It doesn’t have to be a real production car, it can also be a concept.
For me, it has to be the 1997 Dodge Copperhead. This ugly chungus just speaks to me and I don’t know why. It is hideous, Pontiac Aztek levels of ugly, but I kinda wish Dodge actually sold it. It wasn’t going to be gutless, sharing much with the Viper, but it also wasn’t going to have the same price of the Viper (Viper at the time was ~$75k, this baby would have been ~$30k). For the price, a little ugly isn’t that big of a deal for a similar powertrain. Surely a facelift kit could help it out some.
Just thought a discussion like this could be fun. What cars are the same for you?
Daihatsu Midget II.
A Japanese kei-truck. It’s ugly but oh-so-functional. I like function over form.
I love that!
That is definitely small… it has only got one seat! Functional, but with only one seat I would question its practicality.
Practical depends on who you are, right? :)
Imagine you work as a saké distributor in Tokyo, living out of a little shop right on the streetfront with your home as an apartment above.
Your morning is spent shuttling bottles between your shop and little mom-and-pop restaurants in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
You have to carry heavy loads while navigating narrow streets full of pedestrians and bicycles, and park for 10 minutes at a time in places where there is nowhere proper to park - all while not blocking the street.
When you get home in the afternoon the only place you can put your truck is the alleyway between your shop and the neighbour Ryousuke’s place, who runs the florist next door. The alleyway is only 6 feet wide, but that’s no problem because your truck is only 4-foot-three.
Of course, back in the '70s you used to do all this with a little Honda Super-Cub motorbike! You laugh to yourself remembering how comically high you stacked those crates of bottles lashed together with rope on your pannier rack. But you’re not as young as you used to be, and after that accident in '98 your wife made you swear never to get on a bike again. You don’t argue with your wife, because she’s always right.
Anyway - just as well you have your trusty Daihatsu Midget II, the most practical truck you could imagine.
This has strong ugly ink vibes
What is that? :)
I searched but only found stuff about various tattoo studios
Ah :)
He does a lot of art work and stories focusing on average Kiwis and generally present everyones positively, it’s like a breath of fresh air on the internet
It’s practical for us hermits, lol
Count how many vehicles are on roads with only one driver on board.
BMW Isetta, the car that saved BMW. It is a weird little car with only one door that opens to the front. As I child, I actually had the great fortune of sitting in one of those for a few minutes. I think the design is from Italy and BMW licensed it to quickly be able to produce a cheap car after WW2.
Italian engineers figured out how to make cheap transportation from old war airplane parts. That’s how the Vespa and Lambretta scooters were born.
I love the original Scion xB. It looks like a toaster oven on wheels, but also gets 40+ MPG, defying the laws of physics and God himself. It should have the aerodynamics of a brick, but yet can still pull this off somehow.
I love the Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard.
First off, amazing name, who the fuck named this? Secondly, the design is amazing. So so compact. It looks stupidly goofy and I love it. Just like someone took the design of a regular pickup truck, opened it in blender and scaled one axis. Marvellous. I also have no idea what the use case of it would be since its small which makes it even better ❤️
This car is amazing.
It’s like a rodeo front with a jeep back. Lol I love it.
Some folks think the Subaru Brat is ugly but I kinda dig it
If you look at the history of Australian Utes you will find this design direction was quite popular locally with Ford & Holden utes.
I grew up with a Brat! It was beat to hell and we took it everywhere. We went on tank trails and through shallow rivers and places we had no right being. I loved that thing so much. Would love to get one and fix it up.
Have I got the video for you:
YES! Love that Pastrana was insistent on the Brat for this Gymkhana.
RIP Ken Block. I think Pastrana is a worthy successor to him for the gymkhana series.
Pontiac Trans Sport (1990)
This was the Dustbuster collaboration.
The dust buster van. Them things used to be EVERYWHERE, I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen one in person. Did they all get cash for klunkered?
I think they may have all exploded or just rusted down to the tires. I rode in one as a kid because my friends parents had one. Compared to my family car it was so cool. That front angle, it was like a space ship. I was very jealous of my friend. It seems sill now.
They just fell apart. The plastic body meant no rust (I think the roof was steel though)!
Seriously, everything inside just started falling apart after 10 years. Dash, seat belt winders, door panels fell off, radio buttons just caved in, etc. and ours lived a fairly pampered life.
I spent a good deal of my childhood in one. The 3.1L V6 was a dog and the 3 speed transmission meant kicking down was an event and the mileage was terrible. Dad always wished he held out for the 3.8L and 4 speed in '92.
We had two different Lumina vans. Both with the 3.1. It wasn’t fast but it did ok. The first was traded for the second which was the later snub nose version. It didn’t hold well. Torque converter died, mom paid too much to have it replaced. The inside was pretty rattly and then the power steering died, ate the serpentine belt and the local shop said it was probably not worth fixing since the AC was also dead. RIP u-body. It was good while it lasted but it was of modest quality. I miss wierd cars.
I new an engineer working for GM as a co op student and even before they started selling it they were called the Lemona.
The line was entirely designed by accountants.
And people wonder when I say GM never made good cars…
They were garbage and rotted out before they were paid off.
Condolences
it has so many cool design features that it’s amazing how shitty it looks when you see one irl.
Friend in high school had one of these. We referred to it as “The Shuttlecraft”
Happy pride month!
lol I had a coworker that drove one of these for years.
Walk me through this one. Why do you secretly like it? Does it have good features or price? Or does it just speaks to you on an unknowable level?
No, it’s an absolute piece of junk. There’s just something about that intensely 80s design. Looks like a vacuum cleaner. If I needed a minivan and something just like that… But hopefully good quality… Came out, I would absolutely buy that today (new)
It’s like pile of rotting shit. Every month something breaks, and replacement parts costed a fortune
I always liked the AMC Gremlin, my friend had one in high school and it was fun-ugly.
Love those little guys. Also love that it was called a gremlin. I want a motorcycle called a goblin now and an SUV called a troll.
Isuzu vehicross. It’s got stretched proportions in all the wrong places, and yet, I dig the weirdness.
.jpg?t=171362591895)
It looks so bouncy lol, I love it.
Looks like an inflatable!
Right? It looks like when you make a custom RPG character and just min max all the facial feature sliders for funny effect.
Looks like it’d be right at home home in Rocket League!
I remember when these things came out! Man, that was a weird moment… The hilarious part is that it’s literally just a Rodeo under the skin; the mechanicals are identical.
i absolutely LOVE these.
The Snoot Droops
You know, I kinda like it too.
The Kalashnikov CV-1. I would have bought one of those in a heartbeat if it hadn’t been a concept car.
They were just playing with Moskvich Kombi design, and wow those rims are ugly
I learned to drive on that fucker
Knowing Russian car quality this thing would’ve probably developed rust holes on the way from the factory to the dealership.
Kinda reminds me of the cars from that 90s Romeo and Juliet movie:
I mean, I won’t lie, Nemo’s car from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has potential:
what the fuck
Like GTA IRL
That’s not objectively ugly at all, it’s very nice.
Type 2 VW Jetta. Boxy, angular, but so quintessentially Germanic in design. Much like their language, it is like an engineered concrete retaining block of undeniably overwhelming presence dropped onto your head from a great height. And I love it. Especially the 1995/1996 Carat, which came with all the bells and whistles including AC and power windows.
i actually really like the look of the original ford ka with the plasnic bumpers. especially the cabriolet version:
the fiat multipla is of course the classic contender:
and then there’s the REVAi, better known as the G-Wiz:
it looks like a real-life choro-Q car!
and a personal favourite, which i don’t think is even a bit ugly, it’s just a marvel of design: the europe-only version of the 2006 honda civic.
literally no bad angles.
The Multipla justifiably gets a lot of hate, but it had great visibility, and seats six (three front seats rather than two).
It really is fugly though.
The Multipla was the most practical vehicle ever made. Two rows of three. Huge inside, yet easy on gas and easy to drive and park.
yeah that’s my takeaway as well. function over form.
The Multipla is the one I immediately pictured but I did not know the name
Ok, now I have to know your dream girls (or guys).
wait hang on what
To see if your specific tastes transfers over to humans.
i do like when the top comes off…
I’ve never even heard of the Dodge Copperhead, but I’m with you.
It is hideous, Pontiac Aztek levels of ugly
It’s definitely something of a “butter face” for sure.
Much better! 😆
I do think the Aztek is ugly as sin but I did think they looked kind of cool/cyberpunk.
Yeah, that back looks much closer to the Pontiac Solstice, which I always thought was a good looking car. I knew a retired guy with one who’d lied about his age during WWII and wound up ferrying aircraft. He was a firecracker when you’d get to talking with him and it seemed like a fun car.
Back when they were new, I saw a GXP at a dealership tried to get in and managed to shut the door but the steering wheel was wedged between my knees. As I was crawling out, a salesman asked if I’d like a test drive. Uhhh that wouldn’t be safe for either of us lol. But I fit in my MX-5 just fine!
I dunno, I still don’t like that “dimple” behind the front wheels.
I drove a rented Aztek on vacation once, and it was just fine. Rear visibility sucked, but it was a perfectly cromulent vehicle.
Range Rover Evoque Convertible. It was so pointless but I still found it fun. Almost got one used but there was another car I wanted for the same price and I couldn’t justify it.
Having worked as a Heavy Line tech for Land Rover on these things, you made a good call.
What was the biggest problem in your opinion?
They just weren’t very reliable, and repairs are expensive. Like, a single bolt (I dont remember exactly what it was for specifically) cost the dealer parts department like $200 USD just to buy it, and thats cost only.
While being the Heavy Line guy meant I only ever got assigned cars that needed engines/transmissions/other big jobs, I saw the Evoque for needing an engine replacement the most. I saw the standard V8 equipped Range Rover second most for the same issue. Most often, they would have an overheat condition, usually caused by a cracked coolant pipe pissing all the coolant out. It would warp the heads and the block would seize. Crazy way to fail.
Also, Land Rover loves their torque-to-yield bolts. Nearly every bolt on the car needs to be replaced with a new one if it gets removed.
And I’m glad I didn’t buy one. My biggest issue was that it had the same crappy JLR infotainment system that I had on my Jaguar around the same timeframe. It was just stupidly sluggish.
This is pretty cursed. Looks kinda similar to the VW T-ROC Cabriolet.
Dodge CaliberThe looks aren’t as bad as the fact that it’s a dodge.
The Plymouth Prowler was stupid, fugly, but kinda awesome.
