The 2025 Kia Tasman ute is so ugly it's beautiful and like the Porsche 911, Jaguar E-Type and Land Rover Defender that could help make it an icon | Opinion

The Kia Tasman ute hasn’t even arrived yet, but the outcry over its looks has been huge, with people saying it’s not just the ugliest car they have ever seen but the ugliest thing they’ve seen ever, like in their entire lives.

OK that’s completely made up, but the general consensus is that it’s not very pretty. The thing is, if history is anything to go by, sometimes the cars with the most unique look are also the most popular.

The build up to Kia’s ute was like the start of a rollercoaster ride and we were pulled higher and higher into the sky up the track with TV ads, the mystery surrounding the name, what would power it, how much would it cost and of course what would it look like.

And as we got to the top the Tasman was revealed and instead of everybody going “wheeeee” as we zoomed down the other side in delight, everybody went “oh god my eyes, please make it stop!”

Again, I’ve embellished some of the facts, because there were several people who actually liked the look of it, including CarsGuide’s very own Samuel Irvine who penned an opinion piece saying it looks great. A brave power move for a cadet journalist.

And while I don’t think it looks great, as in, aesthetically pleasing, I think that it’s great that it looks as ugly as it does because as Sam points out, the ute segment is very samey and not known for its adventurous design.

Adventurous designs, ugly styling and unique looks won’t guarantee a one-way ticket to automotive stardom but it can certainly help grab buyers attention and if the vehicle performs superbly well and is exceptionally fit for purpose, then you might not just have a winner on your hands but an icon.

Will the Tasman become iconic? It could. The Kia ute’s design is so confronting and different, it’s inspiring. So ugly in all its Lego-like glory that it’s beautiful. There I said it. It’s beautiful, but only because it’s so ugly.

There have been some famously iconic beautiful ugly cars in automotive history.

I’ll probably be asked to leave the planet for saying this but the Porsche 911 is one such model that’s so ugly it’s beautiful with its hump back and googly headlights. If we’re all honest with ourselves we’d all agree it looks like a squashed frog. 

Porsche has a knack for making gross cars, from the 928s to the Panamera, they’re all hideous and I’d rather stand than sit next to one on the bus. 

But the 911, that’s different because not only is it outstanding in its unique design but outstanding in its performance. It’s truly a car that is as close to performance perfection as is possible and one which even the best drivers spend their life trying to fully master.

Trying to conquer a 911 is like trying to arm wrestle yourself - you’ll never win no matter how good you get. Since 1963 more than 1.2 million Porsche 911s have been made.

Then there's Land Rover which kept its Defender looking like it was permanently living in 1948 until 2019 because it knew full well that this ugly antique design conjured up a historic connection which, when paired with outstanding off-road capability, was a winner. 

Designing a new one was fraught with risk as Land Rover had discovered with the Discovery which in its first generation had a design that polarised people from the start but proved hugely popular in the long run.

Land Rover messed it all up by making a good looking one in 2017. It was a hard way to find out that if you try to please everyone you’ll end up pleasing no one. Which is why the new Defender looks a lot like the old one only with a retro modern take. Iconic.

But, there’s possibly no better example of beautiful-ugly than the Jaguar E-Type with its ridiculously long bonnet and set-back cabin. Adding a metal roof to it just made it look even more ridiculous. So the convertible is a lot less ugly and, in fact, more beautiful.

Built from 1961 the E-Type was far more advanced than most cars at the time with independent front and rear suspension, disc brakes, a semi-monocoque structure and an inline six-cylinder engine that could push the two seater onto 240km/h with a 0-100km/h time of seven seconds. That was stupendously fast. A Porsche 356 from the same era took 13.9 seconds to get to 100km/h. 

Had the E-Type not been such a high-performance beast the looks alone might not have been enough to make this one iconic. 

The Kia Tasman will also face a similar test. If the ute is outstanding on and off-road, if it’s as practical and tough as it looks, then people will see its beautiful ugliness as part of its charm. It might even become an icon.