Ugly Cars

http://www.uglycars.co.uk/uglycars.asp?offset=0

It's got a bit of a UK slant. I quote: "Uglycars specifically excludes all American cars through lack of server space".

I feel compelled to share this photo of a "lovely" bodykit that I spotted over the weekend:



I think there is an old Vauxhall Astra lurking under there somewhere, but it is difficult to tell...

Hey! No dissing the Daihatsu Copen!

They're right about the Morris Marina though. My parents had one. It was intense, bright orange. So they painted their double garage door to match. The 70s, man. Plus it didn't go worth beans: accustomed to flooring the accelerator to get the slightest rise out of it, Mum scared the hell out of us when they traded up to a 1200cc Astra which was like a Ferrari by comparison.

And I don't think it's right to ignore the American aspect. For a long time I assumed Porsche Cayennes only looked ugly in the UK because they were built to look sensible in the US -- but when I eventually saw one in the US it became clear that they were just plain ugly.

Peter

The Cayenne is definitely one of the most disgusting cars in production at the moment. One of my favourite ugly cars is the AMC (I think) Pacer. My car's quite ugly in a brutal kind of way

http://www.easymachines.com/g500/pictures/001.jpg


I can't believe someone's dissing the Marina though, a friend of mine used to have a purple one with red vinyl interior, very smart.....

"Uglycars specifically excludes all American cars through lack of server space".

'Tis a shame, as there are alot of ugly American cars on the road these days.

And I don't know how they did it, but Chrysler has managed to create and even uglier version of the PT Cruiser for you Euros! Inconceivable!

I've been through 4 or 5 pages... The vast majority of cars to not qualify as "ugly" in my opinion. Likely in the opinion of a great number of people. Some are classics plain and simple. To properly classify something as "ugly" I think you have to look at the period it was created in and contrast against other cars of the time.

I quite like the Citroen 2CV for instance. And the Vauxhaul (Opel) Tigra was a fine looking car when first introduced (unless they changed it or there was a big difference between the UK "Vauxhaul" version and the Opel available in Italy and Portugal). The BMW M Coupe takes some getting used to, but it's got a lot going for it.

They should probably consider hosting somewhere else and then adding US cars. They'd likely increase their model count by a factor of 3 or 4. I mean, there's so much to choose. The entire Pontiac line for instance. The new Chrysler 300M, Honda Element, any Ford Mustang created after the 60's, anything produced under the Ford-owned "Merkur" badge, practically all versions of the Monte Carlo (especially recent ones), and of course other cars that are in fact available world-wide, like the current BMW 7-series (attrocity!), current BMW 6-series, current BMW 5-series (but nowhere near as bad as 7 and 6)... The list does go on and on.

Bruno

What about the Austin Ambassador, damn ugly. although it looks quite fetching framed:

http://www.accentfurniture.com/ProductImages/corel/britshmotorcollection/354082.jpg

I reckon replacing "ugly" with "boring" or "dull" would be a better title! Except for some outright monsters like the Dart and the Z3 coupe, they don't offend as much as anaesthetise! Of course, the fact that, out of the first 3 cars listed, one is one of my favourite cars (DS Convertible) and my wife has had 7 Kas and a 2CV, may have rubbed me up the wrong way!!

Nick

Well, I love my Scooby, but there is no doubt that it is a damn ugly car. Luckily Subaru owners get them for function rather than form, and it does go rather nicely, thank you very much:-)

What about son of Marina, Guigiaro's killer blow to the British car industry, the Morris Ital:

The buck stops with anybody who criticizes the Citroen DS, the most innovative production car of all. With the exception of the mechanics who had to work on it, who can freely f and blind!
Once you've got over that, move on, nothing worth discussing here!

The buck stops with anybody who criticizes the Citroen DS, the most innovative production car of all

I've never met anybody who did, the CX was pretty smart too

Here is a Datsun 510 canidate (Nissan Bluebird) in UK) from NY... I think the 510 on the door is to remind him of what this monstrosity should be.

Uggy car:
http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/car/33156433.html

Normal 510:
http://www.pipeline.com/~micman2b/510/Content/Profiles/MrRed.html

Then there is Tragon, the 1971 wagon we placed on a Datsun 620 truck chassis with a 280Z 6 cylinder motor:
http://www.pipeline.com/~micman2b/510/Content/Profiles/tragon.html

Sean in NC

Luckily Subaru owners get them for function rather than form

I got mine for both, thank you very much. AWD and hotness all in one.

Chrysler has managed to create and even uglier version of the PT Cruiser for you Euros!

The car pictured, for some reason, is a London Taxi, unless I'm mistaken.

I'm sorry, but what you've pictured there is one of those cars to which I'd say "enh" except for those weird half-window things, which push it well into the realm of ugly.

BTW, I nominate the uglycars page as an example of an ugly web site, what with all the unterminated "&nbsp"es littering the screen.

Saab 900 is conspicuously absent from that page.

That's cool. I like its windows and it's the thing I get the most comments on. The comments are usually stating they're weird, but you're the first to say ugly. Do you find the DeLorean's window within a window ugly?

Saab 900 is conspicuously absent from that page.

I guess I like ugly cars, but I find the classic 900 appealing.

Honestly, I'd never noticed that DeLoreans have the same thing going on. That may be because the rest of the car is so ugly I never paid that much attention to the details.

Ok. You should put the crack pipe down now.

I guess I like ugly cars, but I find the classic 900 appealing.

You do realise that the top half was designed by a different team to the bottom half and that when they put the two halves together they put the top on backwards?

they should have left the model 99 alone. it was ugly enough. we never got the model '90' in the states (front of a 99, back of a 900 sedan).
pity.

My first (legal) car was a Morris Marina TC (the twin carb version, for wasting fuel twice as fast) Coupe, and I'll hear nothing bad about it. After all, in two and a half years it only went through three gearboxes, two clutches, a rear differential, a rear wheelbearing (died at 70 mph on the motorway with no warning, an interesting experience), and a starter motor. Add to that the 15 MPG at best, the way both the sunroof and the windscreen leaked copiously, and the fact that if you were a little unwary applying power when turning you found yourself going the other way, it was a dream car. Or do I mean nightmare? I can't remember

At least it was better than the Vauxhall Chevette (or Shoveit). For instance, the marina did have a steering wheel that was centered in front of you, not off to one side and angled slightly so that you really needed one arm a little longer than the other. See attached for a photo of one that a friend of mine improved by parking under a falling tree at about 45 MPH. He did survive, more or less intact, amazingly enough.

They also seem to be down on the Citroen BX, which I think is a little unfair. The first one of those was one of the most reliable cars I've ever had. It did 60 MPG, was very comfortable, had astounding brakes, and the last time I saw it a couple of years ago had clocked up over 350000 miles on the original engine!

Mind you, the second one I had was one of the LEAST reliable cars I've ever owned. Nothing but trouble, although when it was working it was still very comfortable and nice to drive, with good mileage.

I wish I still had my old Honda Civic GTI though, that was the best car I ever owned. Three hundred quid as a throwaway vehicle, and it was still working fine four years later when I scrapped it because it had rusted out.

pca

My first car was a Marina as well, changing gear was like stirring Christmas pudding mix with a three foot long wooden spoon. It is no wonder the native mass production car industry in the UK went down the tubes.

changing gear was like stirring Christmas pudding mix with a three foot long wooden spoon

You could read the whole of the Independent on sunday on a slight incline was the one you were after!!!!!

"Uglycars specifically excludes all American cars through lack of server space"

ba-Da-BING!

Ooh, I saw a Reliant Fox when I went out yesterday evening. Now, that was ugly:

http://www.reliantownersclub.co.uk/body_fox.html

The one I saw was the standard van body, not the pickup or camper bodies shown on that page.

Talking of ugly Reliant's here's another Italian's attempts at killing the British car industry (if it need any help), Michelotti I believe:

[image]
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/phil.wormald/images/ss1-2004425-17149-11.JPG[/image]

To be fair, it looked a lot better once William Towns added a few tweaks, and it became the SST...

http://www.scimweb.com/sst/index.html - Not sure this helps my point though

http://www.scimweb.com/s-sabre/index.html