Ugly Cars: A Picture Thread

I think you're on to something.

Chris B.'s choices baffling to me, until I remember his picks for a beautiful car thread on here. He gets major points for consistency, although I think he lives in crazy upside-down land. (Well, ok, the X6 IS an abomination.) More seriously, the Mercedes GLK and the Citroen C6 work a lot better in the metal than in pictures -- maybe you've never seen them on the road?

So in sane right-side up land the Panamera and the Eclat are good looking?

I saw lots of C6s when I was in Europe last year and bulbous back end reminded me too much of the final series of Pontiac Bonnevilles. The new C5s look good though.

Is it just me, or do most of the coupe/fastback four-door sedans all look like different spin-offs of early-80s Rovers?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/Rover_SD1_series1B_rear.jpg

It's just you. The Rover SD1 is a thing of incredible loveliness; if more cars looked like that, I'd be a happy man.

Well. Happier.

Occasionally, when I was thinking about cars.

Which isn't often at all, actually.

"He thought of cars.."

The Rover SD1 is a thing of incredible loveliness; if more cars looked like that, I'd be a happy man.

So would I, except when it's the Prius (#1 on my list of "cars that will look incredibly dated in five years")

I was behind a Prius the other night; I actually found myself thinking: "That's quite a nice-looking car."

Mind you, it was dark and incredibly foggy.

I have ridden in so many of these cars. One dude I knew in high school actually had two Renault Alliances before he got a Dodge Aspen. Another friend's Colt caught on fire in front of a Chinese restaurant.

But the Prowler - I had forgotten that one. The company I worked for in 1997 did Plymouth's website and I spent a couple days cutting a photo of that car into a nested-table javascript-rollover monstrosity. So horrible:

http://web.archive.org/web/19980113130008/www.plymouthcars.com/nav/fs_master.html?contentPage=/prowler/

Is it just me, or do most of the coupe/fastback four-door sedans all look like different spin-offs of early-80s Rovers?

did rover start that style? ain't no rovers in the US (aside from the "sterling")...we first saw this design with the chevy citation:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/chevrolet-citation-3.jpg
typcal of GMs of the era (1975-present), it found new and innovative ways to fall apart.

^ My first car, a 1981 model, various shades of blue.

Aren't you just asking for trouble by driving a vehicle called a "Citation?" BTW, my sister used to drive one, & for years she had to start it by opening the hood and doing something involving a ballpoint pen.

This was the car my family had when I was a kid (age 0-9 or so). I remembered it being a behemoth of a car, but I saw one in a parking lot the other day and it didn't really seem so huge at all.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Oldsmobile-Cutlass-Sedan.jpg/800px-Oldsmobile-Cutlass-Sedan.jpg

I remember reading an article in Automobile magazine a long time ago that was about finding the cheapest car in, like, Philadelphia. They ended up buying a Citation off a used car lot for about a 100 bucks. A few blocks off the lot, the thing threw a rod and the engine was destroyed.

Next generation Prius (2010). An improvement?

http://www.motorauthority.com/content/images/2/0/2010_toyota_prius_leak_001-1015.jpg

Looks as smug as the people who drive it.

It looks like what Voltron's head would look like if all the little component vehicles of Voltron grouped to form a giant robot bird of prey.

LOL

"So in sane right-side up land the Panamera and the Eclat are good looking?"

Yes. Also the GLK looks good because it is small, for what it's worth. The first-generation Subaru Forester was an ugly-ass small SUV. A very good car, but ugly.

Rover tried to sell cars in the US before the Sterling. They did not have much success.

Yeah, is there any reason Toyota had to make the Prius as ugly as they made it?

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, December 6, 2008 5:08 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

A hybrid prototypey car probably needed to have a hybrid prototypey design. Hybrid cars were so new and omg fascinating then that to scream 'LOOK AT ME I AM INTERESTING AND WEIRD' would have been advantageous.

while i would happily take a prius if someone were to give me one, had i the $$$, i would definitely go the honda civic hybrid route. prius is kinda fugly.

"So in sane right-side up land the Panamera and the Eclat are good looking?"

Yes. Also the GLK looks good because it is small, for what it's worth.

Got it. I just have to consistently take the opposite of what you like then.

Mercedes GLK = boring-ass dreadful. Does the world really need a Mercedes version of a BMW X3 / Grand Cherokee? ATTENTION M-B stop building me-too cars that no one wants and get to producing the conceptFascination

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/mb_conceptfasc_450.jpg

I thought the horribleness of the Prius was because of the need to make it super aerodymanic.

xp Looks like a rounder Magnum to me...

http://www.autobytel.com/images/2006/Dodge/Magnum_SRT8/Lyons/400/2006_Dodge_magnum_front1_lr.jpg

I can't even imagine the cost for a new set of tires for half of these cars.

It doesn't drop off in the back as radically as the Magnum does. It's also a two-door, so it's not quite as long.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/3073051950_3f4cac4a7c.jpg

that Caprice is awesome

I currently drive a 2003 Malibu but my favorite of all the cars I've driven was the 1995 chevy lumina- good in the snow and drove nice (took forever to warm up tho)

http://www.governmentauctions.org/uploaded_images/lumina-741796.jpg

Just saw a tv commercial for this: the Kia "Soul"

http://www.cars-bikes.info/d/1747-2/kia-soul-001.jpg

xpost-

That's why I'm glad that we have a first-generation Prius, because they just look like slightly generic cars, no "geewhiz I'm a hybrid" attention seeking design. The newer ones do have way nicer interiors though, it must be said.

(xpost) that Kia looks like a prop from "Demolition Man"

hyundai coupe
http://media.motortopia.com/files/7852/vehicle/46c091c4412af/Rollin_Medium.jpg

Oh, the famed Amerikanische Wirtschaft and its ugly Automobile

I love each and every single one of those

I see Saturn! The car! Everywhere we are!

http://www.auto123.com/ArtImages/93569/2009-Saturn-Vue-Hybrid-i008.jpg

HOLY SHIT, YOU GUYS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfguWbuzVmY

1957 AURORA

what in the hell...

that grille is...does it double as a snow plow? Is that an extra seat for a small child? christ on a cracker that is freaky

side note: I passed a Kia Soul on the freeway today and have decided that Kia's design aesthetic is 'make all our cars look like they are inflatable'

back on the Aurora

It looks like a real-life animated car

"HEY HOW YA DOIN GUYZ"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(1957_automobile)

The most innovative safety feature, which has not been incorporated into other cars, was the ability to swivel the seats to face rearwards should a collision seem imminent.[1]

Haha!

I was just gonna say that car would immediately look better if they just flipped it around. but the swivel seats confirm that somebody was a bit confused.

The weird bugout windshield is the thing that gets me, even more than the scoop bumper on the front. Also, SIX headlights.

appaz the bugout windshield was so ppl didn't bang their heads in an acident -- and the scoop bumper is made of foam

totally a safety car

hence it's ugliness, lol (ie cf Volvo)

It looks like a real-life animated car

http://www.ballerride.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/the-homer-car-simpsons-powell-motors.bmp

CRAZY VACLAV'S PLACE OF AUTOMOBILES 'She'll go 3000 hectares on a single tank of kerosene'

'Put it in H!'

oh wait, different car

but still, my favorite Simpsons moment

"What country is this car from?" "It...no longer exists."

Love that scene. Every time I give my friend a ride (who shares my Simpsons obsession), when we get in the car he says, "Put it in H!" And when we get out he says, "Remember: were in the Itchy lot."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Microdot_1976.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Toyota_Van_%2780s.jpg

http://cdn-static.cnet.co.uk/i/product_media/40000978/image7/440x330-rear34.jpg

It seems to be a thing these days to give cars fat arses with sticky-out lights, and this Lexus is the worst. Also the wheels don't seem to fit the size of the car, but I'm not sure if they're too big or too small, they just look wrong.