Does controversy help sales? Ask these carmakers.
10.) Hennessey Venom GT
The Hennessey Venom GT is a blisteringly fast car designed and built in America and England, but JohnnyWasASchoolBoy sums up nicely why it's also rather controversial:
It's the fastest production car in the world.
No it's not it's not production.
Yes it is.
No it's not. It's just a rebadged Lotus.
No it's not. It's a production car. Hennesey builds them.
Hennesey's a crook.
It didn't go fast in two directions. The speed doesn't count.
Yes it does because NASA would only let them have one pass on the runway.
And on and on and on it goes.
Also, Steven Tyler wearing socks in sandals.
Suggested By: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy, Photo Credit: Hennessey Performance
9.) BMW 2002 Turbo
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's Patrick George and the Hoonigans:
"Another good example is the BMW 2002 Turbo, as pointed out to me by reader TFritch. With racy graphics and its status as the first European production car with a turbocharger, it was also decried as a hooligan's car, according to PistonHeads:
The 2002 Turbo is a trouble-maker, its history littered with controversy and outrage, and partly because of this just 1672 were ever made. Firstly BMW thought it wise to for its press cars to have '2002' and 'turbo' written in reverse script on the front spoiler so that the car in front would know exactly what had suddenly appeared behind.
But journalists had a field day with this, saying the German firm was irresponsible and ultimately this forced it to drop the script. It didn't mean the dealers couldn't sell the decals to Turbo buyers, so most ended up with it anyway.
The Germans got more used to high horsepower figures in the following decades.
Suggested By: Patrick George, Photo Credit: T.Phipps Photography
8.) Ford Excursion
The Excursion was a Hummer H2 driven by people who weren't necessarily assholes. It was a yes or no question from the start. PatBateman:
It's a massive vehicle that gave environmentalists strokes. People either hated them or loved them. The mammoth SUV that was designed for big work, yet was usually used to ferry children to and from school, groceries from the store to the fridge, and mom to her Jazzercise classes.
I hate these because they are massive and pointless, but without a sense of humor. If you daily drive a diesel Super Duty, at least there's some silliness about it. This is just big and wasteful, but without the silliness.
Ironically I bought mine BECAUSE it's fuel efficient (...compared to the alternatives in my particular duty cycle).
Suggested By: PatBateman, Photo Credit: MSVG
7.) Porsche Cayenne
The 911 is amazing, but the Cayenne sells better. The purists will never forgive Porsche for building an SUV (nor for water-cooling), but Lamborghini is soon to follow, not to mention Bentley, and guess what made the Jaguar F-Type possible? Range Rovers.
This is the world we live in.
Suggested By: Jagvar, Photo Credit: Getty Images
6.) Tucker Torpedo
The Tucker Torpedo was the Tesla Model S of its day. The problem was that Preston Tucker wasn't an Elon Musk.
Suggested By: JayHova, Photo Credit: AP Images
5.) BMW E65
Oh, just look at that body! The fans were outraged, the journalists couldn't deal with it, but Bangle's 7 Series broke every sales record in the book, proving once again that any press is good press.
Suggested By: love you but I've chosen hooning!, Photo Credit: BMW
4.) Chevrolet Corvair
The answer is always the Chevrolet Corvair, as well as the Audi 5000 or poor Ford Pinto. Damn you liars, damn you all!
Suggested By: Demon-Xanth, Photo Credit: SenseiAlan
3.) Chevy Volt
Significant design changes, delays and questionable mileage claims. Plus the guns from Fox, as N2Skylark reminds us:
Between the BK, the design changes, and FOXNEWS screaming bloody murder the false charge that Obama made sure to have the car designed so it wouldn't fit a gun rack...
Suggested By: Stig-a-saw-us-wrecks, Photo Credit: Getty Images
2.) Toyota Prius
First, it was the stories about the parts traveling all over the world and the production method that made the low carbon footprint claim fishy. Then, the toxic waste from the used batteries shattering the green image, with common diesels achieving better milage in the background. The real problem was with the customers though.
Could anybody avoid turning into a smug treehugger like the infamous Prius lady?
Suggested By: gideonford, Photo Credit: Getty Images
1.) DeLorean DMC-12
Everybody knew John DeLorean could build a car. Maybe even two. But politics came in, big money changed hands, and the car itself was the slowest sports car the world has seen since the Karmann Ghia.
Humanity ended up getting an iconic movie car and great story out of it.
Suggested By: Prime Davis, Photo Credit: AP Images
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
Top Photo Credit: David Villarreal Fernández