When we bought our Honda Element in 2005 we used to say we had the ugliest car in any parking lot…unless there was also a Toyota Scion. We still have the Element but there are a lot more uglier cars now.
I was going to say that Mr. Bean had a car like that, but actually his car was something like an Austin Mini. The three-wheeled car in some of the episodes was someone else’s, someone that Mr. Bean kept running into, often toppling it over. It was similar to the one in the pic, but was actually a Reliant Regal.
Those are so nerdy they’re cool. But then, I loved my Honda Element.
Which would you not mind driving etc., dopers?
- Pontiac Aztec
- Citroen 2CV
- AMC Gremlin
- Nissan Cube
- Zundapp Janus
- Scion IQ
- Renault Kangoo
- AMC Pacer
- Reliant Robin
- Volkswagen “Thing”
0
voters
Citroen H van anyone?
PS Oops, looks like you can only pick one…
I feel that way about most of the cars mentioned in this thread. They’re not ugly, really, they just have unique styling that might no be to everyone’s taste. And I for one like quirky cars.
If you meant for it to be multiple choice, you can fix that by editing your post, and then changing the code for the poll to change “type=regular” to “type=multiple”.
The window says 5 minutes has already passed so no dice…but next time!
The irony of the rock-bottom cheap Citroen 2CV (and the craptastically ugly H Van) is that the remarkable Citroen DS (introduced in 1955) came not only from the same company, but the same designer. The DS was incredibly advanced for its time, including innovations like a fully hydraulic self-leveling suspension:
Jay Leno couldn’t say enough good things about it. He’s wrong about the designer, though; Flaminio Bertoni, who worked at Citroen for many years and was behind the 2CV, the H Van, and many others, was also the main guy behind the DS.
I liked the PT Cruiser too.
I’m trying to remember the other car I thought was just as ugly as the Aztek. I think it even came out the same year, but darned if I can find it. All I remember is I thought it was ugly and it was made by a major manufacturer.
Buick Rendezvous (Aztek’s fancier cousin)?..
I worked for a classic car dealership from 2018 to 2020, photographing their inventory and promoting it online. Mustangs were perhaps 75% of the 200-odd vehicles I scrutinized and catalogued during those years, with the bulk of them being first-gen Mustangs, everything from Shelby GT500s to three-speed inline-6 pigs, and every kind of restomod in between. What I eventually decided - and I can only speak for myself here - is that the Mustang just does not look good as a convertible. The design of the soft top prioritizes function over form, and they do function well - the majority of the factory power tops worked perfectly and are very simple to place up or down. But whether the top is up or down, it doesn’t LOOK good. The soft top folded up in back always seems to look shabby, even with the boot that can be snapped into place to cover it, and with the top down, it looks like there’s just something missing from the lines of the Mustang’s body. And when the top is up, the roof line looks wonky as hell.
It’s a great experience to actually DRIVE a classic Mustang convertible, but I think the hardtop ALWAYS looks better, whether it’s a coupe or a fastback.
This is really just an aside, as no Mustang (not even the Fox Bodies) would qualify as the “ugliest” car to me. Even the infamous Mustang II isn’t so much ugly as lame.
The VW Thing would be my choice from the lot. NOT as a daily driver, and done up in as authentic Wehrmacht colors as possible. No markings, just the color scheme. Preferably the one used in North Africa, since I live in a desert.
I have to nominate the mid-1970s AMC Matador sedan, with its strange protruding “nose”.
That may have been to distinguish the Matador from the Fairmont. 
It’s really something when you can barely tell the front of the car from the back, even with headlights.
I didn’t find the Dodge Omni ugly, but its tendency to break down made it gruesome.
That Toyota Rhombus from the car show is kind of cute, but I agree it seems to lack aerodynamic qualities.
I want to enter as a duo the first attempts by Toyota and Nissan to build minivans in the 1980s.
Toyota
Nissan
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And the VW Vanagon wasn’t much better.
They may have been crappy vehicles, but honestly, the styling was contemporary for the 80s. Really not too bad for a first-generation minivan, unless you favour a greater expanse of hood, like the first-gen Dodge Caravan:
On the contrary, I think the import vans of that era aged far better than the Big Three’s domestic offerings.
I considered nominating that as well (my sister owned one), but compared to the Pacer it was downright normal.
This guy used to have more pictures up. Anyway he’s a real AMC aficionado.
He actually goes back to the Nash Metropolitan.
Here’s the first page on Gremlins…there are 8.
Scroll down for a look at a Pacer police car.
Lots of crazy stuff in these pages.
I always assumed the Pacer was the result of a warp bubble experiment that accidentally trapped an alternate-universe car of the future from the 60’s. to cover it up they put into production.
Jay Leno has the original.
LOL! Reminds me of my favourite humourist, Dave Barry. His father was a Presbyterian minister who drove a Nash Metropolitan. Dave claimed it ruined his childhood. Maybe that’s why he over-reacted by picking up his own son at school in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile: 