There is nothing that a car lover enjoys more than a special edition release. We all have our favorite cars but when they release a special edition we know it will be a limited release and often even better looking than the original. A beautiful special edition can set the heart racing. Yet some special editions are just ugly. Often a car manufacturer is taking a risk and just gets it very wrong. Whatever the reason there have been some serious errors in the past. Here are a few of our favorite strange special editions.
The multicolor
Whenever a car is involved in a crash it will need to replace a panel (if it can be fixed). You will often see that some people struggle to find the panel in the same color as the original model. This means that you may see a blue car driving around with one red door or some other part. It looks pretty ugly and screams that the car has been involved in a crash.
With this in mind, it was either a touch of brilliance or a complete error when Volkswagen released the special edition Polo Harlekin. Every panel was a different color.
They either thought that it would now be impossible to tell if it had been in a crash as every panel is always a different color or they actually thought it looked good. Whatever they were thinking, they were wrong. The car is incredibly ugly and looks like it was made by the spare parts of a panel beaters yard.
The denim
Often special edition releases have a marketing push and this one falls into that bracket. The gorgeous AMC Gremlin teamed up with Levis for a denim version of the car. While the outside blue looks pretty nice the interior denim finish is just plain ugly. A good special edition knows where the line is and this denim version definitely crossed it.
The boring
The Dacia Sandero was a boring car to begin with. It is the type of car that your grandmother may be happy with. When the company announced a special edition it raised a few eyebrows. Had they made a more exciting version?
However, when the special edition was released it impressed no one. This was clearly an idea that was thought up in the boardroom and never tested. They decided to release an entirely black model. That sounds pretty cool until you see the finished version. It just looks like a black car and makes an already boring car even more boring. Why bother?
Got wings?
The smart car has always been a model that left those who want something with a nice design wanting more. The car ticks many boxes but the aesthetic appeal has never been one of them. When they teamed up with an artist for a special release it sounded interesting. We shouldn’t have expected much as they can’t change the actual layout of the car.
However, what came out was just plain ugly. Jeremy Scott was the artist involved and he enjoys sticking wings on things. The smartcar with wings. Ugly. It takes a block and makes it look even uglier than before.
These examples clearly show that some special releases should never have left the design studio. When you consider the effort that has gone into these and the money that has backed them it is almost painful to see them. A bad idea is a bad idea but a bad idea that costs a fortune, that is just sad. Here is hoping that all car manufacturers learn from these bad ideas and only release beautiful special editions from now on.
