They say you don’t get bad cars anymore, just uncompetitive ones, and that’s the truth.

The amount of time and money spent researching and developing new car models these days means that any potential clunkers are swiftly disregarded or whipped into more saleable shape.

Long gone are the days of the tragic Yugo, a car so bobbins it was once labelled the Mona Lisa of bad cars.

Instead, we have cars that just aren’t up to standard, be it in terms of build quality, styling, handling, or more pressingly in recent times, emissions and environmental credentials.

While there aren’t any out-and-out fails here, these cars just weren’t up to scratch in 2017.

Maserati Levante

With so many new SUVs emerging in recent years, not all of them can be decent and Maserati’s debut off-roader is one of few new SUVs that falls short of expectations.

Going off the badge and brash styling, you’d expect great things, but an unrefined diesel engine, stodgy handling and a bumpy ride spoil the party. Spend your £56k elsewhere.

MG ZS

MG closed its last remaining UK-based factory last year, so there’s the consolation that nobody in this country is responsible for the poor quality of the ZS crossover.

Naff engines, a woeful auto gearbox, a complete absence of any active safety equipment and a ‘me too’ approach to design make this one of the most forgettable new cars to arrive in 2017.

Mitsubishi Mirage

This pitiful city car is often the target of ridicule at Motor-Vision; we wanted to throw it on a bonfire in 2016, again in 2017, and we were convinced the car would be dropped from the Mitsubishi range such was its hopelessness.

So it was to everyone’s surprise that a revised version toddled along in 2017.

It’s still mind-numbingly slow, it still feels like the interior was kitted out by Poundland and despite its tiny size, it isn’t very efficient either. Oh and it looks like the design team fell asleep halfway through the job.

A car so bad you’ll wish it lived up to its name.

 

Head over here to see our favourite cars of 2017

 

BMW M240i

Whaa’?! What’s a BMW hot hatch doing in here? Describing this souped-up 2 Series as rubbish would be harsh as much as inaccurate. But we’re including it here because it just doesn’t deliver the sensation you’d expect – nay, demand – from a sporty BMW.

It doesn’t get the blood pumping and it’s, dare we say it, kinda boring. A very sanitised experience. Shame.

Fiat 500L

Peter Kay may be a big fan after racking up a three, maybe four-figure mileage in one while filming BBC’s Car Share, but even having the blessing of one of Britain’s greatest ever comedic talents can’t get us to like the Fiat 500L.

The idea of pumping steroids into Fiat’s cutesy 500 reads bad on paper and it’s even worse in practice, with below average reliability, a poor crash test rating and lumpy lifeless handling.

Chuck it off the top of Blackpool Tower.

Mini Cooper Clubman ALL4

The regular Mini Cooper Hatch receives plenty of love from the Motor-Vision team. Almost two decades on from its reinvention under BMW ownership, the cheeky runaround continues to surprise and delight with each iteration.

Not the Clubman though. Like the 500L, the Clubman looks and feels uncomfortable in its own skin, as if an evil scientist took a tiny rabbit and made it 1,000ft tall. That lopped-eared furball doesn’t know what’s going on and this bloated, cheap-feeling monstrosity must be thinking the same.

Its convoluted and unnecessarily complicated sat-nav system is one of the worst you’ll find in any new car right now, and charging almost £30k before extras verges on criminal.

Mini says the Clubman is ‘designed to stand out from any crowd’, but we’d rather it just sit down and shut up.

Which cars triggered your hate this year? Let us know down there in the comments section.