In the long and storied history of automobile design, certain cars stand out not for their beauty or innovation, but for their ability to make onlookers question everything they know about automotive aesthetics.
While beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, these automotive oddities manage to achieve near-universal agreement on their visual misfortune.
#1 – 1998 Fiat Multipla
Behold the Fiat Multipla, a vehicle that appears to have been designed during a fever dream after consuming expired Italian cheese. The most striking feature is its bizarre double-stacked front end, making it look like a car with a second, tumor-like growth emerging from its hood.
The bulbous windshield and bug-eyed headlight arrangement give it the appearance of a mutant frog that escaped from a nuclear power plant. It’s as if Fiat’s designers were challenged to create something that would make small children cry and succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.
#2 – 1960 Edsel Villager
The 1960 Edsel Villager wagon represents Detroit’s last desperate gasp to salvage the Edsel disaster, and somehow they made it even worse.
While they toned down the infamous “horse collar” grille, they compensated by turning the rear end into a chrome-drenched modern art installation gone wrong. Those rocket-inspired taillights look like they were stolen from a carnival ride, and the side trim appears to be trying to escape the vehicle entirely.
Even with the more subdued front end, this final-year wagon still manages to embody everything that made Americans collectively say “thanks, but no thanks” to Ford’s ambitious folly. It’s like watching the last episode of a TV show that got canceled for good reason.
#3 – 1969 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Shooting Brake
Feast your eyes upon the automotive equivalent of giving Michelangelo’s David a mullet. Someone took one of Ferrari’s most elegant designs and decided what it really needed was a greenhouse extension that looks like it was designed during a heated argument between an Italian sports car designer and a British station wagon enthusiast.
The rear glass installation has all the subtlety of a crystal palace bolted onto a missile, proving that even Italian design mastery has its limits. One can only imagine Enzo Ferrari’s reaction; probably the closest the automotive world has ever come to witnessing an Italian giving up on hand gestures entirely.
#4 – 1989 Citroën BX
The Citroën BX is what happens when you let a ruler-obsessed geometry teacher design a car during an existential crisis. Its collection of harsh angles and flat surfaces makes it appear as though someone tried to origami-fold a car out of a sheet of metal but gave up halfway through.
The interior follows the same design philosophy, with a dashboard that appears to have been inspired by a broken calculator. Even by Citroën’s eccentric standards (a company known for weird designs), the BX manages to look like it’s trying too hard to be different while achieving all the visual charm of a mail sorting facility.
#5 – 1947 Crosley CC
Behold the 1947 Crosley CC, a car that proves good things don’t always come in small packages. Looking like a nervous child’s first attempt at drawing a car, this miniature monstrosity somehow manages to appear both too tall and too narrow at the same time.
In post-war America, when bigger was decidedly better, the Crosley CC had all the presence of a mail-order toy that arrived slightly dented. It’s as if someone described the concept of “car” to a designer who had only ever seen vehicles through a keyhole, then told them to make it even smaller. The result is less “economy car” and more “economy of style.”
#6 – 1973 Volkswagen Thing
Ah, the Volkswagen Thing. Proof that Germans can, occasionally, have a terrible sense of humor. Looking like the result of a child’s first attempt at drawing a car using nothing but a ruler, this automotive brick manages to make a cardboard box seem aerodynamic by comparison.
With its perfectly vertical windshield and pancake-flat body panels, the Thing appears to have been designed by someone who thought “military surplus meets beach buggy” was a winning combination. Volkswagen literally named it “Thing” because even they couldn’t figure out what this geometric disaster was supposed to be.
#7 – 1975 AMC Pacer
Ah, the AMC Pacer… the car that proves even the 1970s drug culture had its limits. Marketed as “the first wide small car,” it looks more like what happens when you microwave a regular car for too long. With its fishbowl windows and bloated proportions, the Pacer appears to be suffering from some sort of automotive water retention.
AMC claimed its asymmetrical doors were innovative, but they just made it look like the car was permanently having a stroke. The interior was so glass-heavy that driving one in summer was like being trapped in a greenhouse during a solar flare. While the ’70s gave us plenty of questionable designs, the Pacer stands out as a special kind of awful.
#8 – 1937 Stout Scarab
The Stout Scarab looks like what would happen if a cockroach mated with a Victorian parlor room. This art deco nightmare on wheels managed to combine the streamlined shape of an insect with the interior decorating sensibilities of your great-grandmother’s sitting room.
With its bug-eyed headlights and rounded beetle-like shell, the Scarab seems unsure whether it wants to scurry under your furniture or serve high tea. While it pioneered the basic shape of the modern minivan, it did so with all the grace of a dung beetle in spats. Even in the streamlined 1930s, this was a face only its designer could love.
#9 – 1998 Mitsuoka Ryoga
The Mitsuoka Ryoga is what happens when a Jaguar Mark 2 and a Nissan Sunny have an illicit affair in a back-alley chop shop. This identity-confused creation perfectly embodies the phrase “business in the back, party in the front” – if by “party” you mean a sad attempt at British aristocracy.
That chrome grille looks like it’s desperately trying to claim royal heritage while being painfully aware it’s actually from a humble Japanese economy car. The transition from classic front to mundane ’90s sedan is about as smooth as a teenager’s first attempt at mixing cocktails.
#10 – 1972 Reliant Regal Supervan
The Reliant Regal Supervan (aka: Reliant Robin) looks like what would happen if a garden shed grew wheels and decided to identify as a delivery vehicle. This three-wheeled catastrophe appears to have been designed by someone who thought “stability” was just a fancy word for the horse barn.
With its narrow front end and top-heavy body that seems ready to topple at the mere thought of a corner, the Regal Supervan is the automotive equivalent of trying to balance an egg on a toothpick. Only the British could create a vehicle that makes driving in a straight line feel like an extreme sport.
#11 – 2001 Pontiac Aztek
The Pontiac Aztek stands as perhaps the most notorious automotive design catastrophe of the 21st century. It looks like it was designed by a committee of blindfolded executives throwing random car parts at a wall. Its grotesque proportions and bizarre plastic cladding make it appear as if two completely different cars had a head-on collision and somehow merged into one ungainly mess.
Even Walter White couldn’t make this vehicular tragedy cool in Breaking Bad, though it perfectly embodied his initial desperate suburban dad persona. The Aztek didn’t just break the rules of automotive design. It shattered them, swept up the pieces, and reassembled them wrong.
#12 – 1961 Citroën Ami
The Citroën Ami looks like it was designed by someone who had only ever seen cars through a funhouse mirror. Its reverse-slanted rear window and bizarrely canted headlights give it the perpetual expression of a confused pug trying to read fine print.
The French called it the “Ami” (meaning “friend”), but with those dead-eyed headlamps and that awkward, hunched stance, it’s more like the friend who shows up uninvited and refuses to leave. The overall effect is less “avant-garde design” and more “someone accidentally sat on the clay model before production and nobody dared to fix it.”
#13 – 1957 Aurora Safety Car
The Aurora stands as perhaps the most optimistically hideous attempt at safety-focused design ever created. Looking like a manatee that swallowed a greenhouse, this metallic-bodied monstrosity featured a front end that could only be described as a face that not even its designer could love.
With its bulbous nose, gaping maw-like grille, and bizarre raised “eyebrows” over the headlights, it appears perpetually shocked by its own reflection. Created by a Catholic priest who claimed divine inspiration, the Aurora proves that sometimes divine intervention should come with a design consultant.
#14 – 1998 Daihatsu Move
The Daihatsu Move appears to be the result of someone trying to photocopy a regular car at 75% scale but accidentally squished it vertically. With its tiny wheels and towering body, it looks like a loaf of bread trying to stand on four button mushrooms.
The front end sports an expression of permanent bewilderment, as if it’s just as confused about its existence as we are. Its proportions are so cartoonishly wrong that it seems like it should be starring in a children’s anime rather than occupying real roads. It’s the automotive equivalent of wearing platform shoes with a top hat.
#15 – 1949 Nash Airflyte
The Nash Airflyte perfectly embodies what happens when someone takes the term “bathtub on wheels” far too literally. With its bulbous, upside-down-bathtub silhouette and skirted wheels, this rolling soap bubble looks like it’s perpetually trying to hold its breath.
The front end appears to be grimacing in embarrassment at its own existence, while the rounded posterior suggests a vehicle that’s had one too many meals at the local diner. Nash claimed this design was “aerodynamic,” but the only thing floating through the air would be the snickers of other motorists as this wheeled whale wobbled down the boulevard.
#16 – 1961 Marcos GT Xylon
Ah, the Marcos GT. While other British manufacturers like Jaguar and Aston Martin were crafting elegant masterpieces in the early ’60s, Marcos apparently decided to create something that resembles a melted wheel of cheese with headlights.
The Xylon earned the unfortunate nickname “Ugly Duckling”, though that’s rather unfair to ducklings. Even in 1961, when automotive design was experimenting with all sorts of quirky ideas, the Xylon managed to stand out as particularly peculiar. It’s as if someone described a sports car over a bad telephone connection, and the designer just went with their best guess.
#17 – 1956 Buick Centurion
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Picture a car that epitomizes 1950s excess taken to a cartoonish extreme… that’s the Buick Centurion concept car. Looking like it escaped from a B-grade sci-fi movie, this automotive fever dream features a bubble-top canopy that would make the Jetsons blush and a rear end seemingly inspired by a rocket ship having an identity crisis.
With its blood-red interior that appears to have been upholstered in candy apple vinyl and enough chrome to blind passing aircraft, the Centurion perfectly embodies that special moment when Detroit’s designers asked themselves “Why not?” and absolutely nobody responded “Here’s why.”
