[Dr Terry]

This year marks my 50 years working in the auto industry & the issue of "What is the worst car ?" comes up every now & then.

A lot of people have their pet hates & a lot changes over time, but there are far worse cars than 4-cyl Commodores, P76s, Centuras or 5-litre V8 VNs.

A classic case in point is how the "least favourite Holden is the HD". May 1965 was GMH's highest total monthly sales of all time. HD's gross sales per month was better than the HR, EJ & HQ !! History shows that the motoring scribes of the day loved it, "Great performance, heaps of room, space age styling etc. etc." much the same as the P76 in 1973.

Sure HDs rusted, (what 60s car didn't ?), but motoring writers of today (most of whom weren't even alive in 1965) hate it. How times have changed.

The 4-cyl Commodore filled a niche, as did the Bluebird & the Centura. All these cars were fine when new & even held their value well on the used car market when a couple of years old. They were solid, easy to service & did their job. OK they weren't performance cars, but they weren't sold as that.

As I said, many old mechanics recant stories of "Horrible cars" they've either owned on worked on. The common threads seem to be East European, French or Italian. Early Hyundais, Kias & Daewoos weren't brilliant either.

I could begin with Lada, FSN Niki or the Alfa Sud. These are absolute POS, they make EA Falcons, Centuras or 4-cyl Commodores seem cool.

My pet hate were French cars, by & large they weren't built to be serviced by mere mortals. They were quirky at best, especially the Citroen DS. Having said that early Peugeots were far better than either Citroens or Renaults of the era.

Pommy cars from the 70s weren't good either. Japanese (pre-1968) weren't any better than the early Korean offerings.

Because the choice is so wide, we used to have boundary "rules". Our rules were nothing French, nothing East European & nothing before 1960.

If you follow these "rules" the clear winner is the Morris (Leyland) Marina ! These things were crap. They didn't sell well, they were worth nothing 2nd hand. They leaked oil & fell apart weeks from new & they didn't go stop or handle well. It didn't help that the manufacturer (BMC/Leyland) were essentially bankrupt at the time.

Hard to beat that one !!

Dr Terry