Have you ever seen one of these? My neighbor proudly pulled off the cover to his new, used '63 Avanti. It was about the ugliest car I've ever seen. I couldn't quite burst his bubble and tell him how I really felt.
...but a close runner-up was those last-generation Hawks that had the squared-off body and the pseudo-Mercedes grille. It's amazing how beautiful that style was when it debuted around 1953 or so, but once they shaved the fins off, it was just out of style!
Or how about those '58 Studebakers and Studebaker-bodied Packards with the grafted-on 4-headlight setup. Again, they weren't bad in '57, but it just shows how a trim jiggle can totally screw up a style!
Oh, the 1958 Packard Hawk.....very unattractive car, what a mess.
Hawks were what I call "period attractive" which means they looked good "for the time" but now appear very dated. That's not the same as ugly, just not to our tastes I guess. I'm not a big "fin fan" myself, but I suppose if the rest of the car is all "pointy and jet-plane", it works.
Have you ever seen those "Cars of the Future" articles in car magazines from the 1950s. Frightening designs. They, of course, look nothing like the cars of "our future". Most people who predict things are amazingly wrong, ever notice?
I'm getting my Studebakers mixed up here. I have mistakenly used the name "Hawk" to describe all the low-slung 2-door Studebakers, even though they called them other names when they first came out.
The ones I was thinking about that were really nice were the '53-55 or so models, pre-tailfin, with the low grille, or the twin grilles. I actually like tailfins, but in this case, I think the cars looked better before they put them on.
Then there was the '62-64 or so, with the really squared-off formal lines. That's the one I think is ugly!
Yeah, I've seen some of those "cars of the future", and they're pretty nasty. In that respect, things haven't changed though. I think some of the ones that they're coming up with nowadays are pretty far out there and will hopefully never see the light of day!
As usual, I'm the minority opinion here -- but I loved ALL the Studebaker Hawks, ESPECIALLY including the Packard, and have been tempted to buy one a number of times - they just don't have the performance to back up the looks, and parts availability might be a little scary.
Also loved the Avanti -- then and now, although every atempt to update the styling has been gawdawful. The original is great, inside and out.
I think the Avanti was very attractive in its time (I remember when it first came out), but it didn't sell well then and just hangs on now as a minor league collectible. I think the absence of a grill is a no-no in car design, or so it seems for most cars. The Infiniti Q45 didn't sell for that very reason as well.
Looking at an original Avanti with a pair of 2001 eyes, the shovel-nose isn't very attractive to me.
Sometimes people gotta mess with things whether they need it or not. With the Pantera, they should have left it, I agree, and just done the mechanical upgrades that it sorely needed.
The last decently styled US cars were probably built in the late 1920's up to about 1935.They were proportioned correctly and many of those cars have become the Classics of today. For uglies try these: Henry J (by Kaiser-Frazer), Nash anything, Hudson anything, Studebaker prior to 1953, Dodge/Plymouth 1960-61, Ford 1957, Hupmobile 1935-1939 Aerodynamic, Packard after 1940, Buick/Olds 1958. When the stylists were commanded to design cars that were distinctive and cheap to manufacture, the bizarre/bland craze began. This was the beginning of the blenderized styles we see today. I think everyone exchanges body dies with everyone else, makes small changes and calls it an original design. Just for grins, put a new Lexus SC next to a Duesenberg Boattail roadster from the 30's and see which one gets the attention. The design of the Duesenberg is classic..you won't see any Honda/Toyota/Lexus collectors clubs in the future.
Ugly cars have a better chance of being collected than bland ones.
As for future Japanese car clubs for collectors, given how many cars the Japanese make and how well they survive, it would have to be a club where rarity doesn't matter and where there is little difference between cars. That does weaken the whole idea of collecting. Maybe they will be more like social clubs (which IS sort of the point anyway) with less emphasis on the cars themselves. But a scene 25 years from now of young kids oogling a 2001 Acura, no, I don't think so either.
Toyota 2000GTs are running about 125k, due to their rarity (they are also a lovely car to drive and look at).
Japanese cars haven't been around as long, and their first efforts were quite questionable in terms of both performance and styling. But who knows -- some people collect Trabants and Edsels!
Well, sure, you WOULD pick the ONLY collectible Japanese car in the world ....LOL...they only made 337 of them, and there are fewer surviving now, of course, as compared to maybe ten billion Hondas. Okay, then, we'll wait for the next Japanese car made in such small numbers, then I'll agree with you
I don't think Trebants and Edsels are collected so much as stacked on top of one another, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
lemko, you have a pretty good eye...the ONLY two cars I disagree with at all are the Audi TT and the Cougar....not that they are BEAUTIFUL by any stretch, but they are influential cars in terms of styling, and ugly is too strong a word for them IMO. They are just taking chances. They will look better to you in a few years, I suspect.
A "Barcelona" edition of a Matador? Oh, please, PLEASE find me a photo on the web!
It's funny you mention the Matador cause I was watching TV Land the other day and Adam-12 came on and one of the cops on there (Pete I think) was showing off his new car and it was a MATADOR! And they were gawking all over it like it was a Cadillac or something and I was like, "Oh brother, you have got to be kidding me. How much did AMC pay the producers of this show to get their car on there?" And the cop car was an AMC Ambassador, too, so it must have been some package deal.
Has anyone seen this new Buick Rendezvous? I think this is WORSE than the Aztek in terms of styling. It seems the rear of this "thing" is all one big taillight. I saw it during the day so I didn't get a chance to see this thing blind a driver behind it when it slams on the brakes. Yuck!
I watch that show every once in awhile, and remember one episode when the Matador was in for service, so Reed and Malloy got stuck in one of the older units.
They were whining about what a clunker it was, and I kept wanting to holler at the tv..."It's only 4 years old, you moron!!" I think it was a '68 Satellite they got "stuck" with. And of course, the car did obnoxious stuff like not start, blow antifreeze, anything to make the old Mopar look like junk.
I guess it just stuck a nerve with me because I have a '68 Dart!
Actually, I don't think those Matadors from '70 or so to '73 were all that bad looking, but when they went to that swollen nose for the sedans in '74, that was just too much! Lemko's right, though. Those '74-78 coupes were hideous!
In earlier episodes he had a Mustang convertible. I can't imagine anyone willingly trading in a Mustang for a Matador. When I was in college a friend of mine won one in a contest, it was nasty-a straight six and no options other than an AM radio-I asked if he was sure he won or was this the consolation prize.
...a 4-year old LA Police cruiser would be pretty beat no matter what it was. New York had 1968 Fury I cruisers in the famous dark green with white roof and black fenders. I remember seeing a five-year old unit in 1973 and it was ready for the crusher.
Adam-12 was my favorite TV show when I was a kid. The earlier episodes used Plymouth Belvederes/Satellites. In fact, you could spot a few '67s in the very first shows. The first Adam-12 car was a 1968 Plymouth, then a '69, '70, and '71. The later episodes of Adam-12 used 1972-73 AMC Matador sedans. The LAPD actually used and liked Matadors of those years. I think they may have still used them until 1975 when the LAPD started using Mercury Montegos.
What's fun when watching shows like Adam-12, is seeing all the other cars on the streets back when they were just cars and not some collectors pride and joy. Things like a mid '50's Cadillac dented and missing wheel covers, basically just one step away from the junk yard. Or a brand new '68 Caprice.
The AMC Matador was not that bad. A truly ugly car can not be helped. Penske turned the Matador coup into one of the better looking race cars of its day - something that couldn't have been done with that God awful bull-nosed Matador sedan.
I'll watch "CHiPs" or some other old tv show where they smash up lots of old cars and just cringe nowadays. Or even "Road Warrior", where they burn up that '59 DeSoto, and then Mel Gibson runs into it with the tanker truck...
...called "The Cars that Eat People", where, at the end, a guy in a '58 DeSoto (can't tell if it's a Firesweep or an export Diplomat) batters a guy in an old 40's looking car to pulp by backing into it repeatedly. Now THAT was kinda cool, seeing those fins used as a weapon ;-)
Maybe this is just my Chrysler bias showing through, but I thought the only Chrysler taifins that looked nasty were those on the 1960 Plymouth and the 1961 Imperial. The '61 Dodge looked kinda weird with reverse-slanting taifins, but they weren't TOO nasty.
I love to watch that show! They shot it all around where I grew up in Studio City and No. Hollywood. It's like watching a rerun of your childhood. There is a scene in the first episode where they chase a '60 or so Buick, maybe a LeSabre, down into the storm channel. I was standing next to the camera man on a bridge when they shot one angle. Jack Webb was right there growling on the radio. The show was extremely authentic, cars, uniforms, guns, radio protocol, even the station interior. They used the same cars the LAPD used and yes I remember the Matadors. Even the street names are real but they always used fictitious addresses and intersections. They might say "corner of Woodman and Colfax" when in reality those streets are parallel. They would also do things like show them coming down a street and turning onto a cross street and the next shot the street they would be on was like 2 miles away! The cars in the background are great. There are some real gems! The area was primarily populated by people who worked in aerospace or the studios so there were always neat cars around, lots of Caddies and Lincolns, Healeys and Jags. There was a friend of my brother who had a first series Lotus Europa, a neighbor with a Chrysler Ghia, a friends sister got a new TR4A for here 17th birthday. Ah, those were the days! I had a buddy in high school auto shop who bought an Aston Martin DB2/4 coupe for $600 with a busted crank. If I only knew then what I know now.
...for Ugliest Car in History Award. Whenever you see a Ford Taurus, it will invariably be sitting on bricks or jackstands on someone's driveway or yard. ...all busted and in need of Fixing Or Repairing Daily. Never in history has such an Unreliable piece of Garbage been seen defiling so many decent-looking neighborhoods.
Ford Taurus... should have been advertised as a Lawn Ornament! There's more broken ones sitting on people's lawns than there are running on the street.
It's funny how the Impala went from really ugly in '59 to a beautful car in '62 and a sure fire winner in '64. My neighbor down the street when I was growing up had a '64 Impala it was this old man who was really tight on cash and it was all rusted out and everything but it ran and ran... Now the '64 Impala is a favorite among restorers and the lowrider crowd. Great car..
That '61 Imperial I think was featured in the great movie "It's A Mad Mad Mad World" it was the one Milton Berle was driving. Lots of ugly cars in that movie. Remember the taxis that were those hideous late 50's Plymouths? Man those tail fins were awful! And that Jeep that Terry Thomas was driving around that thing look like it would flip over it's own shadow! haha
Geocities has some sort of filter that won't let you post images or links from other websites. Why I don't know, but that's why your pictures don't show up.
i went to the indy 500 museum site. They show all the pace cars since 1911. some of them are real surprises, like a 1934 lasalle or a lincoln phaeton. most are ugly with a capital U. Were these the most technically advances, or best sellers or what...
Usually they choose pace cars based on their popularity or high visibility, but I suspect that sometimes a good pile of cash from the manufacturer was enough to get selected.
The Indy 500 was never meant to be a showplace for technology. Indy machines, although very fast, remained pretty primitive by European standards until Colin Chapman and the Lotus came to town in the 1960s.
I agree, many of the pace cars were not very attractive, but some of the racing cars were quite beautiful in a big, muscular kind of way.
if any of you have heard this story before, but Bob Lutz (the gentleman who, with Tom Gale, resurrected Chryler's styling dominance) was quoted to have said he preferred the Plymouth Caravan GTO, which was the model without the fake wood on the sides. Apparently, "GTO" stood for "Good Taste Option."
You probably did not get these in the States (no, I'll rephrase that : you could not POSSIBLY have sold these in the US ) but the Leyland (a division of UK Austin/Britsh Motor Corportation made some of the most HIDEOUS cars known to man in the late 60s to mid 70s. For mine the Leyland Marina was it. I think it was called the MARINA as if you owned one for long you would have pushed it OFF THE END OF THE NEAREST MARINA!!! Not only were they fantastically UNreliable as only a British car can hope to be, they were UGLY. No , I mean REALLY, U-G-L-Y.
Imagine a 3 or 4 year old child draws the outline of a car - you know, a rectangle with a box on top. You have the basic concept of the Marina. You still very occasionally see one here inevitably driven by a very old couple who would have a photo fo Queen Elizabeth above their mantle piece.
The P-76 was another from the same tragic stable - a wedge like monstrosity with a non-functioning aluminium Rover V-8 as it's power plant........
Another was the Austin 1800, a life boat like 4 cylinder 1800 monolith that are still spied today in tiny numbers visiting the type of old folks who still own the abovementioned Marinas and P-76.
The moral : there were once people living in Australia whose misguided loyalty to the "old country" EXCUSED all kinds of sins......Viva the Republic!!
Apparently that name isn't copyrighted, because if it was it would be John De Lorean wearing just his boxers--although that might be his habitual attire anyway. Pontiac borrowed the name from a Ferrari.
Just realized I turned Johnny Z. into a Frenchman--it's DeLorean, not De Lorean--and I seem to recall he's Polish- or Hungarian-American. There's a lot on the net about the car but not much about the man. A case where it's better to be the car than the man.
...when they were new. My brother and I were in high school when they came out in 1982. They were grotesque, underpowered and poorly built. I don't even see any on the road today. Ford had a lot of chutzpah to market these as "two-seat sports cars." My brother and I would joke that EXP stood for "Extensively Plastic."
Comments
My neighbor proudly pulled off the cover to his new, used '63 Avanti.
It was about the ugliest car I've ever seen.
I couldn't quite burst his bubble and tell him how I really felt.
Or how about those '58 Studebakers and Studebaker-bodied Packards with the grafted-on 4-headlight setup. Again, they weren't bad in '57, but it just shows how a trim jiggle can totally screw up a style!
-Andre
Hawks were what I call "period attractive" which means they looked good "for the time" but now appear very dated. That's not the same as ugly, just not to our tastes I guess. I'm not a big "fin fan" myself, but I suppose if the rest of the car is all "pointy and jet-plane", it works.
Have you ever seen those "Cars of the Future" articles in car magazines from the 1950s. Frightening designs. They, of course, look nothing like the cars of "our future". Most people who predict things are amazingly wrong, ever notice?
The ones I was thinking about that were really nice were the '53-55 or so models, pre-tailfin, with the low grille, or the twin grilles. I actually like tailfins, but in this case, I think the cars looked better before they put them on.
Then there was the '62-64 or so, with the really squared-off formal lines. That's the one I think is ugly!
Yeah, I've seen some of those "cars of the future", and they're pretty nasty. In that respect, things haven't changed though. I think some of the ones that they're coming up with nowadays are pretty far out there and will hopefully never see the light of day!
-Andre
Also loved the Avanti -- then and now, although every atempt to update the styling has been gawdawful. The original is great, inside and out.
Looking at an original Avanti with a pair of 2001 eyes, the shovel-nose isn't very attractive to me.
As for future Japanese car clubs for collectors, given how many cars the Japanese make and how well they survive, it would have to be a club where rarity doesn't matter and where there is little difference between cars. That does weaken the whole idea of collecting. Maybe they will be more like social clubs (which IS sort of the point anyway) with less emphasis on the cars themselves. But a scene 25 years from now of young kids oogling a 2001 Acura, no, I don't think so either.
Japanese cars haven't been around as long, and their first efforts were quite questionable in terms of both performance and styling. But who knows -- some people collect Trabants and Edsels!
I don't think Trebants and Edsels are collected so much as stacked on top of one another, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
1. 1974-78 AMC Matador Coupe - has anybody seen the ultra-ugly Barcelona edition of this monstrosity?
2. 1982 Ford EXP and Mercury LN7. This car came out when I was in high school. My brother and I joked that EXP stood for "EXtensively Plastic"
3. AMC Pacer.
4. AMC Gremlin
5. 1973-77 Chevrolet Chevelle/Malibu. Not really ugly, but can't stand the A-Body "Collonade" styling. The Chevies are the worst example.
6. Ford Maverick - yuck.
7.1970s Datsuns minus the Z cars.
8. 1970s Subarus - were once very popular in my NE Pennsylvania home town.
9. 1965 AMC Marlin
10. Yugo - the disposable razor of cars.
Ugly Cars of the Present:
1. Pontiac Aztek - what were they thinking? Hopefully Pontiac will either dump or tone down this monstrosity.
2. Ford Focus - Should've called it the Ford Blur. The guy who designed it has got to be going blind.
3. Toyota Echo - Grotesque, but I kind of like it.
4. Audi TT - disproportionately small roof, bloated rounded contours, disproportionatley large wheels.
5. BMW Z3 Coupe. Looks like they took the back end of a Vega wagon and glued it to the Z3 Roadster.
6. Saturn - Why doesn't GM kill Saturn instead?
7. Lexus IS30 - Lexus' first blunder. Trying too hard to be a BMW 3-Series. Appears to me as a Lexus Cimmaron.
8. VW New Beetle. Has nothing in common with its famous predecessor. A Golf with a different body.
9. Mercury Cougar - An exponentially ugly car, especially when compared to its fairly attractive predecessor.
10. Lincoln Town Car - Really can't stand that front end. The back is interesting if a bit weird.
A "Barcelona" edition of a Matador? Oh, please, PLEASE find me a photo on the web!
Has anyone seen this new Buick Rendezvous? I think this is WORSE than the Aztek in terms of styling. It seems the rear of this "thing" is all one big taillight. I saw it during the day so I didn't get a chance to see this thing blind a driver behind it when it slams on the brakes. Yuck!
They were whining about what a clunker it was, and I kept wanting to holler at the tv..."It's only 4 years old, you moron!!" I think it was a '68 Satellite they got "stuck" with. And of course, the car did obnoxious stuff like not start, blow antifreeze, anything to make the old Mopar look like junk.
I guess it just stuck a nerve with me because I have a '68 Dart!
Actually, I don't think those Matadors from '70 or so to '73 were all that bad looking, but when they went to that swollen nose for the sedans in '74, that was just too much! Lemko's right, though. Those '74-78 coupes were hideous!
Enough said!
Adam-12 was my favorite TV show when I was a kid. The earlier episodes used Plymouth Belvederes/Satellites. In fact, you could spot a few '67s in the very first shows. The first Adam-12 car was a 1968 Plymouth, then a '69, '70, and '71. The later episodes of Adam-12 used 1972-73 AMC Matador sedans. The LAPD actually used and liked Matadors of those years. I think they may have still used them until 1975 when the LAPD started using Mercury Montegos.
Maybe this is just my Chrysler bias showing through, but I thought the only Chrysler taifins that looked nasty were those on the 1960 Plymouth and the 1961 Imperial. The '61 Dodge looked kinda weird with reverse-slanting taifins, but they weren't TOO nasty.
Now with the Aztek, GM has now proven they can make Ugly AND Unreliable cars.
Good going! Like a Rock... that fell off the Ugly side of the bed and can't get back up.
Whenever you see a Ford Taurus, it will invariably be sitting on bricks or jackstands on someone's driveway or yard.
...all busted and in need of Fixing Or Repairing Daily.
Never in history has such an Unreliable piece of Garbage been seen defiling so many decent-looking neighborhoods.
Ford Taurus... should have been advertised as a Lawn Ornament! There's more broken ones sitting on people's lawns than there are running on the street.
Pathetic; Ford Quality is NOT Job One !
1. 1958 Buick Limited
2. 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser
3. 1957 Plymouth Fury
4. 1963 Checker Marathon
5. 1958 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
6. 1958 Edsel Citation
7. 1961 Imperial
8. 1960 Lincoln Mark V
9. 1959 Buick Electra 225
10. 1959 Chevrolet Impala
That '61 Imperial I think was featured in the great movie "It's A Mad Mad Mad World" it was the one Milton Berle was driving. Lots of ugly cars in that movie. Remember the taxis that were those hideous late 50's Plymouths? Man those tail fins were awful! And that Jeep that Terry Thomas was driving around that thing look like it would flip over it's own shadow! haha
The Indy 500 was never meant to be a showplace for technology. Indy machines, although very fast, remained pretty primitive by European standards until Colin Chapman and the Lotus came to town in the 1960s.
I agree, many of the pace cars were not very attractive, but some of the racing cars were quite beautiful in a big, muscular kind of way.
Imagine a 3 or 4 year old child draws the outline of a car - you know, a rectangle with a box on top. You have the basic concept of the Marina. You still very occasionally see one here inevitably driven by a very old couple who would have a photo fo Queen Elizabeth above their mantle piece.
The P-76 was another from the same tragic stable - a wedge like monstrosity with a non-functioning aluminium Rover V-8 as it's power plant........
Another was the Austin 1800, a life boat like 4 cylinder 1800 monolith that are still spied today in tiny numbers visiting the type of old folks who still own the abovementioned Marinas and P-76.
The moral : there were once people living in Australia whose misguided loyalty to the "old country" EXCUSED all kinds of sins......Viva the Republic!!
i wish i could share the horror. this was a 2 seat hatchback? with headlights that should have popped up, but didn't
i think it made about 80 hp. don't know what happened to it.
and I saw a ford escort exp yesterday...a like the ln-7 with an early 80's front end. again, not pleasent to look at.