It’s an occasionally uncomfortable fact that few entities in this world are thoroughly devoid of positive traits or features, no matter how wretched or morally bankrupt the entity is. When it comes to people, this is a slippery slope that leads to whatever Ye’s doing right now, but when it comes to cars, it’s something worth thinking about because cars are generally harmless things.
As pro-car as we are at The Autopian, each of us has cars that we personally despise. They could’ve wronged us in the past, they could be wretched to work on, or they could just be spiteful, miserable machines sold by cynical corporations who thought the public was dumber than they actually are. A great example of that last one is the Ford Ecosport.
In an attempt to compete in the subcompact crossover segment, Ford plucked a small crossover out of its developing markets line and slightly massaged it for the American market. The result was a vehicle that, by North American standards, didn’t do anything well. It didn’t ride well, it didn’t steer well, it didn’t handle well, it wasn’t comfortable, it wasn’t massively spacious, it wasn’t quick, and it wasn’t even that economical. It was misery on four wheels, and yet there’s one thing I can’t hate about it.
See that? That’s a spare tire mounted to a swing-out tailgate. It’s instantly nostalgic, and it makes the Ecosport the last truly small entry-level SUV or CUV to be sold in America with this option. Sure, it’s not the most practical place to put a spare tire, it could likely do a number on the bodywork in a light rear-end collision, and it hampers rear visibility, but it’s fun and odd. Sure, models with a spare tire carrier are rare sights on the road, but I can’t be mad on the odd chance that I see one.
So, what’s something you like about a car you thoroughly dislike? Maybe it’s the power of the unreliable and impractical BMW ActiveHybrid X6 when it’s working, or the nifty multi-mode display in the Nissan Juke, or the sleeper status of the rare PT Cruiser GT Turbo. Whatever the case, let us know in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Ford, Autotrader seller)
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I test drove a couple of Passat’s during my last flurry of car buying misery. And hated them.
But, they were roomy for rear seat passengers. Have to give them that even if they were bloody awful to drive.
They aren’t anything special, but…
I love the don’t have to give a fuck freedom from worry of an early aughts Corolla.
New rotors drum shoes and pads all around?
That’ll be roughly $100.
Scratches dents dings?
Fine with me.
Oil change?
I’ll get around to it.
Drive it 100,000 miles, replace valve cover gasket, repeat.
I had a 1983 Mercury Lynx wagon that was an utter heap except:
1) wagon, a capability I used frequently for moving
2) it had a cute articulated light above the inside mirror you could unclip on one end and orient towards what you needed illuminated, like the passenger seat with a map. Of course it was metal with an incandescent bulb in it, so it’d burn if you held it for too long, but it was surprisingly useful.
The rest of the car can fuck itself though.
The thing I like about the Eccosport is that it really is a fun little city car that you can see out of. It’s like a taller Honda Fit. It also does a remarkable job of getting around “off road”. I took a rental to places it probably shouldn’t have been on a visit to New Mexico. What I dislike is no turbo engine with the AWD. GM made a better version of this car. And that’s with an engine that explodes every fifth oil change.
I think the Nissan Juke is ugly as sin, but the engines you could get with it were very peppy, especially the turbocharged NISMO. Also it was way more distinctive than the Kicks.
Ecosports are abominable, but most of them have cool rims, I guess.
The Cube – I hate the looks, I hate the fact it has a Nissan CVT, there is nothing about it that I like – it inspires rage in me whenever I see it because of the asymmetry, and yet… It still tried to be different, and I like that about it.
We need more weird cars – even ones that anger me! – and less normal/beige cars.
They were available with a 6 speed manual, glorious couch like seats and 11 cup/bottle holders.
Oh… and with “bitter chocolate” paint.
So… a comfy, reliable, brown manual wagon.
I don’t think they get the respect they deserve.
I mean, the Miata is the go-to standard for handling. As much of a convertible hater as I am, I can be pretty happy in that sucker…in a full-face helmet on track. Better yet if it’s long-sleeve season. That seems like an extreme softball, though, so I’ll go worse.
There’s almost nothing I like about the Cybertruck. It’s a form-over-function reflection of a very fragile, very divorced man’s paranoid outlook on life and ever-deteriorating grasp of reality. Also, if you sit in the back seat of one at the auto show, you’re guaranteed to see the gross, greasy, semisolid head sweat left behind by everyone who’s hit their heads. HEAD GOO. There’s nothing I want to think about less than leftover, mashed-together HEAD GOO, but here we are.
But goshdarnit, that sucker’s weird. We haven’t had a properly weird, sort-of-mainstream-ish car since Smart left the American market. We need more weird cars. Cutesy features aren’t enough to cut it. Merely being a bad car isn’t enough, either. (The Smart wasn’t bad, and I will die on this hill.) So, kudos to the team tasked with taking Astro-Herb’s vanity project to market, I guess. I would rather the next weird thing be a little less heavy, tall and pedestrian-imperiling next time, but I have to credit them for going FULL weird, broad appeal be damned.
Hopefully the next weirdo is a friendly weirdo like the ForTwo was, though. “Weird” isn’t entirely a compliment. I’m just so tired of looking at similar eggs on the road that I could scream.
That’s how I feel too. I hate it, but damn, they sure went all in. That doesn’t happen enough.
What I’d like to know for the non-LA-based Autopian staffers is, just how on the outs with Beau would you think you were if you arrive in town, go to the Galpin rental office and get handed the keys to an EcoSport?
I’m cheating a little bit because I both love the car, and this particular feature, but it’s so good I couldn’t help but mention the front cup holders of the 2nd-gen Honda Fit (Ge8). I don’t know why more manufacturers haven’t gotten on board with putting cup holders up on the dash near the A-pillars, but it’s damn near PERFECT.
You’re right, those cup holders are great.
I consider the Honda Fit, particularly the 2nd gen, to be about the most practical car ever made. It’s reliable, economical enough, and carries a ridiculous amount of stuff despite its small footprint. Our 2011 got handed down to our daughter and it’s still trucking right along with years of life left in it. The only flaw, and the only reason I bought a Fiesta ST for myself, is that Honda did not have an Si version available.
Couldn’t agree more. I had mine from new in 2009 to 2022 and I’m still a little bummed I “upgraded” to something newer and bigger.
I totally would have gotten one but for the fatal Japanese Car Flaw: not enough space for tall drivers.
Legroom, in this case.
I have a 3rdgen and in the “what’s a design choice you hate about a feature you love on a car you love” stakes, that cupholder is just below a dash vent with a piece of faux-aluminum trim perfectly shaped and positioned to rip the lid off a Cumberland Farms large iced-coffee cup.
My cellphone resides there (left of steering wheel) in a cup holder mount. Perfect.
2016 ford escape with turbo eco boost and a fuel tank out of a focus.11 gallons!!! Maybe 350 miles of range. Otherwise a decent car with a ugly dashboard
I had a rental Chrysler Pacifica recently. Worst electronics user interface of anything I have driven recently. Terrible throttle response and brake feel. But they did a great job with the seat and driving position. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Nissan as a brand in general gets plenty of (mostly) deserved sh*t, but Monarch Orange Metallic is one of the best paint colors on the market and has been since it released.
They also gave us “Bitter Chocolate”, a fantastic car color.
As hideous as the Honda Clarity was, I still love that it was mostly aluminum and would withstand the Saltbelt better.
For all of their flaws, Chargers and Challengers had the absolute best branding and logos. Ford and GM could really learn from them in that aspect.
The Bentley Bentayga and Rolls Royce Cullinan are bloated, ugly behemoths but the fact that they have 12 cylinders was always neat
I think a lot of my dislike about specific cars has to do with context.
I really dislike expensive luxury barges, especially in SUV form: a brand new Lexus GX, typically in pearly white, driven by someone with too perfectly coifed hair and virtually never leaving the pavement. It is probably my inner eat the rich instincts, but I just dislike this. Also, for that kind of money buying a white Lexus feels equivilant to paying $500 for a pair of Dockers.
But that same vehicle, once it makes it to it’s 3rd or 4th owner, is fully redeemed.
Today I learned that the 2015 Lexus NX has a handy mirror for consumption of Peruvian marching powder. Thanks Lexus!
You are the only person, other than Stephen King, who I have ever seen use that term. Love it.
In Jay McInerney’s novel “Bright Lights, Big City,” the substance was known as Bolivian Marching Powder.
Also from Stephen King (in Needful Things) there’s a variation on that, Bolivian Bingo Dust.
Oh I guess let’s add spare tires underneath the vehicle in the open. As least give an option to put it somewhere else. Now you have to crawl around in the mud too, in addition to changing a tire? Adding insult to injury.
I’ve kind of always hated the Dodge Challenger, due to it being built on the oversized 300 platform. So horribly fat and slab sided design, especially upon release. Fender flares and styling tweaks have helped it over the years, but it’s still overweight compared to the original. But yet, the madness of the latter hellcat versions and the lifespan of the body style, and the sales success that it was for Dodge, is hard to ignore. It’s hard not to love the insanity of it.
I love that I don’t own a Jeep Liberty.
Apparently you don’t love freedom!
Having that era of Chrysler products absent from my driveway is the kind of freedom I enjoy.
If the Ecosport came with a manual I would have bought one, I loved the full size spare.
I really like the air vents on the original Land Rover Defenders, you can actually see daylight through them.
You know I love the R53 era Minis for their great visibility and how they feel to drive BUT they’re a motherf-cker to work on and come with that damn BMW tax on parts. I’d never want to own another one.
Not a fan of flocking or fabric on interior parts that can get dirty and need to be wiped down. Hey greasy fingerprints get everywhere if someone is working on the car. There are lots of stories online about having to peel that stuff off and fix it. And it is a pain to fix. A and B pillars come to mind. C and D, maybe ok but why? The latest Malibu edition has all sorts of padded fabric on the dash and around touch points like start button. That’s gonna look worse than a hanging down headliner soon. It’ll cut the cost if you leave that stuff off. Beancounters unite! Not a fan of these seat tracks that stick out forward of the seat with greazy worm gears in them. Such ugly. Seems like it didnt used to be like this? Not a fan of leather wrapped stuff (steering, shift). Adds cost for what? “Lugz-urr-ee.” And no delete options any more due to ‘option packages.’ Not a fan of millions of crevices where crumbs can get (perforated leather also). I saw a post where one guy with a Porsche mistakenly used white leather treatment on his perf leather, which resulted in one long session of toothpick work to keep from having polka dot seats. They need to make our rides easily detail-able on the inside. Also can we have regular keys again? Go ahead and put a security chip so we don’t get Kia-boy’d but I don’t want to carry around a keyfob that is larger than a “feature phone,” as they are getting now. Looking at you, Ford. Key on ring. Simple. Lite. Can we have the power seat controls on the door where they belong and you can see them and reach them, instead of on the side of the seat where you have to reach for them blind? I guess not. See, there the beancounters were cutting cost. In the wrong area if you ask me. But of course they didn’t ask me, haha.
Re: steering wheel finishes – I grew up with 70s/80s plastics that would either dry out and crack, or undergo the odd chemical change that made them sticky like a licked piece of hard candy, meaning that it was a necessity to add a steering wheel cover or wrap at some point.
Today, I deal with fancypants leather-wrapped (or sometimes pleather-wrapped) steering wheels whose wrapping dries out and cracks, meaning that it’s a necessity to add a steering wheel cover or wrap at some point.
Other than the pedals and the seat, the steering wheel receives more constant contact and wear from the driver’s body than any other piece of the car. Well, we figured out a long time ago that rubber pads will help the pedals, and it doesn’t really matter because no one but you sees them; and seat cover material has improved by orders of magnitude over my lifetime. Yet, we’ve had well over a century to come up with a similar solution for the steering wheel, and it seems that few if any exist – at least not in most of the cars I’ve driven in my lifetime.
I hate the 1994 Ram for kickstarting the era of making pickups as bloated and obnoxious looking as possible. Damn though, I love whatever insanity led to the idea of putting the Viper’s engine into the following generation.
Viper Truck. Why? Because Americaaaa Fuck yeah!
Yeah, me too! And then I bought a 2001 Ram 2500 at auction about three years ago and now I’m having to revise my feelings. I love my truck! And for such a long truck with the long bed and quad cab, it’s still remarkably less imposing than current trucks. They added a ton of height to these, but the 95-02 Ram is actually still human sized. I kind of hate modern Rams, they look like they want to eat your children, but my Ram feels much more friendly, like an old cow.
I love that generation Ram for starring in my all-time favorite movie.
“It’s the wonder of nature, baby!”
I absolutely despise my ’07 Toyota Corolla. The most boring vehicle ever put on the face of the Earth.
But it runs. I love that. Also, it was cheap.
I will never buy a car that doesn’t have a least one redeeming feature. I had an ’01 Corolla, completely bare bones. But it was a manual. Not a great manual, but it at least had one feature I liked. Right now I have an ’07 Highlander–pretty boring. But it has a moonroof which is nice in summer & is just big enough for camping stuff.
Doesn’t need to be fancy, just needs that one redeeming feature.
Ah the EcoSport, ’twas neither economical nor sporty
Nor normal to pronounce, as Ford found out. “NO. Eee-co boost is the engine, this is echo sport!”