When Luxury Turns Ugly: Mercedes-Benz That Wowed for All the Wrong Reasons
Carlos Kirby
· 3 min read
- The hoodless Mercedes-Benz A-Series
- The 1967 Mercedes 230S Universal
- Mercedes-Benz GLA
- 2000 Mercedes ML430: Don't look too hard
- 2001 Mercedes ML
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Some cars are so ugly that only a designer could love them. That's not something you'd expect to come from
Mercedes-Benz
, however. The German automaker is well known for making some truly amazing cars that turn heads for their good looks. Not everyone can score a ten all the time, however, and
Hot Cars
has a list of cars Mercedes has produced that is truly cringe-worthy. 
The hoodless Mercedes-Benz A-Series
Hoods don't make or break a car, but in the case of the A-Series, it kind of did. This sad-looking little vehicle didn't have much of a hood. It sort of blended in with the windshield and pointed straight towards the ground. The fact that it's extremely short didn't help either.
The A-Series was the brainchild of Daimler and Chrysler joining forces, and it wasn't exactly a great partnership.
From the failed design to the lackluster drive, there was so much wrong with the A-Series that it's shocking it was produced from 1997-2004. The fact that it wore a Mercedes badge was the most mind-blowing part of all since there is nothing about this vehicle that screamed luxury.
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The 1967 Mercedes 230S Universal
Mercedes are supposed to be for the elite. It's the car that you dream of owning when you win the lottery or score the job of your dreams with a massive salary to boot. It's not the car that's so confused even the company doesn't know how to label it.
Yet that's exactly what Mercedes delivered with the 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230S 'Universal.' It looks sort of like a station wagon, but the back end is square, while the front edges are round. The two don't match, and there's no symmetry
Mercedes-Benz GLA
The GLA may have the Mercedes badge, but the short, squat body didn't look like something the German automaker would produce. And yet it did.
The idea was that some people like small cars, and Mercedes was trying to make something just for them. The GLA missed the mark, however. Yes, it's small. It's also incredibly slow and doesn't have the power that Mercedes prides itself on.
2000 Mercedes ML430: Don't look too hard
The back end of the 2000 Mercedes-Benz ML430 doesn't look terrible. Yes, the cargo space is almost non-existent, but it doesn't look terrible. Then, as your eyes begin to trail towards the front, things begin to look a little bloated.
From the doors that seem just a little too wide, and the hood is once again just a little too short, nothing seems to fit. It's not terrible looking, it's just not attractive by any stretch of the imagination. The ML430 also looks incredibly dated for something that was supposed to be produced in 2000.
2001 Mercedes ML
MORE: Mercedes is Testing a Mind Control Car
One look at the 2001 Mercedes-Benz ML is not enough. Two looks are not enough to convince your brain that this monstrosity is real.
The unfortunate truth is that Mercedes did design it. The front looks like an SUV. The rear looks like someone hacked the back end off of a truck bed, made it into an SUV, and then finished it off with a roll cage.
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