Car: Daihatsu Charade

My nomination is for the Daihatsu Charade as either the most idiotic name or most appropriate name of the millennium.

--Dallas Uhrich

Car: Early '50s Studebaker Commander

The only car I know where the frame was so weak that a 150-pound man in the driver's seat meant that the doors no longer closed correctly.

--Dave Bursley

Car: Gremlin

The American Motors Gremlin. Just look at it. Calling it a pregnant roller skate would be kind.

--Larry Levinson

Car: Suzuki Sidekick

The Sidekick was so notorious for rolling over that a "Consumer Reports" guy rolled a test vehicle over ON THE WAY to the test track!

--bk1234

Car: Renault Dauphine

Don't forget that the Renault Dauphine had only three (3!!) wheel bolts. It was Dr. Porsche's revenge for the French having forced him to design a car for them while in prison (that's the story I heard).

--Bad Sam

Car: Volare

My father and all my aunts and uncles worked for Chrysler Corporation. To own a car manufactured by anyone else was unthinkable. In 1977 my wife and I purchased a Volare station wagon. After a few months of taking it back to the dealer and having them be unable to correct the problems, we decided expulsion from family gatherings and having our images removed from family photos was a small price to pay for our safety.

--Richard Lancaster

Car: Vega

Whenever my mother (who is as Italian as Ray and Tom) would see our horribly rusted yellow Vega hatchback, the first words from her lips were, "This car has cancer." I would correct her and say, "No, Ma, it's got leprosy." While none of us has had the thrill of racing Ben-Hur's chariot, Vega owners like us have suffered looking like his mother and sister--lepers!

--Chris "Ex-Vega Owner" Drake

Car: Corvair

When you think about the benefits to society that resulted from the Corvair, you have to take it off the list. If it hadn't been for the Corvair, we would be driving around in vehicles that had lousy bumpers, roll over at the drop of a hat, get lousy gas mileage and pollute the air...Oops--I guess we are still doing that. We just call them SUVs.

--Dennis

Car: Fiat 128

I always carried a length of rope under the driver's seat (no lie) because when the clutch cable broke (which it did with heartbreaking regularity), it was necessary to tie the rope from the end of the throw-out lever on the transmission to the side-view mirror, and then yank on that when I wanted to change gears. I got pretty adept at this trick and would have given up on the cable entirely if it weren't for the necessity of driving with the window open in the wintertime.

--Alan Agostinelli