Cars that Never Caught on
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Keep it stiff

Original Poster:

1,829 posts

193 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
Glancing through a '68 Autosport I came across this report on the Quasar-Unipower. Ahead of it's time perhaps in terms of spaciousness (early SUV) but I somehow suspect that the idea of driving a greenhouse was the reason it never caught on!




Yertis

19,447 posts

286 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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I note that it's the April edition.


Tom8

5,153 posts

174 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Pope mobile!

rev-erend

21,596 posts

304 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
The NSU RO 80.

Puddenchucker

5,260 posts

238 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
I suppose it comes down to you interpretation of 'Cars that Never Caught on":

Cars that were ahead of their time and/or a radical design, or, cars that were as sales flop due to other issues.

I'd argue that the NSU Ro80 and cars such as th Caterham 21, fall intio the latter category.
Whereas cars such as the Citicar (below) fall into the former.



Edit to add: The Sinclair C5, if you can call it a car, probably falls into both categories.

Edited by Puddenchucker on Friday 26th May 09:55

Llew

268 posts

227 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
Here's a few that spring to my mind

Tucker 48 (Torpedo)
Delorean DMC-12
Renault Avantime
Bricklin SV-1



Halmyre

12,190 posts

159 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Edsel.

According at the wiki article, Ford lost the equivalent of $2bn on it.

GoodOlBoy

607 posts

123 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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rev-erend said:
The NSU RO 80.
They made over 37,000 of them.

Probably would have been better for NSU if they'd been a total flop - then they wouldn't have had so many warranty claims and who knows ?

Fantastic car though.

Turbobanana

7,645 posts

221 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Risonax

462 posts

36 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Turbobanana

7,645 posts

221 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Super Sonic

11,362 posts

74 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Honda Insight. Never seen one otr.

Tom8

5,153 posts

174 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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I really like that Lotus! Shame that didn't catch on.

Keep it stiff

Original Poster:

1,829 posts

193 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Turbobanana said:
What is this?

Turbobanana

7,645 posts

221 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
Keep it stiff said:
Turbobanana said:
What is this?
Gyro-X, 1967:

https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/it...

Yertis

19,447 posts

286 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
"You can go about your business – move along, move along."

carboy2017

729 posts

98 months

Friday 26th May 2023
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Lloyd Alexander TS (West German automobile,well micro car actually, it never caught on even in Germany!)

LimmerickLad

5,475 posts

35 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
rev-erend said:
The NSU RO 80.
You have just reminded me of the NSU Prinz Sport - my 1st ever car and paid £8 for it!

Keep it stiff

Original Poster:

1,829 posts

193 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
Same idea.


GTRene

20,439 posts

244 months

Friday 26th May 2023
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
seen one long time ago, not a red one, kind a like it, compact a little bit cool-ish and strange biggrin