A Nissan Micra is about as embarrassing as they come. Well, to me at least.

Which reminds me of my Jaguar-hunting. Before I decided on my S-Type, I checked the dealers around here (Gothenburg, Sweden) and found a 2003 V6 Sport hidden away in a Nissan dealership showroom's furthest corner. I think they had no idea about what to do with the car. It looked lonely and lost and completely out of place.

http://data.bytbil.com/largepics.cgi...l/ny&allpics=1

 

Sitting at a stop light in my XJ-S with brake fluid dripping on hot exhaust making lots of smoke............ Luckily it was only 2 blocks till home.

 

Very few things are more embarrassing than driving a nice car, and having something go wrong. Especially if it's a car known by the general public to have problems. (All those preconceived notions about Jaguars being unreliable cars.)

 

fiat multipla. imho the ugliest car ever build

 

Smart car with big rims lol. Ultimate poser

 

In UK I don't think there is an embarrassing car anymore. It used to be the russian Moskvitch. If you ever talked to an owner, the first words out of his mouth were "do you want to buy it"? But I must admit I've had some awful bangers (clunkers) in my time, a Triumph Herald I had was so bad, you had to shut the door carefully in case even more rust fell onto the road. A guy I knew had an Austin A40; when he took it through the car-wash, it washed his wing/fender off. I actually witnessed an old 1960s big Audi 100 saloon collapse into two pieces in the street with rust and corrosion. I suppose for simple embarrassment, a Rover 400 would fill the bill here now.
Leedsman.

 

The Moskvitch was a common occurrence in Finland where I grew up in the 60s and 70s. It was the one car model most people could afford back then. Looked like a box, basically.

 

Fortunately, I am old enough not to care, but if i was 40 years younger, it would be my wife's bright yellow VW New Beetle with contrasting pink hibiscus flower transfers on each side, plus flowers on parcel shelf, and in the "vase" on the dash.

 

Go to any dirt track in the south east usa on a Saturday night. You will get to see where all the Pinto's go to die.

 

Nobody has mentioned the Trabant, far less the Stretch Trabant...

 

I honestly don't know what to say to that.

 

It could be worse:

 

I had a ZS180 for a while when I lived in the UK. That was FUN!!!! Really amazing how they made such a great car out of a Honda!!!!

For me the worse cars were:
Brand new (3 week old) Merc S class with all the pimping wheels etc in Wilmington, Delaware. The car was worth more than most of the houses!!!

Nissan Micra in the UK

Pink Ford Excort in the US

 

My truck broke down in Febuary. It was pretty embarrassing, the front driver side wheel and half shaft fell off while backing into a parking space, blocking the exit to a pretty busy private street in the Hollywood Hills. I rented cars on a monthly basis until last month a friend offered me a car for $500. I bought it pretty much sight unseen thinking I could drive it for a few months and save some money on rental cars. It's a maroon (purpleish) Chevy Metro with bad belts and no compression in one of the cylinders. It's pretty embarrassing.

 

^Yes I would have to agree, having major bits drop off, is embarrassing, at any time.

@Leedsman, I have had 4 Allegro's, remember them? Took my test in a 1300 Marina, and bought a 1256 HC Viva half an hour later (Colemans Mustard Yellow).

Those were the days, my friend

 

A fancy dress party for cars?

 

I had a friend with a Hillman Imp with a seriously knocking engine, he was sitting in the High St one day and gave it a good revving to try and cure it.

He said it gave an almighty bang and the knocking went away, he went round the back to have a look and found the conrod on the ground.

 

I had an HC Viva (excellent car, simple straightforward Baby Buick that never went wrong and did 38mpg.) I had a Hillman Imp, tragedy of a car, basically far better than Mini, let down by its badly conceived engine arrangement and air locks in the cooling system. I never owned an Allegro, but I know it was a surprizingly comfortable car for it's size, and it was strangely forcasting the new, smooth shape to be adopted later by other manufacturers for wind resistance; let down a little by an ultra-thin steel body that flexed too much, causing the windscreen to "pop-out" under the slightest stress.
That pink retroBeetle thing with the S-type radiator would sure as hell embarrass me to be seen in it, never mind drive it. If I ever were stopped by the police in THAT, they wouldn't be able to keep their faces straight, and mine would be more than a bit red.
Leedsman.

 

and unions. The workers kept going on strike so hillman told them where to stick it and closed the factory. Good ol' Hillman.

 

Ah, dual sunroofs .... tres chic ...!!!

I kinda got this reverse snobbism thing goin' on ... I'd drive that and watch everybody marvel.

But I'd really love to sport around in this little jewel: