According to AutoTrader, the seven criteria for car buying are looks, cost, safety, functionality, performance, fuel economy, and technology. The most basic of these is the vehicle’s looks. At first glance (often within the first ten seconds), most consumers will decide if the car’s style is appealing or not.
Matt Haig, the author of “The Humans,” claims: “If you think something is ugly, look harder. Ugliness is just a failure of seeing.” Automotive design is subjective, and like most art, no rules exist to unconditionally declare a car ugly. However, contrary to Matt Haig’s belief, anyone can stare at the cars on this list for hours, and they are just not going to get any less ugly.
Although car companies spend millions of dollars researching, developing, and designing new models that appeal to the most buyers, they sometimes miss the mark. Even a car that meets the other six AutoTrader criteria can experience poor sales if buyers think a vehicle doesn’t represent their persona.
Automobile history is full of vehicles that are just plain ugly. Here are two cars from each decade since the 1950s that represent the ugliest from those ten years.
14 1955 BMW Isetta
It is difficult to believe the quirky-style car was designed in Italy, the same country that produces automobile works of art like Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini.
Nevertheless, the result was the iconic bubble car that proved to be popular despite its resemblance to a bug that most observers feel the urge to squash. The BMW version, produced from 1955 to 1962, became a resounding success for the Bavarian carmaker, with over 150,000 units sold.
13 1956 Tatra 603
The most intriguing fact about the Tatra is that it was built in secrecy by the former Czechoslovakian government for use only by authorized officials. Perhaps they should have kept it a secret and not exposed the general public to the awkward-looking vehicle with its triclops-eye headlights, oversized air scoops toward the back, and the two-tone paint job.
Despite its unappealing appearance, the comfortable and spacious Tatra 603 boasted a rear-mounted air-cooled 2.5L V-8 engine, weighing only 180 kg (400 pounds), that produced 95 hp. With a total weight of a mere 1.4 tons, the Tatra reached a top speed of 160 km/h.
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12 1960 Marcos GT Xylon
The 1960 Marcos GT Xylon gained fame as the car amateur racer Jackie Stewart used to win four sportscar races during the 1961 season.
The nine units built during the year had a unique four-panel windscreen and featured gullwing doors. Several Ford engine options were employed, ranging from 997cc to 1498cc in displacement, depending on the event to be raced.
Everything about the bodywork, mounted on a wooden chassis, ruined the classic sportscar style from the cartoon-mouth-shaped grill to the bug-eyed headlights and disproportionate cabin. The awkward-looking race car was nicknamed, "The Ugly Duckling."
11 1961 Plymouth Fury
Everything about this cumbersome-looking cruiser is wrong. Most of all, the flared fenders, both front and back, appear to have been designed without any consideration for aerodynamics (aesthetics couldn’t have been a criterion either).
Although the Plymouth division of General Motors hoped for more, the Fury wasn’t an absolute disaster, selling 198,444 units in 1961.
Jeff Wright of Portland, Indiana, explains the appeal to a modern-day collector: "So many people say it's the ugliest car they ever made. It's got a face only a mother could love. But that's okay--if I'm going to have a car, it's not going to be something everyone and his brothers got.”
10 1977 AMC Gremlin
When the two-door, subcompact Gremlin was launched in 1970, few people would have considered it an auspicious start. The company design chief Dick Teague sketched his idea for the car on a Northwest Orient Airlines vomit bag. The car’s name comes from a mythical creature rumored to be responsible for breaking machinery and crashing airplanes. AMC scheduled the introduction of the Gremlin to the public on April Fool's Day.
If all of that wasn’t enough to jinx the new vehicle, the back end of the car looked like it had been sawed off as an afterthought to reduce the vehicle’s weight.
9 1974 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar
The 1974 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar looks like an assignment for the fifth-grade geometry class: Design a car based on an isosceles right triangle!
Promoted as an electric car, the CitiCar was not much more than a golf cart. Originally equipped with a 2.5-horsepower motor that was later upgraded to 6 hp, the E.V. cruises at a maximum speed of 35 mph with a range of 40 miles.
8 1980 Cadillac Seville
The back of the 1980 Cadillac Seville, with its abruptly sloping tail down to the rear bumper, makes one wonder if the designers confused it with the front end.
Perhaps, one of the designers had kids and thought the horizontal platform near the rear window would make a good seating area for the youngsters just before sliding down the sloping trunk. Or, maybe Cadillac was compensating for all those 1950s models with exaggerated tail fins that pointed to the sky. Whatever the motive, the result is one of the ugliest Cadillacs ever made.
7 1989 Nissan S-Cargo
Someone at Nissan had a sense of humor when they named this miniature cargo van that resembles a snail: “S-Cargo.” But clearly, the design team also enjoyed a good laugh when they sketched out this awkward-looking vehicle with a rounded forehead, pop up eyes for headlights, and arches that run from the front fenders along the roofline to the rear doors.
The vehicle is short enough to enter the tight European street parking spaces and tall enough for an averaged size human to stand upright in the cargo area. Apparently, the useful features of this small, efficient delivery vehicle weren’t enough to convince buyers. Only 8,000 were produced.
6 1996 Suzuki X-90
Only the most gracious car critic would label this anomaly, unique. Based on the same chassis as the highly successful Suzuki Sidekick (Geo Tracker in the U.S.), the shortened coupe-like body of the X-90 lacks features found on most compact SUVs. Rear seats, storage space, and a liftgate, were replaced with a small trunk, T-top, and a useless rear spoiler.
The military green and oversized tires on this model suggest a vehicle with some competent off-road capabilities, but this ugly duckling should never leave the pavement. The New York Daily News named the 1996 Suzuki X-90 their “Bizarre Car of the Week.”
5 1998 Fiat Multipla
Fiat gave “function” priority over “form” when the company designed the compact people-mover Multipla. The result is a space-efficient shape that allows for three abreast seats in two rows instead of the conventional five-passenger layout. The oversized windows and front windshield provide the driver and passenger unparalleled views, making the van an ideal vehicle for tourist excursions.
However, the strange bulges and bloated fascia panel of the Multipla give it the appearance of a rain-forest frog that has undergone more than one mutation. When American Idol host Simon Cowell looked at a picture of the Multipla on Top Gear, he commented it had a disease.
4 2006 Chevrolet HHR
The HHR is a blend of past and present — the old part, mostly visible in the body shape, was inspired by the 1949 Chevy Suburban. The modern part gets its inspiration from the outlandishly funky Chevrolet SSR (another strong candidate for the ugliest car of the 2000 decade).
The result is an awkward combination of two extremes, but one with generous cargo space with the rear seats folded down, but minimal appeal to most observers.
3 2007 Dodge Nitro
During the first decade of the 2000s, Fiat owned ninety percent of Ferrari. However, the exceptional, elegant, and artistic style of the Italian supercar company failed to influence the designs from the other company divisions. FCA produced some of the most distinctively ugly cars in the 2000s. The boxy Dodge Nitro is one of those.
Despite a best-in-class towing capacity and innovative interior features, the ride and handling lag well behind the competition, and the base engine is underpowered.
2 2013 Youabian Puma
The brainchild of Dr. Kambiz Youabian, the Puma, is a massive four-seat convertible that measures over 20 feet long, 93 inches wide, 72 inches tall, and rides on a 163.5-inch wheelbase.
The unique cartoon-inspired style may not appeal to many. Century Classic Cars wrote, “Perhaps the champion of ugly cars. When we first set eyes on the Youabian Puma at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show, our first thought was that Dr. Seuss had come back to life and was very, very angry.” The asking price for the Youabian Puma in 2013 was $1.1 million. Let that sink in.
1 2014 Citroën C4 Cactus
Citroën is a French car manufacturer famous for producing bizarre automobiles, including the DS models built in the 1960s and ‘70s. However, the C4 Cactus may be the company’s crowning achievement. The vehicle is full of oddities, but the unexplainable feature is the mutated bubble wrap attached to the doors.
The air-filled rubber bladders were added to cushion blows from runaway shopping carts, impact from doors swinging open on adjacent cars, and playground soccer balls that fly over the goal and toward the parked cars.
Sources: automobilemag.com, torquenews.com, motortrend.com, autoblog.com