Well maybe not 'ever' but it's appalling in a way that wasn't accidental. A herd of engineers spitefully thrust this abomination on the motoring world. I had one as a rental car last week on business and it is ugly. I mean really ugly - as in on par with the Pontiac Aztek ugly.
There's a possibility you can forgive a car's looks if it's a true driver's car and this thing isn't. Not even remotely close. I'm not even sure a father of four who's given up on driving would drive this thing.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of what's wrong with it, but in my one day with the car, these were my main problems. Actually, most of these cropped up in the first 30 minutes, but it took me a day to get back to a rental facility to change it (more on that later).
The power steering is ultralight - so much so that it's like an American car - you have to steer it to keep it in a straight line. The interior is covered in chrome, all angled to reflect sunlight at the driver from every possible angle. The radio display is an orange-on-black affair that is tilted away from the driver so it's impossible to read because of reflections. The cruise control stub is right under the indicator stalk meaning you spend half the time trying to snap it off when using the indicators. Same is true for the radio stub under the windscreen wiper stalk. The brake pedal and accelerator are too close together so that you end up pressing both. This is especially hazardous when braking because you end up gunning the engine at the same time as you're trying to brake. In an automatic, that's disastrous. The up/down adjustment for the drivers seat moves it forward and backwards too so in the full down position, the rear passenger seat is crammed up against the back of the drivers seat preventing any recline. And finally, the rear visibility is abominable in the extreme, hindered by gigantic C pillars and headrests that you can't remove.
All in all, this thing should never have seen the light of day much less been put on sale. It's a truly vile, spiteful piece of automotive crime. For some photos of the many things wrong with this thing, see my dropbox here.
After a single day I took it back to Avis and had them replace it. I got a Citroen DS3 instead. Much, much better. It shared the hideous stalks on the steering column but all the other issues were pleasingly dispatched into the rear view mirror. If you must have a French car, start with the DS3 and compare from there.
