Top 10 Worst Cars of the Last Decade

The 2010s have seen a number of great vehicle releases, from some of the first really consumer-friendly electric vehicles to some excellent sports cars. Not all of them, though, have been winners. While you should always check vehicle history and specs before buying, you should also check to make sure you aren’t buying one of these cars.

2012 Scion iQ

The Scion iQ was a car so bad that it basically killed a brand. This tiny vehicle might’ve been a cool addition to European streets but it failed to have any of the qualities that made for a successful American car. Tiny, ugly, and underpowered, it was a car that no one wanted to be caught dead driving.

2013 Dodge Dart

The 2013 Dart is an object lesson in boredom. While it seemed to have a fairly neutral design and even a fantastic interior, it failed to be as lively a driver as even the other cars in the commuter sedan class. It’s not so much that the Dart was just a bad car, but that it was a bad car with no real features to redeem it.

2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV

There are cars that sell poorly, and then there are cars that sell less than 2500 units over six years. The i-MiEV falls into the latter category, coming out of the gate as one of the worst electric cars on the market. With a sub-70 mile range and a fourteen hour charge time, this definitely wasn’t the car to sell consumers on the promise of electric vehicles.

2014 Toyota Mirai

The Mirai was a car for a fuel revolution that never really happened. This hydrogen powered vehicle was a cutting edge concept that seemingly no one wanted, if only because there were basically no hydrogen fueling stations when the vehicle was first released. That left consumers. with an ugly, expensive vehicle that couldn’t even deliver on the promise of reducing fossil fuel dependence and thus one that had no real place on the road.

2010 Honda Crosstour

Crossover hatchbacks had something of a renaissance in the early part of the 21st century, but that doesn’t mean all of them were works of art. This particular model wanted to be a hatchback quite badly but it fumbled most of what made the category work. Not only was it virtually impossible to use all of the storage room in the vehicle but the rear visibility with impaired even when nothing was in the car. This one was a failure across the board.

2016 Buick Cascada

The Cascade was a fantastic example of how slapping a new name on a boring car won’t do it any favors. This slight rebuild of an Opel managed to commit all the cardinal sins that a car can commit in the US, including:

• An underpowered engine
• Poor gas mileage
• A dated interior

This car managed to sell less than twenty-thousand units across three model years, making it a fairly impressive failure on every level.

2012 Mini Coupe

It’s almost impossible to figure out who this car was supposed to be for. It certainly lacked all of the charm that the mainline Mini Cooper was known for, replacing it with a strangely elongated body and a weird top. The cardinal sin of this vehicle is that it felt incredibly cramped, failing to provide the one advantage that one could find in ruining the lines of a much-beloved motorized icon.

2012 Chevrolet Spark

This subcompact hatchback managed to do just about everything wrong in 2012. Cramped, noisy, and ultimately hard to drive, it married the lack of space that one would expect in a subcompact with awful fuel efficiency. This vehicle tried to bridge the gap between categories and somehow managed to fail at both, making it one of the worst reviewed vehicles the year that it came out.

2014 Alfa Romeo 4C

2014’s Alfa Romeo 4C looks great, but that’s about it. One of the worst-driving sports cars to come out in recent years, it manages to be hard to drive at slow speeds and boring to drive once you get it moving. It’s a prime example of a book that you really should not judge by its cover.

2012 Ford Focus Electric

Perhaps the saddest tale on this list, the Ford Focus Electric is a good example of a car that was just not of its time. This electric car boasted a range of 115 miles, which seemed great for consumers – at least, until you realized that electric charging stations were few and far between at the time. Couple with a high price tag, this was a car that just wasn’t quite ready for the market.