owned a vehicle that look similar to that above. It was an Austin. A convertible, '50's type, with those swooping front fenders with little yellow flap type arms that I think were turn signals. The car had a functional back seat and was european grey. Dad had the Austin painted bright yellow for visibility purposes. Mechanically, it was a giant bow-wow. Hard starting and in the shop... It would leave mom and us stranded almost everywhere..
Hmmmmm.....Are you sure that's not a Chevoldsmobuick Mr_S.? It looks like a lot of stray parts bolted together. It has that strange magnetic 'ugly car' quality that I just can't resist, though.
Yeah, vman, I'm like that, too sometimes...the car is just weird enough to be enticing, but not really beautiful as we know it, and not downright ugly...the design is, as the French say (who should know!) "tormented"...I suppose you could take the most lovely parts from ten different people and mix them up and they wouldn't look very good all put together (presuming similar age and sex!)...proportion, it seems to me, is very important for a car to be truly "beautiful", and a complete lack of any sensitivity would be necessary for it to be truly "ugly".
On this Caddy, I lik the lower fenderlline, but look at all that overhang in the back! And what on earth does the front of the car have to do with the back of it? Hello? Have they been introduced?
But I like the windshield and the front wheel opening.
is the Buick Roadmaster Convertible. White with red leather interior. Much cleaner, better proportions than any of the Cads. Those 57 Cads never did look right to me-ANY of them.
Wasn't the Caddy you show a limited production model? I think it's an Eldorado and they made very few of them. I agree that the design is a little on the "disconnect" side! But it is still cool in a way and sure would be fun to drive down the road in on a suny day!
I just can't stand the old Ford T Models. Put the top up on that car, and it looks like its slung underneath a blimp. But considering car design was in its infancy, and it is after all a Ford, I'll let it slide without alerting the fashion police this time.
Not creative enough to be ugly, you mean? From the back, it was butt-ugly (IMO)! I know the Nissans of that era were pretty good vehicles, but what were they thinking?
They were thinking "Box to Put Stuff In"...like Volvo used to think.
Model Ts were thought to be ugly even back in the days when they were being made (1909-1927)...but people loved them in spite of their shortcomings, and they were tough little cars. They were purposely made to ride high so as to clear the ruts in the roads of that time. A lower-slung car was often doomed to a mudhole in the early 1900s.
Out here in NJ a few years back we had a doozy of a blizzard. Now my wife is an RN in a hospital and naturally there's no such thing as calling out. She went in (in her Windstar)before the snow began. By shift's end, she calls saying one of the other nurses lived nearby (which is 20 miles from work) and had a 4WD. I figure if she's OK with it....she shows up in a Stanza wagon! I told her it was good I didn't know that beforehand or I would have told her to sleep over in the hospital (which was an option)!
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
Over in the bizzare car names topic they were playing with car company slogans for a while. One guy came up with this for Pontiac: "We Build Excrement." Precisely.
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
That's hilarious! Haven't seen the car names topic yet. I'll have to look for it! "Excrement" is an apt description for styling and quality too. A former boss of mine rented a Bonneville a couple of years ago. While at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, he got out of the car and closed the door and the door's body cladding fell off on the pavement! He just stood there and contemplated that for a second and then picked it up and threw it in the truck. I also rented a Pontiac a couple of years before that (a Grand Prix). While winding the window, the handle came off in my hand. The car was junk. Also saw a Pontiac show car a couple of years ago called the "Rageous" (short for outrageous I guess). A stupid name and one of the ugliest show cars I have ever seen. Pontiac peaked in the '60's with the GTO's and the original Firebirds, and maybe the early 70's....been down hill ever since IMO.
Saw an ad today for the Chrysler PT Cruiser. Previously in this topic I said I thought it was a pretty interesting looking car (in the good sense of interesting). Well in this ad the car was actually moving - looked liek something out of a cartoon - kind of like when a character can't get any traction on ice and just keeps running in place.... just the image for a car!
Just as well I wasn't buying one anyway....
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
That's just about exactly what it is! It's built on the Neon platform - don't know what all little tweaks they did on it.
Funny thing is, until I saw it actually moving in the ad, I agree - I love the fact that it looks like it's out of the 30's, but moving it looked like a cartoon.
I'll hold judgement until I see a real live one - might have to steal down to the Chrysler folks and try one out....
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
Pontiac, "we build excrement," they're gonna have to come up with something even worse than that. Maybe if they put this Pontiac in the same warm, dark garage with a Subaru Impreza, PT Cruiser, and a Kia Sportage, left them for a week or so, they could produce an ugly basxxxd child truly worthy of the name "excrement." They could conduct "emissions" tests to determine the real daddy....
to know if any auto maker representatives ever read posts on sites like this. I would think that Pontiac execs would garner a whole lot of insight without the need of focus groups or market researchers. Their styling. while they probably think it is on the edge, are sorely mistaken. The quality of the cars they produce is not good either. Maybe they just don't care. I used to be a Pontiac fan years ago when they produced great looking cars (a long time ago). If a division of GM were to get the axe, maybe it should be Pontiac. Going to the S.F. Auto Show soon and it will be interesting to go to the Pontiac exhibit to see what attrocities they are planning to foist on the general public this year! Hopefully if there are any Pontiac concept cars there, they are a lot better than the Pontiac "Excremageous" above!
Yeah, so everyone thinks the car's ugly. Actually, I'm surprised that so many of you were aware of what it is!
As soon as you're driving the car, you don't care about how it looks at all. It has such a sweet-sounding V8 - that's about all that matters when you're behind the wheel :-)
I may be setting a record here, for I own two cars that are considered ugly - I also have an NX2000. I'm not sure if it was mentioned in this debate though.
Congratulations on your ugly cars! Actually you make a good point about that sweet sounding engine. The good thing about owning an otherwise decent car that happens to be ugly is you are the one person on the road who doesn't have to look at it!
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
We all hear about 50's and 70's cars being considered ugly. It's more a matter of being out dated that makes an old car "ugly".
Here are picks from the last 20 years. Remember 1980 will be 20 years past next month!
0. 80-85 Seville, 4 door Gremlin 1. 83-86 Camry, rolling washing machine 2. Any Nissan Stanza, rolling trash compactor 3. Any Nissan Pulsar, glitzty 80's mall rat car 4. Any GM A-car (6000/Celeb/Ciera..) 2-door with "Landau" roof, trying to keep the 70's alive 5. 86-87 Eldorado/Riviera/Toro, definiitve GM "cookie cutter" cars (also apllies to A-cars) 6. Chrysler TC by Maserati, is it a Century or a LeBaron? 7. K-car 2-door derivatives with "landau" tops, golf carts 8. 87-88 Thunderbirds, change for sake of change 9. 91-96 Caprice, the ultimate boat! 10. Hyundai's before 97 or so. Blobs of melted plastic 11. Olds Achieva, Chev Corsica committee designed rental cars
from the car shows, as seen in the latest Car and Driver...especially the Isuzus. Geez what a bunch of ugly stuff. We're back to the "atomic cockroach" styling, with "pregnant rollerskate with football daddies" mutations....anything to make it look new and different? Ugh.
Yeah, until the auto shows I always figure the Japanese made kind of "vanilla ugly" cars - offensive but not threatening to your retinas. If you wanted serious eyeslaghter you had to go American or European. However, as in everything else, it looks like the Japanese have caught and is some ways surpassed us again!
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
Certainly one of the ugliest, although when I rented one it actually drove pretty well, aside from looking at the grotesque column gear shift.
As Car and Driver remarked in the early '90's, the Buick Skylark represented everything that was wrong with GM at the time and caused their market share to fall from 45% to 29% in 15 years.
The GM notchbacks of the 80's, the (too many) cars with the near 90 degree rear windows. I think this is one of the many causes of GM to lose customers then, too many of them. It as nice on the original 1976-9 Seville, but then it was overkill putting it on virtually every car in their line up.
They thought all cars should have a "formal roof" since the fastback Centuries and Cutlasses of 1978-9 flopped.
The early 55-57 models weren't too bad, fairly clean at least if a bit tortured in their lines...but soon weight and chrome and two extra seats ruined them.
Comments
strange...
Mechanically, it was a giant bow-wow. Hard starting and in the shop... It would leave mom and us stranded almost everywhere..
Cast my vote!
On this Caddy, I lik the lower fenderlline, but look at all that overhang in the back! And what on earth does the front of the car have to do with the back of it? Hello? Have they been introduced?
But I like the windshield and the front wheel opening.
It's a Nissan Stanza Wagon.
Model Ts were thought to be ugly even back in the days when they were being made (1909-1927)...but people loved them in spite of their shortcomings, and they were tough little cars. They were purposely made to ride high so as to clear the ruts in the roads of that time. A lower-slung car was often doomed to a mudhole in the early 1900s.
But...only yesterday, I saw a good one, I had to laugh because the driver fit the car so well...
It was (and still is) a Citroen station wagon!
Ugly brown, filthy beyond belief, every "Save the Whale" bumber sticker known to man pasted on the back.
Loud, falling off exhaust, clouds of blue smoke...
And the driver? Around 60 or so, huge beard, smoking a pipe, big mutt in the front seat..!
Shifty, I think he was heading south, down your way!
What a sight!
Just as well I wasn't buying one anyway....
It's probably just a Neon with a retro body?
Funny thing is, until I saw it actually moving in the ad, I agree - I love the fact that it looks like it's out of the 30's, but moving it looked like a cartoon.
I'll hold judgement until I see a real live one - might have to steal down to the Chrysler folks and try one out....
Gonna be tough searching for a topper.....
As soon as you're driving the car, you don't care about how it looks at all. It has such a sweet-sounding V8 - that's about all that matters when you're behind the wheel :-)
I may be setting a record here, for I own two cars that are considered ugly - I also have an NX2000. I'm not sure if it was mentioned in this debate though.
SPNX
Here are picks from the last 20 years. Remember 1980 will be 20 years past next month!
0. 80-85 Seville, 4 door Gremlin
1. 83-86 Camry, rolling washing machine
2. Any Nissan Stanza, rolling trash compactor
3. Any Nissan Pulsar, glitzty 80's mall rat car
4. Any GM A-car (6000/Celeb/Ciera..) 2-door with "Landau" roof, trying to keep the 70's alive
5. 86-87 Eldorado/Riviera/Toro, definiitve GM "cookie cutter" cars (also apllies to A-cars)
6. Chrysler TC by Maserati, is it a Century or a LeBaron?
7. K-car 2-door derivatives with "landau" tops, golf carts
8. 87-88 Thunderbirds, change for sake of change
9. 91-96 Caprice, the ultimate boat!
10. Hyundai's before 97 or so. Blobs of melted plastic
11. Olds Achieva, Chev Corsica committee designed rental cars
and on and on.
nissan maxima(2000)..
As Car and Driver remarked in the early '90's, the Buick Skylark represented everything that was wrong with GM at the time and caused their market share to fall from 45% to 29% in 15 years.
They thought all cars should have a "formal roof" since the fastback Centuries and Cutlasses of 1978-9 flopped.