Image: Wiki Commons by JOHN LLOYD
About This Quiz
What makes a truck ugly, anyway? Some trucks, like the Unimog U500, look like they suffered a terrible bought of swelling. Others, like the Dodge Ram Daytona, have a massive and mostly useless wing strapped to the back. But are they ugly? That's one of those questions with which no one will ever fully agree. There's a good chance you're going to look at our list of trucks here and think some of them look amazing. But make no mistake, to most people, these are some hideous vehicles — trucks like the Chevy SSR, which are just total engineering mistakes from the wheels up. They came and went quickly because somehow, someway, they were designed to be atrocious.
It's not easy to define ugly, but we've tried our best to refine a cringe-inducing list of the most unfortunate-looking beasts ever to roll down the street on four wheels. If you think you know the history of ugly trucks — from the massive-grilled 1939 Ford pickup to Elon Musk's not-yet-released Tesla Cybertruck, which has been setting the automotive industry on fire — take the quiz and see how many of these visually offensive trucks you recognize!
1940 GMC 1000 Series
1939 Ford Pickup
While it's nice that Henry Ford finally started including hydraulic brakes in 1939, the 1939 Ford Pickup has gone down in history as one of the most unfortunate looking vehicles the company ever made. The large, oval grille looked a lot like a weird mouth framed by frog eyes. It was an odd choice, and they only made it for a year.
1936 Ford Skyranger
1933 Dodge A100
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Fiat Oltre
Ford Thames Trader
Buick 60C
Volvo 445
Made in the 1950s, the Volvo 445 pickup looked like the Silly Putty version of a regular pickup, stretched to weird proportions and not quite normal. The front end was elongated, all the curves were soft and bubbly, and they just gave up when it came to the bed in back.
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Nissan Poke
Jeep Forward Control
From 1956 to 1965 the Jeep Forward Control was uglying up the roads across America with one of the most perplexing designs ever seen. The snub-nosed cab, the tacked-on grille and the overall squatty look were just weird. At least it was memorable.
Suzuki X90
VW Rabbit Pickup
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Hummer H2 SUT
Hummers were known for being massive gas guzzlers, but the H2 SUT just didn't quite look right. The pickup version of the H2 was just so ostentatious, so bulky and pushy and all over the place. Even if it was good on gas, it would still be an eyesore.
Chevy Corvairi Rampside
Tempo Matador
Pontiac Aztek
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1962 Dodge A100
1961 GMC 1000
Take a look at the front end of a '61 GMC 1000 series truck and see if you can figure out just what the heck is going on. It looks like someone is trying to hide a smaller car inside the truck, and it's peeking out over the hood. Why they made it this way is anyone's guess.
1960 Cadillac Mirage
1959 Chevy Luv
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GMC TopKick
As a medium-duty truck, the GMC TopKick had to be kind of big, but what happened here? The truck looks like a jumped-up Transformer that got swole and then someone tried to wipe the features down off the front with a squeegee.
Chevy Avalanche
Ford Excursion
Dodge Dynamo
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Nissan Titan
Dodge Durango
Chevy C/K
Ford F-650 Supertruck
Ford, like any truck manufacturer, makes large trucks for commercial uses, but the F-650 Supertruck was a massive oversized pickup truck for people who wanted something that looked like it was designed in Jurassic Park.
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Dodge W-Series
The Dodge W-Series was the third series of truck Dodge made after the T and the V series. The massive grille is bisected by a cross, making it look like someone tried to tie it down, and the headlights gave it a bug-eyed appearance.
Ford Model 23
Chevy C/K
International Pick Up
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Pontiac Aztek
Ford Edsel
Chevy SSR
The Chevy SSR failed on every front. The engine wasn't powerful enough to move the preposterously heavy frame that came in at nearly 5,000 pounds, and the retro-inspired style was something that was made fun of in nearly every car magazine and website in the world.
Subaru Baja
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Ford Thames Trader
Tempo Matador
Ssangyong Musso
VW Transporter
If this truck looks familiar, it's because it's essentially a VW hippie bus. The Transporter model was a bus with the back chopped down to make it a pickup truck, and if it was a not particularly attractive van, it was a downright ugly truck.
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Nissan Titan
Suzuki X-90
The Suzuki X-90 was only made from 1995 to 1997, and it was just as well. This runty little beast was a mix of SUV and pickup truck on the smallest possible scale. It looked like someone had kicked a real truck in the back and forced some of the length out the front.
Honda Fit
Chevy Luv
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Reynolds Boughton RB44
Tempo Matador
Rinspeed Tattoo
Rinspeed made the Tattoo as a concept vehicle and judging by its appearance, their concept was Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The only reason people remember it today, aside from is baffling appearance, is because it was the first vehicle with internet access.
Datsun U521
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Dodge A100
Chevy COE
International Harvester A-series
In 1957, the International Harvester A-100 Golden Jubilee was offered with gold paint, but jubilation wasn't guaranteed. The headlights and grille worked together to make it seem like the truck was both surprised and horrified.
Cadillac Mirage
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Ford Skyranger
Chevy Avalanche
Fiat Oltre
Subaru Baja
The Subaru Baja was inspired by the Subaru BRAT, another particularly ugly option Subaru had introduced a few years earlier. The Baja looked like a restyled Pontiac Aztek with a small bed and a station wagon body.
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Honda Ridgeline
Chevy Luv
Tempo Matador
Lamborghini LM002
Sometimes called the Rambo Lambo, the Lamborghini LM002 was a major departure from the sleek and sexy cars for which the company is known. The hood is a jumble of bumps and ledges that make it look like the entire thing was conceived as a Lego project before it was finally made into a real truck.
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Kia Forte
Ssangyong Musso
The Ssangyong Musso is something of a toad-like truck that not only handled terribly, it looked like someone forgot to finish making the back while the front had a bit of a piggy aspect. Drive.co.uk said it was like trying to put lipstick on a pig, and it failed miserably.
Suzuki X-10
Honda Ridgeline
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1955 Ford Model 200
1950 Dodge A200
1955 Datsun U521
1953 Chevy COE
COE stands for Cab Over Engine, and that explains to some degree the awful design choices of the 1953 Chevy COE. It looks like it's suffering a massively swollen forehead, or maybe the grille started melting off its front. Either way, it was not a great look.
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Toyota Tundra Stepside
Many take exception to the design of the Toyota Tundra but, all things being equal, it's not a hideous truck. That said, the 2002 Tundra Stepside was just a stupid version. They put one tiny foot hole in the side of the bed, hence the name.
Cadillac Mirage
Chevy Avalanche
Dodge Ramcharger
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Ford Skyranger
Dodge Rampage
Like the Chevy El Camino and the Ford Ranchero, the Dodge Rampage was one of those half cars half pickup trucks that never really fit into either world. But at least the El Camino had a little charm to it. The Rampage had an awkward and pointy front end that made the back look even weirder.
Chrysler C-Seres
Datsun U521
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Ford Skyranger
Mitsubishi L200
Chevy K10
International Harvester's D-Series
International Harvester's D-Series committed a less atrocious design crime than some trucks, and it's the crime of boring. This truck is ugly just because it looked like no one even tried to make it look good. If you ask a child to draw a pickup truck, this is what you'd get.
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Subaru BRAT
The Subaru BRAT or Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter was an ugly car with a terrible name and for that reason, it achieved a bit of a cult status after all these years. Looks aside, they were also poorly made and were known for being rust buckets.
Cadillac Mirage
Honda Ridgeline
VW Rabbit
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Tempo Matador
BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a nice-looking car but it was not a nice-looking truck. It's said that BMW employees made one of these out of a convertible model to drive around the factory. They used it for 26 years as well, apparently.
Fiat Oltre
Reynolds Boughton RB44
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Reynolds Boughton RB44
Datsun U251
Tempo Matador
The Tempo Matador is weird-looking at first glance, but if you think about it for a moment, it looks like a kissy face emoji, and that's just extra weird. These were used as military vehicles for a time and were sold under a number of names.
Fiat Oltre
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Chevy Avalanche
Ford Thames Trader
Fiat Oltre
Fiat rolled out the Oltre at a car show in 2006, and it looked like a Hummer that was made of fondant icing. Amazingly, the inside of the Oltre was somehow even uglier than the outside, in all white and blue Playmobile style.
Reynolds Boughton RB44
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Cadillac Mirage
The Cadillac Mirage was a luxury car, but for one very weird year it was also a pickup truck. Clearly inspired by Chevy's El Camino, this was a huge luxury grandpa Cadillac with a flatbed. It couldn't have made less sense.
Ford Edsel
Fiat Luna
Buick Regal Pickup
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GMC Sierra
Dodge Durango
Chevy Avalanche
The Chevy Avalanche was an over-designed truck with some clunky cladding that covered almost every exposed surface on the truck, making it look like it rolled right out of a post-apocalyptic movie in the 1980s.
Ford Excursion
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Suzuki Spirit
Isuzu 10
Honda Ridgeline
Mitsubishi L200
The Mitsubishi L200 dates back to 1978 and, weirdly enough, it has been ugly the entire time. If you had to pick a worst one though, the fourth generation was a true standout. It had so many soft edges, it looked like chewed-up bubblegum.
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Datsun U521
The Datsun U521 was a weird departure from the standard truck designs for Datsun thanks to the crew cab design that gave it an overall look of two different vehicles mashed together, hoping it would somehow work out.
Honda Fit
Nissan Sunny
Suzuki X60
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Nissan Sunny
Toyota Tundra
Honda Ridgeline
The Honda Ridgeline is a fairly popular truck, but it had some very buggy features. When Jalopnik wrote an article about how weird it was, they said that during a test drive, people would pull up next to them to tell them how ugly their truck was.
Hyundai Legion
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Daihatsu Wellman
Tempo Bracer
Ssangyong Musso
Dodge Ram Daytona
The Dodge Ram Daytona had a wing on the back, which is really all you need to say about the look of the thing. By all accounts, it was a good truck with a powerful Hemi engine, but it also had a wing ... on a truck.
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Buick Sundance
Dodge Ramcharger
The Dodge Ramcharger had the option of coming with a rear bench seat and absolutely no top on it whatsoever. But whatever way it came couldn't make up for the perplexing way it sat on its wheels and the massive front grille that looked swollen.
Ford Excursion
Chevy C/K
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Chevy C/K
Volvo M Series
Holden Commodore
Ford Thames Trader
Ford Thames Traders had some very distinctive designs in every generation, and they were all weird. If you consider the windshield a pair of glasses, then this truck clearly had a snub nose and a frowny clown mouth. Try to unsee it.
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VW Rabbit Pickup
Sometimes called the VW Caddy, the VW Rabbit Pickup was front wheel drive with a 1.7 L 4-cylinder engine that was barely enough to move the thing. It also had a bare-bones interior and looked like it was designed by someone who just didn't care.
Ford Ranchero
Pontiac Scamp
Audi Brass
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Corvair Rampside
M3 Pickup
Reynolds Boughton RB44
The Reynolds Boughton RB44 was released in 1989 for military service in the U.K. It weirdly looks like the "A-Team" van from the 1980s though, which is kind of cool and yet kind of disappointing at the same time since the actual "A-Team" van would be much cooler.
Nissan Cube
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Buick Champion
Ford Comet
Chevy Reliant
Dodge A100
As a van, the Dodge A100 bore a strong resemblance to the Mystery Machine from "Scooby Doo," which made it kind of cool. When they chopped off the rear and made it a pickup truck, it looked just like a van that had been chopped into a pickup truck. Not a good look overall.
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Colani
MAXXcab
Unimog U500
The Unimog U500 looks like something a small child might design if given carte blanche to make a truck. There isn't a single part of this truck that's in proper proportions, but despite that, these things have been in production since the 1940s.
VPG MV-1
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Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla's recently unveiled Cybertruck has a lot of amazing features and may very well be one of the best trucks on the road — electric or otherwise — if it holds up to the hype. But none of that changes the fact that this is what it looks like on purpose.
Unimog U500
Fiat Oltre
Hummer H2 SUT
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Ford Ranchero
Honda Fit
Chevy LUV
The Chevy LUV's name means "light utility vehicle." It first went on sale in 1972. The name "LUV" was plastered on the side of the undersized and unimpressive vehicle. Later generations got a design overhaul, but those gen one models were not fooling anyone.
Dodge Reliant
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