You might be shocked to hear this, but not everyone is a fan of pop-up headlamps. I know, it’s atrocious to hear. But, some people think there are cars out there that look dumb with these little bulbs of joy.
To find out which are the worst offenders in the world of “cars with pop-up headlamps,” we turned to you, the Jalopnik community. This morning, we asked, “What’s The Worst Car With Pop-Up Headlights?”
Here are some of the top responses we received.
“I nominate the Cizeta V16T.
“It’s not that popup headlights look dumb on this car. It’s that the SECOND set of popup headlights look dumb on this car. There’s just something weird about it. It’s like looking at a picture where a person has a second set of eyes photoshopped onto their face.
“I really do not understand why the second set is necessary. Sealed-beams with both high beam and low beam in the same bulb existed for decades when this car was designed.”
If anything, the Cizeta V16T is proof that you can have too much of a good thing. With two rows of pop-up headlamps, this Italian sports car looked very strange with its lights on.
Suggested by: skuhnphoto
“Z31 Nissan 300ZX
“One of few examples when pop-ups were not only the wrong choice, but they were done poorly and the next model that dropped pop-ups had an iconic headlight design.”
Nissan produced 329,900 of these angular, retro icons between 1983 and 1989. That means there are 659,800 of these stupid headlights out there in the world.
Suggested by: futuredoc
“1998-2002 Pontiac Firebird. The nose is controversial enough, but they were cheap enough to still use quad sealed-beam headlights when both the Camaro and Corvette went to halogen bulbs (the latter of which did also have pop up headlights).”
For the 1998 model year, Pontiac updated the fourth generation Firebird with a new hood and front end that featured dual intakes, circular turn signals and, you guessed it, retracting halogen headlights.
Suggested by: 89islander
“Easy: the Porsche 928.
“Talk about a BEM: bug-eyed monster.”
One of the most popular suggestions today was the Porsche 928. Built from 1978 until 1995, the 928 was originally conceived as a replacement for the 911. As well as the honor of being one of the few Porsches with pop-up headlamps, it was also the first Porsche with a V8 engine.
Suggested by: the1969dodgechargerguy
“The C3 and C4 Corvette. Why? When the headlights are on, the look is ruined... made worse when they malfunction... which they are known for.”
Both the C3 and C4 were shipped with pop-up headlamps when they launched in 1968 and 1984 respectively. The bulbous lights definitely detracted from the sleek styling of the C3, a car which in all honestly I’ve never seen with its lights on.
Suggested by: manwich
“Isuzu Impulse. From sleepy eye to ‘I’m kind of awake’. Are these even considered Pop-ups and why did they only make them half lids?”
While not fully popping up, these half-hidden-headlamps count. The second generation Impulse, released in 1990, is the worst offender here. When closed, its headlight doors make it look like me when I wake up in the morning, and open it looks like me after too much coffee. Don’t drive a car that looks like me.
Suggested by: AudiB5Hawaii
“Porsche 911 Slant Nose. I know, controversial, the things are incredibly cool and as 80's as a cocaine-white linen suit, but as a 911? The big round headlights are sort of part of Porsche’s character (as others have pointed out, the pop-ups on the 928 might be a little goofy, but they still went with it rather than conventional pop-ups like they’d previously used on the 914 and 924).
“Taking away those Porsche headlights makes the 911 almost anonymous (as much as a car with a massive wing and wheel flares can be anonymous).
“If the RUF Yellowbird didn’t need pop-ups, I don’t know if any 911 really needs pop-ups (queue Enzo Ferrari’s line about aerodynamics being for people who can’t build engines).”
Seriously, what the hell is this monstrosity?
Suggested by: maymar
“The Geo Storm and its Isuzu twin.
“People romanticize the Storm for... IDK what reason. The fact is that it was a shit box car and it’s best that nearly all of them have crumbled to rust.”
Another that falls into the ‘sleepy’ then ‘wide awake’ category of lighting design is the Geo Storm, and that’s probably because it shared most of its parts with the Isuzu Impulse. The Geo Storm brought its awful illuminations to drivers in the U.S. between 1990 and 1993.
Suggested by: pmb2012
“1970 Plymouth Superbird and 1969 Dodge Daytona. The shape of the aero nose panel gets totally broken up.”
Another car I’ve never seen with its lights on, probably because it looks so dumb with those pop-ups protruding from the sleek front end.
Suggested by: JimEmery
“The person who said the F40 doesn’t look good with Pop up headlights is so wrong they need to either go to an optometrist or a therapist.
“Anyway the worst pop-ups are a bit of a technicality - Lincoln Touring Lights from the 1980s. In an Xzibit ‘I heard you like headlights’ move, the headlight covers have lights, which defeats the purpose of headlight covers.”
The touring lights fitted to the Mark VI Lincoln Continental are pretty funky. The headlight covers feature their own smaller headlights, which seems a bit like overkill.
Suggested by: citricola