No, they were badly designed. I immediately hated the Mako as well, not for difficulty but just aggravation. It handled like a pig and was genuinely unfun to play. And the complaints about it were sufficient that the Mako was mocked as a piece of crap in-game for the rest of the series. It was bad enough that my "on the fence" attitude about ME1 immediately went to "not worth dealing with this crap", and I haven't played the game all the way through as a result (making it the only Bioware game that I own with that distinction).
A minority of players may have liked the Mako, but that doesn't stop the majority of us from having our hair turn white whenever it gets mentioned in relation to a future game. I cannot name a single enjoyable vehicle experience in any Bioware game. It isn't something they do well, and goes actively counter to the party-centric nature of their games.
I fully expect the decision to pick up ME4 to be "well the Mako sucks, but the rest of the game is good, soooo...."