It's March, and that can only mean one thing -- the new 13-plates are out.
Now, there's a bit of an issue here. For some bizarre reason, stupid people try to steer clear of the number 13 for superstitious reasons. It's called triskaidekaphobia. In fact, there was even talk of skipping over the 13-plate designation and going straight to 63, just to appease these simpletons.
But in the end the DVLA saw sense and all new cars being sold are saddled with a 13-plate.
This got us wondering: a 13-plate is, of course, no more unlucky than a 52-plate or a D-plate, but are there some cars which are inherently more unlucky than others?
So, to answer this question, we've pulled together a list of the top ten unluckiest cars. All of these cars have been associated with misfortune, whether it was the owner, the manufacturer that built it or the car itself which was the victim.
Scroll down to see the top ten.
James Dean's 'Little Bastard'
Unlucky for... absolutely everybody who ever went near it
Everybody knows that James Dean was killed at the wheel of his Porsche 550 Spyder -- affectionately nicknamed 'Little Bastard' -- on 30th September 1955. But what is less well known is the extraordinary story of what happened to Dean's Porsche after he was killed.
After the crash, the car was bought by a friend of Dean -- George Barris -- who planned to break it for spares. He towed it to his workshop in California, and as he was unloading it from the truck, it fell on him, breaking both of his legs.
Barris then sold the engine to a Beverley Hills doctor (the brilliantly named Troy McHenry) who raced cars at the weekends. In the first race after he'd fitted Dean's engine to his car, he went off the road and into a tree and was killed instantly. In the very same race, another doctor -- William Eschrid -- rolled his car and was seriously injured. He had been using the drivetrain from Dean's Porsche.
Barris then sold the Porsche's tyres to a sports car driver who, after just a week, phoned to say that two of the tyres had blown out for no reason. Investigators had assessed the tyres post-crash and could find nothing wrong with the rubber.
By this time, California Highway Patrol had decided to use what was left of the Porsche as a road safety exhibit to warn teenage students about the dangers of speed, so Barris welded the body back together and off it went. Three weeks later it was back -- the building in which it was being kept had caught fire. Barris once again touched up the bent and burned car and sent it back to the Highway Patrol.
The car once again fell off its transporter, breaking a student's hip. Then, three weeks later, the car was on the back of a transporter on its way to Salinas, California when the truck driver was killed in a freak accident.
In 1960, while the car was under the ownership of Florida Highway Patrol, it disappeared and has never been seen since.
That is one unlucky car.
Rover 100
Unlucky for... crash victims
In 1997, the Rover 100 (or, as it was still widely known, the Metro) was subjected to the Euro NCAP crash tests and, unsurprisingly, it didn't fare well. The 100's basic design stretched back to the 1970s and thanks to Rover's continued lack of investment in its small car, anybody who was unlucky enough to crash one would almost certainly be horribly killed. Rover withdrew the 100 from production a year later.
Vauxhall Vectra
Unlucky for... Vauxhall
Let's set the record straight once and for all. The Vauxhall Vectra was not a particularly bad car. But when Jeremy Clarkson reviewed a first-gen model on Top Gear back in 1995, he panned it, dismissing it as 'a box on wheels'. The Vectra was therefore an unlucky car for Vauxhall for one good reason: everybody thought it was about ten times worse than it actually was.
Jaguar XJ220
Unlucky for... yuppies
Back in 1989, the global economy was in rude health. Greed was good and greed worked, so when Jaguar announced that it was to build a V12-engined supercar, hundreds of Gordon Gekko-lookalikes slapped down a £50,000 deposit to get their hands on one. Unfortunately, by the time the XJ220 was ready, it was 1992 and the world was in the middle of a global recession. Gordon Gekko could no longer afford to pay for the XJ220, and Jaguar could no longer afford to put a V12 engine in it, opting for a V6 instead and hoiking the price up from £361,000 to £460,000.
Fisker Karma
Unlucky for... buyers
Imagine the situation. You've just spent more than $100,000 on a new Fisker Karma and... OH NO! It's on fire!
This car (whatever it is)
Unlucky for... the driver
Most accidents can be avoided by driving defensively but some -- like this one -- are virtually impossible to avoid. Luckily the driver survived. Click here to see the video.
Jimmy Savile's Rolls-Royce
Unluckly for... its owner
You have to feel for the guy who bought Jimmy Savile's Rolls-Royce. When he bought the car at auction for £160,000 back in July 2012, Jimmy Savile was a national treasure. Unfortunately, not many people want to own a car which was once the property of a predatory sex offender and, as a result, Sir Jimmy's Roller is now virtually worthless.
Any car which Rubens Barrichello has ever driven
Unlucky for... Rubens Barrichello
Poor Rubens Barrichello. For years he looked on helplessly as his teammate -- a certain Mr Schumacher -- won five F1 world championships on the trot. Then he moved to Honda (later Brawn GP -- shown above) and watched his teammate Jenson Button win the world title. Then he moved to Williams... just as the team started to go down the pan.
Lancia Beta
Unlucky for... Lancia
In one of the worst business decisions in history, Lancia decided to build its coupe for the '70s -- the Beta -- out of Russian steel. Unfortunately, said steel was absolutely bloody awful and the Beta rusted away so quickly, Lancia was forced to buy the cars back from their owners at great cost. Lancia's reputation in the UK was ruined.
Trabant
Unlucky for... East Germans
Living in East Germany can't have been much fun. Not only were you living under communism's iron fist, but if you wanted to own a car, it had to be one of these. The Trabant was made out of cotton and was fitted with a two-cylinder 600cc engine. It was not a good car.
And, worst of all, you had to drive it in the knowledge that if you'd have just been lucky enough to live a few hundred miles further West, you could have had a Golf GTI.
