The Chevy SSR is the Quirkiest Pickup Truck Ever Made
As much as we hope to mostly judge vehicles on their merits and not their looks, this truck has got to be one of the ugliest and quirkiest vehicles ever to hit the market. The Chevy SSR looked like something you would see in a comedy, as it combined some of the most unrelated car designs into one incredible weird truck. Chevy’s SSR stands for SuperSport Roadster (not Schutzstaffel Roadster) and is named after a vehicle that can only be described in a minimum of five words as a ‘retractable hardtop convertible pickup truck.’
The truck has plenty of cheap plastic in its interior and lackluster performance. It’s also a very uncomfortable ride and definitely doesn’t justify its price tag of over $40,000. Despite having some advantages, such as an acceleration time of 7.7 seconds from zero to sixty and almost 400 horsepower, this is arguably one of the most polarizing vehicles we’ve ever seen, with about 90% of the population hating it and 10% loving it more than any other car in existence. Up Next: Ram makes sure to ram itself into the list again with another pickup truck that can only go down as one of the worst.
It’s a Good Thing the Nissan Navara Wasn’t Sold in the USA
The Nissan Navara went by various names, including the Nissan D22, the Nissan D23, and the Nissan D40. This pickup truck was sold all across the world, except in the United States. It appears that this one suffered from really bad rust problems that would infect the chassis just a short duration after it was sold.
This rust problem that was so prevalent in the Navara was obviously very risky and caused serious safety issues with the vehicle. This issue would literally cause the underpinnings of the truck to crack in two overtime, making it one of the least safe pickup trucks in existence. It's a good thing this thing didn't reach the United States, or Nissan would've gone bankrupt from all the lawsuits.
The Mazda Rotary Was Ahead of Its Time
This vehicle differs from the rest as it wasn’t exactly its mechanics that were problematic but rather the fact that it tried got a little ahead of itself and developed a technology that wasn’t fully usable at the time. The Mazda Rotary pickup was just that sort of car. It was basically the first and only pickup to ever feature a Wankel engine. These rotary engines work very differently from the way any regular engine does, which makes them both unique and potentially much better.
Despite their best intentions, Mazda must not have noticed that the year was still 1970, and it was way too early to try and introduce this kind of technology in a car that is supposed to be, first and foremost - reliable. Pickup truck drivers aren't exactly known for their attraction to revolutionary ideas, as most of them just look for sturdy resilience on wheels. All of this lead to the ultimate failure of the Mazda Rotary Pickup. On the bright side, that technology has definitely been picking up steam in the last few years, so perhaps this calls for a reboot. Ford makes one final appearance on this list with one of their worst trucks of all time. We bet you already know exactly which it is.
The Dude Was An Enigma
Another one of Dodge's weird explorations of the most insane ideas for pickup trucks was their 1969 Dodge Dude. This truck was basically a modified Dodge D100 with a few special stickers put on it. The Dude only survived for one year before being canceled after the executives at Dodge realized that they weren't selling these pickup trucks to college students.
Unfortunately for humanity, someone at the company had the bright idea of relaunching the Dude in 2004 with a few extra features. The 2004 Dodge Dude had a cat-back dual exhaust, lowered suspension, and composite hood inspired by the Viper-powered Dodge Ram SRT10. This doesn't mean in any way, shape, or form that we condone buying this machine because we believe that no car with the model name of "Dude" should ever make it past the concept stage.
The Chevrolet Colorado Suffers From a Small Flatbed and Low Reliability
When Chevrolet released Colorado, its goal was to create a great competitor in the compact pickup trucks market. The model was extremely close to doing that but failed to hit the target due to two major problems. First, although it was built as a compact pickup, the flatbed was way too small for most consumers, making it easy to skip on it despite the truck’s advantages.
The next problem with Colorado stems from its low reliability due to having a faulty climate system, suspension, and fuel system. It’s not necessarily a bad purchase, but there are a lot better alternatives if you’re in the market for a compact pickup truck. Vehicles such as the Ford Ranger, which has this one beat by a margin. Still, if you’re really interested in Colorado, you should check out the 2019 version, which is looking to be a lot better than previous models.