Would you buy any of the cars listed below? The original list is titled “The top 10 cars that Americans hate”. Hate is such a strong word. Do people really hate cars? So, to generate this list of the cars Americans dislike, Forbes looked at sales data for the 10 major vehicle segments. The vehicles with the lowest sales in their class made this list.

Kia Rio (Subcompact Car)
Why Americans Hate It: Acording to J.D. Power’s 2008 dependability study, it ranked miserably making it a risky quality purchase for some buyers.

Volkswagen Rabbit (Compact Car)
Why Americans Hate It: Americans are not fond of hatchbacks, which are widely popular in Europe. Figures!

Mazda Tribute (Compact Multi-activity Vehicle)
Why Americans Hate It: This SUV is an oddball in the Mazda mix, and most buyers don’t look to the brand for an SUV.

Saab 9-7X (Midsize Premium Multi-Activity Vehicle)
Why Americans Hate It: Saab’s quirky interior, like ignition starts located on the center console and not the dash, appeals to “a little different buyer with a little different personality.”

Saturn Sky (Compact Sporty Car)
Why Americans Hate It: This convertible top is cumbersome to maneuver in terms up getting it up and down and just doesn’t appeal to buyers who want a convertible.

Audi A3 (Entry Premium Vehicle)
Why Americans Hate It: Again… Americans are not fond of hatchbacks, which are widely popular in Europe.

Dodge Magnum (Large Car)
Why Americans Hate It: Americans lost their interest in wagons when the minivan came along (which later fell out of favor to SUVs). It’s an awkward looking wagon as well.

Mitsubishi Galant (Midsize Car)
Why Americans Hate It: The Galant suffers from a lack of brand recognition in the ultra-competitive midsize segment.

Jaguar XJ (Large Premium Car)
Why Americans Hate It: Buyers were willing to suffer through some quality issues when Jaguar was British-owned, but the brand lost luster when Ford bought, and then later sold, it to India-based Tata Motors last year. I completely understand.

Acura RL (Midsize Premium Car)
Why Americans Hate It: Acura’s bland, plain-vanilla exterior styling is a turnoff to buyers who don’t want to blend in in a crowded parking lot.

The Toyota Lexus had 120 problems per 100 vehicles compared to the industry average of 206 problems.

Lexus once again stands alone atop a closely watched list of vehicle dependability after Buick slipped from the No. 1 spot it shared with the Japanese luxury brand last year. It’s the 14th straight year Toyota Motor Corp.’s high-end brand has held the highest ranking in the annual study, which measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years. Lexus had 120 problems per 100 vehicles, down from 145 last year.

Ford Motor Co.’s Mercury brand ranked second, followed by General Motors Corp.’s Cadillac. Toyota was fourth, and Honda Motor Co.’s Acura luxury brand was fifth.

The 1995 Honda Civic has been the most stolen vehicle the last two years. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released its Hot Wheels 2008 auto theft report for vehicles on Wednesday, identifying the 1995 Honda Civic as No. 1.

In 2006 and 2007, individually, the 1995 Honda Civic has topped the list each year, followed by the 1991 Honda Accord, 1989 Toyota Camry and the 1997 Ford F-150 Series Pickup. All four car models have been in exact order the last two years. For 2007, the remaining cars on the list are the 1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup, 1994 Acura Integra, 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup, 1994 Nissan Sentra, 1988 Toyota Pickup and 2007 Toyota Corolla.

While the Civic and Accord are not worth much, their individual parts are. The sound system, seats, airbags and other parts can be sold individually and are worth a lot on the black market due to the demand of older parts over new parts.

In May, the thrifty Honda Civic became the best-selling vehicle in America.

The Honda Civic became the best selling vehicle in America - car or truck - and both it and the Honda Accord outsold the once-invincible Ford F-150 pickup trucks.

Among the world’s automakers, Honda has long behaved as if the world is indeed running out of all kinds of resources, including oil. Its relentless focus on thrift and conservation, which seemed like eccentricities 20 or 30 years ago, today make Honda the leader of the environmental pack.

While the Detroit Three plus Toyota were getting hammered on the showroom floor in May, with sales down anywhere from 4.3% for Toyota to 27.5% for General Motors, Honda posed a stunning 15.6% sales increase.

Rocket science this isn’t. They aren’t making any more oil so, over time, you had to figure it was going to get more expensive and more scarce. So why weren’t other manufacturers able to see the road ahead as well as Honda?

 1. They got sidetracked by the easy profits available in big SUVs and pickups. During the 1990s, the last golden age of the American auto industry, the combination of cheap gas and high-profit big vehicles seduced automakers into believing the good times would never end.

2. Honda’s tightly-knit corporate culture and long time horizon made it uniquely able to wait for events to move in its direction, rather than chasing fluctuations in the marketplace.

3. The other automakers became distracted by their own corporate imperatives. Nissan compounded its problems by starting its own passenger car horsepower race. The Detroit Three, at times, seemed to get their jollies by reviving models from 40 years ago — Mustang, Challenger, Camaro — because of the short term jolt they got in the marketplace, rather than formulating any kind of long-term strategy for a resource-constrained world.

The downfall of the SUV

Tuesday was GM’s annual shareholders’ meeting and the news from GM Chairman and CEO G. Richard Wagoner Jr. wasn’t pretty: $3.3 billion lost in the first quarter of 2008, the closing of four truck manufacturing plants and the potential sale of the Hummer brand.

How did all this happen? For the past decade GM has relied heavily on trucks and SUVs as the breadwinners for the company and has all but ignored passenger vehicles because they were less profitable. The rapid increase in prices at the pump have forced consumers to switch back over to more gas-friendly vehicles. The change in consumer demand has hit GM hard in the pocketbook and has forced the American auto manufacturer to rethink it’s position in the industry.

GM’s Chevrolet Volt cannot possibly come any sooner. The 2010 expected release of the electric vehicle should prove to be the necessary change that could lift GMs profits - given the vehicle performs as well or better than current Toyota and Honda competitor vehicles. Even if GM can put together a new fleet of passenger vehicles, the road will be long and rough as J.D. Power anticipates less than 15 million new vehicles to be sold in the US. Another big obstacle for the American giant: trying to win back consumers who have already made the switch to Japanese vehicles.

While those behind the wheels of fuel-sipping vehicles are likely driving stress free, other motorists are feeling the pinch. Forbes reviewed estimated annual fuel costs for vehicles in nine U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifications and used the highest annual estimates to compile their list. Here it goes…

Lamborghini Murcielago (MPG Rating: 8 city/13 highway)

Bugatti Veyron (MPG Rating: 8 city/14 highway)

Bentley Azure (MPG Rating: 9 city/15 highway)

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (MPG Rating: 9 city/15 highway)

Maybach 57/62 (MPG Rating: 10 city/16 highway)

Bentley Continental GTC (MPG Rating: 10 city/ 17 highway)

Mercedes Benz G55 AMG (MPG Rating : 11 city/ 13 highway)

Mercedes Benz ML 63 AMG (MPG Rating:11 city/ 14 highway)

Jeep Grand Cherokee (MPG Rating: 11 city/ 14 highway)

Audi S4 Avant (MPG Rating: 13 city/ 20 highway)

 GM Posts Record US Automotive Loss of $38.7B for 2007

General Motors Corp. reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007 on Tuesday, the largest annual loss ever for an automotive company, and said it is making a new round of buyout offers to U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid help. GM won’t say how many workers it hopes to shed, but under its new contract with the UAW, it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers doing non-assembly jobs with new employees who will be paid HALF the old wage of $28 per hour.

San Francisco’s Gas Prices Rank The Highest

In San Francisco, the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline reached $3.546 at the end of November, up from $2.524 a year ago. Things don’t look much better in other parts of the state. San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento and Los Angeles posted the country’s next-highest per-gallon prices. Such high prices are not confined to California. Among the country’s 40 largest metros, New York City, Buffalo, Seattle, Miami and Chicago rounded out the top 10 priciest places to buy gas.

Question: Hey, I recently bought a used 2005 nissan minivan with 28k miles from a mitsubishi dealer over the internet…I took a flight there and drove it back 700miles. After I got in the van I noticed the odemter was not working right, it was unreadable, but I thought it was cold/stuck…about 200 miles down the road it came on perfectly clear and said 78k (50k more)…I called the dealer and they were claiming it was not working right and I should take it to a nissan dealer…I took it to a nissan dealer and they said it was working….when I got back home I inspected the van more throughly and found it to have water damage BIG TIME…it looks likes it was under water about 3 ft high, the cd player doesnt work along with several radio buttons and defrost, etc……I stopped payment from my bank and notified the dealer. They said “oh yeah, it was wet when we got it, it took us a whole day to clean out” but claim it’s their problem as the carfax report checks out clean and the miles thing can be fixed they claim, they refuse to pick the car up. What should I do? I have the phone call recorded if you want to hear it. Thanks

Queen of the Road:  Terrible, Terrible, Terrible!!! That is the kind of stuff that makes people have a terrible impression of car dealers.  I’m really sorry about what happend.

This is the first thing I want you to do right away.  There is an amazing blog on the internet called The Consumerist www.consumerist.com that is THE best consumer advocate site.  They get millions of readers and really take bad businesses to task.  Write to them with a detailed description of what happened. Email tips@consumerist.com their editor is Ben Popken ben@consumerist.com senior editor is Meghann Marco marco@cosumerist.com and associate editor is Chris Walters chris@consumerist.com 

Secondly, what state are you living in and what state is the dealership in.  We will contact a few attorneys on your behalf and see what they can do.  Believe it or not there are some great lawyers in the business of protecting car consumers.  For some information about the Lemon Law visit http://www.lemonlawamerica.com/

In our experience, Carfax does NOT show everything but it is the most reliable tool out there for now. Let’s help you out of this mess and in the mean time if you need prices on any new or used cars let us know.  Shame on those guys.  Now let’s make them fix the problem.

Follow Up Comment:  Thanks for your help…the dealer has offered to meet me half way on driving the car back, but won’t refund any of my expenses…I think I might just take that offer so this is done with….I think I found a car in dallas, tx, let me know if you think this is a good deal,2007 Nissan Quest Base, 21.5k miles $15995 + $83 doc fee. I will keep you updated on the other dealer, thanks again.

Queen of the Road:  For a 2007 Nissan Quest Wagon with 21,500 miles, prices can range from $15,050 (being in above average condition) to $14,400 (being in average condition) and $13,800 (being below average condition). With this specific model expect them to charge an additional +$1600-1700.

$15995 + $83 doc fee sounds about right, but I would assume that it’s not in above average condition and aim for $16,000. Good luck with the current car situation and let us know how it goes.

Here are the 12 cars drivers enjoy owning the least by The Consumerist

Rank / Model / % Satisfied
12 Chevrolet Aveo (sedan) 44
11 Ford Ranger 44
10 Mazda B-Series 44
9 Ford Freestar 44
8 Chevrolet Aveo (wagon & hatchback) 44
7 Chevrolet Equinox 41
6 Jeep Grand Cherokee (V6, gas) 41
5 Chevrolet Colorado (4-cyl) 40
4 GMC Canyon (4-cyl) 40
3 Buick Terraza 34
2 Saturn Relay 34
1 Chevrolet Uplander 34