Toyota has a history of making dependable, if a little dull, cars for the people. Sure, every now and then it will turn out something impressive like the new GR Corolla, but on the whole its cars are pretty fine.
But despite this reputation for reliable everyday cars, not everything it made over its 85-year history has quite met the mark. Like every automaker, it has had its fair share of misses.
To uncover some of these misses, we turned to you and asked for your picks of the worst car ever built by Toyota. Here are some of the top responses we received.
Toyota Camry Solara
“Toyota Camry Solara. You want sporty but can’t live without the practicality and reliability of a regular Camry, but you’re not fooling anyone. It was nothing more than a regular Camry with two doors, full stop.
“Fun fact: Buyers of the convertible version went on to purchase the Nissan CrossCabriolet years later.”
Launched in 1998, the Camry Solara was offered as a coupe or a convertible. As sales started to fall, it was killed off in 2009.
Suggested by: regnis78
Toyota Aygo
“The worst? First Generation Aygo. You notice massively that it’s influenced by Citroen and Peugeot. Got them regularly as a loaner when my Toyotas are in for annual service.”
When I was learning to drive and friends were getting their first cars, the richer kids had Aygos and the commoners got stuck with the Peugeot 107.
Suggested by: Dominik Heidrich (Facebook)
Toyota Echo
“The Echo and it’s not even close.”
The Echo was the U.S. name for Toyota’s Platz sedan. It was introduced in 2000 and the company sold 50,000 units in its first year. However, the Toyota Echo was only offered stateside for five years.
Suggested by: insidersource
Toyota Cavalier
“Not made by Toyota but the worst car to ever have a Toyota badge the ‘Toyota’ Cavalier.
“Think they were sold in Japan only but a few of the abysmal pieces of shit made it to New Zealand as second hand Japanese imports. Felt really sorry for people buying them thinking they were getting Toyota quality when actually it was a rebadged piece of garbage made by GM.”
We might have asked for the worst car that Toyota actually built, but this re-badged Chevy had so many nominations that we just had to include it.
Suggested by: Adam Richards (Facebook)
Lexus SC430
“This came after the gorgeous Lexus SC300/400 / Toyota Soarer, and before the absolutely stunning LC500.
“Ungainly, overweight, underpower, rides awful. I give you the SC430.”
Toyota reportedly spent $US10 ($14) to $US15 ($21) million dollars on a marketing deal for the third Terminator movie to get this car a role in the action flick.
Suggested by: SennaMP4
Eagle 987 Champ Car
“🤔 … Eagle 987 Champ Car. Yeah technically it was an All American Racers chassis but still, that Toyota was a turd. 😕”
All American Racers fielded this Toyota-powered racer in 1998. Its best result was 11th at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Suggested by: @LilToot62 (Twitter)
Toyota C-HR
“The Toyota C-HR. Crappy drivetrain aside, just look at it.”
This is one of the ugliest cars ever made. Next.
Suggested by: 89islander
Pontiac Vibe
“Toyota is the best car maker in the world. They last forever with great built quality. They learn from their mistakes and work to improve over time. Of course not everything is perfect.
“Probably the worst car was when Toyota had the alliance with GM in the early 2000s. The Geo Prizm and the Pontiac Vibe. They both have Toyota engines and share bodies of the Corolla and Matrix. They where both also built at Toyota’s NUMMI plant in California.
“Unfortunately GM wasn’t cooperating with Toyota so they pulled out of the alliance.”
The Pontiac Vibe isn’t a car that’s had a massive bearing on my life until today, when it’s cropped up twice in one afternoon!
Suggested by: Witter Martin Joshua (Facebook)
Toyota Venza
“The Toyota Venza! Is it a car? SUV? Van?”
Apparently, the Toyota Venza is a “five-passenger mid-size crossover SUV,” so there you have it.
Suggested by: hangovergrenade
Toyota Tercel
“1986-1990 Toyota Tercel. Our extended family had three and they were all horrible. Somehow one made it until 2012 when a head gasket failed catastrophically.”
I’ve got to ask: after the first family member realised the Tercel was awful, why did the rest of the family keep buying them?
Suggested by: Bill Johnson (Facebook)
Toyota Ayga
“Toyota Agya. A subcompact for ‘emerging’ markets.
“Incredible coarse cheap box with a four-speed auto and, in lower trims, don’t even come with a windshield defogger. Ask me how I know.
“I, sadly, am picking one from the rental office in a couple hours. They couldn’t secure me a Nissan Kicks. Too bad.
“I love small cars. Just not this tepid, underpowered, unrefined, utterly boring small car.”
When a car is second-choice to a Nissan Kicks, you know it must be bad.
Suggested by: lucasg
Toyota Corolla Cross
“The only one that may go is the Corolla Cross, classic case of using a legendary name and SUVing it. I mean, call it Land Cruiser Hybrid or something.”
I’m pretty sure calling The Toyota Corolla Cross a Land Cruiser would anger just as many people, but it’s a nice thought.
Suggested by: @RatRunner48 (Twitter)
Toyota’s F1 Cars
“Any year of the Toyota TF10X F1 car.
“Seven years in F1, one of the largest budget on the grid. 140 race entered, 0 wins, 17 podiums total, and 384 points total.”
Over 139 race starts, Toyota managed just 13 podiums and three pole positions. Despite having the might of Toyota behind it, the team’s best result was fourth in the 2005 constructors’ championship.
Suggested by: SennaMP4
Toyota Tacoma
“Second generation Tacoma is a huge pile of crap. The motor in the 5th gen 4-Runner is a gutless turd. Toyota lost their mojo somewhere around 2005 – 2006.”
Don’t shoot the messenger, but this guy doesn’t like the Tacoma.
Suggested by: Daniel Hanson (Facebook)
Toyota T100
“Not a bad truck really, but certainly a misstep by Toyota – the T100.
“By the early 90’s, Toyota appreciated they needed to be designing cars specifically for the North American market, and did so brilliantly with the XV10 Camry and Lexus LS400 (as mentioned, the Previa was clearly a foreign market vehicle, and as such too weird and expensive to really work here). Toyota also appreciated that they needed a bigger truck than the Truck(Hilux) to really break through here, although at least the Truck had proven itself and still has a cult following.
“But the T100 they built just for us didn’t have a V8 (or a particularly powerful V6), didn’t have an extended cab for the first several years of production, and despite being smaller than a full-sized truck, was about 10% more expensive. Nevermind how much better the domestic full-sized trucks sold, even the mid-sized Dakota outsold it by about 2:1.
“Although, the Tundra hasn’t been much better –at least by gen twoof that, they got the basic details for mainstream acceptance right, and even that can’t sell much more than 120k units a year (it hit almost 200k in ‘07, and that’s it).”
Suggested by: maymar
Toyota Rukus
“Toyota Rukus. Known as the Xb in other countries. Horrid idea for a car.”
This car was built as the Toyota Corolla Rumion and badged as the Rukus or Scion XB, depending on where you were. Whatever the name, and wherever you were, it was still pretty bad.
Suggested by: Ashley Kucks (Facebook)
Toyota Prius
“All the picks in here are either wrong (Supra), or confusing ‘worst’ with ‘boring’.
“I’ll take a different approach: I’d submit the Prius as the worst car Toyota has made. Not because it’s unreliable. It’s actually quite reliable. It’s economical. It’s actually likely an important car for the entire industry, showing that people will buy economical hybrid cars.
“Nope, it’s because of their owners.
“They are the worst because the drivers all seem the be self-righteous jerks that feel like they are driving the most important car on the road. The drivers stuck behind them as they travel 20 km/h below the speed limit in the left lane should just be appreciative that they’re learning all about hypermiling. The other attendees at the party should be happy to hear all about their insane mileage and how much better they are as humans in comparison to their SUV-owning party goers. The other drivers at the grocery store that should just yield to the greatness that is the Prius in all situations.
“Oh. And all Prius’ are ugly too.”
You seem to be confusing “worst car” with “boring people”.
Suggested by: dolsh
Toyota Yaris
“I’ve been in the car business for 25 years. There’s lots of crappy cars out there, Toyota doesn’t typically occupy a large percentage of that list, but the Mk1 & Mk2 Yaris is totally 💩”
A lot of people were keen to point out that Toyota hasn’t had that many misses. But few would argue that the first-generation Yaris isn’t one of the exceptions to that rule.
Suggested by: @theirishllama (Twitter)