As much as we like to celebrate sales success and upward trends in the automotive market on GoodCarBadCar, for every winner, there has to be a loser. Do not get us wrong, we are not saying that in a nasty way whatsoever, it is simply that some companies and manufacturers have astonishing victories, while others have vehicles that can flop so hard that they are one of the cornerstones of that manufacturer’s eventual demise (Pontiac Aztek, anyone?).
Now that we have a full accounting of vehicles, recalls, service issues, customer satisfaction ratings, and other relevant data, it’s time to pore over the numbers. The only difference today is that we’ll be looking at the models that stumbled, that fell flat on their face, had significant recalls, or otherwise earned their spot at the bottom of the pile.
Media Attribution Note: All images used are from each manufacturer’s respective web or media site.
Sales Disappointments
2023 Lexus LX600
In a time when SUVs, especially ones based off of one of the most highly regarded off-roaders of all time such as the Toyota Land Cruiser, are taking up over 80% of new vehicle sales in the USA, you would think an premium luxury version of a capable off-roader would attract a lot of buyers. However, Toyota really did make some strange choices with the LX series.
While it is not a bad vehicle in the least, the Lexus LX600 suffers from “Luxury” adjustments. It is heavier than its cousin by a good 1,500 lbs, thanks to all the features and amenities you’d want added to a luxury vehicle. It is also advertised as fully off-road capable, but then gets fitted with sport alloy wheels and low profile tires, at least low profile for an SUV. The only way you’d get an LX600 off-road is to spend a few thousand more to get appropriate wheels and tires that wouldn’t pop the sidewall bead the first time you drove it anywhere properly rough.
While it also has permanent four wheel drive, it is very important to note that terminology. Four wheel drive is not all wheel drive, and for an SUV that is destined to spend 99% of its lifetime on pavement, and maybe see a gravel or packed dirt road once or twice, the decision to keep it as 4WD boggles the mind.
Basically, what Toyota have done with the Lexus LX600 is take their best off-roader, gave it some comfortable street shoes, and then told it to go climb Mount Everest. Consumers seem to agree, as sales have not been positive.
In fact, the only really successful year for the LX600 was when it was first introduced in 2021, when it sold 26,016 units that year. It then sold 3,642 in 2022, and only 6,959 in 2023, only a quarter of what it sold in its first year of the current model trim.
2023 Volkswagen Jetta
“What?” we hear you exclaim, “A VW is one of the worst cars of 2023?”
Yes, as it is a massive sales disappointment for VW in the 2020s. Consider the history of the Jetta model since 2010, when every every year up until 2018 it easily sold over 100,000 units in the US alone. It pushed over 100,000 again in 2019, then suffered as most vehicles did during the global pandemic.
What makes it one of the worst cars is that VW has left the Jetta out in the sun for a bit too long. The last major revision was in 2018, and even then, that was only really to make it a bit bigger and a bit more high tech, not changing it overly much from the previous revision from 2010. Compared to more up-with-the-times family sedans, the Jetta isn’t at all attractive when there are so many other options in a saturated market segment.
It also did not benefit overseas with VW’s dieselgate controversy, which was uncovered with a diesel-powered Jetta. A scandal attached to a single model name devalues that model name, no matter where it is sold, and it absolutely tanked sales of the model in Europe for a good few years.
That is why the Jetta only sold a paltry 47,407 units in 2023, not even 50% of it’s worst pre-pandemic year. As well, when polled by Consumer Reports, 45% of buyers said that they would buy a Jetta if they had the chance to go back and buy again.
Lowest Customer Satisfaction
2023 Infinity QX50
For a luxury brand based off of a company that makes some of the best modern engines for road cars, Nissan, Infinity has been struggling as of late. Don’t get us wrong, the engines in Infinity vehicles are some of the most bulletproof and powerful engines for their class, but just about everything else has customers regretting their decisions.
To sell in todays compact SUV market, you need to be on your A-Game. You need to knock it out of the park with features, tech, power-to-weight, gas mileage, quality interior trim, and a kickass design. Of all of those, the Infiniti QX50 lands exactly one: Design. It looks cool.
Where things fall apart is that the engine, a KR20DETT 2.0L turbo inline four lifted from the Nissan Altima, barely has enough power. 268 HP and 280 lbs-ft of torque are more than enough for a mid-size sedan, but in a compact SUV that weighs 4,000 lbs before you put cargo, liquids, and humans inside of it? Just about 7 seconds to get to 60 MPH.
That is mostly down to the QX50’s use of a continuously variable transmission (CVT) instead of one of the many automatic transmissions that Nissan makes. We think Motor Trend explained it best:
“”This engine and transmission pairing just doesn’t work very well. Infiniti equips the QX50 with a novel variable-compression engine that’s brilliant in delivering strong performance alongside impressive fuel economy, but it’s paired with a CVT automatic that ruins the experience with laggy, rubber-banded power delivery.”
According to Consumer Reports, less than 25% of customers would buy the QX50 again if they had the chance. Ouch. That is reflected in the low count of only 9,940 units being sold in the US last year, after nearly a decade in the 10,000’s.
2023 Ford Explorer / 2023 Lincoln Aviator
You’d think that after nearly 35 years of making something, you’d be good at it. If your metric is based entirely on sales alone, the Ford Explorer and its luxury variant the Lincoln Aviator would definitely be seen as wins, with 186,769 units and 15,551 units sold in 2023 respectively.
Yet, both vehicles have come in very low in satisfaction ratings, albeit in different areas. The Ford Explorer has a low satisfaction rating in terms of overall maintenance costs, as for some peculiar reason it rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz in costs of parts and specialized service. The Lincoln Aviator, on the other hand, has a penchant for breaking down, and makes their owners about as angry as a mosquito in a mannequin store.
It also costs more in annual maintenance than the already expensive Explorer, and because it’s a “specialized” vehicle, it has to use parts that are the exact same as those used on the Explorer… but that are “Certified” for use on Lincolns.
The Consumer Reports score on both vehicles are so low that they aren’t even published, which itself tells for just how good Ford’s marketing and sales teams are. This isn’t to say that Ford doesn’t make good cars, they do in fact make many excellent models. It’s just that the Explorer & Aviator are not among them.
Outright Disasters
2023 BMW XM
When the new styling direction of BMW hit in 2021, with the classic kidney grilles getting changed to big, gaping maws, it took the public about a year and a half to get around to the idea that in a way, the design worked. BMW M3 and M4 cars have achieved mainstream acceptance in their looks, as have most of BMW’s EVs, the entire reason the bigger grilles were introduced.
Yet, with a customer base that is brand loyal to the propeller badge that usually jumps up and down excitedly for any and all models, the gigantic monster that is the 2023 BMW XM landed with about as much enthusiasm as a birthday party with one balloon, that spontaneously pops after a few seconds.
It is obscenely ugly, and that’s not a subjective opinion. Every reviewer, every magazine, YouTube car channel, everyone thinks that the XM is 2023’s ugliest vehicle, period. Continuing with reviews, it rides way too firmly for its weight and size with sporting pretensions, and because of that exact weight and size, it is disconnected and clumsy when you want to a have a go.
As a family vehicle it is priced well out of reach of the average BMW consumer at $159,000 MSRP before the 30,000 options you need to pick and chose from, and despite being an SUV it has a comically small cargo capacity.
That, there, is the crux of opinion on, and issues with, the XM: It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t do any one thing better than any other SUV in the segment can do better, even among BMWs! An X6 somehow feels connected and lithe when driving, while the XM feels like a brick with a steering wheel that is more of a suggestion box than an actual control device.
Compared to every other BMW SUV and CUV released in 2023, the XM has absolutely, completely, and objectively tanked. It sold less than 2,000 units in 2023, with a median average of only 218 sold per month after it’s April 2023 introduction. It’s looking worse in 2024, with no single month breaching 185 units sold.
It’s simply a case of a car demanded by a committee that was to be worthy of an M badge, and that committee wanted everything and two kitchen sinks included for good measure. It’s certainly got guts with 644 HP, but it weighs so much that even a Honda Civic would win a drag race against it. Guts do not equal sales, unfortunately for the Bavarians.
2023 Mitsubishi Mirage
For a famed Japanese badge that has already thrown in the towel earlier this year, migrating gradually away from consumer vehicles and producing only commercial vehicles by 2030, it’s surprising that they keep making the Mirage.
It is, by far and above, one of the single cheapest compact cars on the market in 2023 and 2024 at just about $15,000, and that is about all it has going for it.
Read any review, any analysis, any opinion about it… it is the Geo Metro of the 2020s. It is lethargic at the best of times, has a tiny, buzzy, whiny three cylinder engine mated to the numbest CVT transmission man has ever made, and also now carries the dubious honor of being the least safe compact car in the USA.
That last fact should get your attention. Many compact cars have safety features such as crumple zones, multiple airbags, the “safety cell” around the inhabited areas of the vehicle, and while the Mirage has these, it is also made very, very cheaply. As a result, the sedan version of the Mirage tops the fatality rates charts for compacts at 205 fatalities per million registered vehicles, and the hatchback version fares little better at 183 fatalities per million registered vehicles.
To put that into perspective, the Dodge Challenger rates at 154 fatalities per million, and is only the third deadliest car. The Mirage takes both the top two spots.
Add to all of that that the Mirage feels about as sturdy as a wet paper towel in a hurricane. Despite being very light and great on gas, it has absolutely no road feel whatsoever apart from the roar of the tires through the barely-there sound insulation, and even brand new off the lot, has a tendency to meander a little bit as you try to find the steering deadzone.
It also breaks down. A lot.
This is a definite fall from grace for Mitsubishi, they who in the 1990s and 2000s created some of the most exciting and powerful affordable sports cars out there with the Lancer Evolutions and the GT3000 (Sold in the USA as the Dodge Stealth). They were once considered rivals to Subaru for outright Rally-to-the-Road cars, reliable and tough as nails. Now, Subaru still makes rally cars and has a decent product, while Mitsubishi is just fading to obscurity.
To add insult to injury, it sold only 13,220 units in 2023, and the Mirage is the longest running model name for Mitsubishi.
