SLIDESHOW
The car world’s most famous design flaws
D esigning a car is an immensely complicated business full of potential disasters. The fact that manufacturers get it right so much of the time is one of the wonders of our age. But they get it wrong sometimes, perhaps because they had a bad idea, or a good idea didn’t work out, or they were following a fashion that should have been dropped years before. Here are some of the most notable cases.
DAVID FINLAY
NSU Ro80 Unreliability
Launched in 1967, the Ro80 was an attractive and innovative car with two major problems, both caused by its underdeveloped rotary engine. First, it was tremendously uneconomical, which became tiresome during the early 1970s fuel crisis, when prices surged. Second, the tips of its rotors kept disintegrating, which rapidly led to complete engine failure.