News

The ugliest new vehicles on sale in Australia in 2026

Taste is subjective. We can measure things such as performance, interior space and efficiency with data but ugly is just that ugly.

ugliness is not really measured, but we know when we see it. Much like beauty, as in the eyes of a beholder, ugliness is at work.

here, but the childcareman.xyz team will often have lively discussions about which cars look good and what don’t – so that is one of the car experts who are in for this week.

childcareman.xyz can save you thousands on a new car. Click
here
to get a great deal.

Let’s be clear We don’t call any of these cars bad. It’s just ugly, a . Let’s left aside any debate about performance, efficiency, quality, comfort and all of that much more important stuff — just zero on styling.

We will often disagree with each other on design (I like the Cadillac Lyriq’s design, JWo…) but I think you’ll disagree some of our team’. If you are interested in our choices, let us know what your thoughts about the vehicles we choose and which cars should be included in the comments below.

Marton Pettendy: Hyundai Ioniq 6

Design may well be the number one purchase consideration, but it’s a subjective subject and for me the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is easily the ugliest car on sale in Australia today.

There’s no doubt the mid-size electric sedan looks much better in facelifted form, and better still in hot N guise. And it doesn’t really have a high bar to jump, given its top-selling rival in the Tesla Model 3 is looking decidedly blobby these days.

It is just too much for the sagging rear-end of the newer Ioniq 6 to look as if it was Apple mouse of cars, and like the unloved AU Falcon in 1998 (which Ford said that it had been ahead of its time) then quickly made visual changes in an attempt to reduce its excesses – including making a rear spoiler more widely available to disguise its drooping derriere.

After Australia’s best-selling model for seven years in the mid-1980s, XF Falcon was Australia’s top- selling model and sold its first-ever models for three decades before it became an axing of 2016, Alas Falcon sales would continue to slide until 2016 when they were able to sell their products.

Perhaps that explains the lack of love for the Ioniq 6 in Australia, where it was outsold by more than four to one last year by the BMW i4 – a handsome electric sedan that also looks a lot sexier than its mushroom-shaped rivals from Mercedes-Benz.

MORE:
Explore the Hyundai Ioniq 6 showroom

William Stopford: MG IM6

There are some cars that are mercilessly bland (Leapmotor C10, Geely EX5). There are some that are unashamedly ugly, but could be largely fixed with a facelift (Kia Tasman), and others that are quite handsome but suffer from having bodies that look too big for their chassis (GWM Haval Jolion, MG 5).

But if you want to know what I think is the ugliest, I’ve got one answer: the MG IM6 electric SUV.

Then, this was not the case for a facelift. How can I tell the truth? The Chinese IM LS6, which has been revealed in facelifted form, while it had its teeth straightened and the rest is still a mess.

From the old Tesla Model Y-style front to the faux Aston Martin DBX rear, it’s a mish-mash of design cues. It looks oddly tall and narrow with too much front overhang, and somehow manages to look smaller than it actually is (it’s 4.9m long!) It’s clear the somewhat attractive IM5 liftback’s design language just doesn’t work on an SUV.

Let me save some nails for a few Mercedes-Benz products, too: the current EQE SUV and EQS SUV (if you can tell them apart) and the upcoming CLA. The luxury brand’s design language jumped the shark under Gorden Wagener, who is now departing, and while it acknowledged its EQ cars didn’t have the right look, it subsequently revealed the dire CLA.

Maybe it’ll look better in person. Then again, I said that about the Kia EV4…

MORE:
Explore the MG IM6 showroom

James Wong: Cadillac Lyriq

There are a lot of fussy, busy and questionable new car designs today. One that has stuck out to me is the Cadillac Lyriq, specifically the rear… I just can’t appreciate it.

The face of the electric SUV is my favorite, but I just feel that angular, fussy and jagged detailing is an awful bit over-exaggerating for me. Crisson lighting signatures are too busy, and I feel it is not cohesion or identity.

Cadillac SUVs are a classic, boxy and distinctive car-style model of the job that has always been boxier; smaller (Optiq) and larger Vistiq do much better jobs at – although I hate the names too.

Harsh? Maybe. But, I said what I said.

MORE:
Explore the Cadillac Lyriq showroom

Josh Nevett: BMW XM

What. An. Abomination.

No one says “I don’t know how to spend my wealth” like a BMW XM, with its high proportions and large kidney grille, awkward creases (and squinty lighting signatures).

But there’s no cohesion in the design, nothing like a luxury BMW was hard to build – and it has been an iconic brand for its reputation.

It’s a shame, because everything under the edgy, unsightly skin is quite good.

MORE:
Explore the BMW XM showroom

Damion Smy: Hyundai Ioniq 6

The demise of the Mahindra Pik-Up has elevated the Hyundai Ioniq 6 to the number one car I’d least like to look at in my garage, despite its excellent capability – and a much-improved facelift due here later this year.

A Bangle-era 7 Series rump crossed with an HJ–HX Monaro spoiler is reminded of the Ioniq 6’s layer-cake rear, which has several overhanging horizontal appendages that will improve front by update. AU Ford Falcon looks much safer bet… And that swooping roofline makes the.

MORE:
Explore the Hyundai Ioniq 6 showroom

Sean Lander: Lotus Eletre

While you could argue a lot of the Chinese SUV entrants are ugly, I think they are just bland. The Lotus Eletre didn’t get that memo.

This is the disaster of a ‘car’, from the company that made you stunners like the Elise, the Evora and even the new Emira. A 2. A 5-tonne electric SUV is a with 5 tonnes of power. For a moment, let’s say that A company’S 2550kg fully electric SUV built its name on one easy line-phrase – simplify and then light up.

It doesn’t just spit in the face of everything that sports car manufacturer used to do, it’s terrible to look at too much.

The front looks like they described a Ferrari Purosangue over a patchy telephone line to the designers. The rear is drab and it looks like they forgot to finish designing the spoiler and the interior… which is exactly what you would expect from a Chinese car company.

If I never have to look at one again, it will be too soon.

MORE:
Explore the Lotus Eletre showroom

Ben Zachariah: Mahindra XUV700

Aren’t we a spoiled bunch, these days?

Asked what we think the most slick car on sale is, “we’re overwhelmed with choice.” And I actually had a hard time choosing just one .

But I have one car that really stands out to me every time I see it on the road, and that is the Mahindra XUV700.

I think there’s something about it that doesn’t just gel on a . Ultimately, the wheels are too small for the car to be used and at the rear quarter panel there is a large slab of metal. While they attempted to cover up the small wheels with moulded plastic wheel-arches, s tried to hide it but once you see it there is no way of seeing it.

Then there are the wheels themselves, like Rodney Jane specials, which cost $175 a piece. A pop-out door handle, C-shaped headlights and Y-style tail-light are all of their efforts to modernise the Mahindra but there is no way past the overall shape of the car (look like it was borrowed directly from 2007).

The strange window line above the rear wheels attempts to make the car interesting to look at, not only does it fail but chrome trim highlights poor alignment of the back doors.

Unlike tonguestuffed into one’s upper lip, the grille is out front like a tongue-filled grilling of his or her . The combination of a blandness and try-hard design, in general, with the undercooked mix has led to the XUV700 eventually becoming part of an attempt.

MORE:
Explore the Mahindra XUV700 showroom

Max Davies: Subaru Outback Wilderness

Who would’ve thought something as unassuming as an Outback would provide so much to unpack?

Unlike the classic cars of look, Subaru, it has never claimed to produce anything that could objectively be ‘beautiful’. Also to be celebrated is the release of Wilderness in Australia, as it has been announcing the launch of the brand.

Nevertheless, wow, the new off-road-ready Outback variant isn’t easy for eye sight to get out. One of the most notable features is a new extreme for black plastic cladding, split-level front lighting and colossal ‘SUBARU’ wordmark on the grille that seems to be trying’very hard’.

Two black plastic rectangles and weird-looking spotlights are mixed with a thick black bar across the tailgate, which is used to cover the strikingly square body of . While we know it’s supposed to look rugged, the elated Outback Wilderness was much more tasteful in its cosmetic changes.

The standard outback does not look great itself, but it’s made me more happy by the Wilderness. It’s a radical departure from the more popular SUV/wagon this generation has replaced with its relatively stylish counterpart, .

MORE:
Explore the Subaru Outback showroom

Thanks for reading The ugliest new vehicles on sale in Australia in 2026

Related Articles

Check Also
Close
Back to top button
CareMan
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.