Five cars that seemed like a good idea at the time

For all the focus groups, design concepts and millions of pounds that makers pour into their new models, sometimes they still get it plain wrong. When I was a kid there were few things I could think of more exciting than designing my own car. In fact, until Weird Science introduced the concept of designing my own real-life lady friend, having a car made just for me was my life's aim. That and discovering the secret formula for Coke, obviously.

But getting a car right is much harder than it looks - just ask Homer Simpson. Let's face it, most of us, if tasked with penning the ultimate car, would unleash exactly the type of adolescent embarrassment that The Homer was, with its huge grille and massive cup holders... hang on, don't most cars have both those things now? Anyway, it's nice to know that carmakers can be human too, capable of conjuring up metal so inept and/or ugly and/or badly timed that only the mentalist minority would buy one.

Most of the cars on this list are mere blips from otherwise successful companies, though in one case, so catastrophic was the entire debacle surrounding the car that a stint at her majesty's pleasure beckoned for those involved. Read on to find out which that is.