Which car maker currently offers the "worst" range of cars?
Discussion
Inspired by the recent TG Peugeot feature, which car manufacturer in your opinion currently offers the worst range of cars? We'll spare the newbies from China (Great Wall etc) and just stick with the established players. It's probably quite difficult today to buy a genuinely bad car, so criteria for consideration can be:
styling
performance, emissions and fuel consumption
driving experience
packaging
build quality
value/depreciation
I got what they were saying about Peugeot (although they didn't actually say it was the worst) having grown up in the 80s and 90s with the 05 and 06 series cars and their pretty Pininfarina styling and sporty driving dynamics and at one point, as a 205 GTi owner I was a massive Peugeot fanboy but for some reason (and it may have started with the 307), they decided to turn their back on all that. Having said that, there's still something quite chic about a small French (or Italian car) compared to a small Ford/Vauxhall and the 208 looks pretty good if not best in class. The GTi is supposed to be pretty good and even the 308 is not a bad looking car now but probably not a car that many people will buy!
A lot of the weaker car manufacturers (Renault, Fiat etc) still make good small cars but not big ones, so maybe being able to make an attractive, fun small car is a good indicator of whether a manufacturer is any good or not?
On this basis, I would nominate Hyundai and Vauxhall, as the i10/i20 and Agila/Corsa are all utterly bland and joyless and with a couple of exceptions (Santa Fe and VXR8), none of their other products do anything for me either or offer any obvious advantages over the competition. Having said that, I have looked at Hyundai on the last two occasions that I have bought a car and they do offer good value and excellent levels of equipment and warranty but for me, even the "sporty" ones (Veloster) feel too "white goods".
Perhaps I am being unfair to Hyundai and Vauxhall then? It hurts me to say it, as I love and have owned and enjoyed fast Imprezas but what do Subaru currently offer? No Legacy, a non-existent Impreza range, an utterly bland and conventional Forester and yes, they do have the BRZ which they did most of the engineering development on but Toyota screwed them on the marketing and production i.e. you're more likely to be able to get hold of and get a better deal on a GT86, so why would you buy the Subaru version, unless you absolutely had to have bright blue! The rest of the range is pretty bland in the styling department whilst offering poor value and uncompetitive performance, fuel economy and emissions.
Any thoughts?
styling
performance, emissions and fuel consumption
driving experience
packaging
build quality
value/depreciation
I got what they were saying about Peugeot (although they didn't actually say it was the worst) having grown up in the 80s and 90s with the 05 and 06 series cars and their pretty Pininfarina styling and sporty driving dynamics and at one point, as a 205 GTi owner I was a massive Peugeot fanboy but for some reason (and it may have started with the 307), they decided to turn their back on all that. Having said that, there's still something quite chic about a small French (or Italian car) compared to a small Ford/Vauxhall and the 208 looks pretty good if not best in class. The GTi is supposed to be pretty good and even the 308 is not a bad looking car now but probably not a car that many people will buy!
A lot of the weaker car manufacturers (Renault, Fiat etc) still make good small cars but not big ones, so maybe being able to make an attractive, fun small car is a good indicator of whether a manufacturer is any good or not?
On this basis, I would nominate Hyundai and Vauxhall, as the i10/i20 and Agila/Corsa are all utterly bland and joyless and with a couple of exceptions (Santa Fe and VXR8), none of their other products do anything for me either or offer any obvious advantages over the competition. Having said that, I have looked at Hyundai on the last two occasions that I have bought a car and they do offer good value and excellent levels of equipment and warranty but for me, even the "sporty" ones (Veloster) feel too "white goods".
Perhaps I am being unfair to Hyundai and Vauxhall then? It hurts me to say it, as I love and have owned and enjoyed fast Imprezas but what do Subaru currently offer? No Legacy, a non-existent Impreza range, an utterly bland and conventional Forester and yes, they do have the BRZ which they did most of the engineering development on but Toyota screwed them on the marketing and production i.e. you're more likely to be able to get hold of and get a better deal on a GT86, so why would you buy the Subaru version, unless you absolutely had to have bright blue! The rest of the range is pretty bland in the styling department whilst offering poor value and uncompetitive performance, fuel economy and emissions.
Any thoughts?
Citroen gets my vote. I have a big soft spot for the C5, but everything else is just dull and bulbous with nothing remotely hot performance wise or good looking.
At least Peugeot have the RCZ and the 208 GTI and Vauxhall have the VXR models and the GTC is actually quite a good looking car in the flesh. Hyundai are close but then I wouldn't really expect anything outstanding from them (though I seem to remember the big i30/i40s looking surprisingly smart in real life), whereas Citroen have a long history of interesting, quirky cars which the current range belies.
At least Peugeot have the RCZ and the 208 GTI and Vauxhall have the VXR models and the GTC is actually quite a good looking car in the flesh. Hyundai are close but then I wouldn't really expect anything outstanding from them (though I seem to remember the big i30/i40s looking surprisingly smart in real life), whereas Citroen have a long history of interesting, quirky cars which the current range belies.
Edited by vrsmxtb on Friday 27th March 18:13
oceanview said:
Mitsubishi seem to be really poor lately- mirage hatchback anyone?
I had a Mirage as a courtesy car. The styling is ungainly. NVH is poor. Ride is poor. Interior dash quality was good. Rest of the interior so-so. Economy brilliant. Most of us would be better off spending £12k on a Corsa/Fiesta/Yaris/Polo
te.oceanview said:
Mitsubishi seem to be really poor lately- mirage hatchback anyone?
Everything they sell seems to a 10 year old facelifted version of a car that was rubbish 10 years ago.Then there's their hideous £30k electric pram, who buys these things?
Clarkson sums them up well:
"A dismal range of nothingness"
vrsmxtb said:
Citroen gets my vote. I have a big soft spot for the C5, but everything else is just dull and bulbous with nothing remotely hot performance wise or good looking.
At least Peugeot have the RCZ and the 208 GTI and Vauxhall have the VXR models and the GTC is actually quite a good looking car in the flesh. Hyundai are close but then I wouldn't really expect anything outstanding from them (though I seem to remember the big i30/i40s looking surprisingly smart in real life), whereas Citroen have a long history of interesting, quirky cars which the current range belies.
I don't know, the DS3 is interesting, and the DS5 is a good-looking motor.At least Peugeot have the RCZ and the 208 GTI and Vauxhall have the VXR models and the GTC is actually quite a good looking car in the flesh. Hyundai are close but then I wouldn't really expect anything outstanding from them (though I seem to remember the big i30/i40s looking surprisingly smart in real life), whereas Citroen have a long history of interesting, quirky cars which the current range belies.
Edited by vrsmxtb on Friday 27th March 18:13
Honda? Until the Civic Type R comes out their range is looking decidedly dowdy.
boyse7en said:
vrsmxtb said:
Citroen gets my vote. I have a big soft spot for the C5, but everything else is just dull and bulbous with nothing remotely hot performance wise or good looking.
At least Peugeot have the RCZ and the 208 GTI and Vauxhall have the VXR models and the GTC is actually quite a good looking car in the flesh. Hyundai are close but then I wouldn't really expect anything outstanding from them (though I seem to remember the big i30/i40s looking surprisingly smart in real life), whereas Citroen have a long history of interesting, quirky cars which the current range belies.
I don't know, the DS3 is interesting, and the DS5 is a good-looking motor.At least Peugeot have the RCZ and the 208 GTI and Vauxhall have the VXR models and the GTC is actually quite a good looking car in the flesh. Hyundai are close but then I wouldn't really expect anything outstanding from them (though I seem to remember the big i30/i40s looking surprisingly smart in real life), whereas Citroen have a long history of interesting, quirky cars which the current range belies.
Edited by vrsmxtb on Friday 27th March 18:13
Honda? Until the Civic Type R comes out their range is looking decidedly dowdy.
Vauxhall... By a country mile.
Mitsubishi do the ASX, which, in 2.0TDi form, is a genuinely decent motor.
Vauxhall only do utterly, utterly hopeless versions of stuff other people do so much better. Excepting their top of the range efforts, their cars, by any and every objective standard, are dreadfully poor.
Mitsubishi do the ASX, which, in 2.0TDi form, is a genuinely decent motor.
Vauxhall only do utterly, utterly hopeless versions of stuff other people do so much better. Excepting their top of the range efforts, their cars, by any and every objective standard, are dreadfully poor.
ferrariF50lover said:
Vauxhall... By a country mile.
Vauxhall only do utterly, utterly hopeless versions of stuff other people do so much better. Excepting their top of the range efforts, their cars, by any and every objective standard, are dreadfully poor.
What a load of rubbish.Vauxhall only do utterly, utterly hopeless versions of stuff other people do so much better. Excepting their top of the range efforts, their cars, by any and every objective standard, are dreadfully poor.
All cars have faults/issues and Vauxhall are no different. Their products are not significantly worse (or better) than any other manufacturer.
I suppose it depends on what criteria you're making the choice -
Honda/Toyota are somewhat uninspiring to me, but appear to be a quality product ?
Audi/VAG ? all I see is reducing quality, an image that appears to be going downhill and they all seem a bit samey ? it feels like Audis have looked the same for years. Aren't some of the platforms quite old now ? did I read somewhere the A5 platform is some years old? They don't really make me want to own one.
Subaru/Renault don't seems to know if they really want to sell vehicles here or not and the range available is a bit half arsed ?
On the flip side The Jag XE and the recently unveiled new XF have my interest for several years time, seems the product is what Audi were maybe 15 years ago? solid engineering, a bit of style to them whilst not being too outlandish ?
Edited by Crafty_ on Friday 27th March 19:24
Crafty_ said:
ferrariF50lover said:
Vauxhall... By a country mile.
Vauxhall only do utterly, utterly hopeless versions of stuff other people do so much better. Excepting their top of the range efforts, their cars, by any and every objective standard, are dreadfully poor.
What a load of rubbish.Vauxhall only do utterly, utterly hopeless versions of stuff other people do so much better. Excepting their top of the range efforts, their cars, by any and every objective standard, are dreadfully poor.
All cars have faults/issues and Vauxhall are no different. Their products are not significantly worse (or better) than any other manufacturer.
But, my experience of driving a number of newish vauxhalls and hyundais, is that they are utter crap.
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