
Driving the “Worst Car Ever Built” (2015) - smacktoward
https://jalopnik.com/what-its-like-to-drive-the-worst-car-ever-built-1735448480
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bitL
One of the universities I was attending had a policy that when you get all
answers on a multiple-choice test wrong, you get an A, because the probability
of that happening by chance is impossibly low. Seems like 1951 Hoffmann is an
example of that attitude ;-)

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apozem
Reminds me of an interview I saw with one of the co-authors of "The Disaster
Artist," the book about the making of "The Room," a famously terrible movie.
He said that was what made "The Room" so fascinating - it's rare to find a
creative work where _every single decision_ was wrong.

~~~
Joeboy
That's overstating it IMO - The Room's production values are pretty adequate.
The sets are OK, the sound's decently recorded, it has a proper soundtrack by
a real composer, the camera's mostly in focus and properly exposed etc. There
are plenty of shitty DSLR films with equally bizarre dialogue, terrible
acting, flawed structure etc but the unique joy of The Room is that the
decent-ish production values sucker you into thinking you're watching a "real"
film.

~~~
tatterdemalion
Similarly, this automobile is well built despite having every design decision
be wrong. There's some distinction between the architecture and the
craftmanship - a poorly crafted and poorly architected anything is just a pile
of rubble, but a well crafted thing with poor architecture is fascinatingly
bizarre.

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Someone
Aluminium isn’t the first material I think of for cars, certainly not for ones
built in Germany shortly after World War Two.

Because of that, I wonder whether this is a one-of (google gives me
[https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/hoffman...](https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/hoffmann-1951),
which agrees with that) and that coachwork is recycled from an airplane, just
as the front axle seems to be recycled from a kubelwagen
([https://ww2db.com/vehicle_spec.php?q=359](https://ww2db.com/vehicle_spec.php?q=359))

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tyingq
The Ford F150 truck is now aluminum. Somewhat notable since it's their best
selling vehicle...not just best selling truck. There's still a fair amount of
debate on whether it was a good idea to move to aluminum.

~~~
jacquesm
They were crap in steel, I would be very surprised if they are any better in
aluminum. I had one of these while I lived in Canada (longbox, 3 seater cab)
and before the warranty ran out the support strut of the gearbox _and_ the
associated welds gave out. Ford refused to fix it because the vehicle was not
rated 'heavy duty'. The heaviest we ever hauled in it was a load of firewood.

Welding aluminum properly is a lot harder than welding steel and aluminum is
also a lot less forgiving than steel when it comes to constructing cars out of
it.

I never bought a Ford after that wonderful, and I'm still amazed that they
would not stand behind their product, good luck to anybody that buys an F150
made of aluminum.

~~~
d-sc
As long as we’re getting into anecdotal evidence. I’ve driven an F150 as a
personal vehicle and ran it pretty heavily(80 MPH over steep passes, firewood
hauling, heavy trailers, off-road on farm, etc) and haven’t had any problems.
I’ve also used ford’s heavy duty trucks in construction and haven’t had
problems.

It’s important to remember that Ford is a large company and with enough
vechicles you are bound to have cases where they don’t meet standards. Without
a statistically significant dataset it’s hard to make a judgement whether one
manufacturer is more reliable than another.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't mind them having a production issue every now and then. I _do_ expect
them to correct those issues free of charge.

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notahacker
It has competition. Here's a video (Spanish) of a man showing off his custom
car made famous by "you know the car that you used to draw as a child? It
exists" memes

[http://elcomercio.pe/ruedas-
tuercas/internacional/recuerdas-...](http://elcomercio.pe/ruedas-
tuercas/internacional/recuerdas-auto-caricatura-real-historia-noticia-454707)

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lqet
I am curious: is the Hoffmann who built this car in any way connected to the
Hoffmann Werke in Lintorf? In other words, was it a prototype built by this
company?

Wikipedia [1] lists the "Hoffmann Autokabine 250" (literally "Hoffmann Car
Booth 250", which sounds exactly as ridiculous in German as in English) as the
only car to ever come out of the Hoffmann-Werke. If you google the "Autokabine
250", you will find images of the 1951 Hoffmann, but it looked in fact like
[2].

[1] [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffmann-
Werke_Lintorf](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffmann-Werke_Lintorf)

[2]
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5c/30/cb/5c30cb93f8a007e1e896...](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5c/30/cb/5c30cb93f8a007e1e896930d1eb334a1.jpg)

~~~
digi_owl
It seems to fit a bit too well to be a coincidence.

The article talked about the car having a ILO engine, same as was used on the
motorcycles mentioned in the Wikipedia article.

All in all i do believe this was an Auto-Kabine.

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digi_owl
The whole engine and back wheel setup reminds me of an outboard motor on a
boat for some reason.

Similarly the linear gears thing reminds me of a motorcycle, something that
makes sense given that the engine is a two stroke.

Seem to me like much of the car is a minimalist "make do" kind of thing. Like
the way the windows are raised and lowered, or how the door is stopped from
opening too wide by a simple chain.

So likely what we are looking at is a car made out of leftover parts from war
time equipment. The back end of a motorcycle, the body plates of a aircraft,
an so on.

And heh, feeding "ilo motorcycle" into ddg brings up a certain wikipedia
article.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffmann_%28motorcycle%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffmann_%28motorcycle%29)

And some way down that article there is talk about a microcar with a "suicide
door" on the right side as the entry point...

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tyingq
Surprised Ralph Nader and "Unsafe at any Speed" wasn't mentioned.

The Chevy Corvair should probably be a contender for worst car ever built.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed)

~~~
ryguytilidie
Perhaps you missed the part in the video where the flimsy fuel hose is
flapping around right next to the movable rear axle? I know the corvair is
bad, but this car sounds way worse.

~~~
tyingq
Only one of these was ever built. That makes it less interesting to me. I'm
sure there were other one off builds that have been awful.

~~~
Waterluvian
See: everything Top Gear's production team built.

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moxious
This is a good exercise too to point out all of the tiny little elements of
car UX which you just expect to be right. Things like, placement of the
sideview mirror in such a way as you can see the mirror, and not placing it
behind a pillar that blocks the view.

When UX is right, sometimes it blends into the background and disappears, just
lets you use the object. You don't really know what's right about car UX until
you see it done badly, then all of those things you took for granted really
pop out.

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gerdesj
Anyone calling this thing the worst car ever built has not seen the Robin
Reliant -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Robin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Robin)

I doubt there were many Hoffmanns built but the RR was rather popular here.

That said, I think you will find rather a lot of Brits with a deep fondness
for the RR, which probably says more about Britishness (of a certain age) than
anything else.

~~~
hexane360
Obligatory Top Gear review:
[https://youtu.be/QQh56geU0X8](https://youtu.be/QQh56geU0X8)

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katastic
I don't man... have they ever driven one of my Chryslers?

I joke but after (being under) four or five Chryslers, everyone in my family
treats it like a four-letter-word and will never buy one again.

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jedrek
If they're so bad, why did you have 4 or 5 of them?

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mikestew
I’ve owned three Fiats, with the first being just as unreliable as the next
two. Some of us are just slow that way.

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neves
Excellent.

The video is very good, the presenter explains why the car is terrible,
pointing each one of the terrible design decisions.

It looks like some software projects I've worked on:-)

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baron816
I’ve posted this video here before. Definitely one of my most favorite things
on the internet. It gets funnier every time I watch it.

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walshemj
At least it has the right layout for a three wheeler as opposed to the reliant
robin

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atomical
1999 Oldsmobile Alero

It had major engine problems and they were repetitive.

