This strange sight caught my eye as I was driving through town the other day… What could they be?
As I got closer, I noticed that these are three-wheelers. A little searching online when I got home revealed that I had spotted a brace of Wildfire WF650-Cs, probably on the way to new customers (or, more likely on the way back to the dealer).
Turns out these vehicles “have issues” – over 200 built between April, 2008 and January, 2009 recently got recalled because there was no warning label telling owners to maintain their brake system, which has only one brake fluid reservoir (single circuit?), and no warning lamps to indicate brake failure. To make matters worse, Wildfire Motors has ten cases under review with the Ohio Attorney General and 30 with the Better Business Bureau.
The Wildfire attempts to provide a car-like experience for what is basically a tarted up enclosed motorcycle (which it is registered as). While a top speed of 65mph is listed, the recommended “cruising speed” is 45mph – interstate travel is probably best achieved as you see in the photos.
The big draw to these odd vehicles is the fuel economy: you can get up to 60mpg from its 26hp, 650cc water cooled gas engine, which is mated to a four-speed manual transmission. The Wildfire is reasonably lightweight, weighing around 1763lb (800Kg, or 1.1 VW Beetles).
A truck version (WF650-T) is available (and in fact, the “-C” appears to have been removed from the Wildfire site for now) – this is a little more appealing to me personally, although I have no idea what I’d do with it here on the farm (other than carry a few hay bales out to the animals, maybe?).
We’ll quit picking on these two for now. Creating an exciting-looking three-wheeler is a challenge (I know first hand, as that was the topic of my Senior Industrial Design project at Ga. Tech). However, I’m of a mind to say that whoever designed the WF650-C pretty much just phoned it in…
So… ugliest car ever? Discuss!
thease are so grim that..i actualy wouldnt mind one if it worked properly,lol just to kinda zip around town in,lol but then im kinda sick like that id like a reliant regal or a super robin..but the best one is for me the bond bug if you wanna see one google bond bug and all shall be revieled
Well…… at least the shift knob appears to be wood ( or fake plastic wood ). But why?
Especially since there’s no wood anywhere else in the dashboard… Aftermarket?
I thought for a minute that two Kia Sedonas had hit head-on!
They have issues, no shit, not enough wheels would be the one most obvious possibly ok with a load in back but empty stability would be a problem.
Not even close to being the ugliest car ever.
I have said numerous times, and I maintain today, that the AMC Matador Coupe is the fabled “Ugliest Car of All-Time”. Nothing else comes close, not this, the Aztek, the 1st-generation Fiat Multipla, not even the Bugazzi.
It may very well be the weirdest car you can drive in the US, though. I’ve long since noticed that when a vehicle has three wheels, if the single one is in the front doom is imminent. You’d think an engineer might have noticed that as well.
Not nearly as bad as the Zap Xebra. But it is definitely a Xebra wannabe.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-zap-xebra-the-assassination/
I was just going to mention the Zap, as there have been a couple Xebra trucks for sale on trademe here for a while. The Xebra is too heavy (!) to be classified a trike, and is thus classed as a light truck. Except the government says like hell are they allowing it on public roads, so we are thankfully spared from the sight of them. For once a government decision is commendable! Let’s hope if the Widlfire ever turns up here they sentence it to off-road use only too!
I want to get a crash helmet and roll one just for the hell of it.
Though you can make a good looking 3 wheeler…..
Too bad they never built it, I thought I thought this was just the coolest thing when I saw it at the GM World of Motion exhibit at EPCOT when I was a kid.
Top Gear has a lot of fun trashing some Reliants, they even shoot one off as a rocket.
Let’s be quite honest here. Three-wheeled vehicles just cannot handle the test track. There’s something about stability, or rather, their complete lack of it.
Must be why Morgan three-wheelers were banned from racing then?
Funny looking, sure. Ugliest? No, that’s a high bar to reach.
I’d be tempted to try one…but I’m still smarting from the hosing I took on a Chinese 300cc fuel-injected scooter. Rode fine; started fine; saved gas (75 mpg) and capable of Interstate travel (had it up to 80). I actually put 2400 miles on it, back and forth to work…when the connecting rod let go.
Now I’m fighting with the sleazy importers and dealers of a cheap, inferior-materials, Chinese motor vehicle. For $2300 I got 2400 miles out of it. Not a lot of savings there, hey?
I’m not going to repeat that with another Chinese vehicle, even more expensive….no WAY, Jose….
I think this is a situation where a used Kawasaki Ninja 250 would have been a better choice. My 96 model topped out around an honest 100-105 mph with me ducking behind the windshield Bonneville style and got 70+ mpg at 65 and never, never broke. My main costs were chains and tires.
I agree with you, why should I have any reason to buy Chinese? Their crap I used to buy at Wal-Mart never lasted very long.
Ah, the bike-versus-scooter debate. A biker for 25 years, I hanged it up this spring. My BMW was getting too heavy; and I had a mini-crisis on a work-and-pleasure trip to Dallas a year ago. Leg was swelling; back went out same time; I thought the leg was phlebitis.
Problem happened as I was crossing Missouri. Trouble is…while I was crossing the state, Joplin was getting wiped out with a tornado.
Every hospital in the area was overloaded…I didn’t even need to check. Every HOTEL was overfilled with carpenters and electricians. I didn’t need to be there; it was Dallas or die.
False alarm…turned out to be GOUT. And the back…been dealing with that for eight years.
Anyway…it was time for me to hang up the big-man-big-bike model. But I still like two wheels…I got me this Chinese scooter as a trial.
Trial worked. But the Chinese scooter…not so much, as it turned out.
But to the point…the storage in a scooter has to be seen to be believed. Truly…convenient doesn’t begin to describe it.
That, and the auto-drive…and the fact that most scooters are MORE fuel-efficient than similar-engine-size motorcycles…
I shoulda bought Japanese, yes. But not the Ninja.
Ahhh, saving gas….well, even with the absurd prices I pay for gasoline here in Canuckisan, I can still buy a lot of gas for $2300.
I spend a lot of time in China and know the place well, especially since my wife is Chinese. She would never buy a Chinese made motor vehicle.
That said, Chinese factories are capable of making good machinery if there is a foreign company in charge. This according to a Chinese friend who is an automotive engineer.
The didactic would call it “false economy.”
Of course I didn’t plan it that way. What I’d read of Chinese scooters was that most problems arose from either using them with the crappy shipping oil they came with, or electrical issues.
I hadn’t expected the Yamaha-designed engine to let go, not even through it’s break-in.
The thing is, Chinese companies don’t yet understand the meaning of reputation and customer base. They’re happy to find a way to screw the customer; and think they’re getting away with something.
And they are…kinda. In ten years they’ll be even more marginalized than they are now. Whereas the Japanese, studying W. Edwards Demming, built a following and reputation…and now own the manufactured consumer-goods market.
Sorry to hear about your luck. I spent three years using a Jinan Qingqi 150cc scooter as my daily commuter for work. Put 10k on it, then decided to sell it. Found out a few things: 1. Pick carefully, and there are good Chinese vehicles out there. 2. Don’t skimp on the service – that $1500 Qingqi needs the service schedule kept just as closely as a $18,000 Gold Wing. 3. If all you want to do is commute (no going over 50mph), a 150cc scooter puts anything else to shame. Quick handling, acceptable acceleration, 65 mpg. What’s not to like?
Now, at the shop where I worked, we looked at a few different Chinese brands before deciding to carry the Qingqi. Under no conditions will I ever consider a Lifan. Quality control is terrible. Of great important is checking on what Japanese or European manufacturer the firm is tied in with. Qingqi basically builds small Suzuki’s under license.
Airman is right. The rig is backwards but even a reverse trike does not have the stability of a four wheeler. It’s certainly got a bigger thrill factor.
Actually, a three wheeler can be designed so it’s highly stable, as it’s possible to have the center of gravity beneath the center of roll (vehicle will lean into turns). I had to research and justify all this to my professors before they would let me proceed with designing a three wheeler as my senior project. Most of the ‘kit’ type cars are indeed unstable and can roll pretty easily if tossed around much.
OTOH, there’s a reason Morgan did so well (eventually being banned) in racing…
Hmmm… I think I have a new CC topic to work on!
Ugliest? No. That has to be the Ssangyong Rodius aka Odious. Think of your 5 year old nephew drawing a picture of a Mercedes R class, and then it being put into production directly from the crayon drawing. This thing makes the Aztec look like a coke bottle mid-60s pontiac by comparison.
Regarding 3 wheelers, they were popular in the UK for one reason only- licensing. In the old days, if you had a sidecar motorbike license you could drive one of these. They remained popular for grungy bikers who had become disabled after one too many collisions with stone walls on the TT course, and are essentially an AC invicar with street cred, or an all-weather trike. Of course the UK built ones were stupidly modifiable and would often have a Rover v8 or a highly tuned Hillman Imp engine in the front. Unlike these cynical bits of Harbor Freight garbage, the Reliant Robin and its ilk were handbuilt in the same factory that made the Scimitar ‘Shooting brake’ for Princess Margaret and others who appreciated a sports car that was dog friendly.
(other than carry a few hay bales out to the animals, maybe?), well until you get it stuck, one drive wheel and weight in the back? Sounds fun on the ranch.
This
Those Mulitplas are seriously strange. I’m assuming y’all in the States didn’t get them, but we did here in NZ, and let me tell you having followed one on the highway recently, they look all kinds of wrong…! Even the later ones with the higher bonnet and no headlights under the windscreen look odd. But I love the fact that they exist, because difference and uniqueness should always be part of life!
A friend of mine reported on Facebook that he spotted a Zap Xebra in North Canton, Ohio. When he first posted a photo of it, I thought it was one of these things. We had a Wildfire dealer here in Grand Rapids for a very short time, I think he sold a couple of them during the gas price hysteria of 2008. I don’t know whatever happened to those cars, I’ve never seen them again. Just like a regular motorcycle, I don’t want to be driving one in traffic with cell phone addled soccer moms (there’s a meme!) piloting their Suburbans with one hand and one eye on the road! Instant bug splat.
There’s another guy in town who still has one, he stuffed the lifted chassis of a Suzuki Samurai (I think) underneath it, it now has four wheel drive. Just what this country needs, a redneck Chinese lifted four wheel drive hatchback…
It’s fun to pick on a a small practical car from another country, Ain’t it?
I remember when I would see negative ads about Japanese cars. One really sticks out in my mind read: “From The People That Brought You Pearl Harbor.”
Nice right?
How about the American Auto Makers that answered the call and gave us the Vega, the Pinto, the Omni AND Horizon, the Gremlin and countless other rolling crap.
Ford STILL Can’t build an Automatic Transmission that lasts. How many Carburetor equipped Escorts with 40,000 miles or less, needed the Carb. Rebuilt or Replaced. How about the Escort’s Water Pump and Timing Belt at 50,000 miles? I lost count. Sure, I made money on every one I fixed but, I couldn’t look my self in the mirror if I didn’t recommend a better car.
Wasn’t it the BIG 3’s Rolling Crap that gave us the Lemon Law????
Can you say Chevette? How about Chrysler’s “K” Cars? What kind of Rolling Crap was the Volare/Aspen?
The American Auto Makers FAILED to give us Well Built, Dependable, Affordable and Fuel Efficient Vehicles for years. They’ll tell you it was Labor’s fault. I’ve seen what Management does to bring Costs down and Profits up. I still remember what the So-Called “Consumer Reports Magazine” Meat-Sack testers tried doing to the Suzuki Samurai? Most likely because Suzuki refused to pay someone off OR they (CRM) were payed off by Detroit. Fortunately, they (CRM) got caught AND SUED. Go to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l83UoSMzeA4) Personally, I would go out of my way to see every one involved in the Blatant Misuse of the Magazine’s Power(?), FALSIFYING RESULTS and anything else FIRED and Banned from working with/for any Magazine, TV and Radio program where anything they say or do can influence a Consumer. Some jail time would’ve been good for them too.
So, go ahead make fun of a Company and their product. At least they’re trying.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my ’66 and ’79 Cadillacs, my ’67 GTO, my ’67 442, my ’66 LTD, ’57 Nash, ’61 Buick Electra. The list goes on and on.
If you want to find a good used car or are thinking about changing Brands, ask a Mechanic you trust.
I own a 2009 Wildfire that I inherited from my Dad. I get quite a kick out of it. Yes, it is very cheaply made Chinese vehicle. However I have alot of fun with it. I even take it to car shows. It certainly gets attention as most folks have never seen one. My biggest problem is I can’t get parts for mine. The questions I get asked the most are “what the heck is it?” “what’s it get for gas mileage?” Isn’t it tippy?” and “where did you get it?”
It is suprisingly stable for being a 3 wheeler. In my state it is road legal & is licenced & registered as a motorcycle. There are design flaws and I wouldn’t want to be in a wreck with it, but it’s like riding a motorcycle in that you can only screw up once. you’re not likely to do it again. But I enjoy mine & plan to keep it. and our regulation happy government can kiss my butt.
Just curious, if three wheelers are so dangerous, then why do so many parents send their young ‘tots’ about the neighborhood to pedal one around.
Just ain’t getting the logic consistency.
I know…well, it’s not motorized…well, it doesn’t go that fast…well…
but if such a poor design, why still on the market?
Truly curious for an answer
Who Has Parts for these things? I need a carb for my WF-650 c
Looking for an engine for a 2009 Wildfire WF650 T
Anybody know where to find a starter for a wf650- t
I have a 2012 WF 650 wildfire is anyone know where I can get insurance on it just want liability
I have a WF 650 wildfire,truck trying to find out who will insure this vehicle I have it registered and can get a license plate but no one wants to ensure it good anybody help me my email is altontinney@Gmail.com I appreciate any help. Thanks.