The 10 Most Embarrassing Car Issues Of All Time

Aug 18, 2023

Sometimes, car companies get lost in the details of the complicated automobiles they design; other times they risk lives on purpose just to cut costs.

We didn't plan this but... of all the biggest issues to ever appear on cars there are two names that kept coming up and beating everyone else: Ford and Toyota. Toyota is known for making the most reliable cars ever, but when they have a minor issue like a car mat hindering gas pedals, it affects millions of cars and most likely other platforms in the brand, since many share the same components.Ford likewise has the second-best-selling car name with the F-Series, but some of their cost savings are pretty despicable, and instead of passing the savings onto us they can even be fatal! (See Ford Pinto). Alongside these two, some car makers get so sneaky in the cutthroat world of car sales that it's a little concerning, though admittedly, it's gotten a heck of a lot safer since the 60s. GM, Volkswagen, and Peugeot all earn a place on this list for poor manufacturing and ethics that really make us scared to buy their brands!

Ford and Firestone tried to blame each other for the Ford Explorers that rolled from the '90s to 2000s. According to the prosecuting lawyer, The Explorers sucked on any tire they tried, eight different ones were listed. The Explorer was a rushed attempt by Ford to create a large SUV for the growing market, too rushed apparently.

According to the same lawyer, "the Ford Explorer SportTrac received the worst rollover rating of any SUV tested." He goes on to say that these SUVs ranked highest in driver deaths. One recall suggested airing down the tires, a dangerous and impractical Band-Aid on the highly tippable cars.

Related: Ford Urged To Recall Explorers in 2018

Many 2000-2003 Tacomas had an issue where drivers would find the trucks snap in half entirely. While the issue was avoidable and less common, this makes the list for being one of the most involved recalls of all time. We remember Toyota dealers with stacks of Tacoma frames piled in the back, unusable.

If you think they called in these Tacomas, took them apart, and totally re-attached the whole drivetrain, bed, cab, suspension, wheels, and engine to a new frame... you'd be right. Far more common was the method of "extending the warranty" for the frame itself, not technically a recall, but something many acted on. They would call owners in to sign an extended lease and put a protective coat on the frame to ensure no more issues, then the owner had to just know or find out if they could get the frames replaced, it wasn't explicit.

First, they made a shift nob that looks like the volume, but then Ford had to go and make the start/stop button the last in a series of what used to be climate control or radio buttons. As you can see, these buttons are easily mistakable for each other and for system controls, so the issue was that people (AKA oldies who buy Lincolns) kept turning off the car mid-drive.

The crossover is Ford's luxury crossover was trying too hard to put that cheap but revolutionary Ford-style upgrade into its new small SUV. Now, to combat the issue of accidental engine shut-offs, they're installing a somewhat ugly band-aid of a push-to-start where they normally are; in its own button not mistakable for your GPS button.

Related: 10 Gorgeous Gear Shifters (And 10 We Would Be Ashamed To Touch)

Ford does it again... this time with 23,000 complaints! Every single automatic Ford from 1966 to 1980 was affected by a park gear that failed to engage and would slip into reverse. This included 6,000 accidents, 1,710 injuries, and 98 fatalities. No Fords were actually recalled because they fought tooth and nail in court seeing how 23 million vehicles were affected!

After a long series of trials, Ford got away with simply putting a sticker on the driver-side door frame. In fact, they just mailed the labels out on letters for drivers to apply themselves, if they even opened them. Look for it on any of the millions of Mustangs made in those 14 years.

Related: 10 Most Alarming Issues With Ford's Brand-New Trucks

In the mid-90s you could have been peacefully driving your Corolla along and enjoying life and then BAM! Steaming hot airbag to the face. Why? Because of the condensation on your Mountain Dew. As it turned out, 627,858 Corollas made in the '90s had airbag controls under the pop-out cup holders.

When liquids spilled it would short out the sensors and lead to a misfire of the driver or passenger main airbags. Most of the time, thankfully, the result was that the airbag warning light would come on, and very few complaints emerged of an actual airbag release.

You may have heard about how some of the biggest names in German cars (under one company) were busted for cheating emissions, now known as "Deiselgate" after the famous American "Watergate" scandal in 1972. What you may not have known is just how big of a deal this was. To be clear, the issue was with just diesel cars and it was only concerning federal emissions (the ones that check if they can be sold in the United States, or other countries), not state emissions, so no recall was made. Still, it was terrible...

More than 500,000 Audis, Volkswagens, and Porsches were found to have "defeat devices" that cleverly checked the driving patterns and knew when they were being tested for emissions, then changed to have less fuel consumption and cleaner output. West Virginia University's Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions (CAFEE) was alerted by an emissions tester and given a Passat TDI to test in real-world conditions against emissions testing conditions, and found the discrepancy to be up to 40%! The punishment was a 14.7 Billion dollar settlement including 340,000 owners selling back their cars at the purchase price plus cash for an upgrade. Even worse for VW, they weren't allowed to resell these cars at all.

Related: Former Volkswagen CEO Charged For Dieselgate Scandal

A rather simple piece of a car, but also very important, is the engine mount. When confronted about the issue of them breaking in the 90s to 2010s trucks, GM released this statement, taking total ownership and being very mature about it: "It is apparent that, as a result of the publicity that has been given to the engine mount issue, there is a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding on the part of Chevrolet owners, which are anxious to eliminate as soon as possible" (nytimes.com).

Okay, they completely dodged and blamed their own customers for freaking out, then reluctantly issued the recall. To make this more clear: if an engine snaps out of its mount it will lean away from the throttle, leading to uncontrollable acceleration. Because of this, there have been 63 accidents and 18 injuries. 6.7 million Chevrolet and GMC trucks had to be recalled.

If you've ever taken a business ethics class, this is one of the first lessons you learn. The issue was that Ford Pintos tended to explode when hit from behind because of a gas tank lining issue that Ford dragged their heels in fixing (or even preventing!). Yes, they were aware of the issue but sent it to market anyway. Why? Knowing that some 27+ people would die? Even though the tank was behind the rear axle, easily puncturable by the rear bumper, a simple flame-proof reinforcement coating costing less than $20 per car would've solved the issue.

As it would be exposed in the court of law, Ford did the math and realized that accidents and lawsuits would be cheaper to deal with than the cost of added insulation to the gas tanks by a measure of a few million, pocket change to Ford in the 70s. The court opted to fine them enough to make this calculation false in retrospect, $125 million, but Ford appealed it down to $3.5 million and their life-threatening cost-cutting decision still paid off.

Related: Here's Why The Ford Pinto Is So Infamous 50 Years Later

9 Million Toyotas of various platforms were recalled when it was found that the gas pedals could stick in the downward position. A family of four sadly died and made national news because of this, so Toyota began investigating. It was found that the pedals would stick and no amount of braking could overcome the acceleration. All-weather mats were at first blamed for sliding up and sticking the gas pedal down, and to this day all Toyotas have hooks to keep the mats from sliding up.

But this wasn't the issue, as it turned out the gas pedal itself wasn't mechanically sound. To fix this, the Toyota computers were all given the programing to override acceleration in favor of braking. In fact, because of this, you cannot do a burnout without changing the programming in any Toyota made after 2010.

These siblings in the same "PSA Group" all released a few cars (Peugeot 206, Peugeot 307, Citroen C3s and C4s, and the Renault Scenic and Espace) made for France's left-hand drive, then they adapted them to right-hand drive for the UK. To do this they left the master brake cylinder in on the left and added a crossbar to the driver on the right.

The result was that passengers could stop the car themselves, probably discovered when "sympathetic braking" over the fear of a bad driver (we've all done it). Though potentially useful, the issue is embarrassingly avoidable. Over 500,000 vehicles have been affected, a huge portion of the UK's new car market around 2004 when this occurred. After three different inspections, the company finally relented and issued a recall.

Wyatt is from Utah and likes to bike, ski, and drive too fast. He's written articles on motorcycles and cars for years, and especially likes Japanese cars and off-road vehicles. He has been featured in DriveTribe more than once and some of his content has had over 6.5 million views. He loves Formula 1, Formula Drift, the Baja 1000, and World Rally Cross!