Car fashion is as important as car performance. When buying a car, you should not only focus on what is under the hood but also what is on the outside. The appearance of your car can say so much about you. Hence, you would not want to buy one that is so ugly to drive, or if you are unaware, that makes people feel embarrassed to ride with you. If you feel like you do not have that level of sophistication when it comes to the looks of the car that you want, you should get the help of a friend.

To help you out as well, we list here 15 of the ugliest cars that you should be embarrassed to be spotted driving. When you get to know these cars, you will understand that choosing a car goes beyond engineering – it also involves culture and art. Although an automotive design is subjective, these cars are just so horrible it leaves us baffled that they ever existed. There are no hard and fast rules in saying a car is ugly. However, we know one is ugly when we see one.

Let’s check out which cars made this list. Hope you are not driving any of these.

15. Chevrolet SSR

A confused design, the Chevrolet SSR (Super Sport Roadster) is not sure what it wants to be. It appears to be a curvaceous pickup truck with a retractable hardtop convertible. Aside from its confusing appearance, this car is usually available in bold and vibrant colors, which makes it tacky. Hence, it draws attention but for the wrong reasons.

This car comes with features similar to El Caminos, sedans, and sports cars. It seems that it is trying to be a lot of different things but sadly, it just does not work.

14. Honda Element

A flawed design is what can be found in the Honda Element. The intention may be good, to create a performance compact crossover, however the appearance came out badly. It has an idiosyncratic belief that it is some sort of Land Rover lookalike but it falls way behind from the popular sports utility vehicle. Its corners make it appear to be very boxy, which makes it look more like a small bus or dare we say a milk truck instead. The car’s body usually arrives in a two-toned paint job, which adds to its embarrassing look. With this design, do not expect the Honda Element to be aerodynamic.

13. Fiat Multipla

The Fiat Multipla is a weird car with bulges in strange places. Weird places really do produce weird things like this one. The Fiat Multipla is a product of Berlusconi-era Italy. It looks like the car was constructed from plastic and pumped up with air, hence the weird bulges. Moreover, they put running lights on the base of the car’s windshield, which made the Fiat Multipla look like a frog that has gone through an unfortunate genetic mutation. If you are seen driving this car, you will definitely get strange stares from onlookers as if you are driving a car with a disease.

12. Minivan

No matter what model or make, the minivan is one of the ugliest cars around. Although it offers utmost convenience, it sacrificed a lot in the looks department. The minivan can haul an entire football team and it is also a trustworthy companion when it comes to grocery shopping. A minivan is a popular option due to its practicality, however they are polarizing. People often choose to drive one because they need it and not because they want it. In a way, the minivan is just not cool and trendy.

11. Smart ForTwo

Super compact in size, it feels like the maker of the Smart ForTwo tried to pack everything into this car, which caused it to look horrible. The tiny vehicle looks like a rolling egg with doors. At first look, you will definitely question how anyone can fit inside this car. It looks uncomfortable and unsafe to drive too. It can barely fit one person and their luggage so it is unlikely that it can fit two. Although the car seems to give amazing mileage due to its size and it is easy to maneuver, especially when parking, it looks like a toy car. Taking it seriously is very difficult to do.

10. AMC Gremlin

The AMC Gremlin is a famous American subcompact car from the 70s. It used to be a common sight on the highways. However, its strange look no longer has a place in modern motoring. It may be fast and economical, but its appearance is a step back in time, and not in a good way.

The AMC Gremlin shouts 1970s and you do not want that in a car of today. It looked good at first when it was launched but it failed to hold up with time. Still, you can see a few of these cars on the road today – rare and embarrassing at the same time.

9. Edsel Corsair

The Edsel Corsair is one of the ugliest vintage cars ever made. This car is horrible, such that saying its name invoked the end of pitch meetings. The car was named after Henry Ford’s son. Although it was created to pay homage and millions of dollars were spent to build it, car buyers found it horrible. Hence, it was poorly received by the consumers. No matter what Ford tried to do to improve it, like adding trims, it did not increase the likability of the car. It was a bizarre vehicle. After three years of existence, the entire Edsel division disappeared from Ford.

8. Subaru Baja

Another vehicle that is confused, the Subaru Baja is having a tough time identifying whether it is a car or a truck. Hence, it causes onlookers to get confused as well. The weird-looking vehicle can make heads turn but not for the right reasons. Most likely, owners and drivers of the Subaru Baja get questioned often why they even decided to buy one. Still, as a Subaru, it has its own cult following. Unfortunately, these owners have rather strange taste in cars and probably take some pride in the fact that they have an extremely unconventional ride.

7. Nissan Cube

A rather odd and boxy car, the Nissan Cube is just weird. It may be trying to have that box-like silhouette like Land Rovers, but it failed miserably. This car just looks like a hybrid box with a vibe of a bus and a mindset of being a sports utility vehicle. With many amazing cars out there, the Nissan Cube is a design that does not make sense. All of its components were glued together but they do not complement each other.

This car looks like it is going through some rough patch of an identity crisis. Even if you stare at it too long, there is just no liking its looks.

6. Suzuki X-90

A compact car, the Suzuki X-90 is so strangely designed that it looks like a toy car. It can seat one to two people, although probably not that comfortably. Another strange thing about its design is that it looks as if its top section is missing. In a way, it has a vibe that would make most people think the designers were not finished when the car passed production. Overall, the Suzuki X-90 is just an average car. However, the missing top part messes up the car’s overall visual proportion. Moreover, the car is so small that it is not too sporty to pass as a coupe.

5. Isuzu Axiom

A mid-size and strange-looking sports utility vehicle, the Isuzu Axiom was available from 2002  to 2005. It is a car that looks like it is stuck between an SUV and sports car, but with a thick design. It has a clunky appearance, which is why it was not very likeable to many consumers. This also contributed to the car brand’s decline in the US market. Overall, the car was not attractive. It featured an upright rear hatch, narrow headlights, and overwrought grill, which do not complement each other.

4. Plymouth Prowler

Released into the wild in 1993, the Plymouth Prowler has always been on many lists of ugly cars. It has been an embarrassing car to drive ever since in automotive history. It sports Indy-style front wheels yet it is quite difficult to determine what motoring era the Plymouth Prowler belongs to. When driven on the road, it makes heads turn in surprise mainly due to its atrocious appearance. The Plymouth Prowler is some sort of an eye sore, something you would not want to be seen driving in. Moreover, the paint jobs it comes in are equally obnoxious. In some cases, it is available in gold and purple metallic body paint.

3. Citroën Ami

Although the Citroën Ami came from a country popular for its fashion, France, it failed to deliver in aesthetics. The car was released in 1961. It is notable for its reverse-rake rear window, which is a styling feature many car makers employed back then. It was strange though because this design offers a lose-lose combination of dubious aesthetics and hopeless aerodynamics. The car has mechanical underpinnings obtained from the humble yet classic 2CV. The Citroën Ami steered in the wrong direction. Moreover, its rectangular headlights were a look that never saw the light of day again.

2. Pontiac Aztek

Although sporty, the Pontiac Aztek is still a horrible-looking car. It would have looked amazing if they were able to refine its appearance. Apparently, this is one of the cars to beat if you plan on constructing a vehicle that went against the rules of conventional aesthetics. The Pontiac Aztek is slab-sided, hunchbacked, and perched on rollerskate-sized tires. This strange-looking car is like the lovechild of a Transformers vehicle and a Dustbuster vacuum. It is just embarrassing to be seen driving or even just riding in one of these.

1. Aston Martin Lagonda

When you hear the brand Aston Martin, all it brings to mind is a cool car brand related to Agent 007. Hence, you feel any car they make is classy and sophisticated. However, they also had a failure – the Aston Martin Lagonda. No one is perfect and this nonsensically shaped car is a proof that even a brand like Aston Martin can make design mistakes.

The Aston Martin Lagonda was marketed as one of the most expensive cars of 1980s due to its creative styling. However, this backfired because consumers did not like it. The car has flat and squared off body panels. It also has lanky proportions, which just does not work.