CN's disappointments of 2010

Rating our automotive lowlights and personality failures for 2010

Disappointments of the year 2010

At this time of year the Cars games ales Network team likes to let off a little steam. Divulging our biggest disappointments, we rate the manufacturers and personalities that have managed to park themselves firmly below our collective epidermis in 2010.

Mike Sinclair - Editor in Chief
Mark, I take it all back... As a casual watcher of openwheeler racing and F1 in particular, I am far from an expert but it always seemed to me that 'our Mark' was too nice to his opposition. "No bastard in him," I lamented.

Well, this year Webber found the inner bastard and it was grand... Thus my biggest disappointment was the fact he wasn't rewarded with a world championship. (Actually, my biggest disappointment was that not one world rally team rang me up and offered me a driving contract, but complaining about that would just be churlish.)


Ken Gratton - News Editor
Regrettably, among all the cars tested, the disappointment of the year was the Proton S16. The tiny sedan has some of the trappings of a strong-value package, but there are just too many oversights and flaws to justify recommending the cheapy to anyone. This is a vehicle that has no place being sold here when there are other cars in the segment that can be taken seriously.

Leaving aside new cars, the disappointment of the year was coming back to Melbourne's drivers and traffic environment after a couple of trips to Germany. And don't be smug, you people living in other states, Aussie roads seem to be hopelessly inadequate at coping with heavy traffic loads at the best of times and (a minority of) drivers all over the country seem ill-equipped to work with other road users to ease traffic flow.

Part of the problem seems to rest with the way we allow our larger cities to sprawl. The Victorian state government had a decentralisation vision during the 1970s, involving 'green wedges' and satellite cities. This sort of town planning strategy would have created smaller pockets of suburbia -- but still large enough to provide employment and adequate infrastructure -- removed from the metropolis. In effect, the idea would have created smaller cities dotted across the landscape as is the case in Germany, where traffic congestion doesn't seem to be the problem it is here. And house prices might have been kept to a reasonable level. Unfortunately, it seems the Victorian vision from 40 years ago wasn't ever properly implemented.


Melissa McCormick - Production Editor
Unroadworthy cars (check your taillights, people!) and polluting rust buckets that should be grounded NOW! While the rest of us bother with fuel consumption and CO2 ratings, how about the fleet owners of dirty Transits adhere to service requirements and replace long-gone diesel injectors?! And Magna owners: check your rearview mirror after every stomp on the accelerator... You're a rolling smoke stack.

Better than speed-sensitive drivers would be car owners conscientious of basics like functional brake lights and inordinate use of engine oil. And rather than revenue raised by sometimes-faulty cameras, how about cleaning up our roads of vehicles that would otherwise be resigned to a cash-for-clunkers program?


Feann Torr - Staff Journalist
It almost seemed as if Hyundai got a little cocky. At launch the i45 cornered like a soggy sponge. We asked for some test cars to do seven day reviews to get a better idea. They never came. We weren't told why. Then a 'refresh' was announced three months later and the suspension was tweaked to better suit Australian tastes. We'll let you know how that goes...

Mark Webber missing out on the 2010 F1 Driver's Championship was my downer, however. I had a great time watching all the races, especially the qualifying, and with four races to go I thought Webber was a shoe-in to take out the championship. There's always 2011...


Matt Brogan -Staff Journalist
Lotus may well be on the comeback trail, especially if its plethora of new models at this year's Paris Motor Show is anything to go by. But before that happens, models such as the four-seat Evora we drove earlier this year are going to need some serious attention to quality control -- and a reality check on price.

Our test model had numerous mechanical and trim defects, some knocks from the front end and a crooked gear shift among the issues listed on the 12,000km old press car. Inside too, and excusing the obvious packaging concerns (the rear seat is a joke), our Evora had a dodgy boot catch, several loose trim pieces, ill-fitting carpet and a broken engine cover.  Even the badge on the key wasn't stuck on straight. If the smaller visible details can't be taken care of then what are we to assume about the rest of the car?

In a general sense, Victoria's over reliance on speed camera safety (or revenue raising, depending on your viewpoint) is really beginning to get on my goat, but not for the reason of the cameras themselves. My main gripe is that because of a 'camera fixes all approach', or is that 'speeding is the cause of every accident approach'; other misdemeanours and even more serious offences go unchecked. Without fail, and on a daily basis, the blatant hogging of the right lane (keep left unless overtaking), use of mobile phones, tailgating, obvious drink/drug driving, the general inattention of road users and the apparent ignorance of even the most simple road rules goes unpoliced.


Joshua Dowling - Contributing Writer
At the risk of getting shot (or worse, attacked on blog forums) please hear me out -- the Ford Falcon GT is my disappointment of 2010. I love -- repeat, love -- the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 engine in the new Ford Falcon GT. I have the utmost respect -- repeat, respect -- for the engineers and engine builders who laboured over and handcrafted this brilliant engine. I sincerely thank -- repeat, sincerely thank -- the bean counters who allowed the engineers to spend the money (all $40 million of it) to create the best Australian-made engine of all time. I am overjoyed -- repeat, overjoyed -- that Ford finally has the upper hand in the power war with Holden for the first time in more than three decades. Ford fans deserve it -- repeat, deserve it -- for all their years of loyalty. It will also give HSV a timely kick up the bum.

But, and it's a big but, there seems to have been no money left to better tune the suspension. The Ford Falcon GT feels floaty, insecure and downright off-putting when you dare to tread above seven-tenths of its ability. The funny thing is, it was Ford that convinced me over the years that a good performance car was not only about straight-line speed. And yet that's the Falcon GT's only real strength (Ford also deserves the cane for putting standard brakes on the GS -- outrageous).

This 'complete package' argument suited Ford because it always had a power deficit. As one colleague aptly put it: who'd have thought HSV would be using Ford's argument to good effect? After all, it's no good having the most power if you can't effectively get it to the ground.

My second disappointment of the year relates to the first. So many motoring scribes and magazines got into such a lather about the Ford GT that they didn't have the courage to reflect their true disappointment about the GT's chassis. The coverlines may have screamed “FPV delivers HSV a haymaker”, but if you speak to the journos who wrote the stories, that wasn't their view at all.


Michael Taylor - International Correspondent
MINI Cooper S Countryman arrived too thirsty and too heavy, with too many other machines doing the same job, better. But you can't go past the Bentley Continental GT. I mean, if you wanted to know whether freezing your designers in the headlights of "brand signatures" would work or not, you only had to look at the last Jaguar XJ, didn't you? Doesn't matter how good it is under the skin, I can't tell the new and old apart.


Gautam Sharma - International Correspondent
This scribe hasn't really found himself behind the wheel of any truly dud cars this year, but if there's one that left a slightly bitter aftertaste, it's the Kia Optima. Perhaps my expectations had risen to unreasonable levels after clapping my peepers on the gorgeous Peter Schryer-penned profile, but the driving experience was distinctly ordinary. The Optima was lumbered with possibly the most lifeless steering I've ever grasped, and the handling lacked any sort of crispness or agility. It certainly wasn't the Mazda6 rival I had been expecting. I should point out, though, that I sampled the Middle East-spec version, which is not representative of the model that will be sold in Oz.

But there's one disappointment that towers above all others in 2010. Mark Webber conducted a near-flawless campaign in the 2010 F1 championship so being pipped at the final hurdle must have been a horrendously crushing blow. But, totally in keeping with the calibre of the man, he accepted it with sublime grace and was among the first to congratulate the victorious Sebastian Vettel. A class act...


Jeremy Bass - Green Motoring Writer
There's plenty of room Down Under for some same old same old about the lack of incentive to keep up with the rest of the west in reducing emissions. Make no mistake: the time will come when climate-science sceptics will take their place alongside those doctors in the Fifties and Sixties who popped up casting doubt on the relationship between smoking and cancer. That's what big business does when it can't be bothered changing its business model to suit the times: it adopts a strategy of picking nits to cast doubt on the social forces and scientific rationales driving change. If they had anything real to work with, they'd have climatologists delivering the news.


Mike McCarthy - Contributing Writer
There's a nagging twinge of disappointment in knowing that contrary to VW vehicles' outstanding presentation and their unanimous reek of class-leading designs and technology, the VW ownership experience seemingly doesn't quite match the Japanese in deed and reputation.

The majority of VW owners may be well pleased with their choice and harbour no concerns about the vehicle's build quality and reliability, nor have issues with the dealer service. But, as John West can attest, there's nothing fishy about quality assurance. It's measured not by however many examples fulfill industry standards and owner expectations, but by those that don't. As things stand, among all the deserved praise heaped upon Volkswagens for the better-than-average ways they look, drive and handle, the bigger picture isn't entirely unsmudged.

Mechanical glitches are not unknown. Ditto for slight tho' irritating body rattles and resonances. Moreover, affected owners report that Volkswagen seems in no mood or hurry to acknowledge such contretemps. Online forums and word of mouth also point to (some) lofty VW dealer service charges and indifferent work quality as bones of contention.

Until Volkswagen finally and firmly gets on top of the after-sales niggles, upgrading of the ownership experience remains a work in progress.

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