Canadian auto experts have declared the GM Firenza the worst car ever sold in their country. Here’s how it won that dubious honor.
Here in the USA, it would be a tall task to identify the worst car ever sold. After all, there are so many deserving candidates. But in Canada, automotive authorities have drawn a big red circle around the car they assert is the most horrible piece of junk ever marketed in the 10 provinces, and there’s a surprisingly strong consensus about it. The vehicle they’ve singled out for this remarkable honor is the General Motors Firenza of 1971-73.
General Motors began to import vehicles into Canada from its Vauxhall division in Britain in 1948. While the cars were reasonably well regarded at first, eventually their reputation began to sour under Canada’s harsher driving conditions. The 1966-70 Vauxhall HB line, marketed as the Vauxhall Viva by Pontiac-Buick dealers and as the Envoy Epic by Chevrolet and Oldsmobile franchises, drew special criticism, mainly for their poor build quality and lack of corrosion resistance. GM and Vauxhall never effectively addressed these issues when the revised HC was introduced for 1971. Rather, GM Canada simply dropped the Vauxhall name and rebranded the product as the GM Firenza.
Nicely equipped and competitively priced, the Firenza was offered in five body styles, including a sporty slant-roof coupe and a station wagon, and two trim levels, Firenza and Firenza SL. The Canadian version also boasted a standard 2.0-liter engine with 77.5 hp, quad headlamps, and power front disc brakes. However, none of these attractive features are what the Firenza is remembered for today.
The flood of customer complaints included premature rustout, sloppy assembly, engine compartment fires, and brake system and steering failures. The press took notice, values plummeted, and many dealers even refused to take them as trade-ins. Canada’s House of Commons investigated, and an alliance of unhappy owners called the Disaffected Firenza Owners Association (one more reason to love Canadians) was formed.
But GM stonewalled and the owners were thwarted, in large part due to the lack of a class-action mechanism in Canad’s legal system. That was soon remedied in an effort led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. So if we could point to one good thing the Firenza accomplished, there’s that. Meanwhile, GM quietly dropped the Firenza early in 1973 and shipped no more Vauxhalls to Canada.
While the mere mention of the name Firenza makes the car people of Canada shudder, its horrible reputation there never damaged the badge’s selling power in GM’s other markets, surprisingly enough. The Chevrolet Firenza Can Am is one of South Africa’s most beloved muscle cars. And here in the USA, just a few miles south of the debacle, Firenza was an Oldsmobile front-drive subcompact sold from 1982 to 1988, and a fairly forgettable car either way.
Another classic ‘GM in the Seventies’ example. I swear, that company was determined to shoot itself in the foot in every way possible, at every chance possible. And even more determined to not learn a thing from each and every failure. (Written as the son of a Chevrolet dealer 1950-65, and owned a ’73 Vega GT that actually gave him three years of good service.)
Many have noted that GM, due to its vast size and volume and multiplicity of brands, has survived blunders that would put most automakers out of business.
And 2 territories. 10 provinces and 2 (now 3) territories, like adolescent provinces.
I had no idea that GM sold anything other than trucks under the GM banner. That little red 72 looks like a great base for a little hotrod. Most unfortunate that they were designed to evaporate from the Canadian landscape.
Speaking of Vauxhall Viva’s, I recall a local Pontiac dealer being part of a delegation of dealers and GM Canada people who were going to England to discuss the problems Canada was experiencing.
Upon landing in London, in the rain, they were met by a GM UK rep who kept up a solid line of chatter as they all loaded into the car transporting them. As apparently it often happens in England, when it rained the UK guy hit the key to start the car, it wouldn’t. So without missing a beat, he gets out of the car, pops the hood, pulls out his handerchief, takes the distributor cap off, wipes it with his hanky, puts it back on, closes the hood and gets back in the car as if nothing had happened.
One of dealers said “See, this is exactly what we’re talking about” And the UK guy looked at him and said “Problem, what problem?”
Similar Chrysler story: When Chrysler wanted to get into the small car business quickly in the early 1970s, they made a deal with Mitsubishi for Colts and Rootes for Plymouth Crickets. As part of their normal practice, sample cars were taken to the Proving Grounds at Chelsea. The Colts did fine but the Crickets had a number of issues. When the Chrysler folks looked at what had failed on the Crickets, they realized that some minor improvements would make it a nice little car.
So they had a Trans-Atlanitc phone call set up. The Chrysler guys explained what they’d found and what they thought my help to improve the cars. The guy from Rootes simply said “This is the way we build our cars, if you don’t like them, don’t buy them.”
The story of the British Car business in a nutshell.
Chrysler owned Rootes group at the time, you’d think they’d have more leverage to accomplish what they wanted done
The owners reportedly organized a caravan of Firenzes to go from Toronto to Ottawa as a protest but most couldn’t complete the trip. It was legendary for being the first class action suit in Canada.
I remember the first generation Vivas and they looked like they had been stamped out by the same machine that made box fans. They were so sad and basic that they really defined the term “penalty box”.
Barely recall the 70s Firenza, yet I do remember thinking “yikes, they’re calling it that?” when the Olds version of the J-car appeared for the ’82 model year…