Top 10 most controversial new car launches – Select Car Leasing
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By Neil Goodwin
Editor
Neil Goodwin is an in-house content writer at Select covering all things automotive. A former national newspaper journalist and PR consultant, he loves his motorcycles as much as he loves his cars….
Published 05 December, 2024, 14:23 GMT | Updated 05 December, 2024, 14:25 GMT 
Don’t worry, Jaguar, you’re not alone – because here are ten other vehicles that caused a stir, and then some, when they were first launched.
Jaguar is undergoing a complete rebrand as it moves towards a fully-electric future. A complete Jag relaunch is due 2026.
Yet the image shift hasn’t gone down well with purists, who’ve taken umbrage to a number of changes, not least the jettisoning of the old growling cat logo.
And when the head-turning, bright pink Jaguar Type 00 dropped this week, scores of keyboard warriors lost their heads completely. 
The backlash prompted Jaguar’s managing director, Rawdon Glover, to come out fighting, telling Sky News: “We’ve certainly gathered an awful lot of attention over the last few weeks, but now I think it’s really important to talk about the vehicle.”
The Type 00 – a two-door GT with angular lines everywhere you look – is a concept for now, but we expect the production-ready four-door version to look very similar when it arrives in 2025, even if some of the features aren’t carried over.
And here’s the thing – history tells us that cars derided at launch often go on to become smash-hit award winners and cult classics. Don’t be surprised if the incoming electric Jaguar needs to buy a new trophy cabinet.
Here we take a look at 10 other cars that courted controversy when the sheets were first thrown off:
The Multipla made its European debut in 1997 as a six-seat MPV. But no-one was talking about how practical it was, instead pointing to the bulge under the windscreen and its so-called ‘duck face’. Those who sneered, however, were soon laughing on the other side of their faces. The ‘ugliest car ever made’ was a critical success, being named Top Gear Car of the Year in 2000. They’re still sought-after now and have even been embraced by the car modification and tuning community.
Back in the late 1990s, compact family cars were all the rage and Audi wanted to muscle-in on the market. The A2 was built to be lightweight (it had an aluminium body), aerodynamic and efficient. The looks were ‘awkward’, said critics, and it was deemed too slim and tall to be a serious supermini. Was the Audi A2 simply a misunderstood genius? Many would argue so and it’s now in ‘future classic’ territory.
Is it a family car? Is it a taxi? Did it slip through a wormhole from the 1930s? When the PT Cruiser launched in the UK in 2000 it was met with much scratching of heads. Its distinctive retro American looks made it impossible to ignore but plenty of Brit motorists remained unconvinced. A two-door convertible that arrived in 2005 garnered even more controversy. The PT Cruiser was dropped here in 2008 and Chrysler departed the UK market in 2017 amid declining sales. Redeeming features? This author once drove a PT Cruiser to the south of France and it was surprisingly comfortable. There’s a thriving community of enthusiasts, too.
The Avantime is another example of a car that was less than a sales success but which is now a cult classic. Arriving in 2001, the Avantime was Renault’s attempt to marry the best bits of an MPV, estate and a four-seat coupe. Two long, double-hinged doors provided access to the cabin while a full-length sunroof bathed the interior in light. Avantime literally means ‘ahead of its time’ – and so it was in terms of its forward-thinking design. Sales were poor, though, and it was axed in 2003.
A passion project for BMW, the German firm took the sleek BMW Z3 roadster and fitted it with a fixed roof and ‘shooting brake’ silhouette. Despite the ‘clown shoe’ nickname, it handled well and a 3.2-litre engine provided the oomph. And the clown shoe design lives on. In May last year BMW revealed a Touring Coupe concept version of its Z4 as a successor to the infamous Z3 ‘bread van’.
Up until 2003, driving a Porsche was solely about being behind the wheel of a low-slung, typically-impractical sports car. But times changed – and the world was about to go potty for SUVs. When the Cayenne arrived, Porsche purists couldn’t fathom a family-sized off-roader from Stuttgart. But the Cayenne set a new benchmark, helped to define an entire segment, and is still going strong today.
The word ‘divisive’ doesn’t even come close when referring to the Aston Martin Cygnet. Here was a tiny city car taking its place in Aston Martin’s line-up alongside V12 supercars and epic grand tourers. It was Aston Martin’s vision of a ‘luxury solution to urban mobility’ and it ran from 2011 to 2013. A 1.3-litre engine from Toyota meant the Cygnet took 11 seconds to hit 62 mph from zero, though Aston Martin did create a one-off, two-seat Cygnet with a whopping-great V8!
When it was first unveiled in 2015, an open-top Range Rover made no sense to many members of the British public and it was instantly labelled as something only a footballer would purchase. But looks can be deceiving – and it was pretty much universally praised as a heap of fun to drive by critics. With a base as solid as a car like the Evoque, you can see why it impressed and values hold well to this day.
The Rodius was designed by Brit Ken Greenley, who’d previously worked on the Aston Martin Virage. It took its inspiration from luxury yachts and was supposed to reinvent the seven-seat MPV as we knew it. Yet the rear end appeared bolted-on and left some describing it as looking like a ‘hearse’. Despite the criticism, the Rodius ran for eight years between 2005 and 2013.
When the electric Mustang Mach-E first launched in 2020, the global din was deafening. It’s not a proper Mustang, they said, and how dare it wear that famous pony car badge? Yet the Mustang Mach-E soon started picking up awards and the 487 PS ‘GT’ models outmuscle the petrol V8 when it comes to pace off the line. Mustang owners groups have also embraced the Mach-E – read our write-up here.
We also need to mention the new Ford Capri here, too, which is another legendary badge reinvented for the modern age. Can it shrug off the weight of expectation like the Mustang Mach-E has?
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