If you were to read this title 37 years ago, you’d ponder whether the person behind this piece is ignorant or simply blind. SUVs were built to look ugly. Their only purpose was to be driven into terrains sedans and other passenger vehicles would dare not drive into. And they were not to be driven fast either. Flick the steering wheel too quickly and the entire thing would turn upside down. But then, the SUV evolved.

As early as the late '90s, SUVs were now becoming prettier, faster, and more stable than their first generation. Of course, the looks were generally not something you’d call pretty. But every other automaker was putting their best “face” forward, save for the Japanese. The automakers from the East were busy churning out four-wheel scarecrows. Even in the late 2000s, renowned automakers such as Toyota were releasing SUVs Medusa wouldn’t look at, twice.

But that’s the thing with Japan: they care less about the looks, but more about the grunt underneath that Frankenstein creation. But that still didn’t help these 8 JDM SUVs that gave the term “oddball” a new meaning.

8 Toyota Mega Cruiser

Via: MotorBiscuit

If this was sent to the army, it would have probably been a huge seller. Instead, it ended up being a 3,000 unit mistake Toyota released to the masses. Launched in 1995, the Toyota Mega Cruiser was designed to be the big brother to the Hummer H1, which had been in the market for 3 years. But that’s where the problem started. The Hummer H1 was not Toyota’s production.

RELATED: A Detailed Look Back At The 1995 Toyota Mega Cruiser

Via: CarScoops

So, instead of asking for design blueprints from AM General, a 3-year old sketch artist was tasked with designing what a mega-sized Hummer H1 would look like. That’s how the Mega Cruiser got its hammered Hummer H1 face. At the time, this was the largest SUV introduced by Toyota to the market, but only 3,000 people were ever interested in it.

7 Isuzu VehiCROSS

Via: The Drive

The name VehiCROSS itself tells you of the confusion that was pervasive in Isuzu’s design team during the making of this compact SUV. You can’t tell exactly what they were going for. At the front, the platform looks perfect for a Jeep. However, the fascia and those receding headlights suggest the designers were going for an anime character on four wheels.

Via: The Drive

Thankfully, that confusion ended there. The engineers knew exactly what they were going for – a top-performing two-door compact SUV that would be sold in limited numbers. Thus, they lifted the 3.5L V6 from the Isuzu Trooper and bolted it to a Torque on Demand four-wheel-drive system that made the VehiCROSS not only sporty but also fully utilitarian. But none of that drew people’s attention away from the hideous looks.

6 Honda Element

Via: DriveMag

Only one generation of the Honda Element was produced, spanning model years 2003 to 2011. And during this time, when Honda absurdly decided to take an ugly duckling to the North American market, up to 325,000 people purchased this oddball SUV.

RELATED: 5 Most Hated Japanese Sports Cars (5 American Cars That Are Even Worse)

Via: Wikipedia

So it wasn’t a failure, was it? Technically not.

Despite being the most horrendous SUV to look at, this car was well-engineered by Honda. The Model X platform that they based the Element on provided enough interior space thanks to a flexible, boxy, interior design. It even went on to win the 2007 Dog Car of the Year awards. Turns out canines loved this weird SUV, whose all-wheel-drive was optional.

5 Subaru Baja

Via: Auto Evolution

An interesting thing about the Honda Element is that it was built to be a cross between an SUV and a pickup truck. While Honda didn’t nail the looks, their ugly duckling was better looking than the Baja Subaru crafted out of their production line.

Via: Mecum Auctions

This four-passenger, four-door utility vehicle had a very short production run of four years, between 2002 and 2006. Part of this can be greatly attributed to how Subaru butchered the revered Subaru Legacy/Outback wagon, whose rear was slapped with a truck bed to make this frightening creature.

What’s even worse, is that the man who was tasked to bring this failure to American soil, Peter Tenn, stated that it was a funky and different race-truck-inspired car that would move the masses. Maybe that’s why instead of 24,000 people buying this car, per year, as projected, only 30,000 wasted their money in the four years it disgraced showrooms.

4 Suzuki X-90

Via: Wikimedia Commons

Most SUV fanatics would need a lot of convincing to believe this little bug was an SUV from the great Suzuki, the same company that makes formidable crossovers like the Vitara. But what you dread is true. Someone bewitched their design and engineering team from 1995 to 1997.

RELATED: 10 Worst Car Designs Of The 1990s

Via: Hemmingways

Ironically, the X-90 was related to the Suzuki Vitara. However, it featured a removable roof at the T Section, ran a 95hp 1.6L inline-four engine, and optionally came in rear-wheel-drive. On top of that, it was squashed enough to force you to extend your cargo area behind the two front seats, with a “space saver” spare wheel also being necessary.

The X-90 was such a spectacular failure that Top Gear, in October 2013, crowned it one of The 13 Worst Cars of The Last 20 Years.

3 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

Via : YouTube

Cabriolets are sacrilege in the SUV market. No one wants to drive a utility vehicle with an open-top so that they can enjoy the country roads. The car isn’t supposed to be there in the first place. It should even have existed in the first place, like the Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet.

Via: AutoEvolution

This was an experiment gone wrong by Nissan. At the time of its launch, it was the world’s first all-wheel-drive crossover convertible. Moreover, it was the only one that year, until the cabriolet curse landed on Ranger Rover and their petite Evoque.

Nissan tried not to mess up with the powerful V6 and luxurious interior that was lifted from the established Murano LE. However, look at the exterior, and it will hit you how everything would have turned upside down had they sourced nothing from the Murano LE. The looks were not just Medusa-repelling. They were enough to have this car discontinued in 2013.

2 Daihatsu Midget II

Via: Auto Trader

Arguing how wrong it was to call an SUV “Midget” is a discussion that can last for days. Ranting about everything that was wrong with this tiny Daihatsu creation, on the other hand, is something that can last eons. First of all, this didn’t even classify to be called a true SUV. What it was was a single-seater mini-truck that others believed was a microvan/Kei truck only a particular lot of Japanese car buyers would be interested in.

Via: Blogger

The formula used to build this car was the same as that used to build other midgets back in the day. It was small, could only sit one or two, featured a utilitarian design, and had either a semi-enclosed or enclosed cab.

But that seemingly didn’t bother the buyers of this vehicle, whose demand lasted this car for two generations. The last generation, spanning 1996 – 2002, had more SUV-like looks, despite still being undeniably appalling.

1 Honda Vamos

Via: Edmunds

This is a car that once you set your eyes on you’d desire to, well, vamoose. Yet another appalling creation from Honda, the Vamos was laughably referred to as a leisure vehicle. Well, it also had a leisure sales period that only lasted 3 years, before the make was reintroduced again 26 years later, in 1999, as the Honda Acty Microvan.

Via: Edmunds

Originally, the Vamos was a Kei truck based on the Honda TN360. However, it was battling other established SUVs such as the Suzuki Jimny at the time. Well, since nothing looked fun or appealing in this car, the market decided to do exactly what the name Vamos means in Portuguese – move away from this car.

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