The Vauxhaul Vectra

In the mid to late nineties, people were, more than ever in the market for reasonably priced, yet also well-made cars. Many brands such as Toyota and Honda supplied the public with decent and reliable cars at mostly low prices. Enter Vauxhaul, a company that was later to gain fame as one of the Reasonably Priced Cars on the British motoring show Top Gear, with the Vauxhall Astra Techline. However, in the nineties, things weren't looking good for the British car manufacturer as it was trying to stay afloat in a market that was trying to sink it. Enter the Vauxhall Vectra, the somewhat reasonably priced car to pull them back on track... right? In short, no. Described by British motoring presenter Jeremy Clarkson as "a box on wheels,"  the Vectra is most likely listed as the dictionary definition of 'shoddy'. You had a choice of a hatchback or a saloon, and eventually an estate version, along with six low horsepower engines that sounded worse than a lawnmower on a cold day, and smelled just as bad. The car was made first available in a small selection of colors that ranged from light brown to dark brown, to Get-Me-Out-Of-Here! Brown, all of which looked absolutely hideous. The Vectra also sported five equally horrid choices of trim. With its clock that was always two minutes slow, thanks to it being connected to the atomic clock in Germany, it feels at home either at a Disney World parking lot, riddled with bullet holes in a San Fransisco back alley, or, preferably, in a trash compactor in Romania. And it only got worse through the years. Vauxhall made several attempts to improve the car's styling by adding body lines to its door paneling. Unfortunately, this made anyone who actually owned a generation three Vectra look as if they were riding around in a cheese grater. Car sales declined rapidly after the turn of the century. This was due, not only to its steadily decreasing visual appeal but its numerous performance issues. Many customers reported faulty ignition switches and brakes. The car also refused to start if temperatures dropped below -2 degrees Celsius, 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit, which, as the car was mostly soled in England, means that owners would be left without a working car for a good part of the year. The suspension in the vehicle was also known to snap without warning along with the handbrake. All of these things lead to the car's production run ending in 2008. Several years too late.