Oct 10: Canadian Thanksgiving Turkey edition

 When you think of the Thanksgiving holiday, the first thing that probably comes to mind is turkey. Well, as a hobby baker, I could talk about turkey or other food all day long, but remember, this is my car blog, so let's talk turkey. Turkey in the car sense. Cars that weren't necessarily bad but, stylistically they were turkeys in every sense of the word. Stuffed and ready to be served to an unsuspecting public. One shudders to think of the cars that have been approved for production by supposedly smart managers. Where to start?

This is too easy. The very first one that comes to my mind is the.........you got it, the famous Pontiac Aztec. Unbelievably awful looking, although very practical on the inside. I was at the Detroit Auto Show when this turkey was unveiled. GM should have provided barf bags for all in attendance. The original concept was not bad looking, but from concept to production, something went horribly wrong. It should have been sold with a giant bag with which to cover it. Funnily enough, you actually could buy a tent to cover its rear end.

But, before we give the turkey crown to Pontiac (how does one decide?), let's take a look at the Marcos Mantis........

........I've shown this one before, since I find it so strange. Only the British cottage industry car makers could produce such a monstrosity. Only a few were built (go figure?). Want a really scary Halloween costume? Dress up like a Marcos Mantis. Now, I'm sure that you'd like to see a terrible looking high volume vehicle. I thought so........

.......the Fiat Multipla. Take it from me, this is its best side. Front on, this one is an even more unusual looking little van. I've seen small children in Italy run and hide when a Multiple comes around the corner.

Way back in the late '50's, a priest thought that he could design the ultimate safety car. Sure, why not give it a try, since you don't have to be a car stylist to come up with a good design. But, that was not the case with this priest, as you can see from his Aurora concept.......

Safe in every sense, as no one would ever go near this beast. I mean, what was he thinking? Only God knows, after all, he was a priest. In case you were wondering, only one was built.

How many of you have wondered what a sneaker would look like if it was made into a car? Suzuki had the same thought, so they came out with their X90. Unfortunately this was not a concept and was produced in some volume, until the world said, enough already, and it was consigned to blogs about turkey cars.

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. The Ford Taurus once held the number one sales position for passenger cars in the US, then the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry took over. In order to regain that lofty sales spot, the Taurus was redesigned in 1996 (read the interesting book Car). The book explains the process and the money that Ford spent to produce this ugly fish of an automobile........

After all the research and all the money and all the production woes, the once #1 Taurus came back to the market in the #3 position, exactly where it had been before its dramatic and costly restyle. The Taurus' rear end view is just as bad.

I'm sure that everyone has their idea of a turkey car. One that turns their stomach, not their head, whenever they see one. And, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn't? But now I'll present to you the ultimate in turkey cars and there is not one of my readers who'll disagree that this is the Thanksgiving winner........

Please hold your applause.

Until next time.......