Toyota Wins Coveted ‘Ewww’ Prize for Record Third Time

‘Mesmerisingly Horrid’ Mirai Saloon Captures Hat-Trick for Japanese Auto Giant.

‘Mirai’ is Japanese for ‘WTF’

The long-established ‘Car of The Year’ (COTY) Awards celebrate all that is best in modern car design and technology.

The ‘Ewww’ Awards don’t.  Instead, they highlight the very worst that the automotive world throws at unsuspecting, gullible and just plain dumb consumers year after year.

‘Although it started a while back as just a bit of fun, it does have a very serious purpose’ says the respected UK ‘Autocar’ Magazine.

‘Without question, cars are becoming uglier.  For example, tightening safety regulations dictate greater impact protection – for pedestrians as well as cars’ occupants – and the result is ever-more-bloated, lumpen vehicles that have no grace, proportion, elegance or discretion whatsoever.  In order to stand out, car makers have responded with what they like to call ‘expressive’ and ‘characterful’ designs.  Well that’s fine unless the expression you’re trying to capture is the Elephant Man with piles’.

There are also cultural forces at work.  As the Chinese and other non-Western markets have become more important, designers have had to reflect those local tastes in their vehicles.

‘Having said all that, some cars transcend any of this ‘eye of the beholder’ stuff.  To quote the line in ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ they “Suck the Sweat off a Dead Man’s Balls”.  And it’s that exceptional level of ineptitude that the ‘Ewww’ Awards recognise’.

The Citation for the Mirai reads:

‘A runaway and worthy winner for 2016, the car sets a new benchmark in this competition.  Its ugliness was clearly designed-in from the outset, and suggests that great care was taken at every stage to follow that theme through.  Previous winners – including Toyota’s own Yaris Verso and Picnic MPV – have all-too-often suggested laziness by the design team.  Those cars ended up being ugly because there simply was not the will to make them otherwise’.

‘Although not part of the official judging criteria, we must also pay tribute to the Mirai’s price.  At £66,000 in the UK, it is well into “what planet are they on?” territory.  A masterstroke of marketing self-flagellation – especially since the car’s hydrogen fuel cell technology renders it useless without the appropriate (and currently very sparse) infrastructure to refuel it’.