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We've heard recently of Toyotas with sticking accelerators, but what about the "haunted'' Audi 100 that could accelerate when you went to hit the brakes because the accelerator pedal was too close?
Some lemons are so acidic they are downright dangerous, such as the rear-engined 1960s Chevrolet Corvair that required the tyres to be pumped up so high they exploded.
Ford had issues in the late 1980s with the Ford Bronco and Explorer SUVs that did more rolling than the Stones and the Ford Pinto that not only burst into flames on rear impact, but also jammed the doors shut so the occupants were well done.
The capitalist world wasn't alone with its duds. The Trabant gave communism a bad name with its two-stroke smoker. If left alone in a field, livestock would eat its cotton-made body.
Here in Australia we made some of our own lemons and others we imported such as 1970s Lancias and Fiats that arrived pre-rusted.
There have been other cars that exploded, spontaneously combusted, fell apart, leaked oil, overheated or just never worked.
A mechanic friend of mine reeled off some of the biggest mechanical lemons that have made him a wealthy man, such as old Daewoos, the Holden Sunbird, Datsun 180B and the king of them all, early model Kia Carnivals.
Thankfully, standards have improved and there are very few lemons in the market today.
Over the past few years, car recalls in Australia have dropped from 79 in 2005 to 63 last year, with a peak of 91 in 2008. In terms of aesthetics there are still some eyesores (all SsangYongs) and some inane packages (BMW X6).
Here are 10 lemons I have driven:
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