(By Tom Lohnes) – Having a giant grille on a car is a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Some automakers pull off the giant grille, and some miss by a longshot. Today we are going to be going over the three worst looking cars on the market today in my opinion, and coincidentally, they all have grilles that make them look like whales swallowing krill.
Starting off with a car that is priced at an aggressive $1.2 million, the Nissan GTR50 by italdesign isn’t exactly a looker. With its intimidatingly large grille, the GTR50 has actually been compared with a whale on the front end before. Packing Nissan’s potent VR38DETT Twin-Turbo V6, the GTR50 has 700 horsepower, a 6-speed dual-clutch automatic, and AWD. What the GTR50 doesn’t have though, is dignity.
Next up. on our list is the new GMC Sierra 2500/3500HD pickups. Although I like the design of these trucks, it must be said that the grille is overwhelmingly large. The grille on the big GMC actually has a purpose though. This behemoth of a grille cools a behemoth of an engine: GM’s new L5P Duramax diesel. Boasting 6.6 liters in displacement, 445 horsepower, and a whopping 910 lb.-ft of torque, you can power the big Sierra through a wall and the grille will simply eat the bricks.
Our last contender and biggest offender is the new-for-2020 BMW 7-series. It is a strong understatement to say the new 7 has a big grille, and you seem to have to possess really specific taste to like them. Dipping into the front bumper and going above the headlights, it is very weird you need this size of grille to cool a downsized engine. The still massive 6.0-liter V12 makes 601 horsepower and can propel the Big Bimmer to 60 in 3.4 seconds.
In conclusion, these are all great vehicles due to the fact that you can’t see the front of them while you’re driving. So, if you enjoy giving other driver’s something to stare at, go ahead and buy one of these.
BMW is legendary for ripping off styling from other brands if it thinks consumers see those brands as high end. I remember a couple years where you could almost think a Beemer was a Benz. So whom is it ripping off with the Uebergrille? Rolls Royce and Maybach.
Meanwhile, Ram has rightly decided to give up its place as having the largest, most obscene chrome letters ever seen on the face and tail of a pickup truck.
I am surprised any new Lexus isn’t on the list with their ridiculous looking front ends.
I came here to post Lexus…
Big grill big………..
Well maybe that wouldn’t apply to the Japanese car…
In my opinion , Mazda suvs are pretty ugly too .
For me, it’s less the size, it’s more about the design. Many grilles are just plain ugly. Like Tom wrote here, some of those are big and ugly. Some of Super Duty pickups have been trying to impersonate a medium duty truck. Hideous.
Nice work Lohnes Jr. Huge grilles are the -tailfins- (i.e. ridiculous/useless/even potentially dangerous styling trend) of the present era, especially as far as they have gone on trucks.
After witnessing a kid on a skateboard very nearly get run over and killed because the driver of one of those utterly stupid trucks couldn’t see him over the five-foot-tall edge of her hood, I have strong feelings about that. GMT400s were once an advance in visibility-safety which could have been improved upon, but instead the industry has been going backwards ever since.
Exactly , same for the aero 97-2004 f150 Ford went back to a more square design because buyers think it’s more manly ( stupid) .
The truck grills function to feed the required cooling capacity to keep engines and transmissions alive as people pull their loaded down toy haulers at 80mph…thats a reasonable excuse. The whole family of Lexus/Toyotas are hideous looking now in the front.
Lexus, pick any mode