9. Sterling 825
If you don’t know what the Sterling 825 is, nobody can blame you. Once marketed as the next big thing in the luxury segment of the American car market, the Sterling is now a forgotten brand. It just didn’t make its mark, moving to the margins of automotive history. Sterling was basically a British company, which they established in the late 80’s with Honda’s capital and Rover’s design.
Back then, Honda owned Rover and they wanted to enter the American market with a luxury model. So, they conceived the Sterling, a luxurious car based on the Acura Legend. It may seem like a strange combination, but the finished product had a nicely designed interior and decent power from Honda’s V6 engine. After the introduction in 1987 and promising sales numbers in the first few months, the first problems showed up.
The Sterling was poorly put together, the electronics were troublesome and some cars even developed rust issues. Honda tried to improve the production process, but there wasn’t much they could do. By the early 90’s, the Sterling was gone and nobody was sad about it – not even Honda.