page_title: List of automobiles known for negative reception
section_title: Vector W8 (1990–93)
hierarchical_section_title: List of automobiles known for negative reception / 1990s / Vector W8 (1990–93)
caption_attribution_description: Vector W8
context_page_description: This is a list of automobiles known for negative reception. They are judged by poor critical reception, poor customer reception, safety defects, and/or poor workmanship. For inclusion, these automobiles have either been referred to in popular publications as the worst of all time, or have received negative reviews across multiple publications. Some of these cars were popular on the marketplace or were critically praised at their launch, but have earned a strongly negative retroactive reception, while others are not considered to be intrinsically "bad", but have acquired infamy for safety or emissions defects that permanently damaged the car's reputation. Conversely, some vehicles which were poorly received at the time ended up being reevaluated by collectors and became cult classics.
context_section_description: The Vector W8 was a Supercar built by the American manufacturer Vector Motors. Developed through the 1980s and promoted with its Vector W2 prototype, the W8 was delayed numerous times and didn't go into production until 1990. Only 17 examples were completed before the company collapsed. The car received negative publicity almost immediately due to one of the first W8s being purchased by star Tennis player Andre Agassi, which nearly caught on fire his very first time driving it. Agassi, describing the car as a "death trap", went to Vector founder and CEO Gerald Wiegert, returned the car and demanded a refund, which Wiegert obliged. In 1991 Car and Driver attempted a road test of the W8 but all three production models supplied broke down in different ways during testing. In a 2017 piece, Car and Driver described the W8 as being "vaporware", apologized for the positive publicity the publication gave Vector during the 1980s, and claimed the Vector W8 is the reason why the publication never believes any manufacturer's claims about a new model without testing it themselves. Jalopnik included the W8 on its list "Ten Totally Bogus 90s cars"; "When they were running, they may have been great cars, but the W8 was a combination of 80s style with 70s quality, making it the most backward sports car of a forward-looking decade." Edmunds.com named the W8 the 93rd worst car of all time: "Gerald Wiegert's 625-hp, $400,000-plus folly was obsolete by the time it finally hit production. Only 17 reached customers — and they needed to be shadowed by a flatbed."
caption: Vector W8
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:17 15:40:25", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3714", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1939", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "903"}