[kazinator]

Cheap cars are ugly on the exterior because 1) they are small, but 2) customers want the maximum possible interior space in those small cars. So they become awkwardly tall, boxy, with wheels out in their corners and so on. Also 3) they have to be reasonable to get into and out of.

[namdnay]

Exactly. Someone buying a cheap car is making a decision based on reason, not emotion

But they don't all look too bad: The Dacia Duster isn't ugly (if you like SUVs in general), and it's cheap as chips

[aitchnyu]

Duster is hardly optimised for boxiness compared to WagonR, which costs half as much in India, and has to make more usable space from much smaller dimensions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Wagon_R