A car typically spends a dozen years on the road in the United States. Vehicles can serve as a makeshift time capsule for design trends, so driving down the street is like journeying through different eras in time. We asked readers earlier this week which car designs aged like milk, and the comments were filled with criticisms of everything from sports cars to econoboxes. Without further ado, here are the chunkiest curds that still grace the streets:
Chevy HHR. The PT Cruiser had already been around for several years and the nu-retro craze was already dropping off and getting tired by the time the HHR showed up, looking like shit and wearing its best PT Cruiser cosplay.
Submitted by: Hankel_Wankel
Easily Hyundai’s 2010s ‘swoopy’ era. I know a lot of reviewers swooned about the ‘faux-CLS’ style cues when they were new, but they’ve dated horribly. I kind of like them perversely as period pieces, but they objectively do not look good. To be fair, they were copying one of the worst ever eras of Mercedes design, too.
Submitted by: Amoore100
The Pontiac Aztek seems almost too obvious, yet I haven’t seen it posted. Then again, maybe it’s more fair to say that it’s aged like a McDonald’s french fry. Was pretty bad then, but hasn’t really gotten any worse with time.
Submitted by: Tompie913
To me, it’s not a car in particular, but a material.
Go back to around 2000 or so. The latest thing is to have a 30" CRT with a DVD player and then a boombox that plays cassettes AND CDs. All of them are high tech because they have the latest dull silvery plastic color that has replaced Beige and black and shiny silver as the color of high tech.
Like look at this master of the high tech world from 2000.
The car manufacturers were late to the game with this material. So, in 2010, you could load up the truck of your new Camry with thrift store DVD players, DVD/VHS players, CD Boomboxes and 25" CRTs to your heart’s content for $20... and look at this for a dash.
And it wasn’t just Toyota that missed the Boat. I remember so many cars from the late 2000s, early 2010s that had Thrift Store Plastic for dash trim.
Submitted by: hoser68
I’ll say the Magnum. I rather liked it when it first came out, a wagon, and they even made an SRT version from it. But now it just looks so plain jane. The front looks like a conglomeration of different cars; I see a Chrysler 300 in the front mixed with a chevy uplander of all things, And the SRT grille makes it look even worse. Aged Milk (the right way) is basically yogurt right? still edible, but definitely not my first choice.
Submitted by: darthspartan117
Right off the bat: what a dull, truly awful-looking car. A stubby slab-sided sedan with a Dakota pickup grille up front and derivative Intrepid tail lights in the back. Since it’s such a meh-looking sedan, when I had the opportunity to ask Ralph Gilles, the stylist of this turd, if it took him more than 15 minutes to come up with this lump; he wasn’t too keen on my questioning. I was so “shocked”.
Then Dodge echoed classic Charger styling cues along with the concept’s styling theme in latter 4-door gens and Dodge had a winner on their hands—also “shocking” what happens when you produce better looking cars.
Submitted by: the1969DodgeChargerFan
Even though I am guilty of owning a post-refresh model, I thought the 9th-gen Civic looked dated the moment it was released and hasn’t aged well, especially the launch 2012 model. Despite being a good car, it’s looks were dowdy, uninspired, and forgettable. It’s still a Honda Civic and came with all the positives that brings, but owners needed to come to terms that it would best be enjoyed from the inside only.
Submitted by: paradsecar
Cybertruck.
Submitted by: skeffles
It hit the showrooms looking almost a decade old, because it was almost a decade old even before it launched. Even disregarding the deliberate faux-retro vibe.
Submitted by: plant_daily
Half a decade old, perhaps, which is still too old in car terms, but a full decade is pushing it.
I hate defending Tesla, even a little, it makes me feel dirty all over.
Submitted by: skeffles
The 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird definitely did the “retro revival” thing poorly, using updated 1960s styling (by design) yet somehow also looking outdated for a modern car.
Submitted by: Neutral President
Chevy Malibu Maxx: not quite a hatch, not quite a wagon. Right before the ubiquity of crossovers, Chevy was out there still finding itself.
Submitted by: Mike
Here’s my possibly controversial take. C7 Corvette. To follow up the C6, which is PEAK Corvette, with this angular monstrosity took a lot of audacity and possibly multiple design teams that never once spoke to each other. Chevy took everything good about the C6 and added unnecessary sharp angles and creases. I think it looks even worse in person. The interior is also not that great. Have you seen that steering wheel? Yuck.
I think the C8 is better looking, but that’s only by virtue of its mid-engine layout.
I’m not even a Corvette guy, but I love the C6. That being said, the C6's exterior design is a tough act to follow. And with Chevy designing the C7, it was bound to be even uglier than the predecessor.
Submitted by: snisps
Likewise, the C5 Corvette is just a touch too generic 90's blob - great car, important to the Corvette as a whole, but you’re probably not buying it for the styling (especially when the C6 exists).
Submitted by: Maymar