10 Of The Worst Concept Cars From The 2000s
The noughties were undeniably a golden age for concept cars, but for every Chrysler ME Four-Twelve, Ford Shelby Cobra or Mazda Furai, there were dozens that were at best forgettable and at worst utterly baffling.
Whether they were confusing, didn’t fit with their manufacturers’ vibe or were just downright ugly, here are 10 concept cars from the 2000s that we’d rather forget about.
Audi Rosemeyer
Audi Rosemeyer
We kick off with a concept that helped ring in the new millennium in truly stomach-churning style. We get what Audi was going for with 2000’s Rosemeyer – it was supposed to be a callback to the Auto Union grand prix racers of the 1930s, and was named after one of their star drivers.
Unfortunately, trying to transpose 1930s open-wheel racer design cues onto a turn-of-the-millennium coupe results in, well… this absolute mess. It did have an early version of the W16 engine that would go on to power the Bugatti Veyron, though, so that’s something.
Peugeot Quark
Peugeot Quark
Unveiled at the 2004 Paris show, the Peugeot Quark was essentially a weird elongated quad bike powered by hydrogen fuel cells and with the ridiculous gurning face of the 407 saloon grafted onto its front fairing. Who was asking for this? We have no idea, and frankly, we’re happier staying in the dark on that one.
Mercedes Bionic
Mercedes Bionic
If you’re going to use a fish as the major design inspiration for a car, you want to go for something sleek and aggressive. Some sort of shark, or maybe a swordfish. You do not want to select the yellow boxfish as Mercedes did with the 2006 Bionic concept.
This was all done with very noble aims – it was believed that the squat little tropical aquarium staple was one of the more aerodynamic members of the fish kingdom, and indeed, the Bionic had a quoted drag coefficient of just 0.19. Unfortunately, it also looked… well, like a yellow boxfish. Sorry little guy, but you’re not winning any subaquatic beauty contests.
Maybach Exelero
Maybach Exelero
Mercedes’ noughties attempt to revive the long-dormant Maybach brand as an ultra-luxe Rolls-Royce rival gave us the 57 and 62, essentially gussied-up S-Classes best remembered today for their absolutely staggering depreciation.
It also gave us the Exelero concept, a vast V12-powered luxury grand tourer. Sounds great on paper, but in reality, it was an ill-proportioned exercise in vulgarity and chintz that looked like something dreamt up for the villain in a forgettable sub-Bond spy thriller to drive.
BMW ICE
It’s all the rage to give BMW’s current styling direction a kicking, but it’s easy to forget that 20 years ago, the so-called ‘flame surfacing’ introduced under Chris Bangle was an equally big target for media jibes. A lot of that was unfair in hindsight, but not when it was aimed at the ICE, which stood for ‘Integrated Concept Engineering’. Catchy.
Based on the X5’s platform, it swapped out the SUV body for a big, slightly-melted looking jacked-up two-door coupe. Although built in 2004, the ICE was perhaps wisely never originally shown off to the public, eventually being revealed by BMW’s Classic division in 2021. Still, at least daft sloping-roofed SUVs wouldn’t be something we’d need to worry about making production. Oh.
Dodge Super 8
Dodge Super 8
We have no issues whatsoever with the idea behind the 2001 Dodge Super 8. A big, muscly rear-drive saloon with one of the company’s beloved Hemi V8s up front? Lovely.
No, it was the execution of the styling where the Super 8 fell down. Retro styling was all the rage around this time, and while some cars pulled it off superbly, this, erm, didn’t. The wraparound windscreen and big side strakes were supposed to be callbacks to the 1950s golden age of American car design, but just ended up making it look bizarre and a bit sorry for itself.
Lagonda LUV
Lagonda LUV
2009’s V12-powered Lagonda LUV foreshadowed both Aston Martin’s desire to build an SUV and its ill-fated plan to revive the Lagonda marque as a builder of upscale luxury cars.
The SUV we eventually got, the DBX, isn’t exactly an exercise in restraint, but it looks downright tasteful next to the gopping LUV, which is somehow blocky and bulbous at the same time. We’re delighted that the car that did eventually mark Lagonda’s brief return, the Taraf, ended up being a much more suave saloon.
Maserati Buran
Maserati Buran
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a practical, space-efficient people carrier. In fact, we think it’s a genre of car that’s due a comeback given its obvious superiority to the SUV as family transport. However, we really don’t think it’s the sort of car Maserati of all companies should be thinking about.
It was in 2000, though, when it debuted the Buran concept, complete with sliding rear doors. We can’t imagine anyone calling this thing pretty or elegant, which makes it all the more surprising that it was penned by one of car design’s GOATs, Giorgetto Giugiaro. Still, it did have all-wheel drive and the 365bhp twin-turbo V8 from the 3200GT, which sounds amusing if nothing else.
Honda UniBox
Honda UniBox
What the heck is this? Is it even a car? It barely qualifies – it was intended to be driven with a joystick, for goodness sake. This 2001 Honda concept brought some genuinely clever thinking to the table, like a highly modular interior with lots of clever storage solutions, but it was all completely overshadowed by the facts that it looked like it had fallen off the Pompidou Centre and that everyone would be able to see what trousers you were wearing. Next.
Nissan Nails
Nissan Nails
This 2001 concept pickup was described by Nissan as showing off “new, flexible ways of using vehicles as ‘a tool for communicating with friends’.” Only problem is, we’re not sure you’d have any friends to communicate with if you drove it. Looking like a Daihatsu Midget has crashed into a children’s soft play area, the Nails would have nailed absolutely nothing besides making you look a bit silly as you drove it.
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