Question-of-the-day features tend to be vapid, so I usually ignore them. However, I must admit to getting drawn into a Jalopnik query about what are the ugliest cars on the market today (Bellwood, 2025). The range of proposals shows how styling can be quite subjective.
For example, I would agree that the BMW XM has an overamped design — particularly with its flaring nostrils and weird, double-decker lights. However, I would take issue with criticisms of the Tesla Model 3. Whatever else one could say about that automaker’s passenger cars, they have had unusually clean styling in an era dominated by what might be described as “brutalist” design. Here I am talking about cars and trucks with such a cartoonishly aggressive look that they may as well have been designed by — and for — 10 year olds.
By the same token, it made sense to criticize the swaggering beefiness of full-sized trucks — particularly the Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and Ford F-150 Raptor.
However, I part company with those who call the Hyundai Ioniq 6 ugly. While its tapered lines may be unorthodox, at least they represent an admirable attempt to maximize aerodynamics (Mihalascu, 2022). Whether we like it or not, this approach better reflects the future of automobile design.
You can’t say the same thing about the Kia EV9, whose bulging surfaces have an exaggerated look, kind of like a body builder on steroids. In addition, the oddly thrust-forward fascia reminds me of a sharknose Graham.
The Hyundai Santa Fe may be quite a bit cleaner, but it still has a rather chunky, almost military-style quality. This is a radical shift from the more nuanced (if busy) surfacing of the Tucson.
In general, we seem to be navigating a time period where automakers throughout the world assume that overamped styling is what sells. Yet none of the vehicles mentioned so far holds a candle to what is arguably the most outrageous car or truck design since World War II — the Tesla Cybertruck.
A number of factors support and undercut brutalism
The biggest question I have is how long will the auto industry be dominated by brutalist design. At least here in the U.S., a major factor could be the Trump administration’s deregulation initiatives, which could ease the pressure on automakers to make their vehicles more aerodynamic. Reducing wind resistance tends to go hand in hand with cleaner (and more beta) styling.
Also see ‘Why do Japanese automakers continue to make their vehicles look so scary?’
But even if U.S. regulations are significantly relaxed over the next four years, that likely will be at variance with at least some other major markets that global automakers compete in. So while some vehicles may be designed specifically for the American market, we may still see a steady increase in new-generation models designed to meet tightening emissions standards elsewhere.
In addition, the escalating cost of purchasing a new vehicle — perhaps in the face of trade wars — could result in declining popularity of larger and fancier trucks and sport-utility vehicles. They tend to have the most overamped styling.
Perhaps what we’re seeing right now is akin to the muscle-car mania of the late-60s. For a few years styling grew increasingly outrageous. But then the bottom fell out of the market beginning in 1970, and within a few years even aggressively styled sporty coupes such as the Dodge Charger were broughamized (go here for further discussion). So went another car design fad along life’s highway.
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RE:SOURCES
- Bellwood, Owen; 2025. “These Cars Are Even Uglier Than The New Tesla Model Y.” Jalopnik. Posted on March 18.
- Mihalascu, Dan; 2025. “Hyundai Reveals Secrets Behind Ioniq 6’s Top Aerodynamic Efficiency.” Inside EVs. Posted on Nov. 10.
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- oldcarbrochures.org: AMC Rambler (1969)
My idea is that one of the problems of modern automobile styling is that too many people work on it at the same time, and more often than not those who sign off the design (once called styling chiefs) don’t or can’t clean up the design they end up approving.
Even the relatively clean Ioniq 6 has a busy front fascia with that hideous dark plastic element that reminds me more pf a scar than the feature line it supposedly is.
Also, I think it would be important for modern styling courses to include foundations of aerodynamics, so that stylists themselves can already draw lines with the wind tunnel in mind and avoiding painful compromises later on, moving from pen to clay to wind tunnel.