The MG F / TF, launched in 1995 and kept in production until 2011, would have been a desirable car had they bothered to screw it together in a more motivated fashion.
There were some engineering / design quirks too. It had all the ingredients a little sports car would have needed, but it seems they were either stirred too much, or too little, because the result is appetizing, but with a strong bitter aftertaste.
The car’s problems were known very early on, and even if people still bought the car and loved it, there can’t have been that many people who loved everything about it, and namely the way in which it was built.
These quality issues could have been overlooked in isolation, but the car had a direct competitor, which was built in a country renowned for its exemplary work ethics and solid cars – Japan with its Toyota MR-2; the F / TF faced both the second- and third-gen MR-2 and lost.
All of the above is illustrated in this 2001 review from Men and Motors, the program also hosted by Richard Hammond before he moved to Top Gear.