TOP 10 MOST UNSUCCESSFUL LUXURY CARS OVER 40 YEARS
Some were simply half-hearted attempts at building a gussied-up economy vehicle
Adding leather and extra chrome trim to a mundane family sedan doesn’t turn it into a luxo-cruiser, though that hasn’t stopped automakers from trying over the years. It takes more effort than that to build a car with class, prestige, and cachet that buyers are willing to work overtime for.
We’ve singled out 10 of the most unsuccessful luxury cars built in the past few decades. Some suffered more from marketing issues than engineering flaws, others were simply halfhearted attempts at building a gussied-up economy car, but all of them fell wide of the mark.
ASTON MARTIN CYGNET (2011 – 2013)
Aston Martin faced a serious dilemma in the late 2000s: it needed to comply with the European Union’s relatively strict fleet-average emissions regulations or pay a hefty fine. Developing a small, fuel-efficient car from scratch was quickly ruled out, so in a most unexpected turn of events, the famed British marque teamed up with Toyota to introduce a re-badged iQ, which was sold under the Scion banner in Canada.
You didn’t expect to find Aston’s sonorous V12 engine under the Cygnet’s sheet metal, did you? It received a Toyotasourced 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine tuned to produce a paltry 98 horsepower and 92 poundfeet of torque. A six-speed manual transmission came standard, and a dreadfully poky continuously variable transmission (CVT) was offered at an extra cost.
Aston Martin’s then-CEO, Ulrich Bez, planned on building 4,000 examples of the Cygnet annually. Production stopped in 2013 after about 300 examples were produced.
ASTON MARTIN LAGONDA (1976 – 1990)
The Lagonda was developed to pull Aston Martin out of a financial rut. The company was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970s, and executives believed embarking on a hugely ambitious model offensive would help keep the ship afloat. Costs be damned, Aston needed a luxurious flagship sedan in its catalogue to lure Rolls-Royce and Bentley buyers into showrooms.
William Towns penned the Lagonda’s razor-sharp lines. He intentionally sought to make an impact with a love-it-or-hate-it design, and steered clear of anything that could be considered boring. While the hand-built Lagonda was eye-wateringly expensive when it debuted in 1976, it offered a carbureted 5.3-L V8 engine rated at 280 hp and a sumptuous interior.
The Lagonda launched with a digital instrument cluster that used LED technology, a surprisingly forward-thinking move on Aston Martin’s part. The system was complicated and failureprone, however, and fixing it cost a monumental amount of money. Series 3 cars switched to cathode ray tubes, which ended up causing even more problems.
Production ended in 1990 after 650 cars were produced. One-offs aside, Aston Martin didn’t build another sedan until it released the Rapide in 2010, but the Lagonda’s true heir is the limited-edition Lagonda Taraf.
CADILLAC CIMARRON (1982 – 1988)
The Cadillac Cimarron was a dispassionate attempt at turning the first-generation Chevrolet Cavalier into a world-class luxury car capable of taking on the Germans. The problem was that the differences between the Cavalier and the Cimarron were minor at best. The Caddy received more standard equipment (including leather upholstery) and a handful of suspension tweaks to soften the ride, but it was still just a Cavalier with the wreath and crest emblem. Early on in its production run, the Cimarron came with a 1.8-L four-cylinder engine that was as coarse as bark and a four-speed manual transmission which spun the front wheels. Cadillac added a V6 after buyers complained the car was underpowered, but the Cimarron never found its spot on the market and sales were disastrous. It was so calamitous that John Howell, one of Cadillac’s previous product directors, famously kept a picture of it in his office with the caption “lest we forget.” The spirited ATS is proof no one at Caddy has forgotten the Cimarron.
CHRYSLER TC BY MASERATI (1988 – 1990)
Chrysler and De Tomaso agreed to develop a sport coupe in the 1980s. This was well before anyone had ever heard of a Hellcat, but De Tomaso’s involvement led to high expectations. The two partners decided the model would be manufactured in Milan, a decision which helped delay the start of production by about two years.
Largely built by hand, the TC by Maserati finally debuted in 1988 with a 2.2-L turbo four under the hood. A Mitsubishisourced V6 replaced the four-cylinder in 1988 and 1989. Couldn’t they have used a more flameretardant version of the Maserati Biturbo’s V6 instead? Chrysler also offered a Maserati-ified 2.2-L with a 16-valve aluminum cylinder head manufactured by Cosworth.
Too late, relatively expensive, and not enthralling to drive, the Chrysler TC by Maserati was short-lived. Just 7,300 examples were assembled over a threemodel-year production run, and it died without a successor. It’s too bad, because it could have been considerably more successful had both companies gone the extra mile.
DELOREAN DMC-12 (1981 – 1983)
The popular 1985 movie Back to the Future was the DeLorean DMC-12’s saving grace. The film is the sole reason this shiny silver coupe achieved cult status globally instead of lingering in a dark, geek-only corner of the pantheon of automotive history.
Former General Motors executive John Z. DeLorean enlisted big names like Lotus and Giorgetto Giugiaro to make his vision of an ethical sports car a reality. The low-slung two-seater had radical gull-wing doors, a cutting-edge design, and an eyecatching stainless-steel body. So far, so good, but the rest of the car was a disappointment.
DeLorean resorted to using the infamous Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV) V6 engine after coming to the realization that a rotary Wankel engine would be too costly to develop and difficult to sell. Early cars settled for just 130 hp, which was hardly a respectable figure for a model marketed as a sports car. It was far more expensive than DeLorean envisioned, and it was plagued with issues, including haphazard panel gaps and loose doors. Did we mention the car’s tendency to catch fire?
JAGUAR X-TYPE (2001 – 2009)
The Jaguar X-Type was developed during Ford’s darkest badge-engineering days. The design was handsome, well-proportioned, and instantly recognizable as a Jaguar, but under the sheet metal lurked a modified version of the platform developed for the Ford Mondeo. Ian Callum, the man who penned the X-Type, conceded during a 2010 interview with Financial Times that it “was essentially designed in Detroit and presented to reluctant designers and engineers at Jaguar’s Whitley design centre.”
Jaguar built sedan and station wagon variants of the X-Type from 2001 to 2009. It was actually the company’s best-selling model during most of those years, but it nonetheless fell short of the expectations laid out for it. The British firm didn’t fill the void left by the demise of its smallest sedan until it introduced the XE at the 2014 Paris Auto Show.
LINCOLN BLACKWOOD (2002)
The Navigator’s unexpected popularity gave Lincoln the courage to venture into the pickup truck segment for the first time in its history. The company borrowed an F-150 from parent company Ford, installed a Navigator-esque front end, and added a herd’s worth of leather to the cabin. The Blackwood name referred to the fake wood panelling on the cargo bed.
Some of the Blackwood’s biggest setbacks were that it only came with rear-wheel drive, and its carpet-lined bed was capped by a tonneau cover. It could tow, but it couldn’t haul much or venture off-road. The Blackwood consequently earned the honour of being the shortest-lived model in Lincoln’s history. It was sold in the United States during the 2002 model year, though the Mexican market got it in 2003, too. Ford’s premium brand has never built a pickup since.
MASERATI BITURBO (1981 – 1994)
The Biturbo was Maserati’s first attempt at building a car for the masses, so it caught the attention of the entire automotive press when it debuted in 1981. Imagine if Ferrari announced a 3 Series today. It was completely different than the supercars the Italian brand had built since its inception. The design was influenced by the bigger Quattroporte, and it stood out as the first regular-production car with twin turbochargers.
Its carbureted 3.5-L V6 engine made 185 hp, which was plenty in a 1980s compact car. It was slightly smaller than BMW’s e30, and it offered balanced, nimble handling. It could have become a feisty Italian M3, but the Biturbo had an unpredictable temper. The electronics were unruly and the Weber carburetor in early cars was finicky. It was also known for catching fire.
To its credit, some of the issues came down to owners who considered maintenance intervals a ballpark suggestion at best. There was a sticker on the sun visor advising the driver to let the engine idle for a few seconds before cutting the ignition to avoid costly turbo failures. How many owners read the warning, let alone heeded its advice?
The various evolutions of the Biturbo remained in production until 1994. It wasn’t immediately replaced, but the Ghibli sold today is its most direct descendant.
STERLING 825 (1987 – 1991)
The Sterling 825 was a superb idea on paper. It took proven, reliable mechanical components developed by Honda in Japan and wrapped them in an understatedly elegant body designed by Rover in England. These two very different theories of what a car should be blended to create a spacious, luxurious sedan.
The name Sterling was chosen because Honda had no credibility in the luxury car market, and Rover had already suffered an ignominious defeat in North America. The 825 sold well in 1987, its first year on the market, but customers quickly complained about issues with the build quality and the Lucas electronics.
Sterling finished near the bottom of J.D. Power’s 1987 Initial Quality Study, according to Hemmings. The teething problems were solved before the end of the 1980s, and Rover expanded the Sterling lineup with a model named 827, but the brand’s reputation never recovered from the damage.
VOLKSWAGEN PHAETON (2002 – 2016)
The Volkswagen Phaeton was the wrong car at the wrong time. It represented then-Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch’s utopian dream of building a Volkswagen capable of running alongside high-end sedans built by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. In hindsight, the Concept D shown at the 1999 Frankfurt Auto Show was a thinly veiled preview of the Phaeton.
The engineering team started with the Volkswagen Group’s D1 platform, which also underpinned the Bentley Continental GT, and it borrowed numerous components from the Audi A8 parts bin. All of the bells and whistles you could hope for in the early 2000s could be fitted to the Phaeton. The palette included six-, eight-, 10-, and even 12-cylinder engines.
The sedan was brilliantly executed, but few buyers warmed up to the idea of spending such a large amount of money on a car with a Volkswagen emblem on the grill. Imagine driving up to the country club for a round of golf in a Vee-Dub! It doesn’t quite say “I’ve made it in life” like a 7 Series or an S-Class
Sales of the North Americanspec model ended prematurely after the 2006 model year. Production continued for Europe and Asia, where the car fared a little bit better, until 2016. Its long-rumoured successor has been delayed several times.