People mentioned the good selling Chrysler K car's failings.

Well, there was the GM X car (ie the Citation and other clones) that has high sales but is seen as a failure because of many design flaws. As with the K cars, the X cars mostly brought GM into the front wheel drive generation in the 80's.

Ford did not fare much better with its Mercury Lynx and clones....that eventually led to the Escort. This car was so poor, the insurance agencies listed it as the least likely car to be stolen in the period (even the car thieves did not want it). Only much later did Ford do better when it linked up with Mazda, to produce the Tracer. But, it was built in Japan and Mexico (not Canada or the USA).