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Lemons: The World's Worst Cars
The automotive industry's most fabulous failures, from the notoriously dangerous Chevrolet Corvair sedan to the less-than-airworthy "Flying Wombat," are described and pictured in all their fascinating folly in this entertaining gallery.
- GenresCars
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 1, 2019
Based on other books within my framework of interests with similar titles, I was expecting a humor book in Lemons: The World's Worst Cars by Timothy Jacobs. While Lemons was most certainly not especially funny, I still found it rather interesting, if not educational, and informative.
Jacobs rather succinctly sums up the point of Lemons in his foreword: A motor vehicle can be a lemon based on the design, the shoddy engineering, or both, and Jacobs provides more-or-less serious (albeit accessible) discussion of these factors from the dawn of automotive history to (what was then [i.e. 1992]) the present. In addition to providing several interesting facts—among them, for example, that one of the first real forerunners to today's hybrid technology (which was almost unheard-of in 1992) came out in 1916 (the Woods Dual Power), and that there was a Czechoslovakian motor vehicle that was such a deathtrap that the Nazis prohibited their officers from driving them (the Tatra 77)—Jacobs provides many other examples from all over the world, combined with photographic or illustrative examples of each. Also, Jacobs makes sure to mention such "classic" lemons as Ford Motor Company's Edsel, the East German Trabant, and the legendary Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega, they of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed.
Throughout Lemons, Jacobs repeatedly mentions that certain cars were ahead of their time, or at least needed some time to get the kinks out—and then offers genuine praise when they were able to do so (Mazda's early rotary-transmission models are a prime example), and in my mind, that's really what makes the book so effective. If Jacobs simply ragged on automotive failures with a gawker's eye, Lemons would've suffered; that Jacobs offers serious commentary makes this an overall worthwhile read.
Jacobs rather succinctly sums up the point of Lemons in his foreword: A motor vehicle can be a lemon based on the design, the shoddy engineering, or both, and Jacobs provides more-or-less serious (albeit accessible) discussion of these factors from the dawn of automotive history to (what was then [i.e. 1992]) the present. In addition to providing several interesting facts—among them, for example, that one of the first real forerunners to today's hybrid technology (which was almost unheard-of in 1992) came out in 1916 (the Woods Dual Power), and that there was a Czechoslovakian motor vehicle that was such a deathtrap that the Nazis prohibited their officers from driving them (the Tatra 77)—Jacobs provides many other examples from all over the world, combined with photographic or illustrative examples of each. Also, Jacobs makes sure to mention such "classic" lemons as Ford Motor Company's Edsel, the East German Trabant, and the legendary Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega, they of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed.
Throughout Lemons, Jacobs repeatedly mentions that certain cars were ahead of their time, or at least needed some time to get the kinks out—and then offers genuine praise when they were able to do so (Mazda's early rotary-transmission models are a prime example), and in my mind, that's really what makes the book so effective. If Jacobs simply ragged on automotive failures with a gawker's eye, Lemons would've suffered; that Jacobs offers serious commentary makes this an overall worthwhile read.
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January 5, 2018good
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews