Yesterday's Flops, Today's Collectibles
By Claire Martin of MSN Autos
One lesson that came out of product launches like New Coke and the Sony Betamax is that too much hype can be a bad thing. The auto industry has had its fair share of flops over the years — cars that didn't live up to the expectations, gained infamy for abysmal sales or performance, or were just plain weird. But those cars didn't disappear from the roads. Many have achieved cult status and become collector's items, sought after by car enthusiasts for their rarity. "Enthusiasts measure success differently," explains McKeel Hagerty, founder and CEO of Hagerty Insurance, which specializes in collector vehicles. "They'll find some odd-duck car that no one has and they want it." Here are the top 10 most coveted car flops.
Fiat Jolly
With wicker seats and a fringed roof, the Jolly was a novelty car from the get-go. It was produced for the yachting community in 1958, a time when the idea of commuting by boat was a trend. The Jolly could be used to scoot back and forth between one's yacht and house, and it was small enough to bring onboard and use for shore excursions at the port of call. "It's an oddity," Hagerty says. "The idea was that the Martha's Vineyard crowd would amount to a much larger part of the population than it did." Only about 100 still exist today.