Questionable cars from reputable brands

"Failure is the pillar of success" is a mantra as old as the auto industry. Henry Ford perched it, Soichiro Honda lived it, and the majority of us make an effort to accept it. Each car companies have their fair share of failures, but few failures turn out to be as spectacular as the kinds created by performance brand. Within their never-ending trek to push the boundaries, if they fail, they fail big. Today we look at some such failures and discuss why they finished up like that

Released in 1976, the next generation of the Aston Martin Lagonda was another thing. The luxury sedan appeared as if a huge folding wedge on wheels with six headlights, four of them pop-ups. The craziness continued on inside, with the car's space-age instrument cluster featuring touchpads, gas plasma displays and a single spoke steering wheel. It had been effectively road-legal a Star Wars prop, for those who can afford it. Aston Martin asked an impressive $170,000 for each and every car, which is just about $370,000 in the current money. Unfortunately, for all that money everything you got was an automobile with rapidly unpopular design and an electronic system that cost a fortune to run and maintain. Obviously, this behemoth never became the sales hit Aston Martin wanted it to be.

The 996 generation gets a whole lot of flak from the purist, mainly because of its look. It had been the first generation of Porsche that didn't borrow its headlight from the beetle's parts bean. A decision that proved controversial, to place it mildly. The first generation's headlights were criticized for looking such as a poached egg with the yolk on underneath, while the facelifted headlights appeared as if eyes of a man who forgot to clean them after an excellent night's sleep. The car also had problems with its IMS bearing, which had a habit of grenading the engine without prior notice. These factors made the 996 among minimal desirable Porsche available, even though by the end of your day they are pretty decent cars. On the bright side, these perceived "issues" tanked the 996's resale value, making them a bargain for enthusiasts with limited funds.  

On the top, E60 M5 was a fabulous beast. A comfortable mid-sized luxury sedan that was included with a naturally aspirated V-10 engine, pumping out 500 Hp and 520 N-m of torque.  However, as effective as the engine was at turning fuel into happiness, it wasn't very reliable. The motor is infamous because of its rod bearing failure, which when happens, destroys the engine. And it that wasn't enough, most M5's sold with the SMG semi-automatic transmission, which is prone to failure and expensive to correct. There are no aftermarket fix for either of the problems, meaning it is not a matter of if indeed they will go wrong however when. Overall, the E60 M5 is an automobile that's best appreciated from after, or at least with a bumper to bumper warranty.