GM's junk heap

Over its history General Motors has made its share of bad products. Some were poorly built, some were badly executed, others suffered from lousy timing.

In early versions, though, the Corvair's rear suspension design seemed unsuited to the job. The car had dangerously dicey handling in turns.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader featured the Corvair in part of his famous book "Unsafe at Any Speed." which pilloried the U.S. auto industry for emphasizing design over safety.

GM ultimately improved the Corvair's suspension design, which was a good move. What wasn't so good: hiring private investigators to dig up dirt on Nader. Nader noticed the stalkers, of course, forcing executives to publicly apologize and making GM look all the worse.