29: 1961 Mercury Comet
Believe it or not, the compact car market was exploding as early as the ’60s, and Mercury got into the mix with the Comet. Don’t get us wrong, there was a lot to like about the Comet, but the overall design and implementation were wrong. The performance was the Comet was not great on paper but the lightweight of the car helped it to accelerate alright. But that wasn’t what buyers were looking for in a performance car around this period.

Thus sales of the Comet never matched up to the companies expectations. The styling was very bland and similar to what else was on the market at the time. Mercury was not an automaker that was particularly associated with performance and the Comet was a car that never gained any real traction.