Taste is subjective. We can quantify things like performance, interior space, and efficiency using data, but ugly is just that: ugly.
We can’t really measure ugliness, but we know it when we see it. And like beauty, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.
The Daily Sparkz The team often has lively discussions about which vehicles look good and which don’t. Here are some of the latter.
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To be clear, we’re not calling any of these vehicles bad. Simply ugly. Let’s leave aside all discussions about performance, efficiency, quality, comfort and all the more important things and instead focus on the design.
Even though our team members often have different opinions when it comes to design (I like the design of the Cadillac Lyriq, JWo…), I assume that you will disagree with some of our team’s decisions. Let us know what you think of our picks and what other vehicles deserve inclusion in the comments below.
Marton Pettendy: Hyundai Ioniq 6
Design is perhaps the most important purchasing criterion, but it is a subjective issue and for me the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is easily the ugliest car currently sold in Australia.
There’s no doubt that the midsize electric sedan looks much better in redesigned form, and even better in hot N guise. And the bar to jump over isn’t exactly high, considering that its best-selling competitor, the Tesla Model 3, looks downright grubby these days.
But the newer Ioniq 6’s sagging rear end is just too much, making it look like the Apple mouse of cars – much like the unloved 1998 AU Falcon, which Ford defended by claiming it was ahead of its time and then promptly made visual changes to mitigate its excesses – including the wider availability of a rear spoiler to hide its sagging buttocks.
Unfortunately, Falcon sales continued to decline until they were discontinued in 2016, just three decades after the XF Falcon was Australia’s best-selling model for seven years in the mid-1980s.
Perhaps that explains the lack of enthusiasm for the Ioniq 6 in Australia, where last year it was outsold by more than four to one by the BMW i4 – a handsome electric sedan that also looks a lot sexier than its mushroom-shaped rivals from Mercedes-Benz.
MORE: Explore the Hyundai Ioniq 6 showroom
William Stopford: MG IM6
There are some cars that are relentlessly boring (Leapmotor C10, Geely EX5). There are some that are outrageously ugly but could be mostly fixed with a facelift (Kia Tasman), and others that are quite pretty but suffer from their bodies looking too big for their chassis (GWM Haval Jolion, MG 5).
But if you want to know what I think is the ugliest, I have an answer: the MG IM6 electric SUV.
A facelift couldn’t fix that. How do I know this? Because the IM LS6, as it’s known in China, has been unveiled in facelifted form and while it’s received the automotive equivalent of a teeth straightening, the rest is still a mess.
From the old Tesla Model Y-style front to the faux Aston Martin DBX rear, it’s a mix of design features. It looks strangely tall and narrow, with too much of a front overhang, and somehow manages to look smaller than it actually is (it’s 4.9m long!). It’s clear that the design language of the somewhat attractive IM5 liftback simply doesn’t work on an SUV.
Let me also save a few nails for a couple of Mercedes-Benz products: the current EQE SUV and the EQS SUV (if you can tell them apart) and the upcoming CLA. Under Gorden Wagener, who is now leaving, the design language of the luxury brand was of great importance. While the company admitted that its EQ models didn’t have the right look, it subsequently revealed the terrible CLA.
Maybe it looks better in person. Then again, I said this about the Kia EV4…
MORE: Explore the MG IM6 showroom
James Wong: Cadillac Lyriq
There are a lot of tricky, hectic and questionable new car designs these days. One that particularly caught my eye is the Cadillac Lyriq, especially the rear… I just can’t appreciate it.
I like the face of the electric SUV, but the angular, fussy and jagged details are just a bit too much for me. The criss-crossing light signatures are too busy and I feel like they lack cohesion and identity.
Cadillac SUVs have always been boxy and distinctive, which the smaller Optiq and larger Vistiq do much better – although I hate those names too.
Harsh? Perhaps. But I said what I said.
MORE: Explore the Cadillac Lyriq showroom
Josh Nevett: BMW XM
What. A. Abomination.
Nothing says “I don’t know what to spend my riches on” like a BMW
The design simply lacks coherence and none of the elegance that BMW has worked hard to make a name for itself.
It’s a shame, because everything is quite good under the angular, unsightly skin.
MORE: Explore the BMW XM showroom
Damion Smy: Hyundai Ioniq 6
The demise of the Mahindra Pik-Up has made the Hyundai Ioniq 6 the number one car I least want to see in my garage, despite its excellent performance – and a significantly improved facelift due here later this year.
While the update will improve the front, the Ioniq 6’s layered rear end with its multiple overhanging horizontal appendages reminds me of a Bangle-era 7-series hull crossed with an HJ-HX Monaro spoiler. And that sweeping roofline makes the AU Ford Falcon seem like a much safer choice…
MORE: Explore the Hyundai Ioniq 6 showroom
Sean Lander: Lotus Eletre
While one could argue that many of China’s new SUVs are ugly, I just find them boring. The Lotus Eletre didn’t get that memo.
From the company that brought you stunning cars like the Elise, the Evora and even the new Emira comes this disastrous ‘car’. It is a 2.5 ton electric SUV. Let that sink in for a moment: a 5,000-pound, all-electric SUV from the company whose name is based on a simple phrase: Simplify, then add lightness.
Not only does it contradict everything the sports car maker once stood for, it’s also terrible to look at.
The front looks like they described a Ferrari Purosangue to the designers over a sketchy phone line. The rear is drab and it looks like they forgot to finish designing the spoiler and interior…which is exactly what you would expect from a Chinese automaker.
If I never have to look at one again, it will be too soon.
MORE: Explore the Lotus Eletre showroom
Ben Zachariah: Mahindra XUV700
Aren’t we a spoiled bunch these days?
When asked what we think is the ugliest car for sale, we’re overwhelmed with the choices. In fact, I had a hard time choosing just one.
However, there is one vehicle that really catches my eye every time I see it on the road and that is the Mahindra XUV700.
There’s something that just doesn’t add up. For one thing, the wheels are too small for the car, resulting in a large metal plate on the rear quarter panel. They tried to hide the small wheels with molded plastic wheel arches, but once you see them you can’t miss them.
Then there are the wheels themselves, which look like Rodney Jane specials and retail for $175 each. The pop-out door handles, C-shaped headlights and Y-shaped taillights do their best to modernize the Mahindra, but there’s no getting around the overall shape of the car, which looks like it was lifted straight from 2007.
The strange window line above the rear wheels tries to make the car interesting to look at, and not only does it fail to do so, but the chrome trim highlights the poor alignment of the rear doors.
At the front, the radiator grille protrudes like a tongue stuck into your upper lip. Overall, dullness and sophisticated design were mixed together and undercooked, ultimately leading to the XUV700.
MORE: Explore Mahindra XUV700 showroom
Max Davies: Subaru Outback Wilderness
Who would have thought that something as inconspicuous as an outback could have so much to offer?
Look, Subaru isn’t known for conventionally attractive cars, nor has it ever claimed to produce anything that could objectively be considered “beautiful.” The arrival of the Wilderness brand in Australia is also cause for celebration.
But wow, the new off-road-capable Outback variant isn’t exactly a feast for the eyes. Standout features include a new extreme for black plastic cladding, dual-level front lighting and a colossal “SUBARU” lettering on the grille that seems a bit too strenuous.
The strikingly square body is topped by a thick black strip above the tailgate, interrupted by two black plastic rectangles and strange-looking headlights. We understand that it’s supposed to look tough, but the outgoing Outback Wilderness seemed a lot more tasteful in its cosmetic mods.
The standard outback doesn’t look fantastic per se, but the existence of wilderness makes it more pleasing to my eye. It’s a significant departure from the relatively stylish SUV/estate that this generation replaces.
MORE: Explore the Subaru Outback showroom
