World's worst car designed for new Vacation movie

The 2015 Tartan Prancer was created for the movie Vacation and could easily be the worst car of all time

Cars taking starring roles in Hollywood movies is nothing new but the star cars are usually beautiful, fast, stylish machines chosen to make the driver look good and spark pangs of desire in the viewing audience. It's fair to say that the 2015 Tartan Prancer is an exception to this rule. Its creators seem to have set out to fashion the worst car in the world, as you can see in this video. 

Vacation is the film vehicle for this unapologetically woeful, er, vehicle. The movie is a modern day remake of National Lampoons Vacation, the 1983 comedy road trip escapade starring Chevy Chase. In the original, the Griswold family headed off on vacation in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a deliberately appalling wood-paneled estate designed specially for the film. In the new Vacation movie, the holidaying family get to drive the Tartan Prancer billed as “The Honda of Albania”.

As you can see in the video, the Prancer is a large MPV in the mould of a SEAT Alhambra or Ford Galaxy. There's more than a hint of Toyota Previa about its profile and the headlamp clusters seem to have been lifted from a Land Rover Discovery. There's a weird bustle rear end and a suspicious lean towards the rear, as if the front wheels are a couple of inches larger.

The Prancer is also equipped with a hilarious array of comedy extras as the spoof Albanian car ad demonstrates. Door handles double as cup holders, there’s a drinking fountain, a CB radio and a detachable steering wheel. The car also has two sets of door mirrors producing a double reflection effect so the driver can check his hair and two fuel filler caps. 

The Vacation movie opens on August 21st but you'll have to wait a lot longer than that before you see a worse car than the Tartan Prancer.

Is the Tartan Prancer the world’s worst car? Check out our round up of the worst production cars before you make your mind up…

Group website editor

Steve looks after the Auto Express website; planning new content, growing online traffic and managing the web team. He’s been a motoring journalist, road tester and editor for over 20 years, contributing to titles including MSN Cars, Auto Trader, The Scotsman and The Wall Street Journal.

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