Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
Options
Ugliest Cars of All Time
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
However, it you can back that up with #'s in terms of repairs per hundred vehicles, I might be willing to accept it.
Otherwise, it's like the old saying that no matter how mad Grandpa gets, he never says a word.....
It's true enought but you have to understand that he's been dead for 10 years to place that information in its proper perspective.
It looks like a Sow's ear to me.
I don't care if it's fast... it's UGLY
It's an old saying .. but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I own a WRX exactly like the one in the photo from your link. I like the looks. Are they classic .. nope, don't think so, but they have grown on me. Even more so after you drive it. Beemers will be watching tail lights
- hutch
Can anybody hazard an insurance quote on this puppy? I'd call my State Farm agent out of curiosity, but I'm afraid if I did ol' Joe would die right there on the phone with a smile on his face...
It may look better in person than in photographs. Subarus have always been kind of quirky with their styling, though. I remember the first Legacy looked like it had lifted the roofline off of a 1976 Chevy Caprice 4-door hardtop...little opera window in the C-pillar and everything! And the back windows even went down at an angle to get them mostly out of the way, with just a little triangular sliver sticking up...just like the Caprice.
So how fast is that WRX? I drove an Impreza when they first came out (was it '91 or '92 thereabouts?) I wasn't Imprezed, but I just drove a base model.
Oh well, at least it's unique, and in a better sense than the Aztek!
-Andre
Nowadays beauty is a bad thing. From cars to personal fashion, ugly has become cool.
The sales numbers tell a different story.
Suzuki X11....I think it only sold here for 2 model years.
First generation, Toyota RA4, two door...man is that an ugly vehicle...where is the rear bumper? 4 door isn't much better. New generation looks better from certain angles...
beautiful and gorgeous Pontiac AZTEK....
And I generally like Citroens.
That car was pretty brutal in tri-tone colors.
Change my list. Any car except the corvette built from 1958 to 1962. Bag 'em all up.
http://www.motorbase.com/picture/pid/-590412669.html
Particularly after following the spectacularly sexy TR-6
http://www.motorbase.com/picture/pid/841160394.html
I think both cars improved dramatically for 1959. The Buick was still ugly, but in a more aggressive, less stodgy sort of way. They toned it down for 1960, but then the stodginess returned.
For the most part, though, I think Buick and Olds went on to turn out some pretty decent looking big cars in the 60's, except for maybe around '67-68 or so.
Right now there's a 1965 Buick Electra 4-door hardtop for sale near my home, for something like $1700. I'm actually tempted, but the last thing I need is another car! It's kind of a purple-ish-midnight-blue color.
By 1960, I'd say Chrysler styling was all across the board. The '60 Dodges looked nice, but outdated compared to a Chevy, Ford, Mercury, or Pontiac. The non-Valiant Plymouths were hideous though. I think the DeSoto and Chrysler that year were pretty nice, although the Imperial, to be nice, was "over-styled"! I think '61 would have to be Chrysler's low-point in styling.
-Andre
The only car maker in that tradition now is Pontiac, especially the Bonneville SSEI, Grand Am and yes the Aztek. They're waaaay out there. Wonder if Harley Earl is still on the payroll?
the 401 Cu in high compression V8 with 325 HP and 445 lbs of torque caused the 4500 lb car to do 0-60 in 8.8 sec
with 16.2 at 86 mph in the 1/4. I know, i did in my mom's car at Lyons in 1963. Was smoked by '63 389 Grand Prix, another not so ugly car. Take the air cleaner off and it thundered on take off all the way to 60 mph at which time tranny was shifted from low to drive......
If I recall right, the admen dreamed up a fine-sounding phrase to describe this development, calling it "flight (or flite) poised suspension" or some such drivel.
But I do remember clearly the words in one of the ads touting the marvels of this change . . .
The words were: ". . . helps to maintain an arrow-straight course, even on curves . . ."
If it's so ugly.. why the 4 month wait at the dealers for a car that will be $68k out the door?
I visited with a new SC430 and stared at it and looked it over pretty well, and I must say that I agree, it is not very attractive to my eye. It is really a rather clumsy rip-off of an Audi TT with many other styling cues thrown in, as if the designers were trying everything. The Audi TT I felt was totally integrated in design, as if drawn by one person, but the SC 430 looks like 4 or 5 different cars stuck together depending on how you look at it.
It's certainly a car you notice, which is commendable, but there are plenty of things one notices that aren't beautiful.
Sometimes designs grow on people, but I don't thing this one will be a success. The high flanks and droopy nose do not flatter it. There are some design elements on the car I like very much, but I do not see the hand of one person in it....many hands, much confusion.
You want to see a beautiful Japanese car design, go stare at a last generation Mazda RX-7, perferably in black.
"artificial scarcity" There are 12000 cars coming for 2002. EVERY dealer is backlogged 50 cars at minimum. Dealers are selling USED Sc430's in the high 70's (they buy them, license them, and sell as used to get around the Lexus policy)
I didn't like it at first, passed on my option but am back on the list. This car is incredible. If you don't like it, fine, that's your preference but to me and the thousands of people on the waiting listss, it's simply beautiful. There are alot of options in the $70K market, to me this is the prefect well rounded choice.
Unfortunately, I don't think it lasted the whole model year, and sales of it consistently sank afterwards, even though Chevy cleaned up its looks for '93, revised the engines for '94, and cleaned it up some more for '95.
-Andre
PS: as for the new Lexus convertible, it's not horrible, but it looks like a combination of Hyundai Tiburon and Buick Riviera, with an interior done up by a conversion van company.
The "verdict" on this car is far from decided. It takes a good 6 months for the media buzz to settle in and make up it's mind. Witness the Aztek. A few thousand people signed up to buy may in fact be the minority players. If public reaction goes against the car, the waiting list will fall to nothing. If the car begins to look better and better as people get used to it, then it will remain popular.
The "scarcity" of any consumer product is by definition artificial, because no one really "needs" it.
Automotive history seems to show us that it's good to be ahead of your time in design, but not TOO FAR ahead. People cannot take huge leaps, at least not the majority of people. The most successful automotive designs have taken small but decisive steps to new design frontiers. If a manufacturer takes two leaps instead of one at a time, they could bet burned. Mercedes- Benz does this type of innovative but not too radical design very very well, as does Audi.
But anyway, I would NOT call the car ugly by any means. Never meant to imply that if anyone thought so.
As for that little Lexus convertible, I have nothing against people who own something like that...if that's what floats their boat, that's fine by me. But cars like that, I kind of lump into a "toy" category, the same as a Corvette, Viper, Prowler, etc.
Maybe my trailer park is showing, but if I spent $50-60,000 on a car, I'd be afraid to drive it!!
-Andre
I was thinking about that earlier today. Honda used to be a design leader. The early Legend and the first generation Integras were boldly and handsomely styled.
After Old Man Sochiro Honda died, things went to ...well, got ugly pretty quickly.
The new Acuras are all bland IMHO... almost as bland as their names.
Cutlass
Crown Victoria
Country Squire
Lancer
Javelin
Regal