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Ugliest Cars of All Time
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They would try to make it look different from the US models by sticking on some sort of an afterthought grill or something like that.
Here's a new one. I think the Facel Vega's (French) are pretty bad looking too. The overall styling is pretty bad (though they were very interesting, hand built cars). The French certainly have had some quirky styling ideas. Also, some of the older british Fords from the 50's and 60's were not the greatest looking cars around either.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
How about most of the big Pontiacs of the 70's with the massive grill in the middle. I tell you that Edsel designer gets around!
Oh, yeah, Facel Vega--one of the European "hybrids" (Euro styling and coachwork with American drivetrain)...some of them came out allright, but Facel was a very heavy, slab-sided affair. Some of the accents were nice, but again, to me "ugliness" is often a kind of confusion, where it looks like they just kept adding parts in a desperate attempt to fix a mistake, or when the front of the car and the back of it have nothing in common (a typical error of design by large committee). Interesting, but I can't think of a truly unattractive car that became a "classic" or hot collectible, with the possible exception of cars that are so outrageous they have a certain shock value (e.g., '59 Cadillac).
As far as modern cars go, pretty well anything styled by Pontiac could count as ugly. They do not know when to stop with the plastic add on panels, can we say fat and overdone. For example Pontiac Firebird Trans Am GT with Ram Air...I rest my case, 'Tacky American Car'
a 1958 Oldsmobile 88 Station Wagon!
Pink and white, no less!
Somehow Pontiac and Oldsmobile always had more than their share of folks with a real talent for designing ugly cars.
And, oh yes, those awful 80's Korean LeMans might look worse they worked - which isn't easy to do!
Does anyone out there like the styling of the current Mustang? I've never been too crazy about the styling of the Mustang after it was restyled a few years ago and the lastest take on it with the more angular sculpting, isn't all that much of an improvement.
The Camaro is a far better looking car than the Mustang, though the materials Chevrolet uses (interior anyway) are pretty cheap. The Mustang looks like a brick in comparison to the Camaro. I wished they had made the Mustang look more like the show car that it was supposed to be based off of. Actually, many of Detroit's show cars that are supposed to evoke an upcoming model are just fantastic. If the Big Three were able to make their production cars look exactly like the concept cars, most would be home runs. However, when the actual production car comes out, it is far from the concept car (like the Mustang and Pontiac Grand Prix show cars-just beautiful...but the production cars are bad looking). One of the only American cars I can think of that is pretty close to its show car forbearer is the Oldsmobile Intrigue, which I think is great looking. I think Detroit needs to be more daring. Look what Porsche did with the Boxster. The production car is a virtual take off of the Boxster show car and sales of the Boxster are through the roof. Chrysler was pretty much able to do the same with the Viper, except the production Viper has the targa top instead of the full roadster concept of the show car. I wish they had made the Viper a roadster instead of a targa..it would look even better than it does now.
Just wondering.
As for the Nissan Pulsar, the original ones were ugly. The redesign (1987ish) was actually quite cute. But then they added the sportback add on, which made it a station wagon! Oh god was that one step past El Camino stupidity!
And to address the Excalibur styled cars...don't forget the Tiffany!
Certainly the quasi-death of chrome has been a factor, but the relative sameness going around is the biggie.
The latest (surrent) models look like the designers forgot how to draw a curve (discount rack CAD software?). They are all angular with some real bad angles. The altima went downhill the most, but the Accords butt is pretty bad too.
Hopefully the next trend (since they always copy each other) is more stylish.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Another terrible Japanese design, and hopefully I can remember the correct model name, was the Datsun F-10 (?) of the early seventies. It was very small and had a really funky back end with large round tail lights. One of the uglier cars out of the land of the rising sun.
Mr. Shiftright (Nigel is it?) is right about the Cimmeron. GM platform engineering at its worst. At least Cadillac improved their current "small" car, the Catera, which is a much better car because it is based on the Opel. Was the Cimmeron one of the GM "X" platform cars? I used to drive a company car, a Buick Skylark of mid 80's vintage that was a truly terrible pile of junk, and I think it may have been built on the same platform as the Cimmeron.
Was just driving by one of those GM Dustbuster vans earlier. It's difficult to make a minivan ugly enough to stand out in the crowd, but the good folks at GM were up to the task!
other-have for years. It's disappointing to see very make[American too] trying to market it's own Camry or BMW clone. The only original designs out there are, ironically, from Chrysler.
Anybody else noticing this?
I have also come to the conclusion that I am the only living person who seems to like an edsel. (Of course, that means I could pick one up for peanuts and drop an olds 455 in it :-)
I always they were kind of the death knell for chrome - that and the last Desotos and look what happened to them!
What about the 1971-1972 Oldsmobile Toronado? While the side profile wasn't bad at all, the front end looks like a jigsaw puzzle crying to be put together. Unlike others, the massively large 5-mph front bumpers required in 1973 actually IMPROVED its front-end appearance.
they had gone to a conventional PRNDL and lost the massive chrome horse collar (though it still had teh suggestion of the classic mouth in the middle) and by those few '60 models they were downright mainstream. I actually had a chance on a good deal on an Edsel (if there can be any such thing) many years ago and turned it down because it was a 59....
It came from my home town. Back in 1968 or '69, the original owner was trying to sell it for 200.00. It was immaculate and had very low miles as I recall...It sat in his driveway for a couple of months with the For Sale sign on it!
Actually, for a very nice 4 dr Edsel you can get $3,500...so it's not without some value, just not much considering all the fuss and all the years since it was made. Not easy to find a buyer, though, you have to be patient, but they are out there, somewhere in the Great Beyond...
Getting back to ugly...How about a 2 door Rav-4.
They look like a tennis shoe!
Our host is right, it's DEMAND, not RARITY that is more of a factor in value. And I glad to see the reference to Gyro Gearloose: I'm not the only one who read the Disney comics.
It IS funny. I happened accidently (honest!) on an Edsel owners convention one time and you would have thought a 60 Edsel way the holy grail! Someboday had a rustbucket one and got as much attention as the guy with the 95 point top of the line 58 Edsel Citation Convertible.
Of course my eyes have yet to recover and that was 20 years ago.....