I vote for the Citroen DS
>>If you want an old ugly I suggest the Austin Atlantic, a design that was literally and metaphorically all over the place.
and its little friend the Metropolitan ( You choose the "color")
whatever you do to it:-)
www.joe-ks.com/archives_apr2005/MetroSled.htm
tinyurl.com/3lfc2n
Or an upwardly mobile Mini
www.webentory.com/billboards/1768/6846.jpg
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How about the Trabant, they were pretty ... awful ~
www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,16...l
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Totally forgot the Micra CC - thats a real dog of a car to look at! Remember when the Hamster drove one :-) in pink...
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Never liked the looks of the Metropolitan, made here for a while with an Austin badge, but I love the snowmobile version. It's what the thing was designed for obviously, if there isn't a motor boat version.
I agree about the Austin Atlantic, late 40s hairdresser, yuck. Oddly enough the only person I have met who ever had one, a friend's mother, was a pre-war Hotchkiss owner (among other things) and when I knew her had Jag coupes and eventually a Lancia. I am told the Atlantic was the only convertible readily available when she resumed motoring around 1950, and she bought one in a fit of impatience. She crashed it on the A40 next to Northolt aerodrome ending up sideways over the central reservation. Not her fault I imagine. She was a proper car person and driver.
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Interesting thread this and interesting that there are so many votes for the 406 Coupe Brera and the Defender and so many against the Rhodius. This brings me to thoughts on why we like/dislike certain designs.
For me, the appeal of the 406 Coupe is that it looks exactly like a baby Ferrari, as you might expect from Pininfarina. Just a beautiful, elegant piece of design that hasn't dated at all. Like most Ferraris, in fact. They offered it in a sort of office highlighter yellow as well, and it still looked stunning. There aren't many cars that can carry off a colour like that.
If I could afford to run the V6, I'd have bought one a long time ago. The 2.0 version wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, unfortunately.
Cheers
DP
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I'm going out on a limb, my best was the late 60s-early 70s Opel GT. I really loved them, and I think they still look better than an MX5.
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BEST
Old Car: Series 1 Citroen CX - chrome bumpers (not plastic), Citroen Xantia, Pug 205 & 406 Coupe, Lancia Stratos, Alfasud, Merc SL (Pagoda).
New Car: Merc CLS, Citroen C4, Audi A6
WORST
Old Car: Suzuki X-90,
New Car: BMW X6, BMW X3, BMW 6-series convertible, MINI Traveller (spot a theme here?), plus Peugeot 308, and of course the SsangYong Rodius
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How about the latest Opel GT bathtub, could you suffer one of those ~
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Opel_GT-03.jpg
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Just remembered the plethora of 1970s and '80s Yank Tanks too. Chevys, Dodge, Pontiacs, Cadillac, Lincoln, the whole lot -- wide, grinning, hideous grille looking like a bad accident with a large fire grate and a bed stead. Huge V8 engines capable of around 90MPH max and slow/lazy to boot. Under-engineering par excellence!
Edited by Cheeky on 18/06/2008 at 22:48
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Interesting thread. I find this difficult. But among current mass market UK cars
Best: Jaguar S-Type, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Fiat 500. (Did I mention that I like retro?)
Worst: Peugeot 308, Renault Megane hatch, BMW 5-series.
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Best: Jaguar S-Type Chrysler PT Cruiser Fiat 500. (Did I mention that I like retro?)
Mmmmm. The PT Cruiser, in hardtop, does have a certain ugly-duckness quality about it, but in ragtop form, especially with the hood down, it is my vote for the fugliest car about - horribly slab-sided.
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Best: VW Phaeton in Luna Blue with Omanyt alloys and anthracite and cream leather interior ! Better looking than the vulgar Bentleys it shares its oily bits with.
Worst: new Mondeo. Well it's not really, but it could have been so much better. How can a car so closely related to the S-Max look so much less coherent ?
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Mmmmm. The PT Cruiser in hardtop does have a certain ugly-duckness quality about it but in ragtop form ...
Yes. You are quite right. I do apologise. I rarely see the convertible, so had momentarily forgotten its existence, but I do think that it looks truly horrible.
How strange that two so closely related cars - far more closely related than than the Doblo and the Alfa - could look so different.
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Yes. You are quite right. I do apologise. I rarely see the convertible so had momentarily forgotten its existence but I do think that it looks truly horrible.
They sold the hardtop in hundreds here, but the ragtop was discounted almost from the day it went on sale... My goodness, it is hideous. Just a slab-sided, fat-assed excuse of a vehicle.
Thinks - new thread maybe: ragtops/retractables, which ones look better/worse with the top up?
Edited by Webmaster on 28/06/2008 at 00:54
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Best: the latest Lexus GS and LS models take some beating in the gracefulness stakes.
Golf MK 5, Ford Focus, the latest Mondeo and the previous Mondeo are also nice lookers.
The new Jaguar XF is a beauty too. For smaller cars I think the Ford Fiesta is plain but easy-on-the-eye. Alfa Romeos are spoiled by the clumsiness of those 'afterthought' offset number plates.
Ugly: Fiat 500 - if it handn't been for the original version, nobody would consider the current pastiche anything but ungainly. Nissan Micra - which ever way you look at it there isn't a single graceful line. Toyota Yaris Verso - looks like its made from panels taken from lots of different cars. Porsche Cayenne - odd how the VW Touareg looks neat but the Porsche sharing much of the bodywork looks ugly!
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