Five times ugly equals GM's automotive failures
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These creations had consumers scratching their heads and heading for
other dealerships
Dan Neil / The Los Angeles Times

The causes of General Motors Corp.'s descent into bankruptcy are
complex, but its failures are tangible enough in a rogue's gallery of
unloved and unlovely cars and trucks.

Here are five vehicles that helped push GM down the road to ruin:

• Chevrolet Corvair (1960-1969): GM's answer to the first wave of
European imports, the Corvair was a bold and stylish, rear-engine,
air-cooled car with a slightly treacherous rear suspension that could
provoke the car to spin or roll over in extreme handling. In his 1965
book, "Unsafe at Any Speed," consumer advocate Ralph Nader accused GM of
cheaping out on the Corvair chassis engineering and putting buyers at
risk. Although Nader's accusations against the car were debatable, he
made the case that GM's product managers had ruthlessly calibrated
safety by per-unit cost.

• Cadillac Cimarron (1981-1988) Perhaps the lowest point in the noble
history of Cadillac, the Cimarron was a tarted-up, schmaltzy, rebadged
Chevy Cavalier rushed to market to compete against small premium cars
from Mercedes-Benz and to help lift GM's corporate average fuel economy.
It was a disaster. The car was dead-slow and unrefined (with a
four-cylinder engine and either a three-speed automatic or a four-speed
manual transmission) and GM had the temerity to charge about double what
a comparable Cavalier cost. Tellingly, GM at first wanted to bill the
car as "Cimarron, by Cadillac," but the double-talk only infuriated
customers more.

• Pontiac Aztek (2001-2005) The punch line to whatever joke about GM you
care to tell, the Aztek began as a good idea -- a crossover model,
combining the high seating and ground clearance of a sport utility
vehicle with the drivability of a car -- that went astonishing wrong. It
was terribly, empirically ugly, with the weird doubling of hood nostrils
and headlamps that made it look as if it had been hit in the face with a
shovel. The rear of the vehicle, which had been enlarged by product
planners in a dubious attempt to make the car more versatile, was an
awkward steel and glass bustle. The Aztek has since become a cautionary
tale of design by committee.

• Saturn Ion (2003-2007) The Ion was, on balance, merely representative
of the widespread mediocrity of GM's small cars (Pontiac Grand Am, Chevy
Cavalier) in the early part of the decade, and a time when Japanese and
Korean carmakers were mounting a fresh campaign of excellence. The Ion
was intended to go after Gen Y buyers who favored the Honda Civic, but
between the tepid design, the palpable cheapness and almost
schizophrenic use of interior materials, the Ion was passionless, a
nonstarter. That it was badged a Saturn -- the brand that once meant to
represent the reinvented GM -- only underscored GM's drift.

• Hummer H2 (2003-present) The Hummer is not a bad vehicle. It is
powerful, reliable and will climb a tree, precisely as advertised. But
it was easily the most despised vehicle GM ever made and a classic
example of GM's missing the pulse of the market. By building the Hummer
H2 -- indeed, by setting up a division to support it -- GM unwittingly
reinforced its image as an environmental nightmare and pawn of Big Oil,
and that image problem certainly cost GM more than the incremental
profit on Hummer sales.