Yesterday husband and I were doing a little impromptu shopping, and exiting the freeway, found ourselves behind one of the Ugliest cars we have ever seen!


Husband said, "Does that car seem as ugly to you as it does to me?"
I said, "Yeah, I'd like to squorsh it like a bug."

They must be cheap because they certainly don't have beauty on their side.
(';')

 

Huh???


Symmetrical or is it asymmetrical or neither!!!


Flowing design lines? Yeah, lots of them in all directions!!!


The draftsman sure seems to have liked his French curve...


Is that a Blue oval in the middle of the boot.


Small partial victory. ATT email went bonkers. I could sorta get to read on then E box of my WIN10. Incomplete and slow....


Tried on my little laptop. It lost IE a year or so ago. XP powered and slow. But Google Chrome got me to Yahoo and thence to my Email. It works, a tad slow, but...


Another shot on this WIN 10 Dell desk top. Google Chrome.


Works....


PS YAHOO help tech doesn't exist!!!!


So my exclamation will not be the "Y" word, Eureka will have to do...


Off to chores.


Carl

 

Thank you, Carl,
I neglected to mention it's a Ford Fiesta. This picture really doesn't do it justice. It's way uglier in real life.

With free email providers, you get the Tech Support you pay for.
(';')

 

Sadly, that's just one example as to the state of cars today!!! Just a collection of cheap plastic amorphous blobs, un-serviceable, and riddled with unused gadgets destined to become obsolete in short time.

I've been driving my father's late model Mitsubishi Galant that last few days. Ugly as sin, and, in many ways, even after 30 years the Jag seems more refined (except for that damn lumpy idle, but I'll live with that).

 

We wanted a new everyday small car, so this year we bought the VW Golf because it looks "normal" plus we are fairly conservative in taste. VW barely tweak the core design year on year, so it becomes somewhat perennial. It's in my garage.

Not generally being a fan of mobile appliances, this is (and, of course, you know I am bound to say this!) an excellent exception all round. No nonsense, functional, superbly equipped and an amazing ride which belies its size. And being a wagon it has the largest load cap. in its class, by a mile.

Fiesta's are a high ranking car of choice for young females here, in trendy colours appealing to under 25's. Don't think I've ever seen one driven by a male!

 

You forgot to mention the veedub gets a zillion kilometres per litre with near zero emissions!!!!

Re the Fiesta, yes a definite chicky car in Oz. My daughter had an older model one. It was a little buzzbox but she liked it.

 

We don't mention the D word! Thankfully mine is the eco-friendly turbo petrol. Definitely miserly at average 5.3 L/100km AND goes like a bat out of hell

 

Your in the clear then ...so far

 

Ah, vive la diference !!!


There was a time when a lumpy idle was either just fine or even created.


1. A performance camshaft with lots of over lap.
2. Induced to simulate one by screwing out the idle jets to a rich
position.
3. Who cares, engine is run at various throttle openings, including WOT most of the time.


A long time back, a company was having a hard time selling peddle driven sewing machines in South America. The ladies did not like the glossy black, god striping or not ! Another competitor found that red was desired by those ladies. Red it was, sales blossomed.


My daughter has mom's old Singer. Treadle still there, but
Dad's added electric pleased her. Although daughter has a more modern machine, at times, she fires up the old Singer....


Carl

 

Thanks, Guys,
Doug:
I am sometimes reminded that Sin can be pretty attractive!

Where I come from (time moves slowly in the Great American Outback), a lot of trouble and effort are expended to achieve that very "lumpy idle" you disparage.

Tony:
VW has some not-too-bad examples of automobilia, but just on general principles alone I refuse to have one. They simply don't stand out in a crowd. If we need anonymity or cargo space, Wart will just have to stay. And for all his, um, warts, his performance isn't bad.

Steve:
OK, that "Chicky" designation definitely kills a Fiesta ever being in my garage! I couldn't take the derision my 'friends' would pile on me; "Gone to the pink side, have you, Elinor? Getting soft and all Girly Girl on us?" (shudder)

Carl:
Wouldn't it be boring if Everyone drove such classy cars as we do! That wouldn't happen, there aren't that many classy cars for one thing, and not that many classy people with our Excellent and Discerning tastes for another.

Wart will earn his keep today. We are told to expect liquid atmosphere most of the day.

Nix is sleeping soundly, waiting for Spring. She probably won't even awaken for the Jaguar club planning meeting in January.
(';')

 

No rain yet. Actually very nice out side. No sun, but fresh air and not cold!!!


Noted lots of those "little boxes, with similar styling. Copy cats, different badges!!! Coco and I went to market. Vittles for both of us.


White midsize SUV alongside ! No big deal? Wow, it is a Porsche!!
Way outta character!!


On return after, gal up the road has migrated!! Silver BMW covertivle to black MBZ and now to an MBZ mini SUV. Hubby more consistent.
Big brown Doge 4x4 replaces black one!!




Coco and I out enjoying cloudy but warmish day. Jaguar fussy about cranking???? A bum starter, again or oldish battery???


I'll deal with it anther day, lunch time and I'm hungry. I only work half days nowadays!!


Carl

 

I have the latest model Ford Fiesta. It is a very fine small car! With just one litre and a turbo it goes very well and returns over 40 mpg(imperial gallons). I do not think it ugly at all. But then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many folks think the current rash of Jaguars are ugly and boring, and not that different to BMW or Mercedes. You pays your money and takes your pick!

 

Elinor, nothing wrong with choosing a car to serve a purpose. If the purpose is function, the VW wins hands down and lives with us for it's all round efficiency. It's not required to be a show pony, that's what the Jag is for. Maybe wart is a wallflower simply serving a purpose and doesn't need to compete...

 

Body styling is always a subjective topic, but having driven a couple as rentals in Europe I found the Fiesta is a superb driving car, great handling. As for the latest Jags, IMO they have lost their stand-out looks. I wouldn't call them ugly, very pleasing in fact, but as they don't look different to anything else they are no longer readily identifiable as Jaguars.

 

I should have started out with, "No offense meant to any Fiesta drivers out there, what follows is my opinion only, not necessarily shared by anyone else on the planet."

I agree, the current "rash" of Jaguars is scarcely different in appearance from Porsche, some BMW or some Mercs! However, they have their fans.

Funny you should mention Wart's purpose-filling wallflowerness, Tony, because this morning he was all wet and clean, and didn't look too bad! And we certainly wouldn't have been stuffing husband's new tool box in Nix's trunk, No Way would it fit (and we would Never risk a scratch in the finish)! Not only that, for all the abuse he's taken (certainly after I started driving him I have mercilessly thrashed this car!) he's been pretty darned reliable and dependable.

In 153,000 US miles, most of them hard driven, we replaced the water pump, a fuel pump fuse, and 2 years later the pump itself. One of the HVAC controls failed, but it only took $25 and an afternoon to fix. Last week we put in the second windshield in the 6 years I've driven the car (the first one came pre-cracked at no extra charge). A little grease on the tracks did wonders for the sliding doors, WD-40 did the same for the latches and will doubtless do the same for the seat belt reels once I figure out how to access them.

Wart definitely has a purpose here as an Appliance Vehicle, and would be hard to replace (for any reasonable amount of money) in the event he suddenly died completely.

I've never claimed to be shy about expressing opinions about cars; some of those probably aren't exactly rational, but that's why they're called Opinions and not Facts.

I'll try to be a bit more, um, reserved in future.
(';')

 

Oh, now that's a shame, you'll kill all the fun! Expressing opinions isn't an offence, we all love it and we all do it!

I do admit to feeling a bit sorry for your faithful wart, he's obviously trying hard to please, despite sustaining psychological and physical abuse on his humbleness. I'm tipping you'll hang on to him...for a while.

 

I'm a lover of obscure cars, but I thought we could all find some common ground on ugly!

 

Yep, even a mother couldn't love that creature, whatever it is!

 

My Grandad bought one of those, when he was 80 and his mind had begun to fail. Actually, Grandma picked it out because it was red; she had less on the ball than he did. Grandad called it "The Wee Wagon."

Pontiac Vibe (Aztek in some markets) didn't go over well in Montana, they might actually have sold 3 in the whole state. Even AWD couldn't make them attractive to the public.

It wasn't only the astonishing ugliness that handicapped the car, it might also have had something to do with less than 100hp and 4-speed auto box. It couldn't even get out of its own way. "0 to 60 in 15 minutes" was not a joke with this car. If it even saw a suggestion of a hill in the far distance it began to slow down until traffic was stacking up behind as you topped the hill at the breakneck speed of 40mph!! Driving the car was an Ordeal!

Montana, "The Land of the Big Sky," wide open spaces and vast distances to travel between here and anywhere, is Not a place where you want a car whose top speed is 80mph downhill with a tail wind.

I read once that its cousin, the Aztek, was deemed the Worst car in American Automotive history.

To paraphrase a friend of mine, "It may be ugly but at least it's gutless."
(';')

 

Thing is, at some stage , someone at Pontiac has had a drawing of that in front of them and said "yep I am happy with that look, that will sell" and then multiple levels of management have agreed. It really should have been consigned to the didnt quite work out bin in the design department.