Cars, trucks and SUVs inspire strong opinions. The Chevrolet Corvette and the Ford Mustang are among the models with loyal fans, and the Jeep CJ5 and CJ7 very similar to have inspired cars that are essentially Jeep clones. However, not all vehicles were as successful as these.

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THE Edsel was an over-engineered disaster that lost Ford a quarter of a billion dollars, and the Renault Dauphine was rickety, uncomfortable and slow. But for every unqualified disaster like the Edsel and Dauphine, there are a few cars that have been unfairly labeled as disappointments. Some were anomalies of their time that just needed the industry to catch up, others were subject to questionable testing practices, and at least one was the victim of unethical journalism. Here are five cars that we think don’t deserve the hate they get.

(Featured image by Greg Gjerdingen via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC-BY SA 2.0)

The Suzuki Jimny had been in production for nearly two decades when it arrived in the United States in 1986 as the Samurai. The small sport vehicle gained popularity among people looking for a more fuel-efficient alternative to the Jeep CJ7 and Wrangler, which replaced the CJ7 the following year. But much of the enthusiasm for the Samurai was crushed in 1988, the year its price rose nearly $2,000, to $8,495.

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That’s only the equivalent of about $23,000 today, which would make it one of the cheapest cars available. But that same year, Consumer Reports published an article claiming that samurai tended to “easily turn on each other in turns.” Suzuki challenged the testing methods used by Consumers Union, owner of Consumer Reports, and filed a lawsuit in 1996. By that time, the Samurai had been removed from the U.S. market and the parties later settled at amicable.

The Samurai has since developed a reputation as a capable off-road vehicle. Eduardo Canales and Gonzalo Bravo drove their vehicle to a record altitude of 21,942 feet on the Ojos del Salado volcano in their native Chile in 2007. They brought back a sign placed by the previous record holder’s drivers that read “Jeep parking only – all others”. Don’t invent yourself here, anyway.” The Samurai has also become a favorite of customizers, so much so that it can be difficult to find one in its original condition.

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The Audi 5000 hit American roads in the early 1980s to rave reviews. Car and driver praised its smooth manners at high speed, naming it one of the 10 best cars of 1984. But in 1986, an episode of “60 Minutes” claimed that the 5000 was prone to “sudden acceleration,” where the car was taking off while the driver apparently had one foot on the brake. It turned out that a combination of driver error and less than ideal pedal placement was to blame, and the problem almost disappeared when Audi installed a shift lock linked to the brake pedal .

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It was later revealed that the “60 Minutes” show involved a car in which air was injected into the transmission to cause the accident, but lawsuits worth billions of dollars were filed against Audi subsequently. A class action lawsuit representing more than a quarter of a million Audi owners sought damages for lost resale value due to the sudden acceleration controversy, but the brand has slowly recovered from the nightmare public relations.

The stench persists on the 5000, however, and you can often find one on the used market for less than $10,000. That’s a great deal for a car as beautiful, capable and luxurious as this one.

The Chevrolet Corvair is another good car whose reputation has been destroyed by bad journalism. In that case, the culprit was consumer attorney Ralph Nader, who devoted the first chapter of his 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile” to discussing a problem with the 1960-1963 Corvair rear suspension. The car’s rear axle half-shaft design and the weight of the rear-mounted engine could cause aggressive drivers to lose control, but tests conducted in 1971 by the Department of Transportation found that the handling of the Corvair was comparable to similar cars of that period. .

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General Motors’ initial response was to forward Nader, which only served to publicize the controversy – and his book. But even though the “Dangerous at Any Speed” debacle did a lot of damage to the Corvair’s reputation, the car was a remarkably innovative effort on GM’s part. The engines for the Corvair Monza Spyder and Oldsmobile Jetfire were developed simultaneously and were the first two turbocharged production cars made in America.

GM eventually recognized the problems with the Corvair’s suspension and redesigned it for the second generation which arrived in dealerships around the time “Unsafe at Any Speed” was hitting bookstores. Chevrolet kept it in production until 1969, probably in part despite Nader and his allies, and it became a much-loved classic. There are several clubs full of fans of the model today, and well-preserved first-generation Corvairs regularly sell for more than $25,000.

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The Ford Pinto arrived in dealerships in 1970 after a somewhat rushed development that led to a legitimate major problem involving rear-end collisions. The Pinto’s gas tank was mounted behind the rear axle, one of several design flaws that increased the risk of fuel spilling onto the Pinto, the car behind it, and the roadway. Cigarette embers or sparks from the collision could ignite the fuel, and the Pinto collapsed in a way that made escape through its doors impossible at times. Many high-profile claims have been made that up to 900 people died in Pinto crashes that resulted in fires, but a National Road Transport Safety Agency The report shows a much lower toll: 26 dead and 107 injured.

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With its European styling and underpinnings, the Pinto was much more than a representation of Ford’s worst engineering efforts. The fuel-efficient subcompact became an instant sensation as the oil crisis hit America. Ford sold more than a million Pintos in the model’s first three years, although reports of fires cut sales by more than half between 1974 and 1975. For the 1977 model year, the The federal government mandated that all cars be capable of sustaining a speed of 30 mph. crash without fuel spills, and Pintos were redesigned with a stronger fuel filler neck and shield for the tank. Ultimately, the fires dashed any hopes that Ford’s new subcompact would become a true classic, and the Escort replaced the Pinto in 1981.

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The Pontiac brand has existed for more than 80 years, from 1926 until GM dropped the Pontiac label as a flop during a government-ordered bankruptcy restructuring. One of Pontiac’s later production vehicles was the Aztek, a misshapen SUV that might simply have was ahead of his time. In 2017, Time named it one of the 50 worst cars of all time, with the caveat that beneath a “warped” skin was “a useful and competent crossover.”

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Part of the initial pushback toward the Aztek was that customers in the early 2000s were primarily interested in full-size SUVs or economy sedans, and the Aztek fell squarely between those two extremes. A design-by-committee approach aimed to incorporate elements of the Chevrolet Blazer and Camaro with the upright stance of a minivan, and resulted in an ugly shape. Despite this, design elements like a plastic body armor and a front end that resembles a “Star Wars” character’s face have become standard on modern crossovers. The Aztek also had a customizable digital instrument cluster and head-up display long before those features were commonplace.

The much-maligned Aztek received a boost when “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan assigned one to schoolteacher-turned-meth-lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston), and Edmunds ranked it among the 10 most popular vehicles with millennials during the show’s recent seasons.

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(Image presented by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public domain)