(first posted 12/7/2014. I don’t normally repost old QOTDs, but there’s a lot of great stuff in the 358 comments. And you might find some newer cars since then to add to them)
Everybody always yammers about how ugly cars and trucks are nowadays, starting with their big-mouthed over-wrought front ends. Well, as nostalgic as we tend to be about the good old days, unless you’re wearing mighty strong rose-tinted glasses, this ’56 GMC truck is as bad as anything out today, if not worse. Was there ever an uglier front end? And it was sitting next to a car with another bad face.
Yes, this ’54 Plymouth’s face is a mess, even if it’s somehow endearing just because it’s from so long ago. But it was roundly panned at the time.
Misery loves company.
So new or old; what’s the ugliest automotive mug shot you can come up with?
I know my least a favorite mid 70’s mug is a 1974 AMC Matador, I just can decide which one:
I was thinking of posting one of those too but had the same problem — which do you go with.
Amazing there could be two such strong candidates from the same year and model.
The sedan.
I’ve always thought that the coupe was a very georgeous car. They look very nice in person.
When I saw pics of the fastback, I thought they would be beautiful in person, but that was because I imagined them to be the size of a J-Car, like a Skyhawk. When I saw them in 3D, they looked just so oversized. Sculptors are well aware that small pieces often have to be adjusted in proportion when they are sized up so as to match the brain’s expectations.
Come to think of it, I had the same reaction to the Pacer. Imagine if it was the size of a Pinto. it might have been considered gorgeous.
I’ve always found the Matador sedan and wagon more attractive than the coupe.
I agree, matador. There’s really nothing wrong with the Matador coupe that wider wheels and tires can’t fix.
What was BMW thinking when they created this disgrace of a car?
My parents had a 1974 Matador coupe when I was a small boy. At the time I thought it was the ugliest thing on 4 wheels. According to my mom, it wasn’t very reliable. Its V8 engine accelerated like a 6 cylinder or a 4 cylinder, but its fuel economy would be like a V8 engine; not very good. It wasn’t very good at accelerating up hills.
There was also this from around the same time.
The grille on this Pacer makes the face more hideous than the earlier grille.
I prefer the sedan over the coupe. I like its protruding front end.
The coupe is probably uglier as a whole but the sedan’s front end is way worse.
The sedan front is way worse. With the coupe you can see what they were aiming for, even if they didn’t quite make it. I have never been able to understand the thinking behind the sedan front, other than “make it different”.
I think someone mentioned the Aztek, but here is a picture. Since Pontiac/GMC dealers were common, it has family ties with the GMC.
cc here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-2001-pontiac-aztek-a-face-only-a-mother-could-love/
A green frog mating with a gray one. You know, it doesn’t look as bad as when it came out. Lots of Vaderesque faces have muted my reaction to it. Never knew that would happen.
I too have noticed that it doesn’t look nearly as bad as when they first came out. I think you are right. There have been so many ugly designs to come out since. At least Pontiac improved it’s looks later by doing away with all that gray plastic.
It’s not so much that its time has come, but rather that we’ve become desensitized from over-exposure…
I don’t know that we’re over exposed exactly. A contemporary release with the Aztek was the then-new Ford Focus which had some pretty edgy (pun intended) styling of it’s own. It was a brave new world in several ways with the Aztek, essentially a new line of SUV, or SRV as GM called it, way edgy styling and aimed at active Gen X-ers.
IMO the Aztek concept was great, but the adaptation to the U-body minivan is where it fell down. At least many of the interior features were held over and it is a fairly decent place to spend time. I still think that if GM would have built it on something like a J body chassis in terms of size and weight, it would have been better able to hit it’s price target.
As it was, they were rather pricey for young folks and too well equipped in some regards. For a car that had optional plastic seat covers (to keep the mud off the upholstery) and a tent, full plush carpet was not a good idea, IMO. To really have pulled off the whole “outdoorsy” theme, a plastic or rubber lined floor would have been a much better idea.
I’m on my third one now, and still find I like driving it. Even though it’s about the same size as the G6, it seems more maneuverable and the cargo capacity is much easier to access than any car.
BTW, I’d really love to have the green one shown in the picture. That was a first year only color and that particular model appears to be a AWD Aztek GT. That’s a pretty rare beast for the 2001 model year. I have this one, though. A 2004 Rally FWD. It’s in my favorite color for this car, Liquid Silver.
Plus Heisenberg damn near made it cool.
Anybody else think that the worse car designs look like cats? Oh wait, no the Fish ones are worse. Then its the cats.
I had more issues with the Aztecs cheap Rubber Maid trim and other skinflinted qualities than the design. Just look at the prototype, it could have been a hell of a car. Cheapness is right next to ugly, yet inexpensive can still be done right. I like and respect the G8, but I think it suffers from ugly cheapness- they didn’t even bother to change head units, the volume knob is on the passengers side. A minor detail, that could bother me for years. Even the Northstar Bonnie still had that ridiculous Pontiac switch gear, but I’m sure it drove great.
Any of those last generation Bonnies drove great. They always drove “smaller” than their size. Still want a 2000+ Bonnie before I stop driving.
…..and the ugliest fast car of all-time. The Mosler Consulier
Every El Camino owner’s nightmare?
hehehe
Mosler? I’d have thought it was designed by Grumman.
Super fast mail delivery!
This face is not as overwrought as others here, and it suits the rest of the car very well…by being hideous.
http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Lincoln/59_lincoln_Contiental_MK4_DV-09_MBC-c01.jpg
Devilish eyes !!
No one mentioned this yet? The original Subaru B9 Tribeca. So bad that they gave it a major nose job and fanny tuck right away.
From that stillborn Subaru meme that seemed to draw from the early Saabs.
And now you mention Saab, the redesign of the TriBeCa was the rejected proposal for a Saab badge-engineered version.
“meme”? It wasn’t a “meme”. It was a theme.
It looks better on the Impreza than on the B9 Tribeca.
I want one. I want to buy one when we return to the US next year, and I’m completely serious about that. I really like how this car looks. Its ugliness suits me.
I’ll admit it’s no design winner, but the high quality is redeeming- no cheapness type ugly.
“Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes right to the bones…”
Redd Foxx
Great addition, and it is the front end that is particularly offensive on the Tribeca. Man those things were expensive, too!
Historical wise, i would have to nominate the 1958 Oldsmobile as the ugliest front and rear ends ever. Seriously it looks like the front and back ends of the car were designed by two different design teams who not only did not compare notes but were probably in two different continents.
I would also have to nominate the Citroen H Van for ugly front end also. It looks like somebody took great aunt Mabel’s tool shed and slapped 4 wheels on it.
For current car, I would nominate the current Acura TL. With that butt ass ugly “power Plenum” grill and sloping rear, you don’t know which end of the car is the front.
A recent contender in the Baleen Whale class
Yeah I own one of these. Almost passed on it because of that front end in favor of the more generic looking Ford Edge, but couldn’t resist the deal that was being dangled in front of me (since when did a Lincoln cost less than its Ford equivalent?). 9 years later it’s grown on me. Maybe because it’s been such a great car that I can forgive its looks. Or that I always park nose-first in the garage and parking lots, so I rarely look at its face.
Another one from China. A Shanghai Maple, a ridiculous name for a Citroën ZX with a front that thinks it is an Audi. Ugly and pathetic.
The Chinese know how to build a lot of things, but they wouldn’t know how to build cars to save their careers. 🙁
GM doesn’t think so… all their parts are made there. 😛
That is *so* unforgivable. It’s bad enough that we have to rely on other countries to build our cars, but China? I wouldn’t count on China if my life depended on it. I’d rather rely on Australia. At least their cars are built durable, to withstand Australia’s road conditions.
Many Chinese companies are already making some really nice looking cars. See here for instance the MG6.
And remember that in terms of manufacturing only, they already made Honda Fits in China for Canada, and soon will send their Volvo S60 L to the US.
Chinese car design has come a long way in a short time, there is no denying that. Now that they have mastered the sedan they are branching out into CUVs. Here is their latest, the $22,000 “Landwind X7”. If I didn’t know better I would say it was from Europe.
If I didn’t know any better I’d say Range Rover has grounds for copywrite infringement. Anything’s cheap if you plagiarize the real stuff.
The 63 Imperial nose is right up the list for ugly too. Pay close attention to the headlights… this look was only tried by one manufacturer – once.
I tend to disagree. I like the 1961 and 62 Imperial grille.
They went to the junkyard for some headlights off a Model A
Love these cars… but what the heck was Chrysler THINKING… by putting the turn/parking/signal lamps ABOVE the headlights??
Looks like Bizarro Superman designed that front.
Always, puzzled me, as a kid in the 70’s, when I saw these Le Barons driving around back then.
I know I’m deep in the minority on this but I like that layout. The inverse would make it another 76 Oldsmobile inspired clone like the Panther LTD Crown Victoria, which neither it or the Olds look any better with the marker/turns on the bottom in my opinion. It’s a very generic headlight/marker layout that at least Chrysler experimented with a bit. I like the high mounted markers on the 70 Barracuda for the same reason.
You’re not the only one. I thought it was a simple, yet bold move on the Chrysler stylists at that time. It was so wrong, yet so right.
Agreed.
I agree, I don’t think the LeBaron is any worse looking than most of its late-70s competition. I have fond memories of a friend’s mom’s ’78 Town & Country.
When I look at that generation LeBaron, and then its Dodge Diplomat clone, I imagine this conversation between Chrysler engineers and stylists: “We just ran out of tooling budget, but still need a way to differentiate the Diplomat from the LeBaron. Oh, and the Chrysler needs to look more ‘upscale’ of course. I know, let’s just flip the whole headlight unit upside down!”
“Great idea, boss, but on which one?”
“Ummm, I think putting the parking lamps on top says – ‘I AM worth an extra $453.’ So flip ’em over for the LeBaron!”
“Done! It’s Miller Time.”
Also, let’s NOT forget this monstrosity… looks like something you would see, go by you in a bathosphere, while deep sea fishing on an episode of Jacque Coustea.
The alien-like, Fiat Multipla… as much as Wayne Carini(Chasing Classic Cars) loves Italian cars, I think he would vomit if he opened up a barn, and found these extra set of eyes peering back at him.
It is nonetheless an amazingly practical family vehicle and most of its very odd design contrivances serve that purpose, so unlike some of the other monstrosities here, it is at least a brave triumph of function over form.
I had just forgotten that, and now you have to go and show it again. Urk!
Gotta love the Edsel, eh?
It had a face, only a gynecologist could love. LOL
Check out that bumper…
You could play a game of chess, on that beak. LMAO
I think the styling was inspired from the statues on Easter Island.
Well done. Reminds me of another famous wedge face, The Dale.
The E65 7-Series. I hate that car’s face so much, and it’s just as ugly as everything else on this list. I’m down with flame surfacing and the way Bangle tried to hide the increasing bulk of the cars with new safety regs, but good god, did he and Van Hooydonk have to put such a hideous face on it? I hate it so much, it’s one of the few cars on the road that actively inspires my vengeance fantasies.
It looks like a confused, inbred geriatric stumbling down the road. I don’t know how it doesn’t drool all over itself or stop itself from constantly falling down.
I do want to add, however, that I think that the more “ugly” cars that are on the road the better. If every car looked like the last of the Cutlasses I think that the world would be a dark, terrible, and lonely place.
I don’t think the front of that BMW looks ugly. I would describe the look as “inoffensive”. It has the grille from a Pontiac and the headlights from an early 2000’s Chrysler product (eg: Chrysler 300M, Dodge pickup).
“It looks like a confused, inbred geriatric stumbling down the road. I don’t know how it doesn’t drool all over itself or stop itself from constantly falling down.”
Perfect description!
Behold one of Exner’s more fascinating works…Hamtramck Gothic, aka the 1959 Dodge. Even in pink it looks pissed off at the world…..
Paint it black and it could be the standard police cruiser for the Gotham City Police Department.
Have to agree with the 74 Matador. The 61 Ambassador ranks up there as well as the 03-05 Saturn L Series
200-odd posts and nobody mentioned this (Ford Australia’s own version of the catfish-inspired design plaguing Ford everywhere during that period). The US Ford Taurus from the same era is just as bad. I said it before on another post, they are in my opinion worse than some of the desperate Russian attempts at updating 30 years old Soviet designs. What drugs were these people on.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this rolling mudfence…
Oh, that and rest of the angry chipmunks like it.
My choice, I miss so much.
Another favor to ugly mugs on old vehicles, nothing with a plastic nose will look that awesomely evil when it’s beat up!
Particularly menacing in the Netflix show, The Man in the High Castle.
De Valkyrie… never seen one in the metal before (thankfully). The Fiat Multipla appears to have been beaten pretty thoroughly with an ugly stick…. and wow, I forgot about the Consulier; well engineered but door stop ugly…
2nd Gen Nissan Murano, looks like it has shark teeth.
But the new Juke, looks like ick.
The ’58 Studebaker-cum-Packard. They knew the jig was up and ceased pretending not to, as evidenced by the googly dual headlamp treatment on the Packard in order to differentiate it from the Stude.
The new 2015 Toyota Yaris !! You couldn’t even give me one !! What happened to my friendly looking 96 Toyota Tercel ??
That thing ate it…
The Toyota Yaris has to be the ugliest damn car Toyota has ever built. The current Prius and Prius V come in a dangerously close second as being the next ugliest Toyota.
How about a VW eagle beak face ?
No, I love the VW Bus. It might be considered homely/cute, but not ugly. There’s a subtle difference. It’s the functional honesty of the whole design. No wasted lines, every curve has a purpose. I think all the really ugly cars we’ve posted here have peculiar pointlessness to their shapes. A lot of untalented designers who were just trying too hard to make something different simply for the sake of being different.
I agree. I’ve always appreciated form follows function design in a car or truck. That’s what I’ve always liked about German built cars and Australian built cars.
That’s why I like the second generation VW bus, nice simple front end styling , a one piece windshield, and without that quirky looking bird beak.
I agree. I like the 1st generation VW Bus and the 2nd generation VW Bus. They’re simple, but still attractive.
Le Sabre XP-8 – Inspired by the Beluga Whale?
As much as I love old concept cars, I couldn’t help but notice some interesting similarities here.
Actually it’s inspired by the F-86 Sabre Jet, hence the name.
True, but that’s not as funny as the Beluga Whale analogy.
Toyota based this look on a Stephen King clown, right?
4 Runner – or – Pennywise?
UGH! Reminds me of JAWS of 007 fame.
Oh yes! An Oldsmobile on steroids.
I’m surprised in this long post that no one brought up the ’49 Lincoln Cosmopolitan. Was there ever a droopier, sadder face?
I think I like this choice better than the 1961 Plymouth or 1958 Packardbaker. The ’61 Plymouth looks like something out of a Japanese sci-fi movie, while the ’58 Packard looks like a catfish. IOW, way more outrageous. By comparison, I can only think of the ’49 Cosmopolitan being in an old forties comic book like, say, Batman or Dick Tracy. The ’49 Cosmopolitan, while bad, comes across as substantially more mediocre and uninteresting than the other two.
Just happened to think, the droopy 1949 Lincoln front was quickly “facelifted” the next year in 1950 by straightening out those horizontal grille components. Much better, if a little generic, but there’s still something a bit sad about it, maybe it’s those sunken eyes!
The truck design must have been based on a gargoyle on some gothic church.
As for todays gaping maw’s and predator faces no wonder people are buying trucks.
Also I’ve noticed a lot of the SUV/CUV things look like they have used the prow of DUKW for the design of the front end.
So many hideous designs.
The last Toyota MR2 (Spyder). Looks like a frog.
I’d always thought “What’s up with those big ugly headlights?” on the last-gen Prelude, but ended up realizing I didn’t need to look at ’em from the driver’s seat. And in fairness, they were very bright on many a dark night.
While at a swap meet some years ago, a vendor had old car magazines from 1958 on display.
One of the cover blurbs was something like “Did Detroit styling cause the recession?”.
I don’t recall the name of the magazine, but with auto sales dropping as much as 31% in ’58 it sure had to be a factor.
Now, in 2020, with the “ugly ass styling” continuing unabated for at least 6 years now, I don’t see it getting for quite a while.
I am pretty sure we had an Ugliest Car ever on CC at one time, where I posted this one. This to me is one of the homeliest cars ever with the front all angled and weird features all about. 1958 Lincoln, with angled headlights, dagmars on the bumper, a strangely plain but huge eggcrate grille, impossible angles upwards at the ends of the bumper, pointy shape front of hood.
+1
Yes, the 1958 Lincoln is bizarre, which explains why the 59 and especially the 60 were toned down, to the point that the latter has a conventional bumper for the times.
And yet, I think the market spoke in volumes, or lack of sales thereof, of the Chrysler Airflow, from 1934. I may have found this photo on CC at one time.
Photo refused to attach, retry.
Non-US Chevrolet Cobalt, an Opel Corsa D dressed to Halloween. In person it’s even worse…
My favorite ‘plug-ugly’!
Current Toyotas could fill up this list.
I’ll nominate the CHR which I mistakenly went searching for the HRV which is Honda’s subcompact crossover.
It’s the face that never seems to end.
But the 4Runner is a good one too. As is the current Avalon and Prius. Going back, the SC430 was pretty unattractive to look at too.
Pic didn’t load.
Lets not forget a couple truly ugly Toyotas from two decades ago – the Toyota Echo and first-gen Prius. Those made the final Tercels appear sleek and stylish!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I’m belaboring this, but C-HR is supposed to stand for Compact High Rider.
I noted how it appears you don’t get much ground clearance for a crossover so I checked:
2019 C-HR = 5.9″
2019 Corolla = 6.7″
I didn’t read all the comments, so maybe someone said this already, but no matter how ugly some old time cars’ fronts could be today’s are worse because the old cars at least had round headlights, which neutralized some of the ugly to me. Today there are always angry looking pointy squinty triangular-y lights, which for those of us that see faces in cars makes them look like demonic creatures or something. Okay for an 80s Ozzy or Dio album cover but not nice to see everywhere all the time.
I’m impressed that 385 comments in that this homely soul appears unmentioned….
!961 Dodge
That’s another of one of the saddest faces in car history!
The quad headlight version of the Dodge Charger/Plymouth Turismo built in the mid to late 1980’s, I thought these cars looked better with the dual headlights.
Not necessarily the ugliest of all time, but because this is what greets my eyes when I open the door from the house to the garage every day. I miss the days when Toyotas had conservative front ends.
1965 full sized Mercury’s, did not like the front end of these cars at all, I thought the 1966 front end was everything the 1965’s should’ve been
Is that because of what might be considered oddball vertical parking lamps/turn signals? Sort of like the 1963 Plymouths (bottom photo)?
I don’t mind them so much and think that their successors in both cases looked too much like GM cars of the same era.
I personally don’t like those either, I think it’s because they’re exceptionally dull. Like the early 1950s Mopars, they look like vague drawings of a car of their era. There’s no one design detail the makes them stand out in a positive way- I actually think the Mercurys with the Breezeway window look much better because they have something distinctive about them.
It was known as ‘grand but bland’ in the styling business. The vertical parking lights were just a touch of novelty for one year to add a minor spark to the frontal countenance.
I always hated this front end. Like it’s sniffing dog poop.
Me too, I always thought the headlight/hood/quarter area was just awkward and like the “designers” just stopped working on it, and somehow management approved it. I definitely think the mid 60’s to mid 70’s was the top of the heap as far as styling went. Ford was always on the edge of ugly and starting with the ’71 Mustang(Sorry fans) they had tipped over. What followed after that for many many years just seemed bizarre to me, GM and Mopar lost their way a few years later, when the (IMHO horror show) Colonade cars came out, and the ’75 B Body Mopars were hideous. GM’s styling never reached the level of badness that Ford’s did, but the EXP and some others were contenders. Now it seems like Ford’s stuff looks OK, Mopars look great as far as the larger SUV’s and muscle cars go, and GM is totally lost with the awful looking Silverado, Camaro, and C8 Corvette. Anything with a giant grill(s) is ugly, BMW!!
1960 Bedford CA van. Hands down, a winner in the ugly department.
This cross eyed wonder must be one of the ugliest cars for sale today (and further proof that money can’t buy taste).
My vote goes to this miserable looking thing.
As a ’53 Packard Clipper owner, I still have to agree. I think of them as the ‘sourpuss Packards”!
I have to go with the new BMW 4 series. From the rear and sides, the car looks fantastic, but the front of the car has the appalling buck-tooth grill treatment. What’s even the point? It doesn’t serve any functional purpose, half of it’s blocked off! And it’s barely integrated into the styling. Most everyone I’ve talked to has hated it as well. Not sure what BMW is going for with this new thing, but it certainly isn’t landing.
Here’s a rendering of the 4 series without the grille, I think this one is substantially better looking.
Surprised no one mentioned this ghastly thing. Just horrible. Proof you can sell anything if it’s seen as trendy.