4: 1996 Ford Taurus
The original “Oval”. Taurus was a game-changer for Ford and shifted the momentum for the popular Taurus into the negative. The 1996 Taurus was universally panned for its overtly oval styling but there were also reliability issues with this model. The head gaskets on these Taurus models were notorious for going out, as were the automatic transmissions (via Road and Track).

Consumers developed a negative perception of the Taurus brand beginning with this generation and the brand never fully recovered. Before this release of the Taurus, the car was the most popular family car in the United States, but by the 1990s favor had shifted toward SUV models.