Top 10 Design Winners and Losers

bigo08

What are the top 10 ugliest cars you can think that are in production right now??

Here are my picks. From ugly to ugliest

10.Dodge Nitro
09.Dodge Ram
08.Nissan Altima
07.Nissan Armada
06.Toyota Camry
05.Toyota Tundra
04.Honda CR-V
03.Scion xB and Honda Element (tie for 3rd place ugly)
02.Toyota Prius
01.Scion xA

*Honorable mentions:
Acura MDX and RDX
Lincoln Navigator
Toyota Highlander(both current and new gen)
GM's Minivan triplets.

What are your guys top 10 ugliest cars??

rockylee

#1. Dodge Sprinter
#2. Scion xB
#3. Subaru Impreza
#4. Subaru Tribeca
#5. Dodge Magnum
#6. Honda Fit
#7. Honda Element
#8. Toyota Land Cruiser
#9. Toyota FJ Cruiser
#10 Lincoln Navigator

I don't think I missed any I hope.

Rocky

rockylee

Can I add the 2008 xB and xD and 2010 Porsche Panamera which would follow 3,4, 7 on the list.

My god Scion has to by far and away be the ugliest builder of automobiles in history. The Aztec, looks like Angelina Jolie, in comparison. However nothing on this earth has been built quite as ugly as the Dodge Sprinter. That thing is so damn ugly, it depreciates every home in the neighborhood. ROTFFLMAO !!!!

Rocky

british_rover

Whats wrong with the sprinter? It is a commercial van built purely for function. Have you ever driven one? They are great and might be the best light to medium duty commercial van around.

The Ford Transit might be better but you can't buy those in the states.

fezo

They have figured out that they laid a styling egg with the Impreza and Tribeca and now have a redesign. We'll see if that's enough to bring them around.

No argument on the Nitro. That is pretty awful. Actually, after having nice looking vehicles for quite a while Chrysler seems to have been bitten with the ugly bug.

I'd disagree with a lot of the suggestions but, yeah, the Scions generally put the "ugh" in ugly.

iluvmysephia1

sedan is by far the best looking Subie I've seen yet.

The WRX may race nicely but is it ever ugly. I throw most all of the Subaru stable in with the Pontiac Aztek for ugliest honors.

Those make the AMC Gremlin look mighty sporty!

Subaru and I don't even come close to seeing eye-to-eye body design-wise. Eeek. :surprise:

boaz47

There isn’t a 2007 xB so the 2006s are just seriously ugly. I will also agree the xA isn’t pleasing to look at either. Subaru’s decision to make the Tribeca and Impreza look like bottom-feeding suckerfish has to place them in the same boat. I am not too impressed with the Dodge Nitro looks wise. The Prius looks a lot like a loafer someone put wheels on and the Yaris hatch is nothing to write home about. Honda should be ashamed of themselves for making the Element and the Ridgline may be a nice try but it isn’t any more attractive than a Element without a back end. Hummer has the H-2 and H-3 that are ugly for no other reason other than a family resemblance to the H-1. Ugly without a reason.

In Order?

xB
Element
H-2
H-3
xA
Tribeca
Impreza
Ridgline
Prius
Yaris Hatch.

IMO

andys120

1)Lincoln Town Car
2)Buick Rendevous
3)Chevy Avalanche
4)Cadillac Escalade/EXT
5)Audi Q7
6)BMW 5-Series
7)Saturn Ion
8)Nissan Maxima
9)Jeep Commander
10)BMW Z4 Coupe

Dishonorable mention: Jeep Compass, Subie Tribeca, Yota Yaris 4-dr., Subaru Impreza, (old and new), Porsche Cayenne.

Wow, an Audi, two Bimmers and a Porsche make the ugly list, what is the world coming to? I especially can't wrap my head around the concept of an ugly Audi.

fezo

That is a tough concept!

The Tribeca follows an old line of ugly - that center grill. That's tough to pull of - ask Ford about the Edsel.

rockylee

british,

You must have beer goggles on if you can't see how ugly that beast is. I'm not questioning it's fuction but man it sure is a eye sore. I know I wouldn't want my company's name on the side of one. Customer's would turn you away at there door. :P

Rocky

texases

At least they got rid of it. How's this, in no paarticular order-
Porsche Cayenne and Panamera
Hummer H2
Current Tribeca
BMW Z3 and 5
Lincoln Town Car
Honda CR-V and Element
Toyota Camry

fezo

I'm only hesitant to put the current Camry and CR-V, I'm not particularly crazy about either design and in both cases prefer the look of the vehicles they replaced - I just don't think they are top ten material.

Top twenty is another story....

gagrice

The Sprinter is very EU in design. It is solely built for function. I kind of liked the one I had. I would buy another one before I would buy any of the current vans or mini vans.
None of them get an honest 25 miles to the gallon with an equal payload. I think the rest of your list are quite ugly.

rockylee

gagrice, The Sprinter, I'm sorry might do it's job well but man I think many would agree it's gotta be the ugliest duckling of production vehicles.

Rocky

gagrice

Aloha Rocky,
Too bad that GM does not build a vehicle that is as practical. They would not be in the pickle they are in now. If GM built a PU with the Sprinter engine and transmission, I would already own one. It is better than anything they offer for practical transportation. Not beauty just functional. I think all the vehicles on your list and many more are as ugly with no functional value to them.
PS
The view as I am typing. Wish you were all here. Stuck here for 2 weeks.

rockylee

gagrice,

Where's my invite ? :P You lucky dog !!! :shades:

Take some pics and e-mail me some as I know their are some nice auto's in Hawaii

Rocky

gagrice

The cars on this side of the Big Island are not that great. Mostly rusted out Corolla's & Subaru's. Mid size and full size crew cabs make up a big share of the newer vehicles. Chrysler dominates the rental fleet. I had to reserve my Trailblazer from Alamo 3 months in advance. Even then they took an hour getting it to me at the airport.

Nothing uglier than a rusted out car and there are a bunch of them here. This place (Pahoa) is kind of a throw back to the 60s. Lots of hippy type folks living here. Lots of fruit stands and farmers markets. Big bunch of the sweetest fresh bananas for a buck. Papayas are 7 for a dollar. I get real healthy eating here. This is the tomato season and they are about 30 cents a pound picked ripe. We are going to have capellini with fresh basil, zuchinni and tomatoes tonight for supper.

I am going to try and test drive the new diesel Grand Cherokee today.

rsholland

Not to my eyes. it's a perfect example of form following function, which is far more beautiful than swoopy eye candy styling.

Bob

thenebean

in no particular order...

pontiac aztek
honda element
honda ridgeline
dodge caliber
dodge durango
buick rendezvous
chevy montecarlo
chevy malibu maxx
subaru tribeca
toyota prius

my two cents at least...

-thene

Mr_Shiftright

I think you guys should use "UGLY" carefully...I mean just because a car is a bit homely doesn't make it ugly. UGLY should mean you actually jump away from it, or that it makes babies cry, or *nothing* can be added to it, or taken off of it, to help it. It's hopelessly ugly.

And some of the cars on your list CERTAINLY qualify.

But not all---a few of them are just kind of harmlessly homely. That's not the same as FULL HIGH UGLY.

My standard for UGLY is that the car is a design *mess*. It's not homely like a VW bug, but *chaotic*...every line, lump and bump collides with each other.

True UGLY makes no sense.

gagrice

When you say ugly, do most of the 2007 Toyota vehicles come to mind? The convoluted design did not look good on the Lexus ES and it does not look good on the Camry. Maybe ugly is too strong. How about not aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Being a fan of the Art Nouveau period, I find little pleasing in todays automobiles. There are exceptions. You do not see them at most car dealers. I do think the MB S series and the LS460 are fairly nice looking. The BMW 850 was nice.

1racefan

Ugliest (random order)

1)Toyota Camry - looks like a pig from the front

2)New Nissan Sentra - previous model looked so much better

3)Nissan Maxima - Nissan seems to have missed with this design

4)Honda Element - I love the vehicle, but agree it is ugly (even though the color selection can make a big difference with this vehicle)

5)Honda Ridgeline - I think it is the bed line that screws up the truck.

6)Chevy Monte Carlo - I hear Chevy is killing this one - THANK YOU

7)Chevy Aveo - just ugly

8)Kia Sportage - Looks decent until you get to the rear wheel well, and then with it being straight, instead of curved, it just doesn't fit.

9)Kia Rondo - looks too top heavy

10)Dodge Durango - again, just an overall design miss

To be fair, here are my 10 favorite designs, in no particular order:
Lexus IS, New Mistubishi Lancer, New Nissan Altima, New Mitsubishi Outlander, Chevy Tahoe, Honda CR-V, Infiniti G35, Chevy Corvette, Toyota Tacoma, Mazda Miata (in my opinion, no one has done an afforddable roadster better)

jkr2106

1. Scion xB
2. Honda Element
3. Pontiac Aztec
4. Chevy Aveo
5. Dodge Durango/Chrysler Aspen
6. Dodge Avenger
7. Mitsubishi Raider
8. Pontiac Torrent
9. Subaru Impreza
10. Honda Fit

rockylee

The Aztek, hasn't been in production for a few years.

-Rocky

jkr2106

Yea I know, but a design that bad deserves to be highlighted.

bprenderson

Rocky,

Your spelling, syntax and grammar are horrrible. You're embarrassing the rest of the Texans on thus thread! Shape up! :mad:

Bubba

iluvmysephia1

when you guys are listing the Chevy Aveo, do you mean the Chevy Aveo hatchback or the new Chevy Aveo sedan? I don't think either are ugly, the hatchback is "unique" though.

Different isn't definitely ugly all the time, is it?

I would put on my list every Subaru ever made except the Justy(it's cute, what's wrong with a cute car)and the Legacy Turbo sedans, late model. Those two are decent efforts, the rest are by definition homely and etch-a-specials.

fezo

1racefan got it right on this one - the color can make a huge difference on this vehicle. So can the cladding they toss on most of them. Without all the plastic outside it becomes downright, er, tolerable... Now if you give it that horrid yellow paint job they offer and throw on the black plastic you have something truly unattractive.

rockylee

I don't post on these forums to be professional....It's for fun not a grammar, spelling, syntax, proof read and most of my miss spellings are typo's. FYI- English, wasn't my strong subject. However as far as being embarrassed as a Texan, goes ???? I'm not a native (Thank-God) and as far as my education I received in Michigan, compared to your average Texan. That's laughable !!!! Question: Where does Texas, rank in educaton ???? That's what I thought !!!!!

-Rocky

iluvmysephia1

actually, the entire U.S. could use a lot higher scores overall. We don't seem to be able to reach the upper echelon in our studies as compared to South Korea, for instance(the best in the world at their studies and scores).

rockylee

Well that's because they put money into education.

-Rocky

gagrice

I think you will find we spend more per student on education than any other country. We have too many layers of administration. Not enough parental involvement.

boaz47

While this doesn't have much to do with ugly cars you may be right. However when it comes to higher education where do even the Japanese tend to send their children? US colleges and universities. Now if someone would just get the designers for Scion a scholarship to a design school maybe they could beautify the auto landscape.

iluvmysephia1

Scion for body design. The entire lot of Subaru body designers are etch-a-sketch designers. Those are some of the homeliest rigs I've ever seen mass-produced.

They make the Model A and T look shapely and hot.

Mr_Shiftright

My criteria for ugly goes like this:

1. The front half of the car has nothing to do with the back half. It looks like two committees living in separate countries designed each half and glued it together without ever seeing the other team's half.

2. Looks awkward---things stick out, jut at crazy angles...CHAOS....

3. Textures and colors -- the worst shades of brown and mustard (or whatever clashes).

4. Bad Retro --there's nothing worse than an ugly 2007 car imitating an ugly 1955 car.

5. Ridiculous Pomposity: call it the "gold chain and hairy chest syndrome"

6. Trying Too Hard--this can be Harmless Ugly or Harmful Ugly. When you try too hard to be stylish or different, you can easily fall into a territory that others before you AVOIDED FOR A REASON.

john_324

"4. Bad Retro --there's nothing worse than an ugly 2007 car imitating an ugly 1955 car."

Cough...SSR...cough!

lemko

...but c'mon, the RR Phantom is pretty ugly. It looks like they hired the designer for Peterbilt or Kenworth for the front-end design.

Mr_Shiftright

It's not attractive--I couldn't agree more-- but most of the car is okay. It's more "clunky" to me than overall 100% High Ugly (bad from every angle in other words). It would be like a disappointing face on a nice body, or something like that :P

An xB strikes me as bad from every angle...

HOWEVER (ahem)...I have to say in the xA's defense that only men dislike it....women seem to find it cute, all across the board. So the label of "ugly" for this car might be merely gender-specific....

MrShiftright
Visiting Host

british_rover

some ugly cars here.

OMG

anythngbutgm

That was flippin hilarious... Those tailpipes were outrageous, and the sounds, I almost fell off my chair laughing.

drfill

Toyota Prius (here to serve a higher purpose, doh)
Dodge Durango
Honda Element
Ford Expedition
Lincoln Navigator (If Mona Lisa is an ugly woman, this is the ugly woman with a mustache)
Nissan Sentra
Nissan Maxima
Ford Focus (2008)
Saab (any)
BMW 6-series

DrFill

rockylee

DrFill, you did good. I don't think Saab should be on that list though. :P

-Rocky

smittynyc

The "flaming" car carrying the four guys with crash helmets just slays me.

Some of the YouTube commentary is pretty hysterical, too.

Note: the *real* ugliness begins at about the 2:59 mark, so hang in there.

I am pretty sure that this sort of event is what God had in mind when He killed off the dinosaurs and set them on their way to becoming gasoline.

british_rover

Oh yeah I agree SAABs are in general very good looking cars. They don't really do anything else well but they look good and have great seats.

fezo

If you could put a Saab body, including the interior, onto a good actual car you'd really have something.

I had an old 73 Saab 99 years ago. Serious fun but really seriously glitchy and expensive to fix.

Mr_Shiftright

Poor Saab---when they were independent they built lousy cars that were way fun to drive and attractive in a quirky kind of way. Now they build kind of average / mediocre cars that are bland and not as much fun to drive.

No wonder when that rare combination of good looks, good reliability and real fun comes together in one single car, the world goes gah-gah.

Gee, when was that? Dunno, maybe the older Porsche 993, last of the air-cooled engines. Miata? There you go!

HONDA ELEMENT/TOYOTA PRIUS -- I have to agree, total chaos in design, like two cymbals crashing front to rear

MrShiftright
Visiting Host

british_rover

Gee, when was that? Dunno, maybe the older Porsche 993, last of the air-cooled engines. Miata? There you go!

I realy want one of the last 993 Porsches. A 1996 or 1997 just a regular 2wd model no turbo no all wheel drive. Probably just a carrera S Coupe.

rockylee

Saab, will build exciting cars once again. I can about gaurantee that. I really feel GM, will use them as a lab rat to try out new technologies which will make the brand really unique. bio-powered Saab's with twin turbo engines along with 4WS and AWD. :shades:

-Rocky

british_rover

GM has killed SAAB they have done more to destroy the brand then any thing else had. Like Shifty said they were always a quirky under capitalized company that made interesting if some what troublesome cars.

They still make troublesome cars but they aren't that interesting anymore.

Mr_Shiftright

'Xactly....if you are married to a talented, beautiful, athletically-built spouse who is unreliable, untruthful and spiteful but a lot of fun ----well then, the last thing you're going to do is tolerate all that crap when they turn fat and ugly.

I bought my last diamond necklace for my Saab turbo many years ago. No thank you.

MrShiftright
Visiting Host

giancarlo51

List of vehicles that I think are the ugliest of them all in no particular order:

-Toyota Highlander (2008 model)
-Nissan Versa (sedan and hatchback)
-Infiniti QX56
-BMW 3 series (current generation looks awful compared to the previous generation, the current coupe is ok looking)
-Buick Rendezvous (it's going, going, GONE)
-Buick Rainier (see above)
-Jaguar XK (I'm sorry but it looks so bland and generic it is offensive)
-Honda Element non-SC version
-Infiniti G37 coupe (overly aggressive)
-Chevy Montecarlo
-Chevy Malibu (old and new, new one's back end is ugh)
-

Some of the best looking vehicles on the market, imo:

-Honda Pilot (current one after the MMC, classy yet aggressive)
-Honda Fit
-Honda CR-V (front end adds character)
-Honda S2000
-Acura MDX
-Acura TL
-Acura RDX
-BMW 6 series
-Audi A6
-Audi A5
-Mercedes SL
-Mercedes ML
-Mercedes CLK
-Mercedes E-class
-Mercedes S-class
-Mercedes CLS
-Lexus IS