Ugly cars

facade

Alanp said:

The allegro might’ve been ugly, but it was ahead of it’s time with that quartec steering wheel…

Yes, everyone absolutely hated it at the time, so they bowed to consumer pressure and went back to round.

Now the quartic wheel has been re-invented, and it is the greatest, most revolutionary (accidental pun) thing to hit the market since the electric self-starter!

Alanp

I confess to owning an allegro, I look back with fond memories as I learnt to do my own service and repair on it, which set me up nicely for any future cars I owned, up until you needed a computer to do it, not a bad car, well, mine wasn’t with no major breakdowns, unfortunately,as with those era cars, rust was the problem…

maxmycardagain

If it starts it lovely

RainbowsInTheSpray

Mr.Generous said:

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Chosen purely at random, SEAT Leon versions 2011:

https://jammer.ie/vehicle/82521-seat-leon-2011

and 2025:

https://www.uk-car-discount.co.uk/news/new-seat-leon-2025-deals-save-up-to-7229

I'd say the 25 model is nicer to look at. 

Then clearly SEAT know their clientele...

Grumpy_chap

paul_c123 said:

Two examples of ugly old cars: Austin Allegro; Ford Scorpio.

I had an Allegro and it was not an ugly car for the time - indeed it was in some ways a forerunner for today with the wind-tunnel design for aerodynamics setting the profile for modern saloon cars (of which many now have the single profile rear rather than the pronounced notch of the years gone by).  The profile of the Allegro possibly also set the path for the earlier small hatchbacks to be developed.  At that time, the Austin Maxi (hatchback) and Princess (saloon) were the bigger models in the Austin range.

It was only the Mk2 Scorpio that had unusual styling.  The Mk1 was a perfectly decent car and worthy competitor to the Vauxhall Carlton.  The Mk2 was only odd because of the front design, the remainder of the car design was quite conventional for the time.

lincroft1710

kipperman said:

We bought the first incarnation of the Fiat Multipla - a truly excellent family car with lots of innovations, but my goodness it was not a looker. Sold for a decent amount when we got rid, so sometimes beauty and usefulness are not in step.

The first Fiat Multipla was a 6 seater forward control version of the 1956 rear engined Fiat 600

MikeJXE

You might be thinking that as I do because there are more EV’s on the road and imo they are definitely not beautiful 

ButterCheese

Years ago you could make a car with tail fins and spoilers and exciting engines because there were fewer regulations and safety requirements.  These days it's all about fuel efficiency and safety and space.  So any exterior styling is inefficient, therefore expensive and restrictive.  The design is led by the market.  So now nearly every car is a small SUV design to try and attract families where (stereotypically) the man wants to look sporty, the wife wants to look trendy, and they both want to fit the whole family and luggage inside.  

Goudy

All cars these days are designed on the same software so you have small grey box, medium grey box and large grey box.

What happened to all those design houses like Ital, Bertone and Pininfarina that used to have a hand in even the most mainstream models, things like the Mk1 Golf, Alfa Brera, 406 Coupe and so on.

Bertone even had a stab at the Astra back then and both the coupe and convertible actually didn't look sh*t like the rest of the line up.

GunJack

Sooo many recent cars all think they're Transformers.....if I wanted a robot I'd buy a lawnmower