From the moment the proud designer slides off the cloth cover, the car looks to be a nailed-on smash hit. Very often it is. But sometimes, a car that looks like a sure-fire winner fails to make the cut.

Sometimes the car doesn’t drive in the ways its looks say it will. Sometimes the price is wrong. Sometimes there isn’t enough promotion behind it. Very often, it’s a mix of all these things and more. Read on, then, to discover our selection of cars that should have been stars, and five unlikely machines that broke records.