Comments (42)

1. Ugly? My banana yellow Chevy Vega, circa 1970. What an awful car.

   posted by chris on 8-27-2007 at 7:17 am

2. The survey wasn’t structured very well. “Design” means different things to different people. Many of these cars were criticized purely because the public considered them ugly:
   These were: Pacer, Aztec, Gremlin, Matador, and Edsel. These were pretty relatively conventional cars (engineering wise) that had peculiar styling.

   The Yugo, Vega, and Chevette are not generally (maybe chris excepted) considered ugly. Rather, they are stereotyped as having poor reliability. The Vega’s issue was that its all aluminum (no liners) engine had a lot of problems.

   The Pinto & Corvair are on the list because both were the subject of safety investigations (and the early Corvairs were featured in Nader’s book “Unsafe at Any Speed”). In the Corvair’s case, the car’s saftey was *completely* vindicated in subsequent Congressional investigations, but the memory lives on in some folks’ heads. The Corvair certainly wasn’t criticized for styling — the first generation’s (1960-64) styling was copied by about a half dozen European models, while the second generation (1965-69) was widely lauded as well and used as the starting point for the 67 Camaro. Corvairs are pretty collectible today and rather well-regarded for a lot of innovative engineering.

   posted by Sid Morrison on 8-27-2007 at 7:55 am

3. I also take exception to the inclusion of the Vega on this list. Ugly? No more so than the majoriy of ’70’s cars. (there was tons of room in that hatchback!) Unreliable? HECK yes! The valve cover warped within the first month and I was constantly replacing gaskets and oil. The 4 cylinder engine that was so wimpy that I could EITHER accelerate or run the air-conditioner. I actually feel guilty about selling it to some poor schnook.

   posted by Larriann on 8-27-2007 at 8:11 am

4. Yeah, even the 70’s Mustang was pretty ugly…70’s cars really sucked, didn’t they? (well, not ALL, but A LOT of them)..

   I always hated the look of those Aztecs a few years ago..and then I had to drive one on a business trip and it was really NICE inside…and you could SEE everything out the windows (and you sat up high)…it was a smooth, comfortable ride…too bad it was so ugly…

   posted by donner on 8-27-2007 at 8:41 am

5. Larriann- your Vega had a/c??? My brother and I suffered in the summer, stuck to the vinyl seats and stifling in the backseat, with only the vents and windows for (slightly) cool air. Of course, that was when the car was running. I remember a lot of unplanned family hikes while the Vega rested comfortably by the side of the road, spewing smoke.

   posted by Lebetho on 8-27-2007 at 8:43 am

6. Also, how did the Scion and the Element not make the list? They look like tiny armored cars. Yuck!

   posted by Lebetho on 8-27-2007 at 8:45 am

7. the Scion is the ugliest tinker toy out there now. it is somehow too vertical, too boxy and looks like it’s going to fall over on it’s too-small wheels.

   What about the modern minivan? I hate the look of those things.

   We had a Chevy Omni for awhile. it looks from the outside like a clown car. you can barely fit 2 people in there comfortably, say nothing of 4 or 5. And it only came in colors like gunmetal gray, boring day beige and depressing maroon.

   posted by jenny on 8-27-2007 at 8:58 am

8. Design does not equal Ugly. One is engineering, the other aesthetics.

   For a more broad-based poll of ugliest cars, go to cartalk.com.

   posted by Doc on 8-27-2007 at 9:21 am

9. BTW: My nomination for ugliest car of all time would be the 1954-5 Rambler American. They are so hideous that they are not only not collectible, you NEVER see one at a car show - and I go to a lot of car shows!

   posted by Doc on 8-27-2007 at 9:25 am

10. Why oh Why do you guys always have to label everything the “World’s” worst etc when you actually mean “America’s” worst.

    There is a whole planet out here you know, with some pretty ugly(?) cars to boot.

    Try and get out of the country more you people, you may find there are still a few people who don’t hate you simply because you think you are the World!

    posted by Chris on 8-27-2007 at 10:24 am

11. I’d like to see that “Chevy Omni” jenny had! They must have been really rare.

    I’m more familiar with the Dodge Omni, which wasn’t a bad cheap car. My friend had a few of them when we were teeangers and he beat the snot out them! He shod them with snow tires and take them off-road, driving over large boulders, etc. We had no trouble fitting 4 of us teenagers in it. He actually still has one and uses it as his backup car.

    posted by Sid Morrison on 8-27-2007 at 10:34 am

12. wow……..all pretty bad but how about the entire line of Studebakers????
    They were gag-ugly from start to finish…

    posted by al on 8-27-2007 at 10:41 am

13. I also had a Dodge Omni. I liked it because of the removable sun roof. When I got it, I had to have my dad come and drive it home because it was a stick and I didn’t know to work it. But I had to have the moon roof thing! It was pretty ugly–there’s an oxymoron statement for ya–but it got me around. I agree that the Mustangs were not at their best in the late 70’s. I had the ugliest, pea green outside, vomit green inside Mustang ever made. But, it was still a Mustang!

    posted by B.G. on 8-27-2007 at 10:43 am

14. No entries from Renault? No Citroens? Totally bogus list.

    posted by Anthony on 8-27-2007 at 10:53 am

15. Anthony, I was going to mention Citroen in my post, but I took a look and found some were ugly and some not-so-ugly. I couldn’t find the exact name of the ugliest model I was thinking of. What is it?

    posted by Miss Cellania on 8-27-2007 at 10:58 am

16. The funniest comment I’ve heard about the Scion is that it looks like it was designed by someone who was fired from Volvo.

    posted by W.C. on 8-27-2007 at 11:02 am

17. I’m hurt…include a Pinto but not a LeCar?

    posted by Beanie on 8-27-2007 at 11:15 am

18. Miss Cellania, the ugliest Citroen was the 2CV, so ugly it is almost charming!

    posted by chuck on 8-27-2007 at 11:35 am

19. Doc- I know where you are coming from, but within the auto industry, “Design” = “Styling”. When they say Chris Bangle is BMW’s (unbelievably controversial) Head of Design, it is well understood that he is the head of styling & aesthetics (or lack thereof) and has nothing to do with Engineering. When the auto industry means Engineering, they explicitly say that. Confusingly, there are indeed “design engineers” who are engineers involved in product engineering, and NOT (usually) styling. They work in an Engineering Dept and not in Design.

    To make matters even worse, a “Designer” can be either an artsy-oriented stylist (who works for a Chris Bangle type) OR it can just be a modern (and stupid) gender-neutral term for what they used to call a “draftsman” (except they work on a computer nowadays).

    Anyhow, that’s what caused the problem with the survey in the first place. The meaning of “Design” depends on context and audience. It would have been much clearer if they asked for “Ugly Cars” and/or “Worst-Engineered Cars”. Their results reflect a hybrid mix of opinions from both camps.

    Trust me on this one…

    posted by Sid Morrison on 8-27-2007 at 12:02 pm

20. Thanks, Chuck! I looked up a picture, and that looks like a cubist version of a Volkswagen Beetle.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 8-27-2007 at 12:44 pm

21. When I was a kid, I thought the Pacer was cool.
    And my Mom owned a Pinto wagon back then. Her next car was the Gremlin.
    And the 1st car she owned after getting married was the Corvair.

    And the one and only car i ever owned was an ‘82 Chevette!

    Must run in the family. hahaha

    posted by Sheldon Siegel on 8-27-2007 at 2:07 pm

22. @Chris:

    Wow! Did you even read the post before you jump on the whole “anti-America” thing?

    1) Nowhere did it say “World’s Worst”…you did.
    2) There is one car on there that isn’t American, the Yugo.
    3)From the post you didn’t read..”I don’t know exactly how this survey was conducted, but it looks like the 2,500 respondents thought of the ugliest car from their own past.”

    Given that the survey was in America…well, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that one…

    In conclusion, learn to read and stop the hating. Or at least don’t insult us with your veiled attempt at disguising it as righteous indignation.

    posted by Ed Hands on 8-27-2007 at 3:35 pm

23. sad to see so many AMCs on the list…

    I had a brown ‘81 Spirit with yellow and tan racing stripes… it was truly a beautiful thing.

    posted by when's lunch? on 8-27-2007 at 4:58 pm

24. I agree with Lebetho. The Honda Element is the ugliest thing I’ve seen since the Ford Edsel.

    posted by TerraByte on 8-27-2007 at 5:14 pm

25. Not only was the Pacer ugly, but its all-enveloping windows made it one of the hottest (as in temperature) cars I have ever ridden in. Not unlike a greenhouse on wheels …

    posted by Anne on 8-27-2007 at 5:21 pm

26. the aztek is one ugly mofo fo sho

    posted by ac on 8-27-2007 at 5:27 pm

27. as for the scion- it looks like a GD milk truck! A milk truck for god’s sake!

    posted by ac on 8-27-2007 at 5:30 pm

28. Ditto to the element and aztek.

    once my family rented an VW van… looked like a refridgerator on wheels

    posted by Amy on 8-27-2007 at 8:08 pm

29. My best college bud had a Pacer. We drove from Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, to Champaign, Illinois, to see Henry Lee Summer and Richard Marx (so far that’s three things no one else would dare admit here). The muffler was on its way off and created an amazing sparks show on the way home. It finally fell off several miles from home in a blaze of light (I thought the car was igniting).

    Wonderful night. Awful car.

    She’s now a doctor and I’m the managing director of my consulting firm and I’ll never forget that great concert and that miserable auto.

    posted by Lalita on 8-27-2007 at 10:45 pm

30. If you thought the Dodge Omni was ugly how about the Plymouth Horizon? It was the more plain version of the Omni, the little decorative accents were omitted.

    My buddy had a Horizon. To put driving lights on it, He tried to use a spade bit (for wood) to drill the hole in the firewall for the wire. I didn’t think it would work but the bit quickly poked through, gouging a big hole, because the metal was so thin.

    posted by Tdave on 8-27-2007 at 11:55 pm

31. My ugliest car was a ‘78 Buick LeSabre. An upside down barge on wheels.

    posted by Tdave on 8-28-2007 at 12:14 am

32. I owned 6 of the 10 listed and agree 100%! What else are you going to buy on a McDonald’s salary?

    posted by Scott on 8-28-2007 at 8:16 am

33. The mid-1980s Mercury Capris were very ugly, too. If a Mustang and a Pacer had a baby, that’s what it would have looked like.

    My ugliest car was a late-1970s Toyota Corolla hatchback. Good thing it was rust-colored. It was even uglier than my first car, a turtle-green 1974 Datsun B210 hatchback. And that car was DARNED ugly.

    posted by Sandy on 8-28-2007 at 8:23 am

34. And I know I’ll get flak for this, but I always thought that El Caminos were ugly. I never understood why they sold, but I’m probably missing something.

    posted by Sandy on 8-28-2007 at 8:26 am

35. Sandy, El Caminos and their Ford counterparts were marketed as “Gentlemen’s Pickups”. They were basically the station wagon model with a cut-down cab. Therefore you had the relative comfort of a standard car but with a hauling capability a bit better than a wagon.

    I remember an ad in a magazine showing a rancher hauling a single hay bale in the back of his - sounds about right!

    In the 1970s there was no cooler way to haul your motocross bike to the races than in the back of a ‘Camino. And there was something to be said about laying out in the back of one with your sweetie, watching the stars (or not).

    posted by Brine on 8-30-2007 at 6:22 am

36. Remember the ‘Thing’ by VW? The beetle is beautiful compared to that thang!

    posted by Joe on 8-30-2007 at 7:00 am

37. To those who think that the Scion xBs (which I’m assuming everyone is talking about when they mention the make Scion), I challenge you to test drive or ride in one.

    I have purchased 3 Scions (’05 xB, ‘06 xB, and ‘07 tC) and I have nothing but immense love for them! I would say that one would have trouble finding a Scion owner who is not head-over-heels for their car.

    And to Jenny…they may look like a roll-over risk but it is quite the opposite in fact. The Scion xB comes standard with Vehicle Stability Assist, Traction Control, and ABS. No other vehicles in that price & segment come close.

    After being rear-ended/clipped and then t-boned in one of my “boxes” by a driver behind me on the freeway (65 mph) my car spun and did not tip or roll over. In fact, I was able to get out and walk away without a scratch or bruise on me!!!

    posted by CoreyAnn on 8-30-2007 at 2:02 pm

38. Not sure it makes the list, but my vote for ugly car is the early 90’s taurus.

    posted by adl on 8-31-2007 at 10:01 am

39. What? Skoda? imgDOTautoDOTcz/auto/base/2005-28/titul_skoda_octavia_42d2442b70d78.jpg

    Or Tatra? Like the 1st aerodynamic serial produced car T77 of 1934 with T87 just a couple of years after? wwwDOTvam.acDOTuk/vastatic/microsites/1331_modernism/imgs/item_219.jpg

    Funny you :)

    posted by Praetor on 9-4-2007 at 11:37 am

40. If the HOnda Element had the trunk in the front you could call it the Elephant.

    posted by Buddy on 9-5-2007 at 4:47 am

41. I think that this list is biased against some cars that were fine looking but unreliable. Further, there are others often on these lists that I think were good looking, but were such a disgrace that they’re remembered as “ugly” (Mustang II).

    I would agree with some of this list, but I would make some swaps to fill my revised list:

    1. AMC Gremlin
    2(tie). Pontiac Aztek & Honda Element
    4. Datsun 210 hatchback
    5. Consulier GTP
    6. Edsel
    7(tie). Nissan Cube & Renault Twingo
    8. 1973 Buick Riviera
    9. Alfa Romeo Milano
    10. Honda Civic CVCC

    posted by Dave on 1-7-2009 at 9:39 am

42. CoreyAnn - Yes, I’ve been in a Scion xB and I still think it’s ugly.

    Funny that the Aztec is on everyone’s list. I think it’s absolutely horrendous too but only because of the back, the rest of the car wasn’t that bad. Somehow it can’t make up for the ugly back though.

    posted by CK on 1-7-2009 at 5:45 pm

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