Car designers have a tough job. Not only do they need to provide engineers with modern, elegant, and production-ready shapes, but they also need to make them usable, practical, and inexpensive to produce. Also, a car’s design needs to be aesthetically pleasing, original, unique, and recognizable. It’s no surprise there are so many ugly cars on the roads. The American car industry, as one of the biggest in the world, has produced many gorgeous cars. They include cars so elegant and beautiful, they have found a way into many museums of modern art.
Everyone recognizes the swooping lines of the Corvette, the muscle stance of the Mustang, and the fantastic, mid-century lines of the ’59 Cadillac. However, not all American cars are show-stoppers or works of art. There are some that are downright ugly and repelling. Keep reading to learn about 30 hideously-ugly cars from the United States.
30. Bricklin SV-1
The SV-1 was the brainchild of automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin. The Bricklin company produced it from 1974 to 1975 with less than 3,000 cars. For a short while, they marketed the SV-1 as the most advanced American sports car. However, as soon as the first cars started rolling down the assembly line, it was clear the SV-1 was not what people expected it to be. Their idea was to produce a safe-yet-fast sports car with the name SV-1 for Safety Vehicle One. Bricklin designed the car with big bumpers and numerous additional features like warring sensors. It also came with power Gullwing doors and an integrated roll cage, making it heavy and not agile.
It also came without any cigarette lighters. Power came from the 360 AMC V8 engine, which wasn’t powerful. Later the company turned to the 351 Ford V8, but it still couldn’t deliver any real performance. The public praised the SV-1 for its dedication to safety but criticized it for its lack of performance. Its heavyweight, high price tag, and poor build quality killed this car, ranking it among our list of flops.