The Worst Screw-Ups In Automotive History
Car companies love to race ahead of the pack—constantly inventing, improving, and outmaneuvering rivals in the name of progress. But when the finish line is lined with dollar signs, innovation can take a dark turn. Sometimes, their drive to win doesn’t just push boundaries—it crashes right through them.
1. General Motors Ads End The Chrysler Airflow
When the Chrysler Airflow was unveiled in 1934, it was a step away from traditional automotive designs, and featured an aerodynamic body that made it stand out from every other car on the market.
That design should have made it one of the most popular cars of the decade—instead, it put a target on its back.
Greg Gjerdingen, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Aerodynamic Innovation
Before the Airflow, car manufacturers paid little attention to how aerodynamics affected overall performance.
Chrysler engineers Carl Breer, Fred Zeder, and Owen Skelton changed that when they realized that their internal compression engines would never push vehicles to their maximum efficiency.
So they turned to an expert for help.
Willem van de Poll, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Wright Was Right
The engineers met with aviation legend Orville Wright, who suggested that they use a wind tunnel to test aerodynamics with prototype vehicles.
This was the breakthrough Chrysler needed.
A Fierce Design
From the initial wind tunnel tests, the Chrysler engineers discovered that their cars had less wind resistance when driven backwards. This led them to come up with the teardrop design and streamlined body of the Airflow.
The Airflow was such an innovation that it threatened Chrysler’s biggest competitor, General Motors.
Morio, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
False Advertisement
To crush Chrysler’s shiny new Airflow, General Motors launched a ruthless smear campaign—accusing the car of being unsafe and even calling it a rip-off of one of their “top-secret” designs. The public bought it, Chrysler’s sales tanked, and by 1937 the Airflow was history. General Moters, meanwhile, sped off scot-free—never punished for the lie that drove their rival off the road.
2. The Tucker 48 Fraud
In 1948, car designer Preston Tucker unveiled a state-of-the-art vehicle with new engineering, streamlined styling, and innovative safety features. This was the Tucker 48, and people were immediately enamored with the new car.
But while Tucker’s vehicle was legit, the man himself was hiding dark secrets.
The Cyclops Eye
One of the most distinct features of the Tucker 48 was its central third headlights, called the “Cyclops Eye”. The Cyclops Eye rotated to provide visibility around corners with a steering angle of more than 10 degrees.
At the time, many states prohibited cars from having more than two headlights, but Tucker got around this by creating a cover for the Cyclops Eye.
Cathy T, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Safety First
The Tucker 48 also had impressive safety features like a padded dashboard and shatterproof pop-out windshield.
All in all, it was a successful entry into the car market, but the manufacturer's shady business practices would soon catch up with him.
Still A Classic
Tucker was eager to make some money, so he started selling cars and accessories before the vehicles had even been built. After several delays that held up the start of production, the government took notice.
In 1950, Tucker and his board of directors were charged with fraud. The company was closed down and only 51 cars made it off the production line.
Today, the Tucker 48 is one of the world’s rarest and most coveted classic cars.
Rex Gray, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
3. Exploding Ford Pintos
In the wake of the 1970s energy crisis, American automakers scrambled to shrink their gas-guzzlers. Ford’s answer was the Pinto—a sleek, affordable compact car that flew off lots when it debuted in 1971. But behind the shiny marketing and booming sales lurked a deadly secret: the Pinto had a fatal flaw, and Ford had known it from day one.
Redefining "Hot Rod"
After three deaths and four critical injuries, people realized that the Pinto’s gas tank was prone to catching fire during low-speed rear-end collisions.
The Center for Auto Safety called for a recall of Ford Pintos in 1974, but it would take several more years—and fatalities—for Ford to respond.
Money Over Everything
In 1977, the Center for Auto Safety found that Ford had known about the dangers of the Pinto’s fuel tank design before they started selling the cars.
The company performed a cost/benefit analysis and determined that correcting the fuel tank design would be more costly than payouts for any deaths or injuries.
Vauxford, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Bad Reputation
From reports, anywhere from 30 to 180 deaths can be attributed to Pinto fuel tank fires. Ford finally recalled 1.5 million Pintos in 1980 and then stopped building the cars altogether.
They were also ordered to pay over $100 million in civil damages, but that was nothing compared to how this PR disaster damaged the company’s reputation.
Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
4. John DeLorean's Drug Deal
After being featured in Back to the Future, the DeLorean DMC-12 became one of the most iconic cars of the 1980s. But despite this elevated status, the car was infamous for its poor performance and low market sales.
The latter would lead the car's creator, John DeLorean, to commit a desperate act.
His Dream Car
John DeLorean achieved renown in the auto industry after designing the Pontiac GTO and the Firebird. In 1973, he left General Motors to create his own business, the DeLorean Motor Company.
The company was funded by the British government and several other investors, which helped DeLorean create his “dream car”.
Not Such A Hot Commodity
With its futuristic stainless-steel body, gullwing doors, and a 130-horsepower Renault engine, the DeLorean looked like something straight out of science fiction. It had style, flair, and attitude—but not sales. Between 1981 and 1983, only 6,681 DeLoreans rolled off lots in the US, turning what should’ve been a revolution into a retro relic.
ilikewaffles11, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
An Unfair Price
The problem was the price of the car. The DeLorean had a $25,000 price tag, quite a bit more than the high-performing Corvette.
And considering its performance was mediocre even compared to cheap, $10,000 average cars, the DeLorean was way overpriced.
The poor sales of the car spelt trouble for John DeLorean.
Caught Red-Handed
Hoping to keep the company afloat, John DeLorean tried to sell 59 pounds of coke for $24 million.
He was apprehended in October 1982, but with his company gone bankrupt, he was acquitted of the charges two years later.
Sadly, that wasn’t the end of DeLorean’s legal troubles, and after going on trial for fraud, he spent the next 20 years paying off lawyers and creditors.
en:user:Grenex, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
5. The Unsafe Chevrolet Corvair
After seeing how much people loved small, imported cars like the VW Beetle, General Motors tried to grab everyone's attention with the Chevrolet Corvair.
Introduced in 1960, the Corvair featured a rear-mounted, air-cooled, flat-six engine and was available in several trims.
It would take five more years for the car to really become famous—but the reason behind the fame was far from good.
Unsafe At Any Speed
In 1965, the Corvair was featured in Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe at Any Speed". The book was a critique of the safety of modern vehicles and Nader brought attention to the potential dangers of the Corvair’s design.
He noted that the car’s swing-axle rear suspension could make the inside wheel tuck into the body during cornering, causing oversteer.
Greg Gjerdingen, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Too Much Sway
The original design featured a front anti-sway bar to stabilize the rear suspension and make handling safer. But Chevrolet scrapped it to save money—a move that backfired fast. Without that crucial component, the car’s balance was off, making it dangerously unpredictable on the road.
sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Safety Matters
The critique in "Unsafe At Any Speed" sparked a decline in the sale of Chevrolet Corvairs, until the car was finally discontinued in 1969.
The book also sparked a shift in the automotive industry, leading to the passing of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the first real vehicle safety legislation in America.
Triple-green, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
6. Audi's Accidental Acceleration
In November 1986, the Audi 5000 was featured on an episode of 60 Minutes called “Out of Control”. Unfortunately, the feature signaled the beginning of a dark era for Audi.
On the show, owners were interviewed about the accidents that happened when their cars suddenly accelerated without warning.
Fake News
The show even featured a clip of an Audi 5000 jerking forward on its own—but it was fake. The TV crew had amped up the drama and used a modified car to shoot the false news clip.
Audi quickly responded to the accusations, but it did little to quell consumers’ anger.
Driver Error
Audi explained that the cars weren’t accelerating on their own, but rather, drivers were still pressing the gas pedal when they thought they were braking.
Compared to American cars at the time, the gas and brake pedals were very close, causing some drivers to unknowingly keep hitting the gas.
Jiří Sedláček, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Too Little, Too Late
Three years after the explosive TV exposé, Audi was finally vindicated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cleared the company of wrongdoing, blaming the so-called “sudden acceleration” on pedal placement quirks and design differences in foreign cars. But by then, the damage was done—lawsuits were piling up, and Audi’s reputation had already crashed.
A Sinking Ship
To prevent issues, Audi installed interlock devices to prevent transmission engagement without a driver stepping on the brake pedal. The installation was free, but consumers had lost faith in the company.
Sales plummeted and it be almost 20 years before Audi saw American sales numbers on par with those before 1986.
7. Daimler's International Bribes
While it became the Mercedes-Benz Group in February 2022, Daimler’s history in the automobile industry is far less luxurious than the cars they make.
The company’s biggest scandal occurred in 2010, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finished their investigation of the company’s habit of trading bribes for business.
Terence Ong, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Money Talks
The SEC found that despite the company’s integrity code and anti-bribery principles, paying off foreign government representatives was a common way of getting their business.
This had been going on in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
The Crackdown
Daimer’s payoffs were a breach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the higher-ups had ignored this transgression until the SEC started investigating in 2008.
The SEC found that Daimler shelled out $56 million in bribes and raked in nearly $2 billion in revenue and another $90 million in unlawful profits from the shady deals.
Daimler settled and paid a fine of $185 million.
8. Ford Explorer Firestone Tires
In 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a massive investigation into Ford and Firestone—and what they found was alarming. Thanks to a mix of poor quality control and questionable corporate decisions, the Firestone tires standard on Ford Explorers were literally falling apart on the road. The result was one of the largest recalls in history—over 6 million tires pulled before more lives could be lost.
order_242, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Bad Batch
Most of the accidents happened when the tread of the tire peeled off. This would cause the tire to malfunction or rupture and contributed to many turnovers and crashes as drivers lost control.
We still don’t know why the tread in these specific tires was prone to peeling, but former Firestone employees say poor quality control and working conditions are to blame for the errors in production.
A Bad Call
Ford knew that with fully inflated tires, the Explorer had a habit of rolling during sharp turns. So, they recommended that owners inflate their tires to 26 psi rather than the standard 35 psi.
But that low tire pressure could have also caused the blowouts.
With less air, tires generate more friction and heat and have a larger area of contact with the road, which probably contributed to all the issues.
Thomas doerfer, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Ford Under Fire
The failures and ensuing accidents led to many lawsuits, and by 2020, at least 271 people had lost their lives in accidents related to the tire failure.
After a Congressional investigation, the CEOs of Ford and Firestone resigned and the companies parted ways. It was the end of a partnership that went back almost 100 years.
Lane V. Erickson, Shutterstock
9. Volkswagen's Diesel Cheating Scheme
In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency served Volkswagen with a violation of the Clean Air Act, exposing VW’s emissions-cheating scheme.
You see, the engineers at Volkswagen had trouble making a diesel engine that could meet parameters for U.S. emissions while also maintaining peak performance.
So they came up with a way to fake it.
Christian Giersing, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Switch On, Switch Off
Engineers at Volkswagen built a clever little cheat into the system—a hidden switch that turned on emissions controls during lab tests, then quietly disabled them once the cars hit real roads. When the truth came out, VW tried to pin the blame on a few rogue engineers. But as the saying goes, a fish rots from the head down—and this scandal stank all the way to the top.
They Knew
An investigation proved that managers at the company kept approving the high-emission engines even when other employees objected.
The managers also told the engineers to keep the cheating software a secret. Former CEO Martin Winterkorn knew about the software and was the one who authorized the cover-up.
Governo do Estado de São Paulo, Flickr
Diesel Decline
The scandal from the emissions-cheating scheme led to Winterkorn’s resignation and cost Volkswagen more than $30 billion dollars in the U.S.
But more than just VW, the scandal led other countries’ regulators to look more closely at diesel engine emissions. In turn, diesel engines became far less popular with consumers around the world.
10. Takata's Deadly Airbags
When it comes to automotive recalls, few have been as serious as the Takata airbag recall. Between 2000 and 2008, Takata produced airbags that caused far more harm than good.
The airbags were negatively affected by moisture, which caused them to activate with excessive force.
Alexauto321, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Deadly Force
The force of the airbags itself was a danger, but things got more perilous is the airbag ruptured its metal housing. This would send shrapnel and chemicals spraying all over the cabin of the car and could cause fatal injuries.
According to consumer reports, in the U.S., at least 400 people have been injured by the faulty airbags. 19 people have been killed by them.
Pineapple fez, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Still Cause For Concern
In 2014, consumers learned that Takata and Honda knew about the potential dangers of the airbags but choose to hold off on notifying the public.
The NHTSA ordered Honda to pay a $70 million fine for civil penalties, and since then, more than 67 million airbags have been recalled from over 42 million vehicles in the U.S.
However, with 10 different global car companies using the airbags, Takata could still see more problems in the future.
Governo do Estado de São Paulo, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
11. Ford's Transmission Scandal
No sooner had Ford cleaned up the wreckage from its Pinto disaster than another storm hit. In 1980, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wrapped up a three-year probe revealing a terrifying flaw: from 1966 to 1980, Ford’s automatic transmissions had a defect that could make cars suddenly slip from park into reverse—sometimes while the engine was still running.
Another Fatal Flaw
Thousands of accidents and injuries occurred from the transmission issue and Ford was forced to admit the design flaw with their transmission.
Turns out the shift detent mechanism between park and reverse was prone to wearing down with use, allowing the shifter to slip.
With 23 million vehicles affected, Ford was on the brink of financial disaster.
Read The Label
Luckily, Ford came to an agreement with the NHTSA. The NHTSA ordered them to mail warning dashboard labels to 23 million owners. The labels reminded people to use their parking brake and make sure the gear selector lever was fully in Park.
Ford avoided what would have been the biggest recall in history, but there was still a cost—at least 106 people died due to the transmission failure.
12. Toyota's Accidental Acceleration
In November 2009, reports about the dangers of Toyota’s cars came out. Several accidents and fatalities had been caused by sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
At first, Toyota blamed driver error. Then they said the problem was the floor mats blocking the release of the gas pedal.
The truth was more insidious.
Love Krittaya, Wikimedia Commons
Mass Recall
Toyota recalled 9.3 million vehicles around the world and claimed that they had solved the issue of the gas pedal getting stuck under floor mats.
That was a lie.
The company later admitted that they hadn't actually fixed the problem—instead, they covered up the real reason cars were taking off on their own.
A Very Costly Mistake
Toyota’s investigation found that the issue with the pedals was a mechanical error in which the accelerator got stuck when it was partially depressed.
The company finally admitted that they had misled people about the safety of their vehicles and ended up paying a $1.2 billion fine.
It's still the largest automotive fine in U.S. history.
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