The Ugliest Cars Man Ever Made

At the beginning of the automobile industry, car manufacturers churned out vehicle after vehicle without giving too much thought to style or aesthetics. It wasn’t until styling became a selling point that the world was presented with some of the ugliest cars ever created. You might not think a car can be ugly, but you would be wrong. From the bulbous headlights of the Pontiac Aztek to the bulbous tank-like shape of the Subaru Baja, there are plenty of cars that would beg to differ.

 Anyway, history has not treated kindly these sinfully ugly machines. They’ve been saved from the scrap heap of time by retro-car enthusiasts who can’t look away (or sometimes they were never built at all). Either way, here are some exceptionally ugly cars with which you can go on a grand tour of automotive ugliness. These are my top picks for the ugliest cars manufactured since 1900.

 The Stout Scarab is considered as the first jitney. It is also the first vehicle to use aluminum on its unibody structure. When it was introduced, it had innovative features that would change the automotive world forever. The Scarab may be the most unusual of the early forgotten cars. Despite its innovations, this is why it ultimately failed: It looks like a dung beetle.

Built by Edsel Ford’s son, Henry II, the Scarab was revealed to the public in 1951 at the New York Motorama, where it cut quite a figure. Time magazine described it as “an egg with wheels.” The Scarab seemed like something out of science fiction—perhaps a prop in a Flash Gordon serial. And it stirred up plenty of conversation—most of it less-than-positive.

The Crosley was introduced at a time when fuel rationing was being enforced. Despite the cheap materials that went into its construction, it proved to be very durable. As solid as a rock, many are still roadworthy today. The CC was the first car to use the toilet seat cover, other companies quickly followed. It’s so ugly it can be compared to other design disasters.

The Crosley soon became the butt of jokes, when in 1947 Tom Dowling of The New Yorker said it “might be mistaken for a motorized organ”. No doubt when its owner had to run the engine without the added boost of the car’s heater, that would lead to some cold mornings. It is hard to believe this car existed, but it has disappeared from history as quickly as it appeared.

The Cadillac Cimarron wasn’t just ugly but insulting also. Not only was the second-generation Cavalier mechanically identical to its Chevrolet counterpart, but it was also four inches shorter with almost 50% less trunk space. Worse still, its interior was downgraded with cheap plastic in place of chrome and leather.

Cadillac’s decided to convert the Chevy Cavalier into a luxury car, it appeared as the beginning of the crippling for the brand that once renowned as the Standard of the World. The Cimarron was a mistake, and Cadillac learned what not to do from it. But let yourself stay calm and do not get so wrapped up in the story that we forget what the real appearance purpose of Cimarron was.

In 1988, the Consulier GTP was a revelation. The Chrysler-sourced turbo motor put out a modest 190 hp, and it’s Kevlar/composite shell weighed only 2200 pounds—a feat that would take carbon fiber 25 years to match. But even with all that going for it, Consulier somehow missed the mark. Under the hood, the Consulier seems to have more in common with a truck than a sports car.

The Consulier GTP was a small car created in the mid-1980s by the Consulier Industries Corporation. It was produced as a mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports car that had a composite frame along with body shell entirely composed of Kevlar and carbon fiber. The Consulier GTP was built specifically to be a supercar, and it had an impressive amount of power because it only had a 190 horsepower Chrysler turbocharged four.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the most unusual cars ever made: The Alfa Romeo Sprint Zagato. When it was released in 1963, this car was full of weird flat planes and odd proportions. The car was a flop at a first. Nobody expected to see a car that different, especially from Alfa Romeo. But the Zagato shows its charm with time.

 The car is a joke—because its design isn’t finished. The fact that it’s still in production is pathetic, and we hope the company comes to its senses and scraps this piece of work before someone gets hurt. Beautiful design is something we come to expect from Italian cars, but the Sprint Zagato looks like something you’d build with Legos.

The Dustbuster was born out of the need for a minivan that would appeal to buyers in Europe.  To make it work in both markets, GM had to give our version a more angular look. The steep windows on the sides gave the van an awkward profile, while the nose made it look like an oversized vacuum cleaner—like some sort of Transformer that’s half-Swiffer.

GM took a big gamble when they decided to convert their trucks into minivans, and it wasn’t fun to drive. Although slide-into-the-sunset looks may have been touted as a design point, few remember the Lumina, Silhouette, and Trans Sport for good looks. The once-heralded three-car family van fleet sank into anonymity, leaving behind nothing but pain.

No matter how bad you think the last generation of the Chevy Skylark is, it turns out that it is even worse. If you’re looking for a car that’s ugly both inside and out, then here it is. In the modern world of automotive design, there is no more hated car than the Buick Skylark.

The pointless point at the bottom of each front fender, the pagoda-style C-pillar top, which has a frilly bit of chrome trim in a form that suggests a tadpole with one protruding eye, is one of the details that makes the Chrysler 300 so distinctive. The 1970-1971 Skylark had a big issue with rust. A person with an incomplete grasp of the principles of aerodynamics and an underdeveloped sense of aesthetics designed the grille and bumper on the 1999 Pontiac Grand AM.

The Aurora was a disaster. With its body shaped from the Oldsmobile Tube Car concept of 1989, the Aurora was a looker that had been styled as if it had been eroded. It was as if it hadn’t been designed, but instead had been discovered. The Oldsmobile Aurora is a bold symbol of the ingenuity that once defined the century-old brand.

 Compared to its rivals from BMW and Mercedes Benz, the Aurora fell short in terms of aesthetics, technology, and engineering. In 1990, Oldsmobile could have made a last-ditch effort to save the brand with a new marketing campaign. However, they decided not to do so and ended production within a few years.

In the late 1990s, South Korea was known for its ugly-looking cars, one of which was Ssangyong’s Korando. It also looks a bit like a zombie wearing Geo Tracker glasses. The worst thing about this vehicle is the obvious neglect it suffered before being released to the public. How can a reliable company introduce a product so poorly crafted?

 Cars like the Korando were so ugly that, for many years, cars wearing the Ssangyong badge could only be bought by people who did not care much about how their car looked. Some users claimed that they were no longer able to fix issues. Their complaints were left unanswered; some even claimed that they were instructed to become accustomed to the vehicle’s flaws.

The Fiat Multipla is one of the few cars on this list to have won any kind of award, but it’s only an achiever in the ugly car category. It has so many flaws that one can find new things to make fun of all the time, so it never gets boring! The Multipla is one of the most criticized cars on this list.

Designed in Italy, built in Belgium, the Multipla is nevertheless a car from the future–because its so-called “box” shape is one of the wrongest concept cars ever built.  The boxy two-door five-seater was developed by Fiat but proved no match for its curvaceous rivals from Italy and France.  It has a striking resemblance to some other infamous vehicles, including the AMC Pacer and the De Lorean DMC-12.

The Avantime was quite futuristic and weird looking back in 1999, with its sharp edges and headlamps on opposite sides.It was one of the first SUVs. It had the same appeal as modern five-seater SUVs like the Honda Passport and Ford Edge. Its automatic doors, the glass roof, and the reverse-slanted rear window may not have made it massively popular, but it did get us thinking that it.

Though the car was far from a failure, it wasn’t a huge success either. Though there were many possible reasons for this, it is still unclear why the Avantime failed to sell well as compared to its competitors. Some speculate that the high price point of 11,000 euro discouraged potential buyers — in 2002 when the car was sold in Europe.

The Nissan Armada was a pretty vehicle, but it’s no longer attractive. Nissan’s design team echoed the same design themes found in the ugly Maxima and Altima; the flat roofline looked cobbled together, and its cognitive inabilities did nothing to help Nissan’s public perception.The low headlights and tall grille contribute to a Neanderthal-like visage, which suggests a great fit for a practical car buyer.

Infinity sought a vehicle that exuded luxury but wasn’t ostentatious. Their answer was the Infinity QX56. In 2011, customers felt it had grown too large and too heavy, so Infiniti developed a new design from the ground up with improved performance and fuel economy, resulting in the current iteration of the QX56.

The Jeep Compass is as awful as it was in 2007.  The Compass give you best of both Worlds; on-road and off-road , and Jeep has failed to restyle this entry-level car and bring it up to par with its other models and not release a new model for over four years which meant that the Compass was the worst looking entry-level SUV out there.

The 2007 Jeep Compass was pure junk. Regardless of how its styling made it appear to be the brash, rugged vehicle that Jeep is known for, it was feeble, dull, and one-dimensional. Chevrolet made a similar attempt with the HHR, but even they saw the error of their ways and pulled the plug on their lame pretender much quicker than Jeep did with their Compass.

Mitsuoka is a Japanese company that re-brands other cars with the Nissan Skyline’s E17 body. In the case of the Galue, Mitsuoka took the Infiniti Q70 and gave it a sporty front fascia. The Mitsuoka Galue is an example of an idea that shouldn’t have been executed. It looks like something out of the worst dream sequence from a children’s movie.

The Mitsuoka cars are a failure in terms of design and aesthetics. The company uses inexpensive cars from other companies and puts a heavy makeover on the exterior. Not only they do not look good, but they also aren’t able to stand out in a crowd of other similar vehicles. It is also quite expensive for what it offers.

Regardless of whether these cars are parked or in motion, it’s impossible not to smile when you see the big loopy grin of the Toyota Prius C. But if you want to get technical, there are many reasons why anyone should smile when they see this car. Despite the backlash from the public, Aston-Martin was confident that this new design would attract a younger, more progressive market.

Even though the Cygnet is no joke, it’s still more than a joke. Cygnet is more than just a joke in its design; in fact, its design is no joke at all, especially since Aston-Martin created it with the mindset of creating something that is both real and usable. And while most people probably haven’t heard of it (specifically in the United States), given that Aston-Martin.

The product of a wildly optimistic expansion plan, the John Cooper Works GP is the most ridiculous of the Mini range – a bloated boy racer dressed up in girl’s clothes with a spoiler that looks like it’s been stolen from a BMW Z4. It’s nevertheless a fun car to drive with a torquey engine and lively chassis, although ergonomically it’s strictly for two people and little luggage.

The Mini Coupe is a tiny 2-door hatchback from the German manufacturer BMW. The Mini has been around since 1959, as it’s been a popular model for many years. The Mini Coupe was released in 2011 and was a complete failure. The car is considered impractical, unnecessarily ugly, and is one of the worst cars to ever have been released by BMW.

 It was a bit disappointing for Jeep fans when they heard about some design issues in the Cherokee. Of course, when the Cherokee began to have some problems, no one bought it. However, when people decided that they wanted an SUV, they got the Cherokee. The Cherokees were popular because they had a good gas mileage and its features were worth the cost.

The Jeep was, when it first appeared, roundly criticized. The design might not have been for everybody at the time, but when you’re talking about an off-roader it is always important to look at functionality over design. By all accounts, the Jeep Wrangler was an unlikely candidate for the luxury lifestyle.

The new Rolls-Royce Cullinan is a triumph at building a car ensuring the driver need never lay eyes on its exterior. It’s a car so comprehensively covered in luxury from all angles that it doesn’t much matter what it looks like.

The most glaring issue with the Cullinan is its sheer size. Standing about 4 feet tall, it’s not surprising to learn this massive SUV weighs in at 5,760 pounds. But the heavy exterior is only part of this SUV’s awkward heritage. It shows just how far Rolls Royce has come that the brand is now basing its most expensive SUV on slinky coupes that are more luxury GT than an overblown off-roading behemoth.

Once, there was an automotive Frankenstein named the Allard P2 Safari. This strange beast was made by grafting the front end of a Triumph Spitfire onto the back of an upscale wagon, America’s modern take on the shooting brake body style. The Allard P2 Safari could be had with a few different engines, but the power came from an optional 2-liter four-pot good for 130 hp.

On the other hand, Ford’s 1958 model Thunderbird was one of the most controversial and divisive cars in history. Aesthetically, it has been criticized for its unattractive appearance and excessive ornamentation. This outdated Classic ’50s-era design was very similar to the aerodynamic designs of the 1950s cars, which was not particularly impressive. Many architectural critics have dismissed the car as kitsch.

  The 1958 Lincoln was designed with an awkward A-pillar that blocked the driver’s view. This car as designed without any theme in mind just looks like a flat-fronted egg on stilts. It also used a fake grille that blocked the lower front fascia, making it impossible for drivers to see anything on the ground. Other critics have noted that it also shares many styling cues with the Cadillac Eldorado, which only added to its woes.

As it is built to satisfy the strict Japanese Kei car standards, the Subaru 360 is a bare-bones microcar with a tiny engine and simple suspension. The Subaru 360 is the ugly duckling of the import car world. When it was first revealed to unsuspecting buyers, it may have seemed like something out of an alien invasion flick. And although it may not be the prettiest car on the road today, it’s still a fun car to drive.

The Citroen Ami 6 was made in France, and it is very weird. It was the first car without round headlights, and the reverse-raked rear window certainly didn’t help matters. The design here is pretty much just about showing off how quirky you are, which means if you are the type to drive around in a car like this everyone’s going to know it by now.

What’s perhaps most exceptional about the Marlin is that it’s ugly, and  ugly not from any single aspect. A range of issues conspired to drag its performance down, not least of which was the fact that it was based upon the mechanicals of an existing vehicle: the Rambler American sedan.

In a list of the worst-looking cars ever made, you wouldn’t imagine to look for an Italian cars . But, the Fiat 1800 was a car built in the ’60s which is considered to be one of the ugliest cars ever.  It had a 47 horsepower engine with 843 ccs. Despite its lack of appeal, 

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly where designers went wrong on the Mantis, though. The height of the first pillar is so extreme that it overshadows the front end without adding any original style, while the windshield’s narrowness makes it look like Marcos can’t afford A-class glass. Marcos appears as an Italian manufacturer producing forgettable cars that offered nothing more than a few thrills and a spare tire stuck in the backseat.

In 1976, when carmakers dared to build a car like the Matador, reviewers jeered at it and said it was dead on arrival. The Matador was an exercise in excess, with its enormous size and soft suspension. It was a stylish successor to the old muscle cars. Its excessive weight makes it hard for this car to compete with European sport coupes on the race track.

The Triumph was a disaster. Its thick roof pillars prevented headroom, and its gun-slits forced you to constantly adjust your side-view mirrors. It has been described by critics as the ugliest car of all time. Unfortunately, European manufacturers were unable to produce a sports car that could match the performance of the dominating makes, namely the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro.

The long-delayed production Aston Martin Lagonda is so ugly, it makes the company’s Rapide look downright handsome in comparison. This car looks more like a tall sedan with an Aston grille on the nose than something from the house of Gaydon. It could be a poster car for a reason because it has zero right to look as good as it does.

Forget the promise of a “luxury performance sedan” even Rolls could not make this thing look good. With a bulbous nose, tiny headlights and an axe buried behind its neck, it looks like a giant putty-colored insect or a droopy-eared American Bulldog. And looking at it from any angle but head-on makes its face even uglier.