The shortest-lived cars in UK history

Most cars tend to last around seven or eight years on the market, with a mid-life facelift to keep things fresh. Some cars are axed early because they were ahead of their time; others were plain wrong, didn't sell and were put out of their misery, and others fell victim to corporate failures and other machinations well above their paygrade.

Behold then, these are the George Lazenbys of British motoring history, complete with information as on how many are left on our roads, and current guide prices in case any tempt you:

And we start off with the comparative winners, the cars that lasted around five years or so on the market...

Alfa Romeo 159 (2006-11)

The handsome 159 wasn't a bad car, but the preceding 156’s poor reliability and poor dealer support doomed it from the start however.

How many left? Roughly 5300

I want one – how much? Decent ones from £1500

A rare off-target car from Audi, though only relatively, as you’ll see from the numbers remaining. Functional low-drag styling produced a sophisticated but earnest look that put off some, while others loved its lightweight aluminium construction and high-rise seating. A firm ride and the need to pay extra for a fifth seat were minor annoyances in a car that was way ahead of its time. High production costs combined lethally with slowing sales to kill it prematurely.

How many left? Around 9000

I want one – how much? Decent ones without inter-galactic mileages are around £1800, and have future classic potential.

This pretty coupé was barely promoted by Peugeot post-launch, with obvious, sad consequences. Another tiresome aspect was that this would-be sports car shared its platform with the Peugeot Partner van and Citroën Berlingo van-with-windows. What could possibly go wrong? The high-performance R version has its fans in our office, however.

How many left? Around 11,500

I want one – how much? Decent ones from £3500. RCZ Rs from £12,000.

A grim example of GM’s build-it-and-it-will-sell arrogance that was only tempered by its near demise in 2009. With hindsight, it's amazing that this pointless, long-wheelbase oddball remained on sale for five years. One ill-starred product of the short-lived 2000-2005 GM-Fiat alliance, it's the sister car to the Fiat Croma, which you will not be shocked and surprised to learn also puts in an appearance in this feature...

How many left? Around 2900

I am mildly eccentric and want one – how much? OKish cars from £1700

Cadillac BLS (2006-10)

Amazing that this one lasted as long as it did, but perhaps stocks took time to clear. A reskinned Saab 9-3, the BLS was unusual for being the only Cadillac never sold in the US, being built in Sweden and available with an Italian diesel engine. Nothing wrong with the international confection, but the BLS’s limited talents turned it into a cut-price Saab.

Industry wags dubbed it the Bob Lutz Special after the GM bigwig who championed this particular idea. Did the wagon version help? No.

How many left? Around 250

I want one – how much? Only two on sale right now, from £4000.

This small, cheap car was stalled by Chevrolet’s withdrawal from the UK; it briefly sold in decent numbers before it's now fading as fast as a Snapchat message.

How many left? Around 12,000

I want one – how much? Sheds from £1500, decent ones from £1800.

Another car prematurely deceased when Chevy withdrew from the UK. Built in South Korea, this 7-seater was actually decent and practical enough.

How many left? Roughly 4800

I want one – how much? £3000 will get you a 2011 example with 81,000 miles on the clock.

This was a quirkily appealing little Lancia – for that is what it really was behind the Chrysler badge – but troubled. It died when the Chrysler name disappeared from the UK, but lives on in Italy as a Lancia, that company’s only and probably last-ever model.

How many left? Roughly 5000

I want one – how much? From £2000.

The Patriot was uncertain off-road, miserable on it, what with its Poundland-standard cabin plastics and yelling VW diesel engine.

How many left? Around 3500

I still want one – how much? Decent ones from £2700.

The Magnette was a booted version of the MG6 hatch, badged with the fabled MG name in desperation. Not the worst drive in the world, it was petrol-only, and hampered by very high running costs.

How many left? Around 1000

I want one – how much? Decent ones from £3000.

This feature story is hardly short of poor-selling oddities, but the Exeo is surely one of the oddest. It’s essentially a rebadged Audi A4 Mk3 (B7), which went off sale the same year the Exeo came out. It also spawned a wagon derivative. It was all meant to fill a space in the Seat model range, but it was inevitably dated, especially inside. Not a bad car by any means, but certainly a strange one.

How many left? Around 7200

I want one - how much? Decent looking examples from around £2800

Peugeot’s answer to… who knows what? It had electrically sliding doors, which opened ponderously. They also made the car very heavy and slow. It looked truncated, like its career in the UK market.

How many left? Around 3400

I want one – how much? From £800.

Well-made, but not made for long. Survival stats unidentifiable among those for other variants.

How many left? Unknown

I want one – how much? From £1600.

The existence stats are buried among Laguna hatches and wagons. But believe us: it’s rare. Much better looking than the other Lagunas, some compared it to a miniature Aston Martin, at least from the back.

How many left? Unknown

I want one – how much? Five-figure mileage cars from £2800.

This was a clever, roadgoing concept car whose frustrating gearbox helped strangle sales.

How many left? Around 3000

I want one – how much? Decent ones from £2800. Warm 101bhp Brabus version has future classic possibilities, with prices from £6500.

The Kyron was good off-road, but felt like it was still there when returned to Tarmac. It was later offered with a five year, 250,000-mile warranty, but even that wasn’t enough to bolster its fortunes.

How many left? 400 or so

I want one – how much? From about £2000 - if you can find one.

Alfa Romeo Spider (2007-10)

The Spider was lovely to look at but distinctly average to drive – really more of a two-seat cabriolet than a sportster. Overweight, over-quivery and all over pretty quickly.

How many left? Roughly 1400

I want one – how much? Decent ones from £7000 - and prices seem to be going up.

Once upon a time your tired and in-a-hurry writer made the mistake of accepting this as a "Golf or similar" at Pisa Airport's car rental counter. Minutes later, bouncing about on an ill-surfaced autostrada in the middle of the night he realised his error. Truly frightful.

How many left? 900 or so

Fake news - I still want one - how much? From £2000.

It only went off-sale in the US in 2017, but Honda’s dinky little CR-Z hybrid disappeared from British showrooms in 2013. The idea was great – combine the cheeky verve of the 1980s CR-X coupé with the low-emissions, low-guilt ownership of a hybrid.

But the CR-Z wasn’t quite quick enough to reignite the frenetic zest of its ancestor (although the volume of noise was there), while an ordinary diesel supermini easily matched its economy.

How many left? Around 3800

I want one - how much? Decent ones from £5900.

Developed by Daimler’s commercial vehicle arm, as suggested by a name designed to put buyers off. Which it did.

How many left? Around 700

I want one - how much? Well preserved examples from £3000.

The third-generation Toledo was essentially an Altea with a big fat boot, to which many buyers said a big fat no.

How many left? Around 2500

I want one - how much? The ones out there all seem to have mega miles, so think £1500 or so.

Cool name, almost cool shape and a cool-to-cold reception from buyers.

How many left? Around 4400

I want one - how much? OK-looking ones from £2500.

Brilliant, brave and soon to bomb, the Ampera was skewered by a high price and buyers’ then indifference to green machines.

How many left? 1200 or so

I want one - how much? Five-figure mileage examples from £8800.

The logic seemed impeccable: take a hot-selling SUV which fortunately had a three-door version already, and lop the top off, complete with a roof mechanism pinched from the Jaguar XK. Surely, then, sales would ensue. Sadly it didn’t work out that way. Convertible SUVs have never been an easy sell, and this car continued the trend.

Critics didn’t like its high prices, starting at £47,000 - and hefty weight which hampered its dynamics on the road. Launched in the summer of 2016, it lasted just three years on the UK market. When the Evoque Mk2 came along in 2019, it lacked both a three-door version and a convertible.

I want one - how much? From £30,000.

The Countryman crossover has been something of a brand-extending hit for Mini, so Mini rolled the dice to make a three-door version. The market clearly never quite figured out what it was: an SUV? A large supermini? A large Mini? Whatever the answer, BMW lost confidence in it, and yanked it from the market at the end of 2016 after three years on sale.

How many left? 10,000

How much? OK looking ones are from £6600

With the Cougar Ford was trying to recapture the magic of its Capri days, when that car sold like hot cakes in the '70s and '80s. And while the Capri could get away with using a saloon sibling - in this case the Cortina - as its platform, the market had changed by the time the Mondeo-based Cougar came out.

The segment was much more competitive, and, worse for Ford, the children of the folk who had Capris a generation earlier now wanted – and could afford – BMWs and Audis. Ford sold just 13,000 in Europe over three years.

How many left? Around 700

I want one - how much? Not many around, but from £1500 and up.

You may not remember this model any better than you remember Nissan’s Infiniti brand as a whole, which failed to make an impact in the UK despite trying quite hard between 2008 and 2020. The Q30 is a premium hatchback built at the Nissan plant in Sunderland, and is very closely related to the Mercedes A-Class Mk3. Sadly most buyers bought that car instead.

How many left? Around 4900

I want one - how much? £10,000 gets you a 2016 example with around 60,000 miles on the clock.

This car is reasonably famous for its one overwhelmingly quirky feature: it had one (large) driver’s side door, and two (smaller) doors on the other. We very much doubt any prospective buyers in a focus group ever asked for such a feature, but there we are. In addition, the car was never quite sure if it was a coupe or a sports car, and in attempting to do both rather failed in both.

The second-generation's hot N version solved many of its problems, but it never came to Europe. The Veloster lives on in America, where it’s actually rather well regarded.

How many left? Around 2600

I want one - how much? Decent looking examples from around £4000

Now we’re starting to get serious…

Aston Martin Cygnet 2011-13

The Cygnet was a Toyota iQ city car converted into an Aston Martin. It was allegedly dreamed up by two executives meeting on a golf course; a very weird way into Aston ownership.

How many left? 135

I crave an Aston Martin, anything will do - how much? Interestingly, the sheer lack of success of this car when new has led to scarcity holding up residual values. And the late Sir Stirling Moss had one (pictured). You won’t get into one for less than £35,000.

Another product of GM’s seemingly endless quest to make Cadillac a force in Europe. GM tooled these for right-hand drive and set prices keenly – essentially charging BMW 5 Series money for a 7 Series sized car. But it was rewarded with sales of just 45 cars.

How many left? 21

I want one - how much? Extremely hard to get hold of, when they appear they seem to sell for around £10,000.

Chevy’s withdrawal didn’t help, but the Volt was selling slowly anyway despite its brilliance. It was just too expensive.

How many left? 113

I want one - how much? Lowish-miles examples from £7500.

A miserable, short-lived, badge-engineered travesty and another example of Fiat Chrysler’s periodic abuse of brands – this Delta being a Lancia. This quietly elegant hatch was true to the standard, pre-rallying Delta of 1978. Not that anyone cared. FCA rebranded the Delta over here because it figured that Chrysler badges would smother sales less completely than a Lancia shield.

Either way, the Delta’s pricing was heroically ambitious (equivalent BMWs were often cheaper, at retail if not real world prices at least), and its career was brief.

How many left? 770 or so

I want one - how much? 70,000 milers from £2700.

We have always had a soft spot for the Jimny, and absolutely loved the go-anywhere spirit of this tiny kei car 4x4. Sure, driving it on the motorway was not much fun, but show it some mud and it could perform like little else available for any money. Unlike most of the car’s in this story, the Jimny wasn’t axed – after less than two years – for commercial reasons. On the contrary, it was selling like hot cakes.

No, the Jimny died because of Suzuki’s urgent need to drag down its CO2 fleet average; at 154g/km even the most economical Jimny was way above the 95g/km number Suzuki needs to hit. The story isn’t quite over though: the Jimny returned to sale in 2021 as a commercial vehicle with no rear seats and in a class subject to lighter CO2 rules.

How many left? 2000 or so

I want one - how much? From £18,500 - and they don't seem to be depreciating that much.

A US budget rental fleet special that made you pleased to get back in your own car. Nasty.

How many left? Around 1000

I love rental cars – how much? OK looking examples are to be had from just £1700.

As per the Sebring, but this was meant to be a budget performance car. It wasn’t. Those of a historical bent may be interested to know that the Avenger name was something Chrysler first used on the Hillman Avenger, a big-selling but now largely forgotten saloon in the 1970s, and a nameplate retained when most of the rest of its European arm was sold to PSA in 1979.

How many left? About 500

I want one - how much? £1700 should secure a reasonably tidy example.

The Journey was an unfortunate car, as it was launched just as the people-carrier class implosion gathered force, and new Chrysler owner Fiat was questioning the wisdom of bringing the Dodge brands to the UK.

How many left? Around 1200

I want one - how much? Reasonable examples seems to be out there from £2800.

In a chunky kind of way it was quite good-looking, which matched its rough-edged manners. Yet another failed Dodge.

How many left? Around 1800

I want one - how much? Decent examples without vast mileages start around £3000.

This Croma made the troubled 1980s original look good. It's hard to believe Da Vinci flourished in the nation where this was born. It had lifeless steering, dubious handling, and a soggy gearchange. Dreadful.

How many left? Around 270

I still must have one - how much? Extremely cheap, from £1000, and for good reason.

As newly independent MG Rover started to run out of road, in its wisdom it decided to spend time and money on this handsome-as-a-hippo rework of a failed De Tomaso project. And then tried to sell it for Porsche 911 money. As our Andrew Frankel reported when he first drove it, “The driving position is one of the worst I can recall… Headroom is appalling, too.”

The SV might conceivably have gone on for longer but the company ran out of money and closed down.

How many left? 16

I want one - how much? They don’t come up often, but rarity seems to have helped residual values, and when they do sell they do so from around £40,000.

A classic “What were they thinking of?” machine. It was outstanding at almost nothing.

How many left? Around 130. Its two-door sister car, the Avantime, just outnumbers it with 156 left on UK roads

I want one - how much? Extremely rare, examples cost from £1500 - prices seem to be on the up.

Curious niche roadster developed by Renault Sport. Euthanised during the Renault UK range cull of late 2011. And the name is not without its problems in the British context.

How many left? Around 2100

I want one - how much? They don’t seem to do many miles, so most out there seem tidy enough, from £2800.

An Indian-built car with a Union Jack on its rump. It was at least cheap, but there was a reason for that. It was bought in by MG Rover to give dealers a small car to sell after the Metro (sorry..., Rover 100) was ignominiously axed in 1998. It would probably have gone on for much longer but the company went bust.

How many left? Around 280

My life is incomplete without a CityRover in it - how much to buy one? It's rare - and getting rarer by the day. There’s only two for sale at present, from £650.

The Tagaris is one of the best cars in this story, though as with all TVRs driving and indeed owning one wasn’t for the faint-hearted. But just look at it. It would have gone on a lot longer but TVR went bust.

How many left? 108, down from 190 in 2006, but up from just 80 in 2020 surprisingly, when presumably some went off-the-road during Covid-19. Looking at the attrition from 190 to 108, we suspect most were smashed rather than scrapped, given how valuable they are.

I want one - how much? From £69,000.

Even Vauxhall insiders thought this 8-seater relabelled US import was expensive and thirsty rubbish, and when it performed very badly in crash tests in 1998 it got pulled from the market, after just over two years on sale

How many left? 16

I want one - how much? When they do come up, think £500 or so.

Unlike for most of these cars, the DeLorean tale is a reasonably well known one. By the standards of its time, it wasn’t a bad car, and its design has arguably aged reasonably well. And gullwing doors on an affordable sports car were not to be entirely sniffed at. But it wasn’t very well built and was too heavy, and scandal and financial problems led to the company’s collapse and the car’s premature end.

How many left? Very few indeed

I want to drive at 88mph and be in 1955 - how much to get there? The cars have rarity and a cult following in their favour, so you won’t get one of any consequence for less than £30,000.

This Italian sister of the Mazda MX-5 Mk4 was actually built on the same Hiroshima production line as the Japanese car. It was going to be an Alfa Romeo until then Fiat group boss Sergio Marchionne decreed on brand-image grounds that no Alfa could be built outside Italy. Despite their shared origins, the 124 looked very different from the MX-5.

However while decent enough it was nothing like as good to drive. Slow UK sales ensued – around 5000 in total by our estimate - and the Fiat was axed in January 2019 after less than three years on the UK market; the hot Abarth version lasted a short time longer.

How many left? Roughly 4600.

How much? From £13,000

We like the Bentayga and we loved its 4.0-litre V8 diesel variant: all that opulence, but with 30mpg all day long – and a useful 500-mile range as a result. Engineered in the glory days of the black pump, by the time it arrived in late 2016 diesel was in the dumps after the dieselgate scandal of Volkswagen, Bentley’s parent. So it got axed, though petrol sales of the luxury SUV continue. The diesel version lasted just two years; Bentley’s first ever diesel, and almost certainly its last too.

The car’s Audi SQ7 sibling also lost its diesel after a short period, and went petrol.

How many left? 536

How much? From £90,000.

The first generation Ka citycar was widely applauded for its sharp design and keen handling, and sold well in the UK. The second one was a sister car to the Fiat 500 but was completely overshadowed by it in sales and cultural terms. The third Ka arrived in the UK in 2017, and had grown in size. Indeed, it was based on the Fiesta.

This ensured a reasonably keen drive, but like its predecessor it was outgunned by its sibling, and it was axed in September 2019, after around two-and-a-half-years on sale.

How many left? 36,600

How much? From £5000

In the 2010s the UK pickup market was hot, spurred on by some attractive new entrants and useful tax-breaks for commercial users. Which is probably why Mercedes decided to bring some prestige into it, made easier to do by partnering up with Nissan which produced its own version, the Navara.

It seemed however people preferred the much cheaper Navara; that model sold over 100,000 globally in 2019, while the X-Class shifted just 15,300. And the pickup market in the UK went into reverse just to add to the gloom – so the car got the axe after just two years.

How many left? around 4300

How much? From £23,000

By the time the Virage arrived, Aston's DB9 was getting quite long-in-the-tooth despite updates. It was also a fair chunk cheaper than the DBS range-topper, so company managment perceived a niche to exploit between the two in terms of pricing and kit. The market wasn't quite so sure, and 1001 were sold globally before the plug was pulled after 18 months or so.

How many left? 317

I want one - how much? Coupés from £62,500, convertibles from £73,000

You have to work very hard – or be very unlucky – to last but one year on the market. Here are the members of this exclusive club…

Chevrolet Epica (2008-09)

Sorry, but only these words will do: epic fail. You’ve likely forgotten that it’s a very tedious family saloon.

How many left? Around 180

I want one - how much? From £1500.

It’s easy to forget now, but Tesla in its early days was regarded by many as little more than a joke, making all-electric cars at a time when battery technology couldn’t offer a decent range. Worse still, the company's boss Elon Musk was something of a figure-of-fun, who spent a lot of time and energy in dispute with the BBC over the Roadster’s portrayal on Top Gear.

Based on a Lotus Elise, the car offered remarkable performance – 0-62mph in under four seconds – but at a price: on a test track we drained the battery in just 75 miles. It was cancelled in 2012 to make way for the Model S. That car was a total gamechanger not just for Tesla but for the entire automotive industry – but the story started with the Roadster. And Musk has had the last laugh: depending on the admittedly erratic Tesla share price, he's the world's richest person most days of the week.

How many left? 41

I want one - how much? There is only one for sale at the moment, going for £97,000

This crossover’s name and semi-digital dashboard were interesting, but it was killed by Chevy’s European withdrawal. The Trax lived on until 2019, in the shape of the Vauxhall Mokka X.

How many left? Around 1600

I want one - how much? Decent ones from £5000.

This car ought really to be a legend, because it offered optional kit such as automatic, self-steering lane-keeping (an industry first), and forward collision mitigation well over a decade ago. Active front-lighting, Bluetooth and a rear-view camera also appeared on an amazing roster of kit.

Less impressive, surprisingly, was the 3.5 V6 (low-rev lethargy slowed it), but what really did for this technical marvel was the lack of a diesel engine in the range, which were becoming all the rage at the time in the executive market.

How many left? We think a few dozen of this particular model

I want one - how much? Tidy ones from £4000.

The X-90 was an early attempt at making a car to rival the convertible Jeep. In truth, only that American car has successfully pulled that trick off, and the X-90’s quirky looks hardly helped matters. The model did however get something of a cult following when the Red Bull energy drink firm started strapping huge cans of its concoction to the car’s back – and these can still be seen around the place today.

How many left? Around 130

I want one - how much? From £1500 – but you’ll have to hunt high and low.

The Cube looked great on Japan’s city streets, but somewhere between weird and foolish on Britain’s. Made in Japan, it incurred hefty shipping and currency-change costs, and it accordingly had overly-ambitious pricing – which also helped to finish it off.

How many left? Around 1050

I want one - how much? £3200 gets you a nice example.

Renault sold only 79 before pulling the plug (sorry) on this pricey, short-range electric saloon.

How many left? 47

I want one - how much? You’ll pay upwards of £5000 – but you’ll have to find one first.

You have to work quite hard to miss-hit the SUV boom, but Renault aced it with this South Korean makeover. The Koleos name returned on a new SUV in 2017.

How many left? Around 1800

I want one - how much? Decent ones from £2000.

This was an overly-rushed Saab version of the Vauxhall Insignia, conceived well before GM’s hurried exit from Trollhättan in 2010. Lovely seats were spoiled by dubious ride and handling, woolly steering and, on cooking versions at least, ghastly green dot-matrix information displays that contrived to be aeronautical but landed as plain old Amstrad CPC 464.

Nevertheless, it stood a vague chance in the admittedly not overlarge non-German luxobarge market, but it died when Saab’s woefully underfinanced, over-ambitious new owners went bust.

How many left? Around 1000

I want one - how much? Around £5000 gets you into this final Saab.

With a snout even odder than its name, this road-biased SUV disappeared as quickly as a rallying Impreza WRX. For some reason it was launched to journalists in Venice, a place more normally noted for its canals, not its roads.

How many left? Around 350

I want one - how much? Nice ones from £6000, though be warned that the £600 annual road tax bill will be tiresome.

Four-wheel drive, a 2.4-litre petrol, automatic, 191g/km and no diesel meant low sales. But a not unpleasing shape, we think.

How many left? 305

I want one - how much? Neat ones are out there from £5500.

And the winner is… The Honda Logo. It was on sale between April 2000 and January 2001, and thus by our reckoning, had the shortest on-sale run of any car sold in the UK in the modern era, cracking just nine months on the market. Why?

It was a dated, dull supermini memorable for absolutely nothing. Except, it seems it was the most reliable car in Britain, according to some independent research. That was partly because it had so little kit that there wasn’t much to go wrong, but also because it was Japanese. The Logo was introduced not long before the first Jazz (a vastly better car) to give Honda a toehold in this class.

How many left? Around 600

I want one - how much? They come up for around £900 occasionally.

We're not exactly sure how long the Austin Allegro 1 estate stayed on sale, but we do know one thing: it was only in production for 100 days. In a story sadly typical of British Leyland mismanagement, the firm designed and tooled up production for the car, only to end it three months later as production of the estate shifted to the Allegro 2 facelifted model in late 1975.

How many left? Very, very few.

I want one – how much? Rarity has boosted values; reckon on a few thousand pounds - if you can find one.