IN THIS FEATURE Money well spent? Audi's ghost in the machine Government gets involved with a Skoda Edsel the eyesore The Excellence and the All-aggro

Ford has produced a couple of belters in its time too. First was the Edsel, not only one of the ugliest cars ever built (rivalled only by the AMC Pacer which we'll be meeting shortly) but also one of the least reliable. It arrived on a tidal wave of hype in 1957 and was stone dead three years later. It suffered from parts that went wrong, parts that failed to fit together and, most bizarrely, parts that weren't fitted at all. Those looks, that name and its soon legendary unreliability were its undoing.

By contrast, all it took to undo the 1970s Ford Pinto was the location of the fuel tank behind the rear axle line. Being inside a stationary Pinto watching someone about to smash into the back of you soon became an all-American nightmare. Pinto drivers took to using prominent 'Hit me and we blow up together' bumper stickers.

Ford's deadly Pinto: 'Hit me and we blow up together'

But for sheer silliness, we're still scratching the surface. Remember the AMC Pacer mentioned earlier? Its great design feature was to have a passenger door that was much longer than the driver's door so your children could safely and easily climb into the back. Great idea. But then they had the even greater idea of selling it in the UK with right-hand drive. Unfortunately they couldn't swap the doors over too, forcing your children to climb aboard on the same side as the traffic.

I have a particularly soft spot for the 1977 FSO Polonez which arrived in the UK boasting convenient, practical hatchback bodywork; at least it would have been practical had they thought also to install a folding rear seat.