These Are The Most Forgettable Cars

A forgettable car is a strange thing to pinpoint. Like an automotive shrug, you can totally forget they were made until the moment you see one. Even then, despite a car having no memorable qualities, you may still recall why a particular model is forgettable. Maybe it was underwhelming to drive, maybe no one bought it, or maybe the car just blended into the background. Last week we asked readers what they thought the most forgettable car was. These were their responses. 

The Chevy Equinox. My wife and I joke whenever we see one that to buy that car you need to be entirely, almost violently devoid of any sort of personality. Like you plopped down a blank piece of paper where your personality should go and then redacted all of the blank lines to avoid ever spilling something there and getting a personality by accident. Like, ironing your socks and licking stamps are living on the edge for Equinox owners. They stare at white walls for fun. The next time you see one in the wild just look at the driver. See what I mean? Zero personality.

I wouldn't say the Equinox is that boring. The recent redesign is probably the best the crossover has ever looked. It is yet another crossover though, and while the styling looks good, it almost looks like as if designers just copy and pasted the design of the larger Traverse onto a smaller SUV. 

Submitted by: Matt T.

I work at a GM dealership, got handed a repair order for a Cascada and stood there staring at the RO, wracking my brain over what a Buick Cascada even was. Then once I went out to it, and remembered that Buick made a convertible styled like an upside-down bathtub, I had to check to see if they even still made them (and, yes, they were still in production at the time). So, when you work for a manufacturer and can't remember what a car that's still in production is, that's pretty peak forgettable.

A convertible would have to be pretty boring if dealer techs can't even recall what it is. The only thing I remember about the Cascada was rental agencyHertz' strange move of putting it in its Fun Collection. Just because it's a convertible doesn't mean it's fun. 

Submitted by: Nick Dixon via Facebook

Gotta be the Chevy Lumina. Soul sucking in all areas, tired looking when it was in the showroom. Happy to say I have not seen one on the road in a very long time.

Chevy's attempt to take on the Ford Taurus, the Lumina was just the car middle-class families would go for if they needed something affordable and spacious. There was nothing exciting about it, though. Sure, Chevy made a Z34 performance version of the first-generation Lumina, but that didn't make it onto the second-gen model when it was redesigned for the 1995 model year. Instead, Chevy just took the sedan, removed the rear doors and created the near-identical fifth-gen Monte Carlo. 

Submitted by: aratapuss

The Cadillac ELR was forgettable to me, not necessarily because it was a bad car (I never driven one, I believe it was shared with the Volt), But I don't think I've EVER seen one in the wild before, I though it should have at least done well enough with the volt. It looks rather good actually. But ...

You don't ever see them in the wild because no one bought these things. Over the three years it was on sale from 2013 to 2016 just 2,874 were sold in the United States. If you throw in the 84 total sales from Canada — that's 84 sales over the three years — total ELR production amounted to just 2,958 units.

Submitted by: Agon Targeryan

That 06 to 13? GM 3 row crossover. Saturn had one called the outlook then the GMC Acadia maybe the Chevy traverse? They existed they sold but you never see them. You see the trailblazer and the Tahoe and Yukons older then them but they seem to not almost not exist anymore.

I'm going to assume that this reader meant the Buick Enclave since that's the only one of the GM Lambda platform crossovers they didn't mention. 

Submitted by: MSV

Dodge Stratus. Beige/tan mainstay of meh rental fleets from the late 90s to early aughts. Mostly sold as a completely unremarkable four-speed auto, 2.0 L inline-four with a 0-60 in 7-8 seconds, depending on your mood. 

At least the Stratus looked pretty good, especially the coupe version. But to get those good looks, you had to get something more than the base models such as the Stratus R/T, which at least got you a 200-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 from Mitsubishi.

Submitted by: Gin and Panic

Ford Contour and whatever the Mercury sibling car was. I haven't seen one on the road in years but did see one yesterday passing local junkyard. I worked in a body shop many years ago and still remember thinking what garbage they were as I was taking it apart to pull the frame.

The car they're referring to is the Mercury Mystique, a car so forgettable you either haven't seen one in a long time or you've never seen one. The only memorable things about the Mystique and its Ford Contour sibling was that the Contour got an SVT performance version, and the Mystique shares its name with a mutant from the X-Men universe. 

Submitted by: Stinky Stu

Cadillac XT4/XT5. Until I see one, I live life like they don't exist. Even when I see one, my life is unchanged apart from the, "Oh, that's right, those exist."

The XT6 could also land in that category, except I like those.

Basically any Caddy SUV that's not an Escalade, I don't think I'd bring to...

I can't remember the last time I've seen any Cadillac SUV that wasn't an Escalade. It sucks, especially when you consider the XT5 started out as the V8-powered RWD SRX.

Submitted by: potbellyjoe