Ugliest Cars: Pontiac Aztek, AMC Pacer & Aston Martin Lagonda

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When I wrote my first article about the worst cars ever made I noticed that there were a few different things to consider, the first being bad performance, the second looks and style, and the third poor sales.

The Worst Cars Ever Built

This time I decided to focus on bad looks and style instead of bad performance. As the old saying goes, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I researched several different sources to try and find the ugliest cars ever made and the picks were quite different. Several of them didn't look all that bad to me. So, I tried to pick three for this article that showed up on several of the lists of ugliest cars of all time.

Pontiac Aztek

The poor Pontiac Aztek gets no love across the board. Pretty much everyone thinks it is ugly. Despite being an okay performer the Aztek never really got past its less than impressive exterior. Even some celeb status from being featured on Breaking Bad didn't help much. The upside is that you can probably buy one now with fairly low miles for under $3000. Not bad for an ugly car that brand new went for slightly north of $20k.

AMC Pacer

The AMC Pacer is another car that makes almost all of the "ugliest cars ever made" lists. Like the Pontiac Aztek the AMC Pacer also enjoyed some fame due to Wayne's World, the popular Saturday Night Live skit being turned into a movie that featured a powder blue AMC Pacer with flame decals on the front quarter panels and doors. I've heard for a mid-70s car the Pacer actually wasn't that bad to drive at the time, but there is no way to escape the ugly with these things no matter how much you customize them. Though if anyone has seen one that has been restomoded to customized that does look cool I would love to see it.

1976 Aston Martin Lagonda

If you have ever wondered why James Bond drove a Lotus Esprit in A Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 instead of an Aston Martin the Lagonda might be the reason. I don't think even Q with a limitless budget and every spy gadget you can imagine for a car could have convinced 007 to drive the Lagonda.

I mentioned that the definition of worst car ever can mean bad styling, bad performance, or bad sales/princing. The 1976 Aston Martin Lagonda seems to have checked all three of those boxes. Ugly, dodgy performance due to all the crazy electronics, and way over priced the ultimate hat trick for this terrible car.

I'm not sure how much these go for now. I saw prices ranging from $32k all the way up to $250k. Though I think the $250k cars might be for a 1977 Astin Martin Lagonda Vantage which too me seems like something 007 would have definitely driven.

What can you say? Ugly cars don't do well even if they perform well. Though I'm sure with a little research you could probably find car clubs out there dedicated to even these ugly ducklings.