20 Cars That Were Completely Pointless

19. Suzuki X-90

How about a two-seater, two-door SUV with compact dimensions and a removable T-Top? Does that sound insane? Well, that is exactly what the Suzuki X-90 was when they introduced it in 1995. Powered by a 95 HP 1.6-liter four-cylinder, the X-90 came with rear-wheel drive as standard or optional all-wheel-drive with limited interior and trunk space.

Suzuki officially sold the car in America and even managed to sell 7,000 of them. Still, neither the buyers nor the motoring press understood what Suzuki wanted to say with this model. It wasn’t an off-roader, and it wasn’t a roadster. But it was ugly and unappealing, which sealed its fate.

18. Cadillac ELR

Cadillac made a brave attempt to break into the luxury EV market, but it didn’t pay off since most of their customers ignored the ELR. Although the car was cool-looking and luxurious, it came with a rather limited range, a high price and strange marketing.

Unfortunately, they presented it at the same time Tesla started producing the more practical and cooler Model S. Cadillac ceased production of the ELR after just a couple of years on the market.

17. Fiat 500 L

At first, it looked like Fiat scored big with its cute and compact 500 and triumphant return to the American market. Then they came up with the 500 L, a car they built on an extended 500 platform. It had the same basic design of the front end, longer wheelbase, and more interior space. In theory, it should have worked, but in real life, it turned out to be a disaster.

The 500 L is slow and not especially well equipped or practical and unattractive. It had quality and reliability issues, and the interior materials were of poor quality. Most of all, the 500 L was expensive with a base price of over $20,000.

16. 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 on the American market, Sterling is now a forgotten brand. It failed to leave the mark, moving to the margins of automotive history. Sterling had an interesting story. It was basically a British company, established in the late ’80s with Honda’s capital and Rover’s design.

That may sound like a strange combination, but the finished product looked attractive. It had a nicely-designed interior and decent power coming from the Honda V6 engine. But after the introduction in 1987 and promising sales numbers in the first few months, problems showed up.

Sterlings were 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 ’90s, Sterling was gone, and nobody was sad about it – not even Honda.

15. Lexus 200 CT Hybrid

Lexus insists it is a brand that can beat the Germans in the luxury game, and it tries hard to do so. However, sometimes the failure is obvious, like in the case of the CT 200 H. Although they marketed it as a premium compact hatch with a performance edge, the CT 200 H is nothing more than a Prius in fancy clothes.

This means it is painfully slow, dull to drive, and embarrassing at stoplights. This is not something people want to buy. In fact, every magazine that tested the 200 CT H was disappointed with its slow performance and poor driving dynamics.

14. Volkswagen Phaeton

This car was a clear case of misjudgment from Volkswagen. The Phaeton is a luxury sedan from a company that specializes in economy models, using a Bentley Continental platform with big engines and upscale features.

Unfortunately, the market wasn’t ready for a brand that gained fame with affordable models to introduce a luxurious land barge. So sadly, the Phaeton failed worldwide despite being a fantastic car. When they approved the Phaeton project, Volkswagen thought it could pull it off and become a legitimate competitor to the Mercedes S Class or BMW 7 Series. However, things turned out completely different.

13. Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Under this long name hides the convertible version of the opulent, super-luxurious Rolls-Royce Phantom. This is the undisputed king of convertibles, not only by design, heritage, luxury, and power but also as one of the most expensive cars ever at almost $500,000.

For that money, you get a turbocharged V12 with 451 HP and effortless acceleration. The design is reminiscent of a luxury yacht with wood and the finest leather everywhere you look. But that is the problem since you have to pay half a million dollars to have the same tan as the guy on the bicycle next to you at the stoplight.

12. Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

If you think the industry has invented all the car classes it possibly could, think again. There is always room for more, although possibly useless concepts. One of those was the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. If you aren’t exactly familiar with this car, that’s because it was for sale from 2011 to 2014 and they made it in small numbers.

Nissan realized that SUVs were getting more luxurious and people were searching for a more personalized product. So, they thought they would take it a step further and present a convertible SUV. It would have all advantages of an SUV in terms of luxury, ride height, comfort and usability as well as the open-air feel of a convertible. However, despite the almost bespoke nature of this car and dependable Nissan technology, the CrossCabriolet flopped.

11. Aston Martin Cygnet

When you hear the name, “Aston Martin,” the first and only thing that pops in your mind is luxury GT sports cars from England. However, Aston had produced the total opposite of that in the form of a subcompact economy car called the Cygnet.

The Cygnet is a rebadged Toyota IQ/Scion IQ with the signature Aston front grille and a leather interior. They made the car to meet the average fleet emissions standards proposed by the European Union. They introduced the car in 2011 and fortunately discontinued it in 2013 after just two years of production.

10. Renault Avantime

Enjoying the success of the Espace minivan gave Renault a chance to explore the concept. They wanted to try something new and interesting in the typical French way. Renault noticed that the buyers of the Espace minivan were leaning towards more powerful and luxurious versions over the baseline models. So managers thought they should offer a luxury minivan to the most discriminating buyers. Soon, they created a unique minivan coupe named the Avantime, presenting it in 2001.

The Avantime was the answer to the question nobody asked, so it received mixed reviews. It was also expensive and came with only the most powerful engines and a high level of standard equipment. Although the Avantime was a chic and interesting car, it failed to attract customers. So, Renault discontinued the model after only two years, producing a little over 8,000 of them.

9. Lincoln Blackwood

You may be surprised to learn that Lincoln made pickup trucks, but they did for one year only in the form of the Blackwood model. That, by itself, should be enough to explain why most people consider this upscale pickup to be a black sheep car. Back in the early 2000s, Lincoln had the popular and successful Navigator, which was the golden standard of luxury SUVs at the moment.

Wanting to capitalize on that success, somebody at Lincoln suggested building a pickup version to expand the range. The idea seemed plausible so they soon sent the first prototypes for testing. Lincoln used a Ford F-150 platform with the front end and cabin of the Navigator. They added a custom truck bed with a tailgate that opened like doors and even added a power cover.

The finished product looked like a Navigator truck. Although it was luxurious, it failed as a truck since the truck bed was tiny and unusable. But the biggest problem was the price. The new 2002 Lincoln Blackwood started at a whopping $52,000, which was an extremely high price for an unusable truck with the Navigator fascia. As you probably realize, the market was not amused, so during its 15 months in production, they only made 3,356 of them.

8. Amphicar Model 770

For decades, engineers toyed with the idea of floating cars, vehicles that drivers could use on the water as well as on the roads. However, most of them decided it was not worth investing in running or floating prototypes, so they abandoned the idea, except for the Amphicar.

The Amphicar was a German-made half-car, half-boat they produced from 1961 to 1965. Since it was so popular in the states, they sold over 3,500 of them. The power came from a diminutive 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine that powered not only the rear wheels but also the propeller they mounted in the back. On land, the Amphicar could achieve up to 75 mph and on the water, it could do seven knots. To be perfectly honest, the Aphicar wasn’t much of a boat and wasn’t much of a car, either.

7. Plymouth Prowler

The hot rod culture is one of the key ingredients of the American automotive landscape. However, no company ever dared to present a factory-built hot rod. That was until 1997, when Plymouth presented the Prowler. It was a retro-futuristic roadster with a V6 engine and fantastic looks.

Chrysler envisioned the Prowler to be the follow-up to the Viper. Because it was a hit on the show circuit, Chrysler wanted to capitalize on that. However, despite the fact most buyers liked the looks, they also thought the car was underpowered. Soon, Chrysler realized that a hot rod without any power was pointless.

6. Covini CW6

A group of young Italian engineers started the ambitious Covini C6W project back in the mid-70s. The problematic-looking Covini C6W is an Italian super sports car that features twin front axles and a rear-mounted V8 engine. The four front wheels are for turning and braking while the rear wheels get their power from the engine.

However, a serious lack of interest from customers and technical problems delayed production. However, the bigger problem is the design of the CW6. Even though it was an interesting vehicle, people thought it was extremely strange and ugly. Unfortunately, it never had the chance to be anything near usable or practical.

5. Reliant Robin

They presented the Reliant Robin in 1973, just in time for the oil crisis, which helped the sales. With its 850cc engine producing approximately 50 HP and weight of just under 1,103 pounds, it was surprisingly agile and fuel-efficient. It had three wheels and was one unattractive little van.

However, the three-wheel configuration was tricky in tight turns. Robins was known to flip over if the driver entered the curve too fast. So, not only did it have a problematic design, but it was also dangerous to drive.

4. Honda Insight

Honda wanted to enter the hybrid car segment, so the company introduced the Insight. It was a direct copy and competitor to the Toyota Prius. But even though the Prius managed to win thousands of owners and was the dominant model in its segment, the Insight failed miserably, selling in just a few thousand examples.

The reason was that the Insight was even less powerful, slower and uglier than the Prius, so people didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Unfortunately for Honda, the Insight was a major disappointment.

3. Chevrolet SSR

In the midst of the mid-2000s retro craze, the Chevrolet development team came up with a crazy idea to produce a nostalgic two-sear convertible pickup with muscle car performance. The result was the SSR, a vehicle that looked unlike any other car on the market, but not necessarily in a good way. The 1950s-inspired design didn’t work well in the 2000s, so the SSR was just plain odd.

Despite many efforts to make the SSR appealing to its intended audience, Chevrolet managed to sell only around 24,000 of these oddballs. It was a painful realization that they need much more than a wild imagination to make such a concept work. Simply, the SSR wasn’t a Corvette and it wasn’t a truck. It was just plain pointless.

2. Velorex Oscar

Produced in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, the Velorex Oskar was one of the strangest cars available behind the Iron Curtain. Because it was built by a motorcycle company, it was more like a three-wheeled bike than a proper car.

It was powered by a 300 cc motorcycle engine that produced six HP. However, since the car was extremely light, the tiny motor even produced some performance, as well. Interestingly, the Velorex didn’t have body panels. Instead, it had a canvas cover that stretched over the frame rails.

1. Mercedes G63 AMG 6×6

The Mercedes G-Class is one of the longest-running models in the car world. First available in 1979 as a primarily military off-road truck and SUV, it is still on the market with the same basic design. During the course of almost 40 years, it has survived many modifications and redesigns, yet never changed its distinctive appearance and basic mechanical layout.

So, what do you do when you can’t modify a model anymore or make it more exclusive? Just attach a pickup truck bed and install one more axle and make it the fastest, most expensive and rarest 6X6 in the world. Mercedes did exactly that, creating one monster of a truck. It is a monster in terms of its power and torque ratings, and a monster by price too. Under the hood is a 5.5-liter twin-turbo engine that delivers 540 HP to all six wheels through a specially-built automatic transmission unit.

These are the 20 cars that were pointless for a variety of reasons. Even so, they left a mark in automotive history and may have led to better models later on. So even though you may be wondering what they were thinking when they produced them, they had an influence on the industry.