I said the same thing. Trouble is, I was not running for office, and nobody really cared. I did not know ****e either, just like Osama.


Yes I know I mispelled it.

 

[DuSpinnst]

Some people hate American cars, we have a president now who does we don't really need another one.

 

[t-rex]

Ahhhh this brings back memories!

I wouldn't say the Granada was the worst car ever made, but I'm sure it's on the top ten list!

A buddy of mine in high school had one — '76ish model; it had the round headlights — that got passed down to him from is Grandmother or somebody.

Even kids from affluent families typically got hand-me down cars back in those days and I remember that white-with-red-vinyl-top Ford he drove quite well. We called it the "Grenade" and like Obama's grandpa's car, it shook, rattled, and rolled like you wouldn't believe! 55 was the limit back then, so even driving 70 put you at great risk for a ticket, but you wouldn't want to drive a Granada at 70mph anyway!

I remember one night we went to a party on the Northshore and I had to drive my drunk compadrés back to New Orleans. I swear I've never heard any piece of machinery squeak, squeal, rattle and make so much noise! The doors were so badly fitted that air rushed into the car and it was a struggle just to keep it in a straight line. It steered like it had a broken tie-rod, and to compound matters, we had a wind advisory on the causeway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pontchartrain_Causeway)!

I felt like I was driving a 4000-pound shopping buggy!

It was a piece of crap. Whether you love or hate American cars, those Granada-Monarch-Versailles were garbage. The only thing worse on the roads back then were Chrysler's Aspen/Volaré nightmares. Funny that old Granada got traded for an equally crappy Chrysler Cordoba (no Corinthian leather though...).

I miss the days when we'd actually laugh about how crappy some of our own rides were.

 

[AmericanRevolution]

Umm... why does he care? lol

 

[plane]

What a load.
A former boss drove a Granada every day to work.
Older than the hills, but 100% reliable and built like a tank.

And then I move up to a new job.
And the person with the most seniority drives a Granada.
wth?
Every day.
To work and back.
Decades past it's prime.
100% reliable and built like a tank.

Apparently someone with Presidential aspirations doesn't care to check or know the facts.

 

[lio45]

Hmmm... I wonder what he's trying to achieve with that kind of remark?

 

[1931Chevy]

I think that Mr.Obama is looking for the imports vote and if this guy becomes Prez we Detroit Motorheads will be loose a lot with him

"Mr Prez GM sended us to new Caddy limos,
Obama- No thanks I prefer a lexus

 

[vcs2600]

Don't forget that Obama took a lot of heat here for driving a Chrysler 300C Hemi and complaining about fuel economy. Obviously a lexus-drivin 'merica-hata

Top of my worst car ever list would be the GM X-Bodies.

 

[stormwatcher]

What a load.
A former boss drove a Granada every day to work.
Older than the hills, but 100% reliable and built like a tank.

LOL. Maybe it had the handling and acceleration of a tank but that's about it.

 

[MCGARRETT]

I wonder if anyone asked him what he thought was the worst imported car?

Or is there such a thing in his mind?



I would like to put him to the Pepsi Challenge and have him pick a Ford Granada out of a bunch of pictures of 70's domestic cars.

This thing was a tin can. It was during the '70s when oil had just gone up, so they were trying to compete with the Japanese. They wanted to keep the cars big, so they made them out of tin foil. It would rattle and shake. You basically couldn't go over 80 without the thing getting out of control."

Woah Obama, 80!

Thats against that law and unsafe, what would Joan Claybrook and Ralph Nader say! Not to mention that wastes valuable resources...

Oh well, whats admiting to speeding when you have already admited to doing blow and reefer.


On the other hand, Hillary says that the Granda was a great car, it was able to dodge sniper fire when she negotiated the US withdraw from Vietnam, sadly though the video shows that it was not a Granda at all, but an Oldsmobile Omega....here we go again...



Oh, I am sooooo in trouble for this post, I just know it!

 

[plane]

LOL. Maybe it had the handling and acceleration of a tank but that's about it.

How many 30 year old vehicles do you see riding around today?
Without blowing oil smoke everywhere?
With full body panels?
Driven on a daily basis?

Say what you will about the Granada, it's the same reason the Crown Vic is the king of the taxi fleet.
It's the same reason a Ford F-150 will go a million miles.
Or you still see pictures of vintage Chevy's tooling around in Havana.

I've seen it first hand in automobile collisions.
The Z is a crumpled mess.
The Toyota Pickup is in shambles.
The Chevrolet Pickup has a small dent in the bumper.

Those Granadas may be the antithesis of great driving manners and safety, but when 30 years later it's still holding together and running reliably, there's something to be said for the way it was built.

 

[vcs2600]

I haven't seen a Granada on the road since god knows when. Nor an old style LTD Crown Vic

What I do see is Dodge Darts from the 60s/70s -- everything they said about the reliability of those things must have been true.

 

[mbukukanyau]

This is the granada I remember

I thought it looked good then, Now, I am not soo sure

 

[AmericanRevolution]

I haven't seen a Granada on the road since god knows when. Nor an old style LTD Crown Vic

What I do see is Dodge Darts from the 60s/70s -- everything they said about the reliability of those things must have been true.

One of my friends and his dad are rebuilding a Dart.

 

[t-rex]

This is the granada I remember

I thought it looked good then, Now, I am not soo sure

I remember those too! Ours came with "Essex" 3-litre V6s instead of the "Cologne" unit found in European models. Afrikaners bought them in droves!

A 1976 Granada 3000 Ghia Automatic that looked just like this...

...graced the driveway of our Cape Town home!

It replaced "Minerva", our trusty old Zephyr Mark IV 3-litre.

 

[sonjaab]

This is a pic link to a 75 Ford Granada US model:
http://www.tocmp.com/pix/Ford/images/1975 Ford Granada Ghia Sedan f3q_jpg.jpg

 

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

This is the granada I remember
http://www.dragtimes.com/images/11011-1980-F

I thought it looked good then, Now, I am not soo sure[/QUOTE]

Those were the European Granadas, they were good cars in most respects. Obama is talking about the American Granada from the mid 70's, MAN were those junk no matter what anyone says here. The "It's JUST like a Mercedes 450 SEL" ads Ford used with it was just insulting.

Volare was probably worse.

 

[2648562]

As I figured, this statement didn't just come out of the blue and there's even more stuff for Obama haters to get worked into a frenzy over:

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/AUTO01/805060449/1148/AUTO01

The first worst that popped into my head were the X-bodies as well. I don't know that they were all that bad at the time, but they sure didn't hold up well.

 

[HoosierRon]

I heard that the frame rails on the mid-70's Granadas rusted out, so Ford started buying them back at 150% of book value.

I also heard that mid-70's Granadas would keep popping out of 3rd gear.

And they really were tin cans. If you sat on the trunk, it would break.

At least that is what I heard.