-
Hi Guest!
You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
There are some perks with a member upgrade!**Upgrade Now**
(PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Ugly cars?
- Thread starter Basil
- Start date
Share this page
JamesWilson
Yoda
Offline
Ugly cars.
Yes, but they seem far too preocupied with the 1970s (4 of 6- the Pacer, Pinto, VW & Gremiln) and American cars (5 of 6).
To arbitrarily pick a non-American non-1970s example, the Daimler Dart deserves a mention in any ugly cars list.
Yes, but they seem far too preocupied with the 1970s (4 of 6- the Pacer, Pinto, VW & Gremiln) and American cars (5 of 6).
To arbitrarily pick a non-American non-1970s example, the Daimler Dart deserves a mention in any ugly cars list.
Offline
[ QUOTE ]
Ugly cars.
Yes, but they seem far too preocupied with the 1970s (4 of 6- the Pacer, Pinto, VW & Gremiln) and American cars (5 of 6).
To arbitrarily pick a non-American non-1970s example, the Daimler Dart deserves a mention in any ugly cars list.
[/ QUOTE ]
The 1970s were the decade of the ugly car in the USA. There were so many produced that it seems only fair to concentrate on them. I honestly don't know what the designers were thinking of, but they were just plain awful! The 1980s followed suit for a while, but now that a lot of the Japanese design studios are being set up in the States, there has been a trend towards messing those brands up too. The Toyotas and Lexus covertible are cases in point. Yes, the Daimler Dart is a blight on the landscape, but that too was designed for the American market.
European and British cars of this era tended to be rather bland in appearance with a few notable exceptions, so I am not holding those cars up as beacons of desirability, but the American cars of that era really were over the top! There are a few more that I could nominate for that list too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Ugly cars.
Yes, but they seem far too preocupied with the 1970s (4 of 6- the Pacer, Pinto, VW & Gremiln) and American cars (5 of 6).
To arbitrarily pick a non-American non-1970s example, the Daimler Dart deserves a mention in any ugly cars list.
[/ QUOTE ]
The 1970s were the decade of the ugly car in the USA. There were so many produced that it seems only fair to concentrate on them. I honestly don't know what the designers were thinking of, but they were just plain awful! The 1980s followed suit for a while, but now that a lot of the Japanese design studios are being set up in the States, there has been a trend towards messing those brands up too. The Toyotas and Lexus covertible are cases in point. Yes, the Daimler Dart is a blight on the landscape, but that too was designed for the American market.
European and British cars of this era tended to be rather bland in appearance with a few notable exceptions, so I am not holding those cars up as beacons of desirability, but the American cars of that era really were over the top! There are a few more that I could nominate for that list too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Offline
[quoteThe 1970s were the decade of the ugly car in the USA. There were so many produced that it seems only fair to concentrate on them. I honestly don't know what the designers were thinking of, but they were just plain awful!
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm...I wonder if it was because of the design restrictions due to the crash regulations. Makes sense, if you think about it. In the sixties, there were some attractive designs, most of which would have been tough to make compliant with the new bumper mandates. Guess it took the designers a while to come up with something that would be attractive, yet comply. Wonder what the Corvair would look like, if it had survived...
Mickey
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm...I wonder if it was because of the design restrictions due to the crash regulations. Makes sense, if you think about it. In the sixties, there were some attractive designs, most of which would have been tough to make compliant with the new bumper mandates. Guess it took the designers a while to come up with something that would be attractive, yet comply. Wonder what the Corvair would look like, if it had survived...
Mickey
V
vagt6
Guest
Guest
Offline
No one mentioned the Ford Pinto? Gosh, they were ugly. One of our neighbors once had a '73 Pinto, two-tone white and orange with an orange, checkered interior.
I'm not kidding. Orange interior, factory option.
AMC Pacers may have been uglier, however.
I'm not kidding. Orange interior, factory option.
AMC Pacers may have been uglier, however.
R
Randi
Guest
Guest
Offline
hey Basil-I have 5 Edsels (the real beauty is the Bermuda Wagon.....It was Ford's version of a woody in 1958......it had linoleum paneling instead of wood!) I never met an ughly car! Randi /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif
daddytiger64
Member
Offline
daddytiger64
Member
Offline
Couldn't figure out how to get the picture to show...let's try this again...
Jim Weatherford
Jedi Trainee
Offline
Ugly is, as ugly does. When for follows function, all bets are off. With that said, some of the British cars are just plain old ugly. LOL
That list was done by a very lazy and uniformed writer. Basically, they went with the well-known failures, plus the El Camino, because of the perception of it being a farmer's hot rod. The El Camino looked just like Chevelles, so unless they call Chevelles ugly, they have no feet on which to stand. (The first two years of El Camino were actually full-sized frames, so they look like Impalas.)
There are so many uglier cars than many on that list, although I'd agree the Pacer and Gremlin were pretty dreadful.
My list of ugliest cars:
- 1940 Crosley Series 2A: Like the homely 4'10" girl your mom told you to take out because she had "a great personality."
- 1961 Dodge Lancer: Creases in all the wrong places. Looks like the lady who works at the library and stinks of mothballs.
- 1958 Packard/Studebaker Hawk: Looks like a catfish with wings. Even the Packard Golden Hawk's supercharger can't save this thing.
- AMC Pacer - Who cares about luggage capacity if the car is that ugly?
- Continental MK III -- It's like they had five designers all working completely independently from each other. A classic example of "more is less," with too many lines, angles, curves, cutouts, and other elements. It's also the longest two door convertible in the history of American production vehicles!
- 1961-1968 Amphicar: Every bad styling cliche in one little rust-bucket, although endearingly cute.
And I'll probably think of others later.
There are so many uglier cars than many on that list, although I'd agree the Pacer and Gremlin were pretty dreadful.
My list of ugliest cars:
- 1940 Crosley Series 2A: Like the homely 4'10" girl your mom told you to take out because she had "a great personality."
- 1961 Dodge Lancer: Creases in all the wrong places. Looks like the lady who works at the library and stinks of mothballs.
- 1958 Packard/Studebaker Hawk: Looks like a catfish with wings. Even the Packard Golden Hawk's supercharger can't save this thing.
- AMC Pacer - Who cares about luggage capacity if the car is that ugly?
- Continental MK III -- It's like they had five designers all working completely independently from each other. A classic example of "more is less," with too many lines, angles, curves, cutouts, and other elements. It's also the longest two door convertible in the history of American production vehicles!
- 1961-1968 Amphicar: Every bad styling cliche in one little rust-bucket, although endearingly cute.
And I'll probably think of others later.
There is a Borgward Isabella sitting in Anchorage. It is about as attractive a Bag of broken hammers. I owned a Renault Dauphine (well, 3 of them). Ugly.
People like to rag on the American finned wonders of the 50's 60's (mostly for good reason IMO), but what about the Mercedes sedans of the 60's with the fins? Pretty bad. The BMW's emulating those were at least as bad, the 1800 and the 2000?
My Dad had a NSU Prinz, the roundy one not the boxy one, that thing could have grown up to be a Dauphine some day.
There were Datsuns in the 70's with a droopy crease on the side, the 610? The 60's Datsun with the sagging tail was bad. Although I like them to drive, what is up with that bent up looking tail on the Alfa Milano? The FIAT 124 Sedan was ugly to me too, although I would gladly buy a TC version if I could find a nice one.
And while the Daimler Dart and Triumph Mayflower may have targeted the American market, they both missed it by many miles. Like the Norton Hi Rider and the Triumph Bonneville Specials did years later. The Dart looks a lot like the lovely "StudiPackard" noted earlier on the list.
When I see a Chrysler TC or a Cadillac Alante, I still think to myself, Wow! Somebody bought one!
People like to rag on the American finned wonders of the 50's 60's (mostly for good reason IMO), but what about the Mercedes sedans of the 60's with the fins? Pretty bad. The BMW's emulating those were at least as bad, the 1800 and the 2000?
My Dad had a NSU Prinz, the roundy one not the boxy one, that thing could have grown up to be a Dauphine some day.
There were Datsuns in the 70's with a droopy crease on the side, the 610? The 60's Datsun with the sagging tail was bad. Although I like them to drive, what is up with that bent up looking tail on the Alfa Milano? The FIAT 124 Sedan was ugly to me too, although I would gladly buy a TC version if I could find a nice one.
And while the Daimler Dart and Triumph Mayflower may have targeted the American market, they both missed it by many miles. Like the Norton Hi Rider and the Triumph Bonneville Specials did years later. The Dart looks a lot like the lovely "StudiPackard" noted earlier on the list.
When I see a Chrysler TC or a Cadillac Alante, I still think to myself, Wow! Somebody bought one!