The TOYOTA Cavalier - A Chevy Cavalier sold as a... Toyota

A 1998 Toyota Cavalier

Remember GEO? Odds are, if you're born before the mid 1990s, you at least have some vague knowledge of what GEO was, but let's recap for those who forgot and those under 20: In 1988, General Motors, the grand behemoth of car manufacturing, decided to bolster their small car offerings in a world increasingly concerned about fuel efficiency. GEO license built cars from Suzuki, Isuzu and Toyota; one could buy the original version under its own brand, or the GEO version license built under joint ventures with the original companies. 

The GEO Prizm was one of these models, and was originally the Toyota Corolla. Due to trade and export restrictions and as a "payback" for the Prizm, GM built Chevy Cavaliers at their Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant and badged them as Toyotas for sale in the Japanese market. 

The Aurora - A Safety Car built by a Catholic Priest

The Aurora on display in the late 1950s.

 The story of the Aurora begins kind of oddly: a Catholic priest, Father Alfred A. Juliano, decided to build a car which pushed the art of car safety. This was 1957, a time when padded dashboards were extra cost options, seat belt wearers were as rare as Superman #1 comics, and Unsafe at Any Speed was still eight years away.

Looking at it from a 2014 perspective, some the safety features wouldn't work very well, but many have survived in cars to this day. There were seat belts - which wouldn't be required for another seven years. A collapsible steering column, which was still ten years from becoming commonplace. A roll cage. And a padded dashboard. Pretty standard stuff, but ahead of its time.

While none of the Aurora's safety features could be considered idiotic by a 1957 standard, 2014 is a much harsher judge of car safety. The Aurora had a button that the driver could push to swivel the seats rearward in the event of an impending crash, a windshield that bulged out to prevent impact, and a scoop like structure on the front end (clearly seen in the picture) that would reduce harm to pedestrians if one was hit. The latter two features were largely responsible for the Aurora being labeled one of the ugliest cars ever made.

The Aurora was built on the salvaged chassis of a 1953 Buick, with the body structure being made of fiberglass and wood. The production version was to offer a choice of Chrysler, Cadillac, or Lincoln engines and be priced at $12,000 ($100,908 in today's dollars). On its way to its first press conference in 1957, it broke down 15 times, with most of those times being related to the fuel system, which had been sitting still for four years. It arrived hours late, and there were no advance orders.

For that matter, there were no orders whatsoever.

Only one was made.

Zagato Elcar: Furiously Junky

In 1975, Consumer Reports compared the CitiCar and the Zagato Elcar. The CitiCar was found to have major handling problems, inadequate safety, and short battery life. At $2,946 ($12,856 in today's dollars) it was expensive.

Blue Book Value on a 2008 Honda Accord as of April 3, 2014 is $27.22 cheaper than a CitiCar (adjusted for inflation), and a whopping $2,335.76 cheaper than the Elcar.

Believe it or not, there was a worse option than the CitiCar. The Zagato Elcar was Italian built, but even the CitiCar outclassed it. At $3,475 ($15,164.76 in today's dollars) it was more expensive than many real cars of its time - cars that had to meet safety standards. It was built by Zagato, a famous design studio, in Milan, Italy and imported to the US by Elcar Corporation.

The Elcar offered three motors - 1000 watt, 1500 watt, and 2000 watt. (For comparison, a microwave is usually 1100-1200 watts). The suspension was notoriously shoddy and collapsed during a braking test from 30 mph. That same Consumer Reports test also saw the car spend over half of the testing period (74 days) under repair.

The Elcar claimed to be cheap to operate, but it was costly to repair and far more expensive to buy than a conventional gas compact car of the time. 

The Bricklin SV-1: Kinda Like A Delorean

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A Bricklin SV-1 in Florida.

Malcolm Bricklin is a name you should know in the automotive industry. He brought Subaru to America in 1968, which after a rocky start, makes some of the best reviewed, safest, and just generally good cars on the road. He left Subaru to start his own car company in the mid 1970s, closed it, imported Fiats for a while, brought Yugoslavian cars to the US, and more recently tried to bring Chinese vehicles from the company Chery over here. He specialized in bringing car companies over here while they still built crap, but if Subaru's any indication, the man is capable of success.

He didn't "bring over" the Bricklin. After selling his stake in Subaru, which had begun to leave its crap phase, Mr. Bricklin decided he wanted to build his own car, which was built from 1974-1976.

The SV-1 - which stood for "safety vehicle" - looked great on paper. The car was made of dent resistant fiberglass-acrylic body panels, the same principle as a 1990s Saturn. The acrylic skin held one of five colors, reportedly those most visible on the road - Safety White, Safety Red, Safety Orange, Safety Suntan, or Safety Green- and was molded to the fiberglass. There was no paint - if the color faded, a simple wax job would restore it to its showroom look. Unfortunately, in practice, it was crap - temperature changes did weird things to the car's body. Gullwing doors, like a modern Lamborghini, were also used. These could crap out as well, with the system strange and complex to 1970s mechanics and the doors prone to failure. This could trap occupants inside - not exactly befitting of a "safety vehicle"!

The vehicles were powered by a Ford V8 making 175 horsepower; some of the early 1974 models had an AMC V8 making 220 horsepower. It was considered a challenger to the Corvette at this time - my 2011 Honda Accord V6 makes 271 horsepower, so that's how far we've come - but some of the reviews of the time pointed out that the build quality could tend toward the crappy side.

Ah, what the crap, here's some 1970s pictures of the Bricklin factory.

The Isetta: The Most Unsafe Car Ever Built

The Isetta was a tiny "bubble car" with seating for two released in 1953 by an Italian company called Iso, which was later responsible for a range of high performance cars. There was also a VELAM Isetta, built under license in France, and a Romi-Isetta, built under license in Brazil. The most common Isetta, and the one this article talks about most, is the BMW version. BMW's Isetta was re-engineered over the Iso model, with none of the parts between an Iso/VELAM/Romi Isetta and a BMW Isetta being interchangeable. The BMW Isetta featured a 300 cc one cylinder motorcycle engine that could get it up to a terrifying 53 mph / 85 kph.

Perhaps the oddest feature of the Isetta is the idiotic positioning of the door. The front door held the steering wheel and dashboard of the car and was the entire front end of the car. In the event of a crash, occupants were to exit through the canvas sunroof.

In 2010, BMW showed a concept microcar called the i-Setta, a successor in spirit to the original Isetta, but without the boneheaded front door design. If it's like most modern BMWs, it will be safe.

You've come a long way, BMW.

The Nissan Cross Cabriolet: Is it an SUV or a Convertible?

Let's say you want the practicality of an SUV. There are plenty of choices in today's market; nearly every manufacturer puts at least one out, and most manufacturers have a range. Crossover SUVs - built on a car frame - are particularly popular nowadays. SUVs are good for carrying cargo or passengers.

Let's say you want the fun of a convertible. There are a number of choices in today's market, and most manufacturers put out one or two models. Convertibles give you fun in the sun, but the rear seats are often cramped.

There is a way to have most of the functionality of a midsize SUV with the fun and the sun of a convertible. The concept has been tried before with the horrible Suzuki X90 of 1996-1997, but the Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet that came out in 2011 was the first good vehicle to prove the concept.

It's a premium variant of the Murano, only available with all options and coming in at $41,995 base price for a new 2014. A navigation system is $2,000 extra. It's powered by a 265 horsepower V6 shared with the standard Murano model. It is a soft top, though.

The Citroen DS: Odd, Revolutionary

A 1969 Citroen DS, USA spec.

The Citroen DS, designed by Italian sculptor Flaminio Bertoni, was groundbreaking in 1955. It was a luxury car with features never before seen on any car, such as hydropneumatic suspension, front power disc brakes, power steering and a clutchless manual transmission. With over 1.5 million units sold, the car was a roaring commercial success in Europe, and was produced until 1975. It looked very unusual at introduction, and was still ahead of its time when it was discontinued.

The DS was sold from 1956 - 1972 in America, but it lacked many of the luxury features expected on a car of its price, and the body stayed the same for the 16 years it was on sale. It was also slow, with a fuel efficient four cylinder engine, at a time when gas in America was cheap and V8 power was expected. With only 32,000 units sold, it was a commercial failure in America.

The DS name was a pun off of the word "Deesse" (Goddess) in French.

The car had a sophisticated hydraulic system, making use of hydraulics in ways that even cars today don't. Normal vehicles use hydraulics for brakes and power steering; the DS used hydraulics for the transmission and suspension as well. The hydraulic suspension provided a silky smooth ride and eliminated the need for a jack.