Crap Cars

I was waiting to get my car inspected and I picked up Crap Cars book to read at the garage. By the 3rd car review, I was in hysteries. That was one of the funniest books I've read, great sense of humor that just zings and zangs. By the time I was done reading, I was in tears and the garage owner was shaking his head. Probably not so funny if you had the misfortune of having one of the cars listed in book, but the author had a great, very wry way of writing. I've got to get this book for myself and this is a great Father's Day present for a car loving dad. If you need a good laugh, get this book!

Good lord, there are actually reviewers below who take issue with this book because it criticizes cars they like. Don't ever read a John Simon film or theater review, guys... Richard Porter is the funniest car writer I've ever read, and I say that having thought Bruce McCall held that crown--and Bruce used to write for me when I was the editor of Car and Driver. McCall is great, but Porter is fabulous. This book has fewer total words than a short magazine article, and if that bothers you, check it out of the library. Stephan Wilkinson

I started laughing when I opened this little book. It is probably funnier for people who owned some of these junkers (as I did). My chest swelled with pride when I saw my old Mustang II at number 1. I remembered standing in icy parking lots punching the seat beat interlock override to start it; vapor locks and chugging along at 5 mph on I-5 (dealer: cars don't vapor lock no more); the shuddering vibrations as the car decelerated through 45 mph(dealer: suspension ain't tuned for the [standard] steel belted radials); the luxuriant leather seats with the soft pliability of, well, concrete. This is such a rich field of literature, I can only hope Mr. Porter plans a sequel.

This book is a scream! I'm only sorry there were only 50 cars diss(cuss)ed...People need to develop senses of humor. They're just cars, inanimate objects, for chrissakes!

As the former owner of one of these craptastic vehicles (a 1988 Hyundai Excel), I'm not getting these people's negative reviews because this book is just downright funny. True, this is not the world's best and most definitive book on bad cars, but it never claimed to be. This is just a fun look at what the author thinks are the 50 crappiest cars that have seen US highways. I'm sure several additional volumes could be written if the borders were opened and Eastern European cars were included (my vote for the worst in that category is the Lada Cossak, btw). If the previous reviewers had truly read the book in its entirety, as opposed to quickly scanning it in a bookstore (!), they'd have seen that the author chose specific years for some of the models. Thus, the Nissan 300ZX, the Hummer and the Fiero *are* crap for the specific years listed. The writing is sarcastic and the author points out the various cars' glaring faults: some are obviously well-known (Suzuki X90, Nissan NX, and Renault Le Car), others not so (Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo, Maserati Biturbo, and Sterling 825/827). This makes a great gift for car lovers and others who want a good laugh...after all, who can't relate to ever having owned a bad car? The size is small enough to leave anywhere and the format allows you to read up on a car in a minute or less.