Jalopnik - Most Disappointing Car

[bill25]

I am not concerned about a one off hate of the Camaro SS. Same with the Elise. Just as "There is an ass for every seat", There is at least one idiot that can criticize every car. The fact is the Elise is a great car, and there are plenty of happy Camaro owners. I also believe a lot of the Camaro handling problems can be fixed. The 1LE suspension is available for all 2010 cars and up.

[kevm14]

Along that vein, I feel like defending the HHR as well. I actually haven't seen any HHR-specific hatred, only casual mention. I think people lump it in with the PT Cruiser, since it has a similar appearance and economy car FWD platform. The worst thing I can say about the HHR is the visibility. Unless you expected it to have a V8 or something. But when you really walk up to one, you see how small of a car it actually is. They drive decently (I have driven at least two, one an SS), not like garbage. It's not a penalty box.

[frankbreau]

I can see being more satisfied with the S2000 than a Focus ST. The S2000 is more of an honest car that scores pretty well on the intangibles (good shifter, chassis, lively responsive engine). In the real world, the S2000 probably isn't any faster than the Focus ST in a straight line, but I am sure it feels a lot better when driven hard. I would still choose the ST as a daily driver, but I can see how the poster would like the S2000.

I daily drove a 2nd gen s2000 for a couple of years. It's a super fun car when you're really pushing it, but the engine is a handful at low rpm (<4000). Very little torque, easy to lug it going uphill in traffic. Was it disappointing? No, definitely not... it's awesome at what it was designed for. But day to day livability was a little less than I expected.