7 Goofy Cars and Design Flops Made by Exotic Automakers

Exotic automakers can easily charge six or seven figures for their cars and sell out before they even go on sale. Whether it's because of a profound racing history, world-class design and engineering, exquisite craftsmanship, or record-setting specs and performance, many of these brands have earned a reputation for excellence.

These brands go through painstaking efforts to make sure their cars can live up to the brand’s image and standards, whether it be through luxury, performance, or design. However, just like all automakers, even the makers of the most expensive cars on Earth can miss the mark sometimes. Here are some of the most notable flops from famous exotic automakers. 

Aston Martin Lagonda

Aston Martin is a brand known for beauty and elegance. The automaker is known for making beautiful grand tourers, a reputation it has cemented after years of starring as the hero car in the James Bond franchise. Aston Martin typically doesn’t stray far from its formula, but when it does, the results can be truly questionable.

Despite the fact that I actually think this car is very cool, most onlookers would have a hard time describing the Aston Martin Lagonda as pretty. The Lagonda was produced from 1974 until 1990, with the car's most questionable feature being its design. The design is clearly a product of the 1970s, when the sharp wedge shape was in vogue. This design approach was typically reserved for sports cars, which usually worked really well, but when applied to a luxury sedan, the formula seemed to fall apart. 

The long front and rear overhangs gave the Lagonda a striking shape, but definitely not a beautiful one. Its very long, low hood earned the Lagonda the nickname of the “anteater.” The look gets even stranger when the pop-up headlights are deployed, which are both taller and wider than the front grille, giving the Lagonda the appearance that it's making googly eyes at other road users. To make matters worse, the interior is a mess of 1970s retro futurism with a fully digitized gauge cluster (a wild feature nearly 50 years ago), and to top off the goofiness, the odometer was under the hood.  

Honorable mention: Aston Martin Cygnet

This Aston is just plain weird. It was created out of a need for Aston Martin to meet brand emission targets, and as a result, it was created using the platform of the tiny Toyota iQ, and as a result, the Cygnet features the same tiny three-cylinder engine. 

Rolls-Royce Camargue 

Rolls-Royce has always set the standard for luxury. The brand has always been conservative with its styling, especially with its large, upright chrome grille that has been a feature on every Rolls-Royce since the brand’s inception. In theory, such an old styling hallmark shouldn't work, but it consistently does, with one exception: the Rolls-Royce Camargue. 

The Camargue was a Rolls-Royce Corniche redesigned by famed Italian design house Pininfarina. The Camargue took a much boxier approach to the design, which made the Camargue look less opulent than the curvy Corniche, but more in line with late-1970s design trends. While this approach worked pretty well at the rear of the car, the real crime came at the front. Pininfarina decided to angle Rolls-Royce’s grille forward while increasing its size. This decision was likely to give the car a sportier look. Unfortunately, this created the opposite effect, with the front of the Camargue appearing visually massive. The car’s front end visually overpowers the design to the point where the elegance of the Rolls-Royce brand is lost. 

Ferrari 612

In the 2000s, Ferrari made some questionable styling choices, especially with its front-end designs. Models like the 360 were far too rounded at the front, but the biggest offender was the 612 Scaglietti. Front-engine four-seater Ferraris are rarely the best looking in the lineup, and the 612 is the worst. The main issue is with the design proportions. While the side profile is actually pretty good, the front and rear leave a bit more to be desired. The main issue comes down to the front and rear lights, which are just too small. The rear end looks very flat, largely due to all the negative space in the design. 

The front end suffers from the same issue; its headlights are too small and far apart, while the grille is too rounded and placed too low in the bumper. This gives the Scaglietti a face that resembles a stoner's grin. Rather than this grand tourer conveying a look of class and elegance, it conveys a crosseyed smile. 

McLaren Elva

Unlike the other cars on this list, the McLaren Elva’s problem is not its design but the car itself. It's essentially a rebodied McLaren 720S that eliminates the windshield to be a speedster. While this is a cool concept in theory, in reality, McLaren had a difficult time selling its Elvas. Its high $1.7 million USD price tag was a big reason, especially since the regular (and arguably more attractive) 720S goes for $300,000. For seven figures, customers received a less practical, squinty-eyed 720S that had largely the same performance. Sales of the Elva were so bad that this limited-production McLaren had been reduced from 399 models down to 249. 

McLaren even went as far as to add the windscreen back to the Elva, defeating the entire idea of it being a speedster, all while making the design more awkward. This car may not be terrible, but it's a questionable idea that was poorly executed. 

Porsche Cayenne Transsyberia 

The first-generation Porsche Cayenne is not a deign triumph. Adapting a sports car design to fit an SUV rarely works well; the proportions always wind up looking a little off, as is the case with the first-generation Porsche Cayenne. The design has aged decently 20 years after its release, but the same doesn’t hold true for the Transsyberia package. 

This was an off-road package offered on the first-generation Cayenne in honour of the Transsyberia rally. The package increased underbody protection and increased the ride height of the Cayenne. The most egregious part of this package was the visual additions. The Cayenne received the option of orange rims, orange livery on the side, orange light bar, and even orange side mirrors. This package looks far too aftermarket for a typically classy brand like Porsche.

Maserati Biturbo

The Maserati Biturbo is the unloved child in the Italian automaker’s catalogue. The best way to describe the car is underwhelming. Even though it's a cool vintage Italian car, it has never appreciated in value. Second-hand Maserati Biturbos can be picked up for under $10,000, and finding ones in actual nice shape is very difficult. These cars simply weren’t preserved at all. This is partially due to build quality, as Biturbos were not known to be reliable, which shouldn’t be a surprise for an Italian performance car from the 1980s. 

Similarly, performance was not great either. The Biturbo was released at a time when the automotive industry was still adapting to emission regulations introduced in the 1970s. The early North American Biturbos produced only 185 hp from its 2.5L twin-turbo V6. Later models saw a power increase to over 200 hp, however, most Biturbos were the early, more sluggish versions. 

The looks of the Biturbo weren’t all that great either. While it didn’t look terrible, it was quite bland for a performance car. In an era that produced such great-looking sedans as the Mercedes-Benz 190E and E30 BMW 3 Series, the Biturbo simply falls short in comparison. Its rear overhang is far too short, and when paired with a slightly inclining hood line, it gives the Bitrubo a weirdly small greenhouse that seems more befitting of an economy car. There was very little reason to own a Maserati Biturbo in the 1980s, even less than there is now. 

Bugatti Centodieci

Picking a weird Bugatti might seem like a difficult task, but like any brand, Bugatti can also strike out. The Centodieci uses the Chiron’s platform to create a car meant to commemorate the EB 110. This means taking direct styling cues from the largely unknown 1990s supercar that wasn’t all that good-looking to begin with. Adapting retro styling to a modern car is difficult, as it can be tricky to balance historic styling with modern safety requirements and tastes. 

The Centodieci takes styling cues from the EB 110, but not enough to really make its inspiration clear. The headlights look completely different, and the rims look too modern. Meanwhile, the side vents from the original EB 110 don’t work as well with the modern bodylines of the Chiron on which it's based. The same is true for the front air intakes from the EB 110, which simply look massive on the Centodieci. The biggest problem overall is that it doesn't look like a Bugatti but just another random hypercar. 

Aside from the questionable styling, the Centodieci is still undoubtedly really fast, and yes, rarity adds to its wow factor, but there are better and more beautiful Bugattis out there.