There's A New Contender For The Ugliest Car Ever

When you think of the world's ugliest car, you think of a Chrysler PT Cruiser or a Pontiac Aztek. Possibly even a Fiat Multipla. What you don't think of is an 80 horsepower, japanese domestic market mini offroader called the Mitsubishi Pajero Junior Flying Pug.

The Pajero Junior Flying Pug is a wonderfully named retro-inspired take on the Mitsubishi Pajero Junior, a bigger version of the kei-spec Pajero Mini. The retro styling of the Pajero Junior Flying Pug comes from a trend of many Japanese cars in the 90s, and I think most of those worked out pretty well! Take the Nissan Pao and Figaro for example. However, this JDM offroader seems to identify as some sort of British taxi, and well, it doesn't work for me.

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Mitsubishi actually expected this... thing to do somwhat well. In fact, Mitsubishi themselves expected this car to sell 1,000 times in the 1997 model year. After selling just 139 examples, production was cut short. I can't help but wonder how this car got through all those executive meetings.

However, I have a confession. I may have talked a whole lotta sh*t about this car being ugly, and how it should have never existed, and how it looks like the deranged child of a mini SUV and a London taxi. And, while that may be true, this car has character. In a world full of Ford Explorers and Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas, while it may be horribly ugly, it's different, it has a fun factor that no other car out on the road has. And for that reason, I love it.