# The Most Hated Cars in History: A Case for Redemption

As I sit here reflecting on what makes me really sad deep down inside is when great cars are overlooked Or sometimes, hated on Perhaps they were conceived in the wrong era or had a competitor that took the limelight Or, I dunno, maybe they burst into flames whenever you got into a car accident You know, small stuff So today I will talk you through 12 of the most hated cars in history And then try and convince you that they're actually pretty cool

## The Mazda Miata: A Macho Car That Defies Expectations

Number 12 on our list is the Mazda Miata Some people out there think that the Miata is too small, too slow, and I can't even believe that I'm saying this because they use it in a derogatory way that the Miata is a hairdresser's car Well, I for one, love hairdressers Fun fact about me, before I moved to California I was considering becoming a hairdresser myself Of course, I would've been called a barber but that's neither here nor there Lots of people like Miatas Construction workers, professional fighters, scuba-diving welders Lots and lots of very macho people get to and from their very macho positions behind the wheel of a Mazda MX5, aka a Miata

It is small It has fantastically compact Japanese proportions The result being a short wheelbase perfectly balanced with great weight distribution And therefore, great handling It is low on power relatively speaking I guess Compared to like, a Dodge Demon Yeah, the original Miata only had 115 horsepower but the upshot of that was that when those horseybabies were championed by that brilliant compact light well-balanced chassis it meant you could push the carto your limit and its limits Squeezing every last mile per hour out of that beautiful little 1.6 liter And have a bunch of fun doing it without being totally terrified Although driving Miatas is pretty scary Especially when Eddie's behind the wheel Hi Eddie

The Miata has been described as one of the great authentic driving experiences by pretty much everyone who knows a thing or two about driving Its such a good car we made an entire Donut show about it its called

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- What makes me reallysad deep down insideis when great cars are overlooked.Or sometimes, hated on.Perhaps they wereconceived in the wrong eraor had a competitorthat took the limelight.Or, I dunno, maybe they burst into flameswhenever you got into a car accident.You know, small stuff.So today I will talk you through12 of the most hated cars in history.And then try and convince youthat they're actually pretty cool.D-D-D-D-D-D-D-List!- Number 12, Mazda Miata!- Some people out therethink that the Miatais too small, too slow, and,I can't even believe that I'm saying thisbecause they use it in a derogatory way,that the Miata is a hairdresser's car.Well, I for one, love hairdressers!Fun fact about me,before I moved to CaliforniaI was considering becominga hairdresser myself.Of course, I would'vebeen called a barber,but that's neither here nor there.Lots of people like Miatas.Construction workers,professional fighters,scuba-diving welders.Lots and lots of very macho peopleget to and from their very macho positionsbehind the wheel of aMazda MX5, aka a Miata.It is small.It has fantastically compactJapanese proportions.The result being a short wheelbase,perfectly balanced withgreat weight distribution.And therefore, great handling.It is low on powerrelatively speaking, I guess.Compared to, like, a Dodge Demon.Yeah, the original Miataonly had 115 horsepower,but the upshot of thatwas that when those horseybabies were championedby that brilliant, compact,light, well-balanced chassisit meant you could push the carto your limit and its limits.Squeezing every last mile per hourout of that beautiful, little 1.6 liter.And have a bunch of fun doing itwithout being totally terrified.Although, driving Miatas is pretty scary.Especially when Eddie's behind the wheel.Hi Eddie!The Miata has been describedas one of the great,authentic driving experiencesby pretty much, I dunno,everyone who knows a thingor two about driving.It's such a good car, we madean entire Donut show about it,it's called "Money Pit", check it out.It's every Wednesday, it's hosted byone of my best friends Zach Jobe.He's a genius and the car is awesome.- Number 11, Chevy Corvair.For everyone who doesn't know,the Chevy Corvair was arear-engined compact carmade by by Chevroletbetween 1960 and 1969.Nice!It was one of the first, if not the first,production cars offered with a turbo.But unfortunately,it was made famous bythe following phrase:"Unsafe at any speed".That is how Ralph Nader describedthe 1965 Chevrolet Corvairin his book about automotive safety.He's got some pretty progressiveviews on the environment,which I respect,but he's kind of a downer.So yeah, the Corvair was unsafe.It had an engine which hungout past the rear axle,putting way too muchweight past the wheelsand making it prone to spins.And who cares if the car didn't haveany form of roll protectionto protect the occupants,and, ugh, come on, gosh, get over it!It had a single piece steering columnthat tended to impale driversduring a front-end impact.Nobody's perfect!But, turns out, a lot ofthat stuff wasn't even true.It took 12 years for the Corvairto have its name clearedby an independant report.But the damage, the damagehad already been done.But here's the thing.The Corvair is an awesome car!It's really cool looking.Because of the whole bad reputation thing,it's pretty cheap.And they're super easy to work on.From 1965 onward, like I mentioned before,you could get a Corvair with a turbo.That came from the factorywith 180 horsepower.The Corvair was the first,and still today only,mass-produced American car to be designedwith a rear engine.Which on its own makesit worthy of this list,but that engine was also afreakin' air-cooled flat six.It's basically a Porsche 930.By the end of its productionrun in 1969, nice!,you could buy a Corvair asnot only a coupe,not only a convertible,but a sedan, a station wagon,even a freakin' pickup truck.And you don't have to take my word for it,I'm just an idiot on the internet.Take my older brotherJay Leno's word for it.He said that the Chevy Corvair is one ofthe 10 best cars that GM has ever made!Do you know how manycars GM has ever made?More than 10!More than 10!- Number 10, Ford Pinto!- From one American compactwith a rear end of nightmaresto another, the Ford Pinto was,let's be honest, kind of a mess.The thing would actually explodeif it was involved ina rear-end collision.A dude named Lee Iacocca,you know that guy who Jon Bernthal playedin "Ford v Ferrari".The guy who came up withthe idea for the Mustang.Well he headed up projectPinto and rushed designersto develop and test the car in 25 months,rather than the standard 43.He also wanted it to weighno more than 2,000 pounds.And cost no more than $2,000.Because of this, concessions were made.Most infamously the steel fuel tankwhich was mounted low betweenthe axle and the rear bumper.Unfortunately the resultswere, how do I put this?Um, what's the word, uh, disastrous!Several tragic, verywell publicized crashes.Some of which resultedin life-changing injuriesand some even in death,basically ruined thePinto's reputation forever.Ford was even prosecuted for homicideby the families of some of the victims.That's how serious this was.However, if I may counterpoint,reports of the Pinto'ssafety, or lack there of,are greatly exaggerated.And though it took some seven yearsbefore an independantreport would highlight this,sadly the damage was already done.It's like how I told everyonethat Nolan likes drinking milk so mucheven though I think he likesdrinking milk a normal amount,but because we put that out therenow people think thatNolan loves drinking milk.It's the power of influence.Secondly, and moreimportantly if you ask mebecause I love little cars,the Pinto was Ford's firstattempt at a compact.And because of that, wehave the Pinto to thankfor some of the coolest carsthat Ford has ever made.I'm talking about Escorts,I'm talking about Fiestas,I'm talking about Focuses.You like Gymkhana and Ken Block?Thank a Pinto!Just like the Corvairthat we just talked about,the Pinto was availablein an incredible amount of body styles.My favorite is that Pintowagon with the rally pack.Check out that freakin' window!It's a thing doesn't evenbelong on this earth,it belongs in space!Also, Pinto means spotted horse.And you know I'm down for anythingthat has to do with horses.- Number nine, Pontiac Aztek!- This is one of the most unloved carsin the history of cars,but it's honestly actually pretty cool.Okay, I get it, yeah.It is ugly!The interior is insane.It was super expensive whenit launched, it cost $25,000.And yes, there was no optionfor a manual transmission,which is a huge bummer.However, to me theAztek was the forerunnerto every crossover vehicleyou see on the roads today.And love 'em or hate'em, it's a granddaddy.And granddaddies are cool.This is my granddaddy.His name is LintonPumphrey, he's a good guy.So not only did the Aztec help to formthe blueprint for crossover vehicles,which is almost every caron the road these days,it also came in all-wheel drive,and it had a freakin' tent on it.You could actually leave work on Fridayand just drive right to the woodsand sleep in your car.Hell, there's some prettyscary stuff going on right now,and I'm kinda wishing thatmy car came with a tent.Nowadays with nerd style and normcoreat the top of fashionand music and everything,I personally foresee the Aztecreaching a cult-like status.And I think that the makersof Forza might agree with mebecause they have includedthe Aztec in Forza six.I know it's not the most recent one,but that's the one with an Aztec in it.I wanna see who gets thefastest ring time in an Aztec.Post your screen grabs,the winner gets a shirt.And, if you needed anymore convincing,freaking Heisenbergrolled in an Aztec, okay!Bitch!- Number eight, PT Cruiser!- Now this things problemwas always gonna behow it was marketed.And how it looked.And how poorly it was made.And the fact that itwas front-wheel drive.Okay, so it was styled to looklike the cars from the '30sand honestly, I don't thinkthat they did a bad job.It looks like something that(beep) Dick Tracy would have driven.But while the snooty car journalistsand better-than-thou cool kidslaugh at this oddly angular,yet soft and squishy car,I'd like to offer anot so popular opinion.The PT Cruiser is one of, if not the most,whimsical, imaginative carsever produced in the modern age.And that started at the factory.The factory spec sheet for the PT Cruiserreads like the wishlist for an11-year old's birthday party.Turbos, manualtransmissions, flame decals,this kid is a cool kid!I hope my kid ends up being like this kid.When is his party?In 2005 almost half of all PT Cruiserswere ordered with theoptional turbo-charged engine.And people didn't stop there.The PT has a very passionate fan base!And these guys and gals have done so muchto keep this car goingand keep it going well.They haven't made PT Cruisers for a decadebut you still see 'em everywhere.They made so many of 'em,and they sold so well,that I don't see these thingsgoing anywhere anytime soon.Plus this one has over 800 horsepower.- Number seven,the Tesla Cybertruck!- Very few automobiles in thehistory of all automobileshave been as divisive as the Cybertruckand they don't even sell these things yet.People in one camp think thatit looks like a car straightout of Blade Runner.And in the other camp, some people thinkit looks like a baby drew it.Personally, I think it's both.The styling combined with thelack of a combustion engine,because duh, it's a Tesla,really triggered truck people.Who gets more offended than truck guys?But here's why it's actually great.It's a pickup truck that'sfaster than a McLaren F1.It's cheaper than a Dodge Charger.And you can buy it witha matching freaking ATV.It breaks, literally, all of the rulesof what a pickup truck should beand that's exactly what we need right now.We need to tear down andrebuild from scratch.So like it or not, it'sgonna change the futureof trucks and cars, andthat's a huge a deal.This next car is probably theopposite of the Cybertruck.I'm talking--- Number six, Hummer H2!- There is no better wordto describe the Hummer H1than heroic.It liberated countries, kept troops safe,and it looked handsomeand rugged doing it.By comparison, the H2did none of these things.This vehicle was a huge, ugly,chrome-covered eye-sorereleased right after 9/11,a time when gas prices sky-rocketedand when having a gas-guzzling truckwasn't quite as cool as it used to be.Now you've got to rememberthat while SUVs are acommon sight on roads today,back in 2001 the SUV crazewas only a few years old.So the H2 looked very out of placenext to all the '90sAcuras and Saturn Sedans.But looking back, dare I say,that this thing was a victim of the time.The Hummer H2 is actually very cooland compared to the SUVs of today,it wasn't even that big.It's comfy and luxurious on the the insideand it looks damn cool from the outside.It came with a 6.2 literV8 making 393 horsepowerand had a towing capacity of 8,200 pounds.Which is more than a Lamborghini Urus.Now I'm not sure what thatproves but it's something.It's something!Now when we were puttingtogether this episodewe were like, "Oh yeah, HummerH2 we forgot about those!"I bet they're cheap,we should all get 'em."But it turns out the Hummer H2has managed to hold it'svalue surprisingly wellthrough a national crisis,two wars, a couple recessions.But that tells me that these thingsmight even go up in value in the future.So if you want, I dunno, to take a gambleon a future collector car,check out Hummer H2s.- Number five, Smart Fortwo!- The reasons that this car is hatedare basically the exact oppositereasons as the Hummer H2.Americans love big cars, all right.Our roads, our towns, our drive-thrus,all of them are built for large cars.And the Smart Fortwo was always gonna bea tough sell to us giant American drivers.Also, it only has twoseats, it's not that sporty,and it really doesn't haveany cargo space at all.And even though it was tinyand focused on being economical,it's not even that good on gas.For a while there itwas kind of embarrassingto be seen in one.But, for all of its faults,the Smart Fortwo challenged conventions.It might not have made sensefor the vast majority ofpeople, but it was cheapand it could fit intoimpossible parking spaces,making it a must-havefor people who need tiny parking spots.Plus, may I add, the number one reasonwhy I have added this car to this list,(engine revving)you can put a Hayabusa engine in it.- Number four, Chevy SSR!- Yes, the Chevy SSRis very weird looking.Yes, I don't think it quiteunderstands what it is.It was a convertible, but also a truck.It didn't make any sense,but that's why I love it.A freakin' truck drop-top!That's literally the mostawesome combination ever.Now, imagine how mucheasier that would makethe daily chore of rustlin' your sheep.You can just yell at 'emwhen you sat insideyour convertible truck.Get in the truck you damn sheep!Early models suffered from low power,but in 2005 Chevy totallyredeemed themselvesand dropped in a 400 horsepower LS2with a six-speed manual.♪ Did you even know thatthat was even possible ♪That's right, 400 horsepower.400 pound feet of torque.Six-speed with the fun lever on it.Why are we looking at thisas some weird old-man collector car,when really it's Chevy'sresponse to the Ford Lightning.Which is the other coolestpickup truck that's ever made.But nobody hates thoseso it's not on this list.I, in my mind, sometimesin my dreams late at night,I go to an alternate realitywhere Brian drives an SSR in"The Fast and the Furious"and all of a sudden everybody likes 'em.And since we didn'tget Holdens in America,the SSR is still one ofthe only car-truck thingsthat you can put a bunchof wood in the back ofand do a screamin' burnout!Oh, I also wanna apologizefor last week's video.Apparently I called the Holden Malooa truck a number of times--Truck truck truck truck truck truck.It is not a truck it is a Ute,which are very different things.It is also not a car with a truck bed,it is a muscle car witha tray in the back.It won't happen again.- Number three, Dodge Neon!- The Neon made by Dodge--(The Neon was also soldby Chrysler and Plymouth.I'm just gonna call it the Dodge.)Was the quintessential '90s econobox.In other words, it was boring.And Dodge should not be boring.They are the coolest companyI've ever worked with.They paid me to get a tattooof their name on my chest.My girlfriend won't even do thatand she's the coolest person I ever met.Hardcore Dodge fans didn't wanta cheap, efficient, front-wheel drive car.However, the Neon did have a saving grace.I'm talking about a littlething called racing!The Neon is one of the carsthat dominated autocrossin the late '90s and early 2000s.It was light, which made it fast.And it had really, really,surprisingly good handling.It held its own andsuccessfully defended Americain a compact car marketwhich was full of importslike the Civic and the Sentra.And that helped endearit to millions of peopleacross the country.Also, it came in a bunch ofreally cool different versions.Like the ACR, the R/T, andthe top-of-the-line SRT-4.I swear to god, once a week Iopen up Facebook Marketplaceand look for an SRT-4.It went zero to 60 in 5.6 seconds,which is very fast fora compact of the time,and it had a top speedof 153 miles per hours.It was faster than a Chevelle 454 SS.It was one of the firstcars that I could say,"Hey dad, you're wrong man!"You're freakin' wrong dude!"There is a replacement for displacement,"it's called a freakin' turbo!"Nowadays almost everycar is turbo-charged,hell there's turbo-charged minivansand turbo-charged everything.But it didn't used to be that wayand this was a really reallybrave decision by Dodge.Most SRT-4s have been beatto absolute (beep) though.So be very careful while you're looking.- Number two, Honda Ridgeline.If there's one thing that can bringFord, Chevy, and Dodge people together,it's that they hate the Honda Ridgeline.Now with a name like Ridgeline,you'd expect this Honda truck to be ableto scale peaks, traversetricky mountain passages,and brush off knocks, bumps, and scratcheslike they were nothing.That's not really the case,but I still like this car.Now hardcore truck guys hate the factthat this truck has a unibody constructionas opposed to the body-on-chassisthat is more common in big trucks.It also has a transverse mounted engine.And worst of all, front-wheel drive.Ridgeline's all wheel drivewould eventually kick inif you went off-road andneeded the extra traction.But for many this wasjust too much to take man.To them, this was a modified minivan,and they didn't wantanything to do with it.But I got a news flash for yah, pal!That was sort of the whole point.That's what made the Ridgeline so great.Rather than being a truckwith a second row of seats,squashed into an elongated cab,this really did feel likea minivan or a small SUV with a bed.It's comfortable, it's spacious,it's got great gas mileage,and just like every otherHonda, it's insanely reliable.Even if you go off-roading,which most people who owntrucks and SUVs don't do,you still spend 90% ofyour time on the road.What, just because I wantsome open-air cargo spacemeans that I have to pretendlike I'm an adventurer.No, this is a great city truck.My friend Nick Thune drives one.Hello Nick Thune, check outhis comedy albums or something.- Number one, Toyota Prius!- Finally my lovelies, wehave reached number one.The number one most hated carthat I actually think isawesome, the Toyota Prius.Now Prius translatedfrom Latin means first,which is exactly what it was in everythingaccept for any drag raceor beauty contest that it ever entered.The Toyota Prius was the car which broughtaffordable, efficient,ecologically responsiblehybrid power to the masses.In fact, due to their popularity as Ubers,I feel confident in sayingthat every person in the UShas probably ridden in one of these cars.Can you say that about thePontiac Aztec, no you can't.You're probably wondering,"James, I thought this was a car channel."Why are you defending the Prius?"Well, hey, maybe the Priusneeds to be defended.I'm trying to convinceyou that it's a good car,an important car, a car thatwe should be happy exists.The Prius gets a really really bad rapbecause I think that peopledon't acknowledge what it's for.Jeremy Clarkson hates the Prius.It had a really bad "SouthPark" episode about itwhich didn't help either.Prius was also viewed as athreat to automotive freedom.They're slow, they'reboring, they're uninspired.And having driven one I candefinitely confirm this,but that's okay and here's why.That's not what they're for.Again, Priuses are cheap.They're reliable.They're economical.And they will last forever.If any of my girlfriend's friendsask me what car theyshould buy I say a Prius.It really is responsiblefor opening the world's eyesto hybrid technology.Which is everywhere nowthanks to the Prius.Freakin' F1 cars are hybrid now.And if you need any moreconvincing, think about this.Every car manufacturer hasa fleet CO2 emissions targetwhich they have to stay underin order to sell cars around the world.And if Toyota didn't have the Priusbringing their emissionsaverage way way down,they might not have been ableto give us the new Supra.So next time you look at anew Supra, thank a Prius.Thank you so much for watching this videoand all the other videos on Donut.I know that I went out onsome limbs in this video.I think there's a lot ofnegativity in the car world.I want every kid to look attheir Prius or their Ford Probeand think, "Hey, my car is cool."And I think we should respect each otherand respect what each other drives.I know we're all trappedin our houses right now,I'm in my garage rightnow making this video,but we're not slowing down at all.We're gonna try and keepyou guys entertained.We have seven shows a week now!Guys, that is one show aday, that is Donut Every Day.We've been working on this for a long timeso make sure that you don't miss outon any of this stuffthat's rightfully yours.Go ahead and hit that subscribe buttonif you haven't already.I guess there's a bell down there.We'll let you know everytime we release a new video.If you wanna rep theset go to DonutMedia.comand get yourself some!Also follow Donut acrosssocial media @DonutMediaor follow me @JamesPumphrey.This is a trip, stay safe, I love you.