History TheAllegedCar / RealLife

* Fiat earned a reputation for making cheap, tiny, unreliable cars such that "[[FunWithAcronyms FIAT]]" was said to stand for "Fix it again, Tony" or "Failure in Automotive Technology". Most of their cars were notorious for using a lightweight, high-carbon steel in their unibody construction, making them so prone to rusting that ''Car & Driver'' called them "biodegradable". They had an even worse reputation in the U.S. and Northern Europe with more exposure to snow. The Ritmo/Strada used Soviet steel that was heavily recycled and not zinc-plated; as such, the car was infamous for rusting quickly. Very few even exist anymore, much less function. Similar rust issues plagued the early Alfa Romeo Alfasud models.

!!Russia / Soviet Union
* The classic Lada 1200 was not a bad car when it was introduced in 1970, being essentially a modified Fiat 124. But it quickly gained this reputation because ''(a)'' it was still based on a Fiat, ''(b)'' it had horrible fuel economy and handling, ''(c)'' Soviet production lines lacked any real quality control, and ''(d)'' thanks to production quotas and such, it received practically no updates or redesigns until the fall of the Soviet Union (and beyond, as production continued until 2012). Most export versions were considered disposable Communist cars, and it was treated as such - except [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff in Finland]], where they were impressed with its ability to start even in the [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman coldest weather]]. And like a BMW, it came with a complete toolkit - which, unlike a BMW, could be used without invalidating the warranty.
* While Lada is often fondly remembered in Russia and Finland, Moskvitch is not. Moskvitch was simply a badly-designed and shoddily-built jalopy prone to break when least expected, and it was awful to drive. A common initialism joke stated "''Manages Only Seventy Kilometres, Vehicle Is Then Completely Halted''".

** Special mention goes to the Tesla Cybertruck, finally introduced in late 2023. Intended to have a sleek, futuristic look like something from a cyberpunk film, the vehicle has been plagued with flaws, ranging from not having anywhere near the speed, range, or towing power promised, the flat stainless steel panel design being both prone to warping and rusting when exposed to tree sap, bird droppings, or even some car wash soaps. Its hubcaps actually damaged the tires, the automatic closing mechanism for the bed was strong enough to amputate fingers, the doors had edges sharp enough to peel carrots, the light panel was angled upward so that it would blind oncoming drivers rather than illuminating the road in front of the vehicle, and despite having a larger length and width than the Ford F-150 that it was supposed to be superior to, it had a significantly smaller bed (a horrible flaw for what was supposed to be a heavy-duty pickup truck). Its angular windows gave it serious blind spots, and it had a serious lack of crumple zones leading to numerous concerns over how dangerous the vehicle would be to other vehicles or pedestrians in the event of a collision. It was also generally regarded as being extremely ugly, with many critics comparing it to Playstation 1 model that hadn't been fully rendered yet, or looking as if it came out of a cyberpunk movie like ''Film/TotalRecall1990''.

** Special mention goes to the Tesla Cybertruck, finally introduced in late 2023. Intended to have a sleek, futuristic look like something from a cyberpunk film, the vehicle has been plagued with flaws, ranging from not having anywhere near the speed, range, or towing power promised, the flat stainless steel panel design being both prone to warping and rusting when exposed to tree sap, bird droppings, or even some car wash soaps. Its hubcaps actually damaged the tires, the automatic closing mechanism for the bed was strong enough to amputate fingers, the doors had edges sharp enough to peel carrots, the light panel was angled upward so that it would blind oncoming drivers rather than illuminating the road in front of the vehicle, and despite having a larger length and width than the Ford F-150 that it was supposed to be superior to, it had a significantly smaller bed (a horrible flaw for what was supposed to be a heavy-duty pickup truck). Its angular windows gave it serious blind spots, and it had a serious lack of crumple zones leading to numerous concerns over how dangerous the vehicle would be to other vehicles or pedestrians in the event of a collision. It was also generally regarded as being extremely ugly, with many critics comparing it to Playstation 1 model that hadn't been fully rendered yet.

** Special mention goes to the Tesla Cybertruck, finally introduced in late 2023. Intended to have a sleek, futuristic look like something from a cyberpunk film, the vehicle has been plagued with flaws, ranging from not having anywhere near the speed, range, or towing power promised, the flat stainless steal panel design being both prone to warping and rusting when exposed to tree sap, bird droppings, or even some car wash soaps. Its hubcaps actually damaged the tires, the automatic closing mechanism for the bed was strong enough to amputate fingers, the doors had edges sharp enough to peel carrots, the light panel was angled upward so that it would blind oncoming drivers rather than illuminating the road in front of the vehicle, and despite having a larger length and width than the Ford F-150 that it was supposed to be superior to, it had a significantly smaller bed (a horrible flaw for what was supposed to be a heavy-duty pickup truck). Its angular windows gave it serious blind spots, and it had a serious lack of crumple zones leading to numerous concerns over how dangerous the vehicle would be to other vehicles or pedestrians in the event of a collision. It was also generally regarded as being extremely ugly, with many critics comparing it to Playstation 1 model that hadn't been fully rendered yet.

* The Rootes Group, once a major British carmaker, came unstuck in the 1960s with the Hillman Imp, an outdated, poorly built rust bucket put together by an inexperienced workforce recruited mainly from the idled shipbuilding industry. It single-handedly led to the company's takeover by Chrysler and subsequent long-term decline.

* British Leyland had yet another massive failure with the Rover [=SD1=], but this one really hurts because with just a little bit more effort it could've been a really good car. With a body that looked somewhat like a Ferrari California but with enough space in the back for the kids, married to the stalwart Rover V8 engine so beloved of the British off-roading and muscle-car communities, the [=SD1=] looked slick, had some oomph, and could've been a real contender, but the depressingly familiar Leyland hallmarks of terrible build quality and endless strikes stymied it. You just couldn't get your hands on one, and when you finally did there'd be bits of trim falling off it and the paint would have quite obvious runs that had never been fixed. In spite of its rather stunning exterior, the same could not be said of the interior which was adorned with a typically horrible 70s colour pallette (think vomit yellow, brown, and orange). It was also not devoid of bone-headed design flaws: for example, instead of designing two dashboards for left- and right-hand-drive markets, they simply made it modular and symmetrical, with the instrument binnacle being bolted to the side appropriate for the market the car was going to be sold in. That might have seemed like a good idea on paper, but in practice this meant that there was a hole on the passenger side dashboard where the steering column would have gone had the car been sold in a different market, which would be poorly disguised with a ventilation duct. This vent looked hideous and precluded the installation of a proper glove box.

** The blue van in ''Series/MrBean'' and the yellow van in ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' are commonly mistaken for Robins, but are actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Regal Reliant Regals]] - the Regal being the Robin's van equivalent. They share the same characteristics, including the frequent rolling. The closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games had a Regal in it, though it didn't tip over - it [[StuffBlowingUp exploded]], a nod to both ''Only Fools and Horses'' (the thing was recognisably done up in "Trotters Independent Traders" livery) and ''[[Film/TheItalianJob1969 The Italian Job]]'' (after the explosion, Creator/MichaelCaine's famous line "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" was played on the PA system).

** Chrysler was the first with its "K-car", which actually worked out okay for the most part, except when they tried to create a luxury car out of it. They tried making a limousine out of it, only to make something that looked like a slightly longer K-car that still had a four-cylinder engine. They also partnered with Italian luxury automaker Maserati to make the Chrysler TC on the K-car platform, an attempt at creating a luxury sports coupe that didn't even hit the 8,000 mark before being quietly dropped. ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'' often used "K-cars" for projects on the "Handyman's Corner" segments.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Diesel_engine Oldsmobile diesel engine]] was introduced in 1978 to give buyers of full-size cars the option of a large engine with good fuel economy during the '70s gas crisis. Unfortunately, while it did get better fuel economy than a comparable gas [=V8=], the engine performed poorly (the biggest 5.7-liter variant had only 105 hp) and had no tolerance for water-contaminated diesel fuel due to not having a water-fuel separator. They also failed to provide a properly Winterized fuel system; the cars would either fail to start or die somewhere along the road in freezing temperatures. Finally, the fact the block (based on the venerable 350 cu. in. GM [=V8=]) wasn't quite strengthened enough to handle the higher compression of diesel ignition meant warped heads and coolant leaks that would destroy the engine as soon as 20,000 miles in. It is frequently listed as one of the reasons why Americans still distrusted diesel cars well into the 21st Century.

* The Chrysler PT Cruiser was originally a novelty thanks to its "retro" design, but the novelty wore off quickly. Its anemic performance didn't endear it to younger drivers. Early models were built like anvils, and the overstressed running gear quickly gained a reputation for frequent and expensive mechanical failures (particularly the head gaskets, suspension bushings, and transmission). Later versions were made lighter by "de-contenting" them; in fact, the back seats can be removed without tools, leaving you with a small ''van''. People who drove the "PT Loser" either couldn't afford anything better or were hopelessly and inexplicably in love with the aesthetic. Its reputation is so awful that dealers won't bid on them at private auctions.

** Continuing financial issues at DMC meant plenty of people in the sales and service networks weren't being reimbursed, leading to a sharp drop off in enthusiasm after the initial debut. Eventually, John [=DeLorean=] would go to trial over accusations he had taken up drug smuggling to pay the bills. Though acquitted, the scandal put an end on anyone willing to loan more capital and anxious investors who wanted their money sped up the company's collapse.

* While the third-generation Vauxhall Viva performed reliably in its own market, it quickly gained notoriety in North America for its disastrous attempted export it to Canada through GM in The70s. GM called it the "Firenza" and marketed it as a "tough little fun car". But it was downright dangerous with brake failures, accelerator pedals getting stuck, total steering failure, parts falling off, and engine fires. GM tried to salvage the car's reputation by driving four Firenzas from Halifax to UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} in the dead of Winter in order to demonstrate that they were ideal for [[CanadaEh cold, tough Canadian conditions]]; even though the cars had been modified with block heaters for the trip (which GM claimed they didn't have), two of them still had trouble starting and [[EveryCarIsAPinto one of them caught fire]]. When GM tried to cover this up, they got fined for false advertising. The car was the subject of Canada's first-ever class-action lawsuit and lasted two years before it was withdrawn, having utterly destroyed the already-shaky reputation of British manufacturing in Canada in the process. To quote the Canadian car magazine ''[[http://www.autofocus.ca/news-events/features/the-firenza-fiasco-is-the-canadian-nader-corvair-affair-you-never-heard-about Autofocus]]'', who referred to the car as "Canada's equivalent to the Nader-Corvair affair":

* Škoda unfairly gained this reputation with its dated 1960s-80s models, the 120 series and the 130 series. Both sets were somewhat better than other Eastern Bloc brands, with rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive designs giving them snappy, Porsche-like handling, but the constant government meddling with redesigning the vehicles meant that the cars all had "poor man's vehicle" reputations. The worst part of the 120 and 130 lines wasn't the handling, but the fact that both sets had their coolant radiators in the nose, meaning that they needed more coolant, and the cars could overheat if the coolant lines suffered airlock, a very nasty problem to have without a proper auto mechanic in the neighborhood. That said, British working-class motorists were actually proud to drive and maintain their Škoda cars, even if they were technologically outdated, since they functioned better in Winter than most native British cars bought by more affluent subjects. After Communism fell, Škoda was bought out by Volkswagen and now makes very much modern cars which are almost effectively [=VWs=], but the company remembers its tarnished Cold War reputation and advertises the current lines with the tagline "[[WeDontSuckAnymore It's a Škoda, honest.]]"

* Proton cars have gained a not-so-glowing reputation for their questionable build quality on their earlier cars, using thinner-gauge steel and lacking basic safety features such as airbags and ABS. This led them to be branded as "Milo tins", a term often used for shoddy workmanship done by unscrupulous body shops in Malaysia (based on thin tin cans of Milo, a popular chocolate malt drink). And while Proton has since made it a point to make their cars safer and more competitive, the stigma still persists.

* While not as bad as Proton, Perodua cars are also often criticized for lacking originality and looking like bad copycats of Japanese economy cars (there being a tech-sharing initiative between Perodua and Daihatsu certainly isn’t helping) in addition to being severely ''underpowered'' and underperforming due to the use of a laughable 650cc engines in the lower end models, and their top of the line model topped off with a sorry 850cc engine. The claim that it is extremely economical on fuel is offset when driving on hilly terrains like the Genting and Cameron Highlands area, which saw the low-powered engine suffer and strain itself. And to top it all off, the monopolizing satellite provider's response to the infamous episode of ''Series/TopGear'' where a Kelisa got obliterated only caused more controversy. They also decided to name one of their models the ''Axia'' which is intended to be a play on the word ''Asia'' in XtremeKoolLetterz, but unfortunately happens to be pronounced similarly to the word ''airhead'' in the Hokkien Chinese dialect, resulting in mockery from the Hokkien Chinese community in Malaysia.

** The gull-wing doors, while part of the car's "futuristic" aesthetic, were definitely AwesomeButImpractical. In practise, they made it much harder to get in and out of the car under normal conditions and outright impossible in a crowded parking lot due to how much extra space they required compared to conventional car doors. Even worse, in the event of a rollover they would leave all of the car's occupants trapped in the vehicle, a serious safety hazard.

* American automakers also had an unfortunate trend of trying to compete with the rest of the world by consolidating their entire lineup into a single car, onto which they would put different bodies so that they could market them as entirely different cars. Not only was it more difficult to differentiate between each automaker's different badges, but if the base car had a flaw, all of its derivatives suffered.
** Chrysler was the first with its "K-car", which actually worked out okay at first, but it wasn't very versatile. They tried making a limousine out of it, only to make something that looked like a slightly longer K-car that still had a four-cylinder engine. They also partnered with Italian luxury automaker Maserati to make the Chrysler TC on the K-car platform, an attempt at creating a luxury sports coupe that didn't even hit the 8,000 mark before being quietly dropped. ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'' often used "K-cars" for projects on the "Handyman's Corner" segments.

* The third-generation Chrysler Sebring turned Chrysler into a joke during the late 2000s and [[CreatorKiller all but destroyed the company's reputation]]. While marketed as a luxury sedan with the most loaded models costing close to $40,000, you could get a car with superior performance, ride, and build for half that much. That and its odd styling, which one reviewer described as an "art deco mess", made it a universally-panned bust. When Chrysler asked for a government bailout in 2008, they claimed it was because of the global financial crisis, but commentators quickly pointed to the Sebring as evidence that the company brought its financial woes upon itself. Even most Chrysler enthusiasts will admit that it's a terrible car. In the early 2010s, the Sebring was retooled into the somewhat-improved 200 for the 2011 model year, and got a fully redesigned model in 2015. However, the second-gen 200 failed in large part to its transmission which was a nine-speed automatic that due to the way it was designed had trouble finding the right gear a lot of the time, resulting in a jerky driving experience. Couple that with then-Fiat Chrysler's stronger sales in trucks and [=SUVs=], the decision was made to ax the car in January 2016, a little over two years after it was first revealed; the last 200 rolled off the assembly line in December 2016. The plant was then retooled to make the more successful and profitable Ram 1500 midsize truck after that.

** As famously documented by Ralph Nader in ''Literature/UnsafeAtAnySpeed'', the first-generation Chevy Corvair was basically GM's version of the Pinto in the sense that it would become better known for its safety issues than for its merits as an automobile. Although popular, it quickly gained notoriety for its rear-engine layout and swing-axle suspension - common in Europe, but unusual in North America. This configuration requires some expert handling - in Europe, drivers were expected to be able to do it (e.g. the Porsche 911) or the car itself wasn't powerful enough for it to matter (e.g. the Volkswagen Beetle). In North America, drivers expecting the Corvair to behave like any other everyday mid-market car were in for a nasty surprise, and this led to many driver casualties, the most famous of whom was Creator/ErnieKovacs. GM did the same thing Ford did with the Pinto and initially chose to settle rather than fix the problem until the car's reputation killed not only the Corvair but [[GenreKiller rear-engine automobiles in North America]] in general.

* The Ford Model T, despite being the very car that put the world on wheels in the 1910s and early 1920s, had become redundant by the late 20s, especially once technological advances made it obsolete. In fact, its early success was ''because'' of its primitive nature - other cars were fancier and more efficient with regards to highway performance (assuming one was driving on a properly paved road), but the Model T had fewer things that could go wrong and was thus easier to maintain if you knew what you were doing. Hilariously, farmers would chop down their Model Ts and turn them into tractors, while some other non-traveling rural folks used theirs as power generators for other heavy equipment (this application could be done since the accelerator of the Model T was actually a throttle lever mounted on the steering wheel as opposed to the now-ubiquitous accelerator pedal). By 1927, Edsel Ford had phased out the Model T in favor of the much more attractive Model A, which also introduced the pedal-and-stick-shift control layout that became practically universal. It is worth noting, however, that Model Ts continued to be sold and driven well into the 1930s. In fact, engines for the Model T were being produced as late as ''1941,'' with WWII halting all domestic auto production being what finally killed it.

* Nissan has a reputation for ruining otherwise serviceable cars with shoddy continuously variable transmissions, which not only make the car less drivable but also have a tendency for failing prematurely ''and'' being impossible to repair (you need to replace or rebuild them, which can cost upwards of $5,000). They had to up their warranty on those cars to 120,000 miles. Nissan has always had the reputation of being the "cheaper" of the big Japanese brands, but they usually at least came with a modicum of reliability, and this more or less wrecked its reputation, especially as their late-2010s models - especially the Sentra [[note]](''Car and Driver'', when looking for something positive to say in its [[http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/2016-chevrolet-cruze-vs-2016-honda-civic-2017-hyundai-elantra-2016-mazda-3-2016-nissan-sentra-comparison-test-2016-nissan-sentra-sl-page-2 review of the 2016 Sentra]], could only come up with "[[DamnedByFaintPraise faster than walking, keeps the rain off you]]")[[/note]] - have been seen as very cheaply made and difficult to handle. It gets weirder if you blame the cost-cutting on ruthless ex-CEO Carlos Ghosn, brought in from outside Japan to cut through Japanese corporate culture and turn Nissan into [[CuttingCorners a model of efficiency]], and then smuggling himself ''out'' of Japan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Arrest_in_Tokyo_and_subsequent_Nissan_investigation to escape charges of embezzlement from the company]].

* The Datsun B-210, a 1970s tiny car, sold well given that it always started and used less fuel - crucial during the oil crisis. But it was ugly, fragile, and slow. Music/DaveGrohl told about how he rode in Music/KurtCobain's B-210 from UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles (to record Music/{{Nirvana}}'s ''Music/{{Nevermind}}'') - or tried to, because the car's engine overheated so much that they had to give up at the UsefulNotes/{{Oregon}} border. They rented a van to complete the trip, but not before stoning the car in anger. It's also derided in Music/IceCube's "No Vaseline", where he insults fellow former Music/{{NWA}} member MC Ren for having owned one: "Don't front, MC Ren/I remember when you drove a B-210/Broke as a motherfuckin' joke..."

%%* The 2006-11 Kia Magentis, an export version of the Kia Optima sedan sold in Europe, was criticized by ''Series/TopGear'' magazine's SpinOff ''Top Gear New Car Buyer's Guide'' from 2007-08 for having an interior that was highly plasticky and felt like it was about to fall apart; they even compared it to being as flimsy as a plastic bag at the time and gave it a two-star out of five rating. They also said that a Ford Mondeo, at £4,000 more, was better, even though, incidentally, the Kia was generally more reliable (but at this point during the TurnOfTheMillennium, Kia didn't ''quite'' have the reputation for reliability it would get in TheNewTens, so ''Top Gear'' did have a point about the Mondeo being more reliable). [[NoExportForYou This didn't apply to versions sold in the United States, Canada, Australia, or South Africa, incidentally]], where this trope was [[InvertedTrope inverted]] and it was seen as a CoolCar for those who didn't want a Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic ([[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff in South Africa]]) or as an alternative to the Toyota Camry/Honda Accord in the United States and Canada. This version wasn't ''ugly'', but it was average-looking.

* Just like Mercedes-Benz a few years earlier, Volkswagen ended up with shoddy [[UsefulNotes/EastGermany East German]] sheet metal in TheSeventies which affected all Volkswagen and Audi models of the era. Now, that was also when both Volkswagen and Audi completely renewed their model portfolio, and especially Volkswagen introduced the four new models Polo, Golf, Scirocco, and Passat. Add to this that rust-proofing didn't go significantly beyond paint, not to mention the copious amounts of salt dumped onto German streets each winter, and many car owners not washing their cars before spring because it wasn't worth it anyway. Many a first-generation Golf crumbled away beyond rescue within less than three years, and the first-generation Scirocco is also sometimes referred to as "Scirosto".

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maserati_Biturbo Maserati Biturbo]] series almost buried the brand by the end of TheEighties. It was a ''huge'' reach downmarket, an attempt for the supercar maker to build, for the first time, a car that would be used every day (rather than as a rich guy's toy). They proved that they had no idea what they were doing:

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citroën_Axel Oltcit/Citroen Axel]] was a paradoxical endeavor of a car. It was very high-tech for the time, with a four-wheel independent suspension with torsion bars, an air-cooled flat engine, and a highly efficient braking system. It was extremely lightweight and very maneuverable. Unfortunately, it was made in TheEighties in Romania, when practically ''everything'' was rationed, and the Communists insisted that everything be as cheap as possible. This led to a car whose brake rotors wore themselves thin and cracked, whose bodywork could rust to flakes, whose ignition system would absorb water and stall the car, and whose carburetor would mis-adjust and draw fuel like crazy. The few that survived into the 1990s would be [[VindicatedByHistory fixed by enthusiasts]] and can now [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=854x39CqT8U compete against Lamborghinis.]]

* While the third-generation Vauxhall Viva performed reliably in its own market, it quickly gained notoriety in North America for its disastrous attempted export it to Canada through GM in TheSeventies. GM called it the "Firenza" and marketed it as a "tough little fun car". But it was downright dangerous with brake failures, accelerator pedals getting stuck, total steering failure, parts falling off, and engine fires. GM tried to salvage the car's reputation by driving four Firenzas from Halifax to UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} in the dead of Winter in order to demonstrate that they were ideal for [[CanadaEh cold, tough Canadian conditions]]; even though the cars had been modified with block heaters for the trip (which GM claimed they didn't have), two of them still had trouble starting and [[EveryCarIsAPinto one of them caught fire]]. When GM tried to cover this up, they got fined for false advertising. The car was the subject of Canada's first-ever class-action lawsuit and lasted two years before it was withdrawn, having utterly destroyed the already-shaky reputation of British manufacturing in Canada in the process. To quote the Canadian car magazine ''[[http://www.autofocus.ca/news-events/features/the-firenza-fiasco-is-the-canadian-nader-corvair-affair-you-never-heard-about Autofocus]]'', who referred to the car as "Canada's equivalent to the Nader-Corvair affair":

* The Mercedes-Benz [[FragileSpeedster 300 SLR]] performed well in the 1955 World Sportscar Championship season, but it had a flawed braking system ([[AwesomeButImpractical oversized drum brakes]] with [[JustPlaneWrong a wind brake spoiler]]). It's best known for causing the worst crash in the history of the UsefulNotes/TwentyFourHoursOfLeMans, when it flew off the track during a crash and cartwheeled through a spectator's enclosure before catching fire, ultimately causing the deaths of at least 84 people, including the driver. This forced Mercedes-Benz to withdraw their entire racing program immediately and not return until TheEighties.

** As famously documented by Ralph Nader in ''Unsafe at Any Speed'', the first-generation Chevy Corvair was basically GM's version of the Pinto in the sense that it would become better known for its safety issues than for its merits as an automobile. Although popular, it quickly gained notoriety for its rear-engine layout and swing-axle suspension - common in Europe, but unusual in North America. This configuration requires some expert handling - in Europe, drivers were expected to be able to do it (e.g. the Porsche 911) or the car itself wasn't powerful enough for it to matter (e.g. the Volkswagen Beetle). In North America, drivers expecting the Corvair to behave like any other everyday mid-market car were in for a nasty surprise, and this led to many driver casualties, the most famous of whom was Creator/ErnieKovacs. GM did the same thing Ford did with the Pinto and initially chose to settle rather than fix the problem until the car's reputation killed not only the Corvair but [[GenreKiller rear-engine automobiles in North America]] in general.