What were they thinking?

Fer cryin’ out loud!

Better yet, “What were they smokin’?”
Every time I see one of these travesties, I nearly throw up.
A friend of mine, ex of the Mighty Mezz, disputed my claiming the ’59 Olds was the ugliest car of all time.

UGLIEST car of all time.

Inspiration in college = 904 racer by Porsche. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“It’s the Pontiac Aztek,” he exclaimed. Score one for him! —But even the Aztek looks good compared to this thing.
I admit as an old geezer I tilt toward cars I consider attractive. That is, not necessarily aero-friendly but pleasing to my eye. Go back far enough and the 904 Porsche was very attractive. I was drawing back then, and many of my cars had 904 styling cues.
Get a 904 up near 140, and it tries to fly. Racers grafted air-dams to counter that.
For a long time, up through the ‘30s, automotive styling was dictated by function. The passenger enclosure was the largest segment, with motor enclosure up front, and luggage enclosure behind. Often the “trunk” was an actual trunk. Wheels and tires were at the four corners separate from the enclosures.
Slowly this all melded such that tire enclosures became part of the motor and trunk boxes.
Humans still determined the largest segment of the car body. The motor and trunk could be small, but the car still had to enclose humans. Those humans sat erect, and had to be able to look out.
Stylists were trying to ram that large passenger box through the air. The driver also had to be able to see ahead.
Classic three-box styling evolved, perhaps best exemplified by the ’55 Chevy. Two boxes were at each end of the passenger box. One, at front, encased the motor and front wheels, and the box at the rear was the trunk and rear wheels.
The passenger box had to have glass windows above the other two boxes so passengers (and driver) could see over the front and rear boxes.
Automotive styling has since evolved such that the motor and trunk boxes melded into the passenger box. The front windshield can be extended far over the motor box, and the car can become fastback. All to make the car more aero-friendly.
Fastback a car and ya run into poor visibility. This Prius’ solution was to do glass below the fastback. Honda is doing that too. (Ugh!)
A more aerodynamic car shape has better gas-mileage — manufacturers are trying to meet stringent gumint-mandated mileage goals.
Cars became bars of soap. I look at what’s marketed now, and they all look the same. There are slight differences in motor air-intakes — the grillwork. Behind that they’re identical, although with differing taillights.
All if which is okay. I compare Chevrolet’s new Malibu to a Kia or Accord and they’re not repugnant.
The reason is tumblehome. Car styling wraps inward. It’s that bar-of-soap thing.
This new Prius doesn’t do that. It reminds of a dude with a purple-dyed Mohawk haircut. Fenders come to a point aiming outward. They got the wheels and tires looking like donut mini-spares.
Early Priuses weren’t too bad, but I wouldn’t touch this newbie with a 10-foot pole. And that’s even though hybrid auto technology is good.

Shelby Mustang, versus.....

Dodge Challenger.

I compare Ford’s new Mustang to the new Dodge Challenger. Mustang is the better car, but Challenger looks better. The Challenger is following muscle-car styling laid down in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
Mustang has independent-rear-suspension and a double-overhead-cam V8; the Challenger has neither. The Challenger also looks much less air-friendly than the Mustang.
But I’ll take the Challenger unless they graft Prius spikes to it.

• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over 12 years ago. Best job I ever had — I was employed there almost 10 years — over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern. (I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well.) (“Canandaigua” is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 14 miles away.)
• My drawing ability, which was fairly good, was lost with my stroke.