Morris Marina equivalents

[thud]

I came in here to post the Chevrolet Citation...but people have already done that. For me, it is the worst American car ever.
All others have some good points. I even like the Corsica/Beretta styling a bit.

One day I was driving and saw something that almost made me crash...It turns out Chevrolet had decided to bring back the Citation...

Yes, I know it's a Malibu, but My God it's ugly!!!

That's the one for me, a couple of years ago I was in a job that had me renting cars a couple of times a week, as such I pretty quickly earned status with Avis, I had a note put on my account that they were not to rent me one of these POS, I hate that car with a passion.

 

[ninjacoco]

Ugh, the Malibu is terrible. I got stuck with one as a rental.

The Maxx's one redeeming quality, though, is that you can stuff an upright bass in the back with the seats folded down. So, my roommate had one. Dreadful thing to drive (though--for the nauseating record--still an improvement over my parents' Exploder).

I saw one for sale when I bought the Altima...it was only an '05? and the back door hinges were already loose. Mmm, GM quality!

 

[macnerd93]

what about the Chrysler Neon its not a very good car in my opinion

 

[markusnac]

The Brazilian equivilent to the Marina would have to be the Fiat Uno Mille. It had a 994 cm3 engine with a whole 48HP. If you were unlucky enough to get one of these with air conditioning you would literally have to turn the AC off to go up a slope.

I don't know exactly how many of these cars have been sold in Brazil through the years but it is in the millions as it is still the third best selling car in Brazil today.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Fiat_uno.jpg

and this is it today, as you can see it is a lot different.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Fiat_Uno_brasiliana.jpg

 

[Runs_And_Drives]

what about the Chrysler Neon its not a very good car in my opinion.

The Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler Neon is not a very good car. But it also isn't supposed to be. It was an entry-level sedan, and today it serves admirably as a low-cost college-kid car.

In fact, as much as I dislike everything produced by Dodge/Chrysler (I'd even be leery of their Jeep brand... but they still look cool), the Neon is one of the few vehicles that to have any life in it, since tons are still on the road--compared to say, a Dodge Intrepid, where there are still a number on the road but they all seem to cough and rattle down the street if they aren't abandoned on the shoulder of the free-way.

In fact, last time I was in one, it was surprisingly roomy for a small sedan. The brakes were spongy, but the little 4-cylinder was peppy enough.

Plus the resale value is way-low since it's made by America's worst car-company. This makes it relatively easy to come by.

So... I don't think the best product Chrysler has produced in a number of years should be considered equivalent to a Marina...

 

[pablo_h]

We got those in Australia for just 3 years, first as the Daewoo 1.5i and then as the Daewoo Cielo. However, at one stage in the mid-late 1990s they were EVERYWHERE.

I can see two reasons why Daewoo had such a huge amount of success with this car: (a) they were a lot of car for not a lot of money as they were the size of a Corolla but priced like a Festiva, and (b) the spokesperson in the Daewoo commercials was a dog. The ad agency in question were absolute geniuses, as they were able to find a star that was charismatic yet could tell you everything you needed to know about the Daewoo 1.5i/Cielo without having to say a word.

Edit: Have been trying to find some old Australian Daewoo ads featuring Cane the Daewoo Dog. All I could find was this. Enjoy!

I think they introduced longer warranties too, like 5 yrs or 100,000km to get people to buy them.That model was really the only model here that sold well, until GM bought them and shoved a holden(AU) or chev badge like top gears SIARPC badge on them.

The camira was another GM monstrosity as mentioned earlier, aand Id vote for that as the local marina equivalent. It really was a poorly thought out car to sell in the AU market. It was GMs global car based on an opel (don't know which model), but it semed opel was designing most of the GM cars here at the time, like the commodore was based on an opel rekord.

 

[Ageve]

Volvo 66. A rebadged DAF 66 with Variomatic gearbox (like a scooter/moped).

Volvo 340. The quality was so bad that it became known as "the car that came to stay [in the same spot]". The gearbox (Variomatic) took up all the space in the back of the car, and they had to move the spare wheel into the engine compartment :lol:

Both the Renault engine and the gearbox were later replaced by Volvo parts, but then they decided to introduce another Renault engine that was even worse than the first one.

This is, in my opinion, the Swedish equivalent to the Morris Marina.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFoKNCEaZho[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUeAyAnlBk[/YOUTUBE]

 

[2Billion]

The Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler Neon is not a very good car. But it also isn't supposed to be. It was an entry-level sedan, and today it serves admirably as a low-cost college-kid car.

In fact, as much as I dislike everything produced by Dodge/Chrysler (I'd even be leery of their Jeep brand... but they still look cool), the Neon is one of the few vehicles that to have any life in it, since tons are still on the road--compared to say, a Dodge Intrepid, where there are still a number on the road but they all seem to cough and rattle down the street if they aren't abandoned on the shoulder of the free-way.

In fact, last time I was in one, it was surprisingly roomy for a small sedan. The brakes were spongy, but the little 4-cylinder was peppy enough.

Plus the resale value is way-low since it's made by America's worst car-company. This makes it relatively easy to come by.

So... I don't think the best product Chrysler has produced in a number of years should be considered equivalent to a Marina...

I'm not sure I agree with that. The Neons I've driven have just been bad. Everything was already falling off from new, they were loud and uncomfortable, and honestly extremely unreliable. Plus the lights didn't.

I suppose they do depreciate so much you can find one for $5, but that doesn't redeem it.

 

[Spectre]

If nothing else, the Neon was redeemed by the fact that they were actually competitive in FF racing and could be had in the last generation with a very powerful turbo engine that enabled them to eat some Porsches of the day.

 

[shellygrrl]

Confession: I remember when the Neon first came out (I was about 12-ish); I thought it was a very cute car and wanted one. Couldn't help myself, really. (Do remember I'm not a dude and I was, again, quite young.)

On that note, there was also a coupe version. What about that? More of the same as the sedan/saloon?

 

[svb]

If nothing else, the Neon was redeemed by the fact that they were actually competitive in FF racing and could be had in the last generation with a very powerful turbo engine that enabled them to eat some Porsches of the day.

This.

from wikipedia:

First-generation Neons were competitive in SCCA Solo autocross.[1] Available with both the SOHC (sedan) or DOHC (coupe) the ACR was competitive in its class, and featured four-wheel disc brakes, Arvin non-adjustable struts for 1995?1996 models and Koni adjustable dampers for 1997?1999 models, thicker anti-sway bars, fast-ratio steering, heavy-duty front wheel hubs, and a five-speed manual transmission with a numerically higher .81 fifth gear and final drive ratio of 3.94 for quicker acceleration. 1995 through 1997 models featured adjustable camber. The computer-controlled speed limiter was removed from 1995 ACR models, and ABS was also, to save weight. The ACR offers no badging to distinguish it from other Neon models; the only visible differences are a bumper with fog light holes, but no fog lights and a lack of side mouldings. In 1995, the ACR was only offered to SCCA members, but in subsequent years it was available to the general public. The name "ACR" was initially the internal ordering code for the "Competition Package", as it was termed in dealer materials; however, as knowledge of the model spread, the ACR name stuck. The backronym "American Club Racer" was coined due to its popularity with club and grassroots racers.

I had a 1997 Dodge Neon ACR and it was a fantastic car. It handled ridiculously well and had a decently torquey 2.0 liter 4-cylinder as compared to its Japanese rivals. With a chip & all the bolt-ons, it was a very peppy car, and with the fact that it only weighed about 2400lbs, it ended up being pretty comparable in performance to my Mk5 GTI that I have now.

Of course, my GTI is a much better car, but the Neon was great too. And everything was dirt simple and dirt cheap to fix. I bought mine after it had the stock headgasket replaced, so I never had any major issues with it. It was of at least average reliability, if not more.

I did rice it out a bit...

Two of my friends had Neon ACRs as well (one had a 1996 and one had another 1997 like mine). In my film, we used the other 1997 ACR and it was a champ. It probably wasn't the best overall, but in terms of a raw track machine, the ACR is an excellent car.

Having said that, standard Neons were all pretty much crap. The second generation got bigger, uglier and heavier, didn't handle as well, and was also mostly crap. And far too many trashy people modified these cars untastefully. This was particularly bad with Canadians for some reason. Dunno why that was but the worst offenders always seemed to come from up north.

 

[syncview]

I don't know why, but I find this thread to be very, VERY interesting. Does that mean I find it interesting to look at crap cars?

 

[thevictor390]

That 2.0 engine may have been torquey in a lightened Neon.... but in a 3000 lb Sebring, it left a bit to be desired.

 

[kaiboy]

Did anyone mention the Yugo? I had one. Changing up whilst accelerating threw the car toward oncoming traffic and changing down had it mounting the kerb! You soon get used to it!

 

[Spectre]

Did anyone mention the Yugo? I had one. Changing up whilst accelerating threw the car toward oncoming traffic and changing down had it mounting the kerb! You soon get used to it!

Still not as bad as the Marina. Also, congrats on necroposting.

 

[Camaroboy1988]

Don't Forget About the AMC Pacer.

 

[aliefbielefeld]

can i post some disturbing picture here

 

[Censored]

One thing that always comes to mind when someone mentions a K-car, is the Nissan Sunny, which Hamster torched in the 2nd season opener.

 

[Iosis]

Couple of cars come to mind:

Old Fiat Panda

I hate this with a vengeance, especially the Seat Marbella-version. It creaks, it moans, it's ugly as hell...

Same goes for this old, horrible cookie tin (koekblik, Dutch for bad, bad car)

I actually drove this once, it was a nightmare...

I like the new Panda though, partially thanks to James May

 

[The_Stigs_german_cousin]

Not so popular (and for a good reason!) outside Germany: The Trabant 601.

A communist crapbox, mainly made of cotton and tupperware- plastic, "powered" by a 26 hp 2-Stroke engine.

Unbelievably, people in the DDR (GBR) waited up to 13 years to get one of these junkboxes.

But at least it was well equipped. It had..................................................two colors you could choose from. :lol: